Dennis Potter

First filmed theatrically in 1962, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final novel, TENDER IS THE NIGHT, was given a lavish (seven million dollars) treatment in this British-Australian-American miniseries version. Set in Europe’s waning days of the Roaring Twenties, the plot focused upon the tempestuous marriage between jaded psychiatrist Dick Diver (Peter Strauss) and the beautiful, schizophrenic socialite Nicole Warren (Mary Steenburgen). An international cast did an excellent job impersonating the “Lost Generation” for which Fitzgerald was the principal spokesman (the author was himself all but burned out by the time the original novel was published, and his desperation oozes through every page).Read More »

After a brief tutelage with innovative BBC documentary producer Denis Mitchell, Dennis Potter teamed with producer Anthony de Lotbiniere to film a documentary (later described by David Niven as “absolutely wonderful”). Returning to the Berry Hill roots of his childhood, Potter used interviews with locals (including his parents) to show changes in the working-class traditions of the Forest of Dean, where “the green forest has a deep black heart beneath its sudden hills, pushing up slag heaps and gray little villages clustering around the coal.”Read More »

Transmitted on 13th October 1965 at 9.05 p.m. on BBC 1 as part of the Wednesday Play series. Repeated on 6th July 1966 on BBC1

The play is a fictionalised account of the relationship between Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell. It cleverly integrates events, conversations and chance remarks into the narrative which later become part of the “Alice” books but more than anything it’s a touching story of unrequited love where frustration and innocence co-exist but never quite resolve their conflict. It was later remade as the film ‘Dreamchild’.Read More »