Jim Eldridge had a stellar career writing for TV and radio before he turned to World War II and late 19th century historical mysteries which demonstrate all the page-turning immediacy of the TV shows he cut his teeth on.

Hi there, I'm your host Jenny Wheeler. And on this week's Joys of Binge Reading podcast, Jim talks about growing up on a London bomb site and staying ahead in an ever-changing publishing world.

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

The Line of Kings (Tower of London):

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/line-of-kings/

Girton College, Cambridge: https://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/

Churchill’s War Room:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms

Down St Station:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Street_tube_station

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha

The Blind Beggar pub:

https://www.theblindbeggar.com/

Salvation Army founder, William Booth:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/activists/william-booth.html

The Kray Brothers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins

Dennis May Wilson: https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/dennis-main-wilson/

Georges Simeon: (Maigret author) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9693.Georges_Simenon

Maigret:  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/IMA/inspector-maigret

Ed McBain:  (real name Evan Hunter)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Hunter

Peter Davison:  https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/peter_davison

V2s:  https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-terrifying-german-revenge-weapons-of-the-second-world-war

Where to Find Jim online:

Website:  https://www.jimeldridge.com/

Email: Contact form on Jim’s website.

Introducing mystery author Jim Eldridge

Jim Eldridge - historical mystery author and TV script writer

But now here’s Jim. Hell, Jim and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Jim Eldridge: It's fantastic to be here Jenny and thank you for inviting me on.

Jenny Wheeler: You've had a fascinating varied career with a very large amount of experience in TV before you set about doing your fiction writing with your historical mysteries.

We're going to be focusing on those historical mysteries and two of your most recent books, Murder at the Tower of London, which is #9 in the Museum Murder series, and Murder at Down Street Station, which is #5 in the World War II mysteries.

Tell me, what made you change from doing TV to writing historical mysteries?

Jim Eldridge: I think actually what happened was I had my first show on in 1971, which is a long time ago. And over the years, things changed at the broadcasting. I wrote for British, Irish, and American television, TV and radio. It's about almost who you know, and towards the end - I think I did my last script in 2010 and it struck me that the business had changed.

Streaming had come in. When I first started writing for TV over here, (in the UK) there were only three channels. That was it. BBC One, BBC Two, and ITV. So if you had an idea, it was going to go out on that. But now, there are so many streaming channels.

And you need to know who it is who's taking the decisions. And unfortunately for me, most of my producers had by then retired.

The commissioners I knew had retired, so the whole industry had changed. I was faced with going out and saying to people, I've got this idea of what you want me to do.

Writing on the wall - Pivoting to a new career

But by that time, of course, I was in my early 70s. And most of the broadcasters were looking for what they would call “young and diverse” talent. And I really didn't fit that. The reason I've survived so long in this business is because I've always been a great one for looking ahead.

Seeing where there's going to be a problem and then moving into another one. I went from radio to television from comedy to drama and so on and on books as well.