The Art of Invective Selected Non-Fiction 1953–94
s Dennis Potter edited by Ian Greaves D a v i d R o l i n so n J o h n Wi l l i a ms
CONTENTS Foreword
xiii
Preface
xix
Acknowledgements
xxi
A Note on the Text
xxiii
Chronology
xxv
Part One The Confidence Course Introduction
3
Changes at the top Isis, 22 May 1957
11
Stubbornyuddedness Dean Forest Guardian, 4 October 1957
14
Base ingratitude? New Statesman, 3 May 1958
17
Just gimmicks Isis, 4 June 1958
21
I am proud of my home and family…no obsession Dean Forest Guardian, 5 September 1958
24
Potter: 1 Isis, 21 January 1959
26
It’s time to get out of the rut Daily Mirror, 3 October 1959
29
Paradise Gained: Dennis Potter on Television Isis, 27 January 1960
29
The Establishment Ten O’Clock, BBC Home Service, 6 October 1961
32
Flyover in my eyes Daily Herald, 18 November 1961
33
v
Pre-packed childhood Sunday Times, 20 May 1962
35
At last – free speech is creeping into TV Daily Herald, 29 September 1962
36
Greed in the corn Daily Herald, 6 October 1962
37
TV can make religion dramatic Daily Herald, 17 November 1962
38
This TV newcomer smiles as she bites Daily Herald, 26 November 1962
40
Secret of Coronation Street Daily Herald, 12 January 1963
41
Stop nagging at us! Daily Herald, 9 February 1963
43
Entitled to Know: Nationalization Pamphlet That Was The Week That Was, BBC-TV, 2 March 1963
44
Culture leaps out of its cage Daily Herald, 9 March 1963
48
This was a glorious wallop Daily Herald, 30 March 1963
49
Don’t be so T–Victorian Daily Herald, 3 August 1963
50
And everyone seemed slightly ashamed Daily Herald, 26 August 1963
51
The sweet screams of success Daily Herald, 14 October 1963
53
I won’t say no to Doctor Who Daily Herald, 30 November 1963
54
Treasures of the past Daily Herald, 14 December 1963
55
Steptoe pushes out the television junk Daily Herald, 18 January 1964
56
Writers are kings without riches Daily Herald, 25 January 1964
57
Did I hear the poodle growl? Daily Herald, 15 February 1964
58 vi
Z Cars comes to the end of the alley Daily Herald, 14 March 1964
59
Out goes pomposity Daily Herald, 22 April 1964
61
Sport is too good to leave with the experts Daily Herald, 25 July 1964
62
School Sketch Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life, 9 January 1965
63
Letter to the Stage Stage, 29 July 1965
65
Drama with no safety curtain New Society, 30 December 1965
66
The art of true invective New Society, 27 January 1966
67
A Boswell in the bicarbonate New Society, 26 May 1966
69
Aberfan New Society, 27 October 1966
71
Young Ibsen: towards the southbound steamer Times, 9 December 1967
77
George Orwell New Society, 1 February 1968
79
I really must tell you I’m so very happy Sun, 13 May 1968
86
Dennis Potter exposed Sun, 20 May 1968
88
Armchair revolution New Society, 20 June 1968
91
The face at the window Times, 3 August 1968
94
Back – to weave dreams out of my own wallpaper Sun, 21 October 1968
103
Lightning over a dark field Times, 7 December 1968
105
vii
Part Two Telling Stories Introduction
111
Acid drops Plays and Players, November 1971
120
The sweetest music this side of heaven Times, 2 December 1971
124
Tsar’s army New Statesman, 13 October 1972
126
Alf takes over New Statesman, 20 October 1972
128
Switch on, switch over, switch off Times, 15 March 1973
131
Kafka and Brasso Times, 14 May 1973
133
The Hart Interview BBC1, 14 August 1973 135 Receding dreams New Statesman, 15 March 1974
146
Boy in a landscape New Statesman, 29 March 1974
148
Mimic men New Statesman, 13 September 1974
150
Second time round New Statesman, 27 September 1974
153
In a rut New Statesman, 22 November 1974
156
Violence out of a box New Statesman, 29 November 1974
158
Switch back New Statesman, 7 March 1975
161
Telling stories New Society, 15 May 1975
164 viii
Marching to Zion New Society, 19 June 1975
168
One man’s week Sunday Times, 18 April 1976
173
A note from Mr Milne New Statesman, 23 April 1976
175
Poisonous gas New Statesman, 28 May 1976
179
Puppets on a string Sunday Times, 5 December 1976
181
And with no language but a cry BBC Radio 3, 27 December 1976 184 Glop New Statesman, 22 April 1977
190
A Frosty night Sunday Times, 8 May 1977
192
Whistling in the dark Sunday Times, 12 June 1977
195
The spectre at the harvest feast Sunday Times, 19 June 1977
198
Various kinds of scavenger Sunday Times, 24 July 1977
201
Realism and non-naturalism Edinburgh International Television Festival, 1 September 1977
203
ix
Part Three Ticket to Ride Introduction
217
Trampling the mud from wall to wall Sunday Times, 6 November 1977
228
Tonight BBC1, 7 November 1977
231
I accuse the inquisitors Sunday Times, 4 December 1977
238
An innocent abroad Sunday Times Magazine, 8 January 1978
241
Let the cry of rage be heard Sunday Times, 29 January 1978
252
A play astonishing in its excellence Sunday Times, 5 February 1978
255
The other side of the dark All in the Waiting, BBC Radio 4, 23 February 1978
257
Start the Week with Richard Baker BBC Radio 4, 13 March 1978
262
Bank holiday blues Sunday Times, 3 September 1978
266
The lascivious leer of the senses Sunday Times, 19 November 1978
269
Goodbye to all that Sunday Times, 26 November 1978
272
Theatre Call BBC World Service, 9 February 1979
274
Anteroom to purgatory Tatler, November 1979
278
Cheryl Campbell – An appreciation by Dennis Potter Over 21, March 1980
283
Potter rights Broadcast, 6 October 1980
285 x
Writers’ reading in 1981 Guardian, 10 December 1981
288
Pruning dead wood in Gorky Park Sunday Times Magazine, 18 December 1983
289
Introduction Tender is the Night, 1987 295 Writers’ attitudes to wealth creation Independent, 17 June 1987
302
The John Dunn Show BBC Radio 2, 13 December 1989
303
Sincerely theirs: letters as literature New York Times, 27 May 1990
312
Pride ‘Breathe on ’um Berry!’, 1992 316 Downloading January 1992
317
Smoke screen Guardian, 28 March 1994
320
Introduction to Karaoke and Cold Lazarus 28 April 1994
321
The Artist The Dane, July 1953
330
Notes
331
Bibliography
374
Index
388
xi
s Dennis Potter and Me
A foreword by Peter Bowker
L
ike many a 1970s hysteric, I can lay claim to having been titillated by the work of Dennis Potter long before I had actually seen any of it. Our family didn’t get BBC2 till the mid-Seventies so, for some time, my only acquaintance with his work was the BBC1 announcer intoning, ‘And now over on BBC2, Casanova’ for six weeks. In fairness, that was probably all the TV filth a 13-year-old in 1970s Stockport could handle without imploding. But the real beginning – the real meeting with his work – was the moment in Pennies from Heaven when Bob Hoskins’ Arthur first turned to camera and opened his mouth and Elsie Carlisle’s voice came out. I can remember sitting there and thinking, ‘Are they allowed to do that?’ It was so audacious but yet it made perfect sense. It was experimental but it was impossible to imagine the story being told in a better way. And like all great ideas, you were left wondering why nobody had thought to do it before. As the years went by and I took in Blue Remembered Hills, The Singing Detective and Cream in My Coffee, I used to fantasize that me and Dennis Potter could be mates. Reading this collection does make me think that he would have been a tough mate to have. The cruel and witheringly precise humour that we see Philip Marlow exercise in The Singing Detective is very much present in both his views on television and his views on himself. Reading this collection it is clear that critically, he didn’t appear to have a safety catch. He seemed not to recognize that simultaneously being a practising dramatist and a drama critic was problematic in any way, or, being Potter, relished the fact. Just as his best drama simultaneously provided a critical and often musical analysis of the drama as it unfolded, so his non-fiction often xiii
reads as a dramatic monologue disguised as analysis. The musical rhythm of his dialogue and the savage put downs are all present and correct in his prose style. Here he is reviewing a 1972 adaptation of War and Peace and taking on his familiar anti-realist position. Noting how much the director lingers on the soup plates, he goes on, ‘Naturalism might well demand that life be turned into one damned dish after another, but the insights of a great novelist are rather more interesting than the eye-line of the head waiter.’ And here again, in a review of Till Death Us Do Part in which he worries that the character Alf Garnett has become a hero to the very racists he was invented to parody. He opens with an anecdote about a recent stay in hospital in which he found himself sharing a ward with assembled Alfs addressing themselves to the unpalatable fact subdued Pakistanis had somehow managed to infiltrate into the ward under the pretence of chronic sickness. We all knew as a matter of course that these cunning brown bastards were only there to draw social security payments, an argument which temporarily wavered when one of them so miscalculated his ruse that he actually went so far as to die. “There’s yer bleed’n curry for you,” observed my nearest Alf, not entirely without compassion. As a piece of satire, I can’t think of a finer or wittier skewering of the myth of ‘health tourism’ and ‘benefits cheats’ in the space of one paragraph. As a piece of prose it has elegance and playfulness, that final ‘not entirely without compassion’ reading almost like a stage direction and, like a perfectly weighted pass, allowing the reader to take it in their stride. Most rewarding of all for the Potter geek, it is recognisably the blueprint for a moment in The Singing Detective where Ali – the Pakistani in the next bed to Philip Marlow – turns the expectation of racist abuse into a moment of shared hilarity between Marlow and himself at the expense of a liberal young houseman. With his eye for absurdity and precision of language, how I would have loved to have read Dennis Potter on the likes of Iain Duncan Smith or Nigel Farage. Indeed, Farage, with his strained combination of fake bonhomie and victimized suburban bluster, could almost be a character invented by Potter – and played by Denholm Elliott. Cameron, you xiv
suspect, would be too easy a target, although I would like to see what he would have made of Nick Clegg’s avowed love of Samuel Beckett. There’s a tone in Potter’s prose and in his voice in interviews that reflects the masochism at the heart of his greatest work. He endlessly tortures himself with the notion that TV isn’t worthy of the same intellectual interrogation as literature or art but then makes it clear that he intends to ignore his misgivings and give the same forensic attention to an episode of Steptoe and Son or Coronation Street as he would, indeed does to War and Peace. Naturalism, as Dennis was keen to remind us throughout his career, was just one way (and a flawed way at that) of writing television drama, but it had, partly through soaps and long running series like Z Cars, become the most familiar and dominant form by the time Pennies from Heaven burst on to our screen. Watching it now it reads as a largely naturalistic drama with music. The only time it really steps out of its realist framework is during the song sequences and during the encounters with the mystical Accordion Man. The Singing Detective then used the Pennies from Heaven template as its starting point to gloriously and triumphantly deconstruct the whole way in which we tell stories. The towering achievement of The Singing Detective was to be simultaneously formally adventurous (A man in bed with a skin disease is writing or rewriting a detective novel, reminiscing about a traumatic childhood, peopling the film adaptation of his detective novel with characters that may or may not be characters from that troubled childhood. He is simultaneously being ripped off by his agent or wife or both for the film rights to the story he is writing. He is being psychoanalyzed. These multiple worlds bleed into each other from the beginning, and the musical sequences emphasize and restage his fears of illness, of betrayal, of loss of mind, of loss of conscience) and yet still to create a character who we cared about, who we believed and with whom we emotionally engaged. When Philip Marlow raises his still misshapen hands in triumph as he leaves the ward for the last time, I cry every time. He has won. He has beaten his sickness. He has taken up his bed and walked. He has become the triumphant hero of his own story – his own stories even. You can catch the rhythm and technique of Potter’s drama in nearly every review, essay and interview in this collection. Potter’s sense of humour too, his relentless search for the right phrase, his restless pursuit xv
of the metaphor – rewriting as a habit of mind. Hard to resist those sickness metaphors but his self-consciousness infects his prose style every bit as much as it does his drama. As with The Singing Detective, so he is often writing a review of himself reviewing in more critical terms than the work he is criticising. After he delivered the “Realism and Non-naturalism” lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 1977, Potter wrote an article that November that started with a reference to him having delivered that very lecture and being harangued in the pub afterwards by an aggressive David Hare. This in itself develops into a list of writers who were rumoured to wish him physical harm…and this anecdotage is, in his words, a ‘nervous and self-conscious preamble’ to a review of Abigail’s Party which he then proceeds to savage as a play that ‘sank under its own immense condescension.’ As he says of the non-naturalist scriptwriter, who may or may not be called Dennis Potter: ‘He wants to look at our way of looking even as he is looking.’ His public self-examination and exposure of form is an expression of the same creative instinct which has him publicly expose and examine those areas where shame resides, and fear, and lack of control. He is a writer who writes about the open wound – physical and metaphorical. Whether it be Marlow’s fear of an unwanted ejaculation when he is at his most vulnerable in The Singing Detective or whether it be Arthur Parker’s unrequited lust in Pennies From Heaven. The glorious failure of language in Arthur symbolizes his greater tragedy – his inability to communicate ultimately leads him to the scaffold. His cry of ‘Blimey Joan, love a duck!’ when his young wife has rouged her nipples in a desperate bid to keep him from leaving her is both hilarious and tragically inadequate and foreshadows his final words before he is hanged. ‘Hang on a bit – I got an itchy conk! I said, hang on will you? Or scratch me nose for me bloody hell.’ A man can’t reach his nose for a final scratch because he is hooded up, handcuffed, being led to the scaffold. Impotence again. Bondage. Lack of relief. Even Arthur’s tragic dying words are a sexual metaphor, although Arthur himself doesn’t know it. Potter is a writer who, like most working-class writers, has a morbid fear of being seen to ‘show off’ while simultaneously finding xvi
it impossible to resist displaying his scholarship. His contradictions are what makes him great. A snob and a democrat, a Labour supporter with no truck with populism, a writer of immense generosity who could be enthusiastically mean in print. A humane misanthrope. All of these contradictions are on display in this collection – and they remain exhilarating. He writes television criticism because he knows at its best television can be art and at its worst a piece of talking furniture in the corner of the room. And it was this very challenge which I feel drove him to make television that could not be ignored, that demanded your attention. Potter was and remains a great influence on my own writing. Blackpool is the most obvious descendant of Potter, not just the lip-synched songs, but Ripley Holden as a latter day Arthur Parker, frustrated by the smallness of his life, the fact that Blackpool is not Vegas, and also the evangelical David Bradley as a distant relative of the Accordion Man. But I would argue that the inspiration I continue to draw from Potter runs deeper than the stylistic trappings and would hope his lasting influence on me and my generation of television writers was in terms of ambition – ambition of form, of structure, of characterisation and of language. No writer appreciated more that the gap between what a character needs to express and is capable of expressing is where the drama lies. No writer conveyed the complexity and shifting nature of character with greater panache than Dennis Potter. No writer looked as forensically at the pain in our hearts and the darkness in our souls until he found some light in there. Best of all, as this collection testifies, Dennis Potter is a writer who likes to start an argument. And it is a tribute to his qualities as a screenwriter and critic that we continue to argue with him still‌ PETER BOWKER March 2015
xvii
s
D
Preface
ennis Potter’s non-fiction output was extensive. He was a journalist for most of his life, either as a reporter, columnist, or reviewer, and this was supplemented by regular appearances on television and radio. Overall he wrote around 750,000 words of journalism, and generated many thousands more from his interviews, broadcasts and speeches. This large and varied body of work has been selectively drawn upon by biographers, critics and academics to help pursue their arguments and theories about Potter’s life and work, but this has inevitably undervalued the richness of his ‘extra-curricular’ writing, which deserves more than to be treated as mere supplementary material to the dramatic works. We contend that it is half the story, and a vital part of the playwright’s ongoing dialogue with his audience. Potter had a varied journalistic career, ranging from his early days as jobbing reporter during the slow demise of the Daily Herald, to his position as the high-profile television critic of the Sunday Times. Over the intervening years he was a literary critic with the Times, Guardian and New Society, and had a long association with the New Statesman, again as a television critic. These different platforms gave him the opportunity to air his views on politics, sport, faith, community and, of course, television and the people who make it. He engaged full-bloodedly with contemporary events, and across his journalism, whatever the subject, he combined thoughtfulness with gut reaction, and was not afraid to identify and analyse his own prejudices. Potter explored topics and preoccupations that are still resonant today, such as the future of public service broadcasting, the failure of party politics, the commodification of society, the commercialisation of sport, and the fracturing of working-class communities. As part of this exploration, he also wrote about Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Fawlty xix
Towers, Bruce Forsyth and Emu. Potter’s distinctive voice spoke loudly, scurrilously and hilariously to all of these subjects and more, but until now his journalism, talks and interviews have only been discoverable in archives or rarely seen television documentaries. The purpose of this volume is to bring together for the first time a representative selection of the best of Potter’s non-fiction writing. The pieces, with one exception, are presented chronologically from his early articles for the student magazine Isis, to the posthumously published introduction to his final works of drama. There are three overall sections, each headed by an essay setting Potter’s non-fictional work in its historic context, and explanatory endnotes are included where the passage of time has given rise to possible obscurities. Otherwise we have tried to leave Potter to speak for himself, as he would surely have wished.
xx
s
F
Acknowledgements
irst of all we must thank Dennis Potter for decades of inspiration. Biographers often moan about their subject after prolonged exposure, yet many months of deep research and the difficult process of reading, selecting and debating pieces did nothing to dent our enthusiasm. Judy Daish made this project possible. As Potter’s friend and agent, her blessing on behalf of the Estate was essential. The trust placed in us to present his words and to investigate rights issues on her behalf was greatly appreciated. We have been blessed with an endlessly accommodating publisher in Oberon Books. All of its staff were supportive along the way but particular thanks must go to our patient editor George Spender and designer James Illman. For permitting the use of two sketches written by Potter in collaboration with David Nathan, we would like to thank John Nathan. Trinity Mirror allowed the use of articles from the Daily Herald. The book as a reflection of Potter’s full range would have been far poorer without them. We follow in the footsteps of many Potter scholars. Dave Evans was the first to see the value in republishing Potter’s non-fiction, as part of the Clenched Fists website, and his initiative gave us early inspiration. Our introductions and endnotes to the present volume owe a debt to others who went before: Humphrey Carpenter, John R. Cook, Glen Creeber, Graham Fuller, Adam Ganz, Joanne Garde-Hansen, W. Stephen Gilbert, Vernon Gras, Hannah Grist, Philip Purser, Peter Stead and John Wyver. We are particularly grateful to Cook, Creeber, Garde-Hansen, Gilbert and Wyver for their collegiate support along the way. Several institutions provided vital support to the gathering of material for The Art of Invective. The British Library St Pancras was virtually a second home, and in the final weeks of research we were delighted to be reunited with their newspaper collections, which had been held in deep storage for xxi
much of our production period owing to a protracted relocation project. The Newsroom, Rare Books & Music and the National Sound Archive at BL each boast a great team, but we would particularly like to thank Steven Dryden for going beyond the call of duty in tracking down key Potter recordings. Diligent is also the middle name of Louise North at the BBC Written Archives Centre, who took our long lists of demands with typical grace and enabled us to mine the Corporation’s Potter holdings in the hunt for ‘new’ material. We would also like to thank the BFI National Archive (Kathleen Dickson), BFI Reuben Library (Sarah Currant and Nina Bishop), the Dean Heritage Centre in the Forest of Dean (Phillippa Turner), The Mary Evans Picture Library, John Frost Newspapers for helping us out of a Herald-shaped hole, the National Library of Scotland, and the University of Bournemouth, keepers of the IBA Archive. David Rolinson would like to thank the University of Stirling for research leave and support that helped with the early stages of research. John Williams would like to thank Newcastle University Library, particularly Chris Stevens and Stacey Whittle who helped with access to Potter material back in the days when the book was being planned. For advice, assistance, discussion and friendship: Alan Andres, Jamie Andrews, Claire Armspach, Steve Arnold, Louis Barfe, Ian Beard, John Belcher, Shaun Brennan, Mark Cairns, Cheryl Campbell, Lez Cooke, Nick Cooper, Simon Coward, Caroline Cowie, Gareth Davies, Laura Earley, Robert Fairclough, Simon Farquhar, Dick Fiddy, Gavin Stewart Gaughan, Darren Giddings, Jonathon Green, Jason Griffiths, Mark Griffiths, Simon Harries, Alan Hayes, Alys Hayes, Jason Hazeley, Iain Hepburn, John Hill, Veronica Hitchcock, Gary Hope, Emily Jane Jenkins, Paul Kobasa, Stephen Lacey, James Leggott, Phil Lepherd, Justin Lewis, Mark Lewisohn, Richard Marson, Andrew Martin, Tom May, Adam McLean, Jonny Mohun, Joel Morris, Daniel Norcross, Jonathan Norton, Leah Panos, Andrew Pixley, Ian Potter, Marcus Prince, Paul Putner, John Roberts, John Robinson, Robert Ross, Tim Scullion, Catherine Shrimpton, Neil Sinyard, Billy Smart, Richard Stilgoe, Vicky Thomas, Keith Topping, Kenith Trodd, Simon Usher, Anthony Wall, Christian Wentzell, Keith Wickham, Zoe Wilcox, Mike Winstanley, Andrew Wright and the Northern Television Research Group. Many are owed apologies for apparently ceaseless, seemingly irrelevant Potter chatter during the book’s gestation, but the most patient were surely Simon Scott, Marina Dekavalla and Shirley Tindle for sharing the worst of it and at such close range. Shirley also has our thanks for proofreading the manuscript. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the editors. xxii
s
T
A Note on the Text
he text has been gathered from a large number of sources, with newspapers, magazines, broadcast interviews and programme transcripts making up the bulk of the material. The sources also ranged across many decades which have seen numerous changes in newspaper style guides and common usage. In newspaper articles printed before 1970, hyphenated words proliferated, block capitals were frequently used for emphasis, and initial capital letters abounded. These have been silently amended: most hyphens have been dropped, italics have been used for emphasis, and capitalization has been minimised. Although this diminishes the period effect of the pieces, it was considered worth sacrificing for a more consistently readable text. Many pieces from the Daily Herald and the Sun offered a particular challenge due to the textual variations between the editions produced in England and Scotland. Titles differed, as did paragraphing; words, sentences and whole sections came and went. Wherever this occurred, an optimal version has been created in order to present something closer to what Potter would have originally submitted before the constraints of space and the editor’s blade intervened. Of course, there remains the possibility that a 1960s sub-editor’s hand has crept in to our new text from time to time. We have also chosen to reduce the generous paragraphing endemic to tabloids, with readability our overriding goal. A similar challenge presented itself with BBC material. Where scripts were available they were used as a master text, and compared with transmission versions if they too existed. In the case of the sketch from That Was the Week That Was, there was a further variant first published by W.H. Allen. As always, a true reflection of the unexpurgated Potter was our aim. All interviews were transcribed by the editors directly from complete recordings, and in the case of Tonight making use of untransmitted xxiii
material. The broken sentences and hesitations of spoken English have been smoothed on occasion, but we believe that nothing important has been lost in the process. Of the broadcast talks, we were able to compare the script and recording of “And with no language but a cry”. Sadly, due to archive retention policies at the BBC, recordings of “The Establishment” and “The other side of the dark” no longer survive, so we were forced to rely on scripts.
xxiv
s Chronology 1935
Dennis Christopher George Potter (DP) is born on 17 May in Berry Hill, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
1940–53
DP attends Christchurch School, Berry Hill (1940–45), then Bell’s Grammar School, Coleford (1946–49). He moves to Hammersmith for a period of seven months in 1945 and then more permanently four years later, when he attends St Clement Dane’s Grammar School (1949–53).
Journalism:
The Dane (school magazine).
1953–55
National Service, with postings at the International Corps Centre, Maresfield Park (where DP meets Kenneth Trodd), the Joint Services School for Linguistics, Bodmin (where DP learns Russian) and finally at MI3 in the War Office, London, where DP serves as a language clerk.
1956–59
DP arrives with state scholarship at New College, Oxford. Editor of Isis, Clarion and chair of Oxford University Labour Club. Marries Margaret Morgan in January 1959. On graduating, DP joins BBC in July 1959 as a trainee and moves to London.
Journalism: Dean Forest Guardian, Oxford Clarion, Isis, Granta, Clarion and New Statesman. TV:
Does Class Matter? (BBC, 1958) and Panorama (BBC, 1959).
1960
Birth of first daughter, Jane.
Books:
The Glittering Coffin (Gollancz).
TV:
Between Two Rivers (BBC) and Bookstand (BBC).
Journalism: Tribune, Daily Herald, Punch and Twentieth Century. xxv
chronology
1961
Birth of second daughter, Sarah.
TV:
Bookstand (BBC).
Journalism: Daily Herald and New Left Review. 1962
Diagnosed with psoriatic arthropathy. Writes first television review.
Journalism: Daily Herald and Sunday Times. Books:
The Changing Forest (Secker and Warburg).
1963 Journalism: Daily Herald. TV:
That Was the Week That Was (BBC).
Stage:
Sketches for Dear Sir, Stroke Madam and Is It True What They Say About…?
1964
Runs as a Labour candidate in East Hertfordshire during the General Election. DP’s first two plays are commissioned for BBC Television.
Journalism: Daily Herald, Views and What’s On In London. TV:
Tonight (BBC), A Last Word on the Election (BBC) and Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life (BBC).
Stage:
Sketches for Excuse Fingers.
1965
Birth of DP’s third child, Robert.
TV:
Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life (BBC) and four plays – The Confidence Course, Alice, Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (all BBC).
Journalism: New Society. 1966
The Potters, having lived for a time in Norfolk, move to Lydney, Forest of Dean.
TV:
Emergency – Ward 9 (BBC) and Where the Buffalo Roam (BBC).
Journalism: New Society. 1967
The Potters move to Morecambe Lodge, Duxmere, Ross-on-Wye.
TV:
Message for Posterity (BBC) and Bravo and Ballyhoo (BBC).
Journalism: New Society, New Statesman, Sunday Times and Times. xxvi
chronology
1968 TV:
The Bone-grinder (Rediffusion), Shaggy Dog (London Weekend Television) and A Beast with Two Backs (BBC).
Journalism: Sun, New Society and Times. Stage:
Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (Bristol).
1969 TV:
Moonlight on the Highway (LWT/Kestrel) and Son of Man (BBC).
Journalism: Punch and Times. Stage:
Son of Man (Leicester; Camden).
1970 TV:
Lay Down Your Arms (LWT/Kestrel) and Angels are so Few (BBC).
Journalism: Times. 1971 TV:
Paper Roses (Granada), Traitor (BBC) and Casanova (BBC).
Journalism: Times and Plays and Players. 1972
A severe and prolonged attack of psoriatic arthropathy permanently damages DP’s hands.
TV:
Follow the Yellow Brick Road (BBC).
Journalism: Times and New Statesman. 1973 TV:
Only Make Believe (BBC) and A Tragedy of Two Ambitions (BBC).
Books:
Hide and Seek (Andre Deutsch/Quartet).
Journalism: Times. 1974 TV:
Joe’s Ark (BBC) and Schmoedipus (BBC).
Journalism: New Statesman and Guardian. Stage:
Only Make Believe (Oxford).
xxvii
chronology
1975
Death of Walter Potter, father of DP.
TV:
Late Call (BBC).
Journalism: New Statesman, New Society, Guardian and Observer Magazine. 1976
Brimstone & Treacle, commissioned and produced by the BBC, is banned before transmission.
TV:
Double Dare (BBC) and Where Adam Stood (BBC).
Journalism: New Statesman, Sunday Times, Evening Standard and Guardian. Talks:
With Great Pleasure (BBC) and “And with no language but a cry” (BBC).
1977
DP begins treatment with ‘miracle drug’ razoxane, which provides him with greater mobility.
Journalism: Sunday Times, Guardian and New Statesman. Talks:
“Realism and non-naturalism” (Edinburgh), “Tell it not in Gath” (Cheltenham) and “A Christmas Forest” (BBC).
1978
Forms Pennies from Heaven Limited with Kenith Trodd. DP ceases to write regular journalism following his departure from the Sunday Times in November.
TV:
The Mayor of Casterbridge (BBC) and Pennies from Heaven (BBC).
Talks:
Serendipity (BBC) and “The other side of the dark” (BBC).
Stage:
Brimstone & Treacle (Sheffield).
Journalism: Sunday Times, Sunday Times Magazine and New Statesman. 1979 TV:
Blue Remembered Hills (BBC)
Journalism: Daily Mail and Tatler. Stage:
Brimstone & Treacle (Camden).
1980 TV:
Blade on the Feather (LWT/PfH), Rain on the Roof (LWT/PfH) and Cream in My Coffee (LWT/PfH).
Journalism: Tatler, Over 21, Daily Mail and TV Times.
xxviii
chronology
1981 Cinema:
Pennies from Heaven (MGM).
Books:
Pennies from Heaven (Quartet).
1982 Cinema:
Brimstone & Treacle (PfH).
Talks:
DP addresses the Eighth International James Joyce Symposium (Dublin).
1983
DP ends his use of razoxane.
Cinema:
Gorky Park (Orion).
Stage:
Sufficient Carbohydrate (Hampstead).
Talks:
“Cymbeline” (BBC).
Journalism: Sunday Times Magazine and Guardian. 1984 Stage:
Sufficient Carbohydrate (West End).
Journalism: Guardian. 1985 TV:
Tender is the Night (BBC).
Cinema:
Dreamchild (Thorn EMI).
Journalism: Guardian. 1986 TV:
The Singing Detective (BBC).
Books:
Ticket to Ride (Faber and Faber).
1987 TV:
Visitors (BBC) and Brimstone & Treacle (BBC; recorded 1976).
Books:
Blackeyes (Faber and Faber).
1988
US transmission of The Singing Detective prompts renewed interest in DP abroad.
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chronology
TV:
Christabel (BBC).
Cinema:
Track 29 (Handmade).
1989
Forms Whistling Gypsy Productions.
TV:
Blackeyes (BBC).
Journalism: Sunday Telegraph. 1990 Journalism: Independent Magazine and New York Times. 1992
Margaret Potter diagnosed with breast cancer.
First US retrospective of DP’s television work, at the Museum of Television and Radio, New York.
Cinema:
Secret Friends (Film Four).
1993 TV:
Lipstick on Your Collar (Channel 4).
Cinema:
Midnight Movie (BBC).
Talks:
Opinions (Channel 4) and “Occupying Powers” (Edinburgh).
1994
DP diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February. Death of Margaret Potter on 28 May. Death of DP at Morecambe Lodge on 7 June.
TV:
Without Walls Special: An Interview with Dennis Potter (Channel 4).
Cinema:
Mesmer (Mayfair).
1996 TV:
Karaoke (BBC/Channel 4) and Cold Lazarus (Channel 4/BBC).
2003 Cinema:
The Singing Detective (Icon).
2014–15
Messages for Posterity: The Complete Dennis Potter – season at BFI Southbank, London, the first to comprise DP’s entire surviving television and film canon.
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