There is plenty of invective here as Dennis Potter, son of a miner, takes the chip from his shoulder and writes devastatingly about his journey to the heart of the British class system. Potter hits target after target: TV programmes, personalities, plays, playwrights, management. There are also the wisdom and humanity of someone who has suffered severe illness, and an occasional quality of poetry. There are moving autobiographical pieces and interviews about his groundbreaking TV programmes, such as Pennies from Heaven. There are his adventures in Los Angeles, trying to raise money to make a movie; there are beautiful literary criticism and insightful writing about the Gorky Park screenplay. Here is the honesty of a passionately applied intelligence. How the world could do with a Potter now.
