Stars: Bob Hoskins, Cheryl Campbell, Hywel Bennett, Peter Bowles, Gemma Craven, Ronald Fraser, Nigel Havers, Freddie Jones, Peter Cellier, Freddie Jones, Nigel Havers, Kenneth Colley, Hywel Bennett

Summary: Arthur, a salesman dealing in sheet music who can spot a hit song when he hears it, falls in love with a school teacher called Eileen. When Eileen discovers that Arthur is married she runs off.

Dennis Potter's popular and highly acclaimed TV drama--it won the BAFTA for Outstanding Drama when it first aired in 1978--follows the life of sheet-music salesman Arthur Parker in 1930s Britain. Bob Hoskins plays Parker, a man with a passion for the ladies, and his product, who leads a frustrated life with a frigid wife and uninspired music clients. He retreats into a fantasy world inspired by the songs he's selling, bursting into full-blown music and dance set pieces. Things take a downturn when he meets a young teacher called Eileen with whom he shares a love of music. She falls pregnant by him, but discovering that he's married disappears from his life. Potter's superb series, full of period detail, wit and charm that showers the viewer like PENNIES FROM HEAVEN.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Dennis Potter's astonishing six-part miniseries Pennies from Heavenremains one of the edgiest, most audacious things ever conceived for television. The story tells of one Arthur Parker (Bob Hoskins), a sheet-music salesman in 1930s England. Beaten down by economic hard times and the sexual indifference of his proper wife (Gemma Craven), Arthur cannot understand why his life can't be like the beautiful songs he loves. On a sales trip through the Forest of Dean, he meets a virginal rural woman (Cheryl Campbell) he suspects may be his ideal. Ruination follows. Punctuating virtually every scene is a vintage pop song--lip-synched and sometimes danced out by the characters. This startling innovation makes the contrast between Arthur's brutish life and his bourgeois dreams even more dramatic.

Potter's dark vision digs into British stoicism, sexual repression, the class system and even the coming of fascism in Europe. But it is especially poignant on the subject of the divide between art and reality. Piers Haggard directs the long piece with deft transitions between songs and story. (It was shot partly on multi-camera video, partly on film.) The cast is fine, especially the extraordinary Cheryl Campbell, who imbues her character with keen intelligence and no small measure of perversity. Bob Hoskins triumphs in his star-making part, bringing a demonic energy to his small-time Cockney, nearly bursting his button-down vests with frustration and appetite. Pennies from Heavenwas remade in 1981 for the big screen (with Steve Martin), in an interesting, Potter-scripted adaptation; it's one of the reasons the original has been unavailable on home video for so long. --Robert Horton

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Commentary - 1. Kenith Trodd - Producer, Photo Gallery
Year:	1978
Release Date:	May 31, 2004
Runtime:	480 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B B C D V D 1214
Keywords:	Heaven, General, Pennies, From, Tv, Drama
Genre:	Drama