Stand Up, Dennis Potter

Chris Hallam remembers the celebrated TV dramatist

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“Any odd thoughts in the brainbox, old chap?” The question was asked of patient Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon) as he lay, almost naked, on a hospital bed before a gaggle of doctors and nurses as they attempted to assess his condition. Marlow, a middle-aged author of trashy detective novels, was, in fact, close to despair, his skin ravaged by psoriasis, a painful and disfiguring skin condition. Yet, only moments later, the scene was transformed before his eyes as all the assembled medical staff broke into a full-blooded, all-singing (or, at least, all-miming), all-dancing rendition of the well-known spiritual song Dem Bones. The resulting musical sequence, which included a large group of dancing girls led by the attractive Nurse Mills (Joanne Whalley) was the musical high point of the first episode of the television drama The Singing Detective, which aired on BBC One on Sunday 16 November 1986.

The new drama was the creation of the celebrated TV dramatist Dennis Potter. In a career spanning 30 years, Potter created many such weird and wonderful moments on screen. It was in Pennies from Heaven (1978), the series which first catapulted a young Bob Hoskins to fame, that Potter first deployed his technique of having his characters spontaneously break into song (usually miming to a popular hit from the past) during the course of their daily lives. Many musicals do the same thing, of course, but there is something unexpected and unique about the way Potter introduced these elements into seemingly otherwise realistic dramas.

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