Potter's sense of words and his literary instincts are just one facet of his TV success, but they are a major one. From the opening scene Potter keeps the piece grounded in the literary. Marlow suffers from the same debilitating disease as Potter himself did, psoriatic arthropathy. Not a pretty picture. He is greased and oiled regularly, a painful and embarrassing procedure, and he escapes the pain by trying to imagine his book.
Various stories overlap and intersect.
There are the scenes from the hospital, where Marlow lies in a large ward and those in the bed next to his keep dying. Another patient is reading his book, while one of the doctors takes an almost sadistic interest in Marlow. Hollywood is also apparently interested in making a film out of The Singing Detective , and Marlow's estranged wife is trying to take advantage of him regarding this project. The third strand of the story is also set in the past, a typical Chandleresque P.I. yarn with Marlow as the singing detective. I get the jobs the guys who don't sing don't get.