OK.
Let's get this nightie off, then, eh?
Draw the curtains.
Uh-uh-uh, now, we're all boys in here together.
Draw the curtains, draw the bloody curtains.
§
My first take on The Singing Detective was that it was brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
I loved it.
It was quite controversial as well.
So I, you know, had a bit of thinking to do,
but I didn't care,
because I loved the script and I thought it was brilliant.
When you're working on any television show,
the script is vital, obviously,
because that's the root of the whole thing.
If you haven't got a good script, you can't do a good job.
Ancl Dennis Potterjust wrote the most brilliant script.
Ancl so I was just so happy to do it.
He was a...
...a very, very special man,
and it's always made me sad
that he was taken from us too soon,
before he could write even more things, you know,
he was... he was wonderful.
The Singing Detective just had a brilliant cast.
It was six episodes,
and over those six episodes, we filmed two episodes,
and then we had two weeks when we could rehearse
and prep the next two.
Film those, two weeks when we could rehearse, and prep the next two,
which is unheard of now.
And of course that gave it a rhythm,
it gave it... we were all ready for the next episode.
I mean, I had an important part, but I, you know,
it wasn't a huge part.
But for someone like Michael Gambon, who was just in it all the time,
it was great, because then they could prep in their minds
for the next two episodes, and it was wonderful.
HACKING CH ESTY COUGH
VIOLENT COUGHING CONTINUES
HE EXPECTORATES
Lovely bit of plum, isn't it?
I cossunt buy't plum, not forjam.
I don't care what no-one does say.
Cossunt cook a plum.
A plum don't like cooking.
It's got too much skin.
Give I stro'bry any day.
I'd rather have stro'bryjam any clay of the week.
I'd rather have me...
HE COUGHS
HE EXPECTORATES AND IT SIZZLES
God almighty!
What?
What's the matter?
How can anybody eat with that going on?
When I watch it, it all comes back to me.
I remember there was a...
...there was a bit of a thing
about what were they going to use for him to spit out the phlegm
from his chest.
And I was saying, "Well, you know..."
And I think - I think this is right.
I came up with the idea that if he chewed a banana...
...piece of banana, and then...
SHE RETCH ES
...and then spat it out,
that would actually look like the right thing,
but be quite pleasant.
So we... because it was not a very nice thing to do...
...as we can gather from her.
But just watching that scene,
I think...
...the detail and the time that's given
to watching that family, just all putting this jam on
and then eating.
Now, you know, they'd say, "We can't have all that,"
you know, "We'lljust cut straight to them eating,"
you know, with the jam on the bread or the toast.
It's that detail...
...that I think we've lost from a lot of, you know,
everyone's too scared that people will go, "Oh, this is boring,"
you know, if you take too long over something like that.
But the detail is what makes it work and what makes it so special.
No marks, Raymond, no bruises.
K?
No sense in wastin' time.
It's what we come for here, innit?
I can't hold back no more.
Oh, God, don't touch me there.
Not yet. Oh!
I can't...
Raymond, wait.
We can't lie down here.
Jesus Christ, Ray!
Filming the sex scene in the woods was quite difficult,
and, you know, caused quite a bit of anxiety.
Don't forget, it was at a time when those scenes weren't
happening all the time.
Now it's, you know, you see sex scenes in films
and on television, and it's kind of like the norm.
But then this was quite different,
and it was also quite different because...
...she had her son - or she didn't know that,
but he was sitting in the top of a tree,
witnessing what was happening.
So there were various layers to it.
DISTANT SOUNDS OF PLEASURE
But I do remember...
...going on a Sunday morning, when the series was going out,
and I went to the local shop to buy a newspaper,
and...
...there was this newspaper in front of me on the counter
and it said, "BBC braces itself for biggest sex shock ever."
And there was a picture of me on the front.
And I was just so horrified and upset.
And I grabbed this newspaper and ran home...
...and immediately phoned
the director,
and said, "What is going on?
"I've just seen this in the paper."
And, you know, and I phoned my parents,
and, you know, my poor parents were
living in the suburban area of Liverpool and having to cope
with that, with neighbours wondering what their daughter was doing.
It was very upsetting and stressful.
And the director was very kind
and he sent me in a taxi that episode
so I could have a look at it before it went out.
And of course, when I looked at it, I thought,
"This is over the top. What on earth are they doing?"
You know, because it was shot, you know, in quite a clever way.
Erm, but, yeah...
But it, you know, caused a lot of trouble at the time.
Doing that stuff with Mr Binney. Raymond Binney, Mark's clad.
What stuff? What do you mean?
On top of there. Rolling about on top of there. What?
Shagging-
Oh, Phillip.
Shagging!
Phillip!
I remember some newspaper got my mother's phone number somehow
and rang her and said, "How did you feel about your daughter being..."
Ancl luckily, my mother was very sensible
and just put the phone down and wouldn't speak.
But, yes, at the time it was very upsetting.
And I was trying to explain that the young boy that played my son
was not on set when that was being filmed.
And also, he wasn't 11, he was older and he looked quite young.
But these things happen,
and when they happen, you have to cope with them.
But I was hanging on to the fact that I loved that series
and I loved playing that part.
I tried to warn you. I tried to tell you, you silly...
Skinscapes.
Skinscapes?
What about Skinscapes?
Skinscapes.
A front. A front for what, Lily?
The Nazis they haven't caught yet, is that it?
The Nazis the British and the Americans don't want to see caught?
Isn't that right? just nod.
What can I say about Michael Gambon?
He is very naughty!
The scene when his mother,
he sees his mother as like a Marilyn Monroe character, you know,
and she gets shot and she's lying there and he's next to her,
he was so naughty that clay, making me laugh.
The director was getting very fed up with me
and I kept thinking, it's his fault, not mine.
I'm a terrible giggler.
He is a brilliant actor. Absolutely brilliant.
He's so talented.
He's one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life.
He's wonderful.
And I thought that his...
...performance in The Singing Detective was second to none.
He was just wonderful.
Because it wasn't an easy role.
I mean, if you look at all the things he's got to go through,
it was incredible, absolutely incredible, but he was brilliant.
Whatever you are.
Wherever you are.
I'll get you!
I would think The Singing Detective was part of a golden age.
I mean, yes, we make brilliant television now,
of course we do, but it's made in a different way.
There are so many things going on.
Sometimes I just get so muddled about all the channels
and all the companies that are making things.
Of course it's great that we are making a lot.
But sometimes I just want everything to slow down a bit.
Like the clays of The Singing Detective
when we could all kind of watch, digest it,
really understand it, share it, go out the next clay and say,
"Did you see that episode? And this happened and that happened."
I think audiences will get a lot out of it, I really do.
Because it's very special.
It's a wonderful story.
It's complex, but in the end it's not hard to follow,
because you know you are with this man and what he's going through.
I think audiences will really, really love it.