Day #13 of the 30 Day Television Challenge

[shadowkat]

This is Day #13 of the 30 Day Television Challenge.

The prompt is Musical television series that you enjoyed (old or new) - can't be a reality show .

Most of these barely last two seasons. The more successful ones use songs that have already become hits outside of the series.

I'm going with the one that lasted the longest...

Glee

Tragic side note? Two of the young cast members are dead, one ended up in prison.

Comments

[cjlasky7]

The Singing Detective (1986); written by Dennis Potter, directed by Jon Amiel

Lying in a hospital bed, paralyzed by a severe, chronic form of psoriasis, mystery writer Philip Marlow (yes, he knows) runs through versions of his latest thriller, "The Singing Detective," desperately trying to ward off insanity and despair.

Marlow's fantasy mixes his pulpy noir with lip-synced versions of 1940s musical numbers and memories of his actual boyhood in WWII London. Switching off between his painful reality, his fictional creation and his buried history, Marlow must discover if he has the inner strength to fight his disease and walk away from his sick bed.

****************

A worthy sequel to Potter's immortal Pennies from Heaven, the musical numbers perfectly set the mood for Marlow's memory play. Watch the BBC miniseries starring Michael Gambon; skip the movie version with Robert Downey Jr.

https://youtu.be/7UlPzVzf8rA

[shadowkat]

I saw it - I don't remember it. But I did see both the movie and the series or tried to. I have a vague memory of both.

[jesuswasbatman]

Potter would come back fom the grave and string you up for "boyhood in London"! There's much more of it set in the Forest of Dean on the borders of England and South Wales, where Potter grew up.

Brilliant, brilliant series. I especially love the moment where the two heavies in Marlow's story realise that they don't actually know where they come from or what they're meant to be doing, and go after him for not writing them properly.

Caused a massive scandal at the time for what where then considered unusually graphic sex scenes. This led to the notorious purity campaigner Mary Whitehouse being sued for slander after she stated in a radio interview, confused by the actual autobiographical elements in the story, that Potter, like his protagonist, had been psychologically scarred by catching his mother having adulterous sex as a child - Mrs. Potter was still alive and sued.

[cjlasky7]

Absolutely right that most of the childhood flashbacks were in the Forest of Dean. (Wouldn't want Potter mad at me...)

Besides Gambon as Marlow, I was really impressed by the multilevel narrative structure, especially when the levels would "bleed" into each other, depending on Marlow's emotional state.

If I ever do write that novel (or screenplay), it'll have a structure like this series.