Discovering the Detectives: R. D. Wingfield

To most the name R. D . Wingfield will sum up images of Inspector Frost, his best known creation who was brought to screen by David Jason but that's only half the picture. In fact it's not even half the picture, a quarter maybe or even less because R. D. Wingfield was for around twenty years a prolific writer of radio drama for the BBC- in fact even Inspector Frost made his debut in a radio play.


The Inspector Frost novels are truly excellent but it is with the radio plays - most of which can be found easily on You Tube - that the author did his best work.  Between 1972 and 1988, Wingfield produced a steady stream of intelligent mystery plays with a built-in guarantee of enjoyment for the listener . In fact even when Wingfield fell out with the BBC he continued to sell them plays written under pen names including the name Arthur Jefferson, which was actually Stan Laurel's real name.


'I was radio's blue-eyed boy. Everything I wrote they bought. When I'd sold three plays I thought, I'm on to a winner here, and I slung up my job - I was a clerk in an oil company -and started writing radio plays full-time.' R. D. Wingfield.


In various interviews Wingfield stated that he considered himself a dramatist first, and a novelist second and even when the TV series based around Inspector Frost made him an household name, radio remained his first love.

';I don't watch the television Frost. Nothing against David Jason. I could watch him again and again in 'Only Fools and Horses', but he isn't my Frost, and my fear is that if I were to watch him, then my next Frost would become him.' R. D Wingfield talking to the Radio Times in 1996.

Leslie Sands: First Frost

Back when Frost was first being developed for Radio, Wingfield hoped Ronnie Barker would play the part but recording couldn't be worked in around his TV work and so Leslie Sands was cast - this Frost is actually closer to the character in the novels than the TV series and can be listened to HERE.

Wingfield was an intensely shy and private man, Wingfield lived anonymously at Basildon, Essex, where even his neighbours were unaware of who he was. When ITV bought the television rights to the Frost books in 1992, he continued to live modestly and eschewed the trappings of success; he avoided the hoopla of book launches and publishers' parties, turned down requests for television interviews and was rarely photographed. Nor did he enjoy writing the books, regarding them as a grinding chore and very much a bread-and-butter obligation; radio scripts, on the other hand, were a labour of love, and Wingfield produced a steady stream of some 40 mysteries over a 20-year period until a shrinking radio market and the success of the Frost novels in the early 1990s forced his hand.

These radio plays are all good, many of them are excellent. Check out A TEST TO DESTRUCTION, an early play in which an explosives expert, seemingly caught in a desperate trap, keeps his nerve and thinks ahead. THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY, from 1972, which cleverly resolves an unexplained murder ten years after its commission. Also the serial OUTBREAK OF FEAR (1982), which piles one horrific death onto another in a hair-raising play. And SATURDAY ROSTER from 1974 is the ultimate straight forward police procedural And one I only recently listened to was THE KILLING SEASON, a six part thriller from 1984, which is set during the Christmas period is an absolute classic of crime drama. These are just a few of the excellent Wingfield plays that can be found on You Tube.

The original Frost novels

Below is a list of the Wingfield radio plays together with dates of first broadcast. Source Nigel Deacon's Diversity Website.

As previously stated most of these plays can be found on You Tube - To give you an idea of how highly I regard these plays I'll just tell you that I've ripped them all as MP3 FILES and they have a permanent place on my iPod - they've entertained me on many a long drive.

Compensating Error (45') Aug 68 8.15 R4
Our West Ladyton Branch (60') 13-11-68 8.15 R2
Better never than late (60') Nov 69 2.00 R4
The night they deliver the money (60') 4-4-70 2.00 R4
Double Entry (45') 7-10-70 R4
Test to Destruction (45') 1970 R4
Slow fuse (45') 13-1-71 8.15 R4
Letter of the law (60') 28-4-71 3.05 R4
Cat and mouse game (45') May 71 8.15 R4
Adequate Reasons (45') 21-7-71 8.15 R4
The tenth anniversary (45') 9-2-72 8.15 R4
The Alternative Plan (45') 19-7-72 8.15 R4
A second class risk (45') Jan 73 8.15 R4
Sins of commission (45') 2-5-73 8.15 R4
Cleft stick (45') 19-12-73 8.15 R4
Balance brought forward (45') 27-2-74 8.15 R4
Murder locked out (45') 11-9-74 8.15 R4
Saturday Roster (45') 9-10-74 8.15 R4
Slow Fuse (30' version) May 76 R4
Smiling and beautiful death (45') May 76 3.05 R4
Death of the insured (45') 8-7-76 3.05 R4
Winner takes the Kitty (30') Oct 76 R4
Three days of Frost (90') 12-2-77 8.30 R4
Credit risk (45') 24-2-77 3.05 R4
Daylight robbery (45') 2-6-77 3.05 R4
The last escape (45') 7-7-77 3.05 R4
Blood money (60') 26-8-77 3.05 R4
Post Mortem Shock (45') 2-11-77 R4
Nightmare (15') 16-2-79 1145pm R4
The cellar (15') 7-4-79 1145pm R4
Second sight (60') May 81 3.02 R4
Innocent victim (60') 20-8-81 3.02 R4
A touch of Frost (90') 6-2-82 8.30 R4
Moveable assets (45') Apr 82 3.02 R4
Outbreak of Fear (5 x 30 mins) beginning 29-8-82 R4
The Killing Season (as Arthur Jefferson) (6 x 30 mins) Jan 84 R4
Cover-up (90') 5-1-85 8.30 R4
Hate Mail (as T. Smith) (45') c1985 R4
Deadfall (60') Dec 87 R4. Rebroadcast by ABC, c1995

Rodney David Wingfield, radio scriptwriter and crime novelist, June 6 1928; died July 31 2007

Frost at Christmas by R. D, Wingfield.

I'd read this book years ago but recently I'd been reading and enjoying the Inspector Frost continuation novels by James Henry, actually a pen name for James Gurbutt and Henry Sutton, and I decided it would be nice to revisit the originals and see how the new novels compare to those written by Frost creator, the late R. D. Wingfield.

Frost at Christmas was actually the first Inspector Frost book. It opens with Frost being shot and then we are told the story that takes us to this point with the life of Frost hanging in the balance. Given that Frost is a long running character then his survival comes as no surprise, but the author had originally intended to kill the character off but was persuaded to leave the story open ended. The book was written in 1972 but went unpublished for several years, finally seeing print  in Canada in 1980. In the meantime the author had used the character in a radio play entitled, Three Days of Frost and actor/comedian Ronnie Barker was due to take the role but in the end  it  was Leslie Sands who became Frost for radio when Barker became unavailable because of TV commitments. The radio play was so popular that Wingfield wrote another play, A Touch of Frost which he would later turn into the second Frost novel which saw print in 1990.

Back to Frost at Christmas - the plot involves a missing eight year old girl, as well as a thirty year old bank robbery. Both cases merge together and keep Frost and the Chief Constable's nephew, Detective Constable Barnard run ragged. There is much humour in the slovenly character of Jack Frost and the author is at pains to create an anti-establishment character who find himself trapped very firmly within the establishment he despises.


The blurb reads: Ten days to Christmas and Tracey Uphill, aged eight, hasn't come home from Sunday School. Her mother, a pretty young prostitute, is desperate. Enter Detective Inspector Jack Frost, sloppy, scruffy and insubordinate. To help him investigate the case of the missing child, Frost has been assigned a new sidekick, the Chief Constable's nephew. Fresh to provincial Denton in an oversmart suit, Detective Constable Clive Barnard is an easy target for Frost's withering satire.

__Assisted and annoyed by Barnard, Frost, complete with a store of tasteless anecdotes to fit every occasion, proceeds with the investigation in typically unorthodox style. After he's consulted a local witch, Dead Man's Hollow yields up a skeleton. Frost finds himself drawn into an unsolved crime from the past and risks not only his career, but also his life...

The story was used as the basis for the first episode of the popular, A Touch of Frost TV series which starred David Jason in the title role. Jason had become a big fan of the books when his good friend Ronnie Barker had expressed regret at not playing the role in the original radio series. Jason was starring alongside Barker in Open all Hours which was the TV series that prevented Barker taking over the role of Jack Frost for Wingfield's radio play. This David Jason became the face most recognisable as Inspector Jack Frost.

There are several differences between the TV storyline and the source novel - for one thing the involvement of a medium which is a huge plot point in the book is ignored, but the character of the eccentric old woman who lives with a horde of stray cats is maintained. The character of Frost is also somewhat toned down - in the book he is a scruffy, crude, chain-smoking copper who acts on hunches and completely disregards the rules. In the TV series he is a scruffy, occasional smoker who wisecracks his way through cases. In the book Frost's wife has already died of cancer when the story starts, but in the TV series she is in the last stages of her terminal illness. The main difference though between TV series and book though is that in the book the little girl is found dead while in the TV episode she is found alive and suffering from nothing more than a bang on the bounce.

The book then is darker and far better than the admittedly excellent TV version, but both are worth your time.

There's a Frost about again...

The author of a popular series dies and the series dies with him - not necessarily so, just ask James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and even good old Count Dracula. Those three are still alive and kicking - OK maybe with the latter character it's undead and kicking - and their creators are long gone.

Yep bringing back characters after the original author cashes in his/her chips is nothing new.

This last month saw the hardcover publication of Fatal Frost by James Henry, actually , a pseudonym for James Gurbut.

Now the character of Jack Frost was a troublesome creation and radio dramatist R D Wingfield struggled to get his first Frost novel into print.  Frost at Christmas failed to find a publisher for many years. It was written in the mid 1970's but  was eventually published in Canada in 1980,not appearing in Britain until 1989. Five more novels followed: A Touch of Frost (produced as a radio play in 1987 and published as a novel in 1990), Night Frost (1992), Hard Frost (1995), Winter Frost (1999) and A Killing Frost (published posthumously in 2008).

 David Jason was an early fan of the novels, being introduced to the character by his friend Ronnie Barker who had once intended to play Frost for radio, and was largely responsible for bringing Frost to television in 1992, as a vehicle for his move towards more serious and dramatic roles in his illustrious acting career.

Frost was a huge success on TV but in order to meet the demands of prime time the character was considerably softened from the excellent source novels - that's not to say the TV series wasn't good, it was but it was different.

 And that's the thing with these continuation novels - they are not the Frost of the books but the Frost of the TV series. True they are prequels and Frost is still a detective sergeant here but they feel and read like the TV series - not that this is a bad thing, but if you want to sample the real Frost you need to read the original novels. However I must add that I've yet to read Fatal Frost - I only picked up my copy this morning - and my opinions are drawn from the previous novel, First Frost which, although I thought it was excellent, I did feel it was more David Jason than Jack Frost. Still I'm looking forward to reading Fatal Frost.


May, 1982. Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Jimmy Savile (not yet exposed as a perv with a penchant for young girls)  has the run of the airwaves and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DC Waters -- recently relocated from Bethnal Green. While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Evans is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track. Then a fifteen-year-old boy is found dead on Denton's golf course, his organs removed. Detective Sergeant Jack Frost is sent to investigate -- a welcome distraction from troubles at home. And when the murdered boy's sister goes missing, Frost and Waters must work together to find her... before it's too late.


Crime fans will welcome the return of Jack Frost and just so you all know - I picked up me gleaming new hardcover in ASDA this morning for £7, which is even cheaper than Amazon.is offering the hardcover. In fact it's a good half a quid cheaper than the Kindle download.

We forecast a Frost arriving

Before his death Inspector Frost creator. R D Wingfield  told the UK press that he would never write another Frost novel because he had lost faith in the police force and didn't think he could write about an organisation he felt was ineffectual. However we have just learned there is to be a prequel to the series written by the pseudonymous James Henry.

I'm a big fan of the Frost books and the new writer has a big task ahead if he is to replicate the feel of the original classics. One can only hope.