What do you think?
Rate this book
Playback
Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the ’40s and ’50s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily.
In Playback, Marlowe is awakened early in the morning by a phone call from a lawyer. Clyde Umney instructs him to meet the eight o’clock train from Chicago, and shadow one of the passengers. The lady in question, Eleanor King, is beautiful, classy and clearly unhappy. Obediently, Marlowe follows her – all the way to Esmerelda, where she’s going under the name Betty Mayfield and being leaned on by a cheap blackmailer.
Stuck doing a sneaky job for people he doesn’t like, Marlowe feels even grubbier than usual: and he’s soon in more trouble than usual too as he comes up against gangsters, hard men and a hitman.
Starring Toby Stephens, this exciting dramatisation by Stephen Wyatt retains all the verve of Chandler’s last novel. If was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 26 February 2011.
In Playback, Marlowe is awakened early in the morning by a phone call from a lawyer. Clyde Umney instructs him to meet the eight o’clock train from Chicago, and shadow one of the passengers. The lady in question, Eleanor King, is beautiful, classy and clearly unhappy. Obediently, Marlowe follows her – all the way to Esmerelda, where she’s going under the name Betty Mayfield and being leaned on by a cheap blackmailer.
Stuck doing a sneaky job for people he doesn’t like, Marlowe feels even grubbier than usual: and he’s soon in more trouble than usual too as he comes up against gangsters, hard men and a hitman.
Starring Toby Stephens, this exciting dramatisation by Stephen Wyatt retains all the verve of Chandler’s last novel. If was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 26 February 2011.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2011
5 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Wyatt
58 books6 followersStephen Wyatt was educated at Latymer Upper School and then Clare College, Cambridge. After a brief spell as Lecturer in Drama at Glasgow University, he began his career as a freelance playwright in 1975 as writer/researcher with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry in Education team.
His subsequent young people's theatre work includes The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn 1978), Monster (York Theatre Royal 1979) and The Witch of Wapping (Half Moon 1980).
In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the Bubble Theatre for whom he wrote Glitterballs and The Rogue's Progress.
Other theatre work includes After Shave (Apollo Theatre 1978), R.I.P Maria Callas (Edinburgh Festival / Hen and Chickens 1992), A working woman (from Zola's L'Assommoir) (West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992) and The Standard Bearer (Man in the Moon 2001). He also collaborated with Jeff Clarke on The Burglar's Opera for Opera della Luna (2004) "stolen from an idea by W. S. Gilbert with music nicked from Sir Arthur Sullivan".
His first work for television was Claws, filmed by the BBC in 1987, starring Simon Jones and Brenda Blethyn. Wyatt then went on to write two scripts for the science fiction series Doctor Who — these were Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Both of those serials featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. His other television credits include scripts for The House of Eliott and Casualty.
He has worked for BBC Radio since 1985 as both an adapter and an original playwright.
His subsequent young people's theatre work includes The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn 1978), Monster (York Theatre Royal 1979) and The Witch of Wapping (Half Moon 1980).
In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the Bubble Theatre for whom he wrote Glitterballs and The Rogue's Progress.
Other theatre work includes After Shave (Apollo Theatre 1978), R.I.P Maria Callas (Edinburgh Festival / Hen and Chickens 1992), A working woman (from Zola's L'Assommoir) (West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992) and The Standard Bearer (Man in the Moon 2001). He also collaborated with Jeff Clarke on The Burglar's Opera for Opera della Luna (2004) "stolen from an idea by W. S. Gilbert with music nicked from Sir Arthur Sullivan".
His first work for television was Claws, filmed by the BBC in 1987, starring Simon Jones and Brenda Blethyn. Wyatt then went on to write two scripts for the science fiction series Doctor Who — these were Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Both of those serials featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. His other television credits include scripts for The House of Eliott and Casualty.
He has worked for BBC Radio since 1985 as both an adapter and an original playwright.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 17, 2014
Lawyer Clive Umney wakens Marlowe, much to his annoyance, in the early morning and instructs him to follow one of the passengers off the eight o'clock Chicago train.
He discovers her name is Eleanor King, a beautiful, classy and claerly unhappy lady. He discovers she is using an alias and is being blackmailed and in trying to sort the problem out he comes up against gangsters, hard men and a hitman ... but in true Marlowe style he overcomes all adversity and saves the day and, of course, the lady.
An abridged version of the tale performed by the BBC Radio 4 full-cast.
He discovers her name is Eleanor King, a beautiful, classy and claerly unhappy lady. He discovers she is using an alias and is being blackmailed and in trying to sort the problem out he comes up against gangsters, hard men and a hitman ... but in true Marlowe style he overcomes all adversity and saves the day and, of course, the lady.
An abridged version of the tale performed by the BBC Radio 4 full-cast.
September 7, 2018
He should have guessed when the call came before dawn and he had the phone upside down…
…this case was never gonna go well.
Follow the redhead is all he’s told, but he watches her at the station as another man approaches her and she looks real unhappy about it.
He’s intrigued. His client doesn’t seem to know any more info - he’s clearly an intermediary. Kinsolver is mentioned as the real client but the name means nothing to Marlowe.
So he keeps following her to a seaside town and charms the desk clerk into letting him have the room next to hers.
[hearing Toby Stephens act as Marlowe pretending to be a distraught husband was highly amusing…]
Then the man from the station comes back and tries to blackmail her. And there are other PI’s tailing her as well. Just what is going on?
Now she’s a victim, Marlowe’s protective instincts are up.
But she moves to the local hotel run by an ex-mobster and by 3am she’s knocking on Marlowe’s door saying her blackmailer is dead on her balcony and he needs to help her move the body.
Marlowe seems kind of tired in this one… which makes sense after the events of the Long Goodbye. Is this his idea of a vacation? Lol
Again, it’s an edited version of the story… but it has some of the best lines.
And yet another rich widow offers to run away with him.
4 stars
“I'm not a young man. I'm old, tired and full of no coffee.”
…this case was never gonna go well.
“There was nothing to it. The Super Chief was on time, as it almost always is, and the subject was as easy to spot as a kangaroo in a dinner jacket.”
Follow the redhead is all he’s told, but he watches her at the station as another man approaches her and she looks real unhappy about it.
He’s intrigued. His client doesn’t seem to know any more info - he’s clearly an intermediary. Kinsolver is mentioned as the real client but the name means nothing to Marlowe.
So he keeps following her to a seaside town and charms the desk clerk into letting him have the room next to hers.
[hearing Toby Stephens act as Marlowe pretending to be a distraught husband was highly amusing…]
Then the man from the station comes back and tries to blackmail her. And there are other PI’s tailing her as well. Just what is going on?
Now she’s a victim, Marlowe’s protective instincts are up.
But she moves to the local hotel run by an ex-mobster and by 3am she’s knocking on Marlowe’s door saying her blackmailer is dead on her balcony and he needs to help her move the body.
Marlowe seems kind of tired in this one… which makes sense after the events of the Long Goodbye. Is this his idea of a vacation? Lol
Again, it’s an edited version of the story… but it has some of the best lines.
And yet another rich widow offers to run away with him.
4 stars
August 17, 2017
I have to admit, listening to full-cast dramatization, made Philip Marlowe to an icon in PI world. His work was as always, excellent and deadly private. This dramatization was personally, way to short for my liking, because it ended to soon. In overall a good mysterious case in Philip Marlowe world.
Recommended classic series!
Recommended classic series!
May 21, 2011
Not a bad adaptation, but the BBC has in the last few years made the mistake of making them into 60 minute plays and gutting the story because of it. This could have been pretty good if they'd made 2hrs long.
May 3, 2025
One of Chandler's low rated novels for a reason. For reasons that are unclear, Marlowe doesn't really take the job, but starts doing it anyhow. The girl falls for him, again, not clear why. Kind of a mess.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews