Heavens Above!

Heavens Above!

118 mins | Comedy | May 20, 1963

A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...

Heavens Above!

118 mins | Comedy | May 20, 1963

Heavens Above!
A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...
IMDb rating 6.7
Producers Romulus Films
Original title Heavens Above!
Directors Roy Boulting, John Boulting
Writers Frank Harvey

Cast

Peter Sellers

as The Rev. John Smallwood

Cecil Parker

as Archdeacon Aspinall

Isabel Jeans

as Lady 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

Joan Miller

as Mrs Smith-Gould

William Hartnell

as Major Fowler

Roy Kinnear

as Fred Smith

John Harvey

as Wilson, Prison Officer (uncredited)

Joan Hickson

as Housewife

Eric Barker

as Bank Manager

John Comer

as Butcher

Kenneth Griffith

as Rev. Owen Thomas

Mark Eden

as Sir Geoffrey Despard

Basil Dignam

as Prison Governor

Colin Gordon

as Prime Minister

Geoffrey Hibbert

as Council Official

Ludovic Kennedy

as Himself

Malcolm Muggeridge

as Cleric

Harry Locke

as Shop Steward

Derek Nimmo

as DG Assistant

Conrad Phillips

as Deaf Man

Miles Malleson

as Bishop Rockeby

Thorley Walters

as Tranquilax Executive

Marianne Stone

as Miss Palmer

Gerald Sim

as Store Manager

Anna Wing

as Housewife

Cardew Robinson

as Tramp

Louis Mansi

as Man Buying Groceries (uncredited)