The Singing Detective

The Singing Detective is a critically acclaimed BBC television serial, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon. Jon Amiel was the Director. The episodes had the titles "skin", "heat", "wonderful days", "clues", "Gerikketik" and "who did it."

The series was broadcast in Great Britain in 1986 on the BBC1 on Sunday evening, from 16 november to 21 december. In the US it was some time later broadcast by thePBS (The Public Broadcasting Service) and the cable TV. In 1989 the series won a Peabody Award. On the British Film Institute list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, the series on the 20th place, in 2000 chosen by professionals in the film industry. The series was also part of the Dennis Potter retrospective at the Museum of Television & Radio and became a permanent addition to the Museum's collections in New York and Los Angeles. It was a co-production, along with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The DVD was released on 15 april 2003, in Netherlands in 2009 released by the VPRO.

A film adaptation of the series was created in 2003, with [http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=nl&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fnl.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRobert_Downey_Jr. Robert Downey Jr.] and Mel Gibson in the title role and a custom environment to the United States.



Content
[hide] *1 Story  ==Story[ Edit] == Read warning: text below contains details about the content and/or the end of the story.The story revolves around the detective writer Philip e. Marlow in the hospital is included. His arthritis psoriatic (a chronic skin and joint disease) has reached its peak and is expressed in skin lesions and sores that cover his entire body and his hands and feet in particular serious damages. Dennis Potter suffered itself to those disease and wrote with a pen strapped to his hand, in the same way that Marlow wrote that in the last episode does. Although serious, was the condition of Marlow intentionally toned, compared to Potter's own illness: Potters skin burst open sometimes and bled then. [1]
 * 2 Production
 * 2.1 Sources
 * 2.2 Intertextuality
 * 3 Influence
 * 4 Music
 * 5 Cd
 * 5.1 Disc 1
 * 5.2 Disc 2
 * 6 further reading
 * 7 References
 * 8 external links

As a result of the incessant pain caused by the State, the fever and his refusal to take medication, Marlow comes in a fantasy world that has to do with its Chandler-like novel, The Singing Detective, an escapist adventure about a detective (who also "Philip Marlow" is called), which takes in a ballroom sings and chores, where "the guys who don't sing" would not qualify to borrow.

The real Marlow also has flashbacks about his childhood in rural England and the suicide of his mother during the war in London. The rural location is presumably the Forest of Dean, Potter's birthplace and is also the location for the film adaptation, but that is nowhere explicitly mentioned. The death of his mother is one of the recurring images in the series; Marlow makes use of (consciously or not) in his murder story and replaces every now and then her face by that of various women in his life, in reality and in his imagination. However, the ominous secret is never really resolved; the only thing that finally is revealed is an intentionally vague plot involving smuggled Nazi war criminals and Soviet agents, who try to stop them. That's probably a reflection of Marlow's idea that fiction "just clues and no solutions" has to offer.

The three worlds, hospital, crime story and England in wartime, walk in Marlow's brain often into one another, making a fourth layer in which characters interact (i.e. fictional and non-fictional characters), something that is otherwise impossible could happen. It is clear that many of Marlow's friends and enemies (perceived or otherwise experienced as such) be represented by characters in the novel: especially one of the guys from his childhood, Mark Binney, merges with Raymond, Marlow's mother's lover and is presented as the main opponent in the "real" and the ominous worlds (although the "real" Binney/Finney eventually turns out to be a fantasy as well). Staging of Binney as a villain stems from an event from his early childhood, where Marlow the young Binney for defecating on the desk that he accuses of teacher's of the lower school has pooped, a terrible revenge for the relationship between his own mother and Binney's father, where Marlow witnessed. The innocent Binney is brutally beaten in front of the whole class and Marlow is praised because he said the "truth". These events haunt Marlow, especially if it is revealed that the real Binney eventually in a mental asylum is included. The villainous Binney/Finney is removed in both realities.

Some members of the cast play any multiple different roles: Marlow and his alter-ego, the singing detective, are both played by Gambon. Marlow as a boy is played by Lyndon Davies. Patrick Malahide plays three important roles – the contemporary Finney, who Marlow thinks he has an affair with his ex-wife, played by Janet Suzman; the imaginary Binney, an important character in a murder plot; and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father, who had an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman). Steadman plays both Marlow's mother as the mysterious "Lili", one of the victims of a murder. ==Production[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In Potter's original script had to the hospital scenes and ominous scenes be included with television (video) and film cameras, while the historical material (Marlow's childhood) filmed in black and white<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-1" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]. All scenes, over Potter's objections were ultimately shot on film. Potter wanted the hospital scenes keep the sensibility of comic TV series<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-2" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]. Although that was watered down in the final script, some character interactions retain to that idea. For example, Mr. Hall and Reginald, which should also serve to poke fun at the usual State of affairs in the hospital<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-3" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] .

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Originally, the title of the series "smoke rings", and the ominous crime novel The Singing Detective had to disappear after the first episode; Potter thought that could not hold the attention of viewers<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-4" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]. The title may have referred to a particular monologue Marlow has in the first episode, referring to the fact that, despite everything else, the one thing he really wants is a cigarette<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-5" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]. Marlow's medical and mental progress is subtly measured by his ability to get to his bedside table to reach out for its cigarettes to Pack<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-6" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] . ===Sources<span class="mw-editsection" len="335" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Potter borrowing portions of his first novel, Hide and Seek (1973) and added autobiographical aspects (or, as he put it, deeply "personal" aspects)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-7" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1], along with 1940s popular music and application of film noir-style figures. The result is considered by some as one of the highlights of the 20th-century drama<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" len="173" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]. Marlow's hallucinations are not far from the Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, the 1944 film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, with Dick Powell as Marlowe. Powell would later portray a "singing detective" in the radio drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective, which he at the end of each episode brings a serenade to his girlfriend, Helen Asher (Virginia Gregg).

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the last episode, reference is made to a novel by Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. That is meant to suggest that Marlow is an unreliable narrator. ===Intertextuality<span class="mw-editsection" len="346" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Hammersmith Bridge is the location used for the setting of Mark Binney's home. There is in the work of Potter used it several times, as a symbol of death and rebirth. Eileen thinks in Pennies from Heaven (1978) to be able to jump from the bridge, before being reunited with Arthur, while in Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972) the character played by Denholm Elliot, threatens to run over his estranged ex-wife before he will throw himself off the bridge. The eponymous fictional to the heroine in Blackeyes (1989) throws himself actually of the bridge and drowns in the Thames, with a list of her lovers into her vagina. In Karaoke (1996), Potter's last work, is Sandra's horribly scarred mother shows up as they assemble a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of that historical monument. ==Influence<span class="mw-editsection" len="335" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Although The Singing Detective no spectacular viewing figures were, it turned out to be of influence within the world of television. The series received high praise by the American critics. Steven Bochco has said that he was the main inspiration for his television series Cop Rock (1990) owes to that series, although in Bochco's series instead of all existing music, specially composed music songs are performed. ==Music<span class="mw-editsection" len="334" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Except for its dark themes, the series is also notable for the use of music from the 1940s, often music fused into a whole with surreal numbers. That is also the artifice that Potter used it in his earlier miniseries Pennies From Heaven. The main theme music is the classic "Peg o' My Heart", known from the film Ziegfeld Follies. The upbeat music as the theme for such a dark story is perhaps a reference to Carol Reed , The Third Manwith a harmonica instead of a zither (according to the commentary on the DVD is in a number of camera shots indeed referred to The Third Man)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-8" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]. Director Jon Amiel, the exciting music, which is used in the entire series, and connected those together with each other. He borrowed that he had tapes that brought together to 60 from library collections<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-DVD_1-9" len="177" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] .

<p lang="en" len="62" style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The following is a chronological list of the songs:

==Cd<span class="mw-editsection" len="330" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In 1993 the double cd ''The Singing Detective. Music from the BBC TV serial written by Dennis Potter''. Both CD's contain 20 numbers. ===Disc 1<span class="mw-editsection" len="334" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Peg o' My Heart " - Max Harris & His Novelty Trio; Limehouse Blues - Ambrose & his Orchestra; Blues in the Night " - Anne Shelton; Dry Bones - Fred Waring & his Pennsylvanians; Rockin' in Rhythm - The Jungle Band(1931); Cruising Down the River - Lou Preager and His Orchestra (1946); Don't Fence Me In - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters (1944); It Might As Well Be Spring - Dick Haymes (1945); Paper Doll - The Mills Brothers (1942); Lale Andersen - Lili Marlene (1939/1942); I Get Along Without You Very Well - Lew Stone And His Band; Do I Worry? - The Ink Spots (1941); Accent-T Shariff-Ate the Positive - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters (1945); You Always Hurt the One You Love - The Mills Brothers (1932); After you've Gone - Al Jolson; It's a lovely day tomorrow - Jack Payne & His Orchestra; Into each life some rain must fall - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots (1944); The Very Thought of You " - Al Bowlly & The Ray Noble Orchestra (1934); The Teddy bear's Picnic - Henry Hall & His Orchestra (1932); We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn (1939). ===Disc 2<span class="mw-editsection" len="334" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The Umbrella Man -Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra; Copenhagen -Ambrose & His Orchestra; I'll just close my eyes -Anne Shelton; Ole Pharaoh Moses Put In His Place -Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians; Stop Crying -King Oliver & His Orchestra; The Three Caballeros -Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters; That's for me -Dick Hayes; I'll be around -The Mills Brothers; Sing, Nightingale, Sing -Lale Anderson; There's Something Wrong with the Weather -Lew Stone and His Band; Java Jive -The Ink Spots; There's a Fellow Waiting in Poughkeepsie -Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters; Till Then -The Mills Brothers; Chinatown, My Chinatown -Al Jolson;Let The People Sing -Jack Payne; I'm Making Believe -The Ink Spots; Little Dutch Mill -Ray Noble & His Orchestra; Hush, Hush, Huhs, Here Comes The Bogey Man -Henry Hall & His Orchestra; Later On -Veran Lynn with Arthur Young; Pray Song at Eventide -Ronnie Ronalde with Robert Farnon and His Orchestra. ==Continue reading<span class="mw-editsection" len="341" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] ==
 * "Peg o' My Heart"-Max Harris & his Novelty Trio (theme song; instrumental)
 * "I've Got You Under My Skin"-the BBC Dance Orchestra conducted by Henry Hall
 * "Blues in the Night"- Anne Shelton
 * "Dry Bones"- Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians
 * "Rockin' in Rhythm"-the Jungle Band (Duke Ellington and his famous Orchestra)
 * "Cruising Down the River"-Lou Preager Orchestra
 * "Don't Fence Me In"- Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
 * "It Might As Well Be Spring"- Dick Haymes
 * "Bird Song at Eventide"- Ronnie Ronalde with Robert Farnon and his Orchestra
 * "Paper Doll"- The Mills Brothers
 * "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" – Al Bowlly with the Ray NobleOrchestra
 * "Lili Marlene"- Lale Andersen
 * "I Get Along Without You Very Well"-Lew Stone Band
 * "Do I Worry?"- The Ink Spots
 * "Ac-Cent-T Shariff-Ate the Positive"- Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
 * "The Umbrella Man" – Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra
 * "You Always Hurt the One You Love"- The Mills Brothers
 * "After you've Gone"- Al Jolson with Matty Malneck's Orchestra and The Four Hits and a singer
 * "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow" – Jack Payne and his Orchestra
 * "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" – Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots
 * "The Very Thought of You"– Al Bowlly & The Ray NobleOrchestra
 * "The Teddy bear's Picnic"-The Henry HallOrchestra
 * "We'll Meet Again"- Vera Lynn
 * Mundy, John (2006). "Singing Detected: Blackpool and the Strange Case of the Missing Television Musical Dramas". Journal of British Cinema and Television (Edinburgh University Press) 3 (1): 59-71.