Potter on Potter

by Graham E. Fuller

If one writer embodies the unique character of British television drama, it is Dennis Potter. Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective amply demonstrate how far he has pushed the frontiers of television drama.
In the course of this book, British television's pre-eminent playwright - latterly a novelist and film-maker - talks with passionate erudition, disarming candour and acerbic wit about the early influences that shaped him and led to his pioneering use of non-naturalism to his self-reflexive subversion of film and TV cliches, his controversial approach to sex, politics, religion and the double-edged puritanism of the English condition. The book presents a remarkable portrait of a man for whom writing is, first and foremost, a vocation.

Genres: Nonfiction

171 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Graham Fuller is an author and a political analyst. He has worked for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Council, and Rand Corporation.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dennis Potter wrote two of the greatest British TV limited series: "The Singing Detective" and "Pennies From Heaven." And Pennies became a great and weird film with Steve Martin - but nevertheless Potter in a long conversation goes into the thoughts behind his work and it's fascinating how he uses 'pop culture' as part of the work. I think he was an one-of-a-type genius. He's missed that's for sure.