Heavens Above

**Heavens Above** is a pre-certed UK VHS released by EMI on 1981.

## Description

Apart from the Church of England, which it sanitizes with affectionate glee, the main foundation of this 1963 Boulting Brothers comedy is Peter Sellers. He plays a vicar whose simple faith is as securely and unpretentiously anchored to him as his bicycle clips. Transferred by a clerical error from a prison chaplaincy to a country parish, he tries to spread the Word a bit too literally and discovers people are happiest when religion preaches what they practise. He incurs disapproval right away by making Negro dustman (Brock Peters) into his church-warden. Then he charitably offers refuge at the vicarage to a pair of villainous squatters (Eric Sykes, Miriam Karlin) and their prolific and unholy brood. Next he persuades the wealthy lady of the manor (Isabel Jeans), who's worried about threading her way through the needle's eye, to distribute her bounty - and so the church is filled as never before with worshippers who bring shopping baskets to partake of the good-time religion. The film has a zestful cast of comic characters to add their own professionalism to the sometimes facile view of religion and to ensure that at any rate the laughs are not found wanting. There is Ian Carmichael as a curate; Malcolm Muggeridge flitting by as an archdeacon and looking like a sheep in shepherd's clothing; and Cecil Parker as another prelate, nicely named Aspinall. But it is the late Peter Sellers whose genius is stretched by the character he creates, at once human being and caricature, with scrubby hair-style, a Birmingham accent and a smile described by one Churchman as 'quite unjustifiably happy.' Pressing on the white notes of the part, Sellers brings vividly and affectionately to life a man whose propagation of his Faith turns out to be more enjoyable and affecting than the film perhaps intended. In the end, it doesn't give offence - as some high-placed prelates feared it would at the time - so much as purge one of cant. ALEXANDER WALKER

## Main cast

* Peter Sellers as the Reverend John Edward Smallwood
* Cecil Parker as Archdeacon Aspinall
* Isabel Jeans as Lady Lucy Despard
* Ian Carmichael as the Other Smallwood
* Bernard Miles as Simpson
* Brock Peters as Matthew Robinson
* Eric Sykes as Harry Smith
* Irene Handl as Rene Smith
* Miriam Karlin as Winnie Smith
* Josephine Woodford as Doris Smith
* Joan Miller as Mrs. Smith-Gould
* Miles Malleson as Rockeby
* Eric Barker as Bank Manager
* William Hartnell as Major Fowler, town councillor
* Roy Kinnear as Fred Smith
* Joan Hickson as Housewife
* Kenneth Griffith as Reverend Owen Thomas
* Mark Eden as Sir Geoffrey Despard
* John Comer as Butcher
* Basil Dignam as Prison Governor
* Franklin Engelmann as TV Commentator
* Colin Gordon as Prime Minister
* Geoffrey Hibbert as Council Official
* Joan Heal as Disgruntled Housewife
* Ludovic Kennedy as Himself
* Margery Lawrence as Quarrelling Housewife
* Harry Locke as Shop Steward
* Henry Longhurst as Deaf Man
* Malcolm Muggeridge as Cleric
* Derek Nimmo as Director-Generals Assistant
* Conrad Phillips as P.R.O.
* Nicholas Phipps as Director-General
* Cardew Robinson as Tramp
* Gerald Sim as Store Manager
* Olive Sloane as Housewife
* Marianne Stone as Miss Palmer
* Elsie Wagstaff Lady on Parish Council
* Thorley Walters as Tranquilax Executive
* Ian Wilson as Salvation Army Major
* George Woodbridge as Bishop
* Drewe Henley as Doris's Boy Friend (uncredited)
* Ed Devereaux as Communication Officer (uncredited)