Dennis Potter

Dennis Christopher George Potter (May 17, 1935 – June 7, 1994) was a controversial British dramatist who is best known for several widely acclaimed television dramas which mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.

Early Life

Potter was born in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. His father was a coalminer in the Forest of Dean, a rural industrial area between Gloucester and Wales. During his National Service he learnt Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists. He won a scholarship to New College, Oxford, and started work for the BBC in the late 1950s. He also worked as a journalist and considered becoming a Labour MP – unsuccessfully standing for Hertfordshire East in the 1964 general election, and claiming that by the end of the campaign he was so disillusioned with party politics that he did not even vote for himself – before embarking on his career as a television playwright.

Related Topics:
Forest of Dean - Gloucestershire - Gloucester - Wales - National Service - Russian - Joint Services School for Linguists - New College, Oxford - BBC - 1950s - Labour - MP - 1964

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