Alys, Always: A superbly disquieting psychological thriller

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Alys’ widower is the Booker Prize-winning novelist Laurence Kyte (Robert Glenister ,) who’s become reclusive in his mourning. But Hytner’s pace is a bit too steady, and you feel like there should be a big twist coming; as I saw we were minutes away from the end it became clear it would never materialise.

Lucinda Coxon’s adaptation of Harriet Lane’s acclaimed debut novel ‘Alys, Always’ isn’t a classic, but it goes down pretty smooth, a smart, slick psychodrama with a mischievous satirical undercurrent. Some more on-screen movement, and perhaps a choice of images that didn’t look like they’d just been downloaded from Flickr, would enliven the script’s deflated scenarios.It’s never particularly obvious what she actually wants; but probably she doesn’t know herself, her entire journey a sort of listless poking at her own spiritual void. Spot on social satire, chilling psychodrama and terrific writing - Lane knows of whereof she speaks. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions. Are the distortions of the truth she recounts merely trying to help their feelings or an attempt at ingratiation and will she get found out?

It’s a pleasure, then, to welcome this script from Lucinda Coxon, anchored by a central performance of power and confidence from Joanne Froggatt, best known as kindly maid Anna in Downton Abbey. The Kyte family are comforted by Frances's rendition of Alys's last few moments and, seeing an opportunity to ingratiate herself further with the family, she embroiders the truth somewhat.When Frances is driving back to London from visiting her parents one weekend, she is the first on the scene to a tragic road accident. One evening, driving home in the rain after visiting her parents, she comes across an overturned car crumpled on the side of the road. Genre-wise, the book is classed as a psychological thriller - but the weighting is very much on the psychological side of that phrase. We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment for all members of the cast and creative team, regardless of their race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity and will not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment.

Some of the interpretations of the narrator felt different to my own, an inevitable consequence of audio books over reading from print. With either her job or one other on the line, she starts to make sure it’s cocksure Oliver (an entertainingly oblivious Simon Manyonda,) coasting on his famous journalist father’s reputation rather than doing any work, who gets the chop. Frances is a fascinating creation: determined, deceitful, intriguingly complex and believably drawn. A subtle, beautifully observed and exquisitely written novel - the sort of book you read in one beguiling go. I did wonder whether Harriet Lane had encountered a Frances type in her own life and whether Alys, Always was intended as an expose or portrait of such manipulative, self interested Talented Mr Ripley type women.

In fact lots of books get name-checked as Frances (Joanne Froggatt) works at a Sunday broadsheet with a dwindling readership, a sub-editor on the book reviews section but, if she’s noticed at all, treated as a glorified gopher by the more dominant personalities on her team. This seductive novel is as sinuous, sharp-eyed, shrewd and controlled as its opportunistic heroine - a terrific read.

One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an upturned car crumpled on the side of the road.One night driving back to London from her parents' home, Frances encounters a car that has crashed off the road and she witnesses the last few moments of the driver's life. Television includes War and Peace, Sense and Sensibility, Fame is the Spur, Rumpole of the Bailey, Rebecca, Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, The Forsyte Saga, Monarch of the Glen, He Knew He Was Right, Bleak House, A Touch of Frost, Miss Marple, Casualty, and most recently Death in Paradise, Downton Abbey, Man in an Orange Shirt, Agatha Raisin, Thanks for the Memories, The Boy with the Topknot and Delicious. Radio includes War and Peace, The Sea, The Sea, Mr Betjeman Regrets and Home Front in which she was an ongoing character. Alys, Always by Lucinda Coxon, based on the novel by Harriet Lane, is booking until the 30th of March at the Bridge Theatre. A dark and delicious thriller, Alys, Always, the first novel by Harriet Lane, is a book you immediately want to pass on to all your friends.