- 2 days ago
Part 2 of 5 of the 1979 period drama, based on a true story. War breaks out and all Vera's plans for university is put on hold after brother Edward announces his plans to enlist. The decision enrages his father, who later relents his opposition to Vera attending university. But when Roland stuns her by also enlisting, Vera decides to suspend her studies and apply to become a nurse - a decision that will affect her deeply in the long run...
Starring Cheryl Campbell, Rupert Fraser, Emrys James, Jane Wenham, Peter Woodward, Michael Troughton, Rosalie Crutchley, June Tobin, Hazel Douglas, Kristine Howarth, Janet Davies, Tricia George, Elizabeth Rider, Geoffrey Burridge, Joanna Foster and Robert Monk. A much more involving episode, this particular episode was broadcast on November 11th 1979 - Armistice Day. It's intriguing seeing a couple of sitcom stars in this: Janet Davies from Dad's Army and Michael Troughton in an early role before becoming Rik Mayall's dogsbody in The New Statesman. And if Vera's mother seems strangely familiar, then you may know Jane Wenham better from her film breakthrough - that of the tragic victim in Alastair Sim's An Inspector Calls (1954). This TV series will haunt you just as much come the end...
Starring Cheryl Campbell, Rupert Fraser, Emrys James, Jane Wenham, Peter Woodward, Michael Troughton, Rosalie Crutchley, June Tobin, Hazel Douglas, Kristine Howarth, Janet Davies, Tricia George, Elizabeth Rider, Geoffrey Burridge, Joanna Foster and Robert Monk. A much more involving episode, this particular episode was broadcast on November 11th 1979 - Armistice Day. It's intriguing seeing a couple of sitcom stars in this: Janet Davies from Dad's Army and Michael Troughton in an early role before becoming Rik Mayall's dogsbody in The New Statesman. And if Vera's mother seems strangely familiar, then you may know Jane Wenham better from her film breakthrough - that of the tragic victim in Alastair Sim's An Inspector Calls (1954). This TV series will haunt you just as much come the end...
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TVTranscript
00:00.
00:30ORGAN PLAYS
01:00Honour has come back as a king to earth
01:12and paid his subjects with a royal wage
01:16and nobleness walks in our ways again
01:19and we have come into our heritage.
01:30ORGAN PLAYS
01:59By what father?
02:02Edward writing off to apply for training as an officer.
02:06Yes and I think...
02:07I'm not asking for your opinion.
02:10Why then haven't I been informed?
02:12You have been informed father. I told you myself five minutes ago.
02:15Don't. Don't.
02:18Don't try to be clever with me Edward.
02:20You know quite well what I mean.
02:22Why was I not consulted?
02:26Because you would have forbidden me to post the letter.
02:28And I felt that what I was doing was right.
02:30Right. It was stupid.
02:32It was peg-headed.
02:34It was utterly childish.
02:35If you don't want to go to Oxford,
02:36there's plenty of work here at the mill.
02:38God knows it's getting to be more than I can cope with.
02:40I need you.
02:44Your mother needs you.
02:47Don't these things mean anything to you any longer?
02:50Well?
02:52It's very hard to answer that without sounding...
02:54You're ashamed to answer that's the truth of it.
02:56You keep at us.
02:57No father. I am not ashamed.
02:59Very well.
03:01I believe that in this present crisis my country needs me too.
03:05Father I can't hang about at home when all the other chaps are going.
03:07I just can't.
03:08Aye.
03:11That's more like the truth of it.
03:14I don't know.
03:15Young people nowadays.
03:17Like sheep.
03:20You just want to be in the fashion.
03:22Father I won't be going anywhere until September.
03:24And even then it'll only be to Oxford for the training course.
03:27That's going to take at least two or three months.
03:29Well anything could happen in that time.
03:30I mean the war might even be over by then.
03:40Morning Mrs. Smith.
03:41Good morning Mrs. Smith.
03:43Edward what are you doing here?
03:45I thought you were at Aldershot with the school cadet call.
03:46Yes well I was but they suddenly found more urgent uses for Aldershot
03:49and sent us lot home.
03:50I'm very glad that they did.
03:52Well now Vera you're just the person I wanted to see.
03:55Your mother tells me that all this college business has gone quite by the board.
03:58Yes it's such a pity.
04:00Well then I'm sure you don't intend sitting around here kicking your heels at times like these.
04:04Now I'm organising a sewing circle for the ladies of the town
04:07and I thought it would be a good idea.
04:08Excuse me please I must talk to my father.
04:13She's still a bit unsociable Edith.
04:16I expect she'll settle down now though.
04:18Everything's changing.
04:38People use that respect.
04:43You could rely on things.
04:46Two more men given their notice today.
04:50I can't see how it's going to end.
04:54Don't worry.
04:56It'll work out somehow.
04:57You too.
04:59I know you'll keep on till you get what you want.
05:01You may as well go now.
05:07What?
05:09Oxford.
05:10No I mean it.
05:12It's what you've set your heart on.
05:14You'd better do it.
05:17Oh thank you father.
05:23For being such an old good year.
05:26Hey Jack.
05:27That just leaves the pillowcases,
05:55the petticoats,
05:56the teapot and the trash.
05:59Let's see.
06:00If you're going to be at Somerville for three years
06:02it'll pay you to get the best.
06:04I should think harrods.
06:05What do you say?
06:05Yes please Aunt Florence.
06:07That's one of the reasons why Mother packed us off
06:09to stay with you.
06:10Within reach of the really good shops.
06:12And what was the other reason?
06:14Father.
06:15Yes well he has finally given in about the army
06:18but it's taken a lot out of him.
06:20It seemed...
06:21Well it seemed more tactful
06:22to keep out of his way for a week or two.
06:24I see.
06:25Now tell me about this friend of yours
06:27before he comes.
06:28Roland isn't it?
06:29Roland Layton.
06:30Well you must have heard me talk about him.
06:32Isn't he the one who stayed with you in Buxton?
06:33That's right.
06:34And is he in the army too?
06:36No but not for lack of trying.
06:38He's been turned down three times.
06:40So I expect he'll be at Oxford too.
06:42Oh that'll be nice.
06:44Do you think you'll see anything of him?
06:46Well I gather the chaperone rules are pretty perotious
06:48but he says he's prepared to put up with Hatt.
06:50Oh you've seen him recently then?
06:52No not seen.
06:53But be right.
06:54Oh there he is.
06:58Oh look.
06:59You got in after all.
07:00As you see.
07:01Yes the Norfolks.
07:02Wonderful.
07:02Miss Bourbon how very nice to meet you.
07:04Edward has often sung your praises.
07:05What do you do Mr. Ling?
07:06I hope I'm not late.
07:07No no no.
07:08We've only just arrived.
07:09Hello Vera.
07:12Congratulations.
07:13Well come on tell me.
07:14How did you manage it?
07:15Why didn't you tell us?
07:16Well I didn't tell anyone this time.
07:18I felt sure my friends must be getting deadly bored
07:19with hearing about a long series of rejections.
07:22So I went up to Norwich for an interview
07:24and set out to convince them
07:25that I was the answer to Kitchener's prayers.
07:27But I was gazetted within the week.
07:29Oh you must be very pleased.
07:30Oh yes natural.
07:31Well Mr. Lady.
07:32Yes please.
07:34I understood that you definitely decided upon Oxford.
07:37Oh I tried to persuade myself of that too.
07:39Furt de Muir.
07:40But I don't think I could have endured
07:41or just vegetating at university.
07:43I mean now the thing has actually happened.
07:45There's only one place one would want to be
07:47and that's in the thick of it.
07:49It's everything I've seen
07:50somehow petty.
07:52Sort of irrelevant.
07:53Yes exactly.
07:54Well really.
07:56I've never heard anything so smug and superior.
07:59I beg your pardon?
08:00The two of you congratulating each other
08:02on not vegetating in a petty place like Oxford.
08:04I don't mean petty in that sense.
08:08Not intrinsically.
08:09Only a few weeks ago
08:11it was the most important thing in all our lives.
08:13You worked just as hard for it as I did.
08:15Yes I know.
08:16And for you of course it still is.
08:17It still matters very much.
08:19But surely you can see V that for a man
08:21the war puts everything on a totally different plane.
08:24Where women have no part to play.
08:27Not in the same way no.
08:30You're not saying I was wrong to enlist.
08:33No of course not.
08:35It just seemed that you were exalting in it.
08:37No not exalting no that's going too far.
08:40But there is something ennobling about it.
08:41Something almost beautiful.
08:43Perhaps there's not a thing I could ever make you understand.
08:45Beautiful.
08:46Yes.
08:47Because it's the ultimate testing round.
08:50It brings men face to face with elemental realities.
08:52It strips away all irrelevancies.
08:55Leaving women among the irrelevancies.
08:57Vera my dear girl.
08:59I do feel you're deliberately misunderstanding Mr. Layton.
09:03You are me.
09:04If so I'm sorry.
09:12I should have kept quiet.
09:14I know you came in wearing that uniform expecting applause.
09:18Why shouldn't you?
09:20Every man expects it.
09:21It's only natural.
09:23I should have kept quiet.
09:24You should not have said anything you did not feel.
09:28I hope you'll never pretend anything with me.
09:30Oh I'm afraid Vera's never learned to pretend anything with anybody.
09:35I know.
09:36That's one of the things that's unique about her.
09:39It doesn't make for a quiet life.
09:41No.
10:00It doesn't make for a quiet life.
10:05It Mohammed
10:24¶¶
10:54What about Plato and Socrates?
10:57They have no church to guide them but you can't deny that they had a moral sense.
11:01They had a moral capacity.
11:03I don't see the distinction.
11:05A kitten before it's opened its eyes has a physical capacity but it's still in the dark.
11:11I'm sorry but I can't believe that God would make a qualitative distinction
11:16between the same virtues exercised by very similar kinds of people
11:20just because they were on the other side of a purely temporal watershed.
11:23That would mean that everyone born B.C. was chronologically underprivileged.
11:28That's worse than Calvin.
11:30Then what do you understand by the redemption?
11:32If they were redeemed already?
11:35I don't know.
11:37That's what I'm trying to find out.
11:39Beyond a certain point Vera you just have to accept things on faith.
11:44Not try and reason it all out for yourself.
11:47That's a kind of arrogance.
11:49Eat this while it's hot.
11:54And then we really ought to go to bed.
11:56Nearly half past one and I've got a tutorial at nine.
11:59I've got to prepare three pages of Euripides by ten.
12:04And I barely know the alphabet.
12:06Let alone the verbs.
12:07I can't understand why nobody told you you'd have to take responsions Greek.
12:10Nobody knew.
12:12It wasn't that sort of town.
12:14Talking about Euripides did you get to the Gilbert Murray meeting?
12:17Oh yes.
12:18What's he like?
12:19Not a bit like I expected.
12:21Tall.
12:22Slight.
12:23Spectacles.
12:24He's very kind to people.
12:25That's what's really nice about him.
12:27Elizabeth doesn't take after him then.
12:29Well what can you expect?
12:31She's a typical third year.
12:33He just looks straight through you most of them.
12:36Ah.
12:37I have now found that quotation from Count.
12:40And the word moral doesn't come into it.
12:43All right.
12:44What does he say?
12:45Excuse me.
12:46I just feel it my duty to point out that if you two get on to God again at this time of night
12:50we'll be here for the next hour at least.
12:52That's true.
12:54It's all right.
12:55What does he say?
12:56A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself
13:03without reference to any other purpose.
13:07There is always a kind of dreamy spell here
13:10which makes one feel that nothing poignant and terrible can ever come near.
13:14In the churches at Oxford where so many of the congregation are soldiers
13:18we are always having it impressed upon us that the call of our country is the call of God.
13:24Is it?
13:25I wish I could feel sure that it was.
13:27I wish I could feel sure that it was.
13:30The sky above Lower Stoft is cloudless
13:32and the russet sails of the fishing smacks flame in the sun.
13:36Only makes me angry with myself for being stationed here among khaki clad civilians
13:40when men whom I have once despised as effeminate are being sent back wounded from the front.
13:46Can I think of this with anything but rage and shame?
13:49What I've always said about today is that all the chaps at the side get convinced
13:58that if you drive those Germans back any time we choose.
14:01It's a matter of the higher strategy as well.
14:03Exactly.
14:04I'm probably waiting for a joint spring offensive.
14:06Finish them in one blow.
14:08I'm only hoping I'm going to get sent out before it's all over.
14:10Oh!
14:11What?
14:12It's the mater link.
14:13And Tessa the D'Urbervilles and the Dick Gennieff.
14:17Who's sending you our laws there?
14:19It's him.
14:20Good heavens.
14:21Leighton that poor chap.
14:23He's got Christmas leave too.
14:25It's not embarkation.
14:26No no he's going to be in London.
14:28I didn't know they lived in London.
14:30No Lower Stoft.
14:31His mother's got a flat for him near Regent's Park.
14:34That'll cost you a pretty penny.
14:36What's the idea of that then?
14:37Don't know father never met her.
14:39Why should he want to be in London if his father...
14:43Did you tell him that you were going down to Pearlie after Christmas?
14:47Yes I believe I did mention it.
14:50Talks about arranging a meeting.
14:52Does he now?
14:54I suppose she could ask Aunt Florence to go along and chat around her.
14:58Oh!
14:59Well what is it?
15:01He wants me to meet his mother.
15:09I think it must be the mustache.
15:10You look quite different.
15:11Improved I hope.
15:13Quite impressive.
15:14Didn't say you're great.
15:15No.
15:16No.
15:17No.
15:18No.
15:19No.
15:20No.
15:21No.
15:22No.
15:23No.
15:24No.
15:25No.
15:26No.
15:27No.
15:28No.
15:29No.
15:30No.
15:31No.
15:32No.
15:33Thank you can.
15:34No.
15:35No.
15:36No.
15:37No.
15:39No.
15:40No.
15:41No.
15:42no.
15:47you know Miss Verdon three months in camp has taught me a good deal about the
15:50martial arts. but I fear the art of conversation has grown rather rusty there.
15:58everything in the army is couched in the imperative mood.
16:01that doesn't do at all when one is talking to ladies.
16:10tell me how's Oxford?
16:12I love it.
16:14I feel very lucky and privileged to be there.
16:18it's wonderful to be in a place where you're actually expected to work
16:21instead of people thinking you're a fool for wanting to.
16:26and what about you Mr Layton? have you had an enjoyable leave?
16:30yes splendid thank you.
16:31I hope the best party's yet to come.
16:33I have some tickets for Vera tomorrow night his magister's theater.
16:37I was wondering if you and Vera would like to come.
16:40Mr Herbert Tree you know.
16:41that's very kind of you.
16:42what do you say me?
16:43I'd love to thank you.
16:46she will come I promise.
16:55yes I was just wondering what she expects what to say.
16:59she knows nothing about me does she?
17:02well nonsense she knows all about you.
17:04well you'll have plenty to talk about.
17:05I've told her about your writing.
17:06what is she saying?
17:08oh well she said then why does she want to go to Oxford?
17:12Oxford's no use to a writer unless she intends to write a treatise.
17:15oh dear.
17:17oh no don't look like that she'll be delighted with you.
17:19how can you possibly know?
17:21because her tastes are very much the same as mine.
17:28courage mon ami.
17:29oh darling
17:44am I late?
17:44only 15 minutes.
17:45oh I'm so hopeless about time.
17:49you must be miss Bowman.
17:50so nice to meet you.
17:52how do you do?
17:53and this is Vera Brittain?
17:55this is Vera Brittain.
17:56oh my dear.
17:57let me look at you.
17:59I've heard so much about you from my son.
18:03why Roland she's quite human after all.
18:06I can't imagine what he must have told you to make me think otherwise.
18:10I somehow thought you'd be rather severe.
18:14very academic and altogether alarming.
18:16oh Roland.
18:17no no no you mustn't blame him my dear men.
18:18simply have no idea about such matters.
18:20he did say you were charming.
18:22I remember that distinctly.
18:23but then he would go on about your mind and your character.
18:26if only the silly boy had told me about that hat.
18:30I'd have known we'd have got on famously.
18:32do you like it?
18:33I took ages deciding what to wear.
18:35it's the first time I've ever met anyone from the world of letters.
18:38it's very pretty and so are you.
18:42you know I just adore having young people around me.
18:45I feel I have a sort of affinity with them somehow.
18:47oh the only ones I find just a weeny bit tiresome are those rather strident young girls
18:53who go around wearing ugly clothes and striking angular poses
18:57and forever boasting on about how modern they're supposed to be.
19:00don't you agree?
19:01oh indeed.
19:04darling before we order what I would like you to do is to go through to a reception
19:07and ask them to order me a cab for half past two.
19:09I have seen my publisher through.
19:11yes of course.
19:15oh do run along with him my dear.
19:16I suppose you realize he's very strongly attracted to her.
19:31yes that was my impression.
19:34it's never happened to him before.
19:36not like this.
19:38and what about her?
19:40is she serious?
19:41oh I've never inquired.
19:45she seems very happy in his company.
19:48she seems so young.
19:50perhaps she just feels flattered.
19:52mrs leighton she's a completely honest straightforward girl.
19:57she would never say or do anything meant to mislead him.
20:00no no of course not.
20:01you must forgive me.
20:03it's just that well his happiness is so precious to me.
20:06and everything these days seems terrible freder.
20:10it's damn like ridiculous.
20:12even in our letters at least for free to say what we meant.
20:14how can we even talk in these circumstances?
20:17can I never hope to see you on your own?
20:19how can we?
20:20it would never be allowed.
20:21well how about next time when you go back up to oxford?
20:23oxford?
20:24if i was seen there alone with a young man.
20:26he had no...
20:27i mean on the way.
20:29mother puts me on the train and buys a ticket.
20:31when i get there i'm supposed to send a telegram.
20:32that is medieval.
20:33it's the same for everyone.
20:36listen don't you ever change trains?
20:38yes sometimes when i go by Leicester.
20:41listen go via Leicester.
20:44think of some excuse and then miss the connection.
20:47why?
20:47well i'll i'll get away.
20:48i'll spin something on to the CO and come to Leicester and meet you.
20:52at least we'll have an hour or two alone together.
20:55Norwich you'd come all that way just for an hour.
20:59and it would come again my love for ten thousand miles.
21:03look he's coming back.
21:04please say he will do it.
21:05no one will ever know.
21:08i'll try.
21:15will you be warmer then?
21:16oh yes thank you.
21:19what's this?
21:20right it's uh something for the journey.
21:22oh and uh
21:26you shouldn't have come with a cold like that.
21:27not in this weather.
21:28it's nothing.
21:30was it worth the journey just for an hour on Leicester station?
21:34what do you think?
21:36i believe it's going to start.
21:38yes i was going.
21:40well goodbye thank you.
21:42well roland it's going to start.
21:43i don't care.
21:46i'm coming with you all the way.
21:49let me come with you.
21:50but how can you?
21:51well it's simple.
21:54but how will you get back?
21:55you can't.
21:55you'll be terribly late.
21:56true.
21:59now it's still late.
22:00yes.
22:02well what will you tell your ceo?
22:04well i i shall tell him.
22:06i shall say that the colonel i was supposed to be interviewing wasn't here.
22:09and i spent the whole day looking for him.
22:11will you believe you?
22:12of course.
22:13well i'm well known to be highly conscientious in the performance of my duties.
22:16don't say that.
22:18well it's true.
22:19i know.
22:20but it makes me sound such a bad influence.
22:22well never.
22:23never.
22:27you're the very best thing that has ever happened to me.
22:35here give me those.
22:42will you do something for me?
22:45take your hat off?
22:47well mother was right.
22:48it is very pretty.
22:49but your hair is prettier.
23:09what's the matter?
23:11shouldn't i have done it?
23:13no.
23:15why not?
23:17it'll be half the night getting back to camp.
23:20hanging about on draughty stations.
23:24your cold will get worse.
23:29sit down miss Britton.
23:34i heard some misgivings about you.
23:37largely because you seemed overconfident.
23:39oh i'm sorry.
23:41i didn't mean to give that impression.
23:43when i told you you'd be required to sit responsions greek at the end of ten weeks.
23:47i had anticipated some signs of agitation considering you had no previous acquaintance
23:51with the language.
23:52you took the news very calmly.
23:55i just felt that if i worked hard enough i ought to be able to get through it.
23:58yes.
24:00well you were right.
24:02that's the first hurdle cleared isn't it?
24:05congratulations.
24:06it's a brilliant performance.
24:08thank you miss Penrose.
24:09i hope to hear in due course that you've coped equally well with the latin.
24:12you will inform your tutors that you are now joining the past moderations course.
24:16i don't need to stress the vital importance of getting a good result.
24:19what's your temperature?
24:26i hope i'll not another case of influenza.
24:33oh miss Vera.
24:35should you be up?
24:37all right thank you.
24:39doctor said i could get up today.
24:40only this evening i thought.
24:42so boring up there.
24:45can i fetch your shawl down?
24:46i'd love a cup of tea though.
24:48yes miss.
24:49i'll get it for you.
24:50oh here's the newspapers you can have a look at.
24:53oh and your letters.
24:57okay.
25:16oh
25:23sarah.
25:25sarah!
25:28all right miss vera.
25:29i'm coming.
25:31oh miss what amaze it?
25:32where's mother?
25:33what is in the kitchen?
25:34never mind go and fetch her.
25:36how long has this been here?
25:37what?
25:37oh this morning miss.
25:38why?
25:39never mind just go.
25:39oh
25:40oh
25:41sarah what on earth is going on?
25:45pen and pencil.
25:46i've got to send a telegram.
25:47i've got to go to london.
25:48are you out of your mind?
25:50that's all right.
25:50cook can send it.
25:51she always passes the post office.
25:52sarah go and get my little case from the box room.
25:55you're going nowhere.
25:55be accepted.
25:56i've got to go to london.
25:57sarah quickly.
25:58i think you're just coming.
26:01tell you to come here at once.
26:04you think you're delirious?
26:06not delirious.
26:07well then for heaven's sake pull yourself together and try and talk sales.
26:13roland leighton has got himself posted to a front line regiment.
26:17wrote to say that he'd be going to france in seven days.
26:20seven days?
26:21oh well really all this.
26:23listen listen.
26:25he didn't know that i'd be sent home in.
26:27he sent the letter to somerville.
26:28may have been days ago.
26:29he may be leaving now.
26:30tomorrow he may be leaving now.
26:31let me have a look.
26:33this is dated the 18th.
26:35seven days would be the 25th.
26:37it's only the 22nd now.
26:39oh thank god.
26:40edith.
26:41you sent for me.
26:42yes father give me a pen.
26:44i want to send a telegram.
26:45why do you have to send a telegram?
26:47because he's not on the telephone.
26:49he's been waiting four days for an answer.
26:51he may be going to his death and he thinks i don't care.
26:54who?
26:55it's roland leighton.
26:57oh my god.
26:57my hand is shaking.
27:00just say.
27:00you seriously think that you're going to rise from a sick bed and go tearing off to london to meet a young man unaccompanied?
27:06well i'll send and ask on lorence to chaperone.
27:10no you can come with me.
27:11oh really i'm supposed to drop everything out.
27:13i will not have this hysteria.
27:17now i can't begin to understand why she's suddenly making all this fuss about young leighton
27:21but on the assumption that the young man wants to see her as much as she wants to see him
27:26why don't we invite him to come up here?
27:31you could stay the night.
27:32uh go about the next day.
27:34what is your team is Vera.
27:36oh thank you.
27:38oh yes please.
27:56you were already in a regiment.
28:03the norfolks would have been sent out when their time came but you couldn't wait could you?
28:09clearly not
28:10well
28:15got what you wanted. are you satisfied now?
28:18satisfied?
28:21i wouldn't call it that.
28:24there's a lot of dust and ashes feeling about it now it's actually happened.
28:30there's nothing attractive to me about the idea of dying.
28:34so why increase the chances of it?
28:37are you really doing it for belgium?
28:41i've never been passionately keen on the belgians.
28:43then why?
28:44can't formulate it Vera.
28:48the least i can get to it is
28:50just well heroism in the abstract.
28:55it's the old henry v thing i suppose.
28:59gentlemen in england now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not.
29:03i think that's true!
29:06one could carry it through the rest of life
29:09like a stain.
29:10the rest of life may be rather a short period of course.
29:13say that!
29:14it's got to be said!
29:16i don't imagine you volunteered for france without realizing what it could mean.
29:20it actually looks as though you want to be killed in action.
29:24of course not i don't want to die not for a long time yet.
29:27but if i had to go that's the way i'd want it to happen.
29:29anyway i'd hate to go through all the war without a scratch.
29:36i'd want something to prove i'd been there.
29:40prove to whom?
29:40i really don't know.
29:46it's just that with so much suffering one would feel in a way
29:49diminished by not having some small part in it.
29:51maybe it's a kind of masochism that comes over men in wartime.
29:56don't you think the women suffer at all?
30:03yes of course they must do.
30:05but but passively i i don't know perhaps it's even worse for them
30:08precisely because there is nothing they can do to help.
30:10i don't believe there's nothing we can do to help.
30:14it's our country as well as yours.
30:16you say you want to share the burden.
30:17why assume that i want to be exempt?
30:19look we're at cross purposes here.
30:21our part is to fight to defend the way of life we believe in.
30:26yours is to represent those things to preserve them for us until after the war.
30:29like flies in amber.
30:31well?
30:32everything comes to a stop dead halt until the men come back and start moving again.
30:35what is wrong Vera?
30:36i sometimes wish i'd never met you.
30:40you don't mean that.
30:49no.
30:56i had such a lofty idea of the war up until now.
31:02full of pity for suffering humanity.
31:05now it's all turned into fear and selfishness.
31:14at the bottom of my heart all by i'll be praying is anybody else but god please not him.
31:19i'll be coming back.
31:23believe me i'm entirely convinced of that.
31:29yes i believe it too.
31:34i've got no right to talk about sharing the suffering.
31:36i'm only going through what thousands of women have been going through for months.
31:41and already i'm complaining.
31:44i won't anymore.
31:45no don't.
31:47just think a long way ahead.
31:50you'll be listening to me tell our children
31:53all the brave deeds i did upon saint crispin's day.
31:56pretending you don't know them all off by heart.
32:00we are earth's best that learned her lesson here.
32:11life is our pride.
32:13we have kept the faith we said.
32:16we shall go down with unreluctant tread.
32:19rose crowned into the darkness.
32:22proud we were and laughed that had such brave true things to say.
32:27and then you suddenly cried and turned away.
32:57one of my men has just been killed.
33:21the first.
33:23i did not actually see it thank heaven.
33:25i only found him lying very still at the bottom of the trench.
33:29with a tiny stream of blood trickling down his cheek into his coat.
33:37go down for a year.
33:40what would be the point of that?
33:42i want to do something to help the war effort.
33:46well naturally we wouldn't wish anyone to stay here against her will.
33:48but you were awarded an exhibition to run for three years.
33:52that would complicate matters.
33:55i hadn't thought of that.
33:57which ministry had you in mind?
34:00i beg your pardon?
34:01i assumed you were thinking in terms of the civil service.
34:04no nursing.
34:07now that strikes me as wasteful.
34:08it would make very little use of your best talents.
34:10besides being unpleasant and laborious.
34:13you've obviously considered all this.
34:17yes miss penrose.
34:19and at the end of the year.
34:23well i hope the war will be over by then.
34:25i should like to come back.
34:26in that case you will of course stay on another three weeks and take past moderations.
34:30oh yes.
34:30very well.
34:33for your sake i hope you won't repent taking this step.
34:37i'm sure i shan't.
34:37and for our sake.
34:39miss britain i sincerely hope you're not a portent.
34:42if your decision marks the beginning of a stampede
34:46i might be inclined to modify my attitude.
34:49oh you're not going to france?
34:57no no not this time.
34:58i want you to meet jeffrey.
35:01how do you do?
35:02it's lovely that edward's got somebody in the camp he can really talk to.
35:05excuse me i must sit down.
35:06you all right vera?
35:07i'm exhausted.
35:09so how's nursing v?
35:11stops you thinking anyway.
35:13is it what you imagined?
35:15well there's always something you didn't foresee
35:17like going into the kitchen last night and seeing the whole floor running alive with cockroaches.
35:22that's not a very nice thing to talk about.
35:24why i'm proud of it.
35:26not screaming or anything.
35:28whatever did you do?
35:30i just hitched up my skirt and got on with the washing up.
35:33i think that was very brave.
35:35thank you.
35:36so you think you'll be going on with it?
35:38of course i will.
35:39i'm applying to get into camberwell next.
35:41no but if camberwell's a military hospital will they take you on?
35:45they might now.
35:45when i started here at devonshire i didn't even know how to boil an egg.
35:50do you know what i'd like?
35:52i'd like a photograph of you two together.
35:54just as you are now.
35:56yes you could have it framed.
35:57memento of a rare occasion when edward and vera were conforming to buxton's expectations.
36:02now now.
36:03old bee have you heard from roland lately?
36:07yes he's getting leave in a week or two.
36:09latron's giving me the weekend off.
36:11she's talking about going up to london to meet him edward all on her own.
36:16very soon she'll be living in london all on her own.
36:18where's the difference?
36:20yes i suppose.
36:21maybe.
36:24excuse me i must go and lie down.
36:26i'll see you all at dinner.
36:33edward.
36:35i've been meaning to ask you how much do we actually know about this leighton fellow?
36:39you know him i suppose.
36:40i mean he's very polite and well-mannered and so on but
36:43she seems to be getting very serious about the old thing.
36:46i shouldn't want her to get it to her though.
36:48father leighton is a man of the highest honor.
36:51there's no man living i would rather see vera married to.
36:58it's not far from ypres.
36:59you can hear the bombardment.
37:02all you think is thank god it's no nearer.
37:05someone's getting help but it isn't you.
37:07not yet.
37:09look i i found this in a ruined farmhouse.
37:18did you find this near where you wrote the poem about the words?
37:21it's not far from there.
37:23thank you for the rupert brook.
37:26i wasn't sure whether it would make you feel bitter.
37:30well yes in a way it did.
37:32i wanted to drop everything and sit down and write something myself.
37:35there's never any peace or privacy.
37:42i used to think there was a whole lifetime ahead for achievement.
37:45it's just a question of postponing it briefly.
37:50now it doesn't look so brief.
37:53and these are the years that won't come back.
37:54i used to talk about a kind of beauty in war.
37:59you remember?
38:02i was wrong.
38:04once you're in it there's nothing but
38:05you remember?
38:06stink and mud and muddle and squalor.
38:10i remember one trench we took over.
38:19we were up to our knees in black water for two days.
38:22in another one the worst thing was the rats.
38:32it was there the sentry got hit.
38:38he was still alive.
38:41i spoke to him.
38:50i only went to get a stretcher.
38:55but when i came back...
39:04i'm sorry.
39:05i seem to be doing all the talking.
39:08what's been happening to you?
39:11happening in buxton?
39:15is there really a place where nothing has changed?
39:19well i've progressed from polishing the coat hooks and dusting the wards.
39:25last week i was allowed to take three stitches out.
39:28put some gent and violet on a case of wingworm.
39:31that's glory.
39:31how's your family?
39:36all quite peaceful.
39:38mother drops a little hint now and again.
39:39have i heard from roland again and uh...
39:41have i got any news for her?
39:43it's not her fault.
39:45she has to face the sewing circle and they ask those kind of questions over the teacups.
39:48i detest the thought of people like that even knowing about us.
39:52let alone trying to slot us into their petty little pigeonholms.
39:55so do i.
39:57still
39:59it's no use Vera.
40:02we're going to have to think of some formula we can offer them.
40:09what can we say?
40:13i'm sorry about the darkness but we're only allowed light in the back rooms
40:16because of the zeppelins and we'd be a landmark for ships
40:20and they've put a machine gun station right on our doorstep.
40:23oh my dear i can't tell you how delighted we were when we heard the news.
40:27but i must tell you quite frankly we couldn't help laughing when we got the telegram.
40:31it was so typical of him.
40:36oh roland darling pour some sherry and we'll drink a toast.
40:39i'm so longing to hear all about it.
40:41when did it happen and have you made any plans?
40:45no no plans.
40:46well nothing's happened yet mrs leighton.
40:49nothing definite.
40:49well dear child whatever can you mean?
40:52was it all a joke then or am i being very stupid?
40:55just a matter of social convenience that's all.
40:58i happen to feel very strongly so does Vera that
41:00a relationship between two people is a purely personal affair
41:03and should be allowed to develop at its own tempo without interference.
41:07why sure i have no intention of it.
41:09no no not you.
41:10it's just an unfortunate fact that society cannot rest until it has a label to stick on things.
41:15the war seems to have exacerbated this.
41:19so if anyone asks you can say we're engaged
41:23for the duration of the war or the next three years.
41:26presumably that will keep them happy.
41:28i see well here's to you both.
41:32no what am i saying?
41:34i don't see at all.
41:35has he given you a ring?
41:38no but he's given me this.
41:40isn't it beautiful?
41:41yes lovely amethyst.
41:45but a brooch isn't a ring.
41:46why in heaven's name should it be?
41:49you know how i detest the obvious.
41:51neither of us wanted that mrs leighton.
41:54after all what's it for?
41:55either it's a token of possession to show to other men that i'm sort of appropriated
42:00and if so i think that's a bit degrading
42:03or it's to show to other women that i've managed to capture somebody.
42:07and i think that's just as bad.
42:09it all seems very odd.
42:12however no one has ever accused me of being conventional and that's the modern way.
42:17somehow there doesn't seem to be very much romance about it.
42:20there's more equality though.
42:22well so long as you don't expect me to incorporate these new ideas into my stories.
42:27if i did that i'd soon be out of a job.
42:35are you cold?
42:37just my fingers.
42:48that's lovely.
42:57what are you thinking about?
43:03i dreamed they told me you were dead.
43:07if that ever happened i couldn't bring myself to believe it.
43:12i can't imagine life without you.
43:16you'd soon forget.
43:18why do you always say that?
43:20do you really think i'm on a forgetting sword?
43:22no i'm afraid you're not.
43:26but something always comes in to fill the vacuum.
43:31it's inevitable.
43:32i saw a notice in the agony column of the times the other day.
43:47lady.
43:49fiance killed in france.
43:51would gladly marry officer totally disabled by war service.
43:56grief makes people do strange things.
43:59i could understand it in a way.
44:03if she felt there was no more to be done with the rest of her life
44:08she might as well let somebody else who had suffered make use of it.
44:12i shall come back.
44:19i may get wounded but i know i'll come back.
44:28wouldn't it be strange
44:30if you were wounded and they sent you to camberwell.
44:33if i came on duty one day and found you there in my ward.
44:36well i'd really be at your mercy wouldn't i?
44:39i fancy i'd rather enjoy that.
44:42well i do wish i didn't have to go home and pack for camberwell.
44:45i so wanted to see you off.
44:47no never mind i'll come up to london and see you off instead.
44:53you know i've been counting the days that we've
44:55actually been together since we first met.
44:59it comes to 17.
45:0117 days.
45:06the in-between times count as well.
45:10i love getting your letters.
45:15it's strange how we can write things we can't speak.
45:21all those things i put in letters
45:22and when i actually meet you again.
45:39well let's be glad we're together now.
45:42we've got tonight and tomorrow.
45:52i won't look out of the window and wave to you.
46:19please.
46:20so don't.
46:21i can't.
46:52What's happened to your sheet?
47:18I don't know.
47:21Nurse, what's it like being in love?
47:24How should I know?
47:26I bet you do.
47:27You got the right sort of face.
47:29That one on nights got a mouth like a hatchet.
47:34Ain't you gonna take my pulse nuts?
47:37Not yet.
47:43Oi!
47:44That's my shrapnel.
47:45You leave that by there.
47:47That's my souvenir.
47:49Sorry.
47:50Here.
47:51Do you wanna know where I pulled that out of, Nurse?
47:53Watch it, cragleg.
47:55Hello.
47:56Hello.
47:57Hello.
47:58Hello.
47:59This way.
48:01Yay!
48:02She actually said well done.
48:03So Sir Brow has nearly knocked the screen over.
48:07After all months we've been here, that's the first time a QA has ever given me a pat on the back.
48:13Do you know what she reminds me of?
48:14Do you remember that Miss Matthews?
48:15Do you remember that Miss Matthews who used to take us for French in the lower six?
48:17Is there anything wrong with her?
48:18Do you remember that Miss Matthews who used to take us for French in the lower six?
48:19Do you remember that Miss Matthews who used to take us for French in the lower six?
48:24Is there anything wrong with her?
48:25Do you remember that Miss Matthews who used to take us for French in the lower six?
48:31Is there anything wrong with her?
48:32Is there anything wrong with her?
48:33Is there anything wrong with her?
48:34Is there anything wrong with her?
48:35Do you remember that Miss Matthews who used to take us for French in the lower six?
48:44Is there anything wrong with her?
48:48Is there a letter from Roland?
48:51Yes, she wrote.
48:53Just a short one saying how difficult it was to find the time and so on.
48:58Didn't seem to strike him without I'd be worried sick about him.
49:03What about you finding the time?
49:05Does he realize we don't get back here till nine?
49:08Then lights out at ten?
49:10What with feeling half dead and queuing for a bath and washing and mending and everything?
49:15What does he think it's like for us?
49:17Quiet he thinks.
49:19He called it a world of silent-footed nurses and clean smells.
49:25You tell him.
49:28The most estimable, practical, unexceptional adjutant.
49:47I suppose I ought to thank you for your letter.
49:53Since apparently one has to be grateful nowadays for being allowed to know you are alive.
49:58But all the same my first impulse was to tear up that letter.
50:05I can't say what you really feel in case something happens.
50:08Maybe the last letter they ever get.
50:10He sounds different somehow.
50:21He said that I seem to him like a character out of a book.
50:24Somebody he's dreamed about.
50:27It's been eight months since I saw him and he has changed.
50:30What did he say exactly?
50:31We'll be home on leave on the 24th of December to the 31st.
50:40Land Christmas Day are.
50:41You've shortened to the point.
50:42Oh Betty it's poetry.
50:43Besides I got his real letter on Friday.
50:44You'll have nearly a week then.
50:45Do you think you might want you to get married?
50:46Would you?
50:47Yes.
50:48Even if...
50:49I mean what about babies?
50:50Yes to that too.
50:51Do I look all right?
50:52Why?
50:53Matron.
50:54I've got to ask her for Christmas Day.
50:55Oh Betty.
50:56We'll be home on leave on the 24th of December to the 31st.
50:57Land Christmas Day are.
50:58You've shortened to the point.
50:59Oh Betty it's poetry.
51:00Besides I got his real letter on Friday.
51:01You'll have nearly a week then.
51:02Do you think you might want you to get married?
51:05Would you?
51:06Yes.
51:07Even if...
51:08I mean what about babies?
51:10Yes to that too.
51:12Do I look all right?
51:17Why?
51:18Matron.
51:19I've got to ask her for Christmas leave.
51:21Good luck.
51:48Bye.
51:50Youku 4
51:51Want 2
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51:53To
51:55Blew
51:56Try
51:57Go
52:01Go
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