Blackeyes (TV Series)
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''Blackeyes'' is a BBC television miniseries first broadcast in 1989, written and directed by
Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
. It was adapted from Potter's novel of the same name.


Premise and initial broadcast

Broadcast as four 50-minute episodes, first screened weekly from 29 November 1989 to 20 December 1989 on Britain's BBC2 channel, ''Blackeyes'' starred
Gina Bellman Gina Bellman (born 1966) is a New Zealand-born British actress best known for her performances as grifter Sophie Devereaux on the 2008-12 TNT television series '' Leverage'' and in the revival '' Leverage: Redemption'' when the series moved to ...
as the title character, an attractive model, with
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
in a key role as her uncle. Potter described the series' theme as the objectification of "young and attractive women as consumer goods in a way that brutalizes both sexes".


Production

Following the successes of ''
The Singing Detective ''The Singing Detective'' is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It". The ser ...
'' and '' Christabel'', the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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awarded a budget of £2.4 million to the production of ''Blackeyes''. It was shot on 35 mm film and took 18 months to complete. Despite illness, Potter opted to direct the series, the only time he did this for TV. He had considered both
Jon Amiel Jon Amiel (born 20 May 1948) is an English director who has worked in film and television in both the UK and the US. After receiving a BAFTA Award nomination for the BBC series ''The Singing Detective'' (1986), he went on to direct films, inclu ...
and
Nicolas Roeg Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing ''Performance'' (1970), '' Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973), '' The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976 ...
, both recent collaborators, for the job. He would consider it a mistake to direct the serial himself. In 2007 an article in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' written by Jon Wilde revealed that the journalist had been the inspiration for the character of Mark Wilsher, "an insufferably smug hack" in episode 2.


Press coverage before broadcast

The premiere of the series was eagerly anticipated. Six months before screening it was promoted on the cover of '' The Listener'' with an image of Gina Bellman in role as the title character and the caption "Potter's Dream - Beyond The Singing Detective". James Saynor, the magazine's sub-editor at the time, wrote inside of Potter's ambitious desire to subvert the norms of film grammar in the series following an on-set interview with the fledgling director. In the lead-up to broadcast Potter promoted the series by appearing on TV chat-show Saturday Matters with Sue Lawley and was interviewed in newspapers such as
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
and
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
. Each time he made reference to "falling in love with Blackeyes", making clear how personal this project was to him. A press screening on 22 November of the series provoked negative responses in several of the journalists and reviewers present. It was described in previews as "soft porn". and "a simple turn-on for male viewers". Some journalists used their reports as excuses to attack Potter; in ''City Limits''
Deborah Orr Deborah Jane Orr (23 September 1962 – 19 October 2019) was a British journalist who worked for ''The Guardian'', ''The Independent'' and other publications. Early life and education Orr was born on 23 September 1962 to Winifred "Win" and John ...
described him as "unpleasant", Maria Lexton condemned him in ''Time Out'' as "a very sick man...
ith a The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...
twisted attitude to women and fucking" and in the
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
he was dismissed as "a dirty old man". The
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
created a new nickname for Potter when its front-page headline asked, "All clever stuff - Or just Dirty, Den?" Sally Payne summed up the tension between Potter's intentions and their execution in the Sunday Times, "My gut feeling was distinct unease which verged on outrage the more I thought about it. I became convinced that Potter was guilty of the crime he was condemning."


Reception


Initial responses

Following transmission, favourable comments were offered by the reviewers of several broadsheets. Mark Lawson applauded Potter's willingness to take risks, comparing him to novelist Martin Amis, while
Christopher Tookey Christopher Tookey (born 9 April 1950) is an English film critic. He has written for both ''The Sunday Telegraph'' and the '' Daily Mail''. He has presented the Radio 4 programmes ''The Film Programme'' and ''Back Row''. In 2013, he won the award ...
linked Potter to
August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
and
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...
and described ''Blackeyes'' as possibly "the most interesting, original and honest work he's done since ''Pennies from Heaven''". The majority of the British press reacted negatively to the series, many highlighting the amount of sex and nudity as cause for complaint. The '' Sunday Express'' called it "the world's most complicated porn film" fit for "the wastebin", the ''Sunday Times'' reasserted its antipathy to ''Blackeyes'' at the series' conclusion, summing it up as "Porno Twaddle". The series was also attacked for being "immensely boring" in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
''. ''Blackeyes'' was the subject of mocking cartoons in several tabloids, again focusing on the nudity. The
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
featured a cartoon by Charles Griffin depicting a naked Potter tapping out a script at his desk with a caricatured Bellman (also naked) sitting alongside his typewriter. The couple are being interrupted by campaigner Mary Whitehouse who is waving her fist at the writer and exclaiming, "Potter! I'll give you flamin' Blackeyes!" The Daily Star presented an image of a BBC Drama department office in which all the staff were going about their business either naked or in underwear. A bank of TV screens show titles such as 'Brown Eyes', 'Square Eyes' and 'Slant Eyes' while another reads 'Blackeyes - Get em off'. A man dressed in black lingerie is sitting beside bundles of letters labelled 'Complaints' and speaking into a phone saying, "OK, so a girl walks about half-naked - is that so unusual?" No stranger to controversy, Potter was stunned by the level of press hostility and was particularly saddened at the way he was labelled with nicknames such as "Dirty Den" and "Television's Mr Filth". He described himself as being "in the pit of a real depression" and upset by the personal comments made about him in ''City Limits'' and ''Time Out''. In a Radio 2 interview he suggested his writing career might be at an end. The criticisms also enabled Potter to speak directly about his own experience of child-abuse, which he had attempted to address in ''Blackeyes'', an element of the series that had seemingly been overlooked by its critics: "If you listen to the voice-over n the last episodeyou'll see it's very clear why hild-abusestrikes my heart. I've never been able to speak directly about it - no one who's had such an experience has ever been able to speak about it except obliquely. It sits there and makes me sweat even now". The ''Sunday Telegraph'' acknowledged Potter's childhood experience as "the source of the harrowing scene in the last episode". The sequence involves the character of Maurice Kingsley about to sexually abuse his niece Jessica until Potter's voice-over interrupts: "No, you'll have to imagine the rest if you must... the snake in his hand has become the worm in her soul. Recollections of abuse - my god - they're hard to deal with - even though I try... There are times when the pen in your hand becomes... becomes - yes - a knife in someone else's".


Later reactions

In 1993 Potter summed up the initial press reaction to ''Blackeyes'' by calling it "a tide of polemical abuse of such huge proportions in the English tabloids that it was almost proof I was stepping on the right nerves, if not totally in the right way". A few years' removed from the project he admitted responsibility for some of the negative reaction, saying, "there were too many strands, and the style, which is very alienating, it was so successful it alienated every fucking person who ever saw it!" and "I did fail. If there's such universal rejection and opposition and incomprehension then it's extremely likely that it was either badly written, or badly done, or both."


Critical analysis

Graham Fuller describes ''Blackeyes'' as "a complex analysis of institutionalized sexism" and an "abstruse but in many ways extremely courageous post-feminist revenge thriller" in his 1993 book ''Potter on Potter'', a collection of interviews with the writer. Acknowledging the original press reaction, he describes the series as being "condemned for feeding the very sickness it claimed to be diagnosing" and defends Potter by asserting that the programme's explicit scenes were "unintended to be titillating to viewers who would elect to see them that way". Twenty years later Fuller continues to challenge the tabloid view of ''Blackeyes'' in ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'', "Advertising is the arena in which ''Blackeyes'' throws herself to the lions...auditioning in a bikini for salivating ad executives... he scene isintercut with fragmented moments from the history of Jessica Kingsley...as a sexual-abuse victim who eventually drowns herself - how could Potter not have been taken seriously?" Sergio Angelini calls ''Blackeyes'' "a deliberately uncomfortable, humorous, densely imagined, frequently powerful if imperfect work, one that practically vanished after its original airing but which, now that its shock value has long been superseded, needs to be re-assessed by a new generation". It was repeated multiple times on the now-defunct channels UK Drama and UK Arena in the late 90s and early 00s but remains unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray.


Cast

*
Gina Bellman Gina Bellman (born 1966) is a New Zealand-born British actress best known for her performances as grifter Sophie Devereaux on the 2008-12 TNT television series '' Leverage'' and in the revival '' Leverage: Redemption'' when the series moved to ...
as Blackeyes *
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
as Maurice James Kingsley *
Carol Royle Carol Buchanan Royle (born 10 February 1954) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Jenny Russell in the BBC sitcom '' Life Without George'' (1987—1989) and Lady Patricia Brewster in '' Heartbeat'' (1997—2003). Early life Born ...
as Jessica *
Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End mu ...
as Jeff *
John Shrapnel John Morley Shrapnel (27 April 1942 – 14 February 2020) was an English actor. He is known mainly for his stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in the United Kingdom and for his many television appearances. ...
as Detective Blake *
Colin Jeavons Colin Abel Jeavons (born 20 October 1929) is a retired British television actor. Career Jeavons' earliest television role was as Jules Neraud in an episode of the 1956 anthology series of teleplays ''Nom-de-Plume''. Broadcast live, it is unkno ...
as Jamieson * Charles Gray as Sebastian *
Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
as Narrator (uncredited) * Louise Germaine as Model (uncredited)


Notes

Jeavons had previously appeared in Potter's '' Blue Remembered Hills'', Bellman later appeared in Potter's ''
Secret Friends ''Secret Friends'' is a 1991 British film written and directed by Dennis Potter and starring Alan Bates, Gina Bellman and Ian McNeice. It was based on Potter's novel ''Ticket to Ride (novel), Ticket to Ride''. The screenplay concerns a man whose ...
'' while Germaine went on to star in '' Lipstick on Your Collar'' and ''Midnight Movie''.


References


External links

* {{Dennis Potter 1989 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings 1980s British drama television series BBC television dramas 1980s British television miniseries Television shows written by Dennis Potter English-language television shows BBC television miniseries Television controversies in the United Kingdom BBC controversies 1989 controversies