Have we not met before, monsieur?

This weekend I watched the excellent BBC 6 part miniseries The Singing Detective from 1986. There's just absolutely no way this could be made in the US today. First, there's the whole 6 one hour episodic structure, which we generally don't get to see. The miniseries in the US is an underused form. But apart from this and that there's the taboo foul language and brief nudity, the narative structure--weaving the ailing writer of out-of-print detective stories in the hospital, his novel "The Singing Detective," his flashbacks to childhood trauma, and his conspiring wife in what in someways seems random (I'm not saying it is of course.) and the willingness to go slowly just doesn't seem like it could be done today. I'm listen to the commentary track with director Jon Amiel and a producer, and indeed they say the BBC would not allow them to make today. HBO might let them.

However, throughout the whole thing, I kept thinking that I knew I had seen the actor who played the Gambon character's father in something before, but I could not think of what. A quick check of IMDb revealed that he was played by Jim Carter--who played Deja Vu in Top Secret!!