Fleming and Chandler talk about protagonists James Bond and Philip Marlowe in this conversation between two masters of their genre. They discuss heroes and villains, the relationship between author and character and the differences between the English and American thriller. Fleming contrasts the domestic 'tea and muffins' school of detective story with the American private eye tradition and Chandler guides Fleming through the modus operandi of a mafia hit while marvelling at the speed with which his fellow author turns out the latest Bond adventure.

Although readers usually associate Raymond Chandler with the mean streets of Los Angeles, the Chicago-born writer did, in fact, spend much of his early life in England. He attended Dulwich College in south-east London and later became a reporter for the Daily Express and Western Gazette newspapers before returning to the USA in 1912, aged 24.

↗ Originally broadcast 10 July 1958.