Second is Potter's intentionality, the lack of ambiguity in The Singing
Detective. In the early episodes the viewer is mislead, suspicious of Binney,
but at the denouement there is only one possible interpretation, Marlow is the
'murderer', Binney is falsely accused and the body in the river represents his
mother. Similarly the line between fantasy and reality
is very clearly
signposted. Marlow's reality is simplified by never leaving the confines of the
hospital, therefore we can tell instantly that a rural setting indicates a
childhood flashback or noir stylistics indicate fantasy. The
detective story is
such an exaggeration of film-noir convention that it is impossible to mistake it
for reality. This is why the crossover of worlds works so effectively, if they
weren't so clearly defined the clash would be subtler and less arresting to the
viewer. The scenes between Nicola and Finney are initially ambiguous but the
reality is quickly stripped from them by having the characters speak with
punctuation ("comma", "full-stop"). Also the stylistics of the scenes have
film-noir overtones locating them within the detective novelist's imagination.
Compare this to Secret Friends (the film based on Potter's novel
Ticket To Ride
which was written between rewrites of The Singing Detective) where the
distinction between the multiple narratives is purposely confused encouraging
multiple interpretations of the text.
