You do wonder if ITV were obliged to adapt all the Ruth Rendell stories they could get their hands on. Even if some were not good.
This one is a throwback to story from the 1950s or 60s. I just could not see this story working in the 1990s.
For a start you have to believe that a greedy stockbroker will stay chaste with his virginal girlfriend.
Lisa (Camilla Power) is an heiress with a superstitious mother. She is engaged to stockbroker Peter (Jason Flemyng.) Lisa is chaste and due to inherit on her 21st birthday.
It opens with Lisa and Peter at an art exhibition about doubles and twins. In folklore in some countries, when you see a double, it signifies impending death.
It just so happens Lisa is spooked when she sees Zoe. She looks just like Lisa but Zoe is confident and a vamp. She also works in the city.
Does this mean something bad is going to happen to Lisa. Maybe she should keep hold of all those good luck charms that her mother makes Lisa wear.
When Lisa is away, Peter gets it on with Zoe while Lisa gets some sort of bonding with Zoe even from a distance.
At all level this fails. The climax where Lisa takes a drive to the country to meet Peter is awful. She almost falls asleep while driving there just as some cyclists race by. Then climbs a tree thinking Peter as at the top. All the while, cross cutting with a seance that Lisa's mother is taking part in.