D
Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter is the author of The Vintage Book of Amnesia, a collection that explores themes of memory and identity. His work often blends historical fiction with a touch of the surreal.
Karaoke
Karaoke is set in the present day. Daniel Feeld, a successful screenwriter, is in physical crisis: he is dying. His latest screenplay is being butchered by a patrician director who favours his mistress-star in every scene. But, worse than this, Feeld more than half-imagines that he hears people everywhere speaking his dialogue. Fact and fiction collide. Daniel starts drinking heavily and his real life begins to mirror that of his own screenplay character. Cold Lazarus is set 400 years in the future. Feeld's cryogenically preserved head is being commercially exploited. An American media tycoon realizes the astronomical ratings potential of a TV show in which the 'real' twentieth-century story of Daniel Feeld's life, via his chemically induced memories, can be fed to millions of viewers. Whilst Daniel's 'memories' ebb and flow and the moguls fight over him, a dissident organization of Luddites, RON (Reality or Nothing), seeks to return to what it believes to have been a gentler age - the twentieth century.
A successful screenwriter facing a terminal illness in the present day, whose life begins to mirror his own screenplay. In the future, his cryogenically preserved head is exploited for a TV show.
A powerful figure in the future who commercially exploits Daniel Feeld's cryogenically preserved head for a TV show, realizing its potential for astronomical ratings.
The director butchering Daniel Feeld's latest screenplay, favoring his mistress-star in every scene.
An actress favored by the patrician director, appearing in every scene of Daniel Feeld's butchered screenplay.