The Singing Detective is a six-part BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel.

Dennis Potter suffered from this disease and he wrote with a pen tied to his fist in much the same fashion Marlow does in the last episode.

The real Marlow also experiences flashbacks to his childhood in rural England and his mother's life in wartime London.

The suicide of his mother is one of several recurring images in the series; Marlow uses it (whether subconsciously or not) in his murder mystery and sometimes replaces her face with different women in his life, real and imaginary.

The noir mystery is never solved; all that is ultimately revealed is an intentionally vague plot involving smuggled Nazi war criminals being protected by the Allies and Soviet agents attempting to stop them.

Marlow's guilt at his apparent belief that he caused his parents' separation and even his mother's suicide is exacerbated by his early childhood memory when he framed young Mark Binney for defecating on the desk of a disciplinarian elementary teacher (Janet Henfrey).

It is suggested that in each reality, the guilt of Binney/Finney/Mark is entirely the product of Marlow's imagination as, in one case, Finney, the wife's lover, does not exist.

Patrick Malahide plays three characters—the contemporary Finney, who Marlow thinks is having an affair with his ex-wife Nicola, played by Janet Suzman; the imaginary Binney, a central character in the murder plot; and Raymond, a friend of Marlow's father who has an affair with his mother (Alison Steadman).

[1] Originally the title of the series was to be "Smoke Rings", and the Singing Detective noir thriller was to be dropped after the first episode; Potter felt it would not hold the audience's attention.

[1] The discarded title may have referred to a particular monologue delivered by the hospitalized Marlow in the first episode, which includes the sentiment that, despite everything else, the one thing he really wants is a cigarette.

The serial was adapted into a 2003 American film featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson, with the locations changed to the United States.

[1] Director Jon Amiel compiled and spliced the generic thriller music used throughout the series from 60 library tapes he had brought together.