Three based on Francis Durbridge's "Paul Temple" the amateur detective (Calling Paul Temple in 1948, Paul Temple's Triumph in 1950 and Paul Temple Returns in 1952) were released at the same time as a popular radio series. Similarly, Salute the Toff and Hammer the Toff were produced in 1952 in which Bentley played amateur sleuth Richard Rollison. In 1950 he had a supporting role in the main feature comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life playing schoolteacher Richard Tassell alongside Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell. Following many other "B" films in the 1950s there were appearances in Hollywood films – as a police detective in Istanbul (1957), Errol Flynn's last film, and Submarine Seahawk (1958) as a naval officer. However he hated Hollywood, saying people were judged on how much they earned rather than their ability and subsequently returned to Britain, where he was offered the lead role of “Inspector Paul Derek” in the TV series African Patrol filmed entirely on location in Kenya. This ran for 39 episodes that were shown on ITV in 1958–59. In 1961 he acted alongside Dirk Bogarde and John Mills in The Singer Not the Song, and in one of his last films in 1962 he starred as Mike Andrews in the thriller The Fur Collar. Television career In the later 1960s and 1970s Bentley featured in soap opera Crossroads as Hugh Mortimer, third husband of the motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. There was a previous connection with Gordon, who had presented the daytime TV magazine programme Lunch Box, popular in the 1950s, in which Bentley regularly appeared as a guest singer. Lunch Box was produced by Reg Watson who was part of the Crossroads team. This connection gave him the offer of the part of Mortimer. In the soap Hugh Mortimer was a millionaire businessman who arrived in 1965 and started romancing the widowed Meg. They were engaged twice, but he eventually married Jane Templeton, while Meg became the wife of Malcolm Ryder, who later tried to murder her. When Hugh's wife died, he renewed his interest in Meg and gave Crossroads one of its biggest audiences, for 1975's television wedding of the year. Eighteen million viewed the episode and there were thousands lining the streets of Birmingham when the blessing was filmed in Birmingham Cathedral. The couple were chauffeured by the comedian Larry Grayson. Two years after