Bravo Brings Final Dramas By Dennis Potter To TV

The American television premieres of “Karaoke” and “Cold Lazarus,” the final two dramas by British playwright Dennis Potter, run Monday through Thursday nights on Bravo.

Albert Finney stars in both plays with Julie Christie as his wife in “Karaoke” and Diane Ladd as a sinister tycoon in “Cold Lazarus.”

Potter wrote these two dramas early in 1994, when he learned he was terminally ill with cancer. They were jointly produced by BBC 1 and Channel 4 in England in April and May of that year. Potter died just weeks later, in June.

In true Potter style, much like his “Pennies From Heaven,” “Karaoke” is a simple tale that lies beneath the dazzling complexity of a film-within-a-film to keep the audience guessing. “Cold Lazarus” is a thriller that leaps forward to the year 2368, a genre never before explored by Potter.

Each drama runs four hours. “Karaoke” is shown two hours on both Monday and Tuesday; “Cold Lazarus” runs on Wednesday and Thursday. “Karaoke” also repeats in one-hour installments June 10, 17 and 24 and July 1, with encores the same nights. “Cold Lazarus” is due to follow on Tuesdays in July, but the schedule is not yet final.