Pennies from Heaven [DVD] [1978]

Releasing this Dennis Potter masterpiece on DVD is probably the smartest thing the BBC will do this year. In an age of throwaway programmes, endless reality shows and a production culture that is risk averse and aimed at the lowest common denominator, here's a chance to see how it used to be. Yes folks, telly generally was better all those years ago - and Pennies From Heaven sums up the era well. The passage of time proves that quality writing, acting and production never go out of style. What strikes me most about Pennies From Heaven now is how long it is - a 6 part serial that allowed the characters to develop, the story to unfold. Now, sadly, it would probably get the 2 hour treatment with the news bunged in the middle.

Previous reviewers have really said it all - and this DVD allows us to enjoy again and again what happens when fine writing, acting and production all magically come together. Outstanding central performances from the cast, with wonderful support from the likes of Freddie Jones and Hywel Bennett - and even a very youthful Nigel Havers! DVD extras are kept to a minimum - but this 3 disc set allows the beauty and craft of the story to come through strongly, proving the point that less can be more.

Inevitably it is with some caution that one sees again tv programmes which in the memory stand out as remarkable. Dennis Potter produced so much work in the 60s, 70s and 80s which I remember as being quite astonishing in both content AND in the audacity of method (Blue Remembered Hills with adults playing children!)that one wonders if it will seem mannered and rather passe. Well Pennies is as wonderful as it seemed, perhaps MORE so when viewed from a time when tv drama is so predictable, dull and quite simply not grown up. The music is intrinsically charming, but it takes Potter's genius to recognise the importance of popular song to us all and embed it in a drama which explores the fantasy lives, aspirations and repressions of his characters. Though it is a period piece (1970s drama, 1930s songs) it is, like all the very best drama, about people as they are, no matter what the time, and in this it is fresh minted. Any one with happy memories of the original broadcasts will not be disappointed. Anyone too young to see them will be stunned by the seriousness (though not po-faced) of the enterprise. Where did tv like this disappear to?

Bowled over by this when it was first shown on PBS, back in the late seventies I think, I've been impatient for a revisit ever since, and snapped it up the minute it appeared on DVD. Does it live up to my own pre-billing, after more than 20 years? In summary, yes. In fact it far exceeds it, even though it isn't what I recall.
First of all my memory contains a black-and-white version and this one is in colour, so whether our TV at that time was B&W or PBS showed it that way, I'm not sure. Secondly it stands so far apart from anything I've watched on TV in the two decades since I first saw it that it shocks like an ice-shower. "An outstanding example of how television can be a distinctive art form," says the snippet from John O'Connor of the New York Times on the box. Agreed whole heartedly, but who has followed that example? "Pennies from Heaven" throws a harsh light on the banalities we accept as entertainment from today's TV. It is tough, uncompromising and scathingly honest about us and the world we live in, in ways that Hollywood and the major TV producers cannot begin to imitate. Even some of the acclaimed BBC imports of recent times, Zhivago, Lost Prince, pale alongside it and as disturbing a film as American Beauty (which I like) feels manipulative and lacking in conviction by comparison.
The performance of Hoskins is as outstanding as I had recalled. But I had forgotten how good the rest of the cast is: Gemma Craven strangely evoking the corseted girlfriend in Billy Liar; Cheryl Campbell a dazzling concoction of primness, sensuality and inner steel; Kenneth Colley the epitome of all the world's discards - subtly painted as a Hoskins minus the panache and after a few wrong turns in the road. Even Hywel Bennett (whatever happened to him?) produces a fine ten-second-smoothie/pimp. Potter's grit, in-your-face talent and sheer imagination shines through more than seven hours of tour de force. Of course there is unevenness: the first episode takes a while to catch its rhythm and, to me, Hoskins' soul-baring speech to his salesmen cronies at the breakfast table, meant to be one of the keystones of the piece, doesn't quite come off. But these are minor quibbles set against the stratospheric standard of the series as a whole.
I hesitated to enter this opinion because the review by Gavin Wilson just about says it all. But in a TV world of artistic forgery, bluster, throw-away drama and just plain dross, a work like this deserves all the promotion it can get. No, it is not "entertainment" in the currently-accepted sense of the word. It demands too much of you. Potter seems to recognize that by inserting a kind of "faux happy ending" as if to mock us and our expectations of popular TV. But if you care about drama, acting, and the state of the human spirit, you need to see Pennies from Heaven.
However many stars Amazon lets you attach to a review, this work warrants them all.