Karaoke

Drama (Nick Balmer)

A drama series, written for British television by Dennis Potter, just before he died. It follows the tale of a crotchety old screenwriter Daniel Field (Albert Finney) who's latest movie "Karaoke" is currently being edited. His film comes to life, and he starts to see scenes acted out before him, with real people speaking his lines. REG plays Nick Balmer, an obnoxious film editor who doesn't get along with Daniel and is having an affair with the movies leading actress. It's a great series, with a quite disturbing and gripping storyline, which twists and turns in all sorts of ways. It has a pseudo sequel "Cold Lazarus", also written by Dennis Potter, set far into the future, but which revisits the characters from "Karaoke" through the dead writers mind.

EPISODE 3 -- Following the revelation that a real "Pig" Mailion (Hywell Bennett) exists, Daniel is reassured that the similarity of his script to real life is pure coincidence. Nick's affair with Linda Langer leads him into a murky blackmail plot, and Daniel learns that Sandra is determined to take revenge on Mailion for his vicious attack on her mother.

EPISODE 4 -- Mailion exacts brutal revenge on Nick, who is forced to admit his infidelity to his wife. When Daniel learns that he has only eight weeks to live, the death sentence galvanizes him to take fate into his own hands.

Best REG line: "I'd have given you a bonus if you'd flattened him, and I've have doubled it if you reversed back and finished it. Squishy guts - what a great sound."