The drama is written and directed by Charles Sturridge and stars Matthew Rhys as lookalike characters John Standing and Johnny Spence.
The novel was first adapted into film in 1959 by director Robert Hamer, with Alec Guinness playing the parts of John Barratt and Jacques de Gué.
Teacher John Standing, who has just lost his job, meets his doppelgänger Johnny Spence, a failed businessman, in a hotel.
The family glass business is failing, and Standing staves off the inevitable by pretending to have signed a contract with a major customer.
He finds that Spence's younger brother, Paul, is capable but lacking in confidence, whilst his sister, Blanche, hates Johnny, whom she blames for the suicide of her close friend.
While Standing is out at a shooting party lunch with the rest of the family, Spence manipulates Frances into taking an overdose of morphine so that he can claim the trust fund and save the glass business.
In the final scene, Standing is seen with the Spence family, including a pregnant Frances, watching the Coronation on a newly acquired television set.
The incident in which John deliberately burns his hand to avoid taking part in the shoot does not occur in the film, nor does his wife's fall from the bedroom window or her subsequent death.