Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
      • Playlists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • TV by Genre
        • Comedy
        • Drama
        • Kids TV
        • Variety
        • News & Sport
        • Advertisements
      • TV by Country
        • TV – UK
        • TV – USA
        • TV – Canada
        • TV – Australia & NZ
        • TV – Europe
        • TV – Japan
      • TV – A to K
        • TV – A
        • TV – B
        • TV – C
        • TV – D
        • TV – E
        • TV – F
        • TV – G
        • TV – H
        • TV – I
        • TV – J
        • TV – K
      • TV – L to Z
        • TV – L
        • TV – M
        • TV – N
        • TV – O
        • TV – P
        • TV – Q
        • TV – R
        • TV – S
        • TV – T
        • TV – U
        • TV – V
        • TV – W
        • TV – X
        • TV – Y
        • TV – Z
      • TV – 0 to 9
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Radio
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»TV by Genre»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1980s 4 Mins Read

    Singing Detective, The

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    1 9 8 6 (UK)
    6 x 60 minute episodes

    One of the few saving graces of the 2003 movie version of The Singing Detective (aside from Robert Downey Jr’s credible performance in the title role) was that it retained much of Dennis Potter’s dialogue, giving it some much-needed substance.

    For all the film’s good intentions, however, it still didn’t hold a candle to Potter’s compelling original version which first graced British television screens on 16 November 1986.

    The six-part BBC serial revolved around the personal entanglements (real, remembered, and imagined) of crime writer Philip Marlow, who is hospitalised, suffering from psoriatic arthropathy – the same condition that affected Potter – and from the side-effects associated with its treatment.

    The result was a complex, multi-layered series which overlaid the varied interests and themes of the detective thriller, the hospital drama, the musical and the autobiography.

    Michael Gambon – who won a BAFTA for his troubles – was simply superb as Marlow, who chooses to escape the agony of his illness and the mind-numbing bleakness of his hospital ward by imagining himself as the Singing Detective, the crooning, crime-fighting hero of one of his novels.

    Interspersed with his fantasies are less than pleasant memories of his wartime childhood, to say nothing of some bizarre but toe-tapping 1940s musical numbers.

    The Singing Detective was not only the serial that the TV viewer was watching but the book that Marlow was rewriting in his head.

    singing detective_022This added to the intricacy (and confusion) as the same characters would appear in different narratives, played by the same actor, and at times characters from one narrative would appear in another, or a character would lip-synch the lines of another character from a different narrative, and characters would even comment on their role, and speak directly to the camera.

    Questions of time past and present were also rendered complex. In narrative 1, in the present, Marlow was reconstructing two pasts: the book he wrote a long time ago, which was itself set in the past, and a part of his childhood, also set in 1945.

    The main enigmas in his text are set in that year. In the second narrative, who killed the busker, Sonia, Amanda, Lilli and Mark Binney? And why? In narrative 3, who shat on the table? Why did Mrs Marlow commit suicide? Although narratives 1 and 2 usually (but not always) followed story chronology, in narrative 3, it was not really clear what the actual chronology of the young Philip’s life actually was.

    There were obvious parallels between the story and Potter’s own personal history. Like Marlow, Potter was born and brought up in the Forest of Dean at about the same time as Philip was a wartime evacuee and, like Philip, he stayed in Hammersmith with relations who had difficulty with his strong Gloucestershire accent.

    singingdetective_567Two key incidents in The Singing Detective were based on real-life incidents in Potter’s childhood – His mother, a pub pianist, being kissed by a man; and Potter’s writing a four-letter word on the blackboard when his precocious facility as a young writer made him unpopular with other schoolchildren.

    Director Jon Amiel did a terrific job of creating three very different worlds while the acting was consistently brilliant across the cast (right down to Lyndon Davies as the young Marlow and Imelda Staunton as one of the scariest nurses ever put on camera).

    The serial was explicitly concerned with psychoanalysis – the text rich in Freudian imagery and symbolism, and Marlow’s neurosis and paranoia are explicitly linked to his repression of painful childhood memories, notably his mother’s adultery, her eventual suicide and the mental breakdown of a fellow pupil after a beating by a teacher.

    The ”explicit” content of the show seems pretty tame with the benefit of 20+ years hindsight – it’s hard to believe that the brief sex scenes or the sight of Joanne Whalley’s Nurse Mills greasing up Gambon had Angry of Tunbridge Wells fuming so much in 1986.

    Philip Marlow 
    Michael Gambon
    Nicola 

    Janet Suzman
    Raymond Binney 

    Patrick Malahide
    Mark Binney 

    Patrick Malahide
    Finney 

    Patrick Malahide
    Nurse Mills 

    Imelda Staunton 
    Carlotta 

    Joanne Whalley
    Dr. Gibbon 

    Bill Paterson
    Philip Marlow aged 10 

    Lyndon Davies
    Mrs. Marlow 

    Alison Steadman
    Lili 

    Alison Steadman
    Mr. Marlow 

    Jim Carter
    Schoolteacher 

    Janet Henfrey
    Scarecrow 

    Janet Henfrey
    Mark Binney aged 10 

    William Speakman

    Related Posts

    • International Detective
      International Detective
      1 9 6 0 (UK) 39 x 30 minute episodes An ITV series of action/drama detective stories based on the actual…
    • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
      Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
      1 9 5 6 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes The suave and eminently respectable Dr Henry Jekyll (Dennis Price) transforms…
    • Target
      Target
      1 9 7 7 - 1 9 7 8 (UK) 22 x 50 minute episodes The door-kicking, pistol-in-the-face exploits of Detective…
    • Yellowthread Street
      Yellowthread Street
      1 9 9 0 (UK) 13 x 60 minute episodes This lavish Yorkshire Television (ITV) production was based on a book…
    • Sexton Blake
      Sexton Blake
      1 9 6 7 - 1 9 7 1 (UK) 30 x 30 minute episodes 1 9 7 8 (UK) 6…
    • Lipstick On Your Collar
      Lipstick On Your Collar
      1 9 9 3 (UK) 6 x 70/80 minute episodes Lipstick on Your Collar is a 1993 British television serial written by…
    • Crime Sheet
      Crime Sheet
      1 9 5 9 (UK) 17 x 30 minute episodes In this series, the sharp-witted snuff-taking Supt. Lockhart of Murder Bag had…
    • Amy Prentiss
      Amy Prentiss
      1 9 7 4 - 1 9 7 5 (USA) 3 x 120 minute episodes This crime drama screened as part…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleMaking Out
    Next Article World of Tim Frazer, The

    Comments are closed.

    A Labour of Love

    Nostalgia Central has been a labour of love for me since 1998.

    If you find the site informative or enjoyable, please consider a donation – no matter how small – to help me with the running costs of the site and ensure I can keep Nostalgia Central running for your entertainment and education.

    Thank you so much, and please enjoy your trip in the time machine!
    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    You May Also Like
    • Delvene Delaney
      Born in Mackay, Queensland, on 26 August 1951, Delvene Delaney […]
    • Skiboy
      1 9 7 3 – 1 9 7 4 (UK) Sixteen-year-old Stephen Hudis […]
    • Tony Benn
      Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn was a British Labour politician. In […]
    • Atlantic City (1980)
      Atlantic City is a sweet and flaky movie about an assortment of […]
    • Cowboys, The (1972)
      John Wayne plays Will Andersen, a 60-year-old cowboy who laments […]
    • Best of Everything, The
      1 9 7 0 (USA) 114 x 30 minute episodes April Morrison […]
    Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

    OUR LATEST FACEBOOK POSTS

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-65006801 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Terry Hall: Coventry scooter ride-out pays tribute to singer

    www.bbc.co.uk

    Hundreds of people ride through Coventry on what would have been the singer's 64th birthday.
    7 days ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 12
    • Shares: 2
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    metro.co.uk/2023/03/13/the-whos-roger-daltrey-thinks-theres-no-point-releasing-an-album-18434779/ ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    The Who's Roger Daltrey thinks there's 'no point' releasing another album

    metro.co.uk

    Bad luck.
    7 days ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-64963359 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Sir Michael Caine's first Rolls Royce sells at Duxford for £120K

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The Italian Job actor hired a chauffeur to drive the 1968 Silver Shadow, with its doors still intact.
    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 3
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64900348 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Mystic Meg: Astrologer dies aged 80

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The TV star, whose real name was Margaret Lake, was a well-known TV figure in the 1990s.
    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    Do you think she know it eas going to happen

    PlayTalk Teletext (1976) | BFI Replay

    Talk Teletext (1976) | BFI Replay ... See MoreSee Less

    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 8
    • Shares: 2
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    Gary Rossington: Lynyrd Skynyrd's last founding member dies aged 71.
    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Gary Rossington: Lynyrd Skynyrd's last founding member dies aged 71

    www.bbc.co.uk

    Guitarist Gary Rossington had survived a 1977 air crash that killed several of his bandmates.
    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 2
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    What a talented man. Lucky enough to see original band in concert. BRILLIANT.

    Rest in peace Dickie Davies. An absolute giant of British sports broadcasting.

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Dickie Davies, World of Sport presenter, dies at 94

    www.theguardian.com

    The broadcaster became something of a cult figure after fronting the ITV show for 20 years
    1 month ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 4
    • Shares: 1
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    Yes, one of the great presenters. R.I.P.

    For fans of the radio series Round The Horne (1965 - 1968) - starring the inimitable Kenneth Williams - there are several full episodes on Spotify. Some of the humour is still pretty close to the edge, even by modern standards. Bona! 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7DIM1wfGKwDis0uzsjHeP7?si=pG0_U0TjRKGzVDvrePs4vA

    For fans of the radio series "Round The Horne" (1965 - 1968) - starring the inimitable Kenneth Williams - there are several full episodes on Spotify. Some of the humour is still pretty "close to the edge", even by modern standards. Bona!

    open.spotify.com/show/7DIM1wfGKwDis0uzsjHeP7?si=pG0_U0TjRKGzVDvrePs4vA
    ... See MoreSee Less

    1 month ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 12
    • Shares: 1
    • Comments: 2

    Comment on Facebook

    For those interested, the complete “Jules and Sandy” is available on Audible…

    Bona to vada your jolly old eek. Lovely riah....

    RIP the beautiful Stella Stevens, who has died at the age of 84.

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Stella Stevens: Nutty Professor and Poseidon Adventure star dies at 84

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The co-star of Elvis Presley also worked in TV on series such as Murder She Wrote and Magnum, P.I.
    1 month ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    A very young Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and friends. 

If they only knew what lay ahead . . .

    A very young Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and friends.

    If they only knew what lay ahead . . .
    ... See MoreSee Less

    1 month ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 18
    • Shares: 1
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    I always hated the Beatles, and as it happens I still do.

    Load more
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Tag Cloud
    1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games British Invasion Britpop Bubblegum music Canada Civil rights Cold War Computer games Crime Disc Jockeys Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Folk rock Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen James Bond JFK Kraütrock Labels Madchester Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave New Zealand Nixon Northern Soul NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Politics Power Pop Prog rock Pub rock Punk Radio Reggae Rolling Stones Scotland Ska Ska revival Skiffle Soul music Space Race Sport Surf music Video games Vietnam war
    Copyright © 1998, 2023 Nostalgia Central. Run by volunteers. Funded by donations.
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.