Pennies from Heaven

Aroview: Dennis Potter’s provocative, 1930s-set melding of drama and musical is spot-on in this US version of the BBC TV-series, which loses little in the transition. The Great Depression here is presented as a stylised MGM-musical, where the drab lives of ordinary folk are ‘saved’ by the popular songs of the era. But this is hardly unambiguous nostalgia, as beneath the conceit Potter’s ‘celebration’ has a bitter edge.

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