The Singing Detective (1986)
- Directed by
- Jon Amiel
- Genre
- thriller, film noir, musical film, miniseries, drama television series, mystery fiction
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Length
- 1 season, 6 episodes
- Rating
- 7.5 of 10 from 42 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A hospitalized mystery writer with a severe skin condition hallucinates a film noir detective story. His fantasy world blends with his hospital reality and memories of his past.
tensedarkly comicmelancholiccerebralunsettlingdreamlikeslow-burnvisually lush
What happens
The Singing Detective is a six-part BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It". The serial was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in 1986 on Sunday nights from 16 November to 21 December, with later PBS and cable television showings in the United States. It won a Peabody Award in 1989. It ranks 20th on the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, as voted by industry professionals in 2000. It was included in the 1992 Dennis Potter retrospective at the Museum of Television & Radio and became a permanent addition to the museum's collections in New York and Los Angeles. There was co-production funding from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series was released on DVD in the US on 15 April 2003 and in the UK on 8 March 2004. It is also available on BBC iPlayer. It was restored in UHD in 2025: this version was first broadcast on BBC Four on the 14 and 21 May before release on iPlayer. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
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Patrick Melrose (2018)
Fallen (2004)- More like this series, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.