| SIMON BRETT - CHARLES PARIS THEATRICAL MYSTERIES | ||
| YEAR |
TITLE |
|
| 1975 |
 |
CAST IN ORDER OF
DISAPPEARANCE: Who killed
Marius Steen, the theatrical tycoon with a
fortune to leave his young mistress Jacqui?
And who killed Bill Sweet, the shady
blackmailer with a supply of compromising
photographs? Charles Paris, a middle-aged
actor who keeps going on booze and women,
takes to detection in Cast, In Order
of Disappearance, by assuming a
variety of roles, among them that of a
Scotland Yard Detective-Sergeant, and the
results are both comic and dramatic. As the
mythical McWhirter of the Yard, he actually
precipitates the crime; as one of the
blackmailer's victims, he finds himself in bed
with the blackmailer's wife; as a small-part
player in a horror film (The Zombie Walks),
he gets shot at by a murderer. And he arrives
at the solution by way of the petrol crisis
and an abortive attack of the German measles.
It's a light-hearted frolic that is, at the
same time, a beautifully ingenious puzzle, and
it fizzes with fun and wit. R89 |
| 1976 |
 |
SO MUCH BLOOD: Edinburgh and the Festival form both the background and the foreground to this lively whodunit. Charles Paris is flitting between a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a "mixed-media satire", a late-night revue, and his own one-man show on Thomas Hood when a fading pop star is murdered, there is a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace, and someone makes a suicide leap from the top of the Rock. O-R90 |
| 1977 |
 |
STAR TRAP: The target for murder is an odious theater and television star, but actor/detective Charles Paris finds that the star is behind the strange happenings backstage, including the rehearsal pianist being shot in the hand, and an actor falling and breaking his leg. Why does the star want to sabotage his own show? The answer is one much more human than it first appears. R89 |
| 1978 |
 |
AN AMATEUR CORPSE:
As a professional actor, Charles Paris is
invited to give his opinion of the Breckton
Backstagers' production of The Seagull:
this proves to be appalling and he wishes he
were anywhere but there. As an amateur
detective, though, he is in just the right place
for soon afterwards one of the leading ladies is
found strangled in the coal shed. Charles Paris
eagerly investigates her mysterious death and we
are treated to another entertaining account of
theatrical back-staging, back-scratching and
backbiting. O-R11/11 |
| 1979 |
 |
A COMEDIAN DIES: Sun 'n' Fun Time,
the Winter Gardens, Hunstanton: 'A Summer
Tonic, Music and Laughter for All the Family'.
Perhaps. But for Bill Peaky, rising young
comedian, top-of-the-bill star of the show, it
was the setting for an agonising death. And for
Charles Paris, in the audience as the rising
young comedian was spectacularly
electrocuted by the microphone, the beginning
of a new investigation into murder and mayhem
in the seedier purlieus of show-business. O-R88 |
| 1980 |
 |
THE DEAD SIDE OF THE MIKE: Murder at the BBC? It's almost unimaginable. When Andrea Gower, the beautiful studio manager is murdered, the producer's only concern is the dead air emanating from the transmitter. But Charles Paris, the now famous actor/detective, has come to Broadcasting House to give a talk, and ends up as a mystery voice on a showbiz quiz show. Paris has to wallow through layers of BBC scandal, and uncovers a complicated fraud-with clues concealed in seemingly innocent announcements. These clues lead to a trap that is nearly the end of Mr. Paris in The Dead Side of the Mike. R89 |
| 1981 |
 |
SITUATION TRAGEDY: Charles Paris, long-time actor and part-time sleuth, has got a job close to his heart - playing the golf-club barman in West End Television's new sit-com series, The Strutters. But from the start things go horribly wrong. Odd accidents - if they are accidents - carry off various members of the production crew, and even put paid to Cocky, the revolting Yorkshire terrier beloved of the show's star, Dame Aurelia Howarth. Charles Paris begins to scent the trail of another mass murderer. O-R88 |
| 1982 |
 |
MURDER UNPROMPTED: The career of actor Charles Paris seems to have reached an all-too-rare peak. A new play at Taunton, in which Paris lands a substantial role, transfers to the West End - albeit with Paris demoted to understudy. But on the first night, the star brought in for the London run is shot dead on stage. Paris finds himself playing the lead for the first time ever, a turn of events which also helps him solve the murder. O-R88 |
| 1983 |
 |
MURDER IN
THE TITLE: Playing the corpse in a
wooden murder mystery at the Regent Theatre,
Rugland Spa, is not exactly a triumph for
Charles Paris, actor. In fact his career
could hardly sink any lower. But suddenly
the mystery spilled over into real life when
a bizarre sequence of events culminated in
the Artistic Director's apparent suicide.
And the talents of Charles Paris, amateur
sleuth, were called into action.
O-R88
|
| 1984 |
 |
NOT DEAD, ONLY
RESTING: Charles Paris, down on his
luck and 'resting' between acts waits
patiently for a phone call from his agent,
driven to painting and decorating to make
ends meet. A rare evening out at a posh
restaurant among stars of screen and stage
promises a break in the depressing routine.
But when the restaurant's handsome,
temperamental chef is brutally murdered,
Charles finds himself drawn into the ensuing
investigation. At first it seems an open and
shut case: the chef's partner is in France
within hours of a spectacular quarrel with
him over a pretty youth. Yet as Charles'
inquiries take him into the feuds and
jealousies of his own profession, it soon
becomes clear that there's a lot more to the
case than that. O-R89
|
| 1985 |
 |
DEAD GIVEAWAY: The television
give-away panel game is the very lowest form
of showbiz life. For Charles Paris, his acting
career in the doldrums, 'If The Cap
Fits' is the final humiliation - his
qualification for representing his profession
is that his face is unknown to the public. But
when murder intervenes - and on camera, too -
the other Charles Paris is revealed, the
brilliant amateur detective, incisive,
perceptive, forceful - and lucky. All the
things Charles Paris, actor, is not. There are
lots of suspects, and a whole selection of
compelling motives: the victim was detested by
all right-thinking people. But for Charles,
nothing ever is straightforward, and the
complications threaten to become overwhelming.
O-R88 |
| 1987 |
 |
WHAT
BLOODY MAN IS THAT: Charles Paris is
on his way up again, career-wise. No longer
"resting" and no longer just a corpse in a
cupboard, he blossoms in the play dreaded by
superstitious theatre folk, who will not even
speak its name: "the Scottish play"-Macbeth.
It's only in the provincial rep, but you have
to start (or re-start) somewhere. And his
agent has promised that though what's offered
is not much of a part, "other good parts are
in the offing". By which perhaps is not meant
precisely what happens: that Charles finds
himself doubling almost every role in the play
that isn't held by the three principals. And
as for the principals, they could hardly be
more ill sorted. Macbeth is played by George
Birkitt, the TV game-show personality. Lady
Macbeth comes straight from Stratford: an
intense young woman with method in her
madness. And Duncan is that notorious old ham,
Warnock Belvedere, who feels that he's in the
tradition of great actor-managers.With such a
cast, sparks are bound to fly. It's not long
before death strikes in the night. And Charles
Paris takes on the role of private eye.
R88
|
| 1989 |
 |
A SERIES OF
MURDERS: Charles Paris has been
contracted to play brainless bobby Sergeant
Clump, foil to the charismatic amateur sleuth, Stanislas Braid,
in a TV series of that name. However, filming is
far from plain sailing - plagued by the show's
pompous star, and the constant outraged
interruptions of the ancient author whose novels
are being adapted. Indeed, there is plenty of
friction about, but when an actress is crushed
to death Charles suspects it was not a simple
accident and subsequently embarks on some
sleuthing of his own. He may lack the panache of
the suave Stanislas Braid, but unlike the great
detective the danger Paris encounters is only
too real. O-R90 |
| 1991 |
 |
CORPORATE BODIES:
Charles Paris, sometime actor and
amateur sleuth, has a new if unlikely role as
a fork-lift truck driver in a promotional
video for food-and- drinks giant, Delmoleen.
The discovery of a body crushed beneath his
truck is not a good start to the afternoon's
filming - but worse is to come. Embarking on
some discreet investigations, Charles charts a
hilarious but perilous course through the
unknown waters of corporate politics, product
marketing and sales conference hanky-panky.
O-R11/11
|
| 1993 |
 |
A RECONSTRUCTED
CORPSE:Failed thespian and boozy
gumshoe Charles Paris's acting career plumbs
new depths when he takes the part of a
possible murder victim in a TV series.
Finding himself in a bizarre world somewhere
between police procedure and showbiz, he
can't resist getting involved in the
investigation. R00
|
| 1995 |
 |
SICKEN AND SO
DIE:Charles Paris has not only
moved back in with his ex-wife but has also
got a part in a production of Twelfth Night.
Everything is going well until the director
gets food poisoning and a further member of
the company ends up in hospital. R00
|
| 1997 |
 |
DEAD ROOM
FARCE: A three-month run in a new
farce by Bill Blunden is not to be sniffed
at by jobbing actor, Charles Paris. But by
the time the troupe reaches Bath, a dark
mood has set in. When Charles's friend Mark
is murdered, it's one of the cast, who has a
secret to hide, who is responsible.
R00
|
| 2013 |
 |
A
DECENT INTERVAL: After a long period
of 'resting', life is looking up for Charles
Paris, who has been cast as the Ghost of
Hamlet's Father and First Gravedigger in a
new production of Hamlet. But
rehearsals are fraught. Ophelia is played by
Katrina Selsey, who won the role through a
television talent show. Hamlet himself is
also played by a reality TV contestant,
Jared Root - and the two young stars have
rather different views of celebrity and the
theatre than the more experienced members of
the cast. But when the company reach the
first staging post of their tour, the Grand
Theatre Marlborough, matters get more
serious, with one member of the company
seriously injured in what appears to be an
accident, and another dead. Once again,
Charles Paris is forced to don the mantle of
amateur detective to get to the bottom of
the mystery. R06/13
|
| 2014 |
 |
THE
CINDERELLA KILLER:Landing a minor part in the
Empire Theatre Eastbourne's Christmas
production of Cinderella, Charles Paris soon
discovers that his main role is to gently
introduce the show's baffled American star,
famous sitcom actor Kenny Polizzi, to the
bizarre customs of English pantomime.
During their
convivial sessions in the local pub, Charles
finds himself increasingly caught up in
Polizzi's tangled affairs as the American
fends off a vengeful soon-to-be-ex-wife, an
obsessed groupie, and a barely-controlled
drink problem. But Charles is about to be
far more involved than he might wish when he
stumbles across a body beneath Eastbourne
Pier, a neat bullet hole in the centre of
the forehead. As the world's press
descends on Eastbourne, the pantomime
rehearsals descend into chaos and he himself
comes under suspicion, 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.
R08/14
|
| 2018 |
 |
A DEADLY HABIT: Having landed a small part in a new
West End play, The Habit of Faith, Charles
Paris is dismayed to discover that his good
fortune has been orchestrated by his bęte
noire, the now-famous screen actor Justin
Grover. But why has Grover become involved in
this relatively obscure production, and why
has he roped in Charles to star? From the
outset the production is fraught with
difficulties, and matters become even more
complicated when a body is discovered at the
foot of the dressing room stairs. Did they
fall or were they pushed? As one of the last
people to have seen the victim alive, Charles
Paris is drawn into the ensuing investigation
– and discovers that more than one person
involved in the play has a scandalous secret
to hide. O-R01/24 |
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