The Singing Detective poster

The Singing Detective

★ 8.5 5K votes 1986–1986 1 seasons · 6 episodes Ended BBC One
ExperimentalFormally adventurous television that breaks the rules.This show: 10/10Unreliable narratorThe telling itself can't be trusted.This show: 9/10Puzzle plotNonlinear timelines, twists and structural games that reward attention.This show: 9/10Dialogue-drivenThe writing's voice is the main event.This show: 9/10Stylized directionBold, signature formal choices.This show: 9/10Character studyInterior life matters more than plot.This show: 9/10Mental healthPsychological struggle treated with real seriousness.This show: 8/10Event miniseriesPrestige limited television built as an event.This show: 8/10
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Starring
Michael GambonPatrick MalahideJoanne WhalleyDavid RyallGerard HoranLeslie French
Starring
Michael GambonPatrick MalahideJoanne WhalleyDavid RyallGerard HoranLeslie French
Ratings per Episode
246810
Votes per Episode
050100150200

The Singing Detective Episode Ratings Heatmap

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S17.98.08.07.87.87.98.1

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About

"Grief and pulp fiction fused into hallucinatory television"

A bedridden crime novelist, wracked with a disfiguring skin disease, drifts between his hospital ward, bitter childhood memories, paranoid delusions about his ex-wife, and the pulpy noir novel he wrote, which springs to life around him complete with lip-synced 1940s musical numbers. Dennis Potter's serial is strange, structurally daring television: bleak, funny, cruel and tender in the same scene, hopping timelines without warning. Michael Gambon anchors it with a performance of real physical and emotional rawness. It demands patience and attention, but rewards it with something unlike almost anything else made for TV.

Watch it for

the way Michael Gambon's performance holds together a wildly fractured, genre-bending structure.

Maybe skip if

you need linear storytelling or find bodily illness and bitterness hard to sit with.

Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.

All Seasons

Miniseries1986
7.984266h 41m
Tormented and bedridden by a debilitating disease, a mystery writer relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations.
EpTitleRatingYoursVotesRuntime
1Skin8.0
19268 min
2Heat8.0
15569 min
3Lovely Days7.8
13563 min
4Clues7.8
12067 min
5Pitter Patter7.9
11858 min
6Who Done It8.1
12276 min

Full Cast & Crew

Cast

Michael Gambon Philip Marlow
Patrick Malahide Mark Binney, Raymond, Mark Finney
Joanne Whalley Nurse Mills
David Ryall Mr. Hall
Gerard Horan Reginald
Leslie French Mr. Tomkey, Noddy Tomkey
Ron Cook First Mysterious Man
George Rossi Second Mysterious Man
Sharon D. Clarke Night Nurse
Lyndon Davies Philip (aged 10)

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