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] ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]