Pennies From Heaven — Bob Hoskins

First broadcast in 1978 Dennis Potter's Pennies From Heaven, was before my time; it was Who Framed Roger Rabbit where I first saw Hoskins. And it’s strange, because though Hoskins being seduced by Jessica Rabbit is probably up there with the man-getting-eaten-on-a-toilet scene of Jurassic Park in terms of having seen it a hundred thousand times, watching the trailer on YouTube doesn't bring back much. And it’s strange because despite Hoskins having found his niche by then, his noir detective/gangster hairy-backed tough guy, it’s not how I’ll remember him now.

Pennies From Heaven, was introduced to me in Poland by the good Finn Veikko Suvanto who showed the MGN remake at Massolit on one of his movie nights and though the big budget numbers can’t fail to impress (see Christopher Walken as the tap-dancing pimp), it was the BBC TV series, that I later followed the trail to, with which I made a real connection.

Indeed, it was the six 75 minute episodes watched three times over that got me through the Polish winter of 2011 and the same series I watched later with my mum and dad. They remembered it, remembered Hoskins and thanks to that series the songs still course around the house today. ‘Without That Certain Thing,’ was all them and me sang for a couple of months. And at the centre of that connection, I realise now, was Hoskins and his genius, his unactorly appeal (he famously fell into the profession by tagging along with a friend to an audition), his stocky down-to-earth sensibility and strength.

So it wasn’t much latter that I was mimicking Hoskins, serenading Jan, my wife-to-be (though neither she nor I knew that then) by mouthing along to 'Couldn't Be Cuter.' I remember Hoskins on my laptop, the unlikely star of a musical on an even more unlikely musical/miming/noir/Forest of Dean BBC TV series, singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. And me and Jan swinging around the kitchen, enthusiastically, if nothing else, snow falling outside.

The clip I’ve chosen is the very last scene of the very last episode, Arthur (Hoskins) arrives for the final reprieve and so the fallen Eileen (Cheryl Campbell) doesn’t jump off the bridge but has a sing and dance instead, showing, I think, that redemption doesn’t take art and study but a stubborn insistence on singing when you feel like it, on a stubborn and steady flow of energy. Qualities of Hoskins that made him so well-suited to be cast in the role, qualities that will endure.