Murdoch in Mayfair was a new starring radio comedy for Richard 'Stinker' Murdoch who had just finished a twelve year partnership with Kenneth Horne doing Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh and other projects, which had followed his earlier successful partnership with Arthur Askey in Band Waggon before the war, 

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Murdoch in Mayfair ran for one series of 9 episodes from Monday 22nd August till Monday 17th October 1955. on the BBC Home Service, rather than the more usual Light Programme, For this series Dickie was paired with actor Howard Marion-Crawford, who at this time was also starring in the American syndicated Sherlock Holmes television series as Watson opposite Ronald Howard's Sherlock. In fact the last episode of Murdoch in Mayfair went out on the radio in the UK on the same day as the last episode of Sherlock Holmes on TV in the US, 17th October. Marion-Crawford was all over the television and radio at this time as starting the very same evening following Murdoch in Mayfair on the Home Service from 19:00 till 19:30 you could then switch over the the Light programme to hear a six part serial of The Last of the Mohicans with Marion-Crawford as heroic Major Duncan Heywood.

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The series saw them effectively playing themselves as co-managers of a posh West End Mayfair members-only night club called The Blue Sewer for members of the Crawdock's club (taken from the surnames of Crawford and Murdoch), of which there are 100 members. Murdoch came into management of this business by dubious means. The owner of the club is Colonel (Michael) Trubshawe. Michael Trubshawe was making his radio debut here. He was a career soldier and close friend of David Niven, who mentions Trubshawe a number of times in his autobiography The Moon's A Balloon. Trubshawe played high-ranking soldiers in most of his film appearances that were basically variations of himself, as here in his first radio job. Working for them at The Blue Sewer are real cabaret singer Tonia Bern as the clubs' receptionist, hat check girl and nightclub singer again playing a version of herself under her real name here. Tonia is also (fictionally within this series) the girlfriend of Murdoch and is played as French as she often was in films (though Tonia was born in Belgium). Tonia Bern's last acting credit was in 1957 with Bill Maynard in Mostly Maynard. She then gave up performing and acting when the following year she married Donald Campbell and was with him till his death in Bluebird in 1966. Later in the 80s she married her last TV co-star Bill Maynard! Next there's 27 year old Pamela Manson who plays an entirely fictitious character, the clubs' Cockney dance hostess Gloriana with her saying "See you later, beefcake". Unlike Bern, Manson had previous radio experience, she had joined Ted Ray's hugely popular Ray's A Laugh the previous year for Series 6 in 1954. In support as various one-off characters as required is then comedy revue performer Ron Moody, who would go on to do the first series of Beyond Our Ken after which he decided that radio wasn't his preferred medium and went back to revue, television and film. Odd then that he hadn't decided that after regular radio exposure throughout this earlier series. Moody played multiple characters within each episode. I have the script for Episode 3 in my collection in which Moody plays first the London Mayor as an unexpected cloth-cap wearing no-nonsense Northerner, then later plays a food inspector assessing the club's food and later still the clubs' pianist. I suspect he also voiced the workman who comes in too but oddly credited as WORKMAN instead of the performer. The club's French chef Antoine is played by a real Frenchman, Pierre Chaminade.

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Like the somewhat similar Peter Sellers series Finkel's Cafe which followed the next year, the set-up allowed for a big name guest each week to pop in to eat, although with Finkel's Cafe it was a grubby greasy-spoon cafe unlike the posh West End nightclub of Murdoch in Mayfair. Unfortunately none of the contemporary listings say who the guest was each week, likely intentionally kept as a surprise, But as I have the script for Episode 3 I at least know the guest star playing their self in that one, the first successful radio and TV cook Philip Harben (whose sister Joan Harben was a regular comedy support in later series of I.T.M.A. in the late 40s). 

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There were three writers working together on the series; George Wadmore (who helped Ted Ray write Ray's A Laugh on radio and The Ted Ray Show on TV), Ian Grant and Richard Murdoch himself. Murdoch had co-written Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh with co-star Kenneth Horne before this. 

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Sadly, as with many radio series of this era like the already covered Pertwee's Progress and Finkel's Cafe, no episodes of Murdoch in Mayfair survive in the archives, despite the fact that they were pre-recorded at the time but the tapes were later re-used. The series never got a repeat before being wiped either so you had one chance to hear these. No off-air copies in private hands have turned up in the intervening decades either,

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However, as mentioned above I do have the rare original script in my collection for Episode 3, originally broadcast 5th September 1955 and has been annotated with last minute notes, amendments and timings by its original owner, the series' producer Leslie Bridgmont, who earlier had produced the hugely successful wartime Merry-Go-Round and post-war spin-off Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh for Murdoch. I can at least give a synopsis for this episode. Murdoch and Crawford get a visit from the flat-cap wearing Northerner yet London Mayor (Ron Moody) who wants to become a club member as somewhere to dine away from his wife but he'd been blackballed for membership by 102 members, despite there only being 100 members, Without being obvious about it he suggests being made a member with his position could be of use to them if they need anything in future so they let him join. Famous cook Philip Harben comes in to taste the food and tell us the best ware to prepare such food then a local government food inspector comes in uncomplimentary about the offerings until Harben sticks up for the menu and the inspector can hardly argue against someone so distinguished about food, although it turns out Harben didn't have what he thought he was getting. 

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The one critical review in the contemporary press after the first episode was pretty positive if mutedly, calling it "pretty good fun" but either the first episode was a lot better than the third or the performances far outshone the scripted material for though I generally prefer to focus on the positives in reviewing things and always liked the dapper 'Stinker', I found the whole thing here rather lacklustre on the written page, The jokes/humour, what there was of it, was pretty threadbare basic stuff that didn't raise a smirk in me so I'm not surprised it was renewed for a second series or repeated. Murdoch would have to wait another 7 years for his next big long-running radio success when The Men From The Ministry came along in 1962, keeping him busy till 1977.​​​​