- 3 months ago
A familiar face arrives from Segget and takes a room at the guest house. Ewan and Ellen’s political ambitions ramp up when it’s discovered the foundry where Ewan works is manufacturing armaments. Ma Cleghorn’s poor health threatens Chris’s future in Duncairn.
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TVTranscript
00:00.
00:30That New Year's Day awoke with the wind snarling at the gates of the dark.
00:48And with the first peep of light, the storm loosed itself over Duncairn.
00:55I'd done everything proper, and now there was surely nothing else but to rest.
01:01And tried to make out where I'd mislaid the security that was mine only a few months before.
01:08You look as bunny as a man.
01:10But what are you doing here, Ake?
01:12I've come to bide.
01:16You've come to stay here?
01:17That's for the sake.
01:19That's a fine thing to hear.
01:21And we have a room.
01:23Did the cab and noogie your hand with your kissed?
01:25Oh, I've just had an argi-bargi with a bully.
01:28By God, he wanted a whole half-crown to bring me for the station.
01:33Aye, they're like that, the cabman.
01:35Come on, I'll gi' you hon.
01:37Aye, it's a hell of a place for a man to bide the tune.
01:52Still, the room looks canty enough.
01:56You'll be gay busy here, no doubt.
01:58Oh, I've a lot to do, same as other folk.
02:00But we'll have a long crack of wood-seg at some time.
02:03Aye, we will, that.
02:07You've, eh, fairly tain we done care, mistress.
02:12Do you miss the man's?
02:15Not much.
02:17Now, what do you want to do about meals?
02:20Oh, I'll have my breakfast.
02:22But don't bother a wee dinner.
02:24I'll have that at the sawmill.
02:26As you wish.
02:27I didn't know that you kenned, Provost Bate.
02:29Oh, aye.
02:31We were at the school together in Lowronkirk,
02:33oh, 35 years or so back.
02:35I used to give him a bit punch every now and then
02:37to kittle him up in mind of me's mother's.
02:39It scares me pleased to see you again.
02:41No, that's just for you wrong.
02:44He fair took a liking to me for that.
02:47Och, aye, and after we'd gotten long trusers,
02:49me and Wablin' Jimmy,
02:50and that's what we used to call him,
02:52we'd gang about together,
02:54kissing and cuddling the quines.
02:56Aye, a fair one for the lassies was Wablin' Jimmy.
03:00You must admit he's done Guy Weal for himself.
03:02He has that.
03:03I could hardly believe it when I heard it.
03:05I thought talent must be Guy damn scarce
03:07and done cared to make him the provost.
03:10And then I minded he'd inherited a sawmill
03:13here about his uncle.
03:14And I thought, well,
03:16a trade being so slack and sick it,
03:19he'll surely scrounge up a job
03:20for his old friend, eh, Cogelby?
03:23Aye, and he fair did.
03:25He made himself at home from the first.
03:33Rousing that morning after he came,
03:36I thought I'd make him a cup of tea
03:37and take it up to his room,
03:39the same as the others.
03:41But while I was making it,
03:43I heard a pad of feet by the kitchen door.
03:46Aye, mistress.
03:47I thought it would maybe be you.
03:51And this'll be your kitchen, no doubt.
03:53Aye, it is.
03:54Come away in and sit down.
04:03Here, have some tea.
04:05Oh, thanks.
04:08So, that's you finished with Seget, then?
04:11Oh, there was nothing for me and Seget, mistress.
04:14Not after your good man died.
04:15I got fair sick of sitting about in my shed
04:20waiting for custom to come
04:21and scribbling a wee bit of poetry the while,
04:24glowering up at the hills
04:25and wishing to heaven that something would happen.
04:29Aye, I mind your poetry.
04:31You still write it, do you?
04:32Oh, aye, well.
04:33That day would scarce interest you.
04:35Do you ken now, mistress, what have I wanted?
04:41What?
04:43A job on a ship at sea.
04:45Aye, the smell and the belt of the water below me.
04:50Aye, there's fine carpentering work to be done in ships.
04:53Maybe you'll get a job like that yet?
04:55Oh, come I'd.
04:56I'll stick with the provost for a while, though.
04:59Poor Jimmy.
05:00We're all on leading strings from the past.
05:02Good morning, mistress Clegghorn.
05:08Aye, that's a grand brew.
05:10I think I'll come down every morning for one.
05:13Oh, there's no need to do that.
05:15I take cubs up to the folk that want them.
05:17Oh, the hell with that.
05:18I'm not a cripple.
05:20I can come down for my own.
05:22And suppose she's no fancy for you
05:23sitting about in her way in the kitchen?
05:26Aye, whatever you say.
05:29I'll, eh, I'll be away now.
05:32And stocking soles.
05:36Folk like Egg don't have carpet slippers.
05:40You'd better look out for yourself, Chris.
05:43They're not to be trusted,
05:44jeels, with curling mousers like that.
05:47Walk away with you.
05:48No, I saw the way he was looking at you.
05:51Oh, Lord, there's no need to warn you.
05:53I keep forgetting you are gentry yourself.
05:55And ministers with you.
05:57Not for common, folk.
05:59I think having egg about
06:01might wipe out all the gentry in me.
06:04It was like being back in a farm kitchen again.
06:07Just you watch him.
06:10Now, what's he likely to do with me?
06:13Faith, if you can't have guessed that,
06:15then there's other folk than the Virgin Mary
06:16had their immaculate conceptions.
06:18That August, Ewan was moved from the furnaces
06:25to the drawing office.
06:27Blueprinting, he called it.
06:28And they seemed to like the way he did his prints at Gowan's.
06:35He didn't speak much to Ellen John's
06:37after that day in the Barmican,
06:38though they were polite enough.
06:41But I thought them too much alike
06:42to take heed of each other.
06:44Could you pass the marmalade, please, Mr. Cushney?
06:48Good day, all.
06:49Good day, Mr. Peebles.
06:50Miss Charles.
06:59There's a piano recital at the King's Hall on Friday, Miss John's.
07:03But she'd fair woke up the breakfast table,
07:06though she didn't seem to notice it.
07:08John Cushney would pass the marmalade with a blush.
07:10Archie Clearment would ask her out
07:13to some university game or other.
07:16Even Mr. Quaritch would forget his books
07:18and tell her stories of the Daily Runner.
07:21She'd fair snare them all,
07:24our little pussycat.
07:26Well, all the men, that is.
07:31Just a vulgar little flirt, if you ask me.
07:35Don't you think that John's girl is common, Mrs. Cahoon?
07:38I don't know, Miss Lyon.
07:40You see, I'm awfully common myself.
07:42Oh, I wouldn't say that, Mrs. Cahoon.
07:45But I do agree with Miss Lyon.
07:48In fact, they were discussing her
07:50at the Unionist ladies' meeting the other night.
07:53It seems someone's complained to the school about her.
07:55But she's been teaching the children
07:57the queerest and dirtiest things.
08:00Miss John's?
08:01Yes, all about digestion and such.
08:06Oh, well, that won't do the bairns any harm.
08:09Well, of course, I'm single
08:11and don't know much about things like that.
08:13But it's worse than that.
08:15She's been telling them
08:16that there is no such a person as God
08:19and that the world really began in a fire.
08:21No better than I'd expect of her sort.
08:25Oh, damn, there's maybe some sense in her say,
08:27Miss Margaret Royd.
08:28I mean, the Bible's nae, cannae.
08:31Mind you, a bit about lofting his daughter's full slummox.
08:34Him worse, Randy L. Ram.
08:36Mrs. Clegghorn, remember, it's the Sabbath.
08:39I think it's better to speak of beginnings in fire
08:41than till it the bairns think it began in a midden.
08:44Oh, well, there's more to the lassie than meets the eye.
08:54Have they all settled their rents?
08:56Oh, piddle short again.
08:58Him at banks every make he gets.
09:01I'd tell them it'd need the balance by Monday night.
09:05Four, five, two halves.
09:11One and ten silver.
09:13That's our little English pussycat.
09:15She's sitting up there in her room reading a book.
09:22Seems like a decent enough thing to be doing on a Sunday morning.
09:25Oh, decent.
09:27Can you guess now what the book's about, lass?
09:29It's a manual of birth control.
09:33What do you think of that?
09:35Oh.
09:37Well, did she try to hide it?
09:38She neither hid nor showed it.
09:41Her and her quiet ways.
09:44Still, it's out of the good of the trade.
09:47And how's that?
09:48Well, she'll be able to send the shillikes and go free.
09:51No need to marry.
09:53So we'll be able to keep her o'er lodger.
09:56Ma.
09:57Ha, ha, ha, ha.
10:00Twelve.
10:02Hirt and ten.
10:05Ake Ogilvy.
10:08Aye, Faith, he's made of the old-time stuff.
10:11You know, if I was a ten years or so younger,
10:14I'd be chumming up to him.
10:17Bonny man.
10:19We'll shoot her.
10:21Can't he?
10:22Aye, it's a pity you're gentry.
10:26If it's gentry to know the things that I like
10:29and the things that I don't,
10:30then I'm gentry.
10:31Oots, no dinner go on, take offence.
10:34I'm just a coarse old wifey.
10:36Must have a bit joke.
10:39Well, don't have it on me.
10:42Right, you are.
10:46Echteen pound nine and six.
10:49No, that's a lot for this week.
10:53And we're doing fine.
10:58Did I ever tell you
10:59that when I went to that partner,
11:02my niece, Izzy Eckert,
11:04wanted to come in with me.
11:06I didn't know you had a niece.
11:07Oh, but I have worse luck.
11:09Thrawn wee skunk lives a while doing Caribbean.
11:12I can't stick her myself,
11:13but she is my only living relation.
11:15She thinks when I die,
11:20she'll get to it butty sill or I leave.
11:23Don't be silly.
11:24You're likely to outlive us all.
11:26Oh, hope to heaven, do you?
11:28If there's anything that cumbers the earth,
11:30it's an old runkle of a woman,
11:32but a living on with no man to tend
11:34and no bairns.
11:36A woman stops living
11:39when she stops saying bairns.
11:40And what about men?
11:44Oh, damn, they never live at all.
11:47They're just a squeeze and a cuddle
11:49that we need to keep our lives going.
11:50They're nothing in themselves.
11:52I laughed,
11:57but somehow Ma's daft words bad in my mind.
12:01Was I now no more myself
12:03than a woman on the verge of middle age,
12:06content to trochle in a kitchen
12:07and come out and potter in the yard
12:09with the weeds and the flowers?
12:12Babies?
12:14Hadn't I Ewan?
12:15Perfect enough?
12:17Grown up though he was,
12:18distant and cool?
12:19And I minded that other baby
12:23who had died.
12:24The baby Michael I'd never seen.
12:27Who died within an hour of his birth.
12:30Killing something in Robert.
12:33Killing the last of the coin in myself.
12:37My bairn.
12:39The lost baby who might have been mine.
12:43Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Gahoon.
12:45I didn't know that...
12:47that I was weeping a bit.
12:52Old women often have a weep, you know.
12:56Coming to help or only to watch?
12:59I'll help.
13:02I was sick of sitting indoors and reading.
13:05Oh, aye.
13:07What were you reading about?
13:10Birth control?
13:10Yes.
13:13I suppose I'll need it sometime.
13:16Can't find out much and it sounds a mess.
13:19But it's a thing that's got to be learnt.
13:21Don't you think so?
13:22Yes.
13:23I think it has.
13:25But you'll want a baby someday.
13:28No, I don't suppose so.
13:30There are thousands of unwanted babies
13:31and most of them should never have been born.
13:33I don't know.
13:40Aye.
13:41And how'd you like it up in the drawing office, Mr. Travendale?
13:44Fine, Mr. Grant.
13:46Better than the furnaces.
13:48I heard Norman had been transferred to the stores.
13:51You heard right.
13:52He started there this morning.
13:53I heard two had sacked one of the older men
13:55to make room for him.
13:56Oh, aye.
13:57It's the same in the machine shop.
13:59Alec and Geordie were sent there last Monday.
14:01The following Friday, two men were sacked.
14:04It's cheaper to employ apprentices
14:05and pay a full man's wage.
14:07Oh, well, Gowans have been doing that for years.
14:10Then maybe it's time the union put a stop to it.
14:12Maybe threaten a strike.
14:13Why don't you have a word with the other chaps in the store
14:15and see how they feel about it?
14:17No, no.
14:17I'll have nothing to do with it.
14:19And take my advice.
14:21Look out for yourself
14:22or you'll be getting in the dirt.
14:24Oh, right, if you feel like that.
14:26But maybe it'll be your turn next for the sack.
14:28Me?
14:30What the hell?
14:31Well, who's to take my place, I'd like to know.
14:35Another of you, horse and apprentices.
14:46Good one.
14:48Have a good idea of that.
14:50Good.
14:51Take one of the inputs.
14:52Good.
14:53Good.
14:53Good.
15:01So you don't deny it, Tavendale?
15:29No.
15:29Just what the hell you think you're playing at, I don't know.
15:32But I'm telling you, it's got to stop.
15:34I just don't think it's right to replace time-served men with apprentices.
15:38What you think is neither here nor there.
15:41I'm the manager.
15:42You're an apprentice.
15:43And you're not paid to criticize company policy.
15:45Do you know what will happen to you if you go around stirring up trouble?
15:49Oh, yes.
15:50I'll be sacked when my apprenticeship's done.
15:52Then less of it.
15:53You've had your warning.
15:55You won't get another.
15:56Yes.
15:57Thanks.
15:57I've had no warning.
16:07So, I took the warning.
16:10What else was there for me to say?
16:12Well, at least you had the guts to try something.
16:15A lot of good it did.
16:17The union won't make a move.
16:18They've got too many in the dole as it is.
16:21And you'll be another if you're not careful.
16:22Hardly worthwhile being sacked for a few pamphlets.
16:27We need something more.
16:29More organized.
16:31Do you mind Robert's second league?
16:34I mind that it didn't accomplish much.
16:36Aye.
16:38But we need something like that.
16:42Next Saturday, you say?
16:45We don't usually let out the hole.
16:48Have you tried anywhere else?
16:50One or two places.
16:51You mean every place you could think of?
16:54All right.
16:55You can have it.
16:58How much for the hire?
16:59A ten bob should cover it.
17:01You can have it for nothing.
17:04We owe you a favor for that business with the brewery, Laurie.
17:07Thanks.
17:08We'll give you a hand to organize it.
17:10I think we can manage.
17:12Aye, well.
17:14You won't want your, uh...
17:15What is it?
17:16Young workers' league mixed up with the Reds, eh?
17:19We just want the hall.
17:22Right.
17:23Steve here will let you have the keys on Saturday.
17:26Fine.
17:27I'll see you then.
17:32You're a bit free-handed with the party's money, Jim.
17:34We could use ten bob in the funds.
17:38Call it an investment, Steve.
17:41It was further resolved that this new party be called the Workers' League,
17:46and that tonight's meeting be asked to express its views
17:49on how the above-mentioned objectives can best be achieved.
17:52Thank you, Comrade Chairman.
17:54Thank you, Miss Jones.
17:56I take it that the minutes of the last meeting are approved?
18:01Good.
18:02Well, Comrades, you all know what we're here to discuss.
18:05Our intention is to get rid of the cowardice and sloth of Labour
18:08and to cut out the nonsensical lying of the Communists.
18:12The older generation in the Workers' Parties have made an idiot mess of things,
18:17so it's up to the young to straighten things out.
18:19But first, we must organise
18:21and become strong enough to make our opinions felt.
18:25Membership?
18:26We've got just under 20,
18:28and we must make a big drive to recruit more.
18:31How do we do it?
18:32I open this subject to the meeting.
18:35Six-minute speeches, not a minute more,
18:38and practical suggestions, please, not oratory.
18:44First contribution, please.
18:47Comrade, did you raise your hand?
18:48No, Mr Chairman, but...
18:51But I think we should go out and march down to the castle gate
18:54and hold a meeting there.
18:55With what object in mind, Comrade?
18:57Well, we could take flags and collecting boxes.
19:00Aye, I knew it.
19:01We'll be out in the streets with banners.
19:03That's the way to win new members and serve the workers.
19:05Oh, don't be daft.
19:08Have you ever seen a worker?
19:09They'd want you to serve them some other way.
19:14Order, please, order.
19:16Yes?
19:18Um, I work up at Gown and Globes,
19:21and I think we could get people to join
19:23if we smuggled in a lot of leaflets
19:25and passed them run quietly, you know?
19:27Yes, we could do that too,
19:28but what's wanted is to advertise our meetings
19:31and hold readings from people
19:34like the great revolutionary poets,
19:36like William Morris.
19:37Hmm?
19:41Well, I don't think there's much use
19:43in us marching down the street with flags.
19:46We'd probably do no more than get our heads bashed in.
19:49Leaflets in the factories won't help
19:51because nobody reads leaflets.
19:52There's far too many about.
19:53And the comrade who suggested public readings of William Morris
19:57must surely have meant the Sunday post.
20:02What we need is something light and attractive.
20:05I agree.
20:09What we want is a tanner hop.
20:12Comrade?
20:13A dance, price sixpence.
20:15That would bring in members thick and fast,
20:17and the dancers would pay for themselves twice over.
20:19Aye, so they would.
20:21That's a good idea.
20:22It's the best we've had so far.
20:24Do you want me to put your suggestion as a resolution, comrade?
20:27Yes, please.
20:28Very well, then.
20:29A motion has been put that we organise a dance,
20:31admission sixpence.
20:32Is there a seconder?
20:33No, I second that.
20:35All in favour, please, Cheryl.
20:46Ready?
20:47Yes.
20:50I noticed a glow down by the river when I came in.
20:53That'll be the shipyard.
20:55They're working nights again.
20:59Even gowns are picking up a bit.
21:00It doesn't look much like the collapse of capitalism, does it?
21:05Are you losing heart?
21:08Losing heart would do a lot of good, wouldn't it?
21:11Not much.
21:13Anyhow, your heart's not in it.
21:16Only your head and your imagination.
21:19And I'm not in much danger of losing either.
21:21Not even after tonight.
21:27You don't quarrel with history and its pace of change.
21:30any more than you quarrel with the laws of gravitation.
21:34History's instruments are the workers.
21:36And they'll turn to us sometime.
21:38Even though it's only for a six-minute hop.
21:48Which of us sees to the hiring of the whole?
21:51I think it'd better be you.
21:53The only suitable place I can think of is the lower school.
21:56And they don't trust me too much there as it is.
21:59Some of the parents have complained.
22:01And I've been told to leave off physiology and stick to nature study.
22:05Bees, flowers, and how catkins copulate.
22:08Is there something wrong?
22:13No.
22:15You just look a bit pale and tired.
22:18I was wondering where else you might be if you weren't here with me.
22:21Oh, at a dance.
22:23Or at the pictures.
22:25In a pretty dress.
22:27In that case, since you aren't half-witted,
22:30you're better off where you are.
22:34Come on, you dark fuckers!
22:36And the puppies will hurt you.
22:37Then let's go on!
22:39There was a little chute there.
22:40You all want a chute?
22:41I want you to hear the sound my brother used to say.
22:43Mark, I don't know any of them!
22:46The UK and my granny's healing a hame hen.
22:49Are you all right?
22:56I know.
22:57Not very pleasant.
22:59Not very.
23:01History's the funniest joke at times.
23:04What was funny about that?
23:06If we'd had the courage of our convictions,
23:08do you know what we'd have done back there?
23:10What?
23:11Stopped and sang him some William Morris.
23:19Come on, lass.
23:47We should get out of the stew of the house for a while.
23:50God, I'm turning into that cockroach near
23:52and you're into earthworm.
23:55But you've got to see to the border's teeth.
23:57Ach, Meg, can do that, can't you?
24:00Truth to tell,
24:01I'm just not feeling my cell today.
24:05Ma!
24:06Is there something wrong?
24:08Oh, there's nothing.
24:09There's just a kind of stitch in my side.
24:12Well, are you coming?
24:15Aye.
24:16All right, then.
24:17Where are we going?
24:18Well, I thought maybe to the picture throne
24:21in Little James Street.
24:22Oh.
24:24Wouldn't you rather go out into the country somewhere?
24:26No, I wouldn't, nut.
24:28What's the matter?
24:29Don't you like the talkies?
24:31Ah, to be honest,
24:32they near weary me to death
24:34with their flickering
24:35and their awful voices and daft stories.
24:38Huh?
24:40Well, well,
24:41we could do something else.
24:43No.
24:44The pictures it is.
24:46Oh, there you are, lad.
24:47Go and be here,
24:48you're wearing so little
24:48I can see your drawers.
24:50Oh, surely not.
24:51Anyhow,
24:52I can't wear more than I'm wearing.
24:52Oh, maybe not.
24:54It's a damn shame
24:55going about with a figure like that,
24:56half-happed,
24:57stirring men to temptation.
24:58What in all next name
24:59are we standing here gossiping for?
25:00Come on,
25:01we'll miss the start.
25:01Come on,
25:06it's a fucking mchan.
25:06What in all next name
25:07are we standing here gossiping for?
25:08Come on,
25:09we'll miss the start.
25:23Do you like it?
25:25Oh, my. Would you credit that?
25:38Chris.
25:42Chris!
25:44Eh?
25:46Oh, I must have dozed off.
25:49Goddammit, you've slipped through the whole picture.
25:52Wasted a ninth-minute ticket.
25:53I just couldn't keep my eyes open.
25:57Well, come on, we've seen the newsreel.
25:59I'll tell you what you missed.
26:01It was all about this lassie at work's in New York.
26:04She was half a boy but half a respectable.
26:07Oh, my God, she seemed to live in a place like a palace
26:09because the bath was about ten foot long and three foot deep.
26:14And she wore an undercoat.
26:16I never have afforded unless somebody was buying it for her.
26:23Say, she met a man that managed a theatre,
26:28although he looked for his face as though he managed a piggery
26:31and had been born in one and promoted for merit.
26:35Anyway, he was the hero.
26:37And half a brave.
26:39And he took the lassie to the theatre
26:41and made us sing
26:42and go to the theatre audiences would wild just.
26:46And then she and him taking a long fine,
26:49taking a long, you missed,
26:50burning a brute, a gang like, and kidnapping.
26:52Hey, watch where you're going.
26:55Did you say something?
26:56Aye, I did.
26:57Who do you think you are, Mussolini?
26:58Faith, I could wear his breeks and not feel ashamed.
27:01You'd never a thing under yours, you runt.
27:03Come on, lassie.
27:05Where was I now?
27:08And then the lassie crouched down.
27:11We are coming next, showing, but respectable still.
27:14She wouldn't have yielded an inch to anything
27:15short of her marriage license.
27:17And, of course, that she got in the end.
27:19Ah, fine.
27:20Ah, you fairly missed a good picture.
27:23So it would seem.
27:24But, uh, whatever's all this feast for?
27:27Oh, I'm sick of cooking for myself.
27:29And the sight of your feeds they have in America fairly
27:32stirs up about his stomach.
27:35Aye.
27:36It would be a real coothy place, that New York,
27:39with chills charging about like bulls in a park
27:42trying to grab on a lassie they see.
27:43You sound as though you'd like to bite there.
27:45Aye.
27:47Aye.
27:48I fair made a mistake, you know,
27:5020 years or so back when I stopped at my gym for emigrating.
27:54To think I mixed new bee out in New York
27:57with men chasing me in motorcars
27:59and offering to buy my undies free.
28:01Oh, I missed that, buddy.
28:03A lassie in a picture works in this office, you see.
28:05And the manager's just a beast of a man.
28:07He's eye-chasing everything.
28:08Here, have some more tea.
28:10Oh, more.
28:11We'd better eat up before the food gets cold.
28:13Aye, we're best.
28:15What?
28:17Fine to think of the lodgers saucing on the rain
28:19while we are here.
28:21Arthur, Ewan and the sleek wee cat
28:24are out again together the day.
28:25Would you think now maybe the two of them are getting off?
28:28Oh, no, not them.
28:31They've gone to some political meeting, I think.
28:33They've just gone socialist, as young folk do.
28:36Some plan they've got to link up the Labour folk
28:39with the Communists.
28:41Whatever would they want to do that for?
28:43Oh, they think it would be good.
28:45Oh, they'd soon think mighty different if it happened.
28:48Oh, look what happened to you and the sour critter in Russia.
28:53Shot him in a cellar and buried him without so much as a...
28:55God bless you.
28:56Well, I don't know anything about him,
28:58but as far as I do know,
29:00neither Ewan nor Ellen have shot anybody in a cellar.
29:03No.
29:05Still, I wouldn't trust you or Ewan.
29:08No.
29:09Oh, he's a nice enough loon,
29:11but he's got a daft look and a glower in his eyes.
29:15I wouldn't say that.
29:17I think this communism stuff's just nut, can't he?
29:20I tell you, it's just a religion,
29:22although the Reds say it's nut.
29:23I suppose I think the same.
29:26And have I thought so.
29:28But that doesn't matter.
29:29If Ewan wants a God, I'm not going to try and stop him.
29:32There's plenty of mess to be cleared up in the world.
29:35That's for you saying that you wouldn't trust him.
29:37Oh, no, dust that on me.
29:39Come on, let's finish your tea and get out of here.
29:44Hey, me.
29:46I think I was New York Shields
29:48staring after women like Ewan.
29:51Where would you see the like in Dunkirk?
30:09Hey, mistress, I saw your licht on.
30:18On your own, are you?
30:20I am that, Ewan.
30:21Ma's gone off to dream of New York.
30:25Would you like a cup of cocoa?
30:26Eh, no thanks.
30:29But I'll come in and sit down for a minute.
30:36Eh, you're up late.
30:40Like yourself.
30:42The other boarders went to bed, Lang Syne.
30:44Eh, not all of them.
30:46I've just seen Piddle to his room.
30:50Couldn't he see himself?
30:52Oh, he could scarce see himself to the front door.
30:56We went to inspect the new waterworks for the town council.
31:01I was asking to long to see that the timber work was arrecht.
31:04And Piddle was sent to report the speeches
31:07on fit a credit the waterworks arrecht in Dunkirk.
31:11And are they?
31:12Damned if I know.
31:14There was never any of us got there.
31:16The contractors had laid out a four-course dinner for us
31:20with wines and booze in plenty.
31:24Uh-huh.
31:25Who is it?
31:40What do you want?
31:43Ewan!
31:45So the city fathers lay there the whole afternoon soaking it up.
31:51And it was damn near seven o'clock
31:53before they could be gotten back into the coaches.
31:57What the hell's that?
32:00It sounds as if the ceiling was down.
32:09Shouldn't have hit him.
32:10That was quite unnecessary.
32:12I'm sorry.
32:13Ewan!
32:14What's happened?
32:15He came into Ellen's room.
32:16I heard her call out.
32:17Has he done you harm?
32:19Not him.
32:20He's just drunk.
32:21Drunk or not.
32:22He can pack his bags in the morning.
32:25Oh, no, really, Mrs. Cahoon.
32:26I'd rather you didn't say anything.
32:28Nothing happened.
32:29And, well, he got the worst of it.
32:33Sorry, Mother.
32:34All right.
32:35Get him back to his room.
32:37Right, Ewan.
32:38You dug his feet.
32:39Come on.
32:40Let's set this room straight.
32:43My God!
32:45That's the best tale I've heard since a gelding of my feathers chased his broodmare in Tla Ditch.
32:52Why didn't you let on to me about it?
32:55Oh, it wasn't worth waking you for.
32:57Mr. Piddle made a fool of himself, but there was no harm done.
33:00You won't apologise this morning, but he'll ask him what for.
33:04He'd no memory of it, aren't he?
33:06By God, I'll soon make him remember.
33:09Oh, no, no.
33:10You mustn't worry yourself.
33:11You just lie still till you're feeling better.
33:14I'll see to the house.
33:15Do you think of me lying flat on my back when there's all these fine stravagans about?
33:22Speak about New York?
33:24Darn to stay in it.
33:34October came in long swathes of rain, pelting the glinting streets of Duncairn.
33:39Going up and down the windmill steps, I would see the town far below under the rain's onset
33:45move and shake and shiver a minute, like an old grey collie shaking in its sleep.
33:53Up in the house it was canty and fine, the wind breinging unbreaked into room after room
33:59whenever you opened a shutter a bit.
34:03Shoo, Jock, shoo!
34:06It's not so close to the range these days.
34:09It's a wonder it isn't a good tanning look out.
34:13Ma, what are you doing out of your bed?
34:15You can't find you're not well.
34:17Oh, let me be, lassie.
34:20Nothing but laziness lying in my bed.
34:23I now have the kitchen press to read out today.
34:28Oh, Meg, give me a hand.
34:33It's back to bed for you, my woman.
34:37Don't meet you, lassie.
34:39And I look so feared about a small thing like this.
34:44And there's other old folk in their time been tamed by a bit of a pig, you know?
34:50Hi, Mrs. Claycorn.
34:54You've been overdoing things a bit.
34:56What you need is quietness and rest.
34:58And you've not to excite yourself about a thing.
35:00I'll be up with a cup of tea later.
35:08What's really wrong with her, doctor?
35:20I'm afraid she has a swollen heart.
35:22That sounds guy serious.
35:25Oh, it's serious enough.
35:26She'll have to look out.
35:27What did I better do then?
35:29Well, does she have any relatives near?
35:32She has a niece, but I don't know where she abides.
35:36Well, maybe you should try to find out, but do it quietly, without fearing the old wife.
35:40So I waited till she was sleeping again, and then took a bit look through her desk.
35:53I found no trace of the niece's address in the drawers, but I came upon a bundle of photos.
36:03A little pack tied up in tape, which came away in my hands.
36:13I stared at the thing for a puzzled minute.
36:16It was the photo of a little lad with Ma's eyes and nose and promise of her padding.
36:31No mistaking Ma's face in his.
36:35And inside the package, two other things.
36:39A hank of Bairn's hair.
36:42Brown, soft, dead and old, it had lost its shine.
36:46And a crumpled scrap of ancient crepe.
37:06Long, long ago it all had happened.
37:10Why had Ma never told me she'd a son?
37:12A little lad who'd died when he was no more than a little lad.
37:19He'd finished quick with a quick look round about,
37:23and gone from Duncairn,
37:25and gone from Ma.
37:26And he'd ceased with it all.
37:31A mistake.
37:32A journey he would not make.
37:36No rain to hear or grow to the knowledge of the dark, sad things of life at all.
37:42No growing to books and hearkening to dreams like Ewan.
37:45No growing to a strange young man from Ma and all she'd hoped.
37:52Only leaving her a searing memory a while.
37:55And then a quiet glow that lasted forever.
38:00Not leaving an unease that washed as a little tide through your heart.
38:06Dreaming on Ewan.
38:07Oh, I hated the splatter of the driving rain.
38:12This would be a splendid night for a bed.
38:37What now?
38:38Well, why not?
38:41The rain's going off and I'm sticky from that run.
38:45I'm going to.
38:46Shut the lawn.
38:47But you can't.
38:48You haven't a bathing dress or towels or anything.
38:52That's the beauty of it.
38:53Nothing at all.
38:55But if you caught cramp.
38:58Oh, all right.
39:00It might be fun.
39:02I'm coming in as well.
39:03Well,
39:03I'm coming in as well.
39:08There's plenty room for both of us, isn't there?
39:11I suppose so.
39:38Does a girl always take off her stockings last?
39:46Yes, I think so.
39:49I've never noticed.
39:53Hell, it's cold.
39:55It's not.
39:56Come on.
39:59Can you swim?
40:00Yes.
40:02Oh, this is mad.
40:03We'll never get back.
40:05Down together.
40:06I know the way.
40:06I know the way.
40:10Peace.
40:10Oh, my God.
40:40Ewan, look! Whoever he is, he's found our clothes.
41:01Then we'll just have to tackle him. Quietly now, and don't say a word.
41:06All right, I know you're there. There'll be a bonnet charge of public indicies, eh?
41:13Drop the clothes and run! What are you doing? Assaulting the police!
41:24Helen! Over here!
41:28All right, we're safe enough now. What if that Bobby's been hurt?
41:32It serves him right. He's hurt others to let him hurt.
41:36It's only that half-wit Sim Leslie.
41:39Oh, aye, I've heard of Siddley's. You have to be deaf and blind not to. They're the biggest armament firm in the country.
41:56When did the orders start coming in?
41:58It must have been weeks ago. They only just saw that this morning.
42:01But they've been stocking up with new tools and jigs and some damned queer frames for new castings.
42:07I wondered what they were for. Shell cases and gas cylinders.
42:11So? What do you plan doing about it?
42:14All the mass meeting and put a stop to it.
42:16God, you're an optimist. There's enough work here to keep Gowans going for a year.
42:21They'll be taking on more men.
42:22They won't. Not when work gets out about what they're making.
42:25Oh, is that so?
42:27Well, I wouldn't rely too much on human nature.
42:31I'll give you this advice. Start by forming an action committee. Folk need leadership. They need to be told what they think.
42:38To hell with committees. I'll put you to the workers' direct.
42:41Aye, that as well. But none of your young league folk, and nay quines. Just the lads from the machine shops and the foundry.
42:51If you can get them to come.
42:57Oh, No, no.
43:17Aye, Ewan. Things are fair, curling up then.
43:20I hear Gowans will be talking on mere men soon.
43:22So they say.
43:23Aye, well.
43:25It just shows you the papers were right enough about the crisis being our and the trade coming back.
43:29You think so?
43:30Well, you can see it for yourself, men.
43:32But what about the collapse of capitalism now?
43:35It doesn't look much like it, does it?
43:37Do you know what the orders are for?
43:38No, I didn't care.
43:40As long as they gave it work to the folk,
43:43better only can a joke than being in the dole.
43:46And better getting ready stuff to blow out another man's guts in his face
43:49than starving yourself with empty guts.
43:51Is that what you think?
43:52And your head's gone soft.
43:54Your head own.
43:55Far the hell do you think your callin' names?
43:57Clean out your ears and you'll hear quick enough.
43:59There's a meetin' on at the legroom tonight.
44:01Oi.
44:06Almost at once, the stream of ambulances with the unfortunate prisoners began to arrive.
44:12At first scores, then later hundreds of broken men.
44:17Gasping, screaming, choking.
44:20The hospital was packed with French soldiers,
44:23beating and fighting the air for breath.
44:26Dozens of men were dying like flies.
44:29Their clothes rent to ribbons in their agony.
44:32Their faces a horrible sickly green and contorted out of all human shape.
44:37Aye, all right.
44:38Why didn't they come here to be read stories to?
44:41Go on with it.
44:44That was an account of what happened in the last war after a gas attack.
44:49Now, you all know about the new orders coming into Gowan's.
44:52Do you know what they're for?
44:55The new machinery, the new parts you're making.
44:58Especially, have you noticed, the new cylinders?
45:00Well, I can tell you what they're for.
45:02I found out yesterday morning.
45:04You're making new ammunition for Sidderley's, the English arms firm.
45:09Bits of shells and gas cylinders.
45:12What the hell does it matter?
45:14If a man is such a poor swine that it doesn't matter to him that he's making things to blow people like himself to bits, then it doesn't matter.
45:23And if he's got any guts at all, he'll join the whole of Gowan's in a strike that will paralyse the works.
45:28What the hell do you know about being blonty bits?
45:31All right.
45:32I wasn't in the war.
45:33No one here was.
45:35But we've all read and heard about gas attacks.
45:38My stepfather was gassed.
45:42If you've got something to say, stand up and say it.
45:45Right, I will.
45:47I say to hell with you and your blathers.
45:50What are you trying to do?
45:52Play the bloody toff on us again.
45:54Look, it doesn't matter a damn to us what they're going to do with their wee rune tins.
45:58Just as long as the key folk work and keep them off the dole.
46:02All right.
46:04All right.
46:05We'll take a vote on it.
46:06All those in favour of a strike, please show.
46:15Four, two.
46:17Those against?
46:22All right.
46:23Motion defeated.
46:24Meeting's finished.
46:25All right.
46:26Motion defeated.
46:27Meeting's finished.
46:28Right then.
46:29We'll just have to form ourselves and a committee of action.
46:35Ma was taken ill again, and I sent for the doctor.
46:38I found her niece's address, but he said I shouldn't send for her.
46:41Not just yet.
46:42Just to keep Ma quiet.
46:43I went to bed dead tired, but I couldn't sleep.
46:44Getting up every hour or so to look into her room.
46:45I went to bed dead tired, but I couldn't sleep.
46:46Getting up every hour or so to look into her room.
46:51Then I went down to the kitchen and stared at the fading ash in the grate.
46:53I went to bed dead tired, but I couldn't sleep.
46:56Getting up every hour or so to look into her room.
47:02to keep Ma quiet.
47:05I went to bed dead tired, but I couldn't sleep,
47:09getting up every hour or so to look into her room.
47:15Then I went down to the kitchen
47:17and stared at the fading ash in the grate.
47:21What would I do?
47:24And I thought of the croft in the north wind's blow,
47:27all far away in the snowing years
47:29down the long how on Kinradi's heights.
47:33Oh, idiot to remember that.
47:38All things gone and lost and myself afraid.
47:42And a morning coming I was feared to face,
47:46lost and alone.
47:48I heard you moving about.
47:51How is she?
47:53In a bad way, Hig.
47:56It's plain she won't last long.
47:59Aye.
47:59I thought as much.
48:08What'll you do when she goes?
48:12God knows.
48:12I haven't enough money to carry on the house myself.
48:18Whoever she leaves her share to
48:20might want to come in with me.
48:23That daft like notion,
48:25she meant to hear it to you.
48:27It wasn't daft, Hig.
48:30She said something of the sort,
48:31but...
48:32never got round to doing it.
48:36So you might be leaving, then?
48:44Aye.
48:45Yeah, I might.
48:49I might seek out some
48:51little shop, I suppose.
48:55Somewhere where
48:56me and you and can bide.
48:59You won't be earning much money for years yet, so...
49:02I'll find somewhere we can bide.
49:10Oh, things all
49:15red up in time, you'll see it.
49:18It'll be all right.
49:22You aren't hungry or starved.
49:25You have friends.
49:28You've got you in.
49:32I have nothing at all.
49:37I have never had anything.
49:43Nothing in the world I'd believed in,
49:46but change.
49:48Unceasing
49:49and unstaying as time.
49:51Nothing endured.
49:54And that hour
49:55I stood as alone
49:56as I'd been when I quine
49:57in those wild, lost moments
49:59I'd climbed the heights
50:00of Blowery Bray.
50:10At it again, Tavendale.
50:12That's right.
50:14Mr. Grant.
50:51The New Year dance is next, just a word to you all before it comes on.
51:13You know who are the people who've got up this dance.
51:16They say we're some kind of reds.
51:18Well, let them say, we just believe that everyone should have a decent life and time for dancing
51:24and enjoying themselves and a decent house to go to at night and decent food and decent
51:30beds.
51:31And the only way to get those things is for the young workers of whatever party to join
51:36together, stop all the old squabbles and grab life's share with a thousand hands.
51:42And isn't it worth grabbing?
51:46That's all the speech.
51:54Ewan?
51:55Hmm?
51:56You look funny.
51:57Is there something wrong?
51:58Hello?
51:59No, nothing.
52:00You look lovely tonight.
52:01Can I have the next dance?
52:02You can have them all if you want.
52:03You can have them all if you want.
52:07All join hands.
52:08It's the new year.
52:36ç
52:58Be forgot for all lang syne
53:05For all lang syne, my dear
53:10For all lang syne
53:15We'll make a couple kind of shit
53:20For all lang syne
53:25Eh, me.
53:29And you think my auntie won't last the night?
53:32No, I don't think she will.
53:36Have you had the minister to see her?
53:39No, I haven't.
53:41She said she didn't want one.
53:44She said that if St. Peter needed a prayer for a passport,
53:49he'd be bilked of another border.
53:52But you don't believe that, do you now?
53:55Oh, more or less. I don't care.
53:59Oh, I don't think we'd get on very well.
54:02I believe in God. I've no time for heathen.
54:05No. That must be a comfort.
54:09Try another cake, Miss Urquhart.
54:19I suppose you know that I hear it all.
54:22The share in the house and the furniture.
54:24She told me.
54:26What do you intend?
54:28Oh, I'll be selling my share.
54:30I've no fancy for keeping lodgers myself.
54:33It's not decent work, I've always thought.
54:36Maybe you're right.
54:39And maybe you'd like to buy me out?
54:42I've no idea what I'll do.
54:48But I'm dead tired now.
54:51Will you watch by your aunt?
54:54Oh, I don't know a thing about nursing.
54:59You won't leave me alone with that, will you?
55:02I'm going up to my own room to rest a while.
55:05If there's any change, you can run up and tell me.
55:11Happy New Year.
55:12Happy New Year.
55:13What did you mean when you said I looked funny?
55:18You looked as though you were in a trance.
55:23I suppose I was in a way.
55:27When I looked at all the others cheering,
55:30it seemed to me that I'd never be myself again.
55:34That I'd never be anything but a part of them.
55:38That must have been a strange feeling.
55:42That wasn't the only strange feeling I had tonight.
55:45Happy New Year, mate.
55:46Happy New Year.
55:47Happy New Year.
55:52I feel she's crying out.
55:53And oh!
55:54You were sleeping!
55:55I thought I'd never wake you!
55:57Thank you!
56:17Then Ma had fought her last fight with the world she had jeered at and sworn at throughout her life.
56:23Gallant and vulgar, untamed to the end.
56:29And she stepped from the bed and out of the house and up the long stairs that went wandering to heaven like the steps of the windmill brain.
56:39No day for her. Just the dark. No snow. Sun never again, or shadow or cold.
56:53There was nothing awaiting me but my life. New Year and life that would gang as it would, greeting or laughing, unheeding my fears.
57:05And I went up the steps to life and death.
57:11Grey Granite continues next here on BBC4.
57:23Or watch the whole of a Scot Square trilogy at any time on BBC iPlayer.
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