The Stones Of Muncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall

Oldtuberadio

Saturday Playhouse: The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral First broadcast: Sat 10th Aug 1996, 14:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM By Robert Westall Robert Westall (1929-1993) is one of the best modern writers of ghost stories in the tradition of the great M.R. James In the spire of Muncaster Cathedral, a malevolent gargoyle wields its evil power. A steeplejack is hired to work on a cathedral, but in the tower a gargoyle wields its evil power over the fate of his family. Director Rosemary Watts Joe Clarke:……Peter Meakin Sergeant Allardyce:…..Terry Molloy Reverend Morris:…..John Webb Billy:……David Holt Kevin Clarke:…..Tim Black Barbara Clarke:…..Sunny Ormonde With: Richard Mitchley, Gillian Goodman, Zita Sattar and Anthony Pedle    Do you enjoy the variety on Oldtuberadio? Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows #radio #crime #thriller #drama To Support this channel please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oldtuberadio https://ko-fi.com/oldtuberadio98 https://www.patreon.com/oldtuberadio https://locals.com/Oldtuberadio

Transcript

00:00:00The Stones of Moncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall

00:00:27Put him in number three in the new room, George

00:00:31Get your hands off me

00:00:32Can you just sit there, sir?

00:00:46Where do you start this blasted thing, George?

00:00:51What's ready, sir?

00:00:52Oh, I hate these machines

00:00:54Oh, well, here goes

00:00:55I am Detective Sergeant Hugh Allardyce

00:00:58Attached to Moncaster Central Police Station

00:01:00We're in interview room number three at Moncaster Central

00:01:03Also present is Detective Constable George Hughes

00:01:06I'm interviewing...

00:01:08Would you give me your full name and date of birth?

00:01:11Josiah Clark Steeplejack

00:01:13I ask for your date of birth, sir, not your profession

00:01:16Oh

00:01:161st of March 1957

00:01:18So you're a steeplejack by trade, sir

00:01:23Look, am I under arrest or not?

00:01:26Oh, no, sir

00:01:26You're at present helping us with our inquiries into the suspicious death of Simon Willoughby, age 10

00:01:32But I don't know any kid called Simon Willoughby

00:01:34So you say, sir

00:01:36But he fell to his death from the tower you were working on

00:01:40You were up there, sir

00:01:42After dark yelling like a lunatic

00:01:44Maybe you took him up there, sir

00:01:47Maybe he just fell by accident

00:01:49That's crap

00:01:50I don't have to take this from you

00:01:52I can just walk out of here

00:01:53No, I wouldn't advise that, sir

00:01:54Well, let's, er

00:01:56Let's start off with an easier question, shall we?

00:02:01It wasn't you who first saw the body lying on the cathedral roof, was it?

00:02:05No

00:02:07It was me mate

00:02:09I was into a rusty pulley with oil in it

00:02:13We wanted to bring some stuff up, but the oist was very stiff

00:02:16And did you fail to look round because you already knew the body was there?

00:02:21I mean, did you want your mate to see it first?

00:02:24It wasn't like that

00:02:25Hughie, a word

00:02:27Can it wait, sir? We've just started

00:02:29I'd like a word with you outside, please

00:02:31Interview interrupted at 11.31

00:02:36God's sake, sir, I was just getting him going, he's all over the place

00:02:44You've just given him time to gather his wits

00:02:45It's not on, Hughie

00:02:46They've just rung up Thirlwood Hospital and checked with the staff

00:02:49Joe Clark was there all night at his own son's bedside

00:02:52His wife was with him, staff looking in every half hour

00:02:55He's got a cast-iron alibi

00:02:57Yeah, but he could have driven into town

00:02:59He can drive a long way in half an hour

00:03:00He left his car at the cathedral when our lads picked him up

00:03:03Forget him, Hughie

00:03:05He's got a better alibi than you or I have

00:03:07This is crackers

00:03:08He's in this up to his neck

00:03:11Chumpy as hell

00:03:12Ten more minutes and he'll be blabbing it all out

00:03:14I don't care what he blabs

00:03:15He's not guilty and we know it

00:03:17Now lay off, Hughie

00:03:19But he knows something, I tell you

00:03:21Then that makes him a witness, not a suspect

00:03:23And a witness of some respect in this town

00:03:25Just make sure you treat him as such

00:03:27Be very careful, Hughie

00:03:30You land yourself in it

00:03:32You're on your own

00:03:33Oh, he's in it

00:03:37Up to his bloody neck

00:03:39So, you were at the hospital last night

00:03:47Yeah, I was

00:03:50Why didn't you tell us?

00:03:51You didn't ask

00:03:52Anyway, you're in the clear

00:03:54So I can go?

00:03:55Yeah, you're not so fast

00:03:56I said you were in the clear

00:03:58I didn't say you'd finished helping us with our inquiries

00:04:00As a good citizen, of course

00:04:02I've got nothing to say

00:04:04Yeah, well, we'll see about that

00:04:05Nothing we can do with a cup of tea

00:04:07Yeah, you get them in, George

00:04:08Fast

00:04:09You take sugar?

00:04:10Two

00:04:11I think you know a few things you're not telling, Josiah

00:04:29I think there are some things

00:04:34Well, if you got them off your chest, you'd feel better

00:04:38Then you can get back to the hospital, see your lad

00:04:41Is he all right?

00:04:44I don't know

00:04:44It's a bit better

00:04:46Come on, sir

00:04:51It's all a matter of making a start

00:04:53Look

00:04:55Yeah?

00:04:57I don't want that tape recorder switched on again

00:04:59Don't you bother about that

00:05:01Anyway, here's your tea

00:05:02Just leave them, George, thanks

00:05:05Oh, all right, sir

00:05:06Now then

00:05:12Mr. Clark

00:05:15Well

00:05:17Our family's been steeplejacks for five generations

00:05:23Josiah, Clark and sons

00:05:25I've never been afraid of ice

00:05:27I climbed my first factory chimney when I was four years old

00:05:30My grandfather took me up to see my father working

00:05:33Seemed no more to me than a kid riding a bike

00:05:36I was really made up getting that cathedral job

00:05:41Only the big firms get the cathedral jobs usually

00:05:44I remember when my wife phoned me about it

00:05:47We'd just filled a big chimney at the brickworks

00:05:49Layed it into a twenty-foot gap between the brickworks and an electricity substation

00:05:54We've done it, Billy

00:06:02We've done it

00:06:03And not even a window broken

00:06:05Hey, this is a binge, oh, you're a genius

00:06:08Mr. Clark

00:06:10Yeah

00:06:10Turn the cardboard

00:06:11Just keep your mind

00:06:13Take it to the office

00:06:14All right, love

00:06:15I've just filled that chimney, love

00:06:23Perfect

00:06:23Joe

00:06:24What's up?

00:06:25The cathedral architects just run up

00:06:27They want some work doing on the southwest tower and steeple

00:06:29Why us?

00:06:30They always use Barris Brothers

00:06:32But they say Barris Brothers will be tied up at Gloucester all summer

00:06:34What about Liddell and Lewis?

00:06:36Well, it seems Jack Liddell's hurt his shoulder on the town hall job

00:06:39I believe this, Sergeant

00:06:41I believe those liars, Jack Liddell and the Barris Brothers

00:06:45I never dreamt they might know something nasty I didn't

00:06:48I was so made up I wasn't thinking straight

00:06:51I'm not a religious man, but a cathedral job's prestige

00:06:55Like you getting made superintendent, Sergeant

00:06:58Fuck chance of that

00:07:00So you started the cathedral job

00:07:03Well, first I went to see Taff Evans, the foreman stonemason there

00:07:09I've got the key to the northwest tower, Taff

00:07:11Huh?

00:07:12It's the southwest tower you want, boy

00:07:14Nothing wrong with the northwest

00:07:15I want to study the southwest from a distance

00:07:17Through the binoculars

00:07:18Work out the lie of the land

00:07:19You can often spot trouble better from a distance

00:07:21I'll fetch you the key

00:07:23Here you are

00:07:26Oh, there's just one thing

00:07:28What's that, Taff?

00:07:31Oh, nothing, boy

00:07:32I'll tell you later

00:07:33I wonder why he was getting that

00:07:41He's not happy about something

00:07:43Oh, well

00:07:46We'll have to wait and see

00:07:47I'm going to enjoy work in here

00:07:57Oh, damn PG chuck

00:08:09I'd better wear odd nails for this job

00:08:12Trainers won't be any use

00:08:14Better let Billy know

00:08:16Now

00:08:21A few bits of rotten stone in the spire

00:08:25There'll be more around the south side, I reckon

00:08:28Where it gets the wind and the rain

00:08:29And that weathercock's turning very stiffly

00:08:33Another few months, it'll be seized up solid

00:08:35And the gilding's going

00:08:37Still

00:08:38There's no big car handle there

00:08:40Hey

00:08:41Josiah Clarke and Sons

00:08:44Staplejacks to Moncaster Cathedral

00:08:47Who'd have ever thought it?

00:08:52Hello

00:08:52You're an ugly-looking beggar

00:08:55An ugly-looking beggar?

00:08:58You mean there were a man up the south-west tower?

00:09:00No

00:09:00It wasn't a man

00:09:01It was a gargoyle

00:09:04You know

00:09:05A rainwater spout in the shape of a human head

00:09:07Well

00:09:08Not human

00:09:09Most of them were carved to look like devils

00:09:12Carved and set up in the Middle Ages

00:09:14To frighten off the real devils

00:09:16And they seem to look more like devils every year

00:09:19As the wind and rain gets at them

00:09:21And what was so worrying about this one?

00:09:24I don't know

00:09:24He was an ugly beggar, right enough

00:09:27And he seemed to be watching me somehow

00:09:29And I had to keep looking back at him

00:09:32Well

00:09:34We started on the Monday morning

00:09:36Just my mate Billy and me

00:09:37Billy's the only one I'll work with

00:09:39You have to trust your mate up top

00:09:41He makes one mistake

00:09:43And they're scraping you off the pavement

00:09:44Death's not in the stone, Sergeant

00:09:47However rotten it is

00:09:48It's not in the height

00:09:49However high

00:09:49It's inside your mate's head

00:09:51If he's thinking about someone else

00:09:54He'll kill you sooner or later

00:09:55We dragged up the rope and pulley to set up a hoist at parapet level

00:10:01Below the spire

00:10:02Oh, God, John

00:10:06I'm not getting any younger

00:10:07Who is?

00:10:09It's a miserable hole, this

00:10:11You don't often get doused on in a tower

00:10:14And that smell

00:10:16It's like rotting fish

00:10:18What the hell would rotting fish be doing in a cathedral?

00:10:21Perhaps some bloke's left his five barley loads and two small fishes beyond him

00:10:24The north-west tower was nothing like this

00:10:30It's dry as a bone

00:10:31No smell?

00:10:32Yeah, just dust and mouse droppings and rent-a-kill

00:10:34The north-west tower was a lot lighter, too

00:10:37The windows seemed bigger

00:10:39Yeah, but they're both the same, surely

00:10:40It's like as two peas in a pod, people always say

00:10:44Come on, let's get on

00:10:47I could do with a bit of fresh air

00:10:49Well, that's better

00:10:56It's just like a map, isn't it?

00:11:02That's what I like about this job

00:11:03Looking down on people

00:11:05And them smaller than fleas

00:11:07What the hell?

00:11:12Look at that gargoyle

00:11:13What do you mean, look at that gargoyle?

00:11:16It's no different from the others

00:11:17For a bit of carving

00:11:19Ugly sod, though, isn't it?

00:11:22I didn't mean the actual gargoyle

00:11:24I mean the stone that's holding in my place

00:11:26Look

00:11:27Look, I can break it up with my thumbnail

00:11:29It comes away like cake

00:11:32It's got Kuiper stone once

00:11:35Some fool must have bedded it

00:11:36It's in the wrong way up

00:11:37So the frost got out of it

00:11:38No, no, it's bedded the right way up

00:11:40Look, you can see the way the bed runs

00:11:42And I'll tell you something else

00:11:44It's no age

00:11:45Been done since the last war

00:11:47How'd you make that happen?

00:11:48Well, there's me Uncle Fred's mark

00:11:50Carved in it

00:11:51That little fishhook

00:11:53That was his mark

00:11:54And he didn't finish his apprenticeship till 1947

00:11:57That stone is scarcely 50 years old

00:12:00And it's got no strength

00:12:02What else is rotten round here?

00:12:04It's not rotten anywhere else

00:12:12Just a bit round that gargoyle

00:12:14We'll put a scaffold pole across to block it off

00:12:17And I'll have a word with tough heavens about it

00:12:18It's his responsibility, you're right

00:12:20Now, for God's sake, let's get this oil set up

00:12:23Tommy Small will be here with the rest of the gear by 10

00:12:25So, we got the oil set up

00:12:30And a damn long time it took us

00:12:32I've never known her so cack-handed

00:12:35And Billy kept looking over his shoulder at that bloody gargoyle

00:12:39But I couldn't blame him, really

00:12:41I kept looking at it myself

00:12:43So, as you can imagine

00:12:46I went to see Taff Evans at lunchtime in a bit of a temper

00:12:49That stone's your responsibility

00:12:52It's only at parapet level

00:12:54It's not steeplejack's work, that

00:12:55It's just surface damage

00:12:57We'll get round to it

00:12:58It's always caused trouble, that stone round the gargoyle

00:13:02No matter how well you bedded it

00:13:03The main structure's sound, though

00:13:06If you don't watch it

00:13:07That gargoyle will come loose one night in a gale

00:13:09It'll cause no end of damage

00:13:10You won't like it dropping through the nave room

00:13:12Oh, that devil won't shift

00:13:14It weighs a ton

00:13:15Never has shifted

00:13:16All the time I've been here

00:13:18The architect knows about it

00:13:20Architect?

00:13:21What the hell does he know about it?

00:13:23Architects don't work with stone, they work with paper

00:13:25I get it, seen to, I told you

00:13:27Anyway

00:13:29I went off in a bit of a rage

00:13:31And had to let myself cool down

00:13:32Before we started hammering wedges into the steeple

00:13:35To hold our ladders and scaffold in

00:13:36The wedges seemed to go in all right

00:13:40And yet there was a funny little sound

00:13:43In the middle of the ring of the hammer

00:13:44A bit like

00:13:45You'll think I'm mad

00:13:48But it sounded to me a bit like a little kid

00:13:51Crying out in pain

00:13:52Lost and frightened

00:13:54Go on

00:13:57Anyway

00:13:58We kept our nerve that day

00:14:00And by the finish

00:14:02We had our little nest of scaffolding up

00:14:03Round the weathercock

00:14:04Handrails and all

00:14:05Snug as a bug in a rug

00:14:07Billy took the weathercock down to the pickup

00:14:10So the lads back in the workshop

00:14:11Could get on with regilding it

00:14:13I told him not to bother coming back

00:14:15And I'd clear things up

00:14:16So I was surprised to hear feet coming past the ladder

00:14:20Oh!

00:14:22It's you, Kevin

00:14:23I'm with Mum

00:14:24She's going to buy me some new trains at the sports shop

00:14:26She wants some money

00:14:27Doesn't she always?

00:14:30Normally I'd have been pleased to see him

00:14:32He's been climbing up things since we were four

00:14:35Same as I did

00:14:36No fear of heights

00:14:37And nimble as a monkey

00:14:38Make a good steeplejack someday

00:14:41But that day I wasn't pleased to see him

00:14:45Not up that old steeple

00:14:47Why?

00:14:49That damn gargoyle

00:14:51Somehow

00:14:53I didn't want him to see that gargoyle

00:14:56Anyway

00:14:58I told him to run back to his mum

00:15:00And tell her I was coming

00:15:01And I followed him down

00:15:03Quick, too

00:15:04Left things behind

00:15:05I should have been clearing up

00:15:07But I was still too slow

00:15:10By the time I got down to parapet level

00:15:13He was staring at the thing

00:15:16It had him sort of hypnotised

00:15:19Like a snake with a rabbit

00:15:21Come on, Kevin

00:15:24I haven't got all day

00:15:25Kevin, get down to your mum

00:15:28You're not scared of a few old dark stairs, are you?

00:15:33Kevin, wake up, dream boat

00:15:35Oh

00:15:36All right, Dad

00:15:38I looked at that thing

00:15:42And it looked back at me

00:15:44With its hollow, moss-filled eyes

00:15:47It was in the same world as Kevin now

00:15:51Or rather, Kevin was in its world

00:15:54It had noticed him

00:15:57And I would have given anything in the world

00:16:00To have it not notice him

00:16:02But it was done

00:16:05I looked at Square in its hollow eyes

00:16:09And I said

00:16:10If you arm him

00:16:13I'll bring my seven-pound hammer

00:16:16And I'll smash you to more bloody pieces

00:16:20Than the pebbles on the beach

00:16:21Well, that night

00:16:24After we'd had our tea

00:16:26I took Kevin Birdwatch in

00:16:28You've got a lad, Sergeant?

00:16:32No, no

00:16:33No children

00:16:33Well

00:16:34Well, up there

00:16:36Kevin and I get real close to each other

00:16:38Like my dad and me used to

00:16:40I'm that proud to teach him the same things

00:16:43And to say how fearless he is of heights

00:16:45He'll make a grand steeple, Jack

00:16:50If he gets better

00:16:51There's a different lad

00:16:53When he gets up there

00:16:54He's inclined to be a bit stroppy with his mum

00:16:57But up there we can really talk

00:16:59Only that night

00:17:01He only wanted to talk about one thing

00:17:05What are gargoyles, Dad?

00:17:07Just rain spouts

00:17:09They throw the rainwater from the roof

00:17:11Well out from the walls

00:17:12So it doesn't rot the foundations

00:17:13They didn't have no gutters on the roofs

00:17:15In the old days

00:17:16But why do they carve them like that?

00:17:19Like faces?

00:17:20Just a bit of fun

00:17:21Reckon them old masons got pretty bored

00:17:23Just carving stone blocks and bits of windowsill all day

00:17:26So when they got the chance

00:17:28When work was slack maybe

00:17:29They'd carve a gargoyle for fun

00:17:31One or two of every masons gang

00:17:33Must have been real artists

00:17:35Like sculptors are today

00:17:36There's a gargoyle on option church of a miser grasping his money bags

00:17:41The vicar at the time was a real sting

00:17:44Who wouldn't give the masons any bear money when they'd done well

00:17:46So they put his face on the gargoyle

00:17:49Real ugly and mean

00:17:51Ha ha ha ha I've got all gargoyle on stingy vicars

00:17:54Are they Dad?

00:17:55No

00:17:55You'd get mermaids

00:17:57And fellas with toothache

00:17:59Holding their mouths open

00:18:00And devils

00:18:01Why do they carve devils, Dad?

00:18:02Ah

00:18:03That's just an old superstition.

00:18:06From when people believed in real devils that might attack and destroy the church.

00:18:10So they carved stone devils to frighten them away.

00:18:15Do you believe in devils, Dad?

00:18:16No, I do not.

00:18:18No more than I believe in angels or heaven or hell.

00:18:21Heaven to me is lying on a branch up here with you.

00:18:24Watching rabbits and fox cups play.

00:18:28And hell is when you put your mum in a bad temper and she's burnt the dinner.

00:18:31Come on, let's be getting home for supper.

00:18:35I'm getting stiff, such an ear.

00:18:37But I couldn't get my mind off that gargoyle.

00:18:42And that night, I woke up screaming, so we sweat.

00:18:47Doug!

00:18:49Oh, Joe.

00:18:51Joe, whatever's the matter? Are you ill?

00:18:54No. It was just a dream.

00:18:57I was dreaming.

00:18:59I'm all right now.

00:19:01I never dream, usually.

00:19:02I can never remember them, anyway.

00:19:04What was it about?

00:19:05Nothing, really.

00:19:06It was someone at work.

00:19:08You're not losing your nerve, are you?

00:19:10You know, your head for heights.

00:19:11What?

00:19:12A clerk losing his head for heights?

00:19:14Don't talk wet, woman.

00:19:15What, then?

00:19:16This isn't like you, love.

00:19:19Oh, and you're soaked through.

00:19:20I'll get you a change of pyjamas.

00:19:22Now, come on, Joe Clark.

00:19:28What's bugging you?

00:19:29It's not the heights, it's the bloody VAT.

00:19:33I drank the VAT inspector was coming after me with a claw, Anna.

00:19:36Can you let me worry about the VAT?

00:19:40I haven't let you down yet, have I?

00:19:42Well, she got back to sleep eventually, which was more than I did before first light.

00:19:49And what were you really dreaming about?

00:19:55I was standing in the dark, looking up at the southwest tower.

00:20:00And Kevin was up there on top, in the dark, and screaming.

00:20:05And the door to the tower was locked, and I didn't have the key.

00:20:08I remember I was so desperate, I tried climbing up the outside.

00:20:11But I knew I'd never get there in time to save him.

00:20:14And when I was less than halfway up, the tower began to crack apart before my eyes.

00:20:21That's when I woke up screaming.

00:20:23Yeah.

00:20:25The next morning I felt dog rough.

00:20:28That dream was inside my brain and I couldn't get it out.

00:20:31I knew I mustn't go up top that day.

00:20:34Better to lose a day's work.

00:20:36Anyway, it was raining.

00:20:38I rang up Billy and gave him a whole list of fiddling little jobs.

00:20:43Then I drove down to the cathedral, went up the parapet, and faced the gargoyle.

00:20:51I'll settle you.

00:20:53You see if I don't.

00:20:55You leave my kid alone, or you could have a nasty accident.

00:21:00The stone's rotting round you.

00:21:03Nobody would blame us if you fell.

00:21:06So watch it.

00:21:08Made me feel better at first.

00:21:12Then I realised I'd been talking to no more than a bit of old rotten stone.

00:21:16So I went to see Taff Evans, the stonemason's foreman.

00:21:20He hadn't much to do either with the rain.

00:21:22Look, that gargoyle's stonemason's business.

00:21:25Just go and do your work and let us get on with ours.

00:21:28That stone's rotten.

00:21:30What do you know about stone?

00:21:31We even have to cut your stone blocks for you.

00:21:33Stupid jacks.

00:21:35Jacks of all trades and masters of none.

00:21:37You try hanging from a rope sling 200 feet tall.

00:21:40Any monkey in a circus can do that.

00:21:41Stonemason's, yeah?

00:21:47Hello, it's Billy here.

00:21:49Is Joe there?

00:21:50Yes, he's here.

00:21:51Only I wish he wasn't.

00:21:52He got work to do.

00:21:54It's for you.

00:21:55You and me.

00:21:59Hello?

00:22:00It's me, Joe.

00:22:01Your missus said you'd gone down to the cathedral to see Taff Evans.

00:22:04Well?

00:22:06Well, I've been on the phone to my Uncle Jim about when he last replaced the stoner and that gargoyle.

00:22:11Billy, you're supposed to have work to do.

00:22:12I did all the work you gave me.

00:22:14It didn't take an hour.

00:22:15Well, do you want to know what he said or don't you?

00:22:19Go on, then.

00:22:20He said he last replaced that stone in 1973.

00:22:24It's been 25 years ago.

00:22:27For God's sake, what did he use?

00:22:29Stuff from his rockery at home?

00:22:30No.

00:22:31The very best carriage.

00:22:33He said he chose the best especially because the last lot had rotted since it were laid in 1954.

00:22:39Slippy.

00:22:41What else did he say?

00:22:42Well, only that there was a very nasty smell while they were working.

00:22:47Even a good wind didn't blow it away.

00:22:50It's a funny thing for him to remember all that time ago.

00:22:52Right.

00:22:54Thanks.

00:22:55I'll see you tomorrow.

00:22:56Yeah, see you.

00:22:58That stone was replaced in 1973 and in 1954 before that.

00:23:08What the hell's the matter with that town?

00:23:09That's our business.

00:23:12Why are you getting your knickers in a twist?

00:23:14What happens to your old record books of work you've done?

00:23:19We hand them into the Cathedral Museum.

00:23:21So go and bother them for a change.

00:23:23I've got work to do.

00:23:23Excuse me.

00:23:28How can I help you?

00:23:29I'm the super chap working on the tower.

00:23:32Sorry about paying no more working clothes, but I was told you had the old record books

00:23:36from way back of work the stonemasons did on the cathedral.

00:23:39Oh, yes, of course.

00:23:40They're fascinating.

00:23:42Almost like a ship's log.

00:23:43We've got them going back to 1846.

00:23:45I keep them in my office.

00:23:47Would you like to come through?

00:23:48Thanks.

00:23:54Here they are.

00:23:56I'll just clear this stuff off my desk, and I'll leave you to it.

00:24:01Thanks.

00:24:01And in 1848, replace rotten stone round gargoyle in southwest corner of southwest town.

00:24:31That's every 20 years, roughly.

00:24:35Back to when the records started.

00:24:39You found what you were looking for, Mr Clark?

00:24:41Oh, wow.

00:24:43The stonemason round one gargoyle in the southwest town has been going rotten every 20 years.

00:24:47Doesn't sound too good.

00:24:48No wonder the restoration fund never stops having appeals.

00:24:51But it's against nature.

00:24:53That coin percentage should last for centuries.

00:24:55Oh, well, why is it rotting then, do you think?

00:24:59I don't know.

00:25:00But it's more than that.

00:25:02Every time it's replaced, there's trouble.

00:25:05Work held up by a broken pulley.

00:25:09Scaffold in blue down in high wind.

00:25:11In 1932, a bloke fell and was taken to hospital with a fractured spine.

00:25:15It must be dangerous work, up and off.

00:25:17But it's not.

00:25:18If you're careful, it's as safe as houses.

00:25:21There's somewhat funny about that southwest tower.

00:25:22Now, there is something unusual in its history I should be able to remember.

00:25:29I can't.

00:25:31Ah, here's Mr Morris, the bishop's chaplain.

00:25:35He'll know, I'm sure.

00:25:36Mr Morris, can you spare us a moment?

00:25:39Speak, ma'am, for your servant hear us.

00:25:41How can I be of help?

00:25:42Ah, Mr Clark, isn't it?

00:25:44Our worthy steeplejack down from his high endeavours.

00:25:47Mr Clark was asking about the history of the southwest tower.

00:25:51Now, I know there's something odd about it, but I can't remember what.

00:25:55The southwest tower, oh yes, a very strange business.

00:25:58But it's better that Mr Clark sees the difference for himself.

00:26:01Come, let's take a shortcut through the cloisters.

00:26:04Goodbye.

00:26:07Now, if we just walk across Cathedral Green, you'll see what I'm talking about.

00:26:10There we are.

00:26:16The southwest tower.

00:26:17Look at it closely, Mr Clark.

00:26:19Then look at the northwest tower.

00:26:21It's twin.

00:26:23They look the same to me.

00:26:24Look closely, Mr Clark.

00:26:28Well, the window arches are more pointed in the northwest tower, I suppose.

00:26:31Got it in one, Mr Clark.

00:26:32Well done.

00:26:32And what does that mean?

00:26:34Don't be fine, I don't know.

00:26:34It means the southwest tower was built nearly 300 years after the northwest one.

00:26:42The Normans built both towers together up to roof level.

00:26:45Then they ran out of money and stopped.

00:26:47That happened all over the country.

00:26:49They finished the northwest tower in 1257 in the early English pointed style.

00:26:54But we had to wait until 1538 for the other one.

00:26:57What was that?

00:26:58I don't know all the details, but I will find out for you.

00:27:05Good day to you, Mr Clark.

00:27:10I spent a bit of time hanging round the Cathedral Green, just looking up at that tower.

00:27:15I felt a bit better, because I knew by then it wasn't just me being crazy.

00:27:20There was something odd about that great lump of masonry, but nobody wanted to talk about it.

00:27:26Well, a lot to go on.

00:27:27Oh, no.

00:27:30Anyway, the next day was fine-ish, with just a bit of drizzle off and on, and we went back to work.

00:27:36I spent the morning in a rope cradle, dangling down the spire, marking out the rotten blocks of stone with yellow chalk.

00:27:44There weren't a lot of rotten ones, and they were just suffering from ordinary wear and tear.

00:27:48Nothing peculiar.

00:27:50Then, in the afternoon, I began cutting them out with a hammer and chisel.

00:27:54It was interesting.

00:27:54Then, no two blocks were the same size.

00:27:58No two seemed to be carved by the same man.

00:28:01The steeple was a patchwork of men's hands, 500 years old.

00:28:06I felt very close to them old masons, journeymen, apprentices, the gaffer.

00:28:12I thought, you lot could tell me a thing or two about what went wrong with this tower and that gargoyle, if you were still around.

00:28:20Joe, I'm out of fags.

00:28:25Okay if we look down the shop?

00:28:26Yeah, all right, if you have to.

00:28:29But make it quick.

00:28:30Ten minutes at the outside.

00:28:32I promise.

00:28:32Something warned me not to let him go, while I was dangling there, helpless.

00:28:41If anything went wrong, well, on the other hand, the shop was just across the cathedral green, and he was unbearable without his fags.

00:28:49Anyway, I finished cutting out that block and tried to lower myself further down on the pulley.

00:28:58Only it had stuck without warning.

00:29:01Something at the top must have seized up.

00:29:03I hung there, quite helpless.

00:29:06Ten feet below the platform, 250 feet above the ground.

00:29:11Nothing really to worry about, of course.

00:29:13As long as the two ropes held.

00:29:17Unless, of course, up top, some jagged edge of metal was chewing away at one of the ropes.

00:29:24Take it easy, I told myself.

00:29:25Enjoy the view.

00:29:27Billy won't be long.

00:29:30After what seemed a hell of a long time enjoying the view,

00:29:33I looked at my watch.

00:29:35He'd been gone 20 minutes.

00:29:37And there was no sign of him crossing Cathedral Green.

00:29:40That lad'd give him what for when he came back.

00:29:43I looked up at the gargoyle,

00:29:45and it seemed to be looking down at me.

00:29:48I felt like a mouse in the paws of a cat.

00:29:51I began to think of crazy ways to escape.

00:29:54Ways that broke all the sensible steeplejacks' rules.

00:29:57Madness.

00:29:58But suppose Billy had been knocked down by a car, coming out of the shop.

00:30:01Nobody else knew I was up there.

00:30:04Barbara won't worry about me till it got dark.

00:30:07I was at the point of doing something really stupid.

00:30:10When?

00:30:11Hey, go!

00:30:12Will you stop?

00:30:12Billy!

00:30:14Hang on to me!

00:30:17Here you go, try that!

00:30:22Here you go!

00:30:23All right?

00:30:25Let me give you a hand!

00:30:26I'm shaking from head to foot.

00:30:32Where the hell have you been?

00:30:33You said ten minutes!

00:30:35Sorry, sorry.

00:30:38You all right?

00:30:39Yeah.

00:30:41I met that vicar mate of yours in the shop.

00:30:44Maurice.

00:30:45He said he had something for you back in his office.

00:30:48He was so persistent that I went back with him for it.

00:30:50Where is it then?

00:30:51Here.

00:30:52I'm sorry, it's a bit creased from me, Poppy.

00:30:57The fall of the south-west tower of Moncaster Cathedral.

00:31:011257.

00:31:03What a weird drawing.

00:31:05Thunder and lightning and stones flying everywhere.

00:31:07That's cheering.

00:31:09I hope we got this tower right the second time round.

00:31:11I don't feel like being the jam in a tower sandwich.

00:31:14See, they built it at the same time as its twin.

00:31:16But it fell down.

00:31:18It's spinned by three bolts of lightning,

00:31:20but it looks more to me as if the foundations have given way.

00:31:22Yeah.

00:31:24And they didn't rebuild it for 300 years.

00:31:28It's starting to rain again.

00:31:31Really heavy.

00:31:32I've had enough.

00:31:34Let's jack it in for the rest of the day.

00:31:36Yeah.

00:31:36I had that same dream again that night.

00:31:42Kevin screaming up on top of the tower in the dark,

00:31:45and the door locked.

00:31:47But it was Barbara who jerked me awake,

00:31:49shaking me by the shoulder.

00:31:52Joe.

00:31:53Joe.

00:31:54What?

00:31:54I just looked in on Kevin.

00:31:55He's not in his bed.

00:31:57He's gone through the room.

00:31:57No, I've checked everywhere.

00:31:58There's nowhere in the house,

00:31:59and the front door's wide open.

00:32:01Where can he be?

00:32:02He could have been gone hours.

00:32:04I know where he's gone.

00:32:05Stay here, Barbara.

00:32:08Joe, where are you going?

00:32:10Come back, Joe!

00:32:12The funny thing is,

00:32:13he could have been anywhere.

00:32:15But I just knew he was up that tower.

00:32:19It's seven miles to Lancaster from where we live,

00:32:21and I did the first five in about three minutes.

00:32:24Thank God the road was empty.

00:32:27I ran to the tower door.

00:32:29I'd locked it when we finished work,

00:32:30and given the key back to Taff Evans for safekeeping.

00:32:33But now,

00:32:34the door opened at her touch.

00:32:38Kevin!

00:32:39Kevin!

00:32:46I reached the perimeter.

00:32:48No sign of him.

00:32:50I stared at the gargoyle in the dim light

00:32:51that came up from the lampposts in Cathedral Green.

00:32:55If you've hurt him,

00:32:57I'll finish you.

00:32:59I'll batter you into grains of sand real slow.

00:33:03But he just stared back at me.

00:33:06Then I looked up and saw something fluttering up top,

00:33:09on top of the spire.

00:33:11I went up the steel ladder,

00:33:12still in my slippers.

00:33:13But when I got to the top,

00:33:17there was no sign of Kevin.

00:33:19The white fluttering thing was just an old piece of rag

00:33:21Billy must have tied around the handrail to keep it handy.

00:33:24Kevin!

00:33:26Kevin!

00:33:28Then suddenly I thought,

00:33:29Oh my God!

00:33:30had he come up all this way?

00:33:32And then fallen?

00:33:34I looked down,

00:33:36terrified of seeing the dead body lying on the nave roof.

00:33:39You mean where we found the dead lad the day later?

00:33:41Yeah.

00:33:42But the moon went behind a cloud

00:33:43and I could see nothing at all.

00:33:45Kevin!

00:33:47I was near out of my mind by then.

00:33:49But I couldn't help noticing lights going on

00:33:51all around the cathedral close.

00:33:54I saw the car stop.

00:33:56I saw the blue flashing light

00:33:57and I thought,

00:33:59they've come to tell me Kevin were dead.

00:34:01I was not out of my mind, I tell you.

00:34:03I had to get out of there.

00:34:05There he is!

00:34:07Hey!

00:34:08You up there!

00:34:09What you doing, sunshine?

00:34:11What do you want?

00:34:12It's a bit cold up there, isn't it?

00:34:15Fancy a nice hot cup of tea?

00:34:17If you could work your way down...

00:34:20Somehow their tone encouraged me.

00:34:23It wasn't the way the police talk to bereaved parents.

00:34:26I came down like a lamb,

00:34:28though I was limping badly

00:34:29by the time I reached the parapet level.

00:34:32Your lads took a very firm grip on my arms.

00:34:36Now,

00:34:37what have you been up to then?

00:34:39Well,

00:34:40he's not been drinking.

00:34:42Rugs, you reckon?

00:34:43It's okay.

00:34:43You can let go of me.

00:34:44I'm the steeplejack working here.

00:34:46Oh, yes.

00:34:46The night shift, are you?

00:34:48Or just working a lot of overtime?

00:34:49Look,

00:34:50I'm sorry if I caused any bother.

00:34:51Bother?

00:34:52You've got the whole clothes roused.

00:34:54The dean himself rung us.

00:34:56It's nutcase night, this is.

00:34:58First,

00:34:59that half-naked kid

00:35:00walking around like a zombie,

00:35:01and the...

00:35:02Well,

00:35:02a kid dressed in pyjamas

00:35:04walking across the close an hour ago.

00:35:06We nearly knocked him down.

00:35:08Stepped out right in front of us.

00:35:09He seemed to be sleepwalking.

00:35:10We couldn't get a word of sense out of him,

00:35:12so we took him down to the hospital.

00:35:13A lot about twelve.

00:35:14Fair enough.

00:35:15Yeah,

00:35:16that sounds like him.

00:35:17How is dad?

00:35:18I was looking for him.

00:35:20Come on.

00:35:22We'll run you out to the hospital,

00:35:23and you can give us a few names

00:35:25and addresses as we go.

00:35:31It's a strange case.

00:35:33We have examined him physically.

00:35:35He has come to no real harm.

00:35:36Oh, thank God.

00:35:37Though his feet were badly cut and bleeding.

00:35:40But he seems in some kind of mental state.

00:35:44What?

00:35:44I hold up two fingers before his eyes,

00:35:46and he doesn't see them.

00:35:48He won't answer any questions,

00:35:50and three times he's tried to get out of bed

00:35:52and escape from the hospital.

00:35:54Fortunately,

00:35:55the night sister caught him

00:35:56just as he was leaving.

00:35:58Now we have him sedated

00:35:59and are watching him all the time.

00:36:01You say he walked all the way from joint

00:36:03in the middle of the night?

00:36:04Yeah.

00:36:05Can I see him?

00:36:07Can I ring the wife?

00:36:07She'll be frantic.

00:36:08We're sending a car out for your wife, sir.

00:36:10We have him here on the side ward.

00:36:12Come through, Mr. Clark.

00:36:14Come here.

00:36:18Kevin, it's Dad.

00:36:20Dad's here.

00:36:21You're all right now?

00:36:22I don't think he can hear you, Mr. Clark.

00:36:24Wait.

00:36:25Listen.

00:36:27He's saying something.

00:36:29Magister.

00:36:30Magister.

00:36:31I've been here.

00:36:32It's a foreign language.

00:36:34He don't know any foreign languages.

00:36:35Magister.

00:36:36What have you done to him?

00:36:38We have done nothing but give him a sedative.

00:36:40Come away, Mr. Clark.

00:36:41You will only distress yourself

00:36:42and not help Kevin.

00:36:43But what's he saying?

00:36:44I'm not certain,

00:36:46but from my school days,

00:36:47I would say he's talking Latin.

00:36:50Magister, Magister,

00:36:51Advenio.

00:36:52Master, Master,

00:36:54I come.

00:36:55I must say the hospital staff were very good.

00:36:59They let us stay by his bedside

00:37:01the rest of the night

00:37:02and all the next day.

00:37:04They kept taking Kevin away for tests

00:37:06in case he'd suffered some accident

00:37:08on the road into Lancaster,

00:37:10hit-and-run driver or something.

00:37:12But they couldn't find anything wrong with him.

00:37:17Except the moment they turned their backs

00:37:18and tried to get away from them

00:37:20out of the hospital.

00:37:23It seemed to come on him in fits.

00:37:28Kevin!

00:37:29Kevin!

00:37:31Oh, grab him, for God's sake, Barbara!

00:37:32That window!

00:37:34Oh, God, I can't hold him!

00:37:37I've beaten him!

00:37:39You're right!

00:37:39I've got him!

00:37:40I've got him!

00:37:42Oh, we'll have to give another sedative!

00:37:44Magister!

00:37:45Magister!

00:37:46I'm leaving!

00:37:47I'm afraid we shall have to restrain him.

00:37:49Magister!

00:37:49We can't take this.

00:37:50Magister!

00:37:50I'm sorry, Mrs. Clarke,

00:37:52it's for the best.

00:37:53He doesn't know me!

00:37:55He doesn't know his own mother!

00:37:59He wouldn't eat,

00:38:00couldn't sleep.

00:38:02It just wasn't our Kevin line there.

00:38:05It didn't even look like him.

00:38:07Just like some mad tormentor.

00:38:09All right, steady on, Mr. Clarke.

00:38:12Just take your time.

00:38:14Oh.

00:38:18And it was that night Kevin changed.

00:38:22Yeah.

00:38:23It was about midnight.

00:38:26I was trying to read a paper some nurse had fetched me,

00:38:29but I couldn't make any sense of it.

00:38:30Kept reading the same thing over and over.

00:38:32I think I was dozing a bit

00:38:35when I heard his voice.

00:38:38Dad?

00:38:41Dad, where am I?

00:38:43Kevin.

00:38:44What are you doing here?

00:38:47Kevin, you've come back.

00:38:48Oh, Kevin, love.

00:38:51You're all right.

00:38:54Oh, your dad's got you now.

00:38:56I won't let it get you.

00:38:59Barbara and I took turns watching him the rest of the night

00:39:02and got a bit of kip on the spare bed.

00:39:04But Kevin slept away quite peaceful,

00:39:09as if nothing had happened.

00:39:11He woke up as bright as a button

00:39:13and I felt it was time for me to get back to work.

00:39:17This bloody pulley's stepping up again.

00:39:23Billy, pass me the oil can, will you?

00:39:26Oh, God, no.

00:39:28Wake up, Billy.

00:39:28What's the matter with your oil can?

00:39:30Look.

00:39:31Joe, look.

00:39:33Down there.

00:39:34On the nave roof.

00:39:35What?

00:39:37All that blood splashed right across the lead.

00:39:40Oh, my God.

00:39:42I think it's a kid.

00:39:45All twisted.

00:39:47Dead.

00:39:48He looks like our Kevin.

00:39:49It can't be.

00:39:51I left him safe in hospital only an hour ago.

00:39:54He comes water this far.

00:39:56His pyjamas were just like Kevin's.

00:39:59Blue striped.

00:40:01And his hair.

00:40:04A little breeze kept lifting it.

00:40:07It was the only thing that moved

00:40:09among all that splatter of dried blood.

00:40:13You couldn't make out any face.

00:40:15And the blood was all dry and caped.

00:40:20We went down to him.

00:40:24It was as cold as stone.

00:40:25No.

00:40:28Not your Kevin.

00:40:31Canon Willoughby's son.

00:40:33The same age.

00:40:35They just reported him missing.

00:40:37Wrang up from their home on Cathedral Green.

00:40:39And I know why he died.

00:40:40Why did he die, Mr. Clark?

00:40:46Because that devil of a gargoyle let go of our Kevin

00:40:49and took him instead.

00:40:52He died and our Kevin was free.

00:40:53Oh.

00:40:55So we're back to your gargoyle again.

00:40:58Don't you believe me?

00:40:59Even now?

00:41:00Oh, I believe you've had bother with your lad.

00:41:02I talked to your wife.

00:41:03I might even believe he was heading for the tower

00:41:05that night when my men found him.

00:41:07But that's as far as I go.

00:41:10I deal in facts, Mr. Clark.

00:41:12Like, did your son know the boy who died?

00:41:18And more to the point,

00:41:19if you locked the tower door like you said you had,

00:41:22how come that lad found it open

00:41:24so he could fall to his death from the spire?

00:41:26Now look, I said I locked that door and I did.

00:41:29Have you got your old private key to that tower, Mr. Clark?

00:41:31No, I have not.

00:41:32Then if you didn't have your old key and the door was locked,

00:41:36how did you get up there that night?

00:41:38Well, I don't know.

00:41:39You see, the morning after you'd made that disturbance,

00:41:42the dean went personally and checked that door

00:41:44and it was locked.

00:41:46So how come it was open the following night

00:41:48for that lad to fall to his death?

00:41:50That door must open and shut of its own accord.

00:41:52Like a mousetrap setting itself.

00:41:55It's that...

00:41:56No, it has nothing to do with your famous gargoyle.

00:42:00Nothing whatsoever.

00:42:03See, we've got a locksmith to look at that lock.

00:42:06It's very old and worn.

00:42:08You can lock it and then some worn lever in the lock slips

00:42:11and it's open again.

00:42:13And what's the bloke demonstrate it?

00:42:15On our advice, they're getting a new lock fitted.

00:42:17So you see, no haunted gargoyles required.

00:42:22Plain common sense.

00:42:24Facts.

00:42:25So you don't believe a single thing I've told you?

00:42:28Oh, I believe a lot of it.

00:42:30But not about the gargoyle?

00:42:31I don't think you're quite normal about that gargoyle, Mr. Clarke.

00:42:40So what do you think happened?

00:42:42Well, I'd like to think it was silly lads playing chicken,

00:42:44daring each other on,

00:42:45climb the steeple to prove your guts

00:42:47in the dead of night when nobody's watching.

00:42:50I mean, that tower's a very tempting place

00:42:51with all that scaffolding there.

00:42:52But maybe that's not the whole story, Mr. Clarke.

00:42:58How do you mean?

00:42:59Well, we've seen how that door can unlock itself.

00:43:03But even the locksmith couldn't work out how,

00:43:06having once unlocked itself,

00:43:08it could lock itself again.

00:43:10Like it was when the Dean found it.

00:43:12Sir?

00:43:12Well, perhaps we have someone new

00:43:15who takes a delight

00:43:18in throwing little boys off the tops of spires.

00:43:20I've known some men like even nastier things.

00:43:23Now, look, you...

00:43:23Oh, we know it wasn't you, Mr. Clarke.

00:43:26When your lad reached the foot of the tower,

00:43:27you were still in bed with your wife, snoring.

00:43:30And when the other lad went up the tower,

00:43:31you were by your son's bedside, perfect alibis.

00:43:34But they don't explain one thing, Mr. Clarke.

00:43:38What?

00:43:38When you knew your precious son was missing,

00:43:43you didn't muck about calling the police or neighbours.

00:43:46You knew where he would be.

00:43:49You drove straight to the tower.

00:43:53How did you know, Mr. Clarke?

00:43:55And don't give me any more guff about haunted gargoyles.

00:44:01Your assistant, Billy...

00:44:04What?

00:44:04He'd have plenty of chance to cut a key for himself.

00:44:07Now, wait a minute.

00:44:08Well, don't worry.

00:44:08We're checking up on Billy.

00:44:10Meanwhile, that leaves you.

00:44:12Who knows more than you're saying?

00:44:17Don't leave the area suddenly

00:44:18without telling us where you're going, Mr. Clarke, will you?

00:44:25I've never liked a job less in my life.

00:44:28Got to be dumb.

00:44:30Life must go on, I suppose.

00:44:31Just, Mr. God, they'd get those blood splashes off the nave roof.

00:44:37I can't help looking at them.

00:44:38You look once too often, you'll be on your way down to join them.

00:44:40Yeah.

00:44:42A lot of spectators about this morning.

00:44:46Must be a couple of hundred on Cathedral of Green.

00:44:48Ghouls.

00:44:50I'm going down.

00:44:52Hang on.

00:44:53There's somebody coming up.

00:44:54Hello, all right to come up?

00:44:57Oh, God.

00:44:58No.

00:44:59Only his humble servant, the Reverend Morris.

00:45:01I think he'd have more sense with that big gutter, is he?

00:45:04Break his neck.

00:45:04Give him a hand.

00:45:06I don't want to scrape him off the nave roof.

00:45:07Right.

00:45:08What do you think he wants?

00:45:09Playing Sherlock Holmes, maybe.

00:45:10Visiting the scene of the crime.

00:45:12There you are, Reverend.

00:45:13All right.

00:45:14All the kingdoms of the earth and the glory thereof.

00:45:19You don't get a bad view.

00:45:21What can we do for you?

00:45:22I've found out a bit more about this tower.

00:45:26Oh, I?

00:45:27I won't tell you here, though.

00:45:29There's things in books I want to show you.

00:45:33Suppose we say one o'clock in the museum.

00:45:35Fair enough.

00:45:36One o'clock in the museum it is.

00:45:40It looks a good way down to the ground from here.

00:45:43I never advocate looking down to the ground, Reverend.

00:45:45Not unless you're used to it.

00:45:46Oh.

00:45:47One is in the hands of God.

00:45:50Even up here.

00:45:51Look at his hands, Joe.

00:45:53Look how hard he's grasping the handrail.

00:45:55I reckon his nerve's going to go any second.

00:45:57I'm just going out for a load of fresh tools, Reverend.

00:45:59I'll go ahead of you.

00:46:00And I'll see you place your feet right.

00:46:02The Lord will lead our feet in the paths of righteousness.

00:46:06If he gets the shakes, we'll need a helicopter to move him.

00:46:10That's right, Reverend.

00:46:11Put your left hand there.

00:46:12And your right hand there.

00:46:14Now, swing your foot round like you were getting on the bus.

00:46:18I'll be around you.

00:46:19I won't let you fall.

00:46:24Why do people do it if they can't take him?

00:46:27Only a few more runs on the ladder.

00:46:31You can do it.

00:46:32Safe as houses.

00:46:34Good.

00:46:35That's good.

00:46:36Now, take a deep breath.

00:46:39There you are.

00:46:40Solid ground.

00:46:42Only the tower stairs, and they've got handrails.

00:46:44I'm perfectly all right.

00:46:45You can let go of me.

00:46:46Perfectly all right.

00:46:46I'd lay off heights in future.

00:46:48I'm at home anywhere in the hands of God.

00:46:52I'll see you in the museum at one then.

00:46:54What does he have to pretend for?

00:47:01Now, here are the record books of the old abbey.

00:47:04The ecclesiastical records of the monks of Moncaster.

00:47:08Each covering 50 years.

00:47:10As I've marked the places, the word to look for is the verb idificare, for to build.

00:47:21Right.

00:47:23Well, after the tower fell, they had three more shots at rebuilding it in 1314, 1385, and 1414.

00:47:32None of them got much above the nave roof before collapsing.

00:47:36Each, in turn, fell down.

00:47:38Then, the foundations gave way.

00:47:41The old masons called it the serpent in the sand.

00:47:45Serpent in the sand?

00:47:46Must have been big to fetch your old tower down.

00:47:48The real trouble is that the whole cathedral's built on a bed of sand, with a bed of rock salt underneath that.

00:47:55Sand and salt are safe enough till you get underground springs of water moving through them, washing them away.

00:48:02That was the serpent in the sand, an underground spring welling up.

00:48:06Get away.

00:48:07When the old masons dug down, after the tower fell, they found the remains of old water channels and caverns with smooth sides.

00:48:15They thought they'd been made by the serpent in the sand.

00:48:19The springs came and went with the years.

00:48:21Nothing could control them.

00:48:22Salt subsidence.

00:48:23Just good old salt subsidence.

00:48:28Mind you, it doesn't do much for your peace of mind, does it, when you're working up that tower, wondering if the water's eaten away at the foundations.

00:48:35The sooner we finish that job, the better I shall like it.

00:48:38Oh, don't worry, Josiah.

00:48:39That tower's stood for nearly 500 years, and the architects have all sorts of little devices that give warnings.

00:48:45Yeah, I know, I've seen them.

00:48:47Little bits of glass fastened across cracks in the masonry that break when the building shifts on its foundations.

00:48:53But it's a bit late to start running if you're up top when the glass cracks.

00:48:56I'll remember you in my prayer.

00:48:58Thanks.

00:48:58But it begs me why that tower is still standing.

00:49:04I can show you the man who made it stand.

00:49:08Come with me.

00:49:10He's in the South Isle.

00:49:19He's up there, in the stained glass.

00:49:22I thought the glass was all Victorian.

00:49:24Oh, there's some medieval glass remaining.

00:49:26Cromwell's men left us a bit.

00:49:28Anyway, there he is.

00:49:30That monk in black and white, cradling the little model of the tower in his arms.

00:49:34John of Salisbury.

00:49:36The last abbot of Moncaster when it was an abbey.

00:49:40You mean that little lunch top figure?

00:49:43God, I've never seen an uglier face.

00:49:48But I've got news for you, Reverend.

00:49:51That's not John of Salisbury, unless he casts down for a living.

00:49:56Can't you see what he's got in his hands?

00:49:57It's hammering one, and Mason's punching the other.

00:50:01That's a Master Mason or I'm John the Baptist.

00:50:04Mr. Clark.

00:50:05My God, Reverend.

00:50:07It's him.

00:50:08Who?

00:50:09It's the same face as that gargoyle up the tower.

00:50:12Oh, really?

00:50:12Don't be ridiculous.

00:50:13That stained glass was probably made in the Low Countries, hundreds of miles away.

00:50:18Brought in a ship and on a cart to the site.

00:50:21How could they possibly know what the Masons here had carved up in the tower?

00:50:25It's him, I tell you.

00:50:26Him what built the tower.

00:50:28Just a mass-produced, run-of-the-mill gargoyle.

00:50:30Aye, a gargoyle, maybe.

00:50:32But a devil with a hammer and chisel in his hand.

00:50:35I'll tell you what to look for in those grumbling books of yours, Reverend Morris.

00:50:39What?

00:50:39The man who really built that tower.

00:50:42Not John of Salisbury, who came when it was done and said,

00:50:44Very nice, and thank you very much.

00:50:46No, you want the man who sweated and slaved and plotted to keep it upright.

00:50:52Some finer from the looks of it.

00:50:55I'll do what I can.

00:51:00I feel as if somebody walked across my grave.

00:51:11Barbara?

00:51:12I'm home.

00:51:13Surprise.

00:51:15Go and see who's burning his eyes out watching telly in the lounge.

00:51:18They've let him come home?

00:51:19Yeah.

00:51:19They rang up after lunch.

00:51:20They've no more reason for keeping him in.

00:51:22Fit as a fiddle, they said.

00:51:24I thought it would make a nice surprise for him.

00:51:28Kevin!

00:51:29How are you?

00:51:31It's great to see you.

00:51:33Give your dad a big hug.

00:51:35Lay off, Dad.

00:51:37I'm watching telly.

00:51:38Oh.

00:51:40Pardon me for breathing.

00:51:42Sorry, Dad.

00:51:43Never mind, love.

00:51:47At least you're glad to see me.

00:51:50Mmm, I am.

00:51:52But, uh, we've got to talk to him.

00:51:54What about?

00:51:55I'm worried he might start sleepwalking again.

00:51:58Yeah.

00:52:01I want him sleeping in our bed.

00:52:02Oh, God, Barbara.

00:52:05He's a big lad for that.

00:52:07And he kicks and snores.

00:52:08We won't get a wink of sleep.

00:52:09And I want you to sleep in his bed.

00:52:11Oh.

00:52:13Yeah, I suppose you're right.

00:52:14Nothing's changed, really, has it?

00:52:18It won't be forever, love.

00:52:19I suppose it's for the best.

00:52:22But it's not just at night, is it?

00:52:25You could do a bunk any time.

00:52:26Joe?

00:52:31Hmm?

00:52:31Joe?

00:52:32Help me!

00:52:33Huh?

00:52:33Help me!

00:52:37Oh, help me!

00:52:38Joe, don't hold him!

00:52:40Ow!

00:52:41It's biting my arm, Joe!

00:52:42Ow!

00:52:43Oh, God, it's all muddy!

00:52:44Let me have it!

00:52:45Oh, little!

00:52:48Don't you stop biting people!

00:52:50Oh, Joe, carefully, don't it, little!

00:52:52I don't know where he gets his strength from!

00:52:55Ow!

00:52:56Give us a hand, Barbara!

00:52:58He's all slippery with sweat.

00:52:59I'm to the floor with you, my life.

00:53:01Let's see if you can bite people with both hands here and your back.

00:53:04Magister!

00:53:06Magister, I'm going to...

00:53:07What did you say, Joe?

00:53:09I don't understand this!

00:53:10I've no grown man without his strength.

00:53:12I'm bleeding like a stock pin.

00:53:14I'm going to grip.

00:53:15Barbara, get something to tie him with.

00:53:17Oh, no, Joe, you can't.

00:53:19Go on!

00:53:21Magister!

00:53:22Magister, I'm going to...

00:53:24Magister!

00:53:27Pass on to him!

00:53:28It's all I can find!

00:53:30Oh, Joe, can I see him?

00:53:32I'll tie his arms and his feet.

00:53:34Then maybe he'll get both.

00:53:37Oh, Joe, he's all bleeding and you're all bleeding.

00:53:40I'll ring for the doctor.

00:53:41No!

00:53:42I don't want him going into that hospital again.

00:53:44They'll not watch him well enough.

00:53:45What then?

00:53:46I want him right away from Manchester.

00:53:48As far away as we can get him.

00:53:50Let's come to your Margaret's.

00:53:52Have I reached with?

00:53:53At this time of night, there'll be a better sleep.

00:53:55Well, we'll have to just wake them up.

00:53:57It'll be nearly morning by the time we get there, anyway.

00:53:58But why, Joe?

00:53:59Don't stand there asking questions.

00:54:01Go and get dressed up warm.

00:54:03And fetch me my jeans and sheepskin jacket.

00:54:05I'll tell you as we go along.

00:54:06What do you mean it about that gargoyle?

00:54:10Every word.

00:54:12But maybe it'll lose its power over it the further we get from Manchester.

00:54:15I just can't believe it, any of it.

00:54:17Well, what about that wrist of yours, then?

00:54:19Has it stopped bleeding yet?

00:54:21Oh, Joe, I can see his teeth marks.

00:54:24Get a grip on yourself, woman.

00:54:26Oh, it'll take hours to get to have a wrist whisk.

00:54:29I don't know.

00:54:30The sign from Farnham's just coming up.

00:54:32Any minute now.

00:54:33Then over the River Dee into Wales.

00:54:35We'll be there before you and Margaret's up.

00:54:38What are we going to tell them?

00:54:39Let's meet that one when we come to it.

00:54:42Ah, the river's full.

00:54:45Well, it's a rain recently.

00:54:46In Wales, anyway.

00:54:47You can turn left at the far end of the bridge.

00:54:50There we are.

00:54:52Safe in Wales.

00:54:54Dad?

00:54:56Dad, where are we going?

00:54:57In love.

00:54:58My wrist, too.

00:55:00And my legs.

00:55:00Hang on.

00:55:02Dad, I can't move.

00:55:04No, it's all.

00:55:05Thank God it's over.

00:55:07He's back with us.

00:55:09It's all right, son.

00:55:10Your mum and dad's here with you.

00:55:12Untie him, Barbara.

00:55:14I don't think he'll give any more trouble.

00:55:15There you go.

00:55:16Where are we?

00:55:18What's going on?

00:55:19It's all right, Barbara.

00:55:20I'm out of blood.

00:55:21I know, sweetheart.

00:55:22Now, steady.

00:55:23I've got you.

00:55:24You're safe.

00:55:25Joe, what's happening?

00:55:26You're safe, love.

00:55:27For good.

00:55:28That's what's happening.

00:55:29But how do you know?

00:55:30Something I read in an old book once.

00:55:33Evil doesn't work across a river.

00:55:35What kind of book?

00:55:36I know it sounds silly, but a book on black magic.

00:55:40Oh, Joe.

00:55:41Now, don't you worry your head about that now.

00:55:43Kevin will be perfectly normal from now on.

00:55:45Water stops, whatever it is.

00:55:48Unless...

00:55:49Unless what?

00:55:50Unless whatever it is has found another victim when it couldn't have Kevin.

00:55:54But it did last time.

00:55:56Come on.

00:55:58We've got to get to her phone.

00:56:02Moncaster Central Police Station, yes?

00:56:04Can I speak to the duty inspector?

00:56:06I'm afraid the inspector's busy at the moment.

00:56:07Can I help?

00:56:08This is Josiah Clark, the sepaljack.

00:56:10The one working on the south-west town.

00:56:11Oh, we've been trying to raise you, sir.

00:56:13We sent a car out to fetch you from your home.

00:56:15I'm not at home.

00:56:16I'm speaking from Wales.

00:56:17Wales, sir?

00:56:18I'm staying with relatives.

00:56:20Well, I think you...

00:56:21Has something happened?

00:56:22You'd better come back to Moncaster straight away, Mr Clark.

00:56:25Why?

00:56:26We have a few questions we'd like to ask you.

00:56:28What's happened?

00:56:30We've found another lad dead, sir.

00:56:32At the foot of the south-west tower.

00:56:36And they are the facts.

00:56:38And you can compare that bite on my arm against our Kevin's teeth, if you like.

00:56:43And if that doesn't satisfy you, Barbara's got five more bites to show him.

00:56:48Must have been quite a trip.

00:56:50Lucky for you, you were in Wales.

00:56:51The body of Richard Moresby, the son of another of the residentry cannons, has been found.

00:56:59Whole town's screaming for your blood, Mr Clark.

00:57:01Huh?

00:57:02Funny for leaving the tower door unlocked.

00:57:04I locked it.

00:57:05I believe you.

00:57:07Of course, they haven't got round to having the locksmith in to replace it.

00:57:13Dean's in a terrible taking about that.

00:57:14As he done well should be.

00:57:17But do you believe me?

00:57:19About our crossing water?

00:57:21Crossing that bridge at Farnedon?

00:57:22As a very young lad, I did my national service with the military police in Borneo.

00:57:34We saw a lot that couldn't be explained.

00:57:37Some of our lads died very funny deaths.

00:57:40But lads died.

00:57:43You put in a report.

00:57:45You said when they died and where they died.

00:57:47But if you put in how they died, top brass would have had your shipped home and discharged for total lunacy.

00:57:57There's some things the official mind won't swallow, but...

00:58:00Yes, I think I do believe you, Mr Clark.

00:58:06So what are you going to do about it?

00:58:08Well, have a 24-hour watch kept on that tower.

00:58:11This thing is very cunning, Sergeant.

00:58:13Well, you should know.

00:58:15You still have to work up there yourself.

00:58:17Well, about four more days' work, and then we have the grand topping-out ceremony.

00:58:23The weathervane and then the weathercock.

00:58:26Freshly gilded by us, but put back in place by a helicopter from RF Valley.

00:58:31We could do it with no fuss, but they've got to have their little bit of showmanship next Saturday.

00:58:38The whole town will be on Cathedral Green, craning the necks and flashing their cameras.

00:58:42Oh, well, I've plain forgotten about that.

00:58:44Craning the necks and flashing their cameras.

00:58:46Oh, well, I've plain forgotten about that.

00:58:49Don't worry you.

00:58:50Everything worries me now.

00:58:53Except Kevin and Barbara.

00:58:55They're not coming home for a long, long time.

00:58:57Very wise.

00:58:58Look, you're not working today.

00:59:01Three o'clock.

00:59:02I'll be working while starting.

00:59:03Nah.

00:59:04I'll go home and have a good watch.

00:59:06And try and get some kip.

00:59:08Well, sweet dreams, Joel.

00:59:11What time is it?

00:59:16Nearly nine.

00:59:18I think I'll be bound to the pub.

00:59:20Safe cooking.

00:59:21Hello?

00:59:27Ah, Josiah.

00:59:28It's Edgar Morris here.

00:59:30Ah.

00:59:30From the cathedral.

00:59:32I've got onto something in the records.

00:59:34I looked back to when they started building the tower for the last time.

00:59:39Well, a bit before that, actually.

00:59:42And there he was.

00:59:43The chap you told me to look for.

00:59:45Ah.

00:59:45An Italian.

00:59:47Jacopo di Milano, they called him.

00:59:49Yeah.

00:59:50That face in the stained glass.

00:59:51Did ever sort of Italian look.

00:59:52Can I come over now?

00:59:54I've got a lot of interesting information.

00:59:56Yeah, why not?

00:59:58I'll get him some beer and a pizza.

00:59:59Say, um, half an hour.

01:00:00Mm-hmm.

01:00:00And I'll ring up the sergeant.

01:00:02He might as well hear it as well.

01:00:04See you soon.

01:00:05Bye.

01:00:09Reverend Morris.

01:00:11Sergeant.

01:00:12Tower, Joe.

01:00:13Right, Reverend Morris.

01:00:15Fire away.

01:00:16It's only a very rough translation from the Latin.

01:00:19But it goes something like this.

01:00:23At that time, the abbot and the brethren, having long despaired of the foundations of

01:00:28the southwest tower, for there was evidence that the serpent in the sand was at work again

01:00:34and doing the devil's work for him.

01:00:37The devil's work never stops.

01:00:38It must be a double time.

01:00:39There came one who called himself Jacopo of Milan, a master mason.

01:00:44Though none of the brethren, nor the abbot, had ever heard his name, he had three letters

01:00:50in his possession from cardinals of the church, recommending him as a worker of miracles in

01:00:56the art of building.

01:00:57And he told the brethren, and the abbot, that if they gave him his way and did all things

01:01:03according to his instructions, he would build a tower high and safe.

01:01:09And so the abbot, in his despair, employed him.

01:01:15And the craftsmen he brought with him, and gave them lodgings in the abbey itself, for no lodgings

01:01:22could be found for them in the town, for they were hated as foreigners.

01:01:27The human race hasn't changed much in the last 500 years.

01:01:30There's worse.

01:01:32Much worse.

01:01:34And the abbot employed other masons from Chester and London, as none of the men of

01:01:39Moncaster, would work with the foreigners.

01:01:42And there was fighting in the town, between the new men and the town's men, because of

01:01:47the sins of pride and jealousy.

01:01:49They were black-legged scab labour.

01:01:52Nothing seems to have changed at all.

01:01:52I wish you'd stop interrupting.

01:01:54But the tower rose without hindrance, though there was one strangeness in the building of

01:02:01it.

01:02:01For the new masons left, the Latin says, celli.

01:02:06What's that?

01:02:07Cells, small gaps, at every stage of the work.

01:02:13And these were left empty when the masons from London and Chester went to their rest at

01:02:18night, but by the morning they were found sealed up with heavy slabs of stone, by the

01:02:25hand of the said Jacopo and his servants.

01:02:28And all the masons of the town asked what had been sealed within the celli.

01:02:35And when the abbot asked Jacopo, he said writings of power had been sealed up there to hold up

01:02:43the tower against the serpent in the sand.

01:02:46And the men of the town said that these were charms of the devil.

01:02:51But Jacopo told the abbot they were from holy writ, found in special places, such as after the

01:03:00downfall of the walls of Jericho.

01:03:02Oh, come on.

01:03:02But he would tell no more, though the abbot pressed him hard.

01:03:07I knew the southwest tower was different.

01:03:09And not just the shape of its arches, the whole place stinks of evil.

01:03:13When the tower was complete, the abbot paid Jacopo of Milan the moneys that were due to him.

01:03:21And the said Jacopo departed and was never seen or heard of again.

01:03:26But the bodies of his two servants were found in the town, murdered so foully that none but

01:03:37one monk could recognize them.

01:03:39And he had been the one who had given them their food.

01:03:43Case for you, Sergeant, a bit before my time.

01:03:46No, no.

01:03:46Listen to this.

01:03:47Stories were told in the town that they had been the servants of the devil himself, and

01:03:55that the devil was Jacopo of Milan.

01:04:00And there were a phrase in the town against our brethren and our house.

01:04:05And our brother, Thomas of Somme, was slain.

01:04:10And the men of the town foully cut off his head and played football with it through the

01:04:15streets.

01:04:16And he was the brother who had fed the servants of Jacopo of Milan.

01:04:24And then the abbot sent for the high sheriff at Chester, who came and hanged five men of

01:04:31the town.

01:04:34Oh, very nasty.

01:04:37Well, I bet that settled things down.

01:04:39There's something up there.

01:04:42Really evil.

01:04:43Well, I've found out one or two things as well.

01:04:47Oh, yes.

01:04:48We've had post-mortem reports on the two dead boys.

01:04:52Not a mark on them.

01:04:54Apart from injuries sustained falling off the tower.

01:04:56And they walked up to the top themselves.

01:04:59They weren't carried.

01:05:00We found dust from the tower stairs on their feet.

01:05:03No signs of any struggle.

01:05:04They weren't willing.

01:05:05Eager.

01:05:06Like how Kevin would have done.

01:05:07And I've been looking up old newspaper reports from the time the tower was repaired before.

01:05:13Now, in the 50s, two young lads disappeared from the town.

01:05:17There was a national hue and cry, but no trace of them was ever found.

01:05:20And in the 1930s, one of the Masons murdered his own son, aged 11.

01:05:27I had to be very rough on Kevin last night in the car.

01:05:30They could have arrested me for molesting him, the injuries he had.

01:05:33And it didn't feel like it was Kevin at the time.

01:05:36It felt like fighting a wild beast that could have killed me.

01:05:39And that voice going on and on.

01:05:41Magister.

01:05:41Magister advenio.

01:05:43Hmm.

01:05:44Lord.

01:05:45Master.

01:05:46I come.

01:05:47Oh, God.

01:05:48Your lad's still in Aberystwyth.

01:05:50Yeah, well, I'll stay till it's all over.

01:05:52Well, what are we going to do?

01:05:54The town's full of other people's kids.

01:05:55Yeah, well, I'll keep that day and night watch on the tower if I have to do it myself.

01:05:59What about that lock on the door?

01:06:00I can't find one to buy that will fit.

01:06:03I can't have one hand-made, and that takes time.

01:06:05I'd like to nail that door up.

01:06:06You've got to keep on working up there.

01:06:08Yeah.

01:06:09The sooner it's finished, the better.

01:06:12Well, things always seem to have settled down before.

01:06:16Once the work on the tower's finished.

01:06:18You're whistling in the dark, Sergeant.

01:06:20Just whistling in the dark.

01:06:22Yeah, I know, I know.

01:06:24You should try working on that steeple.

01:06:26Every time I hit the stone, there's a ringing sound.

01:06:30I've never heard it before.

01:06:32It's like kids crying out, terrified in the dark.

01:06:36But more than that, the whole tower's thrumming with energy.

01:06:41Just waiting to be let loose.

01:06:42It's a big crowd, Joe.

01:06:56Can't see a blade of grass on Cathedral Green, the pack so tight.

01:07:01Press is here.

01:07:02Two tele-vans.

01:07:04Does it make you feel like a film star?

01:07:06No.

01:07:07I feel like the organ grinder's monkey.

01:07:10I wish it was all over, and the weathercock's safely back in place.

01:07:13Yeah.

01:07:14We could have brought it up by the horse with no fuss in half an hour.

01:07:17Then you wouldn't have been a film star, Billy.

01:07:20You wouldn't be sitting in your favourite armchair tonight with your kids and missus all gathered round,

01:07:24looking at you like you were a hero because you were on the telly.

01:07:27Yeah.

01:07:27You know, there's too much wind for my liking.

01:07:32If an updraft catches the chopper, just when we're getting older the weather...

01:07:36Don't think about it, Billy.

01:07:37You're not paid to think.

01:07:39You're paid to give them a grand show on the box.

01:07:42Oh, shut up, Joe.

01:07:46Anyway, the late accordies of my watch...

01:07:48Clock's not struck yet.

01:07:49We must be working to cathedral time.

01:07:52Yep.

01:07:52There she goes.

01:07:53Good old RAF.

01:08:02Never more than two minutes late.

01:08:04Better than British Rail, eh, Billy?

01:08:05Yeah.

01:08:06I only hope they know what they're doing up there.

01:08:09There must be two or three thousand packed into cathedral green and one narrow exit.

01:08:14Here they come.

01:08:15Any minute now.

01:08:16Aye, and the best the British.

01:08:19Shake me safely sling again, Joe, will you?

01:08:21Yeah.

01:08:23Hang on, you're fine.

01:08:24Right.

01:08:26Too high, mate.

01:08:27Too high.

01:08:28Lower.

01:08:29Lower.

01:08:32But we're off.

01:08:33I've got it nearly at the end of it.

01:08:35Higher, mate.

01:08:36Higher.

01:08:38It's caught.

01:08:39I'm going to scaffold it.

01:08:41He'll kill the land.

01:08:44He's damaged.

01:08:46He's going to crash.

01:08:49No, he's holding it.

01:08:50But he can't gain height.

01:08:53He's supposed to get down on the roof of the Dean's house.

01:08:56Stop.

01:08:57Look at them slates falling.

01:08:58Oh, God, the whole thing's rocking and swaying.

01:09:03Oh, for God, there's elk coming.

01:09:04We need it.

01:09:06There's a lot of people running like elk down the cathedral street.

01:09:10Maybe we should go down and elk.

01:09:12I don't feel like moving yet.

01:09:15My legs are too shaky.

01:09:17They'll have plenty of elk down there.

01:09:18It's so far away from it, up here.

01:09:22I just feel miles away, like even my arms and legs don't really belong to me.

01:09:29They're shaking like they've got a life of their own, Joe.

01:09:32It's shot, Billy.

01:09:34Just keep still and rest.

01:09:36We'll move on in a bit.

01:09:37When we feel better.

01:09:43Just look at the handrail.

01:09:44It's all bent up.

01:09:46That must have been where the rotor blade hit it.

01:09:49God, another two feet.

01:09:50It could have taken your head off.

01:09:51Don't think about it, Billy.

01:09:53Just rest.

01:09:55We're safe now.

01:09:56Yeah.

01:09:57I think I'm ready to move now.

01:10:10My legs have stopped shaking now.

01:10:12Here we go.

01:10:16Joe!

01:10:17The whole scaffolding's moving.

01:10:18It's all loose.

01:10:19The helicopter must have loosened it.

01:10:20Keep still.

01:10:22Dead still.

01:10:22Just try to edge along towards me, Billy.

01:10:28Take it by inches.

01:10:30I don't think I can.

01:10:33My legs are just shaking again.

01:10:34Oh, come on, Billy.

01:10:36You can do better than that.

01:10:38You're an old animal.

01:10:39You're a staple jack.

01:10:41Long better.

01:10:43Come on, you can do it.

01:10:46We can do it.

01:10:47We're mates, remember?

01:10:49No, no, Joe!

01:10:50Hang on, Billy!

01:10:50Hey!

01:10:52Joe, you're starting to get the shakes as well.

01:10:54You'd better go while you can still move.

01:10:57Don't talk to us.

01:10:58I'm not leaving you here.

01:10:59Go on, fetch help.

01:11:00I can manage till you get back.

01:11:02I can still hang on.

01:11:03Okay.

01:11:04We'll get...

01:11:05We'll get the fire brigade up in a jiffy.

01:11:07Hang on, lad.

01:11:08I won't be long.

01:11:09Joe!

01:11:14Paraffit.

01:11:16You solid ground.

01:11:18I'm down, Billy!

01:11:19Are you okay?

01:11:21Yeah.

01:11:22I'm okay, Joe.

01:11:24I'll be back!

01:11:26I nearly broke my neck, going down the spiral stair.

01:11:28I wasn't so quick.

01:11:30I was only halfway down when I heard the four-man scaffold.

01:11:34I took the parapet with a crush that shook the old tower.

01:11:38I got down quick, hoping against hope.

01:11:40But he was waiting for me on Cathedral Green.

01:11:47Scaffold all round it.

01:11:49Not a mark on him.

01:11:50But dead.

01:11:52I touched his face.

01:11:56You did all you could, Josiah.

01:11:59Nobody can blame you.

01:12:01I blame myself.

01:12:03I left him alone to die.

01:12:04Would he have felt any better if you had stayed and died with him?

01:12:07I shouldn't have left him.

01:12:08You had no choice, Joe.

01:12:10What happened to the rest of them?

01:12:14Well, it was a bloody miracle the way that pilot managed to land the helicopter on the Dean's roof.

01:12:20It's still up there now, swaying in every breeze.

01:12:22These TV people are loving it.

01:12:24Otherwise, seven people in intensive care, including one of the RAF blokes.

01:12:29A miracle indeed.

01:12:31If that helicopter had crashed or caught fire, there could have been hundreds dead.

01:12:36An appalling accident.

01:12:37It wasn't an accident.

01:12:39That thing up in the tower would like to kill the old town, and it damn near did.

01:12:42Come on, Joe.

01:12:43What are people saying about it?

01:12:45In the town?

01:12:46A ghastly accident.

01:12:48Blaming the RAF, the cathedral, the police for not keeping the crowd further back.

01:12:52And what about the two boys who fell from the tower?

01:12:54I'd say the second kid was a copycat of the first.

01:12:57Once they knew there were no evidence of foul play, they'd never believe what we think happened.

01:13:04So it's up to us?

01:13:06What do you mean it's up to us?

01:13:07I'm going to settle that bloody tower tonight.

01:13:09I know where to look.

01:13:10You'll have to arrest me if you want to stop me.

01:13:11Really, we must be calm.

01:13:13It's already killed three people.

01:13:14It nearly killed my lad, and it's getting hungrier all the time.

01:13:17All right, I'll come along.

01:13:18At least I can stop my lads arresting you.

01:13:20And I don't want another dead steeplejack on me, Anderson.

01:13:23I'm coming, too.

01:13:23Right.

01:13:24Then we're agreed.

01:13:25Yeah, I don't agree anything.

01:13:26I'll go and fetch my Bible.

01:13:27I'll go and fetch my seven-pattern hammer.

01:13:29The hammer of the Lord and of Gideon.

01:13:38Blast it.

01:13:39What's wrong?

01:13:40The key won't turn in the lock.

01:13:42Yeah, let me try it.

01:13:43No, I can't butcher the swine.

01:13:49Let's have your torch.

01:13:51It's the right key.

01:13:52Number 17 stamped on the handle.

01:13:54The lock's packed up for good.

01:13:56Maybe this tower's just a little bit scared of us.

01:14:00Well, it's too late for that now.

01:14:01Stand well back.

01:14:03Oh, no!

01:14:06Oh, bloody hell!

01:14:08How am I going to explain that to the superintendent in the morning?

01:14:11Or me, to the dean.

01:14:12Right.

01:14:13Up we go.

01:14:19All the walls seem familiar than I remember them.

01:14:23Dripping with moisture.

01:14:25Oh, the air's very stale.

01:14:28What's that smell?

01:14:30I've been thinking about what your Latin writing said, Reverend Morris.

01:14:33That word celli.

01:14:34Little rooms, little spaces.

01:14:36Oh, yes?

01:14:37Well, every so often in this tower,

01:14:39you get a small landing with a lancet window to give light.

01:14:42And under every window, there's a wide shell.

01:14:45Sort of the top of a stone box about four foot across and one foot deep.

01:14:49The northwest tower didn't have those stone boxes on its stair.

01:14:53That's why it seemed lighter and less cramped.

01:14:56Oh, and if these stone boxes are the cellar,

01:15:00how can we find out with the architect door?

01:15:02There's no time to ask it.

01:15:04Here's one of them boxers now.

01:15:06I'll consult my friend the seven-pound hammer instead.

01:15:09Stand by.

01:15:16Just enough to crack the mortar and not give the dean heart attack.

01:15:18Now, if I shove in the other end of the hammer handle and use it like a lever.

01:15:26All right, it's moving.

01:15:28Here's your coats.

01:15:29God, that stint!

01:15:38Second end of the slamming with.

01:15:41Shine your torch, Sergeant.

01:15:43All right?

01:15:46What is it?

01:15:50It's like nothing I've ever seen.

01:15:52A huge spider's web.

01:15:56But it's wet.

01:15:57Glistening.

01:15:59Oh, my God.

01:16:03It's a skeleton.

01:16:04A skeleton of a child.

01:16:07All tied into the stonework with the glistening strands.

01:16:11And I bet he was alive when they fastened him in there.

01:16:14Drunked, if he was lucky.

01:16:16The miracles of Jacopo of Milan.

01:16:19Recommended by three cardinals of the Church of Rome.

01:16:22Yeah, the abbot got what he wanted.

01:16:24His tower.

01:16:26At a price.

01:16:27But the abbot could never have known.

01:16:28He never bothered to find out.

01:16:30He got his tower.

01:16:30That was enough for him.

01:16:31Through the deaths of children.

01:16:33I can't believe it.

01:16:33Oh, come on.

01:16:35Where do you think the money came from?

01:16:37How else could they afford to build in a country where half the people nigh starved to death every winter?

01:16:42The money came from the workers.

01:16:43And the workers' children starved.

01:16:46Every stone laid must have been a death, nearly.

01:16:49To the glory of God.

01:16:52Jacopo just had a new recipe for using children, that's all.

01:16:55This child can't have been more than six or seven.

01:17:00What are these glistening strands?

01:17:02Don't touch it.

01:17:03I...

01:17:03My hand.

01:17:05What the...

01:17:06Don't touch his hand.

01:17:07For good's sake, don't touch his hand.

01:17:09What's happened to it?

01:17:09I mean, the skin's gone.

01:17:11It's white.

01:17:11Bone.

01:17:12Blood.

01:17:12He's taken the goodness out of his hand.

01:17:14Like he took the goodness out of this child's living body all those hundreds of years ago.

01:17:18And he's taken it still for all we know.

01:17:20Don't talk such rubbish.

01:17:21He just gashed his hand on the shark.

01:17:22Yes!

01:17:23Off the flesh of his palm's gone.

01:17:25You can see the bone.

01:17:26I'm standing here arguing.

01:17:27He's hurt, man.

01:17:27We've got to get him to hospital.

01:17:28You take him.

01:17:29Right.

01:17:29I've got a job to do.

01:17:30Come on.

01:17:31What's it?

01:17:31Get moving.

01:17:32I'll lose that hand otherwise.

01:17:33That's it.

01:17:33Come on.

01:17:34Good boy.

01:17:34Another step.

01:17:35That's it.

01:17:36Come on.

01:17:38Come on.

01:17:40All right, yakapo, mate.

01:17:41I'm coming.

01:17:42Don't worry.

01:17:44I'm coming as quick as I can, you bastard.

01:17:49Ten parapet doors, Jan.

01:17:52Oh, well.

01:17:52Come on.

01:17:59Is it just the whip?

01:18:04I can't remember the towel.

01:18:06It's shaking like that before.

01:18:09Now, yakapo, mate.

01:18:11You knew your trade and I know mine.

01:18:14And I know where you are.

01:18:16Because the stone is rotten where you are.

01:18:20If we're in the stone.

01:18:29A crack opening up.

01:18:34There he goes down.

01:18:35Look.

01:18:36And I believe.

01:18:41A great big skeleton this time.

01:18:45I suppose the townspeople caught you as you were finishing your nasty little job.

01:18:49And got their own masons to stuff you in here.

01:18:51Your last little cell.

01:18:54Still alive.

01:18:56I suppose they thought it was poetic justice.

01:18:59Poor sods.

01:19:01Fools they were.

01:19:04But you're not going to get away with it anymore.

01:19:07Poor son, I'm going to see you here.

01:19:09Sit in the car until they come.

01:19:11They won't be long.

01:19:14The blood's dripping everywhere.

01:19:16Sorry.

01:19:18Any sign of Joe, Sergeant?

01:19:20It's hard to see.

01:19:22Floodlights don't reach far up the tower.

01:19:25It'll sort of flicker or something.

01:19:28Yes.

01:19:29There's someone moving up there.

01:19:31Joe's hammering the hell out of something.

01:19:35I don't believe it.

01:19:37There's a big crack in the tower.

01:19:40I swear.

01:19:40At the base.

01:19:42No.

01:19:43It must be a trick of the light.

01:19:44How many kids have you loved here?

01:19:50So you could feed off their blood on the stones.

01:19:54Like you fed off Morris' hand.

01:19:57Oh, no.

01:19:57I'm not going to touch you, mate.

01:19:59I'm going to leave you where you are.

01:20:00Till the sun comes up.

01:20:02You won't like the sun, you know, Yadda.

01:20:04It'll dry you up by inches till you turn to dust and it'll blow away.

01:20:09You'll be a long, long time drying out.

01:20:12And nobody will even hear you scream.

01:20:14So don't you despair, are you?

01:20:15I'm glad.

01:20:19I think the whole tower's going to fall.

01:20:24Sharing a thousand tonne of rubble with that thing.

01:20:27Oh, no.

01:20:28I'll jump first.

01:20:30A clean death in the fresh air.

01:20:33The hoist.

01:20:34The rope on the hoist.

01:20:35That rusty pulley should slow my fall.

01:20:38Oh, well.

01:20:39In for a penny, in for a pound.

01:20:41Look at the steep of swaying.

01:20:49There are stones falling off that butchers.

01:20:51For heaven's sake, get out of it, Joel.

01:20:54He's coming up on the paraplegs.

01:20:55He's stuck to chomp.

01:20:57No.

01:20:58No, he's coming down by the hoist.

01:21:02He's slowing you down.

01:21:05He's stuck.

01:21:06Let go, Joel.

01:21:09He's down.

01:21:12Come on, Joel.

01:21:13Run.

01:21:15The tower's leaving.

01:21:17Falling.

01:21:18My God.

01:21:18He's coming after him.

01:21:20He's got a ball right on top of him.

01:21:22He'll never make it.

01:21:23Right.

01:21:24Run, Joel.

01:21:25Run.

01:21:26I can still see him.

01:21:27Moving along the dust.

01:21:29What's that?

01:21:31Bouncy.

01:21:32It's the gargoyle.

01:21:34Coming straight at him.

01:21:37Out of the dust.

01:21:39Don't you, Joel?

01:21:41Dodge!

01:21:44Ah!

01:21:45Ah!

01:21:55Hello.

01:21:56How are you getting on?

01:21:57Okay, two cracks in my palm, this. Bet they say I'll be back up top in a couple of months. Good as ever.

01:22:04Well, rather you than me.

01:22:07Josiah Clark and sons, steeplejacks for five generations. Only, no more cathedrals.

01:22:15I'll leave that to my betters. But if you've got a chimney you want, Fally.

01:22:19Oh, yeah, I'll let you know.

01:22:21How's Reverend Morris?

01:22:22Well, I think they'll just about be able to save his hand, with a lot of skin grafts, but he'll never play cricket again.

01:22:28I doubt he was any good, with that great gut on him.

01:22:31Oh, he wasn't a bad batsman.

01:22:33Anyway, the big news is he's given up the church. Lost his faith.

01:22:38He's finding that child's skeleton, I suppose. Couldn't believe a loving God could allow such things to happen.

01:22:44All kinds of nasty things happen to good people all the time.

01:22:47He's going to retrain as a social worker instead.

01:22:51I think that's a pity.

01:22:52How come?

01:22:54Well, he might have lost his faith in God that night, but...

01:22:58What?

01:22:59Well, when I was running from the tower, and that gargoyle was bounding across Cathedral Green at me, like a bouncer from a West Indian fast bowler...

01:23:08Yeah?

01:23:09Well, something. A voice, quite clearly. Told me to duck.

01:23:15Eh?

01:23:15It missed me by a whisker. I felt the draft of it going past, and it did a lot of arm to Harrison's greeting cards and gift packaging.

01:23:23I've been wondering since, off and on, who that voice was.

01:23:28Well, whatever next? Going to become a vicar, eh?

01:23:32Chimneys will do me.

01:23:36Look, Joe, what exactly happened up there that night?

01:23:39I showed our friend the light of day. I don't think he fancied baking to death when the sun came up. So he sort of... gave up.

01:23:52You're not trying to tell me he was alive after 500 years. Maybe you're in the wrong kind of hospital, Joe.

01:23:59You didn't see him. Half a skeleton. Half a kind of oozing vegetable. With a root going down into the stone.

01:24:10He was alive all right. That's why he needed more young boys. Splattering their blood on the stones.

01:24:16No, Joe, no. You were half crazy that night. It was dark. You couldn't see properly. You thought you saw... something.

01:24:23It was there. I saw it, I tell you.

01:24:26Steady, Joe. It doesn't matter now, anyway. Whatever was there is gone.

01:24:30Gone? Where?

01:24:33By using the rubble as hardcore for a hypermarket car park out Sanderson Way. They'll be well buried under a foot of tarmac.

01:24:39To define anything?

01:24:41Debolition contractors haven't reported anything unusual. Everything crushed into very small particles, I expect.

01:24:47Yeah.

01:24:48What did the architect say?

01:24:50I reckon the foundations just gave way. Underground springs.

01:24:55Ha ha. So the serpent in the sun came back?

01:24:58Salt subsidence. That's what I'm putting in my report. Salt subsidence.

01:25:04You liar.

01:25:05Yeah. Yeah, well, between you and me, half the stuff that goes on in this world gets into reports and half doesn't.

01:25:11And it's the important part that doesn't.

01:25:14I'll never look a cathedral straight in the eye again.

01:25:16So you do believe what I said? That Jacopo was the killer?

01:25:21Get away. No.

01:25:23It was the butler in the pantry with a lump of lead piping all the time.

01:25:27I wish I could make a joke of it like that.

01:25:31Yeah.

01:25:32Well, it's a matter of staying sane, isn't it?

01:25:34Well, it's a matter of staying.

01:25:36I wish I could make a joke of it like that.

01:25:37Good Good Bold

01:25:57In the stones of Moncaster Cathedral by Robert Westall, Peter Meakin played Joe Clark, Terry Molloy, Sergeant Allardyce, and John Webb, the Reverend Morris.

01:26:18Billy was David Holt, Barbara, Sonny Ormond, and Kevin, Tim Black.

01:26:24Richard Mitchley was Taff Evans, Gillian Goodman, the curator, Zita Satar, Dr. Kumar, and Anthony Pedley, the inspector.

01:26:33Other parts were played by members of the cast.

01:26:36The Stones of Moncaster Cathedral was directed at Pebble Mill by Rosemary Watts.

01:26:53The Stones of Moncaster Cathedral

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