Paul Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction. Together with his wife Steve, he solves the featured "whodunnit" crimes with subtle, humorous dialogue and rare "action". Always the gentleman, his use of the phrase "by Timothy" was the nearest he ever got to swearing. The introductory and closing music for the majority of the long-running BBC radio series was Coronation Scot (a musical depiction of a train journey) written by Vivian Ellis.