Returning from America by ocean liner, the Temples enjoy the company of their fellow passengers, only to find one of them dead the next morning - and when Paul and Steve get home to London, Sir Graham Forbes is waiting to plunge them into one of their most thrilling and dangerous adventures, the pursuit of a ruthless international gang of counterfeiters. As knives fly and bombs explode, the key to the puzzle seems to lie in a coin on the end of a watch-chain...

Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery represents another thrilling adventure for Paul Temple and his wife Steve. This radio production was originally broadcast in eight parts between 14 May and 02 July 2008 on BBC Radio 4. Crawford Logan and Gerda Stevenson star in this brand new, four disc recording of a lost archive Paul Temple serial.

This new production uses the original scripts, vintage sound effects and much of the original incidental music from a lost archive 1949 production. As far as possible, it is a technical and stylistic replica of how that production might have sounded had its recording survived.

From 1938 to 1969 crime novelist and detective Paul Temple and his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular serials. They inhabit a sophisticated, well-dressed world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women are chic and the men wear cravats. And where Sir Graham Forbes of Scotland Yard always needs Paul's help with a tricky case.

Some might ask why the BBC bothered to try and recreate an old 1949 recording, instead of updating this for a more modern audience. This is a valid argument, but personally I found that this recording managed to capture everything that is, and was, popular about Paul Temple.

Temple fans will thoroughly enjoy this release.

8

Pete Boomer