The Singing Detective [1986] [DVD]

I saw this all those years ago when it was shown on the BBC - I think it was 1986. I remembered it being mind boggingly good and something everyone at work discussed around the ‘water fountain’ on Monday morning. I was talking to my 18 year old son and defending British TV series over American ones, and arguing that TV series ‘in my day’ were the best. He offered up The Wire, Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under to defend his case. I spoke of The Singing Detective but wondered if the years had faded my memory and I would now find it dated. So with a worry that it would not stand up, I bought it and sat down to watch it with said son and hubby.Oh boy, it’s even better than I remembered, if that’s possible. It’s soo good that you can’t binge watch it (another little habit that is beloved of my son’s generation). We have been watching an episode a week as intended and discussing it in between. It’s like sampling the caviar of TV, the flavour is too intense for one sitting. My son loves it and finds the 4 different timelines clever and intriguing. He said it was a superb example of a meta-narrative which he wished tv would do more, but said that it’s something that can so easily go wrong, most writers don’t attempt it. Apparently a meta narrative is, if I understood him correctly, a narrative that shows how the writing process develops to reveal the story that you the viewer are now watching. Anyway, he’s now busy showing it to all his friends and a new generation is discovering what we always knew- the genius that is Dennis Potter. Why the BBC didn’t reshow this for the 25th or 30th anniversary I’ll never know.

This ground-breaking 1986, made for Tv BBC surreal musical drama follows Mystery writer Philip E. Marlow who is suffering writer's block while hospitalised due to his chronic skin and joint disease. As a result of constant pain, fever and his refusal to take medication, Marlow falls in and out of three worlds; the hospital, the fantasy Chandleresque noir thriller, and his childhood in wartime England, the three often influencing events in the others.Full of 1940’s era music, great dance routines, comedy, tragedy, dark themes, constant plot dreaming re-imaginings, seedy clubs, naughty ladies, shady guys, this has it all. Full of dry, dead-pan, cynical tongue-in-cheek humour designed to raise a smile, brilliant one liners abound [“I’m not as cheap as I look!” Marlow] but this is one tale where everything slots together perfectly, acting, photography, dialogue, music, even the profanity adds to the scenes as it all builds to show how the three threads are all entwined as one.The six episodes are spread over three discs, the first 2 holding 3 episodes each and offering play, scene selection, commentary [on/off] and subtitles [English on/off]. The third disc has the extras being point of view, close up of Dennis Potter, photo gallery [about 30 pics], arena:Dennis Potter [a ten minute interview] and filmographies. Rated 15 with plenty of mild language this gained notoriety at the time for depicting a lead character suffering from psoriatic arthropathy, cleverly avoided nudity, racism [often reflecting the politics of the day], sexism and most other ’isms as well as constant references to suicide, and of course a young Joanne Whaley in a nurses uniform greasing up our hero [which is as funny as it is tragic]. The hospital ‘bedside’ scenes still hold true today and of course it could never be made now and for that reason gets a +*. Worth buying just for the ‘Dry Bones’ routine –excellent.

Been meaning to update my copy for some time. Couldn't resist nice price! Video replacement therapy 😀. Potter's best work. Gambon is brilliant!!

It had been over three decades since I saw The Singing Detective. It wasn't a nostalgia trip: this Dennis Potter series delivers timeless excellence!

Potter's masterpiece and it's tempting to wonder how could he improve on this? Marlow's sickness (psoriasis) is entwined in his psychopathological psyche and guilt haunts him in a maze of interconnected scenarios - his schooldays during which his self-blame for his parents' rocky marriage and his mother's infidelity results in early neurosis plus his relationship with his mother whose licentiousness is projected onto his perceptions of his wife. Marlowe finds release in his writing where his alter-ego, the omniscient, super-cool bandleader cum sleuth, untangles every mystery except his own. Our hero's painful journey and struggle for redemption are cleverly paralleled with songs of the 40s lip-synched by the cast to add a savage satire to his agonies. Potter has never been better than when Marlowe claws his way through regression and fantasy (a scarecrow of guilt and a policeman super-ego) to face the final confrontation with his old ghosts. The acting - especially Gambon, Malahide and Suzmann - is magnificent and Trodd's masterful production makes this a joy. I'd give six stars if I could.

When my partner suggested buying this I had a lack of enthusiasm based on no knowledge of it whatsoever. He was right as always. I absolutely loved it.Michael Gambon's acting as Philip Marlow is absolutely superb, he manages to be repellent and yet as you get to know him he grows on you! The flashbacks to childhood are incredible as you see all the dilemma and difficulty the young Philip faces. The sets, scenery and wonderful local accents for these flashbacks have immense character.As well as the straightforward back and forth of the story, the lines between reality, what takes place in his novel, and what might be delirium keeps things blurred and is utterly gripping.And for those who don't like musicals...there is not that much singing!It also has incredible funny moments, some of them funny/sad.For anyone who likes things that are a little odder than mainstream, this is well worth a try!

This has been hard to find in the North American CD format. While DVD image is not stellar, I'm sure that it is as good as the original video tape on which this series was recorded. If you have ever seen this production, or part of it as I have, this is the quality of production that will find it way into your "permanent" CD collection, even if it is very small in this era of many streaming services. Not available on PBS Passport. Not sure about Brit Box

Watching Dennis Potter's tangled web of intrigue called "The Singing Detective" is a journey into a labyrinth where plot is laid upon plot and the unreal becomes the real. As Phillip Marlowe lies in a hospital bed wracked with a terrible skin disease which requires daily injections of drugs to deal with the pain, his mind wanders back to a novel he wrote about a detective who also sang with a dance band. The trail the detective follows causes Marlowe to relive his troubled childhood, confront his failed marriage and deal with the daily happenings in his hospital ward. Interspersed with all of this are the pop tunes of the late 1940's, all lip-synched by the people in the story. I guarantee that you have never watched a drama with so many twists and turns as this one but it is a story that is so skilfully woven, you will get hooked right away. This is not your average TV drama. This masterpiece is in a class all its own.

Endlich hab' ich ihn, den original Singing Detective (nix gegen den ganz netten Film mit Downey Jr., aber...).Welchen Eindruck diese Serie wohl in den frühen 90ern im dritten Programm auf mich gemacht hat, lässt sich daran ermessen, dass mir die Musik immer in der Birne präsent blieb, sogar diese simple, stets gleiche unheilsschwangere Hintergrundmelodie.Bestellt, bekommen, eingelegt, gefesselt: Drei kunstvoll verwobene Handlungsstränge für Freunde gallig-abgründigen (man nennt's halt: englischen) Humors, die was vertragen können, mit gelegentlichen meist musikalisch untermalten oder getanzten Ausflügen in absurde Tag(alp)träume: N'Krimi, ne' Krankengeschichte und eine Weltkriegs-Kindheit ... aber das sind ja gleich drei Dinge auf einmal: Ja, und in bester Qualität! Auch das Bonusmaterial verdient den Namen, trieben einem doch diese Zuschauerzuschriften die Tränen in die Augen. Es tut auch keinen Abbruch, dass nicht mal doitsche Untertitel dabei sind, mein Englisch genügt grad (und wird vielleicht noch ein wenig geschult). Hach, endlich ...

One of the small handful of truly extraordinary, daring dramas ever broadcast on TV. Michael Gambon's performance is one for the ages. So happy this DVD was released (ca. 2010?) in a version playable on a US (not UK) DVD.

Harden Boiled Geschichte mit Gesangseinlagen. Ungewöhnlich!