Rating: 
Summary: Probably the best thing ever shown on television
Review: First, Amazon should change the credit to "The Singing Detective" by Dennis Potter. It is his story, vision and script. Michael Gambon was the lead actor. I, too, wish I had taped it. And wish I had the money to buy it. At seven hours, it is the finest thing I've ever seen -- funny, profound, provocative... Also look for "Karaoke" and "Cold Lazarus" which were Potter's final works. Brilliant stuff. END
Rating:
Summary: Television at its best
Review: I have always regretted not taping this wonderful series when it was broadcast over a decade ago. The superbly acted, brilliantly directed series does justice to the and riviting development of the story. The plot is simply too complex and finely drawn to have been filmed as a movie. This boxed set enables the viewer to enjoy the series. What a shame the book is out of print! END
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant
Review: Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective is, quite simply, the greatest
work in film or television ever. Every scene is fascinating in its
own right, and as you see more of the series earlier moments take on
new significances as it is learned how they relate to the series as a
whole. The Singing Detective deals with a hospital-bound mystery
writer who is suffering from a crippling skin disease. In addition to
the often horribly funny scenes involving his current plight, we see
flashbacks of his childhood, fantasies about his estranged wife, and
episodes from one of his novels. The stories all gradually start to
connect with each other.... Potter constantly alters chronology, and
yet does so in such a masterful way that everything always makes
sense. And oh yes, there are musical numbers. Many aspects of this
series have been appropriated by later films such as Pulp Fiction
(with its time-shuffling) and Dancer in the Dark (with its imagined
musical productions), but compared to The Singing Detective these
works are crap. ...Do yourself a favor and buy it already.
Rating:
Summary: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
Review: I've owned this boxed set for three years or so, and have watched it several times. My wife was calling for it recently, "Let's watch the skin man again!" Ok, so she has weird taste. But after having watched it for at least the fourth time, it's better than ever. Character development, black humor, interior life of the characters, a spoof on pulp fiction, the very act of creativity, as other reviewers have noted, one can go on and on and on. Buy it and watch. You'll see.
Rating:
Summary: The Singing Detective
Review: I had not seen this BBC series in years, so bought this set. I was not dissapointed. This ranks as one of the best movies made in my opinion. Michael Gambon is fabulous, and the quirky story line which jumps between his past, his detective novel, hallucinations and the present is riveting. Perhaps because my sister suffers from psoriasis I enjoy that this character cures himself by rewriting his novel over and over in his mind, and while doing so uncovers the truth about the tragic and life altering events in his own life. Two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, provocative and extremely realistic
Review: It would be hard to add much substance to the many glowing reviews of this series so I will address my comments to those who might be more strongly influenced by the negative reviews.
This is a story about a man who is tortured by his past and who cannot help but associate the appearance of his skin with the sins he feels he has committed. The not so subtle association between the uncleanliness of the skin and of the soul is, of course of "Biblical" proportions (lepers were considered sinners), but Potter's take on this is far from trite.
What many have found offensive about the presentation is, ironically, something that I encounter with regularity in medical practice. The psychotic imagery brought on by medication is not uncommon, nor is the humiliation of a patient who finds his or her self at the mercy of the system, unable to control their most personal of bodily functions. Is it offensive? Too people too polite to discuss such things. But we are viewing the experience not through the eyes of the system, but through the eyes of the patient who wanders in and out of reality and is often unable to distinguish between them.
The ward system of care (many patients in the same room) has all but disappeared in the US with the Veteran's Administration hospitals being one example of the holdover. In such settings, nothing that happens to you is completely private; not your appearance nor your feelings nor your communications with others. Worse, Marlowe's disease is on the outside, for all to see. The disgust his ward mates (and the audience) feels is a reflection of the prejudices we have against people with physical deformities.
Such prejudices are natural, of course. The revulsion that we sometimes feel at the sickness of another is part of a primitive reflex that prompts us to avoid whatever it is that the sick person has encountered. Part of the process of caring for others involves learning to suspend that revulsion. But what of a man who is offended by himself? How does he care for himself?
Marlowe is a modern Job, brought up with an intense faith in and love of God who finds his faith challenged by the events in his life. Were this drama not infused with the thoughts and feelings of Potter's own experiences, it might have been considered sensational and certainly some have regarded it as unnecessarily grotesque and explicit.
But if we allow ourselves to suspend our prejudices and view this work as a uniquely frank and revealing look at a real-person's experiences as told through his fictional character, then what we see is not only a story of profound complexity, but also a peek at the health care system as it is sometimes seen by patients.
As a physician, I frequently take exception to the portrayal of health care on TV, especially the soap opera like characterizations of ER and Chicago Hope. I first saw the Singing Detective as I was entering medical practice and was struck by how closely it resonated with my experiences.
If one is to be shocked or disgusted by this film, be shocked and disgusted by the way that disease and often treatment leaves patients stripped of their privacy and dignity. If one is to be disgusted by this film, be disgusted by the perverse way in which the teacher uses the childrens' fear of God as a way to exact a confession.
What is offensive is not what is portrayed, but rather, what it tells us about how we, as a people, sometimes act.
At one point in the story, Marlowe tells Dr. Gibbon: "I sat at my desk, perjurer, charlatan, and watched and listened and watched and listened as one after another they nailed that backward lad hands and feet to my story. I have not seriously doubted since that afternoon that any lie will receive almost instant corroboration and almost instant collaboration if the maintenance of it results in the public enjoyment of someone else's pain, someone else's humiliation."
In German, there is a word for this, so recognized it is as a common phenomenon.
At one point Marlowe asks a nurse about a patient who has died (and, whose death, Marlowe believes, was caused in part by Marlowe's own feelings about the patient). The nurse replies "We don't talk about these things, do we?" to which Marlowe retorts, "Why not? It is the operating assumption, here, that none of us are mortal."
In essence Marlowe is questioning the rule that there are "some things that polite people don't talk about" insofar as disease and death are concerned. But to the patient these, and other things, assume critical importance. Rarely has a work of fiction so accurately captured those issues from the perspective of the diseased rather than the healer. As he loses hope of recovery he begins to confront the daemons of his life in all their ugliness.
It is rare, indeed, to be able to watch that process through the eyes of the patient.
Rating:
Summary: Plenty of clues, no solutions
Review: THE SINGING DETECTIVE is a tough guy detective story remembered by its hospitalized author who is also remembering, and trying to come to terms with, a traumatic childhood. The author, Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon), is also given to hallucinations.
Actually, there are four stories in this 1986 BBC mini-series. The foundation story involves the hospitalized pulp detective author, who is suffering from a crippling attack of arthritis and third-degree psoriasis. Marlow passes the time remembering point by point the plot of his novel, The Singing Detective. At times childhood memories intrude, harsh memories, which are told in flashbacks. The final story deals with the hallucinations he experiences where he sees ward mates lip-syncing to forties' era songs.
THE SINGING DETECTIVE is a juicy masterpiece that brilliantly weaves the four stories together into a coherent whole. Gambon is perfect as the bitter, totally dependent patient and as his wise-cracking, totally independent singing detective. To quote the mid-Atlantic shamus: "Am I right, or am I right?"
This is a pricey proposition, and I found the third bonus disk a little short (56 minutes) and disappointing. It includes a documentary on Dennis Potter and a televised interview with him. There's also a twelve-minute series of clips from, I assume, a BBC program titled "Point of View" that presents a number of pro and con letters written during the initial airing of the series.
Rating:
Summary: An Oasis in The Vast Wasteland
Review: If you've never seen this mini-series before, you may be very pleasantly surprized by the high quality of something that actually aired on TV (albeit PBS). This is really an amazing combination of comedy, drama, music and film noir where mutiple threads of a story come together to form a fantastic tapestry. I always find it a waste of time to try to retell the story in a review (you can find that elsewhere), so I won't - it'd be too difficult anyway.
A word of caution though for those of tender sensibilities or with younger children: although this work was on (non-cable) TV, it definitely isn't G-rated. Lots of profanity and shots of nude corpses, blood and (non-graphic) sex. There are multiple references to death, prostitution, adultery, suicide, murder, etc. So, even though this is a sort of musical, Mary Poppins it ain't. Frankly, there aren't many kids who will understand this anyway (sadly that's probably also true for more than a few adults).
But, all-in-all, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Potter and Lynch?
Review: I often see Dennis Potter's work compared to David Lynch's, so I'll weigh in: Dennis Potter was the artist that David Lynch wants to be when he grows up. Potter knew how to bring bizarre and even grotesque elements into the service of his story in a way that Lynch tried to do in "Twin Peaks," with uneven results. In Potter's work, every jarring image and odd tangent has a job to do. When you see, for example, an entire hospital ward break into a minstrel version of "Dem Bones," you can assume it reflects the protagonist's view of the British health care system. (Plus, it's hilarious.) If Lynch meant for us to learn something from the backwards-talking midget in "Twin Peaks," well, it went over my head. Potter's screenplay for "The Singing Detective" is funny, unsettling, heartbreaking, sweet and maddening, often all at once. "The Singing Detective" may not play well in Fort Wayne: it's true, this isn't "Touched By An Angel." (Neither is it "Irreversible," by the way: you have to be pretty thin-skinned (so to speak) to find this material genuinely offensive.) But if you believe that art can be both shocking and thrilling, can provoke as it evokes, can and should take outrageous risks in order to take us someplace completely new, then you've got to find a way to see this series. If you love words, if you appreciate originality, if you want to see acting that ranges from excellent to relevatory, then rent or borrow "The Singing Detective." Once you've seen it, you'll want to own it.
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