Never Come Back

The handsome hero hack (Nathaniel Parker) finds himself taken up as the lover of a mysterious and detached young woman from a very elevated social class. From then on his luck changes - very much for the worse. Why, suddenly, is someone very nasty on his trail and trying to kill him?

Very reminiscent of Patrick Hamilton's viciousness and sordidness, this story instead reaches up into the top draw of society. Wonderful performances from James Fox mixing the extremely sinister with the apparently pleasant, and his upper class thug assistant, played with glove-like fit, by Martin Clunes; who both, expertly but amiably, just stop short of torturing our hero to death.

Superficially resembling the ripping yarn The 39 Steps, as already said Never Come Back has the entirely superior qualities of a Patrick Hamilton story. Furthermore it deals with themes which 70 years after the events are still not fully exposed to daylight.

The production and script are excellent and give an authentic period impression. All in all something of a landmark TV production.