A Charles Paris Mystery
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Bill Nighy
| Charles Paris | |
|---|---|
| A Charles Paris Mystery character | |
| First appearance | Cast, In Order of Disappearance |
| Created by | Simon Brett |
| Portrayed by | Francis Matthews Bill Nighy |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Actor, amateur sleuth |
| Nationality | British |
A Charles Paris Mystery is a series of detective novels by Simon Brett, about actor Charles Paris, who solves murders he encounters in his theatrical and film jobs.
The novels have been adapted by Jeremy Front into a comedy-drama series for BBC Radio, starring Bill Nighy.
Brett was inspired to write the Charles Paris series after working on the BBC radio adaptations of Lord Peter Wimsey:[1] "I realised that plot is really important but character and dialogue were actually just as important."[2]
Charles Paris is an unhappily separated (but not divorced, more than 30 years on), moderately successful character actor[a] with a slight drinking problem who gets entangled in various crimes, and finds himself unwillingly in the role of amateur detective.
Bill Nighy describes Paris as "an actor sleuth, who drinks too much and smokes too much and doesn't work very much. But every time he does go to work, somebody gets murdered."[3]
Reception
The radio adaptations have been described by The Guardian as "languid, restful fun",[4] and by The Times as "always a treat... Paris is an ingenious confection... The joy for listeners comes from how Nighy makes almost tangible every observation in Front’s pithy script."[5]
A review of So Much Blood (2023) in The Daily Telegraph described the series as cozy crime, and wrote "The first reason to tune in is that Charles Paris is Bill Nighy... It's the role he was born to play." The reviewer also praised Suzanne Burden's comic timing.[6]
Novels
- Cast, In Order of Disappearance (1975)
- So Much Blood (1976)
- Star Trap (1977)
- An Amateur Corpse (1978)
- A Comedian Dies (1979)
- The Dead Side of the Mic (1980)
- Situation Tragedy (1981)
- Murder Unprompted (1982)
- Murder in the Title (1983)
- Not Dead, Only Resting (1984)
- Dead Giveaway (1985)
- What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
- A Series of Murders (1989)
- Corporate Bodies (1991)
- A Reconstructed Corpse (1993)
- Sicken and So Die (1995)
- Dead Room Farce (1998)
- A Decent Interval (2013)
- The Cinderella Killer (2014)
- A Deadly Habit (2018)