"The Singing Detective" is a quite cerebral and a brilliant show. The story chronicles a writer's decent into personal hell, as well as a decent into a book being written in his own imagination and a book written many years before; with his past, present and future all jostling for our attention throughout the epic, six-hours-plus running-time. His performance of this really central character was truly remarkable, and it was essential to establishing the basis for the adult Marlow's problems. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Confined to a hospital bed, Marlow mentally re-writes his early Chandleresque thriller, "The Singing Detective", with him in the title role, drifting into a surreal 1945 fantasy of spies and criminals, along with vivid memories of a childhood in the Forest of Dean.
And the paralyzed patient gets up and walks. What television can be when it isn't creating programming for the masses and solely concerned with selling as much commercial air time as possible is demonstrated in The Singing Detective. Some of Potters writing...or "his observations on humanity" are startling in there depth. Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay) is an ambitious and charismatic politician, Jim Nelson (Sir Michael Palin) is a much loved headmaster of a local school for disturbed children. There's no question that the greatest films of the past 25 years have been TV miniseries, from "I Claudius" to "The Decalogue" to "Nicholas Nickleby" to "The Singing Detective." Dennis Potter hatte mit seinem Drehbuch für die BBC-Miniserie "The Singing Detective" 1986 einen Riesenerfolg. The last film I saw I had in fact seen previously, and much less than 18 years before, but I had forgotten it entirely and would not have even realised except for a one memorable detail. "The Singing Detective" is a bold, multileveled BBC series that is made all the more powerful considering that it is based on the author Dennis Potter's losing battle with a skin disease combined with his incredibly rich fantasies, painful memories, and writer's imagination, all rolled into one complex narrative. This is like the birth of a new star ...in a galaxy far far away. The Singing Detective soundtrack was released on vinyl in two different forms: 1986: The Singing Detective (BBC Records CD 608) 1988: The Other Side of the Singing Detective (BBC Records and Tapes BBC CD 708) Later releases on CD are: 2002: (Portugal) Music from "The Singing Detective" and More (Golden Star GSS 5349) (3 CD)
Ein ganz großer Wurf.
Amazing soundtrack, a match to the surreal plot! The Singing Detective is without doubt the best TV programme and one of the best films or serials I have ever seen.
Aside from the amazing Gambon, this film is loaded with great performances: from Janet Suzman to Bill Patterson to Alison Steadman (as his unhappy Mother).
Jon Amiel's sensitive, clever direction, Dennis Potter's biting, brilliant script and the towering lead performance by the great Michael Gambon makes this a treat to watch.
Once you understand the "rules" of time and alternate realities, this will just engulf you. This went way beyond. The Singing Detective is one of those great works that inspire something deep within the viewer, leaving them both shaken and elated by the spectacle they have just witnessed.
Etc........in fact everything that constitutes a great reason for looking into a square screen.
It is hard to describe, but it is sharp, funny, superbly intelligent and challenging - among the best six hours ever made for television. As a viewer, you sit glued to the TV, wondering where Dennis Potter is taking you and trying to work out what the various strands are leading up to. The ability to stretch out over 6 to 10 hours is certainly a key to doing justice to a theme or great work of literature. It has sex, humor, drama, action, detectives, whores, spies Etc.
Reality and fantasy overlap and intertwine, irony and selfishness all contribute to a story told in flash backs / forwards and alter egos. The Singing Detective is based on a script written by Dennis Potter the author of the TV series of 1986 with the same name with Michael Gambon as the lead, who managed to shrink 8 hours of TV movie into 2 hours of film and made it perfectly. From his hospital bed, a writer suffering from a skin disease hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.
Can you have bad performnces with Michael Gabon, Janet Suzman, Patrick Malahide, Jim Carter, Joanne Whalley, Allison Steadman, and Bill Paterson?
The BBC television production of "The Singing Detective" caused a huge stir when it was first broadcast back in 1986, and now it is commonly acknowledged as a classic.
Even when I think of the death of Ali, when Philip is crying, I feel my eyes getting wet. It amazingly integrates cultural fragments and memories with unequaled acting performance(Michael Gambon), giving full-dimensional life and impact to a form pioneered by Joyce, but with a soul and involvement of the senses far beyond "Ulysses". 47 out of 51 found this helpful