Bill Nighy stars as the suave thespian sleuth in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisationLife 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 i...

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 Russell Bentley demanding numerous retakes and irascible author Winifred Railton constantly interrupting. To cap it all, nubile actress Lisa Stokes is crushed to death on set – and Charles finds her b...

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 murder when severed body parts begin to appear.Television ratings soar as the public tune in to discover every gory detail of the case. The raging egos and jealous manoeuvrings of the producers,...

Charles Paris returns in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett’s humorous theatrical mystery, starring Bill Nighy.A job in pantomime seems the perfect way to spend the Christmas season for Charles, but the cast of Cinderella are a motley crew from reality TV and Charles finds himself having to explain the traditions of panto to their baffled American star whose career is on a downward trajectory.When the star is shot dead, and Charles finds the body, he fi...

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 contract when a murder takes place in Broadcasting House. A young female studio manager is found dead in an editing suite, and Charles steps in to investigate.With a distinguished cas...

A brand new full-cast BBC radio dramatisation, starring Bill Nighy as Charles Paris'Charles Paris is Bill Nighy... It's the role he was born to play.' The TelegraphAugust 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 o...

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

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 role in a play, she nearly pushes him out of the door. But it seems that The Message is Murder is such a terrible production that someone wants to kill off the cast. First there is a series of nasty acc...

Bill Nighy stars as actor and amateur sleuth Charles Paris in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett’s novelCharles’ career is on the up. He’s starring in a revival of a popular (though hackneyed) 70's farce – and while his fellow actors aren’t exactly who you’d want to find yourself in bed with, he’s happy to be in work.But while there may be comedy on stage, offstage it’s rapidly turning into a whodunnit. First the director drops dead, th...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Simon Brett's entertaining crime novel, starring Bill Nighy.Charles Paris has been 'resting' for quite a while, so he's relieved when he is cast as the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father and First Gravedigger in a touring production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are a little tense – the lead roles of Hamlet and Ophelia are played by a reality TV contestant and TV talent show winner respectively, and their opinions on celebrity and the theatre differ somew...

Bill Nighy returns as the loveably louche actor-cum-amateur detective Charles ParisCharles 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 dea...

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 her time at her Amateur Dramatic Group, and Hugo is drinking too much.When Ellie is found drowned in their swimming pool, it seems Hugo is guilty of murder. It's up to Charles to prove his fr...