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Actor and reluctant sleuth Charles Paris is facing chaos on the domestic front. He's lodging with his ex-wife Frances, and now their pregnant daughter has moved in as well. It's all a bit much.... So he is over the moon when he lands a job on the BBC Radio Rep - but the ink is barely dry on his...

Charles Paris is his own worst enemy, a louche lush who can resist anything except temptation – especially in the form of women and alcohol. He’s been out of work so long now he feels he may never get a job and he’s driving Frances, his semi-ex-wife, mad. So when he’s offered a small...

Bill Nighy returns as Charles Paris: unsuccessful actor, bad husband and dipsomaniac. Desperately in need of work, having been kicked out of the marital home, Charles jumps at playing a missing property developer in a crime reconstruction programme. But the missing person case soon turns to...

Bill Nighy stars as actor and amateur sleuth Charles Paris in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett's novel. Charles' career is on the up. He's starring in a revival of a popular (though hackneyed) 70s farce – and while his fellow actors aren't exactly who you'd want to...

Charles finds himself uncharacteristically employed in a film, having landed the part of Szabec, a middle management vampire in The Wreathing. His co-star is swimwear model turned actress Jodie Ricks and before long, Jodie is using Charles as a confidant. Poor Jodie is in terrible trouble - not...

Charles Paris is thrilled – he’s landed a nice juicy part playing Sergeant Collins in the TV detective series, ‘The Stanislaus Braid Mysteries’, and his estranged wife Frances seems to be on the brink of taking him back. But filming turns out to be a tortuous process, with pompous star...

Charles is out of work again, and to make matters worse his mother has come to stay and he's no way of escaping her. So when he's offered some voiceover work by old friend, Hugo, he's delighted to get out of the house. But Hugo's marriage is in trouble: his much younger wife, Ellie, spends all...

Once again, the plumbing at Tawcester Towers is causing consternation for the Dowager Duchess, so - unusually for her - she gives her blessing for Blotto to take part in the 'Great Road Race' in his beloved Lagonda...so long as he wins. The first prize of 10,000 pre-War sovereigns will help...

'What? You mean the earl does it for money? That's way beyond the barbed wire!' This explosion of disgust from Blotto is provoked when Twinks informs him of the activities of the Earl of Woking. The gentleman in question is owner of Clusters, a stately home not far from Tawcester Towers, and he...

Ellen Curtis—professional declutterer, amateur sleuth, and woman of a certain age—hunts for a missing will with a killer bequest in this gripping mystery from the original king of British cozy crime, Simon Brett. Professional declutterer Ellen Curtis doesn’t do house clearances. So when...

Ellen Curtisprofessional declutterer, amateur sleuth and woman of a certain ageinvestigates the puzzling death of a TV personality who's past his prime. Professional declutterer Ellen Curtis doesn't need to like her clients to help them sort their homes out. Aging TV personality and curmudgeon...

Blotto and Twinks are off on another adventure - and this time they're bound for the Alpine village of Luzvimmen in Switzerland, where Blotto participates in racing the prestigious and very fast Croissant Run, though someone seems determined to sabotage his chances. Twinks, on the other hand, is...

The two aristocratic siblings Blotto and Twinks are once again launched into another death-defying adventure, this time in the civil war-torn republic of Jalapeno, in Mexico. But how did they ever get to such a foreign and distant land in the first place? For Twinks it was an easy decision - to...

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James 'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter Anyone for cricket - and a spot of burglary? An idle conversation on the merits of the glorious game with an old Etonian chum is just the excuse Blotto needs to put himself forward for a cricket...

Bill Nighy returns as the loveably louche Charles Paris in Jeremy Front’s BBC radio dramatisation of Simon Brett’s novel. When Charles Paris’ agent rings with the news that he has a part for him in a new musical, Charles is delighted - and somewhat amazed, as he can neither sing nor dance...

When the owner of Polly's Cake Shop announces her retirement, the Fethering residents start to worry about the loss of this popular amenity....

It is her characteristic generosity rather than her love of animals that finds Mrs Pargeter supporting her friend Jasmine Angold at a charity reception for PhiliPussies....

It isn't the rain that upsets Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs. It isn't the dilapidated barn in which she is forced to seek shelter. No, what upsets her is the human skeleton she discovers there, neatly packed into two blue fertilizer bags. So begins the second...

The Dowager Duchess has decided to sell off the less important family possessions. Blotto and Twinks are dispatched to help the valuer....

Simon Brett's oldest and most beloved character, Charles Paris, is back. Paris, the often out-of-work actor, has a good part for a change, playing Sir Toby Belch in a summer festival production of "Twelfth Night." But when the director takes ill and then Paris' friend in the production is the...