''Cold Lazarus'' is a four-part

British television Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transm ...

drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

. It forms the second half of a pair with the television serial ''

Karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

''.

Production

''Karaoke'' and ''Cold Lazarus'' were filmed as a single production by the same team; both were directed by Renny Rye and feature

Albert Finney Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for movie acting during the early 1960s, debuting with '' The Entertainer'' ( ...

as the writer Daniel Feeld. The plays were unique in being co-productions between the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, something Potter had expressly requested before his death. Parts of ''

'' and ''Cold Lazarus'' were filmed in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

in Gloucestershire, which is where Dennis Potter was born and raised, and children from local schools including

St Briavels St Briavels (pronounced ''Brevels'', once known as 'Ledenia Parva' (Little Lydney)), is a medium-sized village and civil parish in the Royal Forest of Dean in west Gloucestershire, England; close to the England-Wales border, and south of Colefo ...

Parochial Primary School appeared in the film as extras in flashbacks.

Plot

''Cold Lazarus'' is set in the 24th century, in a

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

n Britain where the ruined streets are unsafe, and where society is run by American oligarchs in charge of powerful commercial corporations. Experiences are almost all virtual, and anything deemed authentic (such as

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

and cigarettes) has either been banned or replaced by synthetic substitutes. At a

cryonics Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scien ...

research institute in London, funded by the pharmaceuticals tycoon Martina Masdon, a group of scientists led by Dr. Emma Porlock is working on reviving the mind of the 20th-century writer Daniel Feeld, whose head was frozen after Feeld's death shortly after the events of ''Karaoke.'' Unable to see any profit in the project, Masdon considers discontinuing it, but the media mogul David Siltz, who has been spying on Masdon, envisages making a fortune from broadcasting Feeld's memories on TV, and proposes to Porlock that her team work for him. Porlock is unaware that a member of her team, Fyodor Glazunov is a member of the resistance group RON ('Reality Or Nothing'), which attempts to undermine the reliance of society upon advanced technology by carrying out violent attacks. Glazunov identifies Kaya, another of Porlock's team, as a potential recruit to his superior Andrew Milton, but Milton kills Kaya, believing her unsuitable. Angered by Kaya's murder, Glazunov kills Milton. Porlock then discovers the truth about Glazunov but, to distract him from the possibility of killing her, consults with him about the Siltz deal. Glazunov approves of the broadcast of Feeld's memories, which he believes might provoke a revolt against the 'inauthentic' life propagated by the authorities. It is shortly after this that Porlock accepts Siltz's offer, just as Masdon realises the potential of the Lazarus project. As more of Feeld's thoughts and memories are unearthed, it becomes evident not only that Feeld's mind is conscious of its predicament, but also that Feeld is attempting to communicate with the scientists, and is pleading to be allowed to die. At this point Glazunov, Porlock and Luanda Partington (another long standing member of the team) begin to doubt the morality of their project. Another of their team, Watson, having been coerced into informing on his colleagues, unwittingly denounces Glazunov as a RON member and saboteur. Having been warned, Glazunov heads for the laboratory to put Feeld out of his misery. In the confrontation that ensues, Glazunov is able to kill Siltz, and, after a final communication with Feeld (in which they make eye contact), he destroys the laboratory, Feeld's head, and himself, in the process.

Cast

as Daniel Feeld * Frances de la Tour as Emma Porlock *

Ciarán Hinds Ciarán Hinds ( ; born 9 February 1953) is a British Northern Irish actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Hinds is known for a range of screen and stage roles. He has starred in feature films including '' The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Love ...

as Fyodor Glazunov *Ganiat Kasumu as Luanda Partington * Grant Masters as Tony Watson * Carmen Ejogo as Blinda * Diane Ladd as Martina Masdon * Henry Goodman as David Siltz *Claudia Malkovich as Kaya *David Foxxe as Andrew Milton *

Donald Sumpter Donald Sumpter (born 13 February 1943) is a British actor who has appeared in film and television since the mid-1960s. His credits include three appearances in ''Doctor Who'' (1968, 1972, 2015), '' The Black Panther'' (1977), ''Bleak House'' (19 ...

as Doctor Rawl *

Rob Brydon Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He gained prominence for his roles in film, television and radio. He was appointed Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order ...

as Karl The series also featured an early TV appearance by Rupert Penry-Jones as a militiaman. Additionally, some of the cast of ''Karaoke'' appear in Feeld's flashbacks.

Episodes

*Episode 1: "One". 26 May 1996."Cold Lazarus"
Channel 4. This first broadcast of this episode had an audience of 3.8 million people. Running time: 50 or 52 minutes. *Episode 2: "Two". 2 June 1996. *Episode 3: "Three". 9 June 1996. *Episode 4: "Four". 16 June 1996.

Broadcast and release

The show was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1996 on Sunday evenings, with a repeat on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

the following day. The series was broadcast in the United States in 1997 on Bravo. The series had previously been offered to PBS. Both series are available to watch online via the Channel 4 website. Both ''Karaoke'' and ''Cold Lazarus'' were released on DVD from Acorn Media in September 2010. The four episodes are embodied in two discs. The discs include menus and biographies.

Reception

Christpher Dunkley said that ''Cold Lazarus'' is "astonishing".

Legacy

Many of the futuristic costumes made for the actors to wear in ''Cold Lazarus'' were later bought by the film company Wibbell Productions and subsequently used in the feature film ''The Vampires of Bloody Island'' in 2007. Wibbell later sold many of them individually to private collectors in 2013. A spaceship prop, in 2023, was in Leighton Buzzard and for sale.

References

*Vernon W Gras and John R Cook (eds). The Passion of Dennis Potter: International Collected Essays. Macmillan Press Ltd. 2000. ISBN 0333800281. pp 3, 4, 8, 11, 17, 19, 21, 25, 29, 36, 39, 42, 44, 74, 78, 82, 83, 87, 92, 122, 161, 163 to 166, 169 to 173, 177, 207, 219, 221 to 224, 228, 235, 237, 254 to 256 & 261. *Humphrey Carpenter. Dennis Potter: A Biography. Faber and Faber. 1998. Paperback. 1999. ISBN 0571197213. pp 16, 417, 461, 548, 549, 552, 555, 559 to 561, 564 to 569, 571, 573, 574, 583 to 588, 593, 597, 600, 640 & 641. *Glen Creeber. Dennis Potter: Between Two Worlds: A Critical Reassessment. Macmillan Press Ltd. 1998. ISBN 0333713893. pp 1, 15, 27, 34, 79, 192 to 194, 196, 197 & 202. *W Stephen Gilbert. The Life and Work of Dennis Potter. The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers. Woodstock and New York. 1998. pp xiii, 276, 282, 292 to 295 and 363. Previously published under the title "Fight and Kick and Bite" by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1995. *Val Scullion, "Gothic dissent in Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus" (2008) 10 Gothic Studie
GaleEdinburgh
*Nancy Banks-Smith, "Gone, banging the door behind him", Guardian Weekly, 5 May 1996, p 26 *Nancy Banks-Smith, "Right royal trials of life", Guardian Weekly, 30 June 1996, p 26 *Peter Lennon, "Last will and testament", Guardian Weekly, 3 September 1996, pp 26 & 27 *Andrew Cuif, "Plays that are pure Potter produce a posthumous put-down",

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 16 April 1996, p 3 *Andy Lavender, "Dennis Potter: the parting shots",

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, 8 April 1996, p 11 *W Stephen Gilbert
"Cold comforts"
The Independent, 23 May 1996 *Stephen Poole

The Independent, 24 May 1996 *Jasper Rees

The Independent, 17 May 1996

The Independent, 26 March 1996 *Thomas Sutcliffe

The Independent, 21 June 1996 *Lucy Ellman

The Independent, 1 June 1996 *Andrew Male, "Finney at the Double" i
"What's on TV on Demand"
The Sunday Times, 24 February 2019 *John J O'Connor

in Critic's Notebook.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. 20 June 1996. *David Bianculli and New York Daily News
"Money Woes Affecting Noted Writer's Last Works"
Chicago Tribune. 25 April 1995. *Tom Shales
"Dennis Potter's Welcome Last Works"
The Washington Post. 2 June 1997.

External links

* * {{Dennis Potter 1996 British television series debuts 1996 British television series endings 1990s British drama television series BBC television dramas 1990s British science fiction television series 1990s British television miniseries Channel 4 television dramas Dystopian television series Television series produced at Pinewood Studios Television shows written by Dennis Potter Fiction about suspended animation Television series set in the 24th century