Dennis Potter

Dennis Potter
Cover of The Life and Work of Dennis Potter
Born	Dennis Christopher George Potter (1935-05-17)17 May 1935 Berry Hill, Gloucestershire, England
Died	7 June 1994(1994-06-07) (aged 59) Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England
Occupation	Television playwright, screenwriter, journalist, author, novelist, director
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Period	1960–1994
Genre	Drama
Notable works	Pennies from Heaven (1978) Blue Remembered Hills (1979) The Singing Detective (1986) Lipstick on Your Collar (1993)
Spouse	Margaret Morgan ​ ​ (m. 1959; died 1994)​
Children	3, including Sarah

Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) 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).^[1] 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.

Born in Gloucestershire and graduating from Oxford University, Potter initially worked in journalism. After standing for parliament as a Labour candidate at the 1964 general election, his health was affected by the onset of psoriatic arthropathy which necessitated Potter to change career and led to his becoming a television dramatist. He began with contributions to BBC1's regular series The Wednesday Play from 1965, and he continued to work in the medium for the rest of his life, including writing screenplay adaptations for Hollywood studios. Potter died of pancreatic cancer in 1994.