My colleague Mark Brown recently reported on BBC4's cancellation of 25th anniversary repeat of Dennis Potter's landmark drama The Singing Detective – because negotiations broke down between the broadcaster and Potter's estate. The BBC refused to stump up what the agent for the estate, Judy Daish, said was the extra £5,000 that was the gap between being able to show the drama – one of the greatest television series ever made – and not. A spokesperson for the BBC argued that "it would be inappropriate to pay above the odds for any programme, particularly during a time of budget cuts".
(Some people might ask a few questions about priorities here. £5,000 is a drop in the ocean of the budgets of a lot of the sheer pap put out by the BBC. The Singing Detective, by contrast, is one of the most significant achievements of the BBC's history.)
But: a happy ending.
As if by sheer coincidence, the BBC's decision has been reversed (I learn). The series will be shown after all, and a formal announcement is expected shortly.
Meantime, author and presenter Matthew Sweet has recorded a special edition of the splendid Radio 3 programme Night Waves in honour of The Singing Detective, featuring its producer Ken Trodd and its star Bill Paterson, to be broadcast on 29 November.
