Author Description

Café de Paris immediately plunges us into the terrifying night-time world of London during the bombing raids of 1941: civilians sheltering underground like moles, or else taking their chances in a game of Blackout Russian Roulette. With the US Government as yet undecided about whether to help out with Lend-Lease, London held its collective breath each night. Combining witty dialogue and black humour with emotive drama, Café de Paris is a factional exploration of the powerful role which London-based American radio reporters played during the WW2 Blitz. They painted ‘pictures in the air’ for listeners back home, including the powerful decision makers as yet unsure about involving the US in global warfare. Roger Marshall’s narrative centres on an Ed Murrow-inspired American radio reporter and builds its drama towards the tragic bombing of a famous West End night club. Published here for the first time, Café de Paris was written just as Marshall was joining The Sweeney team at Euston Films. It is a rare unmade project. The production company which gave it the ‘green light’ folded months later, and despite attempts to find alternative backers for what was always intended to be an Anglo-American co-production, it simply gathered dust. This book offers readers the unique opportunity to read the unedited 1975 film script. Always noted for his ‘ear’ for dialogue, this full script demonstrates his fine narrative prose, something viewers never got to see. Roger Marshall (1934-2020) was a prolific television and film writer, who created several television series, including Public Eye, Zodiac, Mitch, Travelling Man and Floodtide. He wrote a number of one-off television plays, in addition to contributing to landmark shows such as The Avengers and The Sweeney. He had more than 200 scripts commissioned during a career which spanned five decades (1958-94). His film credits cover the genres of crime fiction, psychological thriller, science fiction, horror a