The little sister

Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in this powerfully atmospheric BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's novel about the cynical, world-weary, wise cracking shamus whose honesty in a dishonest world sent him down the mean streets again and again in search of some kind of justice.

The case of a missing brother from some two-bit Kansas town didn't look like Marlowe's best shot at the big time.

But pretty soon it turned out that this particular brother had the embarrassing habit of knowing guys who finished up on the wrong end of an ice-pick.

Until, that is, he did too.