Dennis Potter was/is very much an English reputation and an English phenomenon, and one wonders whether the cult which arose around him shortly before his recent death, from pancreatic cancer, is transient or will outlast this century. Originally a working journalist, he was disabled by a rare disease called psoriatic arthropathy and turned to writing plays, mainly for television. His energy and sheer professionalism were unquestioned and apart from his many plays he also turned out TV serials, film scripts and novels. The author of this biography is himself a TV producer as well as a busy journalist and critic, which gives him a special insight into the world in which Potter made his name. He thinks that Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven are the cream of Potter's large output. Plainly he was a "difficult" man, but then he was constantly fighting disease and disablement, as well as troubles in his emotional life, while competing in a notoriously tough, even ruthless medium and milieu.