The Singing Detective (1986)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Jon Amiel (Director) And Kenith Trodd (Producer) Featurette-Points Of View Featurette-Close Up: Dennis Potter Gallery-Photo Featurette-Arena: Dennis Potter Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	402:55 (Case: 457)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (31:09) Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jon Amiel
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Michael Gambon Patrick Malahide Joanne Whalley Lyndon Davies David Ryall Gerard Horan Ron Cook George Rossi Leslie French Geff Francis Sharon D. Clarke Janet Suzman Alison Steadman
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$59.95	Music	None Given

    Fascinating, intriguing, confusing, emotional, deeply personal, amusing, acerbic, disturbing, intelligent, meticulous, weird, different, surreal, dramatic, magnificent and masterpiece. All of these terms can quite readily be used to describe The Singing Detective, a television series written by Dennis Potter and widely considered to be his greatest work. I had not actually seen this series before reviewing this DVD, but had obviously heard of it, which made me very keen to take a look at it. This series was made in 1986 and has recently been remade as a feature film starring Robert Downey Jr.

    The plot is very difficult to describe and the best description I can come up with is the one put forward by the director, Jon Amiel, during the commentary track. He says that one of the actors involved, Patrick Malahide describes it as "A psychological case history, told as a detective story, set to music". It is really three different plot lines joined together by the involvement of the central character, Phillip Marlow (Michael Gambon in a BAFTA winning performance) either as an adult, memories of his childhood or a story he is concocting in his mind. The three plot lines are;

• Phillip Marlow, a writer of detective stories, has been hospitalised with a terribly debilitating condition which is a combination of psoriasis (a particularly nasty skin disease) and arthritis. This means that he has very little use of his hands and that his skin is constantly flaking and causing him great pain. Incidentally, Dennis Potter suffered from the same ailment but he insists that this story is not autobiographical. Marlow has been in hospital for some time and is very unhappy with his lot, taking this unhappiness out on those around him. The doctors show very little interest in his suffering and the nurses range from harsh (Staff Nurse White played by Imelda Staunton) to helpful and attractive (Nurse Mills played by Joanne Whalley). He is in an open ward with a number of other fascinating characters including Mr Wall, a constant complainer who is very obsequious to the staff and the young man in the bed next to him, Reginald. These characters add a welcome comedy relief to the ward. This is set in the current time (i.e. 1986). Other important characters in this sub plot are the psychiatrist who tries to help Marlow, played by Bill Paterson and Marlow's wife, Nicola, played by Janet Suzman. Patrick Malahide also features but telling you who he plays would be a spoiler.
• Phillip Marlow's difficult and mentally scarring childhood. As he lies in bed in hospital, Marlow remembers details of his childhood. I will not describe this in any great detail as this would spoil the plot. Important characters here include Marlow's father (Jim Carter), his mother (Alison Steadman) and his father's singing partner, Ray (Patrick Malahide).
• A thriller set just after World War II, which Marlow is concocting in his head as he lies in hospital. He initially does this to keep his mind active, but it develops into an internal investigation of his own mind. He features in the story as the titular singing detective, a private detective who also happens to sing in a big band club. Marlow is contacted and hired by a man called Mark Binney (Patrick Malahide, again) to help him solve a murder. There are also two mysterious men (played by Ron Cook & George Rossi), who play an important part in the plot.

    The explanation I have just given only just scratches the surface of this very intricate series. The three plot lines mix together as the series progresses and many things which seem strange early in the series make sense by the end. There are no wasted scenes - every moment builds toward the end of the story. You have to pay careful attention to what is occurring, but your efforts are rewarded by this wonderful series. Despite the nearly seven hour running time, this series never drags, always keeping you wanting more. I can see this getting quite a few viewings, just to pick up all the detail in the plot.

    The acting is excellent throughout from Michael Gambon (who is magnificent) through all cast members, with even minor characters being interesting and important to the plot. Dennis Potter's writing obviously plays a big part in these characterisations. The other interesting thing about the casting is that many actors appear in more than one story which may seem confusing initially but all makes sense by the end of the series.

    Another factor that deserves mention here is the music, not only the incidental music which is very effective but the fact that characters break into song at many points during the series. Some of these scenes are quite surreal but always make sense in terms of the point that is being made. Some of the musical numbers such as the one involving the doctors are justifiably famous. This adds yet another layer to this marvellous production which adds to its standing as one of the best television series ever made. The incidental music is mostly taken from library recordings and many of the songs are taken from old 78s to make them authentic to the period. Other songs are new recordings of period tunes.

    At the time of its release, there was quite an outcry about the sexuality and perceived mysogynism involved in this series. One of the extras shows some feedback received by the BBC from viewers, many saying it should be banned.

    What a show! If you enjoy intelligent, different and challenging entertainment, and have not seen this, see it as soon as you can.

Video

    The video quality is very good especially considering the age of the source material, however it does have some minor issues.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio. It was originally recorded on film rather than video.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some grain throughout. The shadow detail was not great but based upon comments in the commentary I believe that this is by artistic choice especially during the thriller sequences.

    The colour was generally pretty good, however a little washed out, but no more than you would expect. Again the lack of primary colours is an artistic choice, and you will note that red is only used once or twice in the entire production.

    From an artefacts perspective, there was some minor aliasing on uniforms , fairly regular film artefacts including black and white flecks & lines, some occasional tape tracking issues and a little bit of macro-blocking which I mostly noticed on people's cheeks in close-up. None of these artefacts were particularly distracting.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. They were clear, easy to read but a little summarised from the spoken word and included some minor spelling issues. I also felt they were a little small.

    The layer change occurs at 31:09 on Disc 2, Episode 5 and is reasonably well done. There is a layer change somewhere near the end of Chapter 3 of Disc 1, Episode 2 but I could not see it.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good but mono.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s. The soundtrack is fairly quiet, and I had to set the amplifier at 10dB above my normal reference level for the dialogue to be clearly audible.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand (once the volume was turned up) and there was no problem with audio sync. Some of the accents make dialogue a bit of a challenge from time to time.

    The music used is excellent, both the incidental music sourced from libraries and the tunes of the 1940s which are used for the musical numbers. Sometimes the music sourced from old 78s will include a crackle or pop but these are quite minor.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu includes an excellent introduction and features scenes from the series which really helps you get in the mood of the series. It also allows for access to subtitles, episode selection, a play all function and the ability to turn on the commentary.

Commentary featuring Director Jon Amiel & Producer Kenith Trodd

    This commentary stretches for the ENTIRE 400+ minutes of this series, which is quite amazing in itself. The director does most of the talking with the producer interjecting comments as he sees fit. It is quite interesting and covers their relationship with Dennis Potter, casting, music, shooting approach, make-up, Michael Gambon's performance, some funny anecdotes and quite a bit of technical detail about artistic choices and approaches to filming. They also discuss their reactions to certain scenes. Amusingly, at one point they question why anybody would be listening to this commentary. If you are a major fan of this series or Dennis Potter in general, I am sure you would find this interesting. For others it may be useful to dip in and out of for various scenes which you are looking for an insight into, although they make it clear early on that they don't plan to give their interpretation of The Singing Detective.

Point of View (5:05) - Disc 3

    The first item on the extras disc is a short selection of viewer feedback received by the BBC at the time the show was originally aired. Some of it is quite vitriolic with demands for the show to be banned because of the sex scenes. Others are quite cute and touching. This material is taken from the BBC viewer feedback show of the time, Point of View.

Close Up - Dennis Potter (39:38) - Disc 3

    The packaging notes that this is an edited version due to contractual issues. Accordingly, there does seem to be chunks missing, however, what remains is fascinating. It is a no holds barred look at Dennis Potter the man and author including scenes from a number of his television productions and interviews with friends, various actors and actresses, his biographer, Jon Amiel, Kenith Trodd, Rick MacCallum and others. Topics covered include his sexual proclivities, his illness and insights into his notoriously difficult and reclusive personality.

Photo Gallery - Disc 3

    A selection of 30 stills from the production.

Arena - Dennis Potter (10:06)

    An interview with Dennis Potter from the BBC show, Arena. He talks mostly about The Singing Detective and how he wrote it. Again this is an edited version for contractual reasons, hence the short running time.

Filmographies

    Text filmographies for Michael Gambon, Jim Carter, Jon Amiel, Dennis Potter, Bill Paterson, Patrick Malahide, Imelda Staunton, Alison Steadman, Joanne Whalley, Janet Suzman and Kenith Trodd.

    This series has been released in basically the same format in both Region 1 and Region 2 although the reviews I have read of the Region 1 indicate there are some PAL to NTSC conversion issues. Let's call it a draw between Region 2 and Region 4.

    The video quality is very good considering the age of the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a good selection of relevant extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall