I went to check this out on IMDb after seeing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) because I remember it as a really great performance by Gary Oldman. I had taped "Heading Home" from TV and watched it several times. Since it has few reviews and no plot summary, here goes.As the other reviewers noted, the story is set in the early 50s, at a moment when England is still recovering from the war and there are all kinds of ferment in London: artists and poets have their own marginal culture, supporting each other's efforts to develop a new British aesthetic, while other, less educated men, like Oldman's Ian and the gangsters who lurk in the background of his life, are scrambling in the economic chaos to make their own pile of money.Beautiful Janetta comes to London from the country and falls in love with a handsome poet, who displays her to his friends as his muse. Then she meets Ian, who is not handsome or educated but who is full of energy, hope, desire--and intelligence. Ian sees her personal charm as something to be put to work, and gives her a job and the possibility of making money.The final scene, in which Janetta talks about the fragility of the truths she knows about that era, moved me at the time very deeply and still echoes in my memory. Richardson was great, and Oldman's Ian was one of the most alive characters I have ever seen on the screen.

I saw this film originally when it was released in the early 1990's. It created in me a profound impression of a time in England which is now gone forever. Although the film is set in the 1950's, before I was born, it gave me afeeling of intense nostalgia for the place and time. This was perfectly enhanced by the theme music to the film. It left me with a feeling of longing to have lived through that period. Although very different in subject matter I found the theme of loss and regret very much in the same vain as another David Hare film, Plenty. If anyone has a copy, or knows where I can obtain a copy of this film (Heading Home), preferably on DVD or on VHS, I would be very grateful.Thanks Stewart.

Heading Home is not only an elegant film by David Hare. It also contains a great amount of Truth and intense Beauty. Characters like Ian Tyson (Gary Oldman) and Beryl James (Stella Gonet) represent this Truth, truth about England in the 50ies and human relationships, opposed to the other truth of Janetta (Joely Richardson) and poet Leonard Meopham, who are both in search of their own truth, drowned in some delusion of Beauty.