Dennis Potter

[Captain Oates]

Devil's advocacy: I grew up with the received wisdom that Dennis Potter represented the epitome of excellence regarding challenging TV drama, and to this day this reputation is not much diminished. Yet when I watch his work I'm just not convinced. Whilst I admire much about him and his undoubted talent, I get the feeling that here was a man of some questionable attitudes who was flattered and encouraged by the BBC - by the late 70s it was like the Emperor's New Clothes.



Where Adam Stood strikes me as a vanity project pure and simple. If anyone else had offered that script to the Beeb it would have been rejected as lacking dramatic potential and documenting a very arcane and specialist interest.

Blue Remembered Hills stands out as one piece where no one seemed to point out that (a) the technique of having adult actors wasn't working and (b) leaving the evil tendencies of children unchallenged was morally dubious.

Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective seem like good ideas for two-hour popular middle-brow dramas that were stretched out to breaking point with repetition and overloaded with pretentious conceit.



I know Blackeyes, Cold Lazarus and Karaoke were not well-received and it was tacitly thought that Potter's ideas had run dry. He was ill by this time and, reasonbly enough, no one would wish to kick him when he was down.



But I just keep coming back with the same questions...Did Potter assume that a childhood full of sadism and perversion was normal, and we should all recognise ourselves in his work? Did he never accept that, actually, most people don't come from the Forest of Dean, or have an interest in dance band crooners? I wouldn't mind him exploring these things once or twice, but the insularity of his dramatic world showed a self-absorption that would have fascinated a psychologist.



I really would like to be convinced that I'm wrong, or conversely assured that, actually, others might feel the same.

[Steve Crook]

name='Captain Oates']Devil's advocacy: I grew up with the received wisdom that Dennis Potter represented the epitome of excellence regarding challenging TV drama...

Why look for "challenging" drama? Why not just look for "good" drama?

I'd say there are plenty of other contenders for the best writer of TV dramas. Jack Rosenthal, Alan Plater and Steven Moffat being three that spring to mind



Steve