Karaoke (TV serial)
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| Karaoke | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Creator(s) | Dennis Potter |
| Starring | Albert Finney |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 1996 – |
Karaoke was a British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying from cancer of the pancreas.
It forms a pair with the serial Cold Lazarus. The two plays were filmed as a single production by the same team; both were directed by Renny Rye.
Both plays were unique in being co-productions between the BBC and rival broadcaster Channel 4, something Potter had expressly requested before his death. The show was first aired on BBC1 in April 1996 on Sunday evenings, with a repeat on Channel 4 the following day.
Karaoke's main character is Daniel Feeld, played by Albert Finney. Feeld is a writer, and is supervising the editing of a play called Karaoke that he wrote for broadcast. He starts to hear and experience events in the play in real life, and meets a character, called Pig Mailion (a pun on Pygmalion) that he thought he had invented. At the same time Feeld has been diagnosed with an inoperable tumour and begins to make preparations to have his head frozen by cryonics.
In his introduction to the screenplay (published by Faber & Faber), Potter writes: "I offer up the pieces in my love and my life." The first play includes perhaps the most self-revealing exchange in all of Dennis Potter's work. A fellow patient in hospital asks Feeld if he likes 'gardens,' and Feeld replies, "I like the word 'garden'."
The series stars Richard E. Grant, Hywel Bennett, Roy Hudd and Julie Christie and features Saffron Burrows and Keeley Hawes in two early screen appearances.
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