The Singing Detective (2003)

The Best Thing You'll ever watch
Some have suggested that "The Singing Detective" is the greatest production ever done for television; I could not even suggest a close number two!
I originally was inspired to look at The Singing Detective because I enjoyed the "Maigret" series so much. I thought that TSD was in somewhat the same jaundra. Well, I was plesently surprised. It's not a `Mystery' but a psychodrama of the highest caliber.
A gripping plot, much of it autobiographical to Dennis Potter this IS the best thing that has ever been on television!

Wouldn't it be nice if television aspired to all the crafts that brought us "The Singing Detective". Find out what you've been missing.

Films That Changed My Life!
This production is simply perfect! It's one of the best releases to have grace the screen - big or small. From the acting to the writing to the music, it's unbelievably well done. It all starts, of course, with a good script, and this one is especially eloquent. That it's based on a true story is even more incredible. Easy to comprehend, yet witty and funny, with plenty of morals to learns, and history to obtain. Who couldn't relate to a little anxiety, suspicion? Who hasn't been slightly distraught with paranoia, and loneliness. I remember first seeing it on PBS-TV, in the late 80s, and being amazed. You expect good quality television from Public Broadcasting System, but they really delivered this time. Astonished at the quality and talent behind such an undertaking, I bought the videotapes and watched them again and again, and hunted down the various music used. And of course worship Michael Gambon ever since! What a role to bring to life... The sets, the lighting, the editing, is well thought through, very deliberate, and obviously very necessary. And, then, there's the music. Mainly a collection of crooners and jazzers, and oh so wide, eclectic, and tasteful. You are a traveler, moving through the mind of a brilliant and pained man, one you join with, and cheer for, to overcome his handicap, his fears, and bring to fruition a good, healthy, happy, and creative life!

One of a kind
The Singing Detective is a virtually unique entitiy: Rashoman-like dramatic stories, interwoven through and around one another, with humor, intrigue, fantasy, tragedy, sex, psychology, and music!! To try to describe it with any degree of accuracy would be to become so bogged down in detail as to make the telling of it well nigh incomprehensible; meaning, I suppose, that it can't be described, it has to be experienced. And you'll either love it or hate it. I love it!