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BBC Radio 4, 26 February 2011
The fourth in the BBC's series of Chandler adaptations, Playback once again has Marlowe
(Toby Stephens) hired by a rich man Clyde Umney (Sean Baker) to tail a mysterious woman Betty Mayfield (Sarah Goldberg).
The story goes through familiar twists and turns, as Marlowe discovers that he is not only watching Betty, but that he himself
is being watched. There are the routine murders, notably of Betty's oleaginous blackmailer Larry Mitchell (Iain Batchelor).
The story eventually comes to a melancholy end, with Marlowe experiencing a distinct sense of deja vu, as he
discovers he has become the pawn in a deliberately reenacted scheme.
In truth I found this the least satisfying of the Chandler adaptations so far. This
was possibly because the story seemed to end rather rapidly, with the plot being neatly tied up in a series of expository
speeches delivered in narrative form by Marlowe himself. The story itself seemed unsatisfactory, as if Chandler had set up
an interesting situation and then tired of it. Toby Stephens did his best to keep us entertained, as he admitted in a
series of asides that he was becoming increasingly frustrated by this case. The director was Sasha Yevtushenko.
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