View source for Dennis Potter

{{short description|English TV dramatist, screenwriter, journalist}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name         = Dennis Potter
| image        = Potterlife.jpg
| caption      = Cover of ''The Life and Work of Dennis Potter''
| birth_name    = {{Nowrap|Dennis Christopher George Potter}}
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1935|5|17|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Berry Hill, Gloucestershire|Berry Hill]], [[Gloucestershire]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=yes|1994|6|7|1935|5|17}}
| death_place   = [[Ross-on-Wye]], [[Herefordshire]], England
| alma_mater    = [[New College, Oxford]]
| occupation   = Television playwright, screenwriter, journalist, author, novelist, director 
| period       = 1960–1994
| genre        = [[Drama]]
| notableworks =  ''[[Pennies from Heaven (TV series)|Pennies from Heaven]]'' (1978)<br />''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'' (1979)<br />''[[The Singing Detective]]'' (1986)<br />''[[Lipstick On Your Collar]]'' (1993)
| spouse       = {{marriage|Margaret Morgan|1959|1994|end=her death}}
| children     = 3, including [[Sarah Potter|Sarah]]
}}
'''Dennis Christopher George Potter''' (17 May 1935&nbsp;– 7 June 1994) was an English television [[dramatist]], screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his [[BBC TV|BBC television]] serials ''[[Pennies from Heaven (TV series)|Pennies from Heaven]]'' (1978), ''[[The Singing Detective]]'' (1986), and the BBC television plays ''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'' (1979) and ''[[Brimstone and Treacle]]'' (1976).<ref>Graham Fuller [http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/singing-detective-25-years "The Singing Detective: 25 Years On""], ''Sight and Sound'', November 2011 (Updated 6 March 2014)</ref> His television dramas mixed [[fantasy]] and [[reality]], the personal and the social, and often used themes and images from [[popular culture]]. Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists to have worked in British television.

Born in [[Gloucestershire]] and graduating from [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]], Potter initially worked in journalism. After standing for [[UK parliament|parliament]] as a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] candidate at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]], his health was affected by the onset of [[psoriatic arthropathy]] which necessitated Potter to change career and led to him becoming a television dramatist. He began with contributions to [[BBC One|BBC1]]'s regular series ''[[The Wednesday Play]]'' from 1965, and he continued to work in the medium for the rest of his life, including writing screenplay adaptations for [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] studios. Potter died of [[pancreatic cancer]] in 1994.

==Early life==
Dennis Potter was born in [[Berry Hill, Gloucestershire|Berry Hill]], [[Forest of Dean]], Gloucestershire. His father, Walter Edward Potter (1906–1975),<ref>''[[Arena (UK TV series)|Arena]]'' interview, 1987</ref> was a [[coal miner]] in this rural mining area between Gloucester and Wales; his mother was Margaret Constance (née Wale; 1910–2001). Potter had a sister named June.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arena: Painting the Clouds: A Portrait of Dennis Potter (2003) |url=http://www.eofftv.com/episodes/a/arena/painting_the_clouds_main.htm |website=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film & Television |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406094211/http://www.eofftv.com/episodes/a/arena/painting_the_clouds_main.htm |archive-date=6 April 2012|access-date=28 August 2019}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2021}}

In 1946, Potter passed the [[eleven-plus]] and attended [[Royal Forest of Dean College|Bell's Grammar School]] at [[Coleford, Gloucestershire|Coleford]]. Most of his secondary education, however, was in London at [[St Clement Danes School#History|St. Clement Danes Grammar School]] in [[Hammersmith]] (since demolished). It was in a street near [[Hammersmith Broadway]] that the ten-year-old Potter was sexually abused by his uncle, an experience he would later allude to many times in his writing.  During his speech at the 1993 [[Edinburgh International Television Festival|James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture]], Potter referred to this event when explaining his decision to switch from newspaper journalism to screenwriting: "Different words had to be found, with different functions. But why? Why, why, why; the same desperately repeated question I asked myself without any sort of an answer, or any ability to tell my mother or my father, when at the age of ten, between [[V.E. Day]] and [[V.J. Day]], I was trapped by an adult's sexual appetite and abused out of innocence."  His family returned to the Forest of Dean in 1952, having first left it in 1945, but Potter remained in London.

Between 1953 and 1955, his [[national service]] was in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] of the [[British Army]]<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/8NCN7%20(2017)%20Morgan%20on%20Potter.pdf | title= Dennis Potter: An Unconventional Dramatist | work=New College, Oxford | access-date=7 December 2021}}</ref> and he learned Russian at the [[Joint Services School for Linguists]].<ref name=dt>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110220153453/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/5443144/Dennis-Potter.html "Dennis Potter obituary"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 8 June 1994</ref> Having won a [[State Scholarship (UK)|State Scholarship]] to [[New College, Oxford]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://intranet.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/biog.htm|title=A brief biography of Dennis Potter|website=Intranet.yorksj.ac.uk|access-date=4 November 2021}}</ref><ref>BBCTV  ''Arena'', ''Dennis Potter''</ref> he studied [[philosophy, politics and economics]].<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dennis-potter-1421167.html | title= Obituary: Dennis Potter | work=[[The Independent]] | author=Mark Lawson | date= 18 September 2011 | access-date=26 January 2021}}</ref>

==Early career==
Potter's first non-fiction work, ''The Glittering Coffin'', was published by the [[Victor Gollancz|Gollancz Press]] in 1960. The book was a rumination on the changing face of England in the prosperity following the end of the war years. It was followed by ''The Changing Forest: Life in the Forest of Dean Today'' (1962), which was based on the "Between Two Rivers" documentary. This book is a study of class and social mobility that demonstrates an early fascination with the effects of the mass media on British cultural life.

He soon returned to television. ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' journalist [[David Nathan (journalist)|David Nathan]] persuaded Potter to collaborate with him on sketches for ''[[That Was the Week That Was]]''. Their first piece was used in the edition of 5 January 1963.<ref>Humphrey Carpenter ''That Was Satire That Was: The Satire Boom in the 1960s'', London, 2000, p. 232</ref>

Potter stood as the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] candidate for [[East Hertfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Hertfordshire East]], a safe [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] seat, in the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] against the incumbent [[Derek Walker-Smith, Baron Broxbourne|Derek Walker-Smith]]. By the end of the unsuccessful campaign, he claimed that he was so disillusioned with party politics he did not even vote for himself. Potter now embarked on work as a television playwright. He had begun to suffer in 1962 from a condition known as [[psoriatic arthropathy]] causing [[arthritis]] to develop in his joints as well as affecting his skin with [[psoriasis]]. It also made futile any attempt to follow a conventional career path.

==Writing and public career==

===''The Wednesday Play''===
Potter's career as a television playwright began with ''[[The Wednesday Play#The Confidence Course|The Confidence Course]]'' (''[[The Wednesday Play]]'', 1965) which Potter had begun as a novel.<ref>John R. Cook ''Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998, p.24</ref> An exposé of the [[Dale Carnegie]] Institute, it drew threats of litigation from that organisation.<ref>Carpenter, p. 143</ref><ref>Gilbert (1998), p. 108, 112</ref> Although Potter effectively disowned the play, excluding it from his ''Who's Who'' entry,<ref>W. Stephen Gilbert, ''The Life and Work of Dennis Potter'', p.107n</ref> it used non-naturalistic dramatic devices (in this case breaking the [[fourth wall]]) which would become hallmarks of Potter's subsequent work. ''The Confidence Course'' script was liked by ''Wednesday Play'' script editor Roger Smith who then commissioned Potter to write what became the second Nigel Barton play for the new anthology series.<ref>Carpenter, p.147</ref>  ''[[The Wednesday Play#Alice|Alice]]'' (also 1965), his next transmitted play, chronicled the relationship between [[Lewis Carroll|Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]], better known by his ''nom de plume'', Lewis Carroll, and his muse [[Alice Liddell]]. The play drew complaints from the descendants of Dodgson, and of Macmillan, the publisher, who objected to the way the relationship was depicted.<ref>Gilbert (1998), p. 24</ref> [[George Baker (British actor)|George Baker]] played Dodgson.

Potter's most highly regarded works from this period were the semi-autobiographical plays ''[[The Nigel Barton Plays#Stand Up, Nigel Barton|Stand Up, Nigel Barton!]]'' and ''[[The Nigel Barton Plays#Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton|Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton]]'', which featured [[Keith Barron]]. The former recounts the experience of a miner's son attending Oxford University where he finds himself torn between two worlds, culminating in Barton's participation in a television documentary. This mirrored Potter's participation in ''Does Class Matter'' (1958), a television documentary made while Potter was an Oxford undergraduate.<ref>Sergio Angelini [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/810533/ "Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965)"], BFI screenonline</ref> The second play features the same character standing as a Labour candidate—his disillusionment with the compromises of electoral politics is based on Potter's own experience.<ref name="Angelini">Sergio Angelini [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1041034/index.html "Vote, Vote, Vote, for Nigel Barton (1965)"], BFI xcreenonline</ref> Both plays received praise from critics but aroused considerable tension at the BBC for their potentially incendiary critique of party politics.<ref name="Angelini"/> In his [[James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture]] in 1993, Potter recalled how he was asked by "several respected men at the corporation why I wanted to shit on the Queen."<ref>Dennis Potter ''Occupying Powers'', 1993 {{page needed|date=October 2014}}</ref>

===Television plays and serials (1969–80)===
Potter contributed ''[[Moonlight on the Highway]]'' to [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s ''Saturday Night Theatre'' series which was broadcast on 12 April 1969. The play centred on a young man ([[Ian Holm]]) who attempts to blot out memories of the sexual abuse he had suffered as child in his obsession with the music of [[Al Bowlly]]. As well as being an intensely personal play for Potter, it was his first foray in the use of popular music to heighten the dramatic tension in his work. Four days later, Potter's ''[[Son of Man (play)|Son of Man]]'', in which the dramatist gives an alternative view of Christ's last days, was transmitted as a ''Wednesday Play'' on BBC1 with Northern Irish actor [[Colin Blakely]] as [[Jesus]]. It led to Potter being accused of [[blasphemy]], and the first of his many clashes with Christian morality campaigner [[Mary Whitehouse]].

''[[Casanova (1971 TV serial)|Casanova]]'', Potter's first television serial, was broadcast on [[BBC Two|BBC2]] in 1971. Inspired by Willard R. Trask's 1966 translation of [[Giacomo Casanova|Casanova]]'s memoirs (''[[Histoire de ma vie]]''), Potter recast the Venetian libertine as a man haunted by his dependency on women.<ref>In ''Potter on Potter'', the writer told Graham Fuller that he assumed Casanova's drive to seduce so many women was symptomatic of ''[[tristitia post coitum]]'' (literally, "the sadness after sex").</ref> The serial was told using a [[non-linear]] narrative structure and, as the critic Graham Fuller observed in ''Potter on Potter'', "as chamber-piece and identity quest, ''Casanova'' strongly anticipates [later works such as] ''[[The Singing Detective]]''." It did, however, prove controversial for its frank depiction of nudity and was criticised for its sexual content. Controversy also dogged another play, ''[[Brimstone and Treacle]]'' (''[[Play for Today]]'', 1976), the original version of which was not screened by the BBC for over a decade owing to the depiction of the rape of a disabled woman by a man who is implied to be the devil incarnate. It was eventually broadcast on [[BBC One|BBC1]] in 1987, although a 1982 film version had been made, with [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] in the leading role (see below) and a stage production had opened at the [[Crucible Theatre]], Sheffield.

Potter continued to win high praise with ''[[Pennies from Heaven (TV series)|Pennies from Heaven]]'' (1978), a 1930s-set drama serial featuring [[Bob Hoskins]] as a sheet music salesman (Hoskins' first performance to receive wide attention). It demonstrated the dramatic possibilities of actors miming to old recordings of popular songs. ''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'', directed by [[Brian Gibson (director)|Brian Gibson]] and first shown by the BBC on 30 January 1979, uses the dramatic device of adult actors playing children, including [[Helen Mirren]], [[Janine Duvitski]], [[Michael Elphick]], [[Colin Jeavons]], [[Colin Welland]], [[John Bird (actor)|John Bird]], and [[Robin Ellis]]. Potter had used this device before, for example in ''Stand Up, Nigel Barton''.

A lucrative deal with [[London Weekend Television]] (LWT), and semi-independence, followed an aborted project to adapt [[Anthony Powell]]'s ''[[A Dance to the Music of Time]]'' for the BBC. A series of six single plays by Potter for ITV, with a further three written by [[Jim Allen (playwright)|Jim Allen]], was planned. Budget overspends meant only three of the Potter plays were produced: the [[BAFTA]]-winning ''[[Blade on the Feather]]'', ''[[Rain on the Roof]]'' and ''[[Cream in My Coffee]]'', which won Grand Prize at the [[Prix Italia]].

===First film screenplays===
In 1978, [[Herbert Ross]] was shooting ''[[Nijinsky (film)|Nijinsky]]'' at [[Shepperton Studios]] and invited Potter to write the screenplay for his next project ''Unexpected Valleys''. But after watching ''Pennies from Heaven'' on television one evening, Ross contacted Potter about the prospect of adapting that series for the cinema.<ref>On the DVD commentary for the original television serial, director [[Piers Haggard]] claims he approached Potter during filming of the series with the suggestion of producing a cinematic version starring the original cast. Potter allegedly responded by telling Haggard "there's no point – we've already done it now!".</ref> The film version of ''[[Pennies from Heaven (1981 film)|Pennies from Heaven]]'' was launched at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] as an 'anti-musical' with [[Steve Martin]] and [[Bernadette Peters]] in the lead roles. According to Potter, the studio demanded continual rewrites of the script and made significant cuts to the film after initial test screenings. The film was released in 1981 to mixed critical reaction and was a box-office failure. Potter, however, was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar]] that year.

Having already adapted ''Brimstone and Treacle'' for the stage after the television production was banned by the BBC, Potter set about writing a film version. Directed by [[Richard Loncraine]], who also directed Potter's ''Blade on the Feather'' at LWT, with [[Denholm Elliott]] reprising his role of Mr. Bates from the original television production, while [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] and [[Joan Plowright]], replaced [[Michael Kitchen]] and [[Patricia Lawrence]] in the roles of Martin Taylor and Mrs Bates respectively. Although a British film made by Potter's own production company (Pennies Productions), the casting of Sting piqued the interest of American investors. As a result, references to Mr Bates' membership of the [[British National Front|National Front]] and a scene discussing racial segregation were omitted—as were many of the non-naturalistic flourishes present in the television production—although the film was much more graphic in its depiction of sexual abuse and rape. The film was not a success at the box office.

Potter's screenplay for ''[[Gorky Park (film)|Gorky Park]]'' (1983) led to him gaining an [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]], although it emerged as a shadow of [[Martin Cruz Smith]]'s [[Gorky Park (novel)|original novel]].

===Works for the BBC in the 1980s===
Potter's career in the early 1980s was spent as a screenwriter for the cinema. He returned to the BBC for a co-production with [[20th Century Fox]], writing the scripts for a widely praised but seldom-seen miniseries of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s ''[[Tender Is the Night]]'' (1985) with [[Mary Steenburgen]] as Nicole Diver.

''[[The Singing Detective]]'' (1986), featuring [[Michael Gambon]], used the dramatist's own problems with the skin disease [[psoriasis]], for Potter an often debilitating condition leading to hospital admission, as a means to merge the lead character's imagination with his perception of reality.

Following ''[[Christabel (1988 TV drama)|Christabel]]'' (1988), Potter's adaptation of the memoirs of [[Christabel Bielenberg]], his next TV serial, ''[[Blackeyes (TV series)|Blackeyes]]'' (1989) was a major disappointment in his career. A drama about a [[model (person)|fashion model]], it was reviewed as self-indulgent by some critics, and accused of contributing to the [[misogyny]] Potter claimed he intended to expose.<ref name="BFI">{{Cite web|last=Cook|first=John|publisher=BFI Screenonline|title=Potter, Dennis (1935–1994)|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/451441/}}</ref> The critical backlash against Potter following ''Blackeyes'' led to Potter being labelled 'Dirty Den' (after [[Den Watts]], the ''[[EastEnders]]'' character) by the British tabloid press,<ref>{{cite news|last=Lawson|first=Mark|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dennis-potter-1421167.html|title=Obituary: Dennis Potter|newspaper=The Independent|date=8 June 1994}}</ref> and resulted in a period of reclusion from television. The serial was adapted into a [[Blackeyes|novel]] (see below),

In 1990, referring to a scene in ''The Singing Detective'', Mary Whitehouse claimed on BBC Radio that Potter had been influenced by witnessing his mother engaging in adulterous sex. Potter's mother won substantial damages from the BBC<ref>{{cite news|url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1074044,00.html|title=Watching the detective|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Mark|last=Lawson|date=2003-10-31}}</ref> and ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]''.<ref>John R. Cook ''Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen'', Manchester University Press, 1998, p.350, n.82</ref> Potter had at least at times actually been an admirer of Mrs Whitehouse: the journalist [[Stanley Reynolds]] found in 1973 that he "loves the idea of Mrs Whitehouse. He sees her as standing up for all the people with ducks on their walls who have been laughed at and treated like rubbish by the sophisticated metropolitan minority".<ref>''The Guardian'', 16 February 1973, quoted in W. Stephen Gilbert ''The Life and Work of Dennis Potter'', Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1998, p.145 (originally published as ''Fight and Kick and Bite: Life and Work of Dennis Potter'', London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995)</ref> In 1979 in an interview for ''[[The South Bank Show]]'', he rejected "the chorus of abuse" suffered by Whitehouse because she accepted the "central moral importance of – to use the grandest word – art".<ref>Ben Thompson (ed) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-r7k88pWzYgC&pg=RA2-PT85 ''Ban This Filth!: Letters From the Mary Whitehouse Archive''], London: Faber, 2012, p.85. Melvyn Bragg's interview with Potter, along with an earlier ''South Bank Show'' item about a 1978 theatre production of (the then banned TV play) ''Brimstone and Treacle'', is included in the DVD set of the dramatist's work for London Weekend Television.</ref>

===Later film work===
Potter wrote the screenplay for ''[[Dreamchild]]'' (1985), a film which shared themes with his script for the ''Alice'' (1965) television play. In her last film role, [[Coral Browne]] portrayed the elderly Alice Hargreaves who recalls in flashbacks her childhood when she was the inspiration for [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]''. Potter adapted his television play ''Schmoedipus'' (1974) for the cinema. The ensuing film, ''[[Track 29]]'' (1988), directed by [[Nicolas Roeg]], was Potter's last filmed American project. However, Potter did provide uncredited script work on ''[[James and the Giant Peach (film)|James and the Giant Peach]]'' (released 1995)—his chief contribution providing dialogue for the sardonic caterpillar. Potter makes a sly reference to this in ''[[Karaoke (play)|Karaoke]]'' when the character Daniel Feeld ([[Albert Finney]]) is invited to provide dialogue for an "arthritic goat" in a children's film.

Potter's reputation within the American film industry following the box office disappointments of ''Pennies from Heaven'' and ''Gorky Park'' ultimately led to difficulty receiving backing for his projects. Potter is known to have written adaptations of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', ''[[The Mystery of Edwin Drood]]'', ''[[The White Hotel]]'' and his earlier television play ''[[Double Dare (play)|Double Dare]]'' (1976): all these reached the preproduction stage before work was suspended.<ref>Cook ''Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen'', p. 368</ref> More fortunate was ''[[Mesmer (film)|Mesmer]]'' (1993), a [[biographical film]] of the 19th century pseudo-scientist [[Franz Anton Mesmer]]. Potter's film, ''[[Secret Friends]]'' (1991), from his novel, ''Ticket to Ride'', starring [[Alan Bates]]. ''Secret Friends'' premiered in New York at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] as the gala closing of the [[Museum of Television & Radio]]'s week-long Potter retrospective.

The last film Potter actively worked on was ''Midnight Movie'' (1994), an adaptation of Rosalind Ashe's novel ''Moths''. The film starred [[Louise Germaine]] and [[Brian Dennehy]] (who had appeared respectively in ''Lipstick on Your Collar'' and ''Gorky Park'') and was directed by [[Renny Rye]]. Unable to secure financing from the [[Arts Council of Great Britain|Arts Council]], Potter invested £500,000 in the production; [[BBC Films]] provided the rest of the capital. The film was not given a cinema release owing to a lack of interest from distributors and remained unseen until after Potter's death. It was finally broadcast on BBC2 in December 1994 in the ''[[Screen Two]]'' series, two months after a remake of his [[Lost television broadcast|lost]] 1967 play ''Message for Posterity'' was transmitted.

A film version of ''[[The Singing Detective (film)|The Singing Detective]]'', based on Potter's own adapted screenplay, was released in 2003 by [[Icon Productions]]. [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] played the lead alongside [[Robin Wright (actress)|Robin Wright Penn]] and [[Mel Gibson]]. Gibson also acted as producer. Potter's screenplay of ''The White Hotel'', adapted as a radio play, was broadcast in September 2018.<ref>{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Mark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/03/dennis-potter-adaptation-of-the-white-hotel-to-premiere-on-radio-4|title=Dennis Potter's adaptation of The White Hotel to premiere on Radio 4|work=The Guardian|date=3 August 2018|access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref>

===The media and Rupert Murdoch===
In 1993, Potter was given a half-hour slot in prime time by [[Channel 4]] in their ''[[Opinions (TV series)|Opinions]]'' strand produced by [[Open Media]]. Potter's chosen topic was what he perceived to be a contamination of news media and its effect on declining standards in British television "particularly journalists who criticised his Channel 4 series ''Lipstick on Your Collar''", [[Kelvin MacKenzie]] "the sharp little oaf who edits the Sun" and [[Garry Bushell]] "that sub-literate [[Homophobia|homophobic]], sniggering rictus of a lout".<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/diary-5444081.html Diary], ''The Independent'', 23 March 1993</ref> [[Craig Brown (satirist)|Craig Brown]] described the programme in the ([[Rupert Murdoch]] owned) ''[[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]'':

::"Potter announced at the beginning: 'I'm going to get down there in the gutter where so many journalists crawl... what I'm about to do is to make a provenly vindictive and extremely powerful enemy... the enemy in question is that drivel-merchant, global huckster and so-to-speak media psychopath, Rupert Murdoch... Hannibal the Cannibal.'...

::As a performance, it had a lot going for it. I have never seen a talking head on television so immediate or so unabated in its anger. In many ways, it felt like being collared by a madman on the Tube. Filmed disturbingly close to camera, seemingly ad-libbing the entire half-hour, now mumbling, now rasping, Potter somehow managed to cut through the vacuum that on television usually separates viewer from viewee. This made the performance extraordinary."<ref>Craig Brown "Abuse of Privilege", ''The Sunday Times'', 28 March 1993</ref>

===Final works, last interview and death===

The last serial broadcast during Potter's lifetime was the romantic comedy ''[[Lipstick on Your Collar (TV series)|Lipstick on Your Collar]]'' (1993). Set during the [[Suez Crisis]] of 1956 like the much earlier ''Lay Down Your Arms'' (1970), elements of which it recycled, this six-parter did not become a popular success and in it Potter returned to use of lip-synched musical numbers in the manner of ''Pennies from Heaven''. It did help to launch the career of actor [[Ewan McGregor]].<ref name="BFI"/>

On 14 February 1994, Potter learned that he had [[terminal illness|terminal]] [[pancreatic cancer]] which had [[metastasis]]ed to his [[liver]].<ref name="BFI"/> It was thought that this was a side effect of the medication he was taking to control his [[psoriasis]].

On 15 March 1994, three months before his death, Potter gave an interview to [[Melvyn Bragg]], later broadcast on 5 April 1994 by [[Channel 4]] (he had broken most of his ties with the BBC as a result of his disenchantment with Directors-General [[Michael Checkland]] and especially [[John Birt]], whom he had referred to as a "croak-voiced [[Dalek]]").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetvfestival.com/website/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/GEITF_MacTaggart_1993_Dennis_Potter.pdf|title=Occupying Powers|work=MacTaggart Lecture, Edinburgh International Television Festival|date=28 August 1993|access-date=22 October 2016}}</ref> Using a [[morphine]] and [[champagne]] cocktail as pain relief, and [[chain smoking]], he revealed that he had named his cancer "Rupert", after [[Rupert Murdoch]], who he said represented so much of what he found despicable about the mass media in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|last=BFI|title=Interview with Dennis Potter, An (1994) Synopsis|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1055970/synopsis.html}}</ref> He described his work and his determination to continue writing until his death. Telling Bragg that he had two works he intended to finish ("My only regret is if I die four pages too soon"), he proposed that these works, ''[[Karaoke (TV series)|Karaoke]]'' and ''[[Cold Lazarus]]'', should be made with the rival BBC and Channel 4 working in collaboration, a suggestion which was accepted.<ref name="BFI"/>

These two related stories, eventually broadcast in 1996, one set in the present and the other in the far future, both feature [[Albert Finney]] as the same principal character. Both series were released on DVD on 6 September 2010.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zQ2DwAAQBAJ&q=dvd+release+6+September+2010+cold+lazarus+and+karaoke&pg=PT407|title=The Art of Invective: Selected Non-Fiction 1953–94|first=Dennis|last=Potter|date=September 2015|section=Note 336|isbn=978-1-78319-203-8|publisher=[[Oberon Books]]}}</ref>

Months before Potter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer his wife, Margaret, was diagnosed with [[breast cancer]]. Despite his own deteriorating condition and punishing work schedule, Potter continued to care for his wife until she died on 29 May 1994.<ref name=dt /> He died nine days later, in [[Ross-on-Wye]], [[Herefordshire]], England, aged 59.

==Other works==

===Novels===
''Hide and Seek'' (1973) was a [[meta-fiction]]al novel exploring the relationship between reader and author and contains a protagonist, Daniel Miller, who is convinced he is the plaything of an [[omniscient narrator|omniscient author]]. This concept forms the core of Potter's next two novels, and portions of ''Hide and Seek'' would reappear in several of his television plays, especially ''[[Follow the Yellow Brick Road]]'' (1972) and ''The Singing Detective''.

''Ticket to Ride'' (1986) was written between drafts of ''The Singing Detective'' and concerns a [[herbarium|herbithologist]] who is unable to make love to his wife unless he imagines her as a prostitute. This was followed in 1987 by ''Blackeyes'': a study of a model whose abusive uncle, a writer, has stolen details of his niece's experiences in the glamour industry as the basis for his latest [[potboiler]].

To tie-in with the release of the [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] production of ''Pennies from Heaven'' in 1981, Potter wrote a novelisation of the screenplay. Potter turned down the option of writing a novelisation for the film version of ''Brimstone and Treacle'', allowing his daughter [[Sarah Potter|Sarah]] to write it instead.

===Stage plays===
Although Potter only produced one play exclusively for theatrical performance (''Sufficient Carbohydrate'', 1983 – later filmed for television as ''Visitors'' in 1987), he adapted several of his television scripts for the stage. ''Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton'', which featured material from its sister-play ''Stand Up, Nigel Barton'', was premiered in 1966, while ''Only Make Believe'' (1973), which incorporated scenes from ''[[Play for Today#Angels Are So Few|Angels Are So Few]]'' (1970), made the transition to the stage in 1974. ''Son of Man'' appeared in 1969 with [[Frank Finlay]] in the title role (Finlay would also play Casanova in Potter's 1971 serial) and was restaged by [[Northern Broadsides|Northern Stage]] in 2006.<ref>Mark Fisher [https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931685 "Son of Man"], ''Variety'', 24 September 2006</ref> ''Brimstone and Treacle'' was adapted for the stage in 1977 after the BBC refused to screen the original television version. The play text for ''Blue Remembered Hills'' was first published in the collection ''Waiting for the Boat'' (with ''[[Joe's Ark]]'' and ''Blade on the Feather'') in 1984 and has since enjoyed several successful stage performances. Potter proposed to write an "intermedia" stage play for producers Geisler-Roberdeau based on [[William Hazlitt]]'s ''Liber Amoris, or The New Pygmalion'', but he died before it could be commenced.

==Style and themes==
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2018}}
Potter's work is known for its use of non-naturalistic devices. These include the extensive use of [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]] and [[Nonlinear narrative|nonlinear]] plot structure (''Casanova''; ''Late Call''), [[breaking the fourth wall|direct to camera address]] (''Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton'') and works where "the child is father to the man", in which he used adult actors to play children (''Stand Up, Nigel Barton''; ''Blue Remembered Hills''). The '[[lip-sync]]' technique he developed for his "serials with songs" (''Pennies from Heaven''; ''The Singing Detective'' and ''Lipstick on Your Collar'') is perhaps the best known of the Potter trademarks. They are frequently used in works where the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred, often as a result of the influence of popular culture (Willie, the [[Wild West]] obsessive played by [[Hywel Bennett]] in ''Where the Buffalo Roam'') or from a character's apparent awareness of their status as a pawn in the hands of an omniscient author (the actor Jack Black (Denholm Elliott) in ''[[Follow the Yellow Brick Road]]'' first broadcast in 1972).

Potter's pioneering method of using music in his work emerged when developing ''Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), one of his biggest successes. He asked actors to mime along to period songs. "Potter tried out the concept himself by lip-syncing to old songs while looking into a mirror. Potter himself once revealed that, working on harnessing songs in his plays, he was most productive 'at night, with old [[Al Bowlly]] records playing in the background'".<ref>The Independent, 7 January 2005, previewing ''Arena – Dennis Potter:It's in the Songs! It's in the Songs!'' BBC Four</ref> Potter had previously experimented with Bowlly's voice in ''[[Moonlight on the Highway]]'' (1969).

Potter's characters are frequently "doubled up"; either by [[Doppelgänger]], using the same actor to play two roles, ([[Kika Markham]] as the actress and the escort in ''[[Double Dare (play)|Double Dare]]''; [[Norman Rossington]] as Lorenzo the gaoler and the English traveller in ''Casanova'') or two actors whose characters' destinies and personalities appear linked (Bob Hoskins and [[Kenneth Colley]] as Arthur and the accordion man in ''Pennies from Heaven''; Rufus ([[Christian Rodska]]) and Gina the bear in ''[[A Beast With Two Backs]]'').

A motif in Potter's writing is the concept of betrayal and this takes many forms in his plays. Sometimes it is personal (''Stand Up, Nigel Barton''), political (''Traitor''; ''[[Cold Lazarus]]'') and other times it is sexual (''A Beast With Two Backs''; ''[[Brimstone and Treacle]]''). In ''Potter on Potter'', published as part of [[Faber and Faber]]'s series on [[auteur]]s, Potter told editor Graham Fuller that all forms of betrayal presented in literature are essentially religious and based on [[Fall of Man|"the old, old story"]]; this is evoked in a number of works, from the use of popular songs in ''Pennies from Heaven'' to Potter's [[Gnosticism|gnostic]] retelling of [[Jesus]]' final days in ''Son of Man''.

The device of a disruptive outsider entering a claustrophobic environment is another theme. In plays where this occurs, the outsider will commit some apparently liberating act of evil (rape in ''Brimstone and Treacle'') or violence (murder in ''[[Shaggy Dog (play)|Shaggy Dog]]'') that gives physical expression to the un-sublimated desires of the characters in that setting.<ref>Michael Billington and Dennis Potter [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/15/dennis-potter-nostalgic-rightwing-england "Dennis Potter: there is a nostalgic, right wing impulse in England"], ''The Guardian'', 2015 (reprint of 1979 radio interview)</ref> While these more malevolent visitors are often supernatural beings (''Angels Are So Few''), intelligence agents (''[[Blade on the Feather]]'') or even figments of their host's imagination (''Schmoedipus''), there are also—rare—instances of benign visitors whose presence resolves personal conflicts rather than exploits them (''Joe's Ark''; ''[[Where Adam Stood]]'').

==Legacy==
Although Potter won few awards, he was and remains held in high regard by many within the television and film industry and was an influence on such creators as [[Mark Frost]], [[Steven Bochco]], [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]], [[Alain Resnais]] and [[Peter Bowker]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/interviews/mark-frost/|title=Mark Frost Interview ‹ Little White Lies – Independent Film Magazine|date=2010-04-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430203936/http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/interviews/mark-frost/|archive-date=30 April 2010|url-status=bot: unknown|access-date=2017-09-26}}</ref><ref>''Bochco's musical drama [[Cop Rock]]'' (1990) was inspired by ''The Singing Detective''.</ref><ref>In 1990, ''[[The Observer]]'' newspaper asked several British television screenwriters to nominate the most influential person in the field. Potter was voted the most influential. Davies, who chose Potter, stated that "there can be no writer working in television today, or in any medium, who can claim even half the influence of Dennis Potter."</ref><ref>''[[Same Old Song]]'' (1997) was dedicated to the memory of Dennis Potter and was in the style of Potter's "lip-sync musicals" Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective and Lipstick on Your Collar</ref><ref>Bowker's BBC drama serial ''[[Blackpool (TV serial)|Blackpool]]'' (2004) was an attempt to revive British musical drama in the shadow of ''Pennies from Heaven'' and ''The Singing Detective''.</ref> [[Alan Bennett]] was critical, referring in his 1998 diaries to a television programme "that took Potter at his own self-evaluation (always high), when there was a good deal of indifferent stuff which was skated over", and believed that Potter's health was a factor in his fame, saying "he visibly conformed to what the public thinks artists ought to be—poor or promiscuous, suffering or starved".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n02/alan-bennett/diary|title=What I did in 1998|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|date=21 January 1999|volume=21|issue=2|access-date=10 October 2020|last1=Bennett|first1=Alan}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/that-nice-alan-bennett-takes-the-gloves-off-for-tory-politicians-the-queen-mother-and-dennis-potter-1280392.html|title=That nice Alan Bennett takes the gloves off for Tory politicians, the Queen Mother - and Dennis Potter|first=Ian|last=Burrell|work=The Independent|date=24 February 1997|access-date=10 October 2020}}</ref> [[BBC Four]] marked the tenth anniversary of Potter's death in December 2004 with documentaries about his life and work, accompanied by showings of ''Pennies from Heaven'' and ''The Singing Detective'', as well as several of his single plays—many of which had not been shown since their initial broadcast.<ref>These included the ''Nigel Barton'' plays, ''A Beast with Two Backs'', ''Follow the Yellow Brick Road'', ''Son of Man'', ''Double Dare'', ''Where Adam Stood'', ''Joe's Ark'', ''Brimstone and Treacle'' and ''Blue Remembered Hills''.</ref> Potter's papers, including unproduced plays and unpublished fiction, are being catalogued and preserved at the [[Dean Heritage Centre]] in Gloucestershire.<ref>{{cite web|first=Stephen|last=Morris|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/jun/27/dennis-potter-archive-celebrated-writer|title=Dennis Potter archive offers glimpse into mind of celebrated writer|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 June 2013}}</ref>

==Personal life==
On 10 January 1959, at the Christ Church parish church in Berry Hill, he married Margaret Amy Morgan (14 August 1933 – 29 May 1994), a local woman he met at a dance.<ref name=dt /> They lived a "surprisingly quiet private life" at [[Ross-on-Wye]], [[Herefordshire]], and had three children, Robert, Jane, and [[Sarah Potter|Sarah]]. The latter achieved prominence in the 1980s as an international [[cricket]]er.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/53833.html|title=Sarah Potter |website=Cricinfo}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Dennis Potter bibliography]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |title=A bibliography of works related to Dennis Potter |url=http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/bibliog.htm |publisher=York St John University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613150532/http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/bibliog.htm |archive-date=13 June 2007}}
* W. Stephen Gilbert ''Fight & kick & bite: the life and work of Dennis Potter'', 1996, a.k.a. ''The Life and Work of Dennis Potter'', Woodstock & New York: Overlook Press, 1998
* Dennis Potter ''Seeing the blossom'', 1994
* Humphrey Carpenter ''Dennis Potter'', 1998
* John R. Cook ''Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen'', 1998
* Eckart Voigts-Virchow ''[http://www.wvttrier.de/top/Beschreibungen/ID97.html Männerphantasien. Introspektion und gebrochene Wirklichkeitsillusion im Drama von Dennis Potter]'' (in German) 1995
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/ Dennis Potter official site]
* [http://www.zenbullets.com/britfilm/potter/ ''The Singing Detective'' – Exploring Dennis Potter's Thematic Preoccupations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704051219/http://www.zenbullets.com/britfilm/potter/ |date=4 July 2008 }} British Film Resource
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/potterd1.shtml 1986 and 1991 interviews with Dennis Potter] BBC4 (Audio)
* {{Screenonline name|id=451441|name=Dennis Potter biography and credits}}
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1055970/index.html An Interview with Dennis Potter] at the [[British Film Institute]]'s [[Screenonline]]
* {{IMDb name|id=0693259|name=Dennis Potter}}

{{DennisPotter}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Dennis}}
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