Patrick Petrella

Nine BBC Radio adaptations featuring Michael Gilbert’s much-loved 1950s detective

Patrick Petrella is a London-based ’tec with a philosophical nature and an independent streak that doesn’t always sit well with his superiors. Oxford-educated and bilingual in English and Spanish, his wits are sharper than most, which gives him an invaluable advantage in tracking down the criminals who flourish in this post-war decade of rationed morality.

In the standalone drama The Phantom Billboard, Petrella looks into the mystery of a lost traveller on the London Underground. What he discovers does nothing to improve his lugubrious view of the universe…

And in Petrella, comprising two series of four episodes each, the pensive detective has more trouble in store. Series 1 finds him probing the death of a young woman (Good Fences Make Good Neighbours), meditating in the marshes on the foggy nature of truth (Myth of Return), pitting his wits against a ruthless murderer (Vengeance Foreseen) and finding his sleuthing skills stretched to breaking point when his Achilles heel is exploited by merciless killers (Outpacing the Fiend). Series 2 sees Petrella ordered by his superiors to stop his investigation into a wage-snatch job (Heroes and Villains), navigating a murky world of drugs, death and betrayal (The Missionary Position), protecting a Nuremburg Trials judge from an avenging killer (Death Watch) and tackling a watery murder mystery involving an informer (Original Sins).

Written by Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Michael Gilbert, these gripping detective dramas star Philip Jackson as Petrella, with Nicky Henson, Mamta Kaash, Christian Rodska, Nigel Carrington and Robin Welch.


Cast and credits
Written by Michael Gilbert
Produced and directed by John Taylor
Starring Philip Jackson as Petrella, Nicky Henson as Burly, Maamta Kash as Sara, Christian Rodska as Worseley, Nigel Carrington as Bayliss and Robin Welch as Dr Pond

The Phantom Billboard
With Stephen Boxer, John Rapley, Anthony Jackson and Renny Krupinski

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 19 Nov 1997

Petrella
With Ian Masters, Howard Ward, Timothy Block, Kelly Bright, Jamie Glover, David Glover, Rachel Atkins, Jonathan Tafler, Frank Kovacs, Michael Cochrane, Donald Sinclair, Richard Tate, John Hollis, Keaton Henson, Kristin Milward, Joe Dunlop, David Redgrave, Karl Johnson, Lizzie McPhee, Cliff Parisi, Tim Wylton, Christopher Scott, Laura Cox, James Hazeldine, Timothy Watson, Nina Young, Simon Treves and Lynn Whitehead

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 10 – 31 Aug 1999 (series 1), 25 Jun – 26 Jul 2001 (series 2)


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