Bill Nighy stars as the suave thespian sleuth in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation
Life is good for Charles Paris. He's moved back in with his estranged wife, and has landed a plum stage role as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. But it can't last. First his attempts to woo Frances fall flat, then the play's director is taken ill with gastric trouble. His replacement, Romanian wunderkind Alex Radelescu, is determined to take the play in a radical new direction - with or without Charles.
When a second member of the company falls sick, Charles begins to suspect a poisoner is on the loose - and the next victim could be him. Can he unmask the culprit before this comedy turns into a tragedy?
Adapted by Jeremy Front, this engaging dramatisation stars Bill Nighy as Charles Paris, with Suzanne Burden as Frances, Jon Glover as Maurice and Julian Rhind-Tutt as Alex Radelescu.
'Always a treat' Gillian Reynolds, Sunday Times
Production credits
Written by Simon Brett
Adapted by Jeremy Front
Produced and directed by Sally Avens
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 30 August-20 September 2006
Cast
Charles Paris - Bill Nighy
Frances - Suzanne Burden
Maurice - Jon Glover
Ken Carter - Peter Wight
Alex Radelescu - Julian Rhind-Tutt
Vivienne Marlin - Elizabeth Bell
Gavin Scholes - Thomas Wheatley
Jack Bradley - John Cummins
Sally Luther - Tracy Wiles
Ben Ritson - Tom Lawrence
Vasile Bogdan/Scott - Ryan McCluskey
Talya Northcott - Alex Tregear
Inspector Dewar - Kim Wall
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. ? 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Recenzijos
Always a treat -- Gillian Reynolds * Sunday Times *
Simon Brett (Author) Simon Brett was born in Worcester Park, Surrey, on 28 October 1945. He was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he read English and was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
After graduating in 1967 he worked as Father Christmas in a department store before landinga job at the BBC as a radio producer. During his ten years there, he worked on such programmes as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Week Ending, The Burkiss Way, Im Sorry I Havent A Clue and Just a Minute. He moved to London Weekend Television in 1977, where he produced Maggie and Her, End of Part One and The Glums (a popular spin-off from radios Take It From Here).
Bretts first Charles Paris novel, Cast In Order of Disappearance, was published in 1975, and by 1979 he was able to leave LWT and become a full-time writer. He has written over eighty books, including nineteen Charles Paris books, fifteen Fethering Mysteries and six Mrs Pargeter novels, as well as several non-series titles such as A Shock to the System (1984), which was adapted as a film starring Michael Caine. He has also contributed to several anthologies and scripted many sitcoms for radio including No Commitments, Smelling of Roses and After Henry.
Other radio work includes several one-off plays for Radio 4, and a number of episodes of the detective series Baldi. A former Chair of both the Crime Writers Association and The Society of Authors, he is currently President of the Detection Club, as well as being involved with various writers organisations. He is married with three children, and lives in West Sussex.
Jeremy Front (Author) Jeremy Front is an award winning writer, actor and broadcaster. He studied Fine Art (Painting) at Goldsmiths, University of London and Central St. Martins School of Art.
His first feature length screenplay was shortlisted for the Oxford Film Foundation Prize and first theatre pieces were musical/sketch revues, co-written with his sister, Rebecca Front. Four Times Four, a collection of monologues for women was staged by the RSC in Stratford as part of their New Writing Season.
Jeremy has written extensively for radio and television moving between original and adaptations in both drama and comedy. Work for BBC Radio includes the comedy series: Jack and Millie, seven series of Incredible Women (nominated BBC Audio Drama Award) in both of which he co-stars with Rebecca Front, and the long-running radio comedy series The Charles Paris Mysteries starring Bill Nighy. Jeremy has adapted and dramatized work by Graham Greene Stamboul Train, Elizabeth Gaskell Mr. Harrisons Confession, John Meade Faulkner The Lost Stradivarius, Anita Loos Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Nominated and Finalist for a Writers Guild of Great Britain Award), Chekov The Duel and Evelyn Waughs Decline and Fall, Scoop, Brideshead Revisited and The Sword of Honour Trilogy (Winner of the BBC Audio Drama Award).
