Dennis Potter - Humphrey Carpenter

Dennis Potter's death in 1994 deprived British television of one of the most controversial figure it has ever known. Potter was a prolific writer of genius, author of Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective, but also the butt of the tabloids, who nicknamed him 'Dirty Den' for his 1989 series Blackeyes.For this official biography of Potter Humphrey Carpenter interviewed everyone who came close to him, and had exclusive access to Potter's archives, including the many unmade television and film scripts. Carpenter portrays a very different Potter from the aggressive public image: a deeply shy and reclusive man, who was psychologically as well as physically scarred by the illness which struck him down at the age of 26. Potter was a man with a vast interest in sex but also a terrible loathing of it, thanks to an appalling experience he suffered in childhood.Potter has been a man much gossipped about, both in his lifetime and after his death. Carpenter's remarkable new biography establishes the extraordinary truth behind the rumours, and gives a vivid portrait of the backstage dramas and fights behind Potter's screen triumphs.