Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculously good
Review: 'The Singing Detective' has been called the best production ever made for television, and, incredibly, it could be true. Words cannot describe the intricate plot and its seamless mix of truth and fantasy, so I will not even try. There is murder, death, singing, dancing, disease, humor, and, best of all, Michael Gambon in a performance so staggeringly outstanding it will leave you amazed and bewildered. This is television as art and it cannot be recommended enough. An astonishing, refreshing, haunting masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Reliving the past
Review: I first saw "The Singing Detective" in 1986 in its original BBC airing when I was on my "junior year abroad" boondoggle (still the best year of my life, BTW). For the past 17 years, I've been convinced that it was the best television program I ever saw, even if memory is fleeting: Dennis Potter's complex, witty script, Joanne Whalley's heart-melting eyes, and the amazing performance of Michael Gambon have stuck with me.Seeing it again on DVD, I now realize that "TSD" is the ultimate horror movie, but is, somewhat unfortunately, not as otherworldly as I remembered. The performances are terrific, the dialogue is snappy, and Ms. Whalley's eyes are even better than I knew then, but the series is a melodrama that doesn't entirely satisfy. Potter was very, very good, and I highly recommend purchasing the DVD's, but I must warn you that it is almost too difficult to sit through, not due to the main character's medical problem(s), but because it is so emotionally raw.
Rating:
Summary: Best Gunfight in a Hospital Ward Ever!!!
Review: This series operates on so many levels at the same time it's hard to keep up with it...but well worth the effort. The tragic predicament of a man whose soul is as mascerated as his skin, who wants and needs to be healed and fears what the healing will reveal slowly unravels through flashbacks, the pages of a dog-eared detective novel, a screenplay and feverish hallucinations. Dennis Potter's TV series delves deep into the human character and human predicament. You may discover yourself as Philip Marlowe finally finds out who dunnit. The sex, nudity and violence are integral to the plot and do not detract from it. The best television I've ever seen, and I remember Ernie Kovacs!
Rating:
Summary: Dennis Potter's Masterpiece
Review: With all the new franchises, stuff like this just doesn't get made any more. We still get the odd period Jane Austen or Dickens' adaptation; but as something written and produced specifically for television, this has to be the best thing I have ever seen. Dennis Potter once referred to television as the 'palace of varieties in the corner of the room', and this stands as his testament to what could be achieved with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish I'd Known Before Buying...
Review: I bought this DVD knowing it had been shown on PBS and figuring that would probably mean any offensive content was at a minimum. Silly me. The insert let me know that the movie contains nudity and sex and that the contract with the film makers prevented it from being edited, so it was only shown on PBS on an ad hoc basis for those individual stations who would show it in it's entirety. For those of us who don't want nudity or sex in our homes it would have saved me the trouble of having to get rid of it now.
Rating:
Summary: Quit this "Sex and the City" balderdash, OK ???
Review: Yeah, please do, because this piece will blow you away if you realize that it's possible to show it on TV. The PBS crowd hated it with passion, the hero's skin condition was not "politically correct, it was "yucchy" (or however you spell that infantile word). The same crowd that admires Frank Gehry architecture cannot figure out the architecture of this piece that waits to be bested in today's manners and attitude riddled TV productions.The Phillistines are out there, loving the "Masterpiece Theater" of UK, but they draw the line here, the old comfortable abominations from the "old" country are far more innocuous for the U.S. bourgeoisie than this Dennis Porter's masterpiece. It is similar to a ice hockey game - can they follow the puck, the speed of the game ??? Give us the baseball anytime, anywhere, but donot bother us with any abstruse junk.
So much said, the money spent here is the best deal around - you get six hours of a show you will have to revisit again and again. It is hard to describe why, the political incorrectness of it, the mixture of reality and phantasy, the unexpected humanity of the proceedings, even though the surface theme is that of a pulp fiction. As you can see, it is not easy to review this within the constraints of this medium, I would request at least 20 pages to do it, and make a fool of myself in the process. The final comment I could make is : If you understand why the Fassbinder's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" was a total flop on the PBS, you will get this DVD with all those (PBS) deleted scenes.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Dennis Potter
Review: This is the best piece of cinematic writing ever. The production, direction and acting are all impeccable, but it is the work of Dennis Potter that gives this piece it's rightful place along side the best of 20th century art and literature. Five stars is not nearly enough
Rating:
Summary: Singing Dectective - DVD Edition
Review: One of the previous reviewers commented unfavourably on the image quality of this DVD set - it almost kept me from buying it. Almost... I did get it though, because I remembered it as one of the greatest things I had ever seen on television. Bearing in mind that this is a production for television, I can not find anything wrong with the image quality. The quality of the transfer has also been praised elsewhere. So don't worry, this is a great set.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Horrid Recommendation
Review: If this were a serious production , it would have closed 100 miles outside Boston.
There is nothing clever , nothing new , and no genius in this one. Spare yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Joy and Sorrow
Review: A work of genius - rich, multilayered, poignant and funny. Michael Gambon plays Philip Marlow, a writer of mystery novels who is lying in a hospital, disfigured by psoriasis and crippled by psoriatic arthritis. Tormented, angry, he launches into caustic tirades against anyone who draws near. As he drifts in and out of delirium, we are allowed unique access to his mind. We watch a detective story he is creating unfold on film, interwoven with memories of his childhood and interjected with fragments of present events. It all flows together seamlessly, combining past and present, fantasy and reality. The journey into Marlow's psyche is far from pretty. Sex and death intermingle in a way that is not always pleasant. Be forewarned.
The Singing Detective is a vast and complicated work; it cannot be done justice in a brief review. I wish to point out but one of it's accomplishments. Bill Paterson portrays a psychiatrist who treats Marlow. Their interaction is genuine in a way that has no parallel in the history of cinema, not to the best of my recollection. No sappiness and not a hint of fakery. The interaction between the two is an honest meeting of two brilliant minds - one calm, one agitated. It's funny, too. Marlow: "Are you pretending to be eccentric or are you genuinely cuckoo?" The doctor : "mm Hmm." The sentimental musical score is a vehicle for that side of Marlow that he does not express directly. We learn through the music that the rough exterior is not all there is to the man. The music is deftly set, with an ironic edge, a sweet accompaniment to bitter scenes. It serves to underscore the pain that lurks beneath boisterous exteriors, and in doing so, gives us a sense of the inner torment of the hero. In the seventeen years since I first saw this, the voice of the young Marlow has reverberated always in my mind, as only sounds which work their way into your unconscious will do. It was a day of joy when the DVD arrived. Eagerly I ripped off the wrapping and placed it in the player. Oh, the dismay. The transfer is awful. Simply awful. The picture blurs whenever there is movement. If you halt the DVD at such a moment you can see lines streaking across the picture - a sign of a very poor transfer. Also, there are wavy lines flowing across the screen - as one would see in a VHS. Dennis Potter, along with the director Jon Amiel and the cast of brilliant actors, created something that is as close to perfection as one can get. This horrendous DVD does his memory a great disservice.
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