Today Professor John Cook is recognised as the preeminent academic authority on the life and work of Dennis Potter. In 1990 he was a Phd student researching for his thesis on Potter - later to be published as the monograph Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen (1994). The then young John secured an interview with Potter at the London office of his agent Judy Daish. The recording of that interview, on basic equipment of the time was recorded on a c90 cassette tape. John himself describes the sound quality on these original recordings as "very murky, full of background noise and tape hiss". Now though, thanks to digital tools the sound has been restored and John has started to release them to mark what would have been Dennis Potter's 90th year. Thank you John for sharing this audio treasure trove!
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It's one of the many iconic images of The Singing Detective (1986) - young Philip Marlow in the branches of an oak tree; long shot slowly zooming in; then Philip directly addressing us the viewer: "When I grow up, I be going to be - a detective". John Belcher was engaged by the producers to act as a location scout and fixer for location filming in the Forest of Dean for Potter’s latest BBC drama serial. The scenes with Philip up the tree were originally intended to be shot at Devil's Chapel near Bream. Part of the Bledisloe estate it is an atmospheric woodland atop scowle holes - the local term for the remains of ancient iron-ore excavations & erosions. It’s mysterious dips, ‘potholes’ and their history inspired poet F W Harvey to write a poem of the same name, and was the site of music and performance events in the 1930’s organised by Harvey (upwards of 2,000 people attending). In 1986 it was not an easy site to access for a film crew, and with deep holes and ravines concealed by bracken and ferns was a potentially dangerous. So instead John suggested Nagshead enclosure near Parkend. Today it is an RSPB nature reserve. What of that tree - nearly 40years later could it be identified? On a warm and wet summer's morning a trip with John to Nagshead brought back memories of the shoot. A screengrab helped - that strong perpendicular branch, the tree was so tick etc. But how much does an oak tree change in 40 years? How much has grown up around it, changes in access to light shaping its branches. There were plenty of candidates - including some fine fallen veterans, their carcass left as a habitat and to rot down as feed for the next generation of trees. We didn't find the tree - but knowing that's where those scenes were filmed brought the challenges of location filming into sharper focus. You can hear John recalling his role in the production, and hear Lyndon Davies' recollections of filming 'up the tree' on this site - just click the Digital Stories tab at the top of this page.
In 1968 Dennis Potter was already a controversial figure in his native Forest of Dean when for his next play he took as inspiration a notorious local event: 'the killing of the bears'. In 1889 four Frenchmen touring the district with their dancing bears were attacked by a mob prompted by a false rumour that a local child had been killed by one of their bears. The men were badly beaten and both bears were killed - a source of disgrace for the Forest, and controversy to this day as to which community was responsible. Such was the potency of this dark moment in Forest history that reaction against Potter’s choice of subject prompted a slew of letters to the local newspapers even before filming had started. This correspondence provides a fascinating insight into the Forest community’s relationship with the events of (then) eighty years before, but even more so with Potter himself. Delving into the production and local reception of Dennis Potter’s television play A Beast with Two Backs (1968) as played out through the pages of the local Forest newspapers, this talk by Dr Jason Griffiths will address the relationship at the time between Potter and this particular audience, how he engaged with it through his own correspondence, and will question what impact this had on him and his writing.   Dennis Potter passed away thirty years ago this June, and University of Gloucestershire's Reading the Forest in partnership with The Palace Cinema and Dean Heritage Centre is marking the anniversary with a unique marathon screening of one of his most popular and ground breaking serial dramas, The Singing Detective on Sunday 9th June 2024.
Tickets to the screening can be pre-booked here: https://cinderpal.com/cinderford/soon/ The event is the result of the University’s longstanding partnership with the Dean Heritage Centre that saw the Forest museum secure Potter's literary papers to set up the Dennis Potter Archive and permanent exhibition. Researchers and students at the University worked with the museum on setting up and cataloguing the collection, and on putting together the exhibition including producing the Dennis Potter Audio trail. Dr Hannah Grist, who wrote her Phd thesis at the University about the collection, later co-authored a ground-breaking book with Professor Joanne Garde-Hansen about the relationship between Potter’s fans, memory, and the archive. Ongoing work with the museum has produced several events and exhibitions highlighting how Potter frequently set and filmed elements of his work in his native Forest of Dean, including The Singing Detective. Large parts of the drama were filmed in the Forest, and as with his other locally filmed works, local people were employed as extras. He was a hugely important figure in the development of British television, but he never forgot the people and places where he grew up. The screening is taking place at The Palace Cinema in Cinderford. “We’ve worked with the University before, and are thrilled to be hosting this event”, says owner Andy Lougher. The cinema, built in 1910 is one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas still operating in Britain, and Potter himself would have known it as a youngster. The audience is being encouraged to come dressed as characters in the drama – detectives, spivs, doctors, nurses, patients, or in 1940s period clothing. The screening will be introduced (via video) by world renowned Potter expert and author Professor John Cook of Glasgow Caledonian University, a long-standing friend and consultant to the Potter Archive. John’s own research in the archive saw him author a recent paper demonstrating how Potter drew on several of his longstanding themes and ideas in his writing of The Singing Detective. Those attending the screening will also get to see some of the unique artefacts relating to the drama that are held by the Dennis Potter Archive. Professore Cook's paper can be accessed for free here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/files/72336635/Cook_J._R._2022_The_Country_Boy.pdf   Under the heading 'Hidden Treasures' the BBC has announced that it will be broadcasting a forgotten radio play by Dennis Potter. Traitor was first broadcast in May 1981. The play is Potter's radio version of his Play For Today of the same name broadcast on BBC 1 television in 1971. The play centres around the visit by Western journalists to interview Soviet double agent Adrian Harris in Moscow: "Harris believes in both Communism and Englishness, believing himself to have betrayed his class, but not his country. The press find these beliefs incompatible, and want to find out why he became a ‘traitor’. Harris is plagued by anxieties over both his actions and his childhood history". The TV play featured an acclaimed performance by John Le Mesurier as Harris, whilst in the radio play the same part is played by Denholm Elliott. At the time of the first broadcast Potter was asked if he was obsessed with the theme of betrayal: "I think...a feeling of betrayal...is almost part of our metabolism. I mean, we have at one stage...our ideals...and then you go into jobs, you compromise, you get sick because you can't think too personally about exactly what it is you are trampling underfoot, and you write, buy food, occupy a big house, take a big mortgage, all the things that I'm doing" You can hear Traitor on BBC Radio 4, 2.15pm, Monday 25th March.
In a recent interview for The Guardian (30th March 2023) Alison Steadman recalled filming of The Singing Detective (1986). The series, which was a tour de force, featured Potter's by then trade mark 'sing and dance' routines with actors lip synching to popular songs of the 1930s and 40s, and multiple intersecting story lines. Steadman played Mrs Marlow, mother of the young Phillip, who would become the author of hard boiled detective stories including The Singing Detective. Steadman, and co-stars Patrick Malahide and Jim Carter are well remembered in the village of Berry Hill where they relaxed with local extras in between scenes. In the scene that Steadman recalls, young Phillip witnesses his mother's extra marital liaison amongst the ferns with family friend Mark Binney (Malahide). The scene became notorious, not least because legal action was taken against Mary Whitehouse for suggesting it was a scene the young Potter had himself in reality witnessed. In the recent interview, and unfortunately making the headline quote for it, Steadman remembered filming the scene in the 'New Forest'. John Belcher worked with location manager Mike Darbon, helping to find suitable Forest locations for filming, and confirms that no, it was most definitely not filmed in the New Forest, but indeed in the Forest of Dean. With your prolific, brilliant career, and your fantastic performances in Dennis Potter's work - we forgive you Alison!   The Singing Detective is back on TV, launching with a triple bill last night on BBC Four. If you missed it you can still watch on iPlayer – but it’s for a limited period only (29 days from today, Dec 1st 22) so don’t leave it too long! It’s being shown again as part of the British Film Institute’s 100 BBC TV Gamechangers, and how fitting that it should be one of Potter’s dramas in which the Forest played a crucial part. As the afflicted author Phillip Marlow lies in a hospital bed, memories of his Forest of Dean childhood intermingle with the plot and characters of his hard-boiled detective fiction. Marlow suffers from the same dreadful chronic condition that Potter did - psoriatic arthropathy – and there are many other elements of the story that are drawn from the author’s life. But, as Potter pointed out, incidents in the author’s life are the raw materials on which he draws, and we should not draw too many conclusions from what appears. Local extras featured as well as local locations and you can hear Forest location scout, ex-teacher John Belcher talking about that here: https://vimeo.com/70470812 The current screening marking 100 years of the BBC was preceded with actor Alison Steadman reflecting on her experience of filming, and, as she points out weeks of rehearsal prior to filming – a luxury rarely afforded TV actors today. Like many of the programmes from the past that make up the Gamechangers list, there are moments in The Singing Detective that may well jar with contemporary viewers, but worth remembering this is television from another time, depicting the attitudes of society at the time – and indeed in this case is arguably a critiquing them. As Steadman points out, television was made differently then too, longer in the marking, as well as the work itself taking its time to portray characters and scenes, and tell its story. So, if you’ve not seen it, or it’s been a while, block out some time, sit back and enjoy a true masterpiece – from the pen of one of the Forest of Dean’s finest and most important authors.
 It was today, 21st October, 55 years ago that 116 children and 28 adults were killed in the village of Aberfan. After days of torrential rain the colliery spoil or 'slag' heap that towered over the village slid down to engulf Pantglas Junior School and near-by houses. The village lost a generation. That summer 31 year old Dennis Potter and his family had moved back to the Forest of Dean and on news of the events in Wales he was dispatched by the journal New Society to report on the aftermath. His report published a few days later on the 27th is a masterpiece. It captures the subtle nature of shock and grief he perceives amongst the residents of the town, and the families of those killed. It is full of empathy but as ever with Potter's writing it is never mawkish. It is suffused instead with controlled and directed rage: Rage at God, rage at the national Coal Board, rage at the government: "If only the so-called socialists who run this ugly country would yap less about their glorious heritage and do a damned site more to remove the inglorious legacy which is still rammed down so many people's throats every time they open their mouths to breathe" The article is just one of the many examples of Potter's journalism reproduced in The Art of Invective: Selected Non-Fiction 1953-94 published by Oberon books. This important contribution to Potter scholarship was brought together by editors Ian Greaves, David Rolinson and John Williams. Potter's own hand-written drafts (all 4 of them) of his report on Aberfan are part fo the incredible Dennis Potter Archive held at the Dean Heritage Centre in the Forest of Dean. This and other items in the collection are available to view by appointment. Explore the catalogue and book your visit here.
The home of the Dennis Potter Archive & Exhibition, the Dean Heritage Centre is now fully reopened following a period of temporary closure due to the UK Covid lockdown. Staff and volunteers are back on site, visitors are streaming through the doors, school groups are being welcomed and a series of special events have already kicked off. Housed at the museum, the Dennis Potter Exhibition offers the general visitor an introduction to his life and career, and his significance in British culture of the latter half of the twentieth century. For the dedicated Potter fan or researcher, the wider museum, including the on-site Potter audio trail, provides a marvellous context giving an insight into the place that meant so much to him - the Forest of Dean. But this is not all the museum has to offer because stored behind the scenes in a climate controlled fire proof vault are the Dennis Potter papers. This incredible collection of invaluable documents was secured for the museum in 2012 by the joint efforts of the museum team, academics at the University of Gloucestershire, the local Voices in the Forest CIC, and the support of Professor John Cook. A grant from the National Lottery made the purchase of the papers and the setting up of the archive and exhibition possible. Now, after years of work by dedicated museum staff and specially trained volunteers the papers are catalogued. Amongst the many treasures in the collection are drafts of Potter's unfinished novel Country Boy, numerous journalism, handwritten notebooks, and never-produced screenplays. There are also drafts, rehearsal scripts, correspondence and production ephemera connected to his many well-loved drama series such as Pennies from Heaven, and The Signing Detective. The full catalogue is now available from the Dean Heritage Museum website and visits to view the material in person can also be booked. A word of warning: If your travelling from afar - make sure to book yourself accommodation as you'll want more than one day amongst these precious Potter treasures! |
