Pennies from Heaven

1978 7.6

Pennies From Heaven is a 1978 BBC television drama serial written by Dennis Potter. The title is taken from a song of the same name written by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston. It was one of several Potter serials to mix the reality of the drama with a dark fantasy content, and the earliest of his works where the characters burst into miming to popular 1930s songs. During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.

Drama

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1
Down Sunnyside Lane
1978-03-07
Arthur Parker is a music salesman with a song in his heart but trouble in his fortunes. On a trip to Gloucester, he meets two people who will change his life: a strange 'gentleman of the road', who plays hymns on a piano accordion and a beautiful young teacher. At home, Arthur's wife Joan waits apprehensively.
2
The Sweetest Thing
1978-03-14
As Eileen tells her schoolchildren their favourite fairytale, song salesman Arthur, Prince Charming in the tale, is coming back to make her his princess. He finds her in a magical forest. His wife Joan wonders if she has left him for good and the mysterious accordion player still haunts the story.
3
Easy Come, Easy Go
1978-03-21
Arthur has at last returned home to his anxious, waiting wife, who still cares enough to make a new bargain with him. She reluctantly agrees to finance his record shop.
4
Better Think Twice
1978-03-28
Arthur and Eileen are both back in London. While he seeks to start his own record shop, country girl Eileen wants the life that begins at Oxford Circus.
5
Painting the Clouds
1978-04-04
Arthur and Eileen have disappeared. Joan is receiving strange visits from a police inspector, and the case of the murdered blind girl is to be opened.
6
Says My Heart
1978-04-11
Now wanted for murder, Arthur takes Eileen on the run, hungry, desperate, but still together. They hide in a lonely farmhouse, but he makes a fatal error.