SOURCE: "Implication Without Choice: The Double Vision of The Singing Detective," in Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1993, pp. 200-08.

In the following essay, Bell elaborates a reading of The Singing Detective as the story of "a sick man's soul," "a pilgrim's progress from despair to redemption," and looks at the significance of Potter's contribution to the television mini-series.

The Singing Detective, the six-episode film broadcast on BBC in 1986 and on PBS in 1988, is an extraordinary achievement for which its author, Dennis Potter, has been justly celebrated. Vincent Canby hails Potter for setting "a new standard for all films. He has also, single-handedly, restored the reputation of the screenwriter, at least in television." Uncommonly sensitive to what one character calls "langwidge," The Singing Detective is an equally impressive cinematic vision which exploits fully the potential of a television series to focus and refocus upon a complex subject. After the...