The Singing Detective (1986)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Singing Detective (1986) – J. Amiel

This six-episode British TV series from the 1980s written by Dennis Potter is heralded as some of the best TV of all time.  From the very opening scenes, when we meet Philip Marlow (Michael Gambon), but not _that_ Marlow (no E), in his hospital bed with severe psoriasis, the script keeps us off-balance.  Who expected a bedridden hero covered in a horrible scaly rash? He’s a writer of detective stories rather than a detective himself, but as he lies in bed, we see the plot of his novel (The Singing Detective, of course) that he is slowly rewriting (potentially to be made into a film) in his head.  These two narratives are then interwoven with a third, showing Marlow as a young boy and the events that happened to him, events that begin to make sense as having led to his (psychosomatic) physical condition.  At times, the characters in the different narratives seem to influence each other (and indeed some of the same actors feature in each thread). At the hospital, Marlow, always a sarcastic bloke, finally begins seeing a psychiatrist (Freudian no doubt) and this leads to his slow recovery.  Indeed, the various plots begin to resolve themselves as he slowly identifies and solves the issues of his life.  This detective is solving his innermost mysteries – and of course, he also sings (songs from the twenties, thirties, and forties) or rather lipsynchs, as do many of the supporting characters (a Brechtian device to be sure).  The only blot on the overall package is the 80’s TV production values and the less than sharp DVD quality.  But that’s a very minor complaint when we are talking about such a peculiarly fulfilling program as this.