Charles Paris

Appearing in his own one-man show on Thomas Hood at the Edinburgh Festival, middle-aged actor Charles Paris finds himself falling for a gorgeous young girl. He also finds himself being dragged into a complex murder investigation involving the death of a fading pop star, a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace and a suicide leap from the top of the Rock.

Charles Paris uncovers a complicated fraud at the BBC when a beautiful studio manager is murdered. Clues are hidden in seemingly innocent radio announcements and lead to a trap which nearly spells the end for Charles.

Charles Paris, failed actor and amateur sleuth, takes on the role of a forklift truck driver in a promotional video and finds himself in an adventure involving corporate politics, product marketing and the world of sales conferences.

An actor's career plumbs new depths when he acts the part of a murder victim and gets drawn into a real investigation.

Charles Paris lands himself a part in Twelfth Night, but is soon suspicious that someone is trying to kill him.

Actor-sleuth Charles Paris is on a three month tour of the farce "Not on Your Wife", when someone in the cast murders an old friend.

Charles Paris lands a minor part in Eastbourne's Christmas production of Cinderella, but when he stumbles across a body beneath Eastbourne Pier, the pantomime rehearsals slip into chaos. It's up to Charles to put his renowned sleuthing skills to the test to find out who really killed his fellow cast member - and why.

Actor and sleuth Charles Paris is back in this full-cast BBC radio dramatisation of Simon Brett's novel, starring Bill Nighy

Locked down with his semi-detached wife Frances, Charles has thrown himself into a new career as a handyman, becoming quite the DIY expert. He's developed muscles, stopped smoking and even cut back on the booze.

Then his agent, Maurice, offers him the chance to get back on stage - and in a West End play, no less. The star, Justin Grover, asked for him specifically: but Charles has reservations. Grover was cocky enough when they were both young hopefuls; now he's the star of a massive TV fantasy series, and the play - a verbatim piece set in a monastery - is dire.

So why has Justin signed up for it? He certainly doesn't need the money, unlike Charles. The cast is drearily male, and before long Charles is hitting the Scotch again. When he drunkenly stumbles over the corpse of a fellow actor, Charles panics, leaving the body to be discovered by someone else. But he soon regrets lying to the police, and driven by guilt and self-preservation, he resolves to find the murderer...

This sparkling adaptation by Jeremy Front stars Bill Nighy (Emma, Love Actually) as Charles Paris, with Suzanne Burden as Frances and Jon Glover as Maurice.

Credits
Written by Simon Brett
Adapted by Jeremy Front
Directed by Sally Avens

Cast
Charles Paris........................Bill Nighy
Frances........................Suzanne Burden
Maurice........................Jon Glover
Justin ........................Tony Turner
Lydia ........................Ria Marshall
Kit ........................Joseph Ayre
Brendan ........................Jonathan Kydd
Nina ........................Marilyn Nnadebe
D.S. Dalby ........................Stewart Campbell
Alice/Peaches ........................Elinor Coleman
Kelly/Dervla ........................Jane Slavin
Bethan ........................Christine Kavanagh
Neil ........................Simon Ludders

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 3-24 September 2021

August in Edinburgh, and thousands of performers of all stripes have flocked to the Fringe Festival. Among them is Charles Paris filling in at the last minute after a student actress breaks a leg and has to drop out. Showcasing an earnest one-man show in a sea of stand-up comics is a bit of a gamble, but at least he's acting, and with a Charles Paris production, what could possibly go wrong? Charles is sharing a venue with a group of student actors, but when one of the performers dies in a freak stabbing, the actor-cum-amateur sleuth smells a murderous rat and decides to investigate.

When the killer sets his sights on him, Charles realises that he must be getting close to the truth - despite not having a clue what's going on... Help arrives in the form of his agent, Maurice, in town scouting for talent, and Charles' 'semi-detached' wife, Frances, who inadvertently finds herself directing Charles' show. The three become drawn into the mystery, and find themselves playing detectives. This unlikely trio are way out of their depth, but when has that ever stopped Charles Paris?

Murder, from the simply bizarre to the downright nasty, is the theme of this collection of short stories from Simon Brett. The 12 stories include one featuring the boozy actor-detective Charles Paris.

Charles Paris is in Oxford, appearing in a re-imagining of Hamlet by a high-concept drama company. No fan of immersive theatre, he's unimpressed with the director's vision and less than thrilled to be rehearsing alongside puppeteers and mime artists. But he soon finds himself back on familiar territory when the actress playing Ophelia goes missing, only to turn up dead. Did she take her own life, or was there foul play?

As he amasses a list of suspects who might have wished her harm, Charles takes on the mantle of detective once more to decide if this is to be or not to be a murder case...