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“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is a BBC Radio 4 production based on “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”.
Radio Play: “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” (2009)
Given that the quality of the “Ripliad” had a considerable dip when we got to the final two books in the series, it’s not really surprising that they haven’t received any film adaptations. Because of this I wasn’t really expecting to do any more exploration of these books after my initial reviews, but then I found out that BBC Radio 4 did adaptations of ALL of the Tom Ripley books. And on top of that I found out that Nicholas Hoult played the role of Frank Pearson, the titular “Boy Who Followed Ripley”, and in that moment I knew I wanted to check it out.
I’ve listened to a few radio plays/adaptations in the past (my family had the entire NPR Radio “Star Wars” adaptation series, and we also had the BBC “Lord of the Rings”, both used on long car rides to Iowa), but it had been awhile, and “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” was an interesting reintroduction to the medium. It’s only an hour long, which seemed like it would be too short, but I actually found the compact timeframe to aid the story along. While the book felt a bit meandering and muddled to me, this play had a clear storyline that was straightforward and easy to follow. Sure, there are sometimes some clunky moments in the narration to set a very visual scene, but the play makes the solid choice to have Ripley (played by Ian Hart, more on him and Hoult in a bit) act as a first person narrator who can explain what is happening in addition to the dialogue. The BBC obviously knows what its doing, and it knew exactly which parts to pull from the book and how to present it into a condensed hour long play.
Ian Hart as Ripley and Nicholas Hoult as Frank are both very good in their roles, with Hart bringing in a sinister edge to go with his strange moments of affection towards his new friend, and Hoult sounding earnest and needy. I greatly enjoyed their chemistry, and thought that both of them really pulled out the strange undertones of the relationship the two characters have. I felt like the story leaned a bit into the queer subtext (we do, indeed, get our moment of Ripley getting in drag to stop Frank’s kidnapping, and I was overjoyed!), and Hart has some solid moments of vulnerability and bleak self awareness that I haven’t seen in a Ripley character since Matt Damon, without making him too sympathetic. That said, I didn’t listen to the other plays that cover the other books, so I’m not sure about how sympathetic they want him to be in the series as a whole. And Hoult was so subtle with Frank’s feelings and motivations, that his end hit harder for me than it did in the book. Man, Hoult is a treasure!
Overall, I’m happy I checked this out! It’s simple and yet more powerful that the source material. I probably won’t do any more of the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the “Ripley” series, but this was well done. Up next is my final adaptation of a “Ripley” story, the Netflix series “Ripley” starring Andrew Scott as Ripley, Johnny Flynn as Dickie, and Dakota Fanning as Marge.
The Library Ladies 