The Singing Detective - Dennis Potter

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The Singing Detective

by
Dennis Potter

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Title:	The Singing Detective
Author:	Dennis Potter
Genre:	TV script
Written:	1986
Length:	249 pages
Availability:	The Singing Detective - US
	The Singing Detective - UK
	The Singing Detective - Canada
.	.
DVD:	The Singing Detective - US
	The Singing Detective - Canada

First broadcast on BBC in 1986.
Directed by Jon Amiel, The Singing Detective starred Michael Gambon
Re-made as a film, to be released in 2003, directed by Keith Gordon and starring Robert Downey Jr., Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, and Katie Holmes

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Our Assessment:

A : a remarkable achievement and a fine read

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
Chicago Tribune	.	21/3/1988	Clifford Terry
The NY Times	.	7/1/1988	John J. O'Connor

From the Reviews:

"(A) screwily sophisticated psychological pastiche about the human condition (.....) Veering between the surreal and the sardonic and crammed with literal and figurative sick humor, The Singing Detective -- targeted for "an adult audience" -- won`t appeal to everyone, of course, accustomed as viewers are to conventional, linear presentations; and it does take a couple of hours to get into it. Those who stay the course, though, watching Philip Marlow recover physically and, in a sense, spiritually, will be well rewarded by a work that stretches the limits, challenges the mind and taps the imagination." - Clifford Terry, Chicago Tribune

"Here is a television mini-series that is definitely not for the kiddies or perpetual adolescents of any stripe. Mr. Potter is very serious, even about his humor, which tends to have a Swiftian kick. (...) The language occasionally is, to put it mildly, quite vivid, and some of the sex scenes are as explicit as family television is likely to get, even in these permissive days." - John J. O'Connor, The New York Times

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Television scripts often do not read particularly well -- the writing tends not to be very good in the first place, and much of what makes a good TV piece (the acting, the camerawork, the music) is missing. Dennis Potter's six-part piece, The Singing Detective, which famously uses the lip-synching of old classics (a favoured Potter-technique), seems a particularly unlikely candidate to work well on the page. In fact, however, it works particularly well. Make no mistake, Potter was first and foremost a writer for the small screen and The Singing Detective is best enjoyed in that form (rent the video) -- but Potter was the rare TV writer who actually could write.
       Potter's sense of words and his literary instincts are just one facet of his TV success, but they are a major one. Many of his TV plays are, indeed, so well-written that they are fine reads all on their own, and The Singing Detective stands alongside Karaoke (see our review) as one of the most convincing examples.
       From the opening scene Potter keeps the piece grounded in the literary. It is the dialogue that is the greatest strength of the piece, but Potter also is careful in the descriptions of the scenes, giving a reader (and a director) as much information as possible without focussing on technical precision. Thus the first scene opens:

A misty, moody, highly atmospheric 'thrillerish', winter's evening in London, 1943. Cold and forlorn, near a lamp-post which dimly shows wisps of mist, a pathetic old busker is playing an achingly melancholy 'Peg o' My Heart' on a mouth-organ.

Later descriptions are similarly evocative rather than usefully descriptive:

(I)t is the dead of night, with fleeting silver from glimpses of moon through low, moody, scudding clouds. And the strange, multi-harmonica beat of 'Peg o' My Heart' swelling --

       The Singing Detective centers around the unfortunately named Philip Marlow, a contemporary writer of cheap (and, for the most part, out of print) detective novels -- including one titled The Singing Detective. Marlow suffers from the same debilitating disease as Potter himself did, psoriatic arthropathy. He has been in hospital for some three months and he is still a mess: "an example of extreme psoriasis at its worst (...) cracked, scabbed, scaled, swollen, scarlet and snowy white, and boiling with pain." Not a pretty picture.
       Marlow's fevers take him to different worlds, as there are flashbacks throughout the play to his childhood, as well as to scenes from what appears to be his detective novel (set during World War II), in which he appears as the "singing detective". His disease is a horrible one: he is in great pain for much of the time, and unable to do practically anything for himself, from getting a cigarette to writing. He is greased and oiled regularly, a painful and embarrassing procedure, and he escapes the pain by trying to imagine his book. He finds himself a character in it, with healthy skin (but not much less troubled for that).
       Various stories overlap and intersect. There are the scenes from the hospital, where Marlow lies in a large ward and those in the bed next to his keep dying. Another patient is reading his book, while one of the doctors takes an almost sadistic interest in Marlow. Hollywood is also apparently interested in making a film out of The Singing Detective, and Marlow's estranged wife is trying to take advantage of him regarding this project.
       Marlow also relives his childhood traumas, from a betrayal that still weighs heavily on him ("I've never doubted since what people are really made of. We all have blood on our teeth.") to his difficult and ultimately tragic relationship with his mother.
       The third strand of the story is also set in the past, a typical Chandleresque P.I. yarn with Marlow as the singing detective. That Marlow describes himself:

I get the cases the polite guys pass over. I get the jobs the guys who don't sing don't get. I'm the piano tuner who's heavy on the pedal.

       The stories overlap, and Potter presents them in a way that they work well on the page -- though the shifting of scenes is an aspect of the play that is obviously more effective on the screen. Similarly, the characters breaking out into song loses something on the page (except for those able to hear the music in their minds as they read). Nevertheless, the play is an exciting and entertaining read.
       Potter's dialogue is excellent throughout, his ear adapting to the various situations he puts his characters in. Always sharp, there are passages that are veritable fireworks displays -- so, for example, a word-association game Marlow plays with Dr. Gibbon, with a brilliant rapid-fire back and forth between the two.
       The Singing Detective is also a profound play, a deep and touching meditation on life and art. Writers are suspect -- "cannibals", Marlow calls them at one point -- but there is also redemption to be found in art, and Potter finds it in his intensely personal play. The Singing Detective is a modern masterpiece, not only as a TV-play but as a literary work. Highly recommended, on video or in book form.

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Links:

The Singing Detective:

IMDb page
Museum of Broadcast Communication page
The Singing Detective site at The British Film Resource

Reviews:

The Singing Detective - the film (2003):

IMDb page

Dennis Potter:

Clenched Fists - the official Dennis Potter web site
Brief biography and bibliography

Other books by Dennis Potter under review:

Blue Remembered Hills
Cold Lazarus
Cream in my Coffee
Hide and Seek
Joe's Ark
Karaoke
See also: Potter on Potter (ed. Graham Fuller)

Books about Dennis Potter under review:

Humphrey Carpenter's biography, Dennis Potter
The Passion of Dennis Potter -- a collection of international essays

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of TV and Film-related books

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About the Author:

English author Dennis Potter (1935-1994) is best known for his television scripts Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective.

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