"Robin Redbreast" is the ninth episode of first season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 10 December 1970. "Robin Redbreast" was written by John Griffith Bowen, directed by James MacTaggart and produced by Graeme MacDonald.
The play is about pagan rural customs and their interaction with modern society.
Source: Wikipedia
The play is about pagan rural customs and their interaction with modern society.
Source: Wikipedia
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:30That's the before picture.
00:00:42Looks rather desolate.
00:00:45It's isolated, if that's what you mean.
00:00:47And the after?
00:00:48What?
00:00:49What it looks like now, after all the work.
00:00:51I haven't taken an after.
00:00:53Oh.
00:00:53Well, it was Peter's camera, you know.
00:00:55My dear, you could always buy another one.
00:00:59I've got very prickly, haven't I?
00:01:02Not really.
00:01:02That means I have.
00:01:05Well, I don't mean it, not with you.
00:01:08Prickles are useful sometimes.
00:01:10Now I'm a single woman again, I'm always having to resist passes.
00:01:13Lucky old you.
00:01:14I've been lusting after one of the window cleaners for weeks.
00:01:17Never gives me so much as a flick of his chamois.
00:01:19You know, I thought I might make a pass at Nora next time you're out of the room.
00:01:22And I thought I might sidle over for a quick cuddle.
00:01:25Go and get the coffee, you lecherous owl.
00:01:32He already has, I take it.
00:01:35Not really.
00:01:38We were all single women once, love.
00:01:40I know, Madge, but it's different.
00:01:42When you and I were young, it was-
00:01:45Younger.
00:01:46People made passes, of course they did.
00:01:48But we weren't fair game then.
00:01:51A non-attachment rule of 35 is fair game.
00:01:54If I go out to the theatre with someone, or to dinner, and then reject a heavy pass,
00:01:56he feels cheated because I know what I'm doing, you see.
00:02:00Then I've just broken up with my fella.
00:02:03So I'm expected to be randy, which God knows I am often.
00:02:06And then living with Peter, well, naturally I developed defences.
00:02:10Yes.
00:02:11But they were only defences against him.
00:02:14So now we're broken up, I feel all soft and exposed.
00:02:17Like a little unshelled crab, delicious.
00:02:21And you're really going to live in the cottage?
00:02:23I'm landed with it.
00:02:24Sell it.
00:02:25I don't want to.
00:02:26Then you're not landed with it.
00:02:27I don't want it.
00:02:28I don't want to sell it.
00:02:30I'm sorry, I know that's silly.
00:02:31Why couldn't Peter have kept it if one of you had to buy the other out?
00:02:33He didn't want it.
00:02:35Well, you said you didn't.
00:02:37I hate waste.
00:02:38Yes, love, yes, that's what kept Peter and me going for so long.
00:02:41I wouldn't cut my losses and say that's five years of my life down the drain,
00:02:44so I kept working at it.
00:02:47And after eight years,
00:02:50he cut his losses.
00:02:53And it's such a waste.
00:02:56Oh, blast.
00:02:58Oh, blast.
00:03:00I'm sorry.
00:03:03I cry very easily nowadays.
00:03:04I stop very easily.
00:03:06There, now I've stopped.
00:03:08Let's talk about anything.
00:03:11The cottage.
00:03:13Well, I'm not quite sure what there is to say about it.
00:03:15Well, it's there, that's the most obvious thing.
00:03:17Four miles from the village and a mile from the road.
00:03:20I'm going to live in it for a while.
00:03:23I've got to get used to living on my own, as it seems.
00:03:26It's clearly a good place to start.
00:03:36It's a waste disposal unit.
00:03:39What do you put in it, then?
00:03:41Well, not your hand is the most important thing.
00:03:44And it won't do bottles and cans, so we'll put those into a carrier bag
00:03:47and I'll take them down to Easham whenever I go and drop them in a litter bin.
00:03:52You reckon to live here, then?
00:03:53Why not?
00:03:54You thought I'd just use it as a weekend cottage?
00:03:57Not for me to think.
00:03:58I mean, that's your affair.
00:04:00Please, Mrs. Vigey, you're right.
00:04:02I don't mean to be rude.
00:04:03Obviously, I shall have to go back to London eventually
00:04:05and just come here at weekends.
00:04:08But for the time being, I do plan to live here.
00:04:11So if you could come in two afternoons a week, sir?
00:04:17What job do you do, then?
00:04:18I'm a script editor.
00:04:21I edit scripts for television, you know.
00:04:25I don't know what that is.
00:04:26It's been happening lately.
00:04:28It's mice, isn't it?
00:04:30Is it?
00:04:31Field mice.
00:04:32They come in for the warm.
00:04:33No harm in that.
00:04:35That's right, you left this out last night, I dare say.
00:04:38You can see the droppings.
00:04:40Well, so long as it's not rats.
00:04:42They're vicious.
00:04:46Don't get company here, I reckon.
00:04:48She doesn't get any company as far as I can see.
00:04:52What does she do all day?
00:04:54Sits about.
00:04:57I hope she's not going to start drinking.
00:04:59Hmm.
00:05:01No, I'm drinking much less than one does in London.
00:05:19Everything seems to be slowed down.
00:05:21I sleep late.
00:05:24I drift about the cottage.
00:05:26Did I tell you I have mice?
00:05:30Insects.
00:05:33Everything.
00:05:55I wonder if I might hunt for sherds in your garden.
00:05:58What?
00:05:59What?
00:06:00One often finds them, you know, in freshly turned earth.
00:06:04Sherds?
00:06:05Well, I have an archaeological interest.
00:06:07I'm a student of that, in my own time.
00:06:11Old things, generally.
00:06:13I don't think there are any old things in the garden but what the builders left.
00:06:17Broken bottles and old beer cans, mainly.
00:06:20But you're welcome to look.
00:06:21You haven't noticed anything yourself as you walked about?
00:06:24Some small sherd or other?
00:06:27I don't think I should recognize a sherd if I were to see one.
00:06:31Takes a trained eye.
00:06:33I was watching a program on the television.
00:06:38Mrs. Vigo tells me you have connections in that field.
00:06:42Yes.
00:06:44It was about fishing for clams.
00:06:47Documentary program.
00:06:50They spot the whereabouts of the clam by a small blowhole in the sand.
00:06:56I have an instinct.
00:06:58Well, it's the same with me.
00:07:02Roman pottery, coins, sherds of all sorts.
00:07:07I have that instinct.
00:07:09And that is strange, Mrs. Palmer.
00:07:12Miss?
00:07:14Miss.
00:07:16Yes.
00:07:18One likes to be sure.
00:07:21That is strange, Mrs. Palmer.
00:07:24My name is Fisher.
00:07:26And yet I've never been to the seaside or any of my family.
00:07:32Fishers have not been out of this village for hundreds of years.
00:07:36Except in time of war.
00:07:39I'm sorry.
00:07:45And what of the birds, Miss Palmer?
00:07:48Do they trouble you?
00:07:49I don't understand.
00:07:51Ah, you're confused.
00:07:53Because of the rhyme.
00:07:55Sherds and birds.
00:07:57Huh.
00:07:58Very amusing.
00:08:00Sherds in the garden, as we hope, and birds in the house.
00:08:09Trapped.
00:08:11The cottage had been empty so long before you came.
00:08:14Women have always lived here, but not for some time, you see.
00:08:18I frequently found birds trapped inside.
00:08:22But you've been here before.
00:08:24Oh, Delia.
00:08:26I get about.
00:08:28The birds would come in by the chimney and be unable to escape.
00:08:33And then they'd beat against the window and after a while, expire.
00:08:40Most of the window panes were broken when we...
00:08:44When I bought this cottage.
00:08:46Exactly.
00:08:48They should have known they had a way out.
00:08:51And birds, they didn't.
00:08:55That's what it means in the old tongue.
00:08:58Flanirthon.
00:09:00The place of birds.
00:09:01That's its name.
00:09:03Flanirthon Farm.
00:09:05Bird place.
00:09:07Or place of birds, as I prefer.
00:09:11You don't speak the old tongue, I don't suppose?
00:09:14If you mean Anglo-Saxon.
00:09:16Not since Oxford.
00:09:18Oh, it's not much spoken.
00:09:22It's never written, of course.
00:09:26Well, I'll just take a look around then.
00:09:28With your permission.
00:09:34Mind the nettles.
00:09:42Who's that?
00:09:44That's Fisher, isn't he?
00:09:47Is he off his head?
00:09:49No.
00:09:51He works for council over to Evesham.
00:09:55So you brought that inside the house then?
00:09:57Yes.
00:09:59What is it?
00:10:00Half a marble, isn't it?
00:10:02Glass marble, cut in half.
00:10:04Are they large for a marble?
00:10:06Oh, they am large, that size.
00:10:09That's right.
00:10:10You hold it.
00:10:11Keep it warm.
00:10:13Them like jewels.
00:10:14They like the body warm.
00:10:16I'll be on my way then.
00:10:18You won't find anything in that garden early in the 17th century.
00:10:22Civil war trash.
00:10:23Mr Fisher, the garden is overgrown with nettles, dock elder and convolvulus.
00:10:27You cannot possibly pretend...
00:10:28I've got the instinct, haven't I?
00:10:29That's Fisher, isn't it?
00:10:30He's got the instinct, known for it.
00:10:33You brought it inside the house then?
00:10:37How did you know it was outside?
00:10:39You won't find that inside.
00:10:40It has to be brought in.
00:10:42Has to be?
00:10:43Looks like an eye, doesn't it?
00:10:45It's only a marble, cut in half.
00:10:49I heard you had vermin.
00:10:52If I was you, I should take a walk through the woods.
00:10:54Up the bridle path, to the right and back by the gamekeeper's cottage.
00:10:58That's where I should go if I was troubled with vermin.
00:11:05Used to be all oak around here, you know.
00:11:10But the forestry, they don't like the old trees.
00:11:13They cut them down, burn them up, turn them into paper and plant conifers.
00:11:18That's the forestry way.
00:11:21Go a long way in them woods before you come across an oak nowadays.
00:11:27What does he mean by that?
00:11:29Oh, him a learned fellow, Fisher.
00:11:31He can't tell what he means.
00:11:33Oh!
00:12:04Hyah!
00:12:28Doing his exercises, wasn't he?
00:12:30I don't know, Mrs. Vargo, was he?
00:12:32Oh, that's Rob, he's known for it. Karate.
00:12:35Does he have to be naked?
00:12:37Naked, was he?
00:12:39Well, he had something on, but all intense and purple.
00:12:41Ah, what do you think of him then?
00:12:43I hope I don't understand it.
00:12:45Oh, it stands to reason, if you've got vermin, Rob's the man.
00:12:49Take the path by the gamekeeper's cottage, Fisher said.
00:12:52That's Rob's job, isn't it? That's what he's trained for.
00:12:55Rats, rabbits, foxes, that unskilled work controlling them.
00:12:58You've not controlled them.
00:13:00They're only mice.
00:13:02That's right. Vermin.
00:13:05Yes, well, I've been meaning to put poison down, as you know.
00:13:17I'm sure that man's mental.
00:13:22Really, I think, Mr. Fisher, mightn't he?
00:13:24I mean, there must be evil in him.
00:13:26I mean, there must be easier ways to get rid of him.
00:13:29One can hardly walk straight up to a naked man and say,
00:13:32please get rid of my mice.
00:13:34Isn't he employed by somebody?
00:13:36He works for the estate, don't he?
00:13:38I suppose I'd better get in touch with the estate office.
00:13:42It's quite a good idea to get a professional.
00:13:45That's right.
00:13:51You're quite an educated woman, aren't you?
00:13:55Yes, yes, I am.
00:13:57There's nobody educated round here.
00:13:59I was the only boy in the old village to go to grammar school.
00:14:02The first in eight years.
00:14:05It's all inbreeding and intermarriage round here.
00:14:08They're stupid.
00:14:10You don't have many friends, I take it?
00:14:12I don't have any friends.
00:14:14But at the agricultural company...
00:14:16I've lived there, haven't I?
00:14:18Wouldn't make any friends round here.
00:14:20Why do you come back?
00:14:22You go where there's a job offered.
00:14:24In England, abroad, somewhere underdeveloped?
00:14:26I would have gone to Canada, but I didn't have the fare.
00:14:29I'm saving for it.
00:14:31Don't they have assisted passages for qualified people?
00:14:36I don't think you'll have any more trouble.
00:14:39You could put the poison down yourself, as a matter of fact.
00:14:42I've offended you, how?
00:14:44It's harmless to human beings.
00:14:46They won't die in the wall. They come out to die.
00:14:48It's asking questions, isn't it?
00:14:50I've been impertinent.
00:14:52Rob, please.
00:14:54That's not my name.
00:14:56I'm sorry, they didn't give me any name but Rob.
00:14:58They call me Rob in the village.
00:15:00I answer to it to save trouble.
00:15:03Please sit down.
00:15:05I haven't any friends either.
00:15:13My name's Edgar.
00:15:15I'm not qualified.
00:15:17I failed the finals.
00:15:20Let me give you some more coffee.
00:15:24I do have friends in London, of course.
00:15:26I don't like them very much.
00:15:30My own life is in rather a mess, Edgar.
00:15:34That matters at my age.
00:15:36It's not really disastrous.
00:15:38I shall start again.
00:15:40And it won't take you long, you know,
00:15:42before you save up enough for Canada.
00:15:44What happened?
00:15:46Oh, you don't have to tell me.
00:15:48I was living with someone for eight years.
00:15:51It broke up.
00:15:53Divorced?
00:15:54We weren't married.
00:15:56You don't approve?
00:15:58Perhaps you're right.
00:16:00It seemed the best thing to us
00:16:02but clearly it's ended badly.
00:16:04It's not my business.
00:16:06Anyway, what I'm trying to say is
00:16:08because I felt I'd failed at something
00:16:10and didn't know how to face people
00:16:12because in my own case
00:16:14I felt that people were rather
00:16:16over-sympathetic
00:16:18or really rather unscrupulous
00:16:20or just simply uncomfortable
00:16:22at being with me.
00:16:24Or I felt so,
00:16:26which probably made them so.
00:16:28Anyway, I gave up my job
00:16:30and I came to live here.
00:16:32But I shall go back and start again.
00:16:34I shan't waste the rest of my life.
00:16:38I finished the course, you know.
00:16:40I wasn't thrown out.
00:16:42Can't you take the exam again?
00:16:44I will.
00:16:46I had no right to fail me.
00:16:50I don't mind if you call me Rob.
00:16:52Everyone else does.
00:16:54Why?
00:16:56I don't know.
00:16:58I can't remember.
00:17:00I was only six when I was adopted.
00:17:02And then when I applied to go to
00:17:04agriculture college,
00:17:06they wanted my birth certificate.
00:17:08And I found out what my name was.
00:17:10Who adopted you?
00:17:13She got paid for it.
00:17:15It's not like being really adopted,
00:17:17you could say.
00:17:19I never called her mum or anything like that.
00:17:21Just Auntie Weigel?
00:17:23She didn't stint me.
00:17:25Not for food or anything.
00:17:27Or the uniform for the grammar.
00:17:29It all cost money.
00:17:31She's all right.
00:17:33I don't remember my real mother.
00:17:35You don't live with her?
00:17:37No.
00:17:39I'm on my own now.
00:17:41I don't belong down there,
00:17:43you see.
00:17:45Not in the village.
00:17:47Now that I've gone to college,
00:17:49it's raised me.
00:17:53I'm more like you, aren't I?
00:17:55Yes.
00:17:57Just a minute.
00:18:11What do you make of this?
00:18:13Oh, it's a marble.
00:18:15Cut in half.
00:18:17One of a very large size.
00:18:19You don't see them often.
00:18:21If you found it on your window,
00:18:23sir, would you bring it indoors?
00:18:25I don't know.
00:18:27It's pretty, I suppose.
00:18:29The colours.
00:18:31There was a girl I once went out with
00:18:33who used to read House and Garden.
00:18:35An ornament?
00:18:37Well, I don't know.
00:18:39An ornament?
00:18:41Would you?
00:18:43What?
00:18:45If you found it on your window, sir,
00:18:47would you bring it inside?
00:18:49I don't know if you did.
00:18:51I'd want to know how it got there.
00:18:53But would you bring it indoors?
00:18:55Throw it away, wouldn't I?
00:18:57I mean, it's no use to anyone.
00:18:59But then I'm not a woman.
00:19:03No, you're not.
00:19:06He's quite extraordinary,
00:19:08isn't she?
00:19:10I go round like Lady Chatterley
00:19:12all the time,
00:19:14having to hold myself in.
00:19:16Why bother if you fancy him?
00:19:18You're a free woman.
00:19:20People would talk, for one thing.
00:19:22As far as I can see,
00:19:24there's no privacy at all in the country.
00:19:26Whatever you do, wherever you go,
00:19:28everybody knows.
00:19:30If you're going to go around
00:19:32like Lady Chatterley,
00:19:34you'd rather go around with the nettles, more likely.
00:19:36There are too many people
00:19:38in the woods.
00:19:40People?
00:19:42Who gets that feeling?
00:19:44Like being watched.
00:19:46Well, there are people,
00:19:48bound to be.
00:19:50Forestry people.
00:19:52For Rob himself, he's got a cottage there.
00:19:54It's not exactly a desert.
00:19:56It's not exactly a cherry and crustacean, either.
00:19:58I can't explain it.
00:20:00It's just a feeling.
00:20:02I understand.
00:20:04It's nice here.
00:20:06I know exactly, love.
00:20:08You're going to get that feeling,
00:20:10and it's no good.
00:20:12You'll have to sell up.
00:20:14I expect there's some medical term for it.
00:20:16Something rather phobia.
00:20:18I'd lie awake all night,
00:20:20listening to the voices.
00:20:22What voices?
00:20:24In the wind, dear.
00:20:26Wasn't windy last night?
00:20:28How do you know there's a wind?
00:20:30There's a voice in your ears,
00:20:32whipping in and out of the potholes.
00:20:34And you hear the voices.
00:20:36Drunken voices.
00:20:38Singing.
00:20:40Shouting things.
00:20:42Frightened women.
00:20:44A child.
00:20:46I don't hear any such thing.
00:20:48I'll get some more of this.
00:20:50That wasn't very clever.
00:20:52Yes, it was.
00:20:54What are you up to?
00:20:56Good works.
00:20:59She shouldn't be in the country like this.
00:21:01She should be back in town,
00:21:03getting on with the business of living.
00:21:05I want her to go off this place,
00:21:07and the sooner the better.
00:21:09Sell it.
00:21:11Keep it for weekends and ask people to stay.
00:21:13Well, we're here.
00:21:15And whom else has she asked?
00:21:17Ever?
00:21:19I don't like being Nora's only friend.
00:21:21It's too much of a responsibility.
00:21:23And here's Lady Chatterley herself,
00:21:25with the foaming jug.
00:21:27We're not on social terms.
00:21:29Keeps him to herself.
00:21:31Won't show him to her friends.
00:21:33We're not on social terms.
00:21:35Then I'd get some more mice, darling,
00:21:37if I were you.
00:21:39Harrod's pet department might send some up.
00:21:41As a matter of fact,
00:21:43he has borrowed a couple of books.
00:21:45Oh.
00:21:57Blasphemy!
00:22:23Blasphemy!
00:22:25Blasphemy!
00:22:27You've not seen his weapons, then?
00:22:29No.
00:22:31Souvenirs.
00:22:33Of what?
00:22:35Gestapo. Stormtrooper.
00:22:37Surely Rob's too young to know anything about the Gestapo.
00:22:39He writes away for them, doesn't he?
00:22:41He writes to the body magazines.
00:22:43They're full of adverts for that crash.
00:22:45Can't a butcher do that?
00:22:47He doesn't come from the butchers.
00:22:49He's one of mine.
00:22:51Been hanging upside down all night.
00:22:53Been hanging upside down all night.
00:22:59Fowl and fleas go together.
00:23:01Really, Mrs Vigo,
00:23:03when I asked you to bring me a chicken,
00:23:05I didn't mean you to kill one specially.
00:23:07She's a broody, no use for laying.
00:23:09Ring her neck, slit her throat.
00:23:11Hang her up, that's all she's good for.
00:23:13There, back again?
00:23:15Bound to be.
00:23:17Why? Rob put poison down?
00:23:19Peter.
00:23:21Peter.
00:23:23Got no teeth.
00:23:25He more gummy, Peter.
00:23:27Known for it.
00:23:29What's that to do with the mice?
00:23:31Eats the sandwiches in your shed, doesn't he?
00:23:33He can't manage the crust, he leaves them laying.
00:23:35Encouragement to mice, that I am.
00:23:37Bound to be.
00:23:39Yes, well, I'd better ask Rob to have another go at them.
00:23:41Him coming to supper, as I hear.
00:23:45From whom?
00:23:47Pardon?
00:23:49Nobody.
00:23:55From Rob?
00:23:57No, why would Rob tell me?
00:23:59That's private business.
00:24:01Somebody told you?
00:24:03You did.
00:24:05Asking me to get a chicken.
00:24:07You wouldn't cook a chicken for yourself.
00:24:09Anybody might have been coming.
00:24:11That's right.
00:24:13He bought some gentleman's cologne.
00:24:15Gun smoke.
00:24:18Why do you call him Rob
00:24:20when his name's Edgar?
00:24:22Answers to it.
00:24:24It's not his name.
00:24:26Short for Robin.
00:24:28You don't like Edgar as a name?
00:24:30Got nothing against it.
00:24:32You ask Fisher.
00:24:34He'll tell you all about the names,
00:24:36all the old names.
00:24:38He's noted for learning.
00:24:40There's always one young man
00:24:42who answers to the name of Robin and his parts.
00:24:44Has to be.
00:24:48Really,
00:24:50this is ridiculous.
00:24:54Well, why not,
00:24:56if one fancies him?
00:24:58Better to be safe than...
00:25:00thing.
00:25:18Is that you, Rob?
00:25:20Yeah.
00:25:22You said a quarter to eight.
00:25:24You're very punctual.
00:25:26As an admiral, we'll have it.
00:25:28I thought we'd have a drink on the patty
00:25:30if it's not too cold.
00:25:48That was the Waffen-SS.
00:25:50Like they weren't police, you see.
00:25:52They were soldiers, only they weren't part of the army.
00:25:54I mean, they still wore the SS uniform,
00:25:56you know, black with a death's head badge.
00:25:58But they had this independent discipline,
00:26:00quite separate from the army
00:26:02because of being an elite, you see.
00:26:04A lot of the guards in the concentration camps
00:26:06were Waffen-SS.
00:26:08They had the toughness for it.
00:26:10Isn't it Waffen?
00:26:12Isn't that how it's pronounced, Waffen-SS?
00:26:14I don't know.
00:26:16I never heard it pronounced.
00:26:18I just read about it.
00:26:20Maybe we'd better go into the other room.
00:26:22It's more comfortable.
00:26:24You can tell they were different from the army
00:26:26because of the names of the ranks.
00:26:28They were all called Fuhrer, right down to the corporal.
00:26:30That means leader in German, Fuhrer does.
00:26:32I know.
00:26:34The corporal was a rotten Fuhrer,
00:26:36and the sergeant was an untitioned Fuhrer.
00:26:38You'll excuse me if I don't leave upstairs for a moment.
00:26:40I shan't be a moment.
00:26:42And the general was a crippling Fuhrer.
00:26:44You could always pee in the garden.
00:26:46There's nobody about.
00:26:48I'm all right.
00:26:50Thank you very much.
00:26:52Dear God, to think I said I fancied him.
00:26:54You're middle-aged, Nora Palmer.
00:26:56Two more hours' chat about the SS
00:26:58and you'll be an old woman.
00:27:14Oh, you...
00:27:16No, I wasn't. I thought I heard something,
00:27:18like a motor or something up on the road, up on your hill.
00:27:20It stopped now.
00:27:22Oh, the tractor comes down sometimes.
00:27:24Not at this time of night, it doesn't.
00:27:26I couldn't see anything, though.
00:27:28Yes, well, I'll get you a drink.
00:27:30Not for me, thanks.
00:27:32I mean, I have to keep myself in condition.
00:27:34Of course.
00:27:36If two people are having a really interesting conversation,
00:27:38you don't need drink to keep it going.
00:27:40I think I do need a drink.
00:27:42The SS?
00:27:44It was like an order of chivalry,
00:27:46like King Arthur and the Round Table.
00:27:48Oh.
00:27:54Nothing, Gail.
00:27:58The SD was the security service.
00:28:00They were merged with the Ordinary Security
00:28:02in 1939 to form the RSHA.
00:28:04I thought it was military history
00:28:06you were interested in.
00:28:08I wouldn't have bothered to get you Michael's book
00:28:10on the Franco-Prussian War
00:28:12if I'd thought it was only the SS.
00:28:16I'm expanding my interests all the time.
00:28:18Ah.
00:28:20Anyway.
00:28:22I'm so sorry.
00:28:24That's all right.
00:28:26I expect it's the air.
00:28:28What is?
00:28:30Country air, makes one sleepy.
00:28:32Known for it, as Mrs. Vargo would say.
00:28:34She's right, it does.
00:28:36I expect we're both ready for bed.
00:28:38Well.
00:28:40If you're sure you won't have another drink before you go.
00:28:42No. I mean yes, thank you.
00:28:44I am sure. I don't drink much.
00:28:46Well, say goodnight then.
00:28:48Thank you for coming over.
00:28:50I'm not really a lonely person
00:28:52but it does make a pleasant change
00:28:54cooking for someone else occasionally.
00:28:56Besides the mice.
00:28:58I don't think you'll have any more trouble with the mice.
00:29:00I've never been upstairs in your house.
00:29:08I can't see anything.
00:29:10There are always noises at night.
00:29:12Yeah.
00:29:13They don't mean anything.
00:29:14I should have thought you'd have been used to them.
00:29:18You could do with a bit of protection
00:29:20though, I dare say.
00:29:21No.
00:29:22What?
00:29:23No, I don't need any protection.
00:29:24Thank you, Rob.
00:29:25It's very kind and flattering
00:29:26that you should think of kissing me goodnight
00:29:28but really we don't know each other well enough.
00:29:30But I thought when you invited me...
00:29:31No, that was not the idea.
00:29:33Rob, my dear, I'm not a baby snatcher.
00:29:35I must be at least
00:29:37ten years older than you are.
00:29:39I'm not a baby.
00:29:40Of course not.
00:29:41You're a very good-looking young man.
00:29:43I'm sure there are plenty of girls in the village of your age...
00:29:45I don't have anything to do with them.
00:29:47I don't keep my body at its peak for them.
00:29:50Or for me, Rob.
00:29:52For yourself, perhaps.
00:30:00Goodnight.
00:30:01Thank you for supper.
00:30:07Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear.
00:30:38Sheen! Sheen!
00:30:40Gone to bed.
00:30:41All right.
00:30:43Turn the van round.
00:30:44Ready to go.
00:31:07Come on.
00:31:32It's all right.
00:31:34It's all right, Miss Palmer.
00:31:35It's gone now.
00:31:36Only a bird. They come down the chimney when you haven't lit the fire, then they get frightened.
00:31:39They do.
00:31:40You thought it would get in your hair, didn't you?
00:31:42I've often heard it.
00:31:43I don't know what I thought.
00:31:46There's no need to be scared, Miss Palmer.
00:31:53You should tell me about the birds.
00:32:07What were you doing out there?
00:32:09I heard you scream.
00:32:11You've been gone an hour at least.
00:32:13That's right.
00:32:14Somebody hit me over the head.
00:32:16Oh!
00:32:17Poachers, I expect.
00:32:19Nothing to worry about.
00:32:23Barber's festival tomorrow.
00:32:37What it was, you see.
00:32:39I couldn't think of anything to say.
00:32:42I always wanted to be able to hold a conversation.
00:32:46But I could never find anybody to hold a conversation with till I got to college.
00:32:49What about that girl you went out with?
00:32:51That girl used to read House and Garden.
00:32:53I only went out with her twice.
00:32:55It's the most I went out with any of them.
00:32:58I mean, just because I keep myself in condition and all that.
00:33:02At your peak.
00:33:03It's not enough, though, is it?
00:33:06My dear, you're a very good-looking young man.
00:33:09I said so and I meant it.
00:33:11It's not much use if you can't think of anything to say.
00:33:15I mean, I have had girls.
00:33:17Of course I have.
00:33:19But it...
00:33:21It was like being collected.
00:33:24Ah.
00:33:25Anyway, I read this article in a reader's digest about how we should specialise in one subject.
00:33:30Because experts are always interesting.
00:33:34And I noticed these adverts in my bodybuilding magazines for SS uniforms and weapons.
00:33:38And I thought...
00:33:40I'll specialise in that.
00:33:42Because obviously a lot of people are interested in it.
00:33:46Did it work?
00:33:49You're the first person I've been out with since.
00:33:52And we did hold a conversation, didn't we?
00:33:57Except at the end.
00:34:00When you wanted to get rid of me.
00:34:02Never mind.
00:34:04I thought you wanted me to seduce you, you see.
00:34:07Well, I did in a way.
00:34:10I expect I missed the psychological moment to move things to a more physical plane.
00:34:21Bloody birds.
00:34:26I come to take you to church.
00:34:28But I... I'm an agnostic.
00:34:31Are you Jewish?
00:34:33You didn't say you were Jewish.
00:34:35No, Mrs Vago. Agnostic means...
00:34:37One isn't religious. One doesn't go to church.
00:34:40Well, you can't, can you?
00:34:42Parson only comes over one Sunday in four.
00:34:44He rides his cycle from Painsbury.
00:34:46You know, Mrs Vago...
00:34:47As I said, if you don't come to Arvis Festival, Parson, you'll get no welcome here at all.
00:34:52And I'll do lay reading.
00:34:54Consequently, Arvis Festival, we always add him.
00:34:57And he adds dinner with major grades.
00:34:59I'm not religious.
00:35:00It's the same. We reckoned to have him over then.
00:35:02Christmas is another matter. We don't take much account of it.
00:35:05Mrs Vago...
00:35:06You'll need a hat. I brought one.
00:35:09Decorations can't be missed. We're known for them.
00:35:12Sheaves, apples, pumpkins, big as your arse.
00:35:16I came to fetch you.
00:35:18I came up to fetch you.
00:35:20And it had not be thought kindly if you seemed to spurn the decorations.
00:35:26Well, don't I need a dress?
00:35:27Oh, so long as you're not in trousers, they won't reckon to put you out.
00:35:30What's the matter?
00:35:58The grain pipe's come away from the wall.
00:36:00Careless.
00:36:02Careless?
00:36:04Come away, that has.
00:36:06Why, it was all right yesterday.
00:36:08That's right.
00:36:09Come away in the night. What's that?
00:36:14You can hear the bells.
00:36:16Twice a year, them gets rung.
00:36:21Rope broke last year.
00:36:25Don't want to be late.
00:36:27It's all right.
00:36:28There's something I wanted to ask you about, Mrs Vago.
00:36:31Something seems to be missing from the bathroom.
00:36:34I wondered if you'd moved it.
00:36:36What's that, then?
00:36:38Well, it's a...
00:36:40It's a small...
00:36:44Well, a cap.
00:36:47Not a hat, you know.
00:36:49A contraceptive cap, in fact.
00:36:52A d...
00:36:55I mean, one uses it.
00:37:00Never mind, it doesn't matter.
00:37:02I must have mislaid it somehow.
00:37:12And so, at this time of fulfilment of the country year,
00:37:17let our thoughts return to that one source
00:37:21from which all good gifts come from.
00:37:25And be we wise or foolish, virgins,
00:37:29let us say,
00:37:31we shall keep our oil for thee, Lord,
00:37:36guarding and holding our precious seed,
00:37:40even in the dark days of winter,
00:37:44to bring it forth once more in the spring,
00:37:48when the green shoots pierce the earth
00:37:52in prize of the only begetter of all our goodness.
00:37:59And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,
00:38:03be ascribed as his most just...
00:38:05Amen.
00:38:16Mending your drainpipe, which has come away.
00:38:18Last night.
00:38:19As I heard.
00:38:21From whom?
00:38:22Hm?
00:38:23Never mind.
00:38:25Peter's excused Harvest Festival, I suppose.
00:38:27Unlike me, he isn't expected to admire the decorations.
00:38:30Oh, he took part in the worship,
00:38:32but he did not remain for the sermon.
00:38:34Are you?
00:38:35Oh, I'm a lay reader, Miss Palmer.
00:38:38Is that an answer?
00:38:40Our parson is not an educated man,
00:38:42mereish brummy, to tell you the truth.
00:38:45He takes his sermons out of a book,
00:38:48Holy Thoughts for a Holy Year,
00:38:50Evangelical Press, 12 and 16.
00:38:53But in rural areas, the church puts up with what it can afford.
00:38:57We don't complain.
00:38:59You feel you could do better?
00:39:02Just as perhaps you could tell me how on a quiet September night,
00:39:05the drainpipe came away from the wall.
00:39:08We should say it was someone on your roof.
00:39:12Some man?
00:39:14I find it easier than a lady.
00:39:17Some lurker.
00:39:20Why?
00:39:21After no good.
00:39:24Burglar? That's ridiculous.
00:39:27Perhaps you heard something.
00:39:29In the night.
00:39:30Nothing, nothing at all happened last night.
00:39:33Nothing happened.
00:39:36A bird came down the chimney.
00:39:38Ah, I said it was a place of birds.
00:39:43Must have been a very large bird, Miss Palmer,
00:39:46to have dislodged your drainpipe.
00:39:48It wasn't just an ordinary frightened bird.
00:39:52A nightingale, perhaps?
00:39:54Or an owl, at that time of night?
00:39:58Nothing was taken.
00:40:00Nothing missing at all.
00:40:02Nothing?
00:40:04Excuse me.
00:40:20Something boring has happened.
00:40:22Yes?
00:40:23I appear to be pregnant.
00:40:25Appear to be?
00:40:26Um...
00:40:27You've been having it off, dear, with that young man?
00:40:30Yes.
00:40:31Laura, how could you possibly...
00:40:33I don't understand it myself.
00:40:35Forgot?
00:40:36Hmm.
00:40:37Disappeared for one night and reappeared the next day.
00:40:40Does she mean?
00:40:41Precautions, Jake.
00:40:43Oh.
00:40:44Ah, but why should...
00:40:45I don't know why anyone should do such a thing.
00:40:48The only possible reason is that somebody actually wanted me pregnant,
00:40:51which is too stupid to consider seriously.
00:40:53Laura, dear, I mean, even then...
00:40:55I didn't have to, Jake.
00:40:56I didn't intend to.
00:40:57It happened.
00:40:59May one ask how?
00:41:02I was frightened by a bird that came down the chimney.
00:41:04And fell into his arm?
00:41:06He had, in fact, left the house an hour before.
00:41:09I'd gone to bed.
00:41:11I heard a strange noise and went downstairs.
00:41:14The bird was trapped.
00:41:15It flew at me.
00:41:16I screamed.
00:41:17He happened to be outside and heard me.
00:41:20Happened to be?
00:41:22A passing poacher had hit him on the head and knocked him out.
00:41:25Yes, yes, of course.
00:41:27It also seems likely that somebody may have been on the roof at that time.
00:41:30The bird may actually have been put down the chimney.
00:41:33You mean that he, Thing...
00:41:35Rob.
00:41:36Thank you, Rob.
00:41:37You mean he did it?
00:41:38I don't know what to think.
00:41:39I tell you, the whole thing's too fantastic to bear thought.
00:41:41You do think about it, though?
00:41:42And you are pregnant.
00:41:43I said so.
00:41:46You'd like us to do something about it?
00:41:49Thank you, Madge.
00:41:50I'm not at all at finding an abortionist myself.
00:41:54Sorry.
00:41:55Sorry.
00:41:56Does he know?
00:41:58And do you actually think that he may have, well, planned the whole thing?
00:42:01I don't know what to think.
00:42:02I mean, maybe he's telling the truth.
00:42:04I can't remember if he had a bump on his head or not.
00:42:07The bird may have come down the chimney on his own.
00:42:10I didn't hear anybody on the roof,
00:42:12except that the drainpipe had come away.
00:42:14And Rob's not bright.
00:42:16I mean, it's such a complicated plot, if it is a plot.
00:42:19Now, how could he have got in the house to stay?
00:42:21How would he know where to look?
00:42:23How would he know I wasn't on the pill?
00:42:26Yes, you're right, it's mad, the whole thing.
00:42:28There's no reason for it.
00:42:30He thought I wanted to be seduced.
00:42:31He even said so.
00:42:32Or he thought you wanted me to.
00:42:33So why?
00:42:34Why?
00:42:37Anyway, I've gone right off him.
00:42:38And you won't go back?
00:42:40Oh, sometime.
00:42:42In the spring.
00:42:45Sometimes it's more important to find a job than somewhere to live.
00:43:02You mustn't.
00:43:03What are you doing here?
00:43:05I came to tell you.
00:43:07I got the day off because it's Christmas.
00:43:09I came up by train.
00:43:11You'd better come in.
00:43:16Well, do you want tea or anything?
00:43:18You mustn't kill.
00:43:19Now, Rob, sit down.
00:43:20Listen, don't kill my son.
00:43:21Oh, is that it?
00:43:23Don't do it.
00:43:24And how did you find out?
00:43:26Auntie Vigo.
00:43:27No point in asking how she knew I was pregnant, since she knows everything.
00:43:30Did she also tell you I was thinking of an abortion?
00:43:33She said you were modern in your thoughts.
00:43:35I'll make some tea.
00:43:36No.
00:43:37Now, Rob.
00:43:38I only got a day return, then I had to find a way.
00:43:40A taxi would have been better.
00:43:42Now, Rob.
00:43:43I only got a day return, then I had to find a way.
00:43:45A taxi would have known it.
00:43:46I've no money for taxis.
00:43:47The train goes back in 40 minutes.
00:43:49You won't kill him, will you?
00:43:54Rob.
00:43:56Are you asking me to marry you?
00:43:59No?
00:44:00Well, I wouldn't, even if you did.
00:44:03So what you're asking me to do is to bear the child,
00:44:06and then rear it,
00:44:07all on my own, an unmarried mother.
00:44:09That's what you took a day return to ask me?
00:44:12I'd help.
00:44:13Support it?
00:44:14When you can't even afford a taxi?
00:44:16Or would you send me the money from Canada when you get there?
00:44:22You're the mother.
00:44:24Don't you want him?
00:44:26It?
00:44:27No.
00:44:28I'll take him, then.
00:44:29Why do you want him?
00:44:32It's my seed, isn't it?
00:44:35How dare you.
00:44:37How dare you come here and talk to me about your seed
00:44:40like something out of one of your SS textbooks.
00:44:44Do you think I want an abortion?
00:44:46I've never wanted a child,
00:44:47but that's a different matter to killing one.
00:44:49Scraping one out.
00:44:50Curetting it.
00:44:51All those words.
00:44:52What's inside me may look like a tadpole.
00:44:54It may not feel or think or breathe,
00:44:56but it's alive to me.
00:44:57It's part of me.
00:44:59I don't want it killed any more than you do.
00:45:02I'm 35.
00:45:04Soon I shall be past the age to bear a child.
00:45:06I didn't think I'd mind that.
00:45:08I'd make a terrible mother anyway.
00:45:10But now I find I do mind.
00:45:12I do care.
00:45:13I do feel.
00:45:14I do want this child almost as much as I don't want it.
00:45:16Maybe more.
00:45:17I'm mixed up and really rather unhappy about it.
00:45:21So don't tell me what to do, Rob.
00:45:24Because it may be your child,
00:45:26but it's certainly not your business.
00:45:31You brought that with you, then?
00:45:36I found it in my suitcase when I unpacked.
00:45:39No doctor or auntie Vigo put it there.
00:45:41She's a strange woman.
00:45:43Known for it.
00:45:45Just tell me one thing, Rob.
00:45:48That bird that came down the chimney that night and frightened me,
00:45:52did you...?
00:45:55No?
00:45:57Well, I didn't expect you to tell me, even if you had.
00:46:02Anyway, I want it clearly understood, Rob.
00:46:05When I come down to the cottage again,
00:46:08whatever I decide to do about the child,
00:46:11I don't want to see you.
00:46:14Seed is just seed, Rob.
00:46:17Doesn't give you any rights.
00:46:29I brought you a present.
00:46:49You don't have to keep the baby. Nobody suggested that.
00:46:52From a busy woman, not given to motherhood.
00:46:55Indeed?
00:46:56You can have him looked after.
00:46:58His father came from the orphanage, as you know.
00:47:00Aren't you being rather impertinent?
00:47:02Good advice, that Anne. Not cheeky.
00:47:05There's a difference.
00:47:07Mrs. Vigo, has it ever occurred to you that I don't have to employ you?
00:47:11You can't do the cleaning, not by yourself.
00:47:13First, you're not used to the work, and secondly, you're too heavy.
00:47:16And you won't get nobody else come from the village, I tell you that.
00:47:20Because I'm a foreign woman.
00:47:22Because I cleans here.
00:47:25I come up special to give you a good welcome.
00:47:28So if you're feeling like a cup, I'll make some tea.
00:47:36I'll come up daily.
00:47:38You'll be needing to take things easy.
00:47:40No need to pay.
00:47:42I didn't know that I should be staying all that long.
00:47:45Oh, you're here for the rest.
00:47:47For the weekend.
00:47:49After all, I have a job again now.
00:47:51I'll never work in seven months gone.
00:47:54It doesn't need brain work.
00:47:57But it can be done anywhere.
00:47:59Indeed, yes. Therefore, not necessarily here.
00:48:04Easter, I'm in two weeks.
00:48:06Yes.
00:48:08Here am your place, miss.
00:48:11Come the winter, the dark days, you go where you will.
00:48:15And I've no objection, no effort made to keep you.
00:48:18But now, come Easter.
00:48:22Here am your place.
00:48:27Yes.
00:48:57Yes.
00:49:16The car won't start.
00:49:18We could hear you had difficulty.
00:49:20I suppose the petrol pump in the village doesn't run to a mechanic.
00:49:23Can you have flooded the engine?
00:49:25Well, the plugs would not be wet since the car is under cover.
00:49:30Perhaps you'd like to try, Mr. Fisher.
00:49:32You seem to know a lot about it.
00:49:34Oh, I'm not mechanical, Miss Palmer.
00:49:36I understand the language of machinery.
00:49:38It's not the practice.
00:49:40Fisher don't do driving. He leaves that to others.
00:49:42Mr. Wellbeloved, the butcher, is our mechanic.
00:49:45With your permission, I'll ask him to step over.
00:49:48His wife can look after the shop.
00:49:52It's a long way, I'm afraid.
00:49:54I have my bicycle.
00:49:56Fisher don't drive.
00:49:58Him known for learning, not for driving cars.
00:50:04Cracking the distributor rotor, isn't there?
00:50:06I shouldn't know a distributor rotor if I saw one cracked or not.
00:50:10The point is, can you fix it?
00:50:11You can't fix it. I'm cracked.
00:50:14You would have to replace the part.
00:50:16All right, replace it.
00:50:19Miss Palmer wishes you to replace the part.
00:50:22How long will it take?
00:50:23No time.
00:50:25Good.
00:50:26When I has a rotor.
00:50:28I suppose a garage would have one.
00:50:31Could try to Evesham.
00:50:33You better use my phone.
00:50:35Try as many garages as you like.
00:50:40We'll phone the garage, Henry.
00:50:42We must help all we can.
00:50:44Allow me to assist you, Miss Palmer.
00:50:46I don't know what you're doing here.
00:50:48Mr. Wellbeloved is phoning the garage.
00:50:50Why suddenly go, this distributor thing?
00:50:53Most things in cars go suddenly, Miss Palmer.
00:50:56An unconsidered crack in metal.
00:50:57A weakness in a belt or a pipe.
00:50:59A sharp stone in a tire.
00:51:00A loose wire.
00:51:01All on notice for mile after mile.
00:51:04Approaching ever nearer the point of no return.
00:51:07And then...
00:51:09Breakdown.
00:51:11It's the same with bicycles, to tell you the truth.
00:51:14Yes.
00:51:15It couldn't be...
00:51:17End use.
00:51:19I mean, I never locked my garage
00:51:21if there were somebody hanging around outside.
00:51:23Why should anyone do such a thing?
00:51:25I don't know why.
00:51:27Could it be done?
00:51:28It's bound to be noticed.
00:51:30To crack the rotor from the outside, as it were.
00:51:33With scissors, say.
00:51:35Be immediately noticeable to a skilled mechanic.
00:51:39Shall I just take this off?
00:51:42Reads a lot, Fisher.
00:51:44Books of all sorts.
00:51:47What does the garage say?
00:51:49Can't get it to Evesham.
00:51:51They may have to go to Coventry.
00:51:52Well, that's not far.
00:51:53Two weeks' delivery.
00:51:58I suppose I...
00:52:00I could take a train.
00:52:04It's ludicrous.
00:52:05There isn't a station nearer than Evesham
00:52:07and the bus only goes through the village twice a week.
00:52:09Taxi?
00:52:10There isn't a taxi.
00:52:11When I tried to get some people in Evesham,
00:52:13the number didn't reply.
00:52:15What's wrong with the car?
00:52:16Immobilised.
00:52:18They took the distributor thing away.
00:52:19Why should they bother when it isn't any good?
00:52:21Surely you can work.
00:52:22Why do you have to come back to London?
00:52:23I can work perfectly well from here.
00:52:25There's no reason to come back to London.
00:52:27That's not the point, Jake.
00:52:29I feel such a prisoner without the car.
00:52:31She says she feels a prisoner without the car.
00:52:33She wants you to go and fetch her, I suppose.
00:52:36Anyway, what I was wondering, Jake,
00:52:38if you and Madge would like a day in the country on Sunday...
00:52:42I said if you and Madge would like a day in the country...
00:52:44What? I can't hear.
00:52:46She's working up to it.
00:52:47Hello? Hello, Nora?
00:52:49No, that's better.
00:52:50The 97 Nigerian's on the line.
00:52:52Hello?
00:52:53Hello, Nora?
00:52:54Oh, blast.
00:52:56Carol?
00:52:57Yes, I'd better try the exchange, I suppose.
00:52:59I shouldn't bother.
00:53:00She's boundarying again.
00:53:02Hello?
00:53:03Hello, hello, exchange.
00:53:05Hello?
00:53:12I see.
00:53:17Out of order.
00:53:18There you are.
00:53:19I told you Nora would ring if she could.
00:53:22Well, what do you think?
00:53:23I mean, she obviously wants us to go out there and get her.
00:53:26Yes, but you didn't say so.
00:53:28Jake, love, when you consider how much bother the telephone usually causes,
00:53:32why be ungrateful when it does something convenient for a change?
00:53:36I mean, she isn't really a prisoner.
00:53:38This is 1970.
00:53:39If she wants to get away badly enough, she will.
00:53:45My phone's out of order.
00:53:47That's right.
00:53:49You knew?
00:53:51You used the box in the village this morning, didn't you?
00:53:54I reported, yes.
00:53:56I also tried the exchange to get me some taxi people in Eastern at the same time,
00:54:00but the number didn't reply.
00:54:01That's right.
00:54:02Mrs. Gibbons said you had trouble at the post office.
00:54:06It's Mrs. Gibbons, is it, who's been trying to get me the Evesham number?
00:54:10That's right.
00:54:12Does it seem odd to you, Mrs. Vigo,
00:54:15that for five days I have been trying without any success to get away from here?
00:54:19It seems odd to me.
00:54:21I looked in at the butcher this morning,
00:54:23but apparently the rota hasn't arrived from Cromwell.
00:54:27My car doesn't work, Mrs. Vigo.
00:54:29My phone doesn't work.
00:54:31People put live birds down my chimney.
00:54:34I can't look out of the window at night without seeing Rob hanging around outside,
00:54:37and I've begun to feel trapped and decidedly nervous.
00:54:41Is he manging about, then?
00:54:43Don't you know he is?
00:54:45I don't reckon I know every bloody thing, miss.
00:54:47But do you know?
00:54:48And will you tell me why I'm being kept in this cottage waiting for something alone?
00:54:52If you're lonely, you could ask Rob in,
00:54:56since he's manging about outside.
00:55:00Don't bother to come here any more, Mrs. Vigo.
00:55:04I can manage the cleaning for the short time I'm here.
00:55:08I'm sorry if I sound hysterical.
00:55:11I'm alone here.
00:55:13I keep telling myself it's only imagination,
00:55:16but I've had proof now.
00:55:19Yesterday was one of those days the bus comes.
00:55:23I packed a case and carried it a mile across the fields.
00:55:30I waited by the stop.
00:55:36There were a couple of village women there already.
00:55:40But they moved up the street.
00:55:43I don't know why. I was at the shelter.
00:55:47Then the bus arrived.
00:55:49It stopped up the street where the women were.
00:55:52They got in.
00:55:55They got in.
00:56:00I ran towards it.
00:56:03It passed me without stopping.
00:56:08There's something wrong, Jake.
00:56:11I don't know what it is.
00:56:13They're keeping me here for something, making sure I can't get away before Easter.
00:56:20I'm afraid.
00:56:23Please, both of you, don't be rational about it.
00:56:27Make allowances and come and get me as soon as you can.
00:56:33I should be very careful with this one, Grace.
00:56:36Just hang on to it for a few days so it doesn't get lost in the post.
00:56:41The panel consists of Malcolm Muggeridge,
00:56:44Lord Longford,
00:56:46the very reverend, the suffragan bishop of Eatonsville,
00:56:50the Right Honourable Justin de Villeneuve,
00:56:53and a doctor.
00:56:55No, I don't think so.
00:57:20I don't think so.
00:57:50Hello?
00:58:06Hello?
00:58:08Hello?
00:58:21Can I help you?
00:58:24Yes, please. I want to make a London call.
00:58:29Hello?
00:58:31Hello, exchange.
00:58:51...believe that Jesus Christ, if there was such a person,
00:58:55actually rose from the dead,
00:58:58so that when tomorrow morning we give the traditional Easter greeting,
00:59:03Christ is risen, what we are really saying is...
00:59:06It's not even a good night for television.
00:59:12Oh, don't be stupid. There's nothing to be frightened of.
00:59:17And stop talking to yourself. You're making me nervous.
00:59:20I know you're in.
00:59:22Who is it?
00:59:24Rob.
00:59:26I'm sorry, you can't come in.
00:59:28It's no good trying the door. It's locked.
00:59:31Please.
00:59:33I'll put the outside light on.
00:59:38Let me in.
00:59:40Let me in, please.
00:59:44I told you I didn't want to see you again. Why have you come?
00:59:47There wasn't anywhere else for me to go.
00:59:50Please let me in.
00:59:52I've got nothing to do with it.
00:59:54With what?
00:59:57With any of it.
01:00:00I'll let you in.
01:00:14I'm a pregnant woman. You shouldn't be bothering me.
01:00:17I got nervous. You got nervous.
01:00:19It's lonely where I live. You start imagining things.
01:00:22I wanted somebody to talk to. You could have gone to the pub.
01:00:25I don't go to the pub.
01:00:27I'm sorry, but I'm not one of them. You know that.
01:00:30You'd better come in.
01:00:33I knew you'd be here, but I telephoned first anyway.
01:00:36If that was you on the phone, why didn't you speak?
01:00:39I couldn't think what to say.
01:00:42Isn't that for me to do?
01:00:44What?
01:00:45Lock the door. It's my house.
01:00:47Yes, if you like.
01:00:48Why did you do it?
01:00:50Well, you had it locked before.
01:00:53Yes, well, you'd better come in and sit down.
01:01:04Well, you aren't sitting down.
01:01:07Well, you aren't sitting down.
01:01:09I shall when I want to. I feel rather restless at the moment.
01:01:12Nervous?
01:01:13I said restless.
01:01:14I thought you said you were nervous earlier.
01:01:22I feel better now.
01:01:26I hope you don't think I'm going to ask you to stay the night.
01:01:29Just because I...
01:01:32I doesn't give you any rights here. Don't think that.
01:01:35I'm going to Canada next week.
01:01:37I thought you'd like to know.
01:01:39How did you get the money?
01:01:41Loaned it. Ticket bought for me.
01:01:44By whom?
01:01:45Fisher.
01:01:46Why?
01:01:47I don't know.
01:01:49I think you do.
01:01:51No.
01:01:53Something you'd done, some...
01:01:56service rendered.
01:01:57I'm paying it back.
01:01:58It was only a single fare, £60. I pay all the money back.
01:02:01What had you done for Fisher to induce him to lend it to you?
01:02:04Nothing. I told you.
01:02:07How did you know my phone would work when you rang?
01:02:10Why shouldn't it work?
01:02:12It's out of order.
01:02:13How should I know that?
01:02:14It's been out of order for a week. Everybody in the village knows.
01:02:17Then you want a phone, and it works.
01:02:20Then it goes out of order again.
01:02:22It's out of order now.
01:02:24Don't go to the village.
01:02:26But you know them well enough to borrow £60.
01:02:28I didn't borrow. It was loaned.
01:02:30I didn't ask. It was offered.
01:02:32I want to know why.
01:02:36Makes no difference.
01:02:38It was that night.
01:02:40You and me.
01:02:42When the bird came down the chimney.
01:02:44That's right.
01:02:48£60.
01:02:50Rather a lot for a one-night stand.
01:02:52Especially when he...
01:02:56Was he watching?
01:02:58Listening?
01:02:59Getting his kicks that way?
01:03:01That's not why it can't be.
01:03:03I don't know what you're on about.
01:03:04You?
01:03:05You are on about...
01:03:06Mustn't pick up bad habits of speech from Aunty Vigo, who knows everything.
01:03:09Look, I'm trying to tell you if you want to know.
01:03:12The poachers that night,
01:03:14the ones that knocked me out,
01:03:16that was Fisher.
01:03:18He said he had to attack me, compelled to do it.
01:03:20He's respectable, this Fisher, known for it.
01:03:23He's a lay reader.
01:03:25If it was to come out he'd been poaching,
01:03:27his reputation would be besmirched, he said.
01:03:29You believe that?
01:03:30But why else would he...
01:03:31You expect me to believe it?
01:03:32It's the truth.
01:03:33If he hadn't told you he was a poacher, how the hell would you have known?
01:03:36Are you asking me to believe that seven months later,
01:03:39when you had the least suspicion, he came to you and confessed,
01:03:41and then paid you £60 to keep your mouth shut?
01:03:44Are you asking me to believe that?
01:03:47He's a funny fellow.
01:03:49He's got his own ways.
01:04:01Why did you come here tonight?
01:04:03I told you.
01:04:05I got nervous, as if...
01:04:07people were watching me.
01:04:09What people?
01:04:11I don't know.
01:04:13Village people?
01:04:14Could be.
01:04:16You know what you said when you arrived?
01:04:18I've got nothing to do with it, you said.
01:04:22With what?
01:04:23I don't know.
01:04:25You don't know much, they haven't told you much.
01:04:27Just enough to get you indoors.
01:04:29They?
01:04:30People.
01:04:32You are nervous.
01:04:34Why are they keeping me here until after Easter?
01:04:37Why did the house have mice, and has again?
01:04:41Because I would need you, Rob, to get rid of them.
01:04:44You're a very good-looking young man, known for it.
01:04:47And I'm all without a man, sex-starved, as they say.
01:04:52And when I ask you round for the evening, Rob,
01:04:55why is it I am robbed?
01:04:57What a jolly pun that is.
01:04:59I was robbed, wasn't I, in every way.
01:05:01I don't know what you mean.
01:05:02No means of contraception. It disappeared.
01:05:05And reappeared the next day, but the night intervened.
01:05:08You intervened.
01:05:09We made love, if that's what you mean.
01:05:10No, we had sex.
01:05:12Rather arranged sex.
01:05:13The bull was brought to the cow.
01:05:15That happens in the country.
01:05:16And it took a lot of arranging,
01:05:18because I went off you, since you were boring me, silly.
01:05:21So I put you out, and I went alone to bed.
01:05:24Then a bird came down the chimney, and I was frightened.
01:05:26And you were conveniently nearby to rescue me.
01:05:29And after that, what could be more convenient and romantic,
01:05:34except someone had been on the roof to arrange that romantic rescue?
01:05:40Not me.
01:05:41That wasn't your part.
01:05:43It was on the head by Fisher.
01:05:45What's your part now, Rob?
01:05:46You're being funny with me, aren't you?
01:05:48I don't know what's on your mind exactly. I've heard of things.
01:05:50Every now and then there's a song and dance about it in the Sunday papers.
01:05:53Devil worship.
01:05:55Graves dug up.
01:05:56Churches desecrated.
01:05:58Blood.
01:05:59Stories of blood.
01:06:00Always rather vague.
01:06:02I never believed it happened seriously.
01:06:04You're being funny.
01:06:05Why are you keeping me here, all of you?
01:06:07You're being funny. I don't understand.
01:06:08Yes, I'm being funny.
01:06:11This is very sharp.
01:06:13Your auntie Vigo uses it to cut the heads off chickens.
01:06:17You're off your chum.
01:06:19Your friends are outside.
01:06:20I've got no friends.
01:06:22So that was your part, Rob.
01:06:23To get in and then let them in.
01:06:26I don't know why.
01:06:27It's easy to break a window.
01:06:29Perhaps an act of betrayal is part of the ritual.
01:06:32Don't turn that key.
01:06:33Please.
01:06:34Come away from that door.
01:06:36I don't know much about killing people.
01:06:39But I do know where the most delicate, hurtful parts are.
01:06:43You tell your friends if anyone tries to get into this room,
01:06:45I'll make a mess of their prize book.
01:06:53I don't understand any of this.
01:06:57Look, I'm on your side.
01:07:00I don't know what's happening, but I'm on your side.
01:07:04I could protect you.
01:07:06I know karate.
01:07:12We can't stay stood here forever.
01:07:15A little morning.
01:07:18A little morning.
01:07:19A little morning.
01:07:22By the rules of the game as I understand them,
01:07:25it'll be Easter Sunday and I shall be free.
01:07:31You see? I'm right.
01:07:35Please believe me.
01:07:38I don't know who's out there.
01:07:42I'm not one of them.
01:07:50You're terrified.
01:07:55You're as frightened as I am.
01:08:19Come on, rough boy.
01:08:49Come on.
01:09:20What are you doing here?
01:09:25Come to take you to church, haven't I?
01:09:28Like before.
01:09:30I brought a hat.
01:09:35What happened last night?
01:09:37I don't know.
01:09:39I was in the bathroom.
01:09:41You were in the bathroom?
01:09:43I was in the bathroom.
01:09:45I was in the bathroom.
01:09:47What happened last night?
01:09:49Nothing to remember.
01:09:51Just a game we're about sometimes.
01:09:53I was...
01:09:55I was...
01:09:57very frightened.
01:10:00Stupid.
01:10:02I thought...
01:10:04No call to that stupid thinking, lad.
01:10:07What good would a woman's blood be for the land?
01:10:11We bear, my dear.
01:10:13Women give birth.
01:10:14That am our work.
01:10:17Takes a man for the other.
01:10:19Yes, spare part for your car, come yesterday.
01:10:22Fisher's bringing it up, after the hour.
01:10:24Morning service.
01:10:30All right then, Grace.
01:10:33I'll be no more trouble with that.
01:10:36Well, time for a bath before church.
01:10:41Where's Rob?
01:10:43Gone to Canada, Miss Palmer.
01:10:48Not till next week.
01:10:50Oh, dear me, no, I'm sure you're mistaken.
01:10:52He was to leave today.
01:10:54Easter Sunday.
01:10:56Most appropriate start to a new life.
01:10:58By train to Liverpool, then by boat.
01:11:00An assisted passage.
01:11:02Assisted by you?
01:11:04As it happens.
01:11:06He came round last night, as I understand it,
01:11:08to take his leave.
01:11:10He'll be selling there.
01:11:12In the house, I imagine.
01:11:14Yes.
01:11:16That's better. Country life connects us all.
01:11:19I mean...
01:11:21Yes, he came round last night.
01:11:23I heard so.
01:11:25We must all wish him luck in his new venture.
01:11:31What was Peter doing here last night?
01:11:33Peter too.
01:11:35But there would be no occasion for him to say farewell.
01:11:38The village is his home.
01:11:39Yes.
01:11:41Well, that was very naughty of him.
01:11:43Anyone else see him?
01:11:46Only Rob.
01:11:48Oh, he's no longer with us.
01:11:51Why are you letting me leave when I could go to the police?
01:11:54About what, Miss Palmer?
01:11:57Mrs. Feige
01:11:59said something rather curious to me this morning.
01:12:03She said,
01:12:05what good would a woman's place be
01:12:07for the land?
01:12:09No good at all.
01:12:11It takes a man.
01:12:13Indeed, yes.
01:12:15You understand it then?
01:12:17Study of religions is one of my many interests.
01:12:19I am a reading man, you know.
01:12:21Known for it.
01:12:23The goddess of fertility in the old legends
01:12:26was in some ways like yourself, Miss Palmer.
01:12:30Not a married lady,
01:12:32but nevertheless,
01:12:34if you'll excuse the freedom,
01:12:35not a virgin either.
01:12:38In the autumn, she would couple with the young king.
01:12:41King?
01:12:43He'd be treated like a king.
01:12:45Served and
01:12:47pampered, you might say.
01:12:49And then, of course...
01:12:51Killed?
01:12:53He would pass away, yes.
01:12:55Assisted to it, you might say.
01:12:57And from his blood,
01:12:59the crops would spring.
01:13:02A great legend, Mr. Fisher.
01:13:05And Egyptian,
01:13:07Mexican, many places.
01:13:09You must read a book
01:13:11by Sir James Fraser.
01:13:13The Golden Bough, in seven volumes.
01:13:15But not an English legend.
01:13:18Robin Hood.
01:13:20Robin of the Dale.
01:13:22Even Robin Redbreast,
01:13:24one of the very birds in your garden.
01:13:26The male Robin only lives a year, you know.
01:13:29The female has many partners.
01:13:32Always Robin.
01:13:35Such a bounty there was.
01:13:37Such fruitfulness, Miss Palmer,
01:13:39from the blood that drained from Robin Hood.
01:13:41So the old stories say.
01:13:45But they are only stories, of course.
01:13:49And if that's all one had to say to the police,
01:13:53how very foolish they would think one.
01:13:57Your car's ready now.
01:14:03Oh, there's just one other small matter.
01:14:07You'll forgive me
01:14:09if
01:14:11I offend you.
01:14:14You're a little one.
01:14:17The expected little bundle.
01:14:20Mrs. Vigo was afraid you might be modern in your thoughts.
01:14:23But I was sure you would not wish to take a life.
01:14:27What are you saying, Mr. Fisher?
01:14:29My very good friends, Miss Palmer,
01:14:30at your local orphanage.
01:14:34And in
01:14:3720 years?
01:14:39It would not concern you.
01:14:49No.
01:14:53No, I...
01:14:55I don't think so.