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Raymond Chandler: The BBC Radio Drama Collection

Raymond Chandler: The BBC Radio Drama Collection

8 BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations

Summary

The complete collection of landmark BBC Radio dramas of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries.

Philip Marlowe is the archetypal noir detective: wisecracking and world-weary, hardboiled yet honourable. This volume includes all eight dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's groundbreaking crime novels featuring his iconic hero.

The Big Sleep Marlowe is consulted by a wealthy family man with two big problems: his children.

Farewell My Lovely Marlowe's search for an ex-con's ex-girlfriend leads him into danger.

The High Window When rare gold coin is stolen from her collection, Mrs Murdoch hires Philip Marlowe to find it.

The Lady in the Lake Businessman Derace Kingsley hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife Crystal.

The Little Sister Commissioned to find Orfamay Quest's missing brother, Marlowe is drawn into the glamorous film world of Hollywood.

The Long Goodbye Marlowe befriends a drunk named Terry Lennox, but comes to regret doing him a favour.

Playback Hired to follow the mysterious Betty Mayfield, Marlowe soon finds that he is being tailed too...

Poodle Springs Newly-married Marlowe puts his bride aside to look for a gambler on the run.

Starring Toby Stephens as Philip Marlowe, these stylish, suspenseful dramatisations – full of witty, ironic dialogue and colourful characters – bring the beautiful, corrupt world of California in the '40s and '50s to luminous life. Duration: 11 hours approx.

About the author

Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888, but moved to England with his family when he was twelve, where he attended Dulwich College, alma mater to some of the twentieth century's most renowned writers. Returning to America in 1912, he settled in California, worked in a number of jobs, and later married. It was during the Depression era that he seriously turned his hand to writing, and his first published story appeared in the pulp magazine Black Mask in 1933, followed six years later, when he was fifty, by his first novel, The Big Sleep. Chandler died in 1959, having established himself as the finest crime writer in America.
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