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The Singing Detective

PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:52 am
by PATiffany
The Singing Detective was written by Dennis Potter, the UK playwright, who had life-long psoriais(P) and psoriatic arthritis (PA). Although a piece of fiction, and a very good story, the play/film also shows the nightmare life that chronic P and PA can cause, including mental health problems such as low esteem, depression, anxiety attacks, etc.

The play was originally produced for TV in the 1970s by the BBC, with Sir Michael Gambon (himself a PA sufferer) in the starring role. In the late 1990s, a Hollywood movie of the Singing Detective was released after Dennis Potter's death. Both versions are worth seeing.

If you want to see a copy, I suggest you visit www.bbc.co.uk for the 1970's version. Also www.paalliance.org.uk (David Chandler) may have some copies available, as Michael Gambon is a member of this organisation, and made some copies available.

For the Hollywood version, I suggest you do an internet search.

Regards, Tiff.

Singing Detective

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 10:41 pm
by David Dunlop
Hello there,

I have heard of this movie, but I have never seen it anywhere. I have also asked at my local video library and they had not heard of it, typical! I will look at the links that you included and see what they have! Thank you very much for the suggestion.

Re: The Singing Detective

PostPosted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:18 am
by BigDaddy
PATiffany wrote:The Singing Detective was written by Dennis Potter, the UK playwright, who had life-long psoriais(P) and psoriatic arthritis (PA). Although a piece of fiction, and a very good story, the play/film also shows the nightmare life that chronic P and PA can cause, including mental health problems such as low esteem, depression, anxiety attacks, etc.

The play was originally produced for TV in the 1970s by the BBC, with Sir Michael Gambon (himself a PA sufferer) in the starring role. In the late 1990s, a Hollywood movie of the Singing Detective was released after Dennis Potter's death. Both versions are worth seeing.

If you want to see a copy, I suggest you visit www.bbc.co.uk for the 1970's version. Also www.paalliance.org.uk (David Chandler) may have some copies available, as Michael Gambon is a member of this organisation, and made some copies available.

For the Hollywood version, I suggest you do an internet search.

Regards, Tiff.


hmmm, I seem to recall the name, possibly from the book, but I have never read the book or seen the movie. I'll keep an eye out for it.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:56 am
by waffnap
I can remember the series being on tv but can't recall much about it being a lot younger then. All I can remember is the vision of a man in pyjamas in a hospital bed. I would certainly like to catch up with this now and watch it through different eyes.
I like the works of Dennis Potter, I never realised he was a P and PA sufferer, wow we live and learn.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:45 am
by lil'froggie
The Singing Detective was re-released as a movie not that long ago, starring Robert Downey Jr, very strange but worth watching! I didn't realise it was about psoriasis...