Raymond Chandler

Chandler's lonely, wise-cracking hero, Philip Marlowe, has become the very epitome of the fictional private eye. This film special, shot in California and London, includes interviews with contemporary thriller writers, Chandler's biographer, Robert Mitchum - who has played Marlowe in two films - and others who knew or worked with him. It evokes his enduring portrait of Los Angeles and tells the story of his extraordinary life through dramatised excerpts from his letters.