Dennis Potter's 'Pennies From Heaven' - 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes'

'Pennies From Heaven' by Dennis Potter. Episode 1: Down Sunnyside Lane'. Housewife Joan (Gemma Craven) is left at home in semi-detached suburbia of Sunnyside Lane, fretting about her complexion. Slick salesman Conrad Baker (Nigel Havers) introduces his beauty aid - a 'scientifically designed' suction pad - to a sceptical Joan. "I can't pull the wool over your eyes, can I?" asks the slippery salesman. And he duly does with his 'pitter patter'. Joan lets the smoke get in her eyes.

The stylised sweet sugaryness of suburbia and mores of English suburban life are gloriously captured in a 'Brief Encounter' moment of impeccable manners, contrived over the top stage movements and clipped speech with this Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach show tune from 1935. Filters first take the hard edge off the videotape producing a millky smoothness. Colour filters are then brought into play with Havers lip-synching across gender lines to add to the comic touch as the smoke gets thicker, threatening to envelop the studio set. Craven and Havers deliver their out lines with impeccable precision: "How foolish ... Some people ... Quite".

Music: 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' (Vocal: Phyllis Robins).

Dennis Potter's award-winning 'Pennies From Heaven' (BBC 1978). Directed by Piers Haggard, produced by long-time Potter collaborator Kenith Trodd, with choreography and design by Tudor Davies and Tim Harvey. One of the finest pieces of television the BBC has ever produced.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Dennis
• Potter
• Pennies
• From
• Heaven
• 1978
• Gemma
• Craven
• Nigel
• Havers
• Smoke
• Gets
• In
• Your
• Eyes
• Phyllis
• Robins
• Jerome
• Kern
• Otto
• Harbach

[jnmklo9]

Gemma was of the most underrated performers I think

[edmund184]

Funny scene.