The Singing Detective

Last night I was watching another episode of Lipstick on Your Collar, and followed that up with the first episode of The Singing Detective, a six part TV serial from 1986, which was also written by Dennis Potter. The show stars Michael Gambon as detective novelist Philip Marlow, who is in hospital with a crippling skin condition whichleaves him almost unable to move. He tries to get himself out of the condition with memories of his unpleasant childhood in rural England, as well as imagining bizarre musical numbers in the hospital and also creating a surreal fantasy world based on his own novels where he imagines himself as his fictional creation the "Singing Detective", a Private Eye and part-time nightclub singer. As the story goes on his memories, his real life and his dream life start to collide into each other. It is a really great show and has been hugely acclaimed by critics. When they were first shown, a lot of the Dennis Potter shows were hugely controversial because of the sex and violence in them, although they are pretty tame by today's standards. Maybe now they can be re-evaluated and perhaps seen for the great shows they are. The Singing Detective was turned into a film in 2003.

Today was really quiet again at work. I got to 32,040 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I had a lot of trouble with it last week, because I wasn't well, but I do think that I have made a comeback with it, so I am happy about that.