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The Singing Detective (1986)

BBC One · Drama, Crime · 1 season · 70 min

The Singing Detective was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in 1986 on Sunday nights from 16 November to 21 December with later PBS and cable television showings in the United States. Mystery writer Philip E. Marlow is suffering writer's block and is hospitalised because his psoriatic arthropathy, a chronic skin and joint disease, is at an acute stage forming lesions and sores over his entire body, and partially cripples his hands and feet. As a result of constant pain, a fever caused by the condition, and his refusal to take medication, Marlow falls into a fantasy world involving his Chandleresque novel, The Singing Detective, an escapist adventure about a detective (also named "Philip Marlow") who sings at a dance hall and takes the jobs "the guys who don't sing" won't take.

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Seasons

  1. Season 1 · 6 episodes · 1986

Cast

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

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