Arriving as part of Radio 4’s Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure season comes this adaptation of Don’t Look Now, which still stands as one of her most famous works. Much of that fame, of course, comes from the distinctive 1973 film adaptation by Nicolas Roeg, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a grief-stricken married couple holidaying in Venice. If you’ve seen Roeg’s film, it’s hard not to shake it from your mind as you listen to dramatist Katie Hims’ take on du Maurier’s 1971 short story. In particular, the sensual love scene, so beautifully shot by Roeg, lingers when you hear John (Jamie Parker) and Laura (Aisling Loftus) decide to go to bed before their dinner reservation. 

Nevertheless, Hims and director Sally Avens do a fine job of conjuring the eerie nature of du Maurier’s story, with John and Laura haunted by the death of their daughter Christine, who drowned some time earlier at their English country home. This trip to Venice is meant to be restorative; but then they meet two women in a restaurant, one of whom is a blind psychic who claims to ‘see’ their child. While John dismisses them as fakes, he and Laura are soon left increasingly disturbed. 

Naturally, a radio production will never enjoy the visual benefits of showing Venice’s winding alleyways, or the atmosphere that both the novel and film conveyed. But thanks to smart sound effects and piano music ably played by Ian Dunnett Jnr (also appearing as the detective), this production does its best in that regard. The subtle performances from Loftus and Parker also help bring out the piece’s psychological complexities, as the still-grieving Laura and then John begin to believe the presence of their daughter in Venice. The effect is chilling.

Don’t Look Now is available on BBC Sounds, as part of the Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure season.