- 6 months ago
First broadcast 13th/20th May 1987.
While Peter is on a governmental mission, Harriet attends a reunion at Oxford and is recruited to find the author of a rash of vicious poison pen letters there.
Harriet Walter - Harriet Vane
Edward Petherbridge - Lord Peter Wimsey
Richard Morant - Bunter
Sheila Burrell - Dr. Baring
Carol MacReady - Miss Martin
Dilys Hamlett - Miss Devine
Caroline John - Miss Burrows
Merelina Kendall - Miss Lydgate
Charmian May - Miss Hillyard
Auriol Smith - Miss Barton
Charlotte West-Oram - Miss Pyke
Nina Edwards - Miss Chilperic
Desmond McNamara - Padgett
Eileen Bell - Carrie Sadler
Lavinia Bertram - Annie Wilson
Jacqueline Morgan - Emily
Mary Keegan - Betty Armstrong
Penelope Beaumont - Dorothy Collins
Clare Byam-Shaw - Shrewsbury Graduate (as Clare Byam Shaw)
Rosemary Smith - Shrewsbury Graduate
Clare Clifford - Shrewsbury Graduate
Rebecca Burrill - Shrewsbury Graduate
Susan Bovell - Shrewsbury Graduate
Lucy Durham-Matthews - Miss Haydock
Rebecca Hancock - Miss Millbank
Abigail Bond - Miss Fowler
Hilary Tones - Miss Layton
Jane Snowden - Miss Cattermole
Karen Ascoe - Miss Flaxman
Alan Brown - University Chancellor
Elizabeth McKewen - Dame Agatha Browning
Louis Sheldon - Border Policeman
While Peter is on a governmental mission, Harriet attends a reunion at Oxford and is recruited to find the author of a rash of vicious poison pen letters there.
Harriet Walter - Harriet Vane
Edward Petherbridge - Lord Peter Wimsey
Richard Morant - Bunter
Sheila Burrell - Dr. Baring
Carol MacReady - Miss Martin
Dilys Hamlett - Miss Devine
Caroline John - Miss Burrows
Merelina Kendall - Miss Lydgate
Charmian May - Miss Hillyard
Auriol Smith - Miss Barton
Charlotte West-Oram - Miss Pyke
Nina Edwards - Miss Chilperic
Desmond McNamara - Padgett
Eileen Bell - Carrie Sadler
Lavinia Bertram - Annie Wilson
Jacqueline Morgan - Emily
Mary Keegan - Betty Armstrong
Penelope Beaumont - Dorothy Collins
Clare Byam-Shaw - Shrewsbury Graduate (as Clare Byam Shaw)
Rosemary Smith - Shrewsbury Graduate
Clare Clifford - Shrewsbury Graduate
Rebecca Burrill - Shrewsbury Graduate
Susan Bovell - Shrewsbury Graduate
Lucy Durham-Matthews - Miss Haydock
Rebecca Hancock - Miss Millbank
Abigail Bond - Miss Fowler
Hilary Tones - Miss Layton
Jane Snowden - Miss Cattermole
Karen Ascoe - Miss Flaxman
Alan Brown - University Chancellor
Elizabeth McKewen - Dame Agatha Browning
Louis Sheldon - Border Policeman
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00:00A man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
00:00:27A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower, and he fleeth as it were a shadow.
00:00:57A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties.
00:01:09A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties.
00:01:21A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties.
00:01:33A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties.
00:01:51A man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties, he shall end in certainties.
00:02:07Did you make the booking?
00:02:09They're expecting you, Malou.
00:02:13Is there a difference in the distinction?
00:02:15Maurice Fishbarra does not take bookings, Malou.
00:02:19No need to look so sniffy, Bunter.
00:02:21The ambiance is more than made up for by the excellence of its ray of birth.
00:02:25Let us hope the lady also esteems the skate above the surroundings.
00:02:29Must we have this again, Bunter?
00:02:32I suppose your lordship particularly partial to the piece.
00:02:36Yes, but three times in a row.
00:02:44Try the sherry, my lord.
00:02:46Don't humor me, Bunter.
00:02:52This bowtie is a mess.
00:02:54Yes, too perfect. It's quite like a made up affair.
00:03:02Bunter, what does a har mean?
00:03:04I have remarked that on the rare occasions when our sang foire does slip, we have a rendezvous with Miss Vane.
00:03:12Bunter, you have a wonderful gift for impudence.
00:03:16Thank you, my lord.
00:03:22Bunter.
00:03:24How's that?
00:03:26Perfect.
00:03:27That is to say, slightly flawed.
00:03:30The sign of a true gentleman.
00:03:32How are the skate wings?
00:03:44Delicious.
00:03:45Don't the capers absolutely make it?
00:03:48Absolutely.
00:03:49How do you suppose it is that capers, liquefine butter, and skate wings come together in such a magical combination?
00:03:56Talking of magical combinations, how about complete in the evening and condescending to be my wife?
00:04:02That would be a caper of quite a different sort.
00:04:06We that are true lovers run into strange capers, as you like it, act two, scene four.
00:04:14What if one doesn't like it?
00:04:16Ah, fine.
00:04:18I take it that since I've been away nothing has changed and you have no new answer to give me.
00:04:28No, Peter, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't say anything else.
00:04:32It's all right.
00:04:34Don't worry.
00:04:35I shall try not to be a nuisance.
00:04:39But if you could see your way to put an up with me occasionally, as you're doing tonight, I'd be grateful.
00:04:45I don't think that would be very fair to you.
00:04:48That's the only reason I'm the best judge of that.
00:04:51I will, however, continue to propose to you at decently regulated intervals, as a birthday treat, on Guy Fawkes night.
00:04:58Peter, this is foolish.
00:04:59And, of course, on The Feast of All Fools, but regard it as a pure humanity.
00:05:03It would be better that you forgot the whole thing. I thought you had learned it.
00:05:07I have the most ill-regulated memory.
00:05:12When do you go to Oxford?
00:05:15The 14th, I think.
00:05:20I'm not sure I shall go, though.
00:05:22Oh, may I?
00:05:25The Warden of Fellows of Shrewsbury College, Oxford, regressed the pleasure of the company of Miss Harriet Bain at the College Gordy.
00:05:32Why deny them their pleasure?
00:05:34Besides, won't it be fun to see what's happened to your old chums? I often find it hilarious.
00:05:40Not so hilarious to have to face their morbid curiosity about my recent past.
00:05:45It's always there, isn't it?
00:05:49It isn't easy to forget being on trial for murder.
00:05:55Being found innocent doesn't usually make one persona non grata in a place so civilized as Oxford.
00:06:00No, but in a less civilized world, I'm still the subject of newspaper articles and vile letters that slander every area of my life.
00:06:10Particularly this one.
00:06:11I could hardly have hoped that it would be otherwise.
00:06:19But you said nothing, so I allowed myself to be selfish.
00:06:24You know, you'd have been perfectly justified in telling me I was making life more difficult for you by hanging around.
00:06:29Would I?
00:06:30Did you expect me to point out that you'd saved me from the galley and thank you very much, but left me in the pillory?
00:06:39I shall admit defeat then and say goodbye, shall I?
00:06:42Shall I?
00:06:47I'm not being very consistent, I'm afraid, Peter.
00:06:51I came here tonight with a firm intention of telling you to chuck it.
00:06:55But I'm damned if I'll have you wiped out by anonymous letter writers.
00:06:59You have got guts, Harriet.
00:07:02Give me your hand and you'll fight the love until we drop.
00:07:05Courage, mon bras.
00:07:07Go to your gaudy.
00:07:09From the Latin for joy.
00:07:10A respectable derivation.
00:07:12So, once a year, you jump for joy.
00:07:14At an Oxford Ladies' College.
00:07:33There are two finds still under there.
00:07:35Oh, thank you, Bursa.
00:07:37Yes, I think now I really must contact the parents.
00:07:39There's another matter outstanding and I really don't think I can overlook this matter any longer.
00:07:44Yes, of course.
00:07:46But please, should you receive payment within a couple of days, I'd be most obliged if you'd let me know.
00:07:52Thank you so much.
00:07:53Goodbye.
00:07:54That'll be all then, Miss Martin.
00:07:55Yes, thank you, Carrie.
00:07:56Oh, no.
00:07:57Um, I wonder, would you mind taking this accommodation list for the gaudy over to Padgett in the lodge?
00:07:59Of course, ma'am.
00:08:00Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:01Thank you very much.
00:08:04Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:05Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:06Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:07Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:08Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:09Oh, no.
00:08:10Thank you, ma'am.
00:08:11Oh!
00:08:12Oh!
00:08:13Oh!
00:08:14Oh!
00:08:15Oh!
00:08:17Oh!
00:08:18Oh!
00:08:19Oh!
00:08:20Oh!
00:08:21Oh!
00:08:23Oh!
00:08:24Oh!
00:08:25Oh, yes!
00:08:27Oh, yes, ma'am.
00:08:30Oh!
00:08:31and this was with it the blood is on your hands too guilty this is ridiculous I mean to what could
00:08:55it possibly refer of what are you supposed to be guilty of course it's ridiculous or at least
00:09:00it would be if it weren't quite so revolting it certainly cannot be regarded as a joke oh what
00:09:05is happening to the college there's Miss Hilliard Miss Lydgate Miss Chilperic Amy Burrows they've
00:09:09all had these things well this sort of thing the police must be called I'm sorry but no I haven't
00:09:17defended the good name of women's education for 20 years to throw away the reputation of my own
00:09:22college by panicking now oh I'm not panicking warden I'm not it's just that all right then we must set
00:09:28up a committee to deal with this amongst ourselves amongst ourselves but how Dean we are all of us
00:09:33under suspicion we well of course who has access certainly all the fellows at the college have
00:09:39never mind who else the Gordy is on Saturday the Gordy what is that to do with it well a member of
00:09:49the college it was up some years ago I notice in your guest list yes accustomed to dealing in mysteries
00:09:56as I understand mysteries mysteries oh Harriet Vane you mean yes I remember her well she's an
00:10:08interesting girl with a very good mind but I don't stand upon whose tact we might depend
00:10:13and he thinks sometime or other a benefactor should be found to build a monastical college
00:10:30for old decayed deformed or discontented maids to live together in that have lost their first love
00:10:39or otherwise miscarried
00:10:42Harriet Vane you don't approve certainly not apart from her private life about which I prefer to say
00:10:52nothing but she writes trashy novels well I must say I haven't read enough of her work to form a sound
00:10:58opinion I'm glad Miss Burrows you feel morally secure enough to make an implied judgment I don't care if
00:11:04the vain woman was living with the Sultan of Baghdad if that's what you mean I do the name of the college
00:11:09is something that concerns me what concerns me is her qualifications for the job if any which of her
00:11:15books have you read Miss Burrows I don't read trash a very scholarly approach I must say you condemn her
00:11:23books without having read them and her morals without knowing anything about oh good heavens
00:11:27Miss Lydgate by her own admission she behaved in a thoroughly disreputable fashion ladies ladies
00:11:31ladies Miss Vane has already been tried in public for a crime she didn't commit we're surely not going to
00:11:39conduct another trial in private are we all right I just put my protest on record and it is
00:11:45noted Miss Burrows thank you warden I do not understand why we are so nervous of this letter
00:11:50writer well you know it's not just letters it's all those other things they're obscene they are
00:11:56disgusting I do agree I myself feel utterly soiled yes well thank you Miss Jo Paddock my concern is this
00:12:03Miss Hilliard suppose the long-term aim of this letter writer were to bring the college into disrepute
00:12:12now I did hardly remind you that we were amongst the first generations of women to receive a
00:12:18university education and that there is still enmity towards our aspirations well you all know the sort of
00:12:24thing that is leveled at us suppressed impulses soured virginity unwholesome atmosphere I went to
00:12:32leverage now as you know Showsbury College will be very much in the public eye during the coming
00:12:39turn and it is perfectly possible that we could be heading for a profoundly injurious scandal that Miss
00:12:46Hilliard is why I am nervous well then surely we should call in the police it could be someone within
00:12:52this college yes I fear we have to assume a degree of inside knowledge one of us what an appalling thought
00:13:01could perhaps be one of the staff one of the scouts maybe the long vacations already started at least the
00:13:07undergraduates are ruled out except some of the new third years working in the library oh dear it's
00:13:12all so upsetting I mean who could do these things say these things surely they must be mentally sick
00:13:17well that's as maybe but something has got to be done the atmosphere of the whole college has been
00:13:23poisoned now I am reluctant to call in the police for the reasons I have given now does anyone else want to
00:13:30make any more points mr. Vine do I have approval in principle then to approach Miss Vane from women's eyes this
00:13:48doctrine I derive they sparkle still the right Promethean fire they are the books the arts the academes
00:13:56that show contain and nourish all the world
00:14:00now Miss Armstrong you're in Newquod
00:14:14oh what a shame I did so hope it would be my own rooms
00:14:17some of the undergraduates are still in residence I'm afraid do research in the batch you see well can't you chuck them out
00:14:23Newquod rules are much nicer I know when I'm being smarled
00:14:30Betty Armstrong Dorothy let me see you you looking fine
00:14:37I missed you last time oh poor Mackieville was desperately ill
00:14:42no oh one of your dogs my champion Corgi thought we'd lost him couldn't leave him and you how's the bookshop
00:14:48oh same as ever going to the dogs
00:15:07hello Pudgett
00:15:11miss vine and I had a bet with myself you wouldn't remember well you've lost miss then
00:15:16haven't you I have Pudgett I have and this is your first school this since you went down
00:15:21am I right miss you're right hmm I know I am and I've read your books too
00:15:26old quad miss vine haven't you got any luggage it's in the car
00:15:30I'll give you out no there's no need
00:15:32very good miss oh I nearly forgot miss vine the warden has asked to see you as soon as
00:15:39you'd arrived the warden yes Dr Baring miss oh she can't gate you now miss can she
00:15:49I liked your latest book extremely I think it overtakes sands of crime as
00:15:56my personal favorite very kind warden sugar no thank you
00:16:03matter of fact I rather like it myself to tell you the truth
00:16:06had you um had you ever thought to be an academic you went down with the first as I recall
00:16:13it has always had its attractions I must confess but I think I lack the necessary intellectual rigour
00:16:20dean oh thank you I think you flatter us miss vane
00:16:26I sometimes wonder if it is not more the wish to escape from the real world than the
00:16:31um imperative of intellectual inquiry which guides our steps don't you sometimes feel that dean oh
00:16:38well the cloister certainly has its charm in an unquiet age absolutely you you haven't been to one of our
00:16:46gaudies I think since you went down no is it your absence or your presence which is the more significant
00:16:54well to use your own words warden the real world is a very demanding place and for a woman to make
00:17:03her way in it as a writer she has to dwell amongst it very diplomatically said but that covers only your
00:17:09absence well let's just say the world is too much with us getting and spending we lay waste our powers
00:17:19as little we see in nature that is ours we have given our hearts away a sordid boon
00:17:28for this for everything we are out of tune
00:17:34does that answer your question
00:17:37rather underrated these days wordsworth
00:17:40naturally we um we follow the doings of our own graduates with proprietorial interest
00:17:50the senior common room are particularly keen admirers of your books
00:17:55would it would it be an impertinence to inquire if you use real life as inspiration for your mysteries
00:18:03not in terms of plots no but in terms of character yes i try to deduce behavior from my observations
00:18:10yes i think that's what makes them so real i don't ask in idle curiosity miss vane the fact is that we
00:18:15the college has a particular problem and you with your particular insights and skills could very well help us
00:18:22well what what is this problem well we have a prankster of a disgusting turn of mind who also
00:18:35writes anonymous notes of a prurient nature in short a poison pen oh is that anything you should take
00:18:43terribly seriously i mean wouldn't it be better to ignore it oh one can't i'm afraid these are not just
00:18:49jokes in bad taste the things that are written and drawn are sometimes wicked and obscene and they
00:18:54are creating the most terrible atmosphere in the college i do not wish to call in the police no i
00:18:59quite understand that but warden i don't see how i can help you know there must be plenty of women in
00:19:06this college better equipped than i who know the place who know the people assuredly but whom amongst
00:19:11them shall i ask no senior member of the common room is free from suspicion surely the dean here no
00:19:18not even miss martin you see we have discussed this these things have happened at a time when no one
00:19:25can clearly establish a corroborated alibi well then i think you should get professional help
00:19:33who's there
00:19:48it proves nothing quite right it proves nothing only that there is a loose floorboard and someone
00:19:57trouble it but the place is increasingly on edge there is a a rising note of emotional strain and i'm
00:20:03very concerned where it might lead will you help
00:20:16so
00:20:34so
00:21:10Come in.
00:21:27The Dean's compliments, Miss, and will you join her for Sherry in the Senior Common Room at a quarter to seven?
00:21:33I shall be delighted. Thank you, Miss.
00:21:35You're Annie Wilson, aren't you? You were on the kitchen staff.
00:21:38I was, Miss, yes. But now I wait at hall and see in your common room.
00:21:42It's nice to see you again, Annie. How are your children?
00:21:44They're very well, thank you. Do you know I'd have thought you'd have forgotten me?
00:21:49Oh, no. You used to leave the battery door unlocked.
00:21:52Ah, well, young ladies do tend to have good appetites, don't they?
00:21:55They do, yes.
00:21:56I'll tell the Dean then, Miss.
00:21:58Yes, then, do. Thank you. Fifteen minutes.
00:22:00Constance Purbright.
00:22:15Hasn't she up in 2425?
00:22:17She's not coming.
00:22:18Oh, she's not on my list.
00:22:19I wondered, had you read her Carlisle?
00:22:21Oh.
00:22:22Carlisle and the Protestant Work.
00:22:25Popularist, scholarship, little research, and precious little critical judgment.
00:22:29Slipshot, showy, and catch-benny.
00:22:31Oh, I'm really ashamed of her.
00:22:33Oh, she's one of yours, was she?
00:22:35Yes, a lice.
00:22:36But I do believe, poor dear, she's very hard.
00:22:38Oh.
00:22:39Oh, excuse me.
00:22:47My dear, do come and meet people.
00:22:50Now, let me see.
00:22:51Well, I need hardly introduce you to your old tutor, though a former tutor would perhaps be more felicitous.
00:22:58Oh, no, old warden. Definitely old.
00:23:01Miss Veyne, how very nice to see you again.
00:23:03And you, Miss Edgate.
00:23:04You remember the Dean, of course.
00:23:06Yes, we met her.
00:23:06And Mr. Veyne, I don't think you do know.
00:23:09How do you do, Miss Devine?
00:23:10Miss Veyne, may I say your books have given me hours of pleasure.
00:23:13Thank you very much.
00:23:14Cherie, ma'am.
00:23:16Miss Devine is the new Barraclough fellow.
00:23:18Yes, I remember reading the announcement.
00:23:20Wasn't the election last Christmas?
00:23:22Ah, then you do follow our affairs from the vantage of the real world.
00:23:27The Shrewsbury yearbook is read even there.
00:23:31What is your research subject?
00:23:32National finance under the Tudors.
00:23:34We are very honoured to have her.
00:23:36We stole her away from Flamborough.
00:23:38We didn't have to try very hard.
00:23:40I was provost there for three years and the prospect of a change from administration was
00:23:43too intoxicating to miss.
00:23:45Miss Hilliard, Miss Burrows.
00:23:47How do you do?
00:23:47How do you do?
00:23:48How do you do?
00:23:49Welcome back to Shrewsbury.
00:23:50Thank you, Miss Hilliard.
00:23:51From what I read in the newspapers, you have encountered fame and fortune since leaving us.
00:23:57The latter being preferable to the former.
00:24:00Unfortunately, the two often go together, I observe.
00:24:03And did I not also read that you were involved in a real murder case?
00:24:09The Wilvercombe murder, yes.
00:24:13A sad business.
00:24:14A widow's chance of happiness destroyed by her own son for the sake of her money.
00:24:18Did it give you satisfaction that you were instrumental in sending a man to the gallows?
00:24:23Miss Barton.
00:24:24How do you do?
00:24:25How do you do?
00:24:26I think that's a little unfair, Miss Barton.
00:24:28I found the body.
00:24:29I didn't solve the case.
00:24:31Somebody else did that.
00:24:32I see.
00:24:33Forgive me for saying this, Miss Vane, but after your own terrible experience, it interests
00:24:38me that you care to write the kind of books you do at all.
00:24:42Maybe you're thinking that anyone with proper sensitive feeling would rather scrub floors for
00:24:45a living.
00:24:47Well, I should scrub floors very badly and I write detective stories rather well.
00:24:50So I don't see that proper feeling stops me doing my proper job.
00:24:53Quite right.
00:24:56Well, everyone, I think dinner awaits.
00:25:20Gosh, I've forgotten what this crowd was like.
00:25:27I shall be forced as a crow tomorrow.
00:25:30Anyway, apologies for bellowing.
00:25:33Not at all.
00:25:35Why did God give women such shrill voices?
00:25:38Reminds me of a horde of starlings.
00:25:41Hmm.
00:25:43The food's rather good, though, don't you think?
00:25:45Ah, always make a special effort for the gawdy.
00:25:48My dear, she's gone absolutely potty on some new religion.
00:25:52Even wrote a book.
00:25:54The Higher Wisdom, full of beautiful thoughts, full of bad syntax.
00:25:58Sounds dumb.
00:26:00I can't think why fancy religion should have such a debilitating effect on one's brain.
00:26:04It's a kind of intellectual rock that's sexy in, I imagine.
00:26:08What with trauma's mental healing, Henderson going nudist, ghastly thought.
00:26:13Fact.
00:26:14There she is at the next table.
00:26:16That's why she's so brown.
00:26:20And her frob, so badly cut.
00:26:24If you can't be naked, be as ill-dressed as possible, I suppose.
00:26:28I sometimes wonder whether a little, normal, hearty wickedness wouldn't be good for a great many of us.
00:26:33True.
00:26:34I'm afraid I've been very, very tactless.
00:26:38My mother always said to me, Sadie, you're the most tactless girl I've ever had the bad luck to meet.
00:26:44But I'm enthusiastic.
00:26:45I can't carry it away.
00:26:47I don't stop the thing.
00:26:49I don't consider my own feelings.
00:26:50I don't consider other people's feelings.
00:26:52I just moved it for once, too, Sadie.
00:26:55Rumour has it that Miss Vane has agreed to investigate our poison pen.
00:26:59What do you think about that?
00:27:05First thing I've heard about it.
00:27:08Come on, Harriet.
00:27:09Harriet, you've got to tell us.
00:27:11Tell you what?
00:27:12You know.
00:27:14No, I don't.
00:27:15It's just vulgar provincial curiosity to me, though.
00:27:18Shut up.
00:27:19What's he like, for goodness sake?
00:27:21Who?
00:27:23Lord Peter Winsley.
00:27:25Well, he's...
00:27:27I don't know.
00:27:31Intelligent, naturally.
00:27:32Why naturally?
00:27:33Well, he did get a first-class honours from Baileyville, so he can't be entirely stupid, can't he?
00:27:38It's not much to look at, I suppose.
00:27:40He got a DSO during the war.
00:27:43He's musically knowledgeable, reasonably kindly.
00:27:45Otherwise, he's entirely intolerable.
00:27:47Who's dog breathing?
00:27:48Booming!
00:27:49It's all a question of genetic selection.
00:28:00Fellows, members of the college,
00:28:03as no mere annual ritual,
00:28:05but in genuine gratitude and respect,
00:28:10I give you
00:28:11the founder.
00:28:16The founder!
00:28:23The loyal toast.
00:28:25The king!
00:28:26The king!
00:28:26What are you staring at?
00:28:39The scouts.
00:28:41What they must think of us all,
00:28:43God only knows.
00:28:44On behalf of all the fellows,
00:28:47and myself,
00:28:49I bid you welcome.
00:28:50I sometimes feel,
00:28:54as must the parson in his pulpit,
00:28:58approaching dismay
00:28:59at the annual obligation
00:29:01to produce words of comfort
00:29:02and joy.
00:29:03Let me today speak of Oxford,
00:29:09which has been called
00:29:10the home of lost causes.
00:29:13If the love of learning
00:29:14for its own sake
00:29:15is a lost cause
00:29:16everywhere else in the world,
00:29:18let us see to it
00:29:20that here,
00:29:21at least,
00:29:22it finds its abiding home.
00:29:24The last to leave.
00:29:35Disgraceful.
00:29:36A bit like throwing out time
00:29:38at the pub.
00:29:39I must say,
00:29:39I rather enjoyed our conversation.
00:29:45Might almost be term time.
00:29:47Yes.
00:29:48If you were to listen
00:29:49at those windows,
00:29:50you'd find it was the middle age
00:29:51you were making all the noise.
00:29:52The old ones have gone to bed.
00:29:54The women of 40
00:29:55are pretending to be undergraduates again
00:29:57and finding it rather an effort.
00:30:00Miss Vane,
00:30:01I admired you for speaking
00:30:03as you did earlier this evening.
00:30:05Detachment is a rare virtue
00:30:07and very few people
00:30:09find it lovable.
00:30:11If you ever find a person
00:30:12who likes you in spite of it
00:30:14or still more because of it,
00:30:17that liking has very great value
00:30:19because it is particularly sincere
00:30:22and because with that person,
00:30:24you need never be anything
00:30:25that's sincere yourself.
00:30:28That's probably very true,
00:30:29but what makes you say it?
00:30:32It's only that I imagine
00:30:33you've come across
00:30:34a number of people
00:30:35who are disconcerted
00:30:37by the difference
00:30:37between what you do feel
00:30:39and what they fancy
00:30:40you ought to feel.
00:30:41It is fatal
00:30:42to pay the slightest attention to them.
00:30:44Yes,
00:30:45but I am one of those people.
00:30:46I disconcert myself very much.
00:30:48I never know what I do feel.
00:30:50I don't think that matters,
00:30:52provided one doesn't try
00:30:53to persuade oneself
00:30:54into appropriate feelings.
00:30:56Yes,
00:30:56but you have to make
00:30:57some sort of a choice.
00:30:59And between one desire
00:31:00and another,
00:31:01how is one to know
00:31:01what things really are
00:31:03of over-mastering importance?
00:31:05We can only know
00:31:06when they have over-mastered us.
00:31:08Good night.
00:31:11Good night.
00:31:11Good night.
00:31:16Good night.
00:31:46Good night.
00:32:16Good night.
00:32:46ORGAN PLAYS
00:33:16ORGAN PLAYS
00:33:46ORGAN PLAYS
00:34:16ORGAN PLAYS
00:34:46ORGAN PLAYS
00:35:46Have a cake.
00:35:57No, thank you.
00:35:58I'd love some more tea, though.
00:36:01Need some more water.
00:36:05You know why I'm so happy.
00:36:08Are you?
00:36:10Good.
00:36:12You know why?
00:36:13No.
00:36:13Do you realize, Harriet?
00:36:18I may, if you continue.
00:36:22Well, is it so difficult?
00:36:27Yes.
00:36:28You can't just start to say that.
00:36:30Do you realize?
00:36:31You said that.
00:36:31Today, you have the impulse to telephone, which can only mean that you felt relaxed and carefree
00:36:40and ready for the wit and epigram that only I can provide.
00:36:44Tell me I'm right.
00:36:45I presume too much, haven't I?
00:36:54Only half presumed.
00:36:55It, uh, it would be nice if you could assemble occasionally.
00:37:06You're making me feel awful now.
00:37:08At least I've stirred you to some emotion.
00:37:10That's not fair.
00:37:11I'm paying you the compliment of having...
00:37:13Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:37:15My beastly spasm is over.
00:37:16Honest.
00:37:23Tell me.
00:37:24What's the matter?
00:37:27I'm not sure I should.
00:37:29Tell me your tango.
00:37:31You know I can't tango.
00:37:33Then you've no choice, have you?
00:37:34This is in the strictest confidence.
00:37:42Of course.
00:37:43The Gordy.
00:37:44I didn't tell you what happened.
00:37:47There have been some nasty goings-on.
00:37:50Have there?
00:37:51Anonymous letters, obscene drawings, that kind of nonsense.
00:37:55Directed against you?
00:37:56Only partly.
00:37:57It's been going on for some months, apparently.
00:37:59And then this morning, when I woke up, I found this on my bed.
00:38:12God, what a fuck.
00:38:14The warden thinks that because I write mystery novels, I can somehow pinpoint the culprit.
00:38:19But I feel dreadfully ill-equipped.
00:38:21After all, I'm no criminologist.
00:38:23So, you may in time have to come to your wise old uncle.
00:38:27Yes, with great reluctance, I may.
00:38:29Yes, with great reluctance, I can't believe it.
00:38:32Happenings like this at a ladies' college, it's hardly surprising, is it?
00:38:36Ladies' college?
00:38:37What do you mean?
00:38:39Academic ladies, cloistered together.
00:38:42Celibate.
00:38:43Some sexually ambivalent.
00:38:45Bound to throw up the odd hysteric.
00:38:47Peter, I don't believe what I'm hearing.
00:38:50Harriet.
00:38:50No.
00:38:52This male, this mighty male attitude.
00:38:54I knew I shouldn't have told you.
00:38:55Harriet, I express no male bias.
00:38:57You must know me better than that.
00:38:59I'd say the same about, um, public schools, monasteries, any close society.
00:39:04I'm sorry.
00:39:05Maybe I'm oversensitive on this object.
00:39:08Of course, sir.
00:39:09If it comes to it, I'll help.
00:39:11Though, uh, I do have to go away.
00:39:13Away?
00:39:13No, no.
00:39:15Day after tomorrow, um, Paris, Rome, it's, uh, it's rather important.
00:39:20Is this the foreign office?
00:39:21Hmm.
00:39:23Of course, if you need me, you can always get me through the embassies.
00:39:26Now, teach me to tanker.
00:39:41Now, teach me to tanker.
00:39:41Now, let's see.
00:40:11I don't know.
00:40:41I don't know.
00:41:11I don't know.
00:41:41I don't know.
00:41:51Who's that?
00:41:56Who's there?
00:41:57I do hope I don't disturb you, Miss Vane.
00:42:21But things have taken a turn for the worse here, I'm afraid.
00:42:28Could you?
00:42:30I can't tell you how grateful we would all be.
00:42:32Midday, then.
00:42:39Goodbye.
00:42:42She's motoring down.
00:42:44Oh, I do hope we're wiser.
00:42:46It's either Harriet Vane or the police.
00:42:48If this gets out, the place will be thick with reporters.
00:42:51Do we really want that?
00:42:52Excuse me, my lord.
00:43:03Will you be requiring the correspondent shoes in Paris?
00:43:06My lord?
00:43:06You have a cough, Bunter.
00:43:13I don't think so, my lord.
00:43:14I distinctly heard it.
00:43:16Cab drivers linked us just the thing for it.
00:43:18I shall bear it in mind, my lord, should I ever get one.
00:43:20See it off in no time.
00:43:22The shoes, my lord.
00:43:24Will you be requiring them?
00:43:29Bunter, I know that when sorting out imbroglios abroad for the Foreign Office,
00:43:33I'm required to adopt the role of professional funny man.
00:43:36But high comedy is the required style.
00:43:39Funny footwear in this context would be appropriate,
00:43:42only for the end of the pier.
00:43:44Might we not be weekending with the First Secretary in Montau, my lord?
00:43:48Does Montau have a pier?
00:43:49Be that as it may,
00:43:52I think given the grim nature of this particular assignment,
00:43:55it is highly unlikely that we'll be weekending at all.
00:44:00However,
00:44:01let's be optimistic and reserve them for the Oxford High.
00:44:05So we are going to Oxford as well, my lord?
00:44:07The thought occurs.
00:44:09Given a fair wind and a following sea.
00:44:12Very good, my lord.
00:44:13I shall remember to pack the seasick pills.
00:44:17Bunter.
00:44:17That is bordering.
00:44:20Bordering.
00:44:21Academic ladies,
00:44:45cloistered together,
00:44:46celibate.
00:44:50Some sexually ambivalent.
00:44:52Bound to throw up the odd hysteric.
00:44:55It's enormously disturbing.
00:44:57Well, at first one might have dismissed such things as too trivial to be much concerned about,
00:45:02but, well, they become more audacious every time.
00:45:05Last night someone could have been killed.
00:45:06But you still haven't called in the police?
00:45:09No.
00:45:09Padgett extinguished the flames,
00:45:11but of course the whole college knows about it.
00:45:13Couldn't fail to.
00:45:14I don't know how much longer we can contain the matter.
00:45:17Or indeed should,
00:45:18if matters continue to get any worse.
00:45:20Now the dean has a point.
00:45:21If we don't take action now ourselves,
00:45:23soon it'll be out of our control.
00:45:25You are asking a lot of me, warden.
00:45:28I write detective stories.
00:45:29That doesn't make me a criminologist.
00:45:31But you were at this college.
00:45:33You know some of the tutors and some of the domestic staff.
00:45:36You're intelligent and observant and,
00:45:38well, you are a woman.
00:45:41You think it's a woman?
00:45:43Well, the circumstances seem rather to exclude men from the inquiry.
00:45:47I mean men running about the college at night.
00:45:49Is it likely?
00:45:50I can't agree with you there, warden.
00:45:52Now just look at the state of that book.
00:45:54It is sacrilegious to do that.
00:45:55Yes, I see your point, Dean.
00:45:57It is a distinguished polemic
00:45:59against the accepted view of women in a male-dominated society.
00:46:02And all the other things that have happened.
00:46:04And they all point to masculine spite against the educated woman.
00:46:08Yes, but even so, the difficulty remains.
00:46:11A man here, conspicuous.
00:46:14He could always disguise himself as a woman.
00:46:17Yes.
00:46:18And he could easily hide in the grounds
00:46:19before the main gate was locked at night
00:46:21and get away again in the morning.
00:46:23It has to be a possibility.
00:46:24That it doesn't quite have the male touch.
00:46:28What do you mean by that?
00:46:30Well, there is a quality of what one might consider
00:46:32feminine insight to these happenings.
00:46:36The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
00:46:39Mm.
00:46:40Kipling had it nicely.
00:46:42Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons.
00:46:46Even though he was referring to a female cobra.
00:46:49Or do we disparage her own sex, Dean?
00:46:51Oh.
00:46:52It's a fair poetic comment, I suppose.
00:46:54But what woman would want to destroy a book like that?
00:46:57Ah, and happily, all we have is questions.
00:47:00It occurs to me that if I were to be of any use to you
00:47:08as an investigator, I should need some plausible excuse
00:47:10for spending time here.
00:47:12Yes, of course.
00:47:14Oh, what about Miss Lydgate and her book?
00:47:17A very plausible excuse.
00:47:18She's always in need of editorial assistance.
00:47:20She's writing a book on the metaphysical poets.
00:47:24That's a possibility.
00:47:28Well, thank goodness it's the long vac,
00:47:29so there isn't much going on.
00:47:31Um, well...
00:47:33Yes, I'm afraid there will be.
00:47:35We have an event fast approaching.
00:47:38My illustrious predecessor's portrait
00:47:39is being unveiled in the library
00:47:41by the Chancellor, no less.
00:47:45I see.
00:47:51Well,
00:47:52maybe I'd better start asking questions.
00:47:55By the way,
00:48:09I'll begin with certain things.
00:48:22he shall end in doubts
00:48:24but if he will be content
00:48:26to begin with doubts
00:48:28he shall end in certainties
00:48:30the man that is born of a woman
00:48:33hath but a short time to live
00:48:35and is full of misery
00:48:36he cometh up
00:48:38and is cut down like a flower
00:48:40he fleeth as it were a shadow
00:48:52the german border banter
00:49:21you may put away the cognac
00:49:23and produce the schnapps
00:49:24we shall need a clear head in berlin
00:49:27in the morning
00:49:28trifles and sorious banter
00:49:31if i have a good night's sleep
00:49:33i will have a clear head
00:49:34think of it as a medicinal drug
00:49:36not something to enjoy
00:49:37very good my lord
00:49:38two fingers
00:49:40three
00:49:41good morning my lord
00:49:57Guten Abend, meine Herren. Also, Sie sind Deutscher?
00:50:00Ich und mein Diener sind Engländer.
00:50:03Dann muss ich Ihre Pässe sehen, bitte.
00:50:09Ah, ein Englischer Aristokrat.
00:50:12Good like that. It sounds like an insult.
00:50:14In Germany, it is the people who rule.
00:50:17I see from the paper that there will be elections soon.
00:50:20Ja, it is likely.
00:50:22Chancellor BrĂĽning's emergency powers will be short-lived?
00:50:25Vielleicht.
00:50:27You are interested in our domestic politics?
00:50:30If no man is an islander, then assuredly no country can be.
00:50:34Except yours, Lord Brimsey.
00:50:36You are here on business?
00:50:38Yes, a spot of sightseeing, too, I suppose.
00:50:41And you occupy this compartment alone?
00:50:43I do.
00:50:45Not everybody is so fortunate in their travel arrangements.
00:50:49As I have observed.
00:50:52This is your manservant.
00:50:54Yes.
00:50:54You are good.
00:51:01Danke.
00:51:03Enjoy your visit to Germany, Lord Brimsey.
00:51:07Auf Wiedersehen.
00:51:08Did I detect a faint whiff of Germanic disapproval, Bander?
00:51:17I thought so, my lord.
00:51:19Though whether on account of race or travel arrangements, I couldn't say.
00:51:23Both, probably.
00:51:25An Englishman, travelling with his valet and occupying an entire suite, must be somewhat provocative to the puritanical spirit.
00:51:33And, uh, now for the schnapps.
00:51:38And pour one for yourself, Bander.
00:51:40Thank you, my lord.
00:51:40Thank you, my lord.
00:52:04You're doing beautifully, light as a feather, quite in the style of Fred and Adele, I think.
00:52:25You're Fred, maybe.
00:52:27My Adele.
00:52:34My Lord.
00:52:43Hunter.
00:52:46Procet.
00:52:48Salut.
00:52:55Would you mark me for a melancholy man, Hunter?
00:52:59I would say that every man has that in him to be, sir.
00:53:03That is philosophic and evasive at the same time, full marks per tact.
00:53:09One does try, my Lord.
00:53:11Perhaps another schnapps.
00:53:13It would not be a cure for melancholia.
00:53:15But it would make it more agreeable.
00:53:17It was a temporary expedient.
00:53:19Life is temporary, Hunter.
00:53:21So is the relief.
00:53:23Quite the moralist.
00:53:26Your bed is made up, my Lord.
00:53:27Hunter, do you ever doubt that we can bring it off?
00:53:29Affairs of state, my Lord.
00:53:31I think we are uniquely qualified to go where the foreign office fear to tread.
00:53:37How about affairs of the heart?
00:53:40Ah.
00:53:41That is a uncharted sea.
00:53:44Wracked by storm and tempest.
00:53:46However, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
00:53:51We should sometimes take on that which we do not understand.
00:53:56Miss Vane, I'm sorry to say things have taken a turn for the worse here.
00:54:02I need to talk to you urgently.
00:54:04You are expecting a lot of me, Warden.
00:54:07I write crime mysteries.
00:54:09That doesn't make me a criminologist.
00:54:11To where at this college, you know some of the tutors and some of the domestic staff.
00:54:15You're intelligent and observant and, well, you are a woman.
00:54:20You think it's a woman?
00:54:22Well, circumstances seem rather to exclude men from the inquiry.
00:54:27I mean men running about the college at night.
00:54:29Is it likely?
00:54:30I can't agree with you there, Warden.
00:54:31Just look at the state of that book.
00:54:33Yes, but even so, the difficulty remains.
00:54:36A man here, conspicuous.
00:54:39He could always disguise himself as a woman.
00:54:42Yes.
00:54:43And he could easily hide in the grounds before the main gate was locked at night.
00:54:46And get away again in the morning.
00:54:48It has to be a possibility.
00:54:49That it doesn't quite have the male touch.
00:54:53What do you mean by that?
00:54:54Well, there is a quality of what one might consider feminine insight to these happenings.
00:55:00Yes, but what woman would want to destroy a book like that?
00:55:04Ah, and happily, all we have is questions.
00:55:07It occurs to me that if I were to be of any use to you as an investigator, I should need some plausible excuse for spending time here.
00:55:16Yes, of course.
00:55:18Oh, what about Miss Lidgate and her book?
00:55:21A very plausible excuse.
00:55:23She's always in need of editorial assistance.
00:55:24She's writing a book on the metaphysical poets.
00:55:27Well, thank goodness it's the long vac, so there isn't much going on.
00:55:31Um, well...
00:55:32Yes, I'm afraid there will be.
00:55:34We have an event fast approaching.
00:55:37My illustrious predecessor's portrait is being unveiled in the library by the Chancellor, no less.
00:55:43I see.
00:55:50Well?
00:55:53Maybe I'd better start asking questions.
00:55:57Have you got a list of the students who are still up?
00:56:00I anticipated that.
00:56:02I suppose you're here to begin to our little mystery.
00:56:05No, as a matter of fact.
00:56:07I'm here to help my former tutor, Miss Lidgate, with her book.
00:56:10Oh, yes.
00:56:12Imagery and symbolism of the metaphysical poets.
00:56:16Riveting.
00:56:17I suppose it might be if you're studying boilermaking.
00:56:19Oh, no.
00:56:20Don't mind Brother Haydock, Miss Vane.
00:56:22She's just naturally bitchy.
00:56:24I'll take that as a compliment.
00:56:25Ladies, ladies.
00:56:27As our dear warden says, behave yourselves.
00:56:30But seriously, Miss Vane.
00:56:31A celebrated mystery writer, well-known companion of Lord Peter Whimsey,
00:56:36you have to be interested in our college poltergeist.
00:56:39Well, yes.
00:56:41Apart from my research, I am.
00:56:43A poltergeist of rather less spirit and more substance, if you ask me.
00:56:47Have you anyone in mind?
00:56:49Well, if you're looking for suspects,
00:56:51almost any member of the senior common room would do.
00:56:53Why them especially?
00:56:55Just because they're the sort that would.
00:56:56Everyone a self-selected nutter.
00:56:59Oh, really?
00:57:00I'd expect a remark like that from a male junior common room,
00:57:02but from Shrewsbury ladies?
00:57:04Oh, come off it, Miss Vane.
00:57:05You've met them.
00:57:06You've got to admit they're pretty eccentric.
00:57:09Is the female academic world in Oxford odder than the male?
00:57:13Ah, she does admit they're odd.
00:57:15Maybe a bit.
00:57:18Indeed, a friend of mine said the very same thing only a few days ago.
00:57:20But being odd doesn't necessarily incriminate anybody.
00:57:25For all I know, it could be any one of you.
00:57:32Anyway, I can tell you why I think it's a don.
00:57:35None of the letters have any spelling mistakes.
00:57:37That doesn't follow.
00:57:38The writer could be using a dictionary,
00:57:39in which case it could be a scout.
00:57:41And wouldn't that be a comforting thought to us all?
00:57:43Well, I don't think it proves anything either way.
00:57:45The scouts probably spell better than any of us.
00:57:48Well said, Brother Layton.
00:57:49Tell me something.
00:57:51Next term you'll all be third year, won't you?
00:57:53The light shineth at the end of the tunnel, as they say.
00:57:56I remember the feeling.
00:57:58My point is this.
00:58:00After two years,
00:58:01you're as experienced as anybody about this college
00:58:03and the people in it,
00:58:04and you're all perceptive.
00:58:06So come on, now.
00:58:08What could have happened to cause these events?
00:58:12I don't think there has to be a specific cause.
00:58:15Why not?
00:58:17Life isn't capricious.
00:58:18There's always a trigger.
00:58:20Maybe I don't understand you.
00:58:22Nobody understands, Catamore.
00:58:24It just comes from resentment.
00:58:26Something harboured which feeds upon itself.
00:58:29It isn't anything that needs
00:58:30a specific external mechanism.
00:58:33Well, yes, the letters and the willful damage
00:58:35do suggest resentment.
00:58:36And they're all against women.
00:58:39Yes.
00:58:39And all I can say is,
00:58:41can they be blamed?
00:58:45Excuse me.
00:58:46Oh, dear.
00:58:52Clearly I said the wrong thing.
00:58:54No.
00:58:55She was speaking personally.
00:58:56Someone swiped her young man.
00:58:59Oh, I see.
00:59:00Is it known who?
00:59:01We have a firm fatale amongst us.
00:59:04One brother, Flaxman,
00:59:05who specializes in stealing other people's toys.
00:59:09Catamore recently lost her favorite toy to her.
00:59:11Young Farringdon of Corpus.
00:59:13Oh, dear.
00:59:14Whereupon Catamore put pen to paper,
00:59:16for which one cannot blame her, really.
00:59:18No.
00:59:19Not a very original story.
00:59:21But a bit unfortunate
00:59:21when there were so many poison letters
00:59:23flying around the college.
00:59:24I understand brother Flaxman tore it up.
00:59:27Doesn't seem to have had much effect.
00:59:29Which is a pity.
00:59:30It's about time somebody got even with Flaxman.
00:59:33And speaking of the devil.
00:59:37How conspiratorial we all look.
00:59:41I feel my ears burning.
00:59:46Please, don't let me interrupt the conversational flow.
00:59:50May I present the notorious brother Flaxman to you, Miss Vane?
00:59:53Not thee, Miss Vane.
00:59:55I'm afraid so, Miss Flaxman.
00:59:58And sleuthing, no doubt.
01:00:00How fortunate.
01:00:01And just when I received yet another letter.
01:00:04Oh, really?
01:00:05Yes.
01:00:06A beauty.
01:00:07All about there being a reward in hell
01:00:09for women who go my way.
01:00:11Have you got it with you?
01:00:13Regrettably, no.
01:00:14I forwarded it to my future address.
01:00:17By way of the fireplace.
01:00:23Hello, Annie.
01:00:30Oh, hello, Miss.
01:00:32Just the person I wanted to see.
01:00:34Really, Miss?
01:00:35Can I have a word with you sometime?
01:00:37Of course, Miss.
01:00:39When would it be convenient for you?
01:00:40Well, it's my break now.
01:00:43Excellent.
01:00:45Let's go and sit in the gardens.
01:00:47Oh, no, Miss.
01:00:48What?
01:00:48Servants aren't permitted.
01:00:50Oh, the warden won't mind.
01:00:52It's for members of the college only, Miss.
01:00:54That's the rule.
01:00:55And their guests.
01:00:57I'm not standing around here chatting.
01:00:59You're my guest.
01:01:00Come on.
01:01:07But surely, Annie,
01:01:09you must have thought about it a bit.
01:01:11Oh, yes.
01:01:12I have had many thoughts about it.
01:01:14Of course.
01:01:15All us scouts have, as you might expect.
01:01:17Any conclusions?
01:01:19What?
01:01:21Not really.
01:01:22There's so little to go on.
01:01:24I mean, they're all so peculiar.
01:01:25The fellows, I take it, you're referring to?
01:01:28I'm sorry, Miss.
01:01:29I really shouldn't.
01:01:30It's all right, Annie.
01:01:30I do know what you mean.
01:01:33They are a little bit removed from ordinary life.
01:01:37But have you noticed anything in particular?
01:01:45I'm not sure it's right to say, Miss.
01:01:48You see,
01:01:49I've undertaken to make some discreet inquiries.
01:01:54I have nothing to go on, Annie.
01:01:56I will respect your confidences.
01:02:06Well, the servants have noticed that
01:02:09all the strange happenings have occurred
01:02:12since one particular person came to the college.
01:02:14Which one?
01:02:17Who?
01:02:19Annie.
01:02:21I think I've already said too much, Miss.
01:02:23Look, Annie, somebody here is doing some very mischievous
01:02:26and potentially dangerous things.
01:02:28We've got to get to the bottom of it before it's too late.
01:02:30Yeah, that's as may be.
01:02:31But I'm just a college servant.
01:02:33I see nothing, I hear nothing.
01:02:35I go about the business I'm paid to do.
01:02:36That's not true, Annie.
01:02:38You do see things, you do hear things.
01:02:41I have to go.
01:02:42Annie, I'm asking for your help.
01:02:43If you know anything,
01:02:44I think you have a moral duty to tell.
01:02:47Tell me, anyway.
01:02:54The one who was provost of Flamborough.
01:02:57It's since she came here.
01:03:00I must go.
01:03:01Oh, I hate scandal.
01:03:06When I started work on it at Flamborough,
01:03:08I thought, ah, what an uncomplicated subject for research.
01:03:13I do so sympathize, Mr. Vine.
01:03:16I know it's a little after your period,
01:03:18but wasn't it Lytton Strachey that said
01:03:21that the contradictions of the Elizabethans
01:03:23baffle one's imagination and perplex one's intelligence?
01:03:27Yes, I think it was.
01:03:29Yes.
01:03:31Speaking of perplexing the intelligence,
01:03:38how's your own research going, Miss Vane?
01:03:41Am I helping Miss Lydgate with her book?
01:03:45Or do you mean more recent perplexities?
01:03:48I meant the latter.
01:03:51Well, as far as...
01:03:51Savory, Miss Vane.
01:03:54I rather think that prunes and custard
01:03:55conclude an elegant sufficiency.
01:03:57Thank you, Annie.
01:03:58Thank you, Miss.
01:03:59What is it?
01:04:00Welsh rabbit, Miss Vane.
01:04:01I think I could manage that.
01:04:02Very good, Miss.
01:04:03Same time this week we've had prunes.
01:04:05I've been back at boarding school.
01:04:07And for the same reasons, I shouldn't doubt.
01:04:09How do you mean?
01:04:11Antidote to costiveness.
01:04:13Well, somebody obviously feels that all the trouble we're having
01:04:15arises from irregularity of the bowels.
01:04:17Glad to see you've polished off your prunes, Miss Lydgate.
01:04:23They're good for you.
01:04:24Oh, just what I was saying.
01:04:26I believe the kitchens have been given instructions.
01:04:29A clean mind in a clean body.
01:04:31Good heavens, Miss Burrows.
01:04:32Isn't that rather a Swiftian view?
01:04:33Sound physiology, Miss Lydgate.
01:04:36Somebody evidently has taken a very practical approach
01:04:39to the hysteria which is afflicting us.
01:04:43It was a savoury for you, Miss Devine.
01:04:45It was, Emily.
01:04:47Yes.
01:04:48Emily.
01:04:50Why do we keep getting prunes?
01:04:53I really don't know, Miss Burrows.
01:04:55Well, ask the cook.
01:04:56There's a good girl.
01:04:57Very good, Miss Burrows.
01:05:02I must say, I am looking forward to getting away next month.
01:05:06I'm going to have a look at the tumulus at Halos,
01:05:08though I'm told it's untypical.
01:05:10What about you?
01:05:12France with Cedric.
01:05:14Oh, a fellow of Shrewsbury College
01:05:15going to France with a man.
01:05:17Only liturgical music in manuscript.
01:05:20Not terribly carnal, I'm afraid.
01:05:22I sometimes think that's what's needed here.
01:05:25A good dose of old-fashioned carnality.
01:05:27I say, that's a bit down to earth for a classicist.
01:05:30Oh, no.
01:05:31Ancient Greece by no means disdained the flesh.
01:05:35Puritanism has its roots deep in the northern mists.
01:05:38Now, that is interesting.
01:05:40James Hogg and Confessions of a Justified Sinner,
01:05:42all that heady Calvinism.
01:05:44In fact, didn't you touch on the subject
01:05:47in one of your crime stories, Miss Vane?
01:05:49The Albigensian Factor, yes.
01:05:51It was set in a closed religious community.
01:05:54Rather strange material for light fiction.
01:05:57Early Christian heresy.
01:05:58Oh, why?
01:05:59Surely all human activity is legitimate material for the novelist.
01:06:03Oh.
01:06:03And is that why you're here, Miss Vane?
01:06:08I think you know why I'm here, Miss Burrows.
01:06:12I must say, one does feel a little like a goldfish in a bowl.
01:06:16Do you see yourself as the cat, looking down at us as we swim around?
01:06:20Nothing so predatory, I'm glad to say.
01:06:22Except in the sense that, of course, writers are predatory.
01:06:25Writers, like academics, pick over other people's bones.
01:06:31Otherwise, how should any of us make a living?
01:06:35By the way, I chanced to look into the fellow's garden just before lunch.
01:06:40I saw you.
01:06:41Yes?
01:06:43Talking to Annie Wilson?
01:06:45Precisely my point, Miss Vane.
01:06:47The servants are permitted there.
01:06:49I realise that.
01:06:50And one should not embarrass them by inviting them.
01:06:53The dean will tell you that.
01:07:00Brutal.
01:07:01It was intended to be.
01:07:04It is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance.
01:07:08I actually saw a couple of male students there.
01:07:11Who said that?
01:07:12Hmm?
01:07:13Me?
01:07:14No, no.
01:07:15That saying one knows so well.
01:07:18Oh, the Prince of Denmark, I think.
01:07:20Oh.
01:07:35Just one minute.
01:07:45Miss Vaughn.
01:07:46Oh, I hope I'm not disturbing you.
01:07:48Not at all.
01:07:49Come in.
01:07:50I can only stay for a moment.
01:07:52I just felt I had to apologise.
01:07:55Firstly, for some of the comments of my colleagues over lunch.
01:07:59They were quite unforgivable.
01:08:00I have the feeling some people aren't happy at my presence here.
01:08:03No, and may I say I'm not one of them.
01:08:06Secondly, for my own indiscretion.
01:08:09Last week when we met before the Gordie, I'm afraid I was rather abrupt with you.
01:08:12Really, I don't...
01:08:13My comment about your having helped to send a man to the gallows was impertinent.
01:08:17I'm really very sorry.
01:08:18All I can say in all our defences is that the Senior Common Room is under considerable stress
01:08:26at the moment as a result of all these recent happenings.
01:08:29Of course, I do understand that.
01:08:31And can I say how very shocked I was about the attack on your book?
01:08:35It must have hurt you a great deal.
01:08:37Ah, I see you have it here.
01:08:40Yes, it did hurt.
01:08:42Deeply.
01:08:44Collegiate life implies a fellowship of mind, Miss Vane.
01:08:48So that vandalism of this nature in our midst is doubly shocking.
01:08:52One no longer knows who one can trust.
01:08:55No.
01:08:56And then I suppose at the same time it must be very difficult not to speculate as to who might or might not have done it.
01:09:01I think we're all of us speculating continually with considerable anxiety.
01:09:05And, of course, this leads to rumour and gossip.
01:09:10For instance?
01:09:12Well, currently, everyone seems obsessed by the fact that these outrages only began shortly after Miss Devine arrived here.
01:09:22Personally, I don't hold much store by that.
01:09:25Mm.
01:09:27To get back to your book, do you think there's any significance in the subject matter?
01:09:32Place of women in modern society.
01:09:35Well, the contents could certainly provoke a man.
01:09:39But a regular male intruder in a woman's college seems very unlikely.
01:09:45Yes, I'm afraid I do have to agree with you there.
01:09:48Of course, Padgett hardly fits the bill.
01:09:51No.
01:09:55Well, I must be on my way.
01:09:57Would it be in order to ask how your inquiries are proceeding, Miss Devine?
01:10:05Well, there's nothing conclusive as yet.
01:10:08Forensically, I've not got very much to go on.
01:10:10And I can hardly expect to police the entire college single-handed.
01:10:13So all I can do for the time being is absorb the atmosphere, be around, talk to people.
01:10:19By which you mean we are all under suspicion.
01:10:24May I say one thing?
01:10:26Behind these outrages lies a bitter mind, Miss Devine.
01:10:31A very bitter mind.
01:10:34Good afternoon.
01:10:36Good afternoon.
01:10:39Oh, Miss Barton.
01:10:41Yes?
01:10:41I'm sorry, it's stupid of me.
01:10:42I meant to ask you.
01:10:43You are the librarian, aren't you?
01:10:45Could you tell me the situation as regards the keys?
01:10:48Well, there are three sets.
01:10:49Mine, the Dean's, and Padgett keeps one at the Porter's Lodge.
01:10:53So whoever got in must have used one of those three keys.
01:10:56Unless the windows were left open.
01:10:57Oh, but they weren't.
01:10:58We're most careful over matters of security.
01:11:01The library contains some priceless manuscripts.
01:11:04And there's the new portrait of Dr Baring's predecessor, Dame Agatha Browning, in store there.
01:11:09Oh, yes, the warden did say something about that.
01:11:13Look, Miss Barton, would you have any objections if I were to use the library from time to time?
01:11:18I gather Miss Lidgate keeps her research notes there.
01:11:21Yes, that's so.
01:11:21So I could begin to familiarise myself with them, and at the same time, keep an eye on the library.
01:11:27I might even go there later tonight.
01:11:30Well, I would have no objection.
01:11:32But remember, you'll need a key.
01:11:45Afternoon, Miss Lane.
01:11:46Oh, good afternoon, Padgett. I was just coming to see you.
01:11:49Oh, something I can do, miss.
01:11:50I wondered if I could have the key to the library.
01:11:53It's open now, miss.
01:11:55No, I mean later tonight.
01:11:58I just don't want to disturb anyone's studies.
01:12:02I see.
01:12:03Well, I could bring it to your room later this evening, miss.
01:12:06If you would, that would be kind.
01:12:08Very good, miss.
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