Dennis Potter (1935-1994) was a English essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist best known as a prize-winning writer of television drama.

In the world of British popular culture, Dennis Potter was an important figure. He came to the attention of American audiences when Pennies From Heaven, a mini-series, was broadcast on public television stations in the late 1970s, then adapted for a Hollywood film in 1981. Though the series gathered many viewers the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, he first became widely known in the United States seven years later when New York's television station WNET aired his autobiographical drama The Singing Detective.

Potter was born May 17, 1935, in Berry Hill, Gloucestershire, the Forest of Dean, and often is the sights and sounds of this coal mining region to which he returns in his work. In The Singing Detective, for instance, the middle-aged protagonist must relive scenes of his...