Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986) as well as the BBC television plays Blue Remembered Hills (1979) and Brimstone and Treacle (1976). His television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social, and often used themes and images from popular culture. Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists to have worked in British television.
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie, is regarded as one of the most authentic and provocative sources of information about the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century.
Constance Mary Whitehouse was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education.
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of pancreatic cancer. It forms the second half of a pair with the television serial Karaoke.
Robert Colin Holmes was a British television scriptwriter. For over 25 years he contributed to some of the most popular programmes screened in the UK. He is particularly remembered for his work on science fiction programmes, most notably his extensive contributions to Doctor Who, which included working as its script editor from 1974 to 1977.
The Singing Detective is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It".
Pennies from Heaven is a 1978 BBC musical drama serial written by Dennis Potter. The title is taken from the song "Pennies from Heaven" written by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston. It was one of several Potter serials to mix the reality of the drama with a dark fantasy content, and the earliest of his works where the characters burst into extended performances of popular songs.
Francis Finlay, was an English actor. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Iago in Othello (1965). His first leading television role came in 1971 in Casanova. This led to appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show. He also appeared in the drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire.
Casanova is a 2005 British television comedy drama serial, written by television scriptwriter Russell T Davies and directed by Sheree Folkson. Produced by Red Production Company for BBC Wales in association with Granada Television, the 3-episode series was first screened on digital television station BBC Three from 13 March, with a repeat on mainstream analogue network BBC One commencing 4 April.
Dennis Spooner was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. Though he was a contributor to BBC programmes, his work made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment.
Zienia Merton was a British actress born in Burma. She was known for playing Sandra Benes in Space: 1999.
Casanova '73 is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 in September and October 1973. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the series starred Leslie Phillips as wealthy womaniser Henry Newhouse.
Dr. Finlay's Casebook is a television drama series that was produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's 1935 novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s. Cronin was the primary writer for the show between 1962 and 1964.
The Return of Casanova is a 1992 French period drama film directed by Édouard Niermans, and based on Arthur Schnitzler's novella Casanova's Homecoming. It was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
"Double Dare" is the 24th episode of sixth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 6 April 1976. "Double Dare" was written by Dennis Potter, directed by John Mackenzie, produced by Kenith Trodd, and starred Alan Dobie.
Where Adam Stood is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. It is a free adaptation, wholly shot on film, of Edmund Gosse's autobiographical book Father and Son (1907).
Blade on the Feather is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast by ITV on 19 October 1980 as the first in a loosely connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A pastiche of the John Le Carré spy thriller and transmitted eleven months after Anthony Blunt was exposed as the 'fourth man', the drama combines two of Potter's major themes: the visitation motif and political disillusionment. The play's title is taken from "The Eton Boating Song".
Moonlight on the Highway is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on 12 April 1969 as part of ITV's Saturday Night Theatre strand. The tale of a young Al Bowlly obsessive attempting to blot out memories of sexual abuse via his fixation with the singer, the play was the first of Potter's works to use popular music as a dramatic device and strongly anticipated Potter's later 'serials with songs' Pennies from Heaven (1978), The Singing Detective (1986) and Lipstick on Your Collar (1993).
Casanova is a 1987 American made-for-television biographical romantic comedy film directed by Simon Langton. It depicts real life events of Giacomo Casanova.
"Evelyn" is the third episode of second season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 28 October 1971. "Evelyn" was written by Rhys Adrian, directed by Piers Haggard, produced by Graeme MacDonald, and starred Edward Woodward.
