The Singing Detective

Genre: Drama

Premiere: 1986

Network: BBC One

IMDB Rating: 8.8/10

Sessons: 1

Full Episodes: 6

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Full Show Summary

Reworking material from his first novel, "Hide and Seek" (1973), and folding this into a prismatic blend of autobiographical details, popular music and 1940s film noir, Dennis Potter delivered a drama now regarded as a 20th-century masterwork. Detective novelist Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon) suffers from the crippling disease of psoriatic arthropathy. Confined to a hospital bed, Marlow mentally rewrites his early Chandleresque thriller, "The Singing Detective," with himself 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. As past events and 1940s songs surface in his subconscious, Marlow's voyage of self-discovery provides a key to conquering his illness, while his noir-styled hallucinations evoke the Philip Marlowe of Chandler's "Murder, My Sweet" (1944), starring Dick Powell, who later became a "singing detective" on radio's "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" (1949), crooning to girlfriend Helen Asher at the end of each episode.

Last Episode, 21 December 1986: Season 1, Episode 6: Who Done It

Episode Guide
Cast

Date Aired	The Singing Detective Episodes
Season 1
16 November 1986	Season 1, Episode 1: Skin
23 November 1986	Season 1, Episode 2: Heat
30 November 1986	Season 1, Episode 3: Lovely Days
07 December 1986	Season 1, Episode 4: Clues
14 December 1986	Season 1, Episode 5: Pitter Patter
21 December 1986	Season 1, Episode 6: Who Done It