Original BBC Series: The Singing Detective

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	• The Singing Detective [VHS] Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide 20th Century Fox, 1997 average customer review:based on 93 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Original BBC Series: The Singing Detective

This is magical work. It reeks of originality & excellence. British humor has its own reason for being. Michael Gambon is just flat superb! The original writer Potter is no longer with us - what a pity! It is a combo of suspense, wit, pathos all rolled into one. I did not see the movie with Robert Downey Jr. I could not bear to make a comparison to this gem of a production.

A Seminal Landmark in Television History

Though not for all tastes, this six-part BBC series represents an historic occasion when television rises above its creative abyss to produce a work of seminal artistry. Written by Dennis Potter, "The Singing Detective" (1986) is one of the most fascinating and innovative murder-mysteries ever developed. For 392 minutes, viewers are taken on a multi-layered journey through musical fantasy and harrowing reality. Directed with exceptional verve by Jon Amiel, the series is akin to a compelling book that you cannot put down. In the pivotal role of pulp-fiction writer Philip Marlow, Michael Gambon has a difficult and, at times, grotesque challenge that few performers would undertake. Gambon brilliantly makes the character his own - perhaps the veteran actor's finest 6 1/2 hours in any medium. Rarely has television displayed the vivid imagination that can be found in Potter's masterpiece.

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landmark TV

Dennis Potter is perhaps not a household name in the US, despite notable successes like his two landmark miniseries, namely Pennies From Heaven ($49.98; BBC Video) and The Singing Detective ($39.98; BBC Video). But he towered over the UK TV industry with the combined genius of, say, Steven Bochco, David Lynch and Joss Whedon. In fact, his last work was shown by both the BBC and Channel 4, which is like ABC and FOX airing the same TV movie, which is unimaginable. Despite overwhelming acclaim, far too few of his films have been seen here. So I'm chomping at the bit to watch Dennis Potter: 3 To Remember ($39.98; Koch), which contains three TV films shown on consecutive weekends in 1980. Stars include Donald Pleasance, Peggy Ashcroft and Denholm Elliott. But I doubt any of them will equal the extra included: the riveting final interview with Potter that aired on Channel 4 in 1994 just three months before his death, with the deeply ill Potter literally drinking a morphine cocktail while talking about his life and work and desire to finish one final teleplay before he died. Visit me at michaelgiltz dot com.

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Great acting, but

Seriously, comparisons to Hamlet are a BIG stretch. There's a lot of style going on here and the songs are all very pleasant. Gambon actually sings only one song. I suppose the montage of detective story, childhood memories, musical numbers and the reality of an anguished stay in a hospital would have to be called original. But this isn't the first time reality and fantasy have been mixed and mingled. Its all very well done on an apparently very low budget. Just don't expect any great depth of meaning. Gambon's performance carries the whole show and really is the whole show.

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Praise for "The Singing Detective"

This is an amazing made for television series by the BBC in the 80's. Very complex theme with characters assuming different roles in the mind of the main character writing a detective story in his mind while confined to a hospital bed by a crippling skin disorder. At times very funny, but also poignant while the patient/writer/detective tries to solve a murder mystery as the characters shift in his head from childhood memories during WWII, to fellow patients and staff in the hospital. The background music fits wonderfully with the story. Michael Gambon is wonderful as the author/detective, surrounded by a cast of characters that are so very British. The only downside is that the dialogue is sometimes hard to follow with "American" ears not tuned to British regional dialects. Adult themes, language and some nudity.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The late Dennis Potter was a master at mining the popular songs of the 1930s and '40s for dramatic effect, but he never did it better than in this British miniseries starring the inestimable Michael Gambon. Gambon plays a mystery writer named Philip E. Marlow, who is suffering a torturous bout of psoriatic arthritis in a British hospital, where he is a victim of both his disease and the national health plan. Unable to move without pain, he escapes into his imagination, plotting out a murder tale in which he is both a big-band singer and a private eye. But Potter and director Jon Amiel also mix in flashbacks of Marlow's youth and his unhappy marriage to explain how the real Marlow reached this sorry pass. Flawlessly, intricately, kaleidoscopically assembled, the six one-hour episodes of this British miniseries fly by like some fantastic fever dream. --Marshall Fine

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