Brimstone and Treacle

Dennis Potter was a unique and profound talent who wrote many great pieces of work for television. His work was entertaining, witty, satirical, innovative and challenging for both viewers and those involved in the television industry. Brimstone and Treacle is perhaps the most difficult piece he wrote which is reflected in the fact that the BBC banned it for 11 years. I recently watched it again and I found it to be as fresh and as shocking as ever. Viewed in the light of what British TV has become in the last 10 years it was particularly refreshing to be reminded of the quality it was once world famous for.

I really can't speak highly enough of this remarkable work. Firstly there are the superb performances of the three main leads. Michael Kitchen is breath taking to watch and Denholm Elliot was in his element playing a sleazy little man racked with guilt. Patricia Lawrence was also perfect as the downtrodden "mumsy". Dennis Potter's script was perfect and gave them wonderful lines. The story is disturbing and sick but at the same time incredibly funny. I couldn't help laugh at the demented sight of Michael Kitchen wheeling the mentally handicapped Patty around the living room before having his way with her. There was also what were at the time very innovative uses of lighting and camera which are still highly effective even today. There is also the Dennis Potter trade mark use of music.

What really offended people about this play, apart from the fact a mentally handicapped girl is raped, is a that demon comes into the lives of three people in a desperate situation and turns out to be their saviour. Not that he intended to or could care less about them but through his actions he saves Patty from her terrible state and frees "mumsy" from both the tyranny of her husband and having to look after Patty. The only one who comes worse is the father who as it turns out is the truly guilty one.

Early in the play a quote from Kierkegaard is shown on the screen, "There resides infinitely more good in the demonic than in a trivial man". Tom, Denholm Elliot's character, may not be evil but he is sentimental, dishonest, cowardly and racist. He has no real good in him and no real bad in him. He's an ineffective and frustrated little man and lacks the courage and conviction to be good or bad. This is why he is trivial. Martin, Michael Kitchen's character, is a thoroughly wicked demon but is far from trivial and lives a remarkable life. Perhaps the message from this is that it is better to be who you are with total conviction whether that is good or evil than to live a crippled pointless life in which you are neither.

However the exact meaning and message of this play could be debated for years and that is, at least in part, what makes a truly great and profound piece of work.

This Denis Potter TV play was banned for about 15 years in the UK and was only shown for the first time recently. In the interim it was made into a film with a different cast.

Potter begins with the proposal that there is more good in some people who appear to be bad than there is in some people who pretend to be good.

A young woman has been brain damaged in a car accident and is bed ridden. She cannot communicate or feed herself. Her mother looks after her 24 hours a day. On day a demon in human form visits her house and ingratiates himself into the family. When alone with the girl he rapes her and then.....see for yourself.

The play is disturbing but to educated people it raises interesting moral issues. It could act as a good catalyst for a discussion session in an evangelistic church and would raise some strong feelings.

My wife and I saw _Brimstone and Treacle_ at the Potter retrospective held in Boston a couple of years ago; we were discussing its implications for days afterward. Like much of Potter's work, it shows how good television can be when put in the right hands. Provocative and at times disturbing, it uses the devices of a moral fable to question our common-sense idea of moral judgment. A mysterious young man (Michael Kitchen) insinuates himself into the household of an unhappy suburban couple whose life centers around caring for their paralyzed and mute grown daughter. He has a plan for these people, and in the implementing of it he crosses the line into the unethical and the criminal. Yet we're being asked to look beyond appearances, because Martin is not an ordinary human. There's something demonic about his perverse toying with people -- not to mention his affinity with thunderstorms. As the film reaches its climax, another order of truth is revealed, one that stands our comfortable certainties about right and wrong on their heads.