Editing Dennis Potter (section)

==Early life==
Dennis Potter was born in [[Berry Hill, Gloucestershire|Berry Hill]], [[Forest of Dean]], Gloucestershire. His father, Walter Edward Potter (1906–1975),<ref>''[[Arena (UK TV series)|Arena]]'' interview, 1987</ref> was a [[coal miner]] in this rural mining area between Gloucester and Wales; his mother was Margaret Constance (née Wale; 1910–2001). Potter had a sister named June.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arena: Painting the Clouds: A Portrait of Dennis Potter (2003) |url=http://www.eofftv.com/episodes/a/arena/painting_the_clouds_main.htm |website=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film & Television |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406094211/http://www.eofftv.com/episodes/a/arena/painting_the_clouds_main.htm |archive-date=6 April 2012|access-date=28 August 2019}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2021}}

In 1946, Potter passed the [[eleven-plus]] and attended [[Royal Forest of Dean College|Bell's Grammar School]] at [[Coleford, Gloucestershire|Coleford]]. Most of his secondary education, however, was in London at [[St Clement Danes School#History|St. Clement Danes Grammar School]] in [[Hammersmith]] (since demolished). When he was ten years old, Potter was sexually abused, an experience he would later allude to many times in his writing.  During his speech at the 1993 [[Edinburgh International Television Festival|James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture]], Potter referred to this event when explaining his decision to switch from newspaper journalism to screenwriting: "Different words had to be found, with different functions. But why? Why, why, why; the same desperately repeated question I asked myself without any sort of an answer, or any ability to tell my mother or my father, when at the age of ten, between [[V.E. Day]] and [[V.J. Day]], I was trapped by an adult's sexual appetite and abused out of innocence."  His family returned to the Forest of Dean in 1952, having first left it in 1945, but Potter remained in London.

Between 1953 and 1955, his [[national service]] was in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] of the [[British Army]]<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/8NCN7%20(2017)%20Morgan%20on%20Potter.pdf | title= Dennis Potter: An Unconventional Dramatist | work=New College, Oxford | access-date=7 December 2021}}</ref> and he learned Russian at the [[Joint Services School for Linguists]].<ref name="dt3">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110220153453/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/5443144/Dennis-Potter.html "Dennis Potter obituary"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 8 June 1994</ref> Having won a [[State Scholarship (UK)|State Scholarship]] to [[New College, Oxford]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://intranet.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/biog.htm|title=A brief biography of Dennis Potter|website=Intranet.yorksj.ac.uk|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=15 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115210915/https://intranet.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/biog.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>BBCTV  ''Arena'', ''Dennis Potter''</ref> he studied [[philosophy, politics and economics]].<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dennis-potter-1421167.html | title= Obituary: Dennis Potter | work=[[The Independent]] | author=Mark Lawson | date= 18 September 2011 | access-date=26 January 2021}}</ref>