FIGHT AND KICK AND BITE: LIFE AND WORK OF DENNIS POTTER

by W. Stephen Gilbert

An exploration of the work of Dennis Potter, author of television drama series such as "Pennies From Heaven" and "The Singing Detective". Gilbert builds a portrait of a life of substantial success and uncertainty, joy and suffering, as well as giving a short history of British television drama.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

dennis potter was arguably the greatest television writer of all time. and we're not talking fucking "csi" here - this guy raised the television medium to a legitimate art form, using the intimacy of television filming and long-form storytelling as an integral part of his movies and miniseries (check out the bbc miniseries "pennies from heaven" or "the singing detective" for examples. but don't see the "detective" movie, because it sucks). his imagination was unparalleled, and his ingenuity in the medium was unprecedented (and still remains to be matched, if you ask me).

all that said, the book does a decent job of exploring the man - he was intensely complicated, which is another way of saying severely messed up, particularly concerning his marriage and his love/hate relationship with the sex industry - but ultimately pulls a few punches and meanders its way to the end. sadly, it's the best book out there on potter (except, at least from what i hear, for "potter on potter", if you can find it), but you may be better off trying to find the incredible interview he filmed for the bbc shortly before his death. a fierce, fascinating, passionate and destructive man. but just an okay book.

[Peter Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author notes early that he didn't have cooperation with many of the people associated with the great TV writer and author of "The Singing Detective." How much this steered the biography into mostly an analysis of Potter's life through the lens of his work is obvious and somewhat disappointing. On the other hand, Gilbert is a good critic and sums up Potter's work chronologically and concisely, matching events in Potter's life with the teleplays in a very believable and trustworthy fashion. I'd call this biography more a critique containing a biography rather than the other way around but that's not so bad if one is familiar only with Potter's better known works. Gilbert posits that Potter's writing was first and foremost religiously guided - an interesting and plausible interpretation I had not really considered before. Potter was by all accounts a complex and occasionally arrogant and hostile person. This writing tells us pretty much why.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not for me. I had hoped for more of the history of television at the time of Dennis Potter's fame.