The White Hotel will mark the 30th anniversary of Seeing The Blossom, the monumental and moving interview between two TV mavericks Dennis Potter and Melvyn Bragg. Directed by Austin Collings, the play will be a word-for-word re-enactment of the groundbreaking interview, regarded as one of the finest ever broadcast on British television. The production will go on a UK tour following the show at The White Hotel.
“Sipping liquid morphine from a flask and puffing on a cigarette, the 58-year-old television dramatist Dennis Potter, recorded his last interview at South Bank Studios, London, in 1994. He had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas and liver. Asking the questions, an emotional Melvyn Bragg handles the task with grace and care. Remarkably, Potter appears light and lyrical. Laced with his customary black humour, his words, his pure and stoical statements, are psalm-like.”