Airs that kill

THE SIXTH and last instalment of a most brilliant and inventive piece of television drama was shown last week. This was Dennis Potter's Pennies from heaven. Thanks to my collection of the old 78 rpm records of popular music of the nineteen twenties and thirties (sneered at in this column and elsewhere by John Fines and others) I had the additional pleasure, not only of recognising songs, singers, bands and particular recordings, but also of being confirmed in my opinion that a wind‐up gramophone and steel needles are essential equipment for authentic reproduction.