زندگی و کار دنیس پاتر

The first critical biography of the innovative television writer whose off-kilter creations helped spark the Golden Age of modern television. TV writer Dennis Potter is widely credited with revolutionizing television. The innovative shows he created for the BBC, including The Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven , trailblazed new paths for genre-bending entertainment and demonstrated the creative possibilities of episodic television. Potter also adapted both of those shows into critically acclaimed major motion pictures: Pennies from Heaven starring Steve Martin, and The Singing Detective starring Robert Downey Jr. In The Life and Work of Dennis Potter , W. Stephen Gilbert analyzes Potter's impressive body of work, emphasizing the dramatic interplay between his life and the medium he loved. At the age of twenty-four, Potter was diagnosed with psoriatic arthopathy, a rare debilitating skin disease whose horrors he portrayed with biting black humor through his alter ego, the character Michael Gambon in The Singing Detective . Gilber traces Potter's career from its beginnings to his astonishing final interview to Melvyn Bragg, weeks before his death. Unforgettable for its honesty about life, work, and dying, the result was yet another gripping piece of television—and quintessential Dennis Potter. "[T]he late dramatist's influence can be seen in many places, from Twin Peaks to Mrs. Brown's Boys ." — The Guardian "Gilbert recalls the lacerating wit, passionate intelligence, and courage behind the television playwright responsible for The Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven ." — Vanity Fair Dennis Potter redefined the standards for television playwriting. His remarkable career included "Pennies from Heaven," the inspiration for the movie starring Steve Martin-for which Potter wrote the screenplay-and the brilliantly complex "The Singing Detective," one of the finest artistic achievements ever created for television. W. Stephen Gilbert brilliantly analyzes Potter's work, emphasizing the dramatic interplay between this brilliant, difficult man's life and the medium to which he was devoted. At the age of twenty-four, for instance, Potter was diagnosed with psoriatic arthopathy, a rare debilitating skin disease whose horrors he portrayed with biting black humor through his alter ego, the Michael Gambon character in "The Singing Detective." Weeks before his foretold death, he gave an astonishing television interview to Melvyn Bragg. Unforgettable for its honesty about life and work and death, the result was a gripping piece of television-quintessential Dennis Potter. This is an essential book for anyone interested in television, film, or this courageous and fascinating man