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Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. Beginning with contributions to BBC television's The Wednesday Play anthology seriews from 1965, he peaked with The Singing Detective (1986), a BBC TV serial for which he is most remembered. This work and many of his other widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social and often used themes and images from popular culture. A psoriatic arthropathy sufferer for most of his adult life, Potter made regular public... MORE

Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. Beginning with contributions to BBC television's The Wednesday Play anthology seriews from 1965, he peaked with The Singing Detective (1986), a BBC TV serial for which he is most remembered. This work and many of his other widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social and often used themes and images from popular culture. A psoriatic arthropathy sufferer for most of his adult life, Potter made regular public pronouncements on issues dear to him Dennis Potter was born in Berry Hill, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. His father, Walter Edward Potter (1906–1975), was a coal miner in this rural mining area between Gloucester and Wales; his mother was Margaret Constance, née Wale (b. 1910). Potter has a sister named June. Brought up a Protestant he attended the local Salem chapel, and went to Christchurch Junior School where, in 1946, he passed the eleven-plus entrance examination to Bell's Grammar School at Coleford. He then went to St. Clement Danes School in London, while the family lived for a time with his maternal LESS