chaos-rampant I think it was Einstein who said that creativity is intelligence having fun. I do think the three go hand in hand, whether or not the finished work is 'fun'. Fun can be all sorts after all, to my my mind it's less to do with jokes and more with relaxed awareness, fresh mind, a capacity for spontaneous appreciation of what's going on. In cinematic terms, I have the most fun with Altman. Celine and Julie Go Boating. In TV, that's Dennis Potter, though his work is closer to the cinema than anything. I do think this is subpar work compared to Singing Detective, but that's setting up a tough comparison. It falters with a bit of sloppy writing in the latter episodes, and an absolutely annoying protagonist in the bookish Welsh boy. Overall, it can be said to be a rehash of Detective and Pennies in Heaven.However, it fits everything just mentioned. It's creative work, intelligently conceived. Like Altman, it has narrative space enough to wander, to unfold time as it trickles. Like Celine, it is layered fiction about a real world that stifles youthful dreaming.Youth trapped in menial work, three army guys working in the British War Office and a blonde bombshell, she an usherette in a movie theater, who gets to intimately know all three. Each episode begins with newsreel footage of what's going on in the world; cinematic light as it creates, out of nothing, the world of responsibility and organized anxiety.It's the middle of the 1956 Suez Crisis, which adds to dreary routine a sense of impending catastrophe. There is some getting to understand that this was the end of an Empire, from the adult perspective there's a lot of worrying and despair. It really was a volatile time, with Kruschev threatening with (nonexistent) nukes London and Paris if they didn't pull out of Nasser's Egypt. The main focus, though, is noting all this distant absurdity against what really makes the heart beat faster.It is searching for true love. It is finding the girl who is right for you, dreaming about her, staring out the window at night summoning her to you. We have these marvellous shifts from humdrum reality at the Office to marvellous, sometimes plain silly daydreaming.It is fun not because of the jokes. It is fun, in the sense of an exhilarating spirit, because the mind is not bogged down by drama. This is the the real lost youth, the innocence of gaze not having the mind 'stop' at every worry. Isn't this what happens in the film when we escape via song? There is movement in mind, even to sometimes inane stuff. I saw this spread over a couple of days, oddly enhanced by my reading of a series of essays written by a Zen monk and calligrapher in the 1600's. He was talking about something like this, letting go of the mind that holds the mind.For me, that is the the look of exhilaration on Ewan McGregor's face as he dreams of being Elvis. Well, that is sending out the mind. Even more penetrating films show how that is the same as having the mind return, but that's another story.

mrmpg Since the first time I ever watched LYC it has remained very special in my memory, so much so that since the recent re-run on UK TV I have come to write my first ever review regarding viewing or reading material. I have to add this production is so special that I purchased a video copy imported from USA at a cost of £140 in early 2000 and now have a downloaded version that I have on DVD. I am only writing here about the special experience I have received from LYC and not about the plot etc, and wonder how much fun it must have been for the crew and actors to take part in LYC. LYC leaves you laughing, cringing and leaves me even know with a lump in my throat and shivers down my spine when watching the final of the last episode. Pack up your arms & surrender to mine, and all of the other spontaneous musical moments are truly great. The only disappointment I have is that it had to end, but I know every now and again I can pull out a copy and view this most wonderful production with an inner feeling that I need to preach to all to sit down and watch Lipstick On You Collar so they to can share this wonderful wonderful experience .

steve-1703 I never liked Dennis Potter until I saw this series. I don't like musicals – the idea of a group of people bursting into spontaneous communal song never appealed to me, but the combination of scenario (a post second world war era where the war is now fought as much in the halls of Whitehall as on the battlefield – and Britain is losing) and music (British 50's) just hit the right note with me (pun intended). The characters are superb (this was the first thing I ever saw Ewan McGregor in) and the situations genuine. The relationships between the junior ranks in both military and civilian life in the era they are set are really believable (so my dad says). I loved the music so much I bought the CD, I just wish they would bring it out on DVD. Thanks Dennis.

inframan Like all of Dennis Potter's work, this shows us what film could & should be. It wakens all the old dormant brain cells. Yes, imagination & inspiration do still live & are still the main ingredients of REAL ART!!! Not necessarily compatible with democracy, tho, maybe, who knows?