Some passing remarks on Dennis the Menace (as the British tabloids
called him).
Having watched both COLD LAZARUS and two parts of KARAOKE, I think
that Potter succeeded in retrieving some of the SINGING-DETECTIVE-
impact in these works. Potter is remarkable, however, in going way
beyond people likeGarnett-Allen- Loach, Sandford, even Mike Leigh
etc. in coupling his working-class-nostalgia with a postmodern
aesthetic. Strangely enough, he belongs to the angry young TV-men of
the early sixties as much as to the
Cronenberg-Roeg-Lynch-Greenaway-league. ... and even if the Birt-BBC is in
a deplorable state, ineteresting work will continue to pour out of
British TV Channels. Witness Jimmy McGovern's CRACKER. Whoever is
interested in Potter, I reccommend his early metafictional novel HIDE
AND SEEK (Faber & Faber) which is an AWFUL read but holds in many ways the key
to
Potter. Also, of course, Jim Cook's meticulous study, Graham Fuller's
extensive interview, Potter's public farewell to Rupert and, why not,
my own book (IN GERMAN).
I think, the aesthetic borderline between film and TV will continue
to lose validity, anyway. Potter should be considered, because he
bridges the gap between playful, parodic postmodernism to a dead serious
approach to one's themes. Also, he created some of the most
interesting MAN-IN-CRISIS-studies currently available.
Any more comments out there?
Dr. Eckart Voigts-Virchow
Institut fuer Anglistik & Amerikanistik
Justus-Liebig-Universitaet Giessen
Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10B
D-35394 GIESSEN
Tel 06 41 - 702 - 55 55
Fax 06 41 - 702 - 38 11
Tel/Priv 0 64 03 - 6 83 82
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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