Comprehensive information and links about The Singing Detective

The Singing Detective was a 1986 BBC television miniseries, written by Dennis Potter and starring Michael Gambon, with Jim Carter, Lyndon Davies, Patrick Malahide, Bill Paterson, Alison Steadman, Janet Suzman, and Joanne Whalley.

There were six episodes: "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter", and "Who Done It". The series was produced in-house by the BBC with some co-production funding from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was first broadcast on BBC One on Sunday nights from November 16—December 21 1986.

The series was later remade into a 2003 film featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson, set in the United States rather than England (see

The story revolves around mystery writer Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon), and his stay in an unnamed British hospital. The parallel with the fictional detective Philip Marlowe is intentional. Marlow suffers from a chronic form of severe psoriasis, a skin disease that forms lesions all over his and cripples his hands (Potter suffered from this disease himself, and apparently wrote the series with a pen tied to his fist much in the same fashion Marlow does in the last few episodes). As a result of his constant pain, the fever caused by his condition, and his refusal to take medication, he falls into a fantasy world involving his novel , a pulp about a detective who sings at a dance hall as a means of support. He also has flashbacks to his childhood in the Forest of Dean and his mother's suicide in wartime London. The death of his mother is one of recurring themes in the series; Marlow uses it (whether subconsciously or not) in his murder mystery (this mystery is never actually solved; all that is ultimately revealed is a vague plot involving Nazi war criminals and Soviet spies).

The three worlds of the hospital, the noir thriller, and wartime England often merge in Marlow's mind, resulting in character interactions that would otherwise be impossible (e.g. fictional characters interacting with non-fictional characters). This is evident in that many of Marlow's friends and enemies (perceived or otherwise) are represented by characters in the novel: particularly, one of the boys from his childhood, Mark Binney, becomes conflated with Marlow's mother's lover Raymond, and appears as the central antagonist in the "real" and noir worlds (although the "real" Finney is ultimately a fantasy as well). The use of Binney as a villain stems from an event in his early childhood where Marlow framed the young Binney for defecating on a teacher's desk. The innocent Binney is brutally beaten in front of the student and Marlow is lauded for telling the "truth". These events haunt Marlow, as it is revealed that the real Binney eventually ends up in a mental institution. The villainous BinneyFinney character is ultimately killed off in both realities.

Several of the actors play different parts: 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 central characters - the contemporary, and imaginary, Finney (who Marlow thinks is having an affair with his ex-wife, played by Janet Suzman); the imaginary Binney (a central character in the murder plot); and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father from the Forest of Dean who has an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman). Steadman plays both Marlow's mother, and the mysterious "Lili", one of the murder victims.

As well as its darker themes, the series is notable for its use of 1940s-era music, which is often incorporated into surreal musical numbers (most notably "Dry Bones", "Accentuate the Positive", and "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"). This is a device Potter had also used in the earlier series fame (the use of upbeat music as the theme for such a dark story is perhaps a reference to the Carol Reed classic , with a harmonica in the place of a zither).

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals,