Dennis Potter's compelling, wonderfully surreal six-part musical miniseries probes the mind of cynical mystery writer Philip E. Marlow, who's bedridden in a hospital with a debilitating case of psoriasis when he begins to fantasize that he's a crooning 1940s gumshoe in one of his pulp novels. Blurred with his hallucinations are reflections from his troubled childhood. The Peabody-winning production first aired on the BBC in 1986, and was made into a feature film with Robert Downey Jr. in 2003.