- 7 hours ago
First broadcast 10th December 1970.
After a long-term relationship ends, Norah moves to a remote house in the country.
Anna Cropper - Norah
Amanda Walker - Madge
Julian Holloway - Jake
Freda Bamford in Play for Today (1970)
Freda Bamford - Mrs. Vigo
Bernard Hepton - Fisher
Andy Bradford - Rob
Cyril Cross - Peter
Robin Wentworth - Wellbeloved
After a long-term relationship ends, Norah moves to a remote house in the country.
Anna Cropper - Norah
Amanda Walker - Madge
Julian Holloway - Jake
Freda Bamford in Play for Today (1970)
Freda Bamford - Mrs. Vigo
Bernard Hepton - Fisher
Andy Bradford - Rob
Cyril Cross - Peter
Robin Wentworth - Wellbeloved
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00:06that's the before picture
00:00:09looks rather desolate
00:00:11it's isolated if that's what you mean
00:00:13and the after
00:00:14what
00:00:14what it looks like now after all the work
00:00:17I haven't taken an after
00:00:19oh
00:00:19well it was Peter's camera you know
00:00:22my dear
00:00:23you could always buy another one
00:00:25I've got very prickly haven't I
00:00:28not really
00:00:29that means I have
00:00:31well I don't mean it not with you
00:00:34prickles are useful sometimes
00:00:36now I'm a single woman again
00:00:38I'm always having to resist passes
00:00:40lucky old you
00:00:41I've been lusting after one of the window cleaners for weeks
00:00:43never gives me so much as a flick of his chamois
00:00:46you know I thought I might make a pass at Nora
00:00:48next time you're out of the room
00:00:49I thought I might sidle over for a quick cuddle
00:00:52go and get the coffee
00:00:54you lecherous owl
00:00:59he already has I take it
00:01:02not really
00:01:05we were all single women once love
00:01:08I know Madge but it's different
00:01:10when you and I were young
00:01:11thank you
00:01:13younger
00:01:13people made passes of course they did
00:01:16but we weren't fair game then
00:01:19a non-attached from only 35 is fair game
00:01:22if I go up to the theatre with someone
00:01:24or to dinner and then reject a heavy pass
00:01:25he feels cheated because I know what I'm doing you see
00:01:28then I've just broken up with my fella
00:01:31so I'm expected to be Randy
00:01:33which God knows I am often
00:01:35and then living with Peter
00:01:36well naturally I developed defences
00:01:39yes
00:01:40but there were only defences against him
00:01:43so now we're broken up I feel all
00:01:45soft and exposed
00:01:47like a little unshelled crab
00:01:48delicious
00:01:50and you're really going to live in the cottage
00:01:53I'm landed with it
00:01:54sell it
00:01:55I don't want to
00:01:56then you're not landed with it
00:01:57I don't want it
00:01:58I don't want to sell it
00:02:00I'm sorry I know that's silly
00:02:01why couldn't Peter have kept it
00:02:03if one of you had to buy the other out
00:02:04he didn't want it
00:02:05well you said you didn't
00:02:07I hate waste
00:02:09yes love yes
00:02:10that's what kept Peter and me going for so long
00:02:12I wouldn't cut my losses
00:02:13and say that's five years of my life down the drain
00:02:15so I kept working at it
00:02:17and after eight years
00:02:21he cut his losses
00:02:24and it's such a waste
00:02:27oh blast
00:02:29oh blast
00:02:32I'm sorry
00:02:33I cry very easily nowadays
00:02:35I stop very easily
00:02:38there
00:02:38now I've stopped
00:02:40let's talk about
00:02:42anything
00:02:43the cottage
00:02:44well I'm not quite sure what there is to say about it
00:02:46well it's there
00:02:47that's the most obvious thing
00:02:50all miles from the village
00:02:51and a mile from the road
00:02:52I'm going to live in it for a while
00:02:55I've got to get used to living on my own
00:02:57as it seems
00:02:59it's clearly a good place to start
00:03:08it's a waste disposal unit
00:03:12what do you put in it then
00:03:14well not your hand is the most important thing
00:03:17and it won't do bottles and cans
00:03:19so we'll put those into a carrier bag
00:03:20and I'll take them down to each room whenever I go
00:03:22and drop them in a litter pen
00:03:26you reckon to live here then
00:03:27why not
00:03:28you thought I'd just use it as a weekend cottage
00:03:31not for me to think
00:03:32I mean
00:03:33that's your affair
00:03:34please Mrs. Vigay
00:03:35you're right
00:03:36I don't mean to be rude
00:03:37obviously I shall have to go back to London eventually
00:03:39and just come here at weekends
00:03:42but for the time being
00:03:43I do plan to live here
00:03:45so if you could come in
00:03:50two afternoons a week say
00:03:51what job do you do then
00:03:53I'm a script editor
00:03:55I edit scripts for television you know
00:03:59I don't know what that is
00:04:00it's been happening lately
00:04:02it's nice isn't it
00:04:05is it
00:04:06field mice
00:04:07they're coming for the warm
00:04:08no harm in that
00:04:10that's right
00:04:11you left this out last night I dare say
00:04:13you can see the drop-ins
00:04:15well so long as it's not rats
00:04:17they're vicious
00:04:22don't get company here I reckon
00:04:24doesn't get any company as far as I can see
00:04:28what does she do all day?
00:04:30sits about
00:04:34I hope she's not going to start drinking
00:04:36hmm
00:04:51no I'm drinking much less than one does in London
00:04:55everything seems to be slowed down
00:04:59I sleep late
00:05:00I drift about the cottage
00:05:05did I tell you I have mice
00:05:09insects
00:05:35I wonder if I might hunt for sherds in your garden
00:05:38what?
00:05:40one often finds them you know
00:05:41in freshly turned earth
00:05:44sherds?
00:05:45well I have an archaeological interest
00:05:47I'm a student of that
00:05:49in my own time
00:05:52old things generally
00:05:53I don't think there are any old things in the garden
00:05:56but what the builders left
00:05:58broken bottles and old beer cans mainly
00:06:00but you're welcome to look
00:06:01you haven't noticed anything yourself as you walked about
00:06:04some small sherd or other
00:06:07I don't think I should recognize a sherd
00:06:09if I were to see one
00:06:11takes a trained eye
00:06:13I was watching a program on the television
00:06:18Mrs. Vigo tells me you have connections in that field
00:06:23yes
00:06:24it was about fishing for clams
00:06:28documentary program
00:06:31they spot the whereabouts of the clam
00:06:34by a small blowhole in the sand
00:06:37they have an instinct
00:06:39well it's the same with me
00:06:43Roman pottery
00:06:44coins
00:06:46sherds of all sorts
00:06:48I have that instinct
00:06:51and that is strange
00:06:52Mrs. Palmer
00:06:54Miss
00:06:56Miss
00:06:58yes
00:07:00one likes to be sure
00:07:03that is strange Miss Palmer
00:07:06because my name is Fisher
00:07:08and yet I've never been to the seaside
00:07:11or any of my family
00:07:15fishers have not been out of this village
00:07:17for hundreds of years
00:07:19except in time of war
00:07:22I'm sorry
00:07:28what are the birds
00:07:30Miss Palmer
00:07:30do they trouble you
00:07:32I don't understand
00:07:34ah you're confused
00:07:36because of the rhyme
00:07:39sherds and birds
00:07:42very amusing
00:07:45sherds in the garden
00:07:46as we hope
00:07:48and birds
00:07:50in the house
00:07:54trapped
00:07:56the cottage
00:07:57had been empty
00:07:57so long before you came
00:07:59women have always lived here
00:08:01but not for some time
00:08:02you see
00:08:03I frequently found birds
00:08:05trapped inside
00:08:06you've been here before
00:08:08oh indeed
00:08:09yeah
00:08:10I get about
00:08:13the birds would come in
00:08:14by the chimney
00:08:16and be unable to escape
00:08:18and then they'd
00:08:21beat against the window
00:08:22and after a while
00:08:25expire
00:08:26most of the window panes
00:08:27were broken when we
00:08:29when I bought this cottage
00:08:32exactly
00:08:34they should have known
00:08:35they had a way out
00:08:36but being birds
00:08:38they didn't
00:08:41that's what it means
00:08:43in the old tongue
00:08:44Flanirton
00:08:45the place of birds
00:08:48that's its name
00:08:50Flanirton farm
00:08:52bird place
00:08:53or
00:08:54place of birds
00:08:56as I prefer
00:08:58you don't speak
00:08:59the old tongue
00:09:00I don't suppose
00:09:01if you mean
00:09:03Anglo-Saxon
00:09:03not since Oxford
00:09:07well it's not much
00:09:08spoken
00:09:11never written
00:09:12of course
00:09:15well I'll just
00:09:16take a look around
00:09:17then
00:09:18with your permission
00:09:24mind the nettles
00:09:32who's that
00:09:33that's Fisher
00:09:35see off his head
00:09:38no
00:09:39he works for council
00:09:41over to Evesham
00:09:43so you brought that
00:09:45inside the house
00:09:46then
00:09:46yes
00:09:48what is it
00:09:49half a marble
00:09:50isn't it
00:09:51glass marble
00:09:52cut in half
00:09:53are they large
00:09:55for a marble
00:09:55oh they am large
00:09:57that size
00:09:58that's right
00:09:59you hold it
00:10:00keep it warm
00:10:02them like jewels
00:10:04they like the body
00:10:05warm
00:10:05I'll be on my way
00:10:06then
00:10:08you won't find
00:10:09anything in that
00:10:10garden earlier
00:10:10in the 17th century
00:10:12civil war trash
00:10:13Mr. Fisher
00:10:14the garden is
00:10:15overgrown with
00:10:15metals
00:10:16dock elder
00:10:16and convolvius
00:10:17you cannot
00:10:18possibly pretend
00:10:19I've got the
00:10:19instinct
00:10:19haven't I
00:10:20that's Fisher
00:10:20isn't it
00:10:21you've got the
00:10:21instinct
00:10:22known for it
00:10:23you brought it
00:10:24inside the house
00:10:25then
00:10:28how did you
00:10:29know it was
00:10:29outside
00:10:29you won't find
00:10:30that inside
00:10:31has to be
00:10:32brought in
00:10:33has to be
00:10:34looks like an
00:10:35eye doesn't it
00:10:36it's only a
00:10:37marble cut in half
00:10:41I heard you
00:10:42had vermin
00:10:44now if I was
00:10:44you I should
00:10:45take a walk
00:10:45through the woods
00:10:46up the bridle
00:10:47path to the
00:10:48right and back
00:10:49by the gamekeeper's
00:10:49cottage
00:10:50that's where I
00:10:51should go if I
00:10:52was troubled with
00:10:56vermin
00:10:57used to be all
00:10:58oak around here
00:10:59you know
00:11:02but the forestry
00:11:03they don't like
00:11:04the old trees
00:11:05they cut them
00:11:06down burn them
00:11:07up turn them
00:11:07into paper
00:11:08and plant
00:11:08conifers
00:11:11that's the
00:11:11forestry way
00:11:14go a long
00:11:15way in them
00:11:15woods before
00:11:16you've come
00:11:16across an
00:11:16oak nowadays
00:11:20what does he
00:11:21mean by that
00:11:22oh he'm a
00:11:23learned fellow
00:11:24fisher
00:11:25he can't tell
00:11:26what he means
00:11:26with that
00:11:38fire
00:11:38yeah
00:11:38I
00:11:42I
00:11:45I
00:11:46I
00:11:47I
00:11:54Oh
00:12:23Doing his exercises, wasn't he?
00:12:26I don't know, Mrs. Viggoe, was he?
00:12:27Oh, that's Rob. He's known for it. Karate.
00:12:31Does he have to be naked?
00:12:34Naked, was he?
00:12:35Well, he had something on, but all intents and purposes.
00:12:37Ah, what do you think of him, then?
00:12:40I hope I don't understand it.
00:12:41Oh, it sounds a reason. If you've got vermin, Rob's the man.
00:12:45Take the path by the gamekeeper's cottage, Fisher said.
00:12:49That's Rob's job, isn't it? That's what he's trained for.
00:12:52Rats, rabbits, foxes, they have a skill work controlling them.
00:12:58You've not controlled them.
00:13:00They're only mice.
00:13:01That's right. Vermin.
00:13:05Yes, well, I've been meaning to put poison down, as you know.
00:13:17I'm sure that man's mental.
00:13:22Really, I think Mr. Fisher might have...
00:13:25I mean, there must be easier ways to get rid of...
00:13:28One can hardly walk straight up to a naked man and say,
00:13:31please get rid of my mice.
00:13:33Isn't he employed by somebody?
00:13:35He works for the estate, don't he?
00:13:38I suppose I'd better get in touch with the estate office.
00:13:42It's quite a good idea to get a professional.
00:13:45That's right.
00:13:51You're quite an educated woman, aren't you?
00:13:54Yes, yes, I am.
00:13:56There's nobody educated round here.
00:13:58I was the only boy in the old village to go to Grandma's call.
00:14:02The first in eight years.
00:14:04It's all inbreeding and intermarriage round here.
00:14:08They're stupid.
00:14:09You don't have many friends, I take it.
00:14:12I don't have any friends.
00:14:13But at the agricultural...
00:14:15I've left there, haven't I?
00:14:17Wouldn't make any friends round here.
00:14:19Why'd you come back?
00:14:20You go where there's a job offered.
00:14:21One doesn't pick and choose.
00:14:22I mean, can't one go, well, anywhere?
00:14:24In England, abroad, somewhere underdeveloped?
00:14:27I would have gone to Canada, but I didn't have the fare.
00:14:30I'm saving for it.
00:14:32Don't they have assisted passages for qualified people?
00:14:37I don't think you'll have any more trouble.
00:14:41You could put the poison down yourself, as a matter of fact.
00:14:43I've offended you, how?
00:14:45It's harmless to human beings.
00:14:47They won't die in the wall.
00:14:48They come out to die.
00:14:49It's asking questions, isn't it?
00:14:51I've been impertinent.
00:14:52You should have your pipes lag properly, if you didn't want mice.
00:14:55Rob, please.
00:14:56That's not my name.
00:14:57I'm sorry, they didn't give me any name but Rob.
00:15:00They call me Rob in the village.
00:15:03I answer to it to save trouble.
00:15:06Please sit down.
00:15:08I haven't any friends either.
00:15:16My name's Edgar.
00:15:19I'm not qualified.
00:15:21I failed the finals.
00:15:25Let me give you some more coffee.
00:15:28I do have friends in London, of course.
00:15:31I don't like them very much.
00:15:35My own life is in rather a mess, Edgar.
00:15:39That matters at my age.
00:15:41It's not really disastrous.
00:15:43I shall start again and it won't take you long, you know,
00:15:45before you save up enough for Canada.
00:15:47What happened?
00:15:49Oh, you don't have to tell me.
00:15:52I was living with someone for eight years.
00:15:56It broke up.
00:15:58Divorced?
00:15:58We weren't married.
00:16:00You don't approve?
00:16:02Perhaps you're right.
00:16:05It seemed the best thing to us but clearly it's ended badly.
00:16:09It's not my business.
00:16:11Anyway, what I'm trying to say is because...
00:16:14because I felt I'd failed at something and didn't know how to face people
00:16:17because in my own case I felt that people were either over-sympathetic
00:16:22or really rather unscrupulous
00:16:27or just simply uncomfortable at being with me.
00:16:31for I felt so, which probably made them so.
00:16:35Anyway, I gave up my job and I came to live here.
00:16:39But I shall go back and start again.
00:16:41I shan't waste the rest of my life.
00:16:45I finished the course, you know.
00:16:47I wasn't thrown out.
00:16:49Can't you take the exam again?
00:16:50I don't want to.
00:16:51I had no right to fail me.
00:16:56I don't mind if you call me Rob.
00:17:00Everyone else does.
00:17:01Why?
00:17:02I don't know.
00:17:03I can't remember.
00:17:04I was only six when I was adopted.
00:17:06And then when I applied to go to agriculture college,
00:17:09they wanted my birth certificate.
00:17:11And I found out what my name was.
00:17:13Who adopted you?
00:17:14Auntie Vigo.
00:17:15What?
00:17:15My Mrs...
00:17:16She got six for her own.
00:17:17I suppose the orphanage thought that made her suitable.
00:17:19I mean, she got paid for it.
00:17:22It's not like being really adopted, you could say.
00:17:24I never called her mum or anything like that.
00:17:28Just Auntie Vigo.
00:17:29She didn't stint me.
00:17:30Not for food or anything.
00:17:31Or the uniform for the grandma.
00:17:33It all costs money.
00:17:35She's all right.
00:17:37I don't remember my real mother.
00:17:40You don't live with her?
00:17:41No.
00:17:42I'm on my own now.
00:17:43I prefer that.
00:17:45She comes in and cleans like she does for you.
00:17:47More like a servant in a way than my auntie.
00:17:52I don't belong down there, you see.
00:17:55Not in the village.
00:17:57Now that I've gone to college,
00:18:00it's raised me.
00:18:03I'm more like you, aren't I?
00:18:06Yes.
00:18:08Just a minute.
00:18:24What do you make of this?
00:18:27Oh, it's a marble.
00:18:28Cut in half.
00:18:30One of their large size.
00:18:33You don't see them often.
00:18:36If you found it on your windowsill,
00:18:37would you bring it indoors?
00:18:39I don't know.
00:18:41It's pretty, I suppose.
00:18:43The colours.
00:18:46There was a girl I once went out with
00:18:47used to read house and garden.
00:18:51An ornament?
00:18:52Would you?
00:18:53What?
00:18:53If you found it on your windowsill,
00:18:55would you bring it inside?
00:18:56But why would?
00:18:56I don't know if you did.
00:18:58I want to know how it got there.
00:19:01But would you bring it indoors?
00:19:05Throw it away, wouldn't I?
00:19:06I mean, it's no use to anyone.
00:19:10But then I'm not a woman.
00:19:15No, you're not.
00:19:21He's quite extraordinary, isn't she?
00:19:25I go around like Lady Chatterley all the time,
00:19:27having to hold myself in.
00:19:29Why bother if you fancy him?
00:19:30Oh, really, Jake.
00:19:31Well, you're a free woman.
00:19:32People would talk, for one thing.
00:19:35As far as I can see,
00:19:36there's no privacy at all in the country.
00:19:37Whatever you do, wherever you go,
00:19:39everybody knows.
00:19:40If you're going to go around like Lady Chatterley,
00:19:42the woods are traditional.
00:19:43Some mossy glade,
00:19:45where you can feel the rough touch
00:19:45of the earth on your backside.
00:19:47Rough touch of the nettles, more likely.
00:19:51There are too many people
00:19:52in the woods.
00:19:54People?
00:19:55One gets that feeling.
00:19:57I've been watched.
00:20:00Well, there are people, bound to be.
00:20:03Forestry people.
00:20:05But Rob himself, he's got a cottage there.
00:20:08It's not exactly a desert.
00:20:11It's not exactly a Charing Cross station, either.
00:20:13I can't explain it.
00:20:15It's just a feeling.
00:20:16Yes, I understand.
00:20:18Fiddy, it's nice here.
00:20:19Don't shave.
00:20:20No, I do.
00:20:20I know exactly, love.
00:20:22You've begun to get that feeling,
00:20:23and it's no good.
00:20:24You'll have to sell up.
00:20:26Eh?
00:20:27Well, I expect there's some medical term for it.
00:20:29Something or other phobia.
00:20:31I'd lie awake all night
00:20:32listening to the voices.
00:20:33What voices?
00:20:35In the wind, dear.
00:20:36Wasn't windy last night.
00:20:37How do you know there's a wind?
00:20:39There is, though.
00:20:41Sometimes.
00:20:42Comes down the hill,
00:20:43through the trees.
00:20:44Comes down that nasty little private road of yours,
00:20:47whipping in and out of the potholes.
00:20:48And you hear the voices.
00:20:51Drunken voices.
00:20:52Singing.
00:20:54Shouting things.
00:20:55Frightened women.
00:20:57A child.
00:20:59Yuck.
00:21:01I don't hear any such thing.
00:21:04I'll get some more of this.
00:21:07That wasn't very clever.
00:21:10Yes, it was.
00:21:11What are you up to?
00:21:12Good works.
00:21:13What good works?
00:21:15It's not right, Nora,
00:21:15vegetating in the country like this.
00:21:17She should be back in town,
00:21:19getting on with the business of living.
00:21:20I want her to go off this place
00:21:22and the sooner the better.
00:21:23Sell it.
00:21:24Nora, if she doesn't want to do that,
00:21:25keep it for weekends
00:21:26and ask people to stay.
00:21:27Well, we're here.
00:21:29And whom else has she asked?
00:21:30Ever?
00:21:32I don't like being Nora's only friends.
00:21:33It's too much of a responsibility.
00:21:36And here's Lady Chatterley herself
00:21:37with a foaming jug.
00:21:38I put rather more lemonade in it this time.
00:21:40When are we going to see this
00:21:43gamekeeper of yours?
00:21:44I keep telling you,
00:21:45we're not on social terms.
00:21:47Keeps him to herself.
00:21:48Won't show him to her friends.
00:21:49We're not on social terms.
00:21:52Then I'd get some more mice, darling,
00:21:53if I were you.
00:21:55Harold's pet apartment
00:21:56might send some up.
00:21:57As a matter of fact,
00:21:58he has borrowed a couple books.
00:22:00Oh.
00:22:01Oh.
00:22:13Oh.
00:22:14Oh.
00:22:17Oh.
00:22:22Oh.
00:22:28Oh.
00:22:44Blast that, Jake.
00:22:49You've not seen his weapons, then?
00:22:52No.
00:22:54Souvenirs.
00:22:55Of what?
00:22:57Gestapo. Stormtrooper.
00:22:58Surely Rob's too young to know anything about the Gestapo.
00:23:02He writes away for them, doesn't he?
00:23:05He writes to the body magazines.
00:23:07They're full of adverts for that trash.
00:23:11Can't the butcher do that?
00:23:13It doesn't come from the butcher.
00:23:14It's one of mine.
00:23:15Been hanging upside down all night.
00:23:20Oh, foul little fleas all together.
00:23:24Really, Mrs. Viggo, when I asked you to bring me a chicken,
00:23:26I didn't mean you to kill one specially.
00:23:29Oh, she's broody.
00:23:30No use for laying.
00:23:31Ring her neck, slit her throat.
00:23:33Hang her up.
00:23:34That's all she's good for.
00:23:36There, back again.
00:23:38Bound to be.
00:23:40Why?
00:23:40Rob put poison down.
00:23:42Peter.
00:23:44Peter?
00:23:47Got no teeth.
00:23:48Him all gummy, Peter.
00:23:50Known for it.
00:23:52What's that to do with the mice?
00:23:53He eats the sandwiches in your shed, doesn't he?
00:23:56He can't manage the crust.
00:23:57He leaves them laying.
00:23:59Encouragement to mice, that am.
00:24:01Bound to be.
00:24:02Yes, well, I'd better ask Rob to have another go at them.
00:24:06Him coming to supper, as I hear.
00:24:09From whom?
00:24:10Pardon?
00:24:12From whom do you hear this?
00:24:15Nobody.
00:24:19From Rob?
00:24:21No.
00:24:22Why would Rob tell me?
00:24:24That's a private affair.
00:24:25Somebody told you.
00:24:26You did.
00:24:27Asked me to get a chicken.
00:24:29You wouldn't cook a chicken for yourself.
00:24:32Anybody might have been coming.
00:24:34That's right.
00:24:35He bought some gentleman's cologne.
00:24:38Gunsmoke.
00:24:38Wilf Bullmore bought him the bus.
00:24:40Twelve and six.
00:24:45Why do you call him Rob when his name's Edgar?
00:24:49Answers to it.
00:24:50It's not his name.
00:24:52Short for Robin.
00:24:54You don't like Edgar as a name?
00:24:57Got nothing against it.
00:24:59You ask Fisher.
00:25:01He'll tell you all about the names, all the old names.
00:25:04He's noted for learning.
00:25:07There's always one young man who answers to the name of Robin in these parts.
00:25:11Has to be.
00:25:25Really, this is ridiculous.
00:25:30Well, why not, if one fancies him?
00:25:33Better to be safe than fame.
00:25:54Is that you, Rob?
00:25:55Rob?
00:25:57Yeah.
00:25:59You said a quarter to eight.
00:26:01You're very punctual.
00:26:02It's an admirable habit.
00:26:04I thought we'd have a drink on the patio if it's not too cold.
00:26:18That was the Waffen SS.
00:26:20Like, they weren't police, you see.
00:26:22They were soldiers, only they weren't part of the army.
00:26:25I mean, they still wore the SS uniform, you know, black with a death's head badge.
00:26:29Sure.
00:26:30But they had this independent discipline, quite separate from the army because of being an elite, you see.
00:26:35A lot of the guards in the concentration camps were Waffen SS.
00:26:38They had the toughness for it.
00:26:40Isn't it Waffen?
00:26:42Isn't that how it's pronounced, Waffen SS?
00:26:46I don't know.
00:26:48I never heard it pronounced, I just read about it.
00:26:51Maybe we'd better go into the other room, it's more comfortable.
00:26:55You can tell they were different from the army because of the names of the ranks.
00:26:58They were all called Führer, right down to the Corporate.
00:27:01That means leader in German, Führer does.
00:27:03I know.
00:27:03The Corporate was a rotten Führer, and the Sergeant was an untissioned Führer.
00:27:07You'll excuse me if I doesn't live upstairs for a moment, I'll be a moment.
00:27:09A general was a Krippen Führer, that's a lieutenant general, and a major general was...
00:27:13I'll show you a moment.
00:27:14Oh, that's all right.
00:27:14There's one downstairs as well, through that door.
00:27:17You could always pee in the garden, there's nobody about.
00:27:19I'm all right.
00:27:21Thank you very much.
00:27:24Dear God, to think I said I fancied him.
00:27:27You're middle-aged, Nora Palmer.
00:27:29Two more hours chat about the SS and you'll be an old woman.
00:27:47Oh, you, uh...
00:27:49No, I wasn't.
00:27:50I thought I heard something.
00:27:51It's like a motor or something up on the road, up on your hill.
00:27:53It's not now.
00:27:54Well, the tractor comes down sometimes.
00:27:56Not at this time of night, it doesn't.
00:27:58I couldn't say anything, though.
00:28:01Yes, well, I'll get you a drink.
00:28:02Not for me, thanks.
00:28:04I mean, I have to keep myself in condition.
00:28:06Of course.
00:28:08If two people are having a really interesting conversation,
00:28:11you don't need a drink to keep it going.
00:28:12I think I do need a drink.
00:28:15Well, what it was, you see, the SS,
00:28:17it was like an order of chivalry.
00:28:19Like King Arthur and the Round Table.
00:28:22Ah.
00:28:29Not in jail.
00:28:34The SD was the Security Service.
00:28:36They were merged with the Ordinary Security in 1939
00:28:39to form the RSHA.
00:28:42I thought it was military history you were interested in.
00:28:44I wouldn't have bothered to get you Michael's book
00:28:46on the Franco-Prussian War
00:28:47if I'd thought it was only the SS.
00:28:52I'm expanding my interests all the time.
00:28:55Ah.
00:28:56Anyway.
00:28:57Oh, I'm so sorry.
00:28:58That's all right.
00:28:59I expect it's the air.
00:29:00What is?
00:29:02Country air makes one sleepy.
00:29:04Known for it, as Mrs. Viggo would say.
00:29:06She's right.
00:29:06It does.
00:29:08I expect we're both ready for bed.
00:29:11Yes.
00:29:12I am.
00:29:16Well,
00:29:17if you're sure you won't have another drink before you go.
00:29:20No.
00:29:20I mean, yes.
00:29:21I am sure.
00:29:22I don't drink much.
00:29:24Well, say good night then
00:29:26thank you for coming over.
00:29:27I'm not really a lonely person
00:29:30but it does make a pleasant change
00:29:31cooking for someone else occasionally.
00:29:33Besides the mice.
00:29:34I don't think you'll have any more trouble with the mice.
00:29:36I've never been upstairs in your house.
00:29:46I can't see anything.
00:29:48Are there always noises at night?
00:29:51Yeah.
00:29:51They don't mean anything.
00:29:52I should have thought you'd have been used to them.
00:29:57You could do it a bit of protection, though, I dare say.
00:30:00No.
00:30:00What?
00:30:01No, I don't need any protection.
00:30:03Thank you, Rob.
00:30:04It's very kind and flattering
00:30:05that you should think of kissing a good night
00:30:07but really we don't know each other well enough.
00:30:09But I thought when you invited me...
00:30:10No, that was not the idea.
00:30:12Rob, my dear, I'm not a baby snatcher.
00:30:15I must be at least ten years older than you are.
00:30:18I'm not a baby.
00:30:20Of course not.
00:30:20You're a very good-looking young man.
00:30:22I'm sure there are plenty of girls in the village of your age.
00:30:24I don't have anything to do with them.
00:30:27I don't keep my body at its peak for them.
00:30:30Or for me, Rob.
00:30:32For yourself, perhaps?
00:30:40Good night.
00:30:42Thank you for supper.
00:30:48Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear.
00:30:51Oh, dear.
00:31:19Sheep! Sheep!
00:31:21Gone to bed. All right. Turn the van round. Ready to go.
00:32:15It's all right. It's all right, Miss Palmer. It's gone now.
00:32:19What was it? Only a bird. They come down the chimney when you haven't lit the fire, then they get
00:32:24frightened.
00:32:24They do. You thought it would get in your hair, didn't you? I've often heard it.
00:32:28I don't know what I thought. There's no need to be scared, Miss Palmer.
00:32:38They should tell me about the birds.
00:32:54What were you doing out there?
00:32:56I heard you scream.
00:32:58You've been gone an hour, at least.
00:33:00That's right. Somebody hit me over the ad.
00:33:03What?
00:33:03Oh! Poachers, I expect.
00:33:06Nothing to worry about.
00:33:11Harvey's Festival tomorrow.
00:33:24What it was, you see, I couldn't think of anything to say.
00:33:30I always wanted to be able to order conversation.
00:33:33I could never find anybody to order conversation with till I got to college.
00:33:37What about that girl you went out with? That girl you used to read house and garden?
00:33:41I only went out with her twice.
00:33:43It's the most I went out with any of them.
00:33:46I mean, just because I keep myself in condition and all that.
00:33:50At your peak?
00:33:52It's not enough, though, is it?
00:33:54Rob, my dear, you're a very good-looking young man.
00:33:58I said so, and I meant it.
00:34:00It's not much use if you can't think of anything to say.
00:34:04I mean, I have ad girls. Of course I have.
00:34:08But it...
00:34:10It was like being collected.
00:34:13Ah.
00:34:15Anyway, I read this article in a Reader's Digest about how we should specialize in one subject.
00:34:20Because experts are always interesting.
00:34:23And I noticed these adverts in my bodybuilding magazines for SS uniforms and weapons.
00:34:28And I thought...
00:34:30I'll specialize in that.
00:34:32Because obviously a lot of people are interested in it.
00:34:36Did it work?
00:34:39You're the first person I've been out with since.
00:34:42And we did hold a conversation, didn't we?
00:34:47Except at the end...
00:34:50When you wanted to get rid of me.
00:34:53Never mind.
00:34:55I thought you wanted me to seduce you, you see.
00:34:59Well, I did, in a way.
00:35:01I expect I missed the psychological moment to move things to a more physical plane.
00:35:13Bloody birds.
00:35:18I've come to take you to church.
00:35:20But I...
00:35:21I'm an agnostic.
00:35:23Jewish?
00:35:24You didn't say you were Jewish.
00:35:26No, Mrs. Viggo.
00:35:28Agnostic means, um...
00:35:30One isn't religious.
00:35:31One doesn't go to church.
00:35:32Well, you can't, can you?
00:35:34Parson only comes over one Sunday in four.
00:35:36He rides his cycle from Painsbury.
00:35:39Bishop said, if you don't come to Arvis Festival, Parson, you'll get no welcome here at all.
00:35:45And I'll do lay reading.
00:35:47Consequently, Arvis Festival, we always have him.
00:35:50And he has dinner with Major Graves.
00:35:51I'm not religious.
00:35:53Easter's the same.
00:35:53We reckon to have him over then.
00:35:55Christmas is another matter.
00:35:56We don't take much account of it.
00:35:58Mrs. Viggo.
00:35:59You'll need a hat.
00:36:00I brought one.
00:36:03Decorations can't be missed.
00:36:04We're known for them.
00:36:06Sheaves, apples, pumpkins, big as your arse.
00:36:10I came to fetch you.
00:36:12I came up to fetch you.
00:36:14And it had not be thought kindly if you seemed to spurn the decorations.
00:36:20Well, then I need a dress.
00:36:21Oh, so long as you're not in trousers, they won't reckon to put you out.
00:36:31Oh, so long as you're not in trousers, they won't reckon to put you out.
00:36:49Hmm.
00:36:51What's the matter?
00:36:53The drainpipe's come away from the wall.
00:36:56Careless.
00:37:00Come away, that has.
00:37:02And why?
00:37:02It was all right yesterday.
00:37:04That's right.
00:37:05Come away in the night.
00:37:07What's that?
00:37:10You can hear the bells.
00:37:12Twice a year, then, gets rung.
00:37:17Rope broke last year.
00:37:22Don't want to be late.
00:37:24No, all right.
00:37:25There's something I wanted to ask you about, Mrs. Weiger.
00:37:28Something seems to be missing from the bathroom.
00:37:31I wondered if you'd moved it.
00:37:33What's that, then?
00:37:34Well, um, it's a, it's a small, well, a cap.
00:37:44Not a hat, you know.
00:37:47A contraceptive cap, in fact.
00:37:50A duck.
00:37:53I mean, one uses it.
00:37:58Never mind, it doesn't matter.
00:38:00I must have misled it somehow.
00:38:10And so, at this time of fulfilment of the country year, let our thoughts return to that one source
00:38:20from which all good gifts come from, and then, we wise or foolish virgins, let us say,
00:38:30we shall keep our oil for thee, Lord, guarding and holding our precious seed, even in the dark
00:38:42days of winter, to bring it forth once more, in the spring, when the green shoots pierce the earth,
00:38:52in praise of the only begetter of all our goodness.
00:39:00And now, to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be as strong as his most
00:39:05justly evil.
00:39:17Mending your drainpipe, which has come away.
00:39:20Last night.
00:39:21As I heard.
00:39:22From whom?
00:39:24Hmm?
00:39:24Never mind.
00:39:26Peter's excused Harvest Festival, I suppose.
00:39:29Unlike me, he isn't expected to admire the decorations.
00:39:31Oh, he took part in the worship, but he did not remain for the sermon.
00:39:36And you?
00:39:37Oh, I'm a lay reader, Miss Palmer.
00:39:40Is that an answer?
00:39:42Our parson is not an educated man.
00:39:45Merest brummie, to tell you the truth.
00:39:48He takes his sermons out of a book.
00:39:51Holy Thoughts for a Holy Year.
00:39:53Evangelical Press, 12th and 6th.
00:39:56But in rural areas, the church puts up with what it can afford.
00:40:00We don't complain.
00:40:02You feel you could do better?
00:40:05Just as perhaps you could tell me how on a quiet September night,
00:40:09the drainpipe came away from the wall.
00:40:12We should say it was someone on your roof.
00:40:16Some man?
00:40:17I find it easier than a lady.
00:40:21Some lurker.
00:40:24Why?
00:40:26After no good.
00:40:29Burglar?
00:40:30That's ridiculous.
00:40:31Well, perhaps you heard something.
00:40:34In the night?
00:40:35Nothing.
00:40:35Nothing at all happened last night.
00:40:38Nothing happened.
00:40:41A bird came down the chimney.
00:40:43Ah.
00:40:44I said it was a place of birds.
00:40:48Must have been a very large bird, Miss Palmer,
00:40:51to have dislodged your drainpipe.
00:40:53It wasn't.
00:40:55Just an ordinary frightened bird.
00:40:58A nightingale, perhaps?
00:41:00Or an owl.
00:41:02At that time of night.
00:41:04Nothing was taken.
00:41:06Nothing missing at all.
00:41:08Nothing.
00:41:10Excuse me.
00:41:27Something boring has happened.
00:41:29Yes?
00:41:30I appear to be pregnant.
00:41:32Appear to be?
00:41:33Um.
00:41:34You've been having it off, dear, with that young man.
00:41:37Yes.
00:41:38Laura!
00:41:39How could you possibly...
00:41:40I don't understand it myself.
00:41:42Forgot?
00:41:43Hmm.
00:41:44Disappeared.
00:41:45For one night, and reappeared the next day.
00:41:48Does she mean?
00:41:49Precautions, Jake.
00:41:51Oh!
00:41:52Ah!
00:41:53But why should...
00:41:53I don't know why anyone should do such a thing.
00:41:56The only possible reason is that somebody actually wanted me pregnant,
00:41:58which is too stupid to consider seriously.
00:42:01Laura, dear, I mean, even then...
00:42:02You didn't have to, did you?
00:42:04I didn't have to, Jake.
00:42:05I didn't intend to.
00:42:06It happened.
00:42:08May one ask how?
00:42:10I was frightened by a bird that came down the chimney.
00:42:13And fell into his arms?
00:42:15He had, in fact, left the house an hour before.
00:42:18I'd gone to bed.
00:42:20I heard a strange noise and went downstairs.
00:42:23The bird was trapped.
00:42:25It flew at me.
00:42:25I screamed.
00:42:27He happened to be outside and heard me.
00:42:29Happened to be?
00:42:31A passing poacher had hit him on the head and knocked him out.
00:42:35Yes, yes, yes, of course.
00:42:36It also seems likely that somebody may have been on the roof at that time.
00:42:40The bird may actually have been put down the chimney.
00:42:43You mean that he, think?
00:42:45Rob.
00:42:46Thank you, Rob.
00:42:46You mean he did it?
00:42:47I don't know what to think.
00:42:49I tell you, the whole thing's too fantastic to bear thought.
00:42:51You do think about it, though.
00:42:52And you are pregnant.
00:42:54I said so.
00:42:56You'd like us to do something about it?
00:42:59Thank you, Madge.
00:43:00I'm quite capable of finding an abortionist myself.
00:43:05Sorry.
00:43:06Sorry.
00:43:07Does he know?
00:43:09And do you actually think that he may have, well, planned the whole thing?
00:43:12I don't know what to think.
00:43:13I mean, maybe he's telling the truth.
00:43:15I can't remember if he had a bump on his head or not.
00:43:18The bird may have come down the chimney on his own.
00:43:21I didn't hear anybody on the roof,
00:43:23except that the drainpipe had come away.
00:43:26And Rob's not bright.
00:43:27I mean, it's such a complicated plot, if it is a plot.
00:43:31Anyhow, how could he have got in the house to stay?
00:43:33How would he know where to look?
00:43:35How would he know I wasn't on the pill?
00:43:38Yes, you're right.
00:43:39It's mad, the whole thing.
00:43:40There's no reason for it.
00:43:42He thought I wanted to be seduced.
00:43:44He even said so.
00:43:44Oh, he thought you wanted me to.
00:43:46So why?
00:43:47Why?
00:43:49Anyway, I've gone right off him.
00:43:51And you won't go back?
00:43:53Oh.
00:43:54Sometime.
00:43:55In the spring.
00:43:57The moment it's more important to find a job
00:43:59and somewhere to live.
00:44:16You mustn't.
00:44:17Mustn't.
00:44:18What are you doing here?
00:44:19I came to tell you.
00:44:20I got the day off because it's Christmas.
00:44:23I came up my train.
00:44:24You'd better come in.
00:44:36Well, do you want tea or anything?
00:44:37You mustn't kill.
00:44:38Now, Rob, sit down.
00:44:40Don't kill my son.
00:44:41Oh, is that it?
00:44:43Don't do it.
00:44:44And how did you find out?
00:44:46Auntie Vigo.
00:44:47No point in asking how she knew I was pregnant,
00:44:49since she knows everything.
00:44:51Did she also tell you I was thinking of an abortion?
00:44:53She said you were modern in your thoughts.
00:44:55I'll make some tea.
00:44:57No.
00:44:57Now, Rob.
00:44:58I only got a day return, then I had to find a way.
00:45:00A taxi would have known it.
00:45:01I'd no money for taxis.
00:45:02The train goes back in 40 minutes.
00:45:04You won't kill him, will you?
00:45:11Rob, are you asking me to marry you?
00:45:15No?
00:45:16Well, I wouldn't even if you did.
00:45:19So what you're asking me to do is to bear the child,
00:45:22and then rear it,
00:45:23all on my own and unmarried mother.
00:45:26That's what you took a day return to ask me?
00:45:29I'd help.
00:45:30Support it?
00:45:31When you can't even afford a taxi?
00:45:33Or would you send me the money from Canada when you get there?
00:45:40You're the mother.
00:45:41Don't you want him?
00:45:43It?
00:45:44No.
00:45:45I'll take him, then.
00:45:46Why do you want him?
00:45:50It's my seed, isn't it?
00:45:53How dare you.
00:45:55How dare you come here and talk to me about your seed
00:45:58like something out of one of your SS textbooks.
00:46:02Do you think I want an abortion?
00:46:04I've never wanted a child,
00:46:06but that's a different matter to killing one,
00:46:08scraping one out,
00:46:09curating it,
00:46:09all those words.
00:46:11What's inside me may look like a tadpole.
00:46:14It may not feel or think or breathe,
00:46:15but it's a life to me.
00:46:16It's part of me.
00:46:18I don't want it killed any more than you do.
00:46:21I'm 35.
00:46:23Soon I shall be past the age to bear a child.
00:46:25I didn't think I'd mind that.
00:46:27I'd make a terrible mother anyway.
00:46:29But now I find I do mind.
00:46:32I do care.
00:46:33I do feel.
00:46:34I do want this child almost as much as I don't want it,
00:46:36maybe more.
00:46:37I'm mixed up and really rather unhappy about it.
00:46:41So don't tell me what to do, Rob.
00:46:44Because it may be your child,
00:46:46but it's certainly not your business.
00:46:52You brought that with you then?
00:46:57I found it in my suitcase when I unpacked.
00:47:00No doctor or auntie Vigo put it there.
00:47:02She's a strange woman.
00:47:03Known for it.
00:47:06Just tell me one thing, Rob.
00:47:10That bird that came down the chimney that night
00:47:12and frightened me.
00:47:13Did you?
00:47:17No?
00:47:19Well, I didn't expect you to tell me,
00:47:21even if you had.
00:47:24Anyway, I want it clearly understood, Rob.
00:47:27When I come down to the cottage again,
00:47:30whatever I decide to do about the child,
00:47:32I don't want to see you.
00:47:36Seed is just seed, Rob.
00:47:39Doesn't give you any rights.
00:47:51I brought you a present.
00:48:12You don't have to keep the baby.
00:48:14Nobody suggested that.
00:48:16I'm a busy woman, not given to motherhood.
00:48:18Indeed?
00:48:19You're going to have him looked after.
00:48:21His father came from the orphanage, as you know.
00:48:24Aren't you being rather impertinent?
00:48:26Oh, good advice, that, Anne.
00:48:28Not cheeky.
00:48:29There's a difference.
00:48:31Mrs. Fieger, has it ever occurred to you
00:48:34that I don't have to employ you?
00:48:35You can't do the cleaning, not by yourself.
00:48:38First, you're not used to the work,
00:48:39and second, you're too heavy.
00:48:41And you won't get nobody else come from the village,
00:48:43I tell you that.
00:48:45Because I'm a fallen woman.
00:48:47Because I cleans here.
00:48:50I come up special to give you a good welcome.
00:48:54So if you're feeling like a cup,
00:48:55I'll make some tea.
00:49:02I'll come up daily.
00:49:04You'll be needing to take things easy.
00:49:06No need to pay.
00:49:09I don't know that I should be staying all that long.
00:49:12Oh, you're here for the rest.
00:49:13For the weekend.
00:49:15After all, I have a job again now.
00:49:18I'll never work in seven months' job.
00:49:20It's only brain work.
00:49:23Well, it can be done anywhere.
00:49:25Indeed, yes.
00:49:26Therefore, not necessarily here.
00:49:30Easter, I'm in two weeks.
00:49:33Yes.
00:49:35Here I'm your place, miss.
00:49:37Come the winter, the dark days,
00:49:40you go where you will.
00:49:42And there's no objection, no effort made to keep you.
00:49:45But now,
00:49:47come Easter,
00:49:50here I'm your place.
00:49:51Here I'm my place.
00:50:13There we go.
00:50:35I don't know.
00:50:45The car won't start.
00:50:47We could hear you had difficulty.
00:50:49I suppose the petrol pump in the village doesn't run to a mechanic.
00:50:53Can you have flooded the engine?
00:50:55Well, the plugs would not be wet since the car is under cover.
00:51:01Perhaps you'd like to try, Mr. Fisher.
00:51:03You seem to know a lot about it.
00:51:04Oh, I'm not mechanical, Miss Palmer.
00:51:06I understand the language of machinery.
00:51:09It's not the practice.
00:51:10Fisher don't do driving.
00:51:11He leaves that to others.
00:51:13Mr. Well-beloved, the butcher, is our mechanic.
00:51:16With your permission, I'll ask him to step over.
00:51:19His wife can look after the shop.
00:51:23It's a long way, I'm afraid.
00:51:25Oh, luckily, I have my bicycle.
00:51:28Here, don't drive.
00:51:30Him known for learning, not for driving cars.
00:51:36Cracking the distributor rotor, isn't it?
00:51:38I shouldn't know a distributor rotor if I saw one, cracked or not.
00:51:41The point is, can you fix it?
00:51:44You can't fix it.
00:51:45I'm cracked.
00:51:46You would have to replace the part.
00:51:48All right.
00:51:49Replace it.
00:51:52Miss Palmer wishes you to replace the part.
00:51:55How long will it take?
00:51:56No time.
00:51:58Good.
00:51:59When I has a rotor.
00:52:01I suppose a garage would have one.
00:52:04Could try to eavesham.
00:52:07You'd better use my phone.
00:52:08Try as many garages as you'd like.
00:52:13We'll phone the garage, Henry.
00:52:15We must help all we can.
00:52:18Allow me to assist you, Miss Palmer.
00:52:20I don't know what you're doing here.
00:52:21Mr. Wellbeloved is phone in the garage.
00:52:23Anyway, why suddenly go this distributor thing?
00:52:27Most things in cars go suddenly, Miss Palmer.
00:52:30An unconsidered crack in metal.
00:52:32A weakness in a belt or a pipe.
00:52:33A sharp stone in a tire.
00:52:34A loose wire.
00:52:36All unnoticed for mile after mile.
00:52:39Approaching ever nearer the point of no return.
00:52:42And then...
00:52:43Breakdown.
00:52:46It's the same with bicycles, to tell you the truth.
00:52:48Aha.
00:52:49Yes.
00:52:50It, um...
00:52:51Couldn't be, um...
00:52:53Induced.
00:52:54I mean, I never locked my garage if there were somebody hanging around outside.
00:52:59Why should anyone do such a thing?
00:53:01I don't know why.
00:53:02Could it be done?
00:53:04It's bound to be noticed.
00:53:06To crack the rotor from the outside, as it were.
00:53:09With scissors, say.
00:53:12Be immediately noticeable to a skilled mechanic.
00:53:15Shall I just take this off?
00:53:19Reads a lot, Fisher.
00:53:20Books of all sorts.
00:53:24What does the garage say?
00:53:26Can't get it to Eavesham.
00:53:27They may have to go to Coventry.
00:53:29Oh, that's not far.
00:53:30Two weeks' delivery.
00:53:35I suppose I...
00:53:37I could take a train.
00:53:42It's ludicrous.
00:53:43There isn't a station nearer than Eavesham, and the bus only goes through the village twice a week.
00:53:47Taxi?
00:53:47It isn't a taxi.
00:53:49When I tried to get some people in Eashham, the number didn't reply.
00:53:53What's wrong with the car?
00:53:55Immobilized.
00:53:56They took the distributor thing away.
00:53:57I knew why they should bother when it isn't any good.
00:53:59I'm sure you could work.
00:54:00I mean, why do you have to come back to London?
00:54:01I can work perfectly well from here.
00:54:03There's no reason to come back to London.
00:54:06That's not the point, Jake.
00:54:07I feel such a prisoner without the car.
00:54:10She says she feels a prisoner without the car.
00:54:11What?
00:54:12She wants you to go and fetch her, I suppose.
00:54:15Anyway, what I was wondering, Jake, my dear, if you and Madge would like a day in the country on
00:54:19Sunday.
00:54:21I said if you and Madge would like a day in the country on Sunday.
00:54:24What? I can't hear.
00:54:25She's working up to it.
00:54:27Hello? Hello, Nora?
00:54:28Ah, that's better. The 97 Nigerians on the line.
00:54:31Hello?
00:54:32Hello, Nora?
00:54:34Oh, blast.
00:54:35Is that all?
00:54:36Yes, I'd better try the exchange, I suppose.
00:54:38I shouldn't bother. She's boundering again.
00:54:41Hello.
00:54:43Hello, hello, exchange.
00:54:45Hello.
00:54:52I see.
00:54:57Out of order.
00:54:59There you are.
00:55:00I told you Nora would ring if she could.
00:55:03Well, what do you think?
00:55:04I mean, she obviously wants us to go out there and get her.
00:55:07Yes, but you didn't say so.
00:55:09Jake, love, when you consider how much bother the telephone usually causes, why be ungrateful when it does something convenient
00:55:16for a change?
00:55:17I mean, she isn't really a prisoner. This is 1970.
00:55:21If she wants to get away badly enough, she will.
00:55:24Oh.
00:55:27My phone's out of order.
00:55:30That's right.
00:55:32You knew?
00:55:34Used the box in the village this morning, didn't you?
00:55:37To report it, yes.
00:55:39I also tried the exchange to get me some taxi people in Evesham at the same time, but the number
00:55:43didn't reply.
00:55:43That's right.
00:55:45Mrs. Gibbons said you had trouble at the post office.
00:55:48It's Mrs. Gibbons, is it, who's been trying to get me the Evesham number?
00:55:52That's right.
00:55:54Does it seem odd to you, Mrs. Gibbons, that for five days I have been trying without any success to
00:56:00get away from here?
00:56:01It seems odd to me.
00:56:03I looked in at the butcher this morning, but apparently the rota hasn't arrived from Coventry.
00:56:10My car doesn't work, Mrs. Figo.
00:56:12My phone doesn't work.
00:56:14People put live birds down my chimney.
00:56:17I can't look out of the window at night without seeing Rob hanging around outside, and I've begun to feel
00:56:21trapped and decidedly nervous.
00:56:25Is he marrying about, then?
00:56:27Don't you know he is?
00:56:29I don't reckon to know every bloody thing, miss.
00:56:31But do you know, and will you tell me why I'm being kept in this cottage waiting for something alone?
00:56:37If you're lonely, you could ask Robin.
00:56:41Since I'm hanging about outside.
00:56:45Don't bother to come here anymore, Mrs. Figo.
00:56:48I can manage the cleaning for the short time I'm here.
00:56:53I'm sorry if I sound hysterical.
00:56:56I'm alone here.
00:56:59I keep telling myself it's only imagination, but I've had proof now.
00:57:05Yesterday was one of those days the bus comes.
00:57:09I packed a case and carried it a mile across the fields.
00:57:20I waited by the stop.
00:57:25There were a couple of village women there already.
00:57:30But they moved up the street.
00:57:33I don't know why, I was at the shelter.
00:57:38Then the bus arrived.
00:57:40It stopped up the street where the women were.
00:57:42They got in.
00:57:47I ran towards it.
00:57:50It passed me without stopping.
00:57:55There's something wrong, Jake.
00:57:58I don't know what it is.
00:58:00They're keeping me here for something, making sure I can't get away before Easter.
00:58:07I'm afraid.
00:58:08I'm afraid.
00:58:12Please, both of you, don't be rational about it.
00:58:15Make allowances and come and get me as soon as you can.
00:58:21I should be very careful with this one, Grace.
00:58:25Just hang on to it for a few days so it doesn't get lost in the post.
00:58:30The panel consists of Malcolm Muggeridge,
00:58:34Lord Longford,
00:58:35the very Reverend, the Suffragan Bishop of Eaton's Will,
00:58:39the Right Honourable Justin de Villeneuve,
00:58:42and a doctor.
00:58:45I don't think so.
00:58:45No, I don't think so.
00:59:17I'm sorry I made a wish.
00:59:22I don't think so.
00:59:32I'm sorry I'm sorry.
00:59:33I'm sorry.
00:59:35I'm sorry.
00:59:38I'm sorry.
00:59:40I don't think so.
00:59:44I can't.
00:59:58Hello? Hello?
01:00:22Can I help you? Yes, please. I want to make a London call. Hello? Hello, Exchange?
01:00:45I believe that Jesus Christ, if there was such a person, actually rose from the dead, so that when tomorrow
01:00:55morning we give the traditional Easter greeting, Christ is risen, what we are really saying is that...
01:01:02It's not even a good night for television. Oh, damn it's stupid. There's nothing to be frightened of.
01:01:13Stop talking to yourself, you're making me nervous.
01:01:16I know you're in.
01:01:18Who is it?
01:01:20Rob.
01:01:21I'm sorry, you can't come in. It's no good trying the door, it's locked.
01:01:27Please.
01:01:29I'll put the outside light on.
01:01:31Please.
01:01:35Let me in. Let me in, please.
01:01:41I told you, I didn't want to see you again. Why have you come?
01:01:43There wasn't anywhere else for me to go.
01:01:46Please let me in.
01:01:49I've got nothing to do with it.
01:01:51With what?
01:01:54With any of it.
01:01:57I'll let you in.
01:02:16I'm a pregnant woman, you shouldn't be bothering me.
01:02:18I got nervous.
01:02:18You got nervous?
01:02:19It's lonely where I live.
01:02:21You start imagining things.
01:02:23I wanted somebody to talk to me.
01:02:24You could have gone to the pub.
01:02:25Don't go to the pub.
01:02:28I'm sorry, but I'm not one of them, you know that.
01:02:32You better come in.
01:02:35I knew you'd be here, but I telephoned first anyway.
01:02:38That was you on the phone, why didn't you speak?
01:02:40I couldn't think what to say.
01:02:45Isn't that for me to do?
01:02:46What?
01:02:47Lock the door, it's my house.
01:02:49Yes, if you like.
01:02:50Why did you do it?
01:02:52Well, you had it locked before.
01:02:55Yes, well, you'd better come in and sit down.
01:03:07Well, you aren't sitting down.
01:03:10I shower when I want to.
01:03:11I feel rather restless at the moment.
01:03:12Nervous?
01:03:13I said restless.
01:03:15I thought you said you were nervous earlier.
01:03:23I feel better now.
01:03:27I hope you don't think I'm going to ask you to stay the night.
01:03:30Just because I...
01:03:33That doesn't give you any rights here.
01:03:34I don't think that.
01:03:37I'm going to Canada next week.
01:03:39I thought you'd like to know.
01:03:41How did you get the money?
01:03:43Loaned it.
01:03:44Ticket bought for me.
01:03:46By whom?
01:03:47Fisher.
01:03:48Why?
01:03:49I don't know.
01:03:52I think you do.
01:03:53No.
01:03:56Something you'd done.
01:03:58Some...
01:03:59Service rendered.
01:04:00I'm paying it back.
01:04:01It was only a single fare.
01:04:02Sixty pounds.
01:04:03I'd pay all the money back.
01:04:04What had you done for Fisher to induce him to lend it to you?
01:04:07Nothing.
01:04:07I told you.
01:04:10How did you know my phone would work when you rang?
01:04:13Why shouldn't it work?
01:04:15It's out of order.
01:04:16How should I know that?
01:04:17It's been out of order for a week.
01:04:18Everybody in the village knows.
01:04:19Then you want to phone.
01:04:21And it works.
01:04:23Then it goes out of order again.
01:04:25It's out of order now.
01:04:28Don't go to the village.
01:04:29But you know them well enough to borrow sixty pounds.
01:04:32I didn't borrow.
01:04:32It was loaned.
01:04:34I didn't ask.
01:04:35It was offered.
01:04:35I want to know why.
01:04:39Makes no difference.
01:04:42It was that night.
01:04:44You and me.
01:04:46When the bird came down the chimney.
01:04:48That's right.
01:04:53Sixty pounds.
01:04:55Rather a lot for a one night stand.
01:04:57Especially when he.
01:05:00Was he watching.
01:05:02Listening.
01:05:03Getting his kicks that way.
01:05:06That's not why it can't be.
01:05:08I don't know what you want about.
01:05:10You are on about.
01:05:11Mustn't pick up bad habits of speech from Aunty Vigo.
01:05:14Who knows everything.
01:05:15Look.
01:05:15I'm trying to tell you if you want to know.
01:05:18The poachers that night.
01:05:20The ones that knocked me out.
01:05:21That was Fisher.
01:05:23He said he had to attack me.
01:05:25Compelled to do it.
01:05:26He's respectable as Fisher.
01:05:28Known for it.
01:05:29He's a lay reader.
01:05:31If it was to come out he'd been poaching.
01:05:33His reputation would be besmirched.
01:05:35He said.
01:05:36You believe that.
01:05:36But why else would he?
01:05:37You expect me to believe it.
01:05:38It's the truth.
01:05:39If he hadn't told you he was a poacher.
01:05:41How the hell would you have known?
01:05:43Are you asking me to believe that seven months later.
01:05:45When you hadn't the least suspicion.
01:05:47He came to you and confessed.
01:05:48And then paid you 60 pounds.
01:05:50To keep your mouth shut.
01:05:51Are you asking me to believe that?
01:05:54He's a funny fellow.
01:05:56He's got his own ways.
01:06:09Why did you come here tonight?
01:06:11I told you.
01:06:13I got nervous.
01:06:14As if.
01:06:16People were watching me.
01:06:18What people?
01:06:19I don't know.
01:06:21Village people?
01:06:22Could be.
01:06:24You know what you said when you arrived.
01:06:27I've got nothing to do with it you said.
01:06:31With what?
01:06:32I don't know.
01:06:33You don't know much.
01:06:35They hadn't told you much.
01:06:36Just enough to get you indoors.
01:06:38They?
01:06:39People.
01:06:41You are nervous.
01:06:43You are nervous.
01:06:43Why are they keeping me here until after Easter?
01:06:47Why did the house have mice and has again?
01:06:50Because I would need you, Rob, to get rid of them.
01:06:54You are a very good looking young man.
01:06:56Known for it.
01:06:56And I'm a woman without a man.
01:06:59Sex starved, as they say.
01:07:02And when I ask you round for the evening, Rob, why is it I am robbed?
01:07:07What a jolly pun that is.
01:07:09I was robbed, wasn't I, in every way.
01:07:11I don't know what you mean.
01:07:12No means of contraception.
01:07:14It disappeared.
01:07:15And reappeared the next day.
01:07:17But the night intervened.
01:07:19You intervened.
01:07:19We made love if that's what you mean.
01:07:21You know we did.
01:07:21But sex.
01:07:23Rather arranged sex.
01:07:24The bull was brought to the cow.
01:07:26That happens in the country.
01:07:27And it took a lot of arranging because I went off you since you were boring me silly.
01:07:32So I put you out and I went alone to bed.
01:07:35Then a bird came down the chimney and I was frightened.
01:07:38And you were conveniently nearby to rescue me.
01:07:41And after that, what could be more convenient and romantic?
01:07:46Except someone had been on the roof to arrange that romantic rescue.
01:07:52Not me.
01:07:53That wasn't your part.
01:07:55It was on the head by Fisher.
01:07:57What's your part now, Rob?
01:07:58You're being funny with me, aren't you?
01:08:00I don't know what's in your mind exactly.
01:08:01I've heard of things.
01:08:03Every now and then there's a song and dance about it in the Sunday papers.
01:08:06Devil worship.
01:08:08Graves dug up.
01:08:09Churches desecrated.
01:08:11Blood.
01:08:12Stories of blood.
01:08:13Always rather vague.
01:08:14I never believed it happened seriously.
01:08:17You're being funny.
01:08:17Why are you keeping me here all of you?
01:08:20You're being funny.
01:08:20I don't understand.
01:08:21Yes, I'm being funny.
01:08:24This is very sharp.
01:08:26Your auntie Vigo uses it to cut the heads off chickens.
01:08:30You're after a chump.
01:08:33Your friends are outside.
01:08:34I've got no friends.
01:08:35So that was your part, Rob, to get in and then let them in.
01:08:40I don't know why.
01:08:41It's easy to break a window.
01:08:43Perhaps an act of betrayal is part of the ritual.
01:08:46Don't turn that key.
01:08:48Please.
01:08:48Come away from that door.
01:08:50I don't know much about killing people,
01:08:53but I do know where the most delicate, hurtful parts are.
01:08:57You tell your friends if anyone tries to get into this room,
01:09:01I'll make a mess of their prize bull.
01:09:13I don't understand any of this.
01:09:17Look, I'm on your side.
01:09:20I don't know what's happening, but I'm on your side.
01:09:24I can protect you.
01:09:26I know karate.
01:09:33We can't stay stood here forever.
01:09:35Only till morning.
01:09:38By the rules of the game as I understand them.
01:09:41It'll be Easter Sunday and I shall be free.
01:09:47You see?
01:09:48I'm right.
01:09:51Please believe me.
01:09:54I don't know who's out there.
01:09:58I'm not one of them.
01:10:10You're terrified.
01:10:15You're as frightened as I am.
01:10:18You're as frightened as I am.
01:10:36I think you should be.
01:10:39Come on, Rob boy.
01:10:41Come on, Rob boy.
01:10:42Come on, Rob boy.
01:10:59Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
01:11:54What are you doing here?
01:12:00I've come to take you to church, haven't I?
01:12:03Like before.
01:12:05I brought a hat.
01:12:10What happened last night?
01:12:12Nothing to remember.
01:12:14Just a game we're about sometimes.
01:12:15I was...
01:12:18I was...
01:12:20very frightened.
01:12:24Stupid.
01:12:25I thought...
01:12:27No call to that stupid thinking.
01:12:30What good would a woman's blood be for the land?
01:12:35We bear, my dear.
01:12:37We give birth.
01:12:39That am our work.
01:12:43Takes a man for the other.
01:12:46Just fell apart from your car from yesterday.
01:12:48Fisher's bringing in.
01:12:49After you're up.
01:12:50Morning, Sherry.
01:12:56All right, then, Grace.
01:12:59I'll be no more trouble with that.
01:13:02Well, I'm time for a bath before church.
01:13:08Where's wrong?
01:13:11Gone to Canada, Miss Palmer.
01:13:17Not till next week.
01:13:18Oh, dear me.
01:13:19No, I'm sure you're mistaken.
01:13:20He was to leave today.
01:13:22Easter Sunday.
01:13:23Most appropriate start to a new life.
01:13:26Way train to Liverpool, then by boat.
01:13:28An assisted passage.
01:13:30Assisted by you?
01:13:31As it happens.
01:13:34He came round last night, as I understand it, to take his leave.
01:13:37You'll be selling the house, I imagine.
01:13:40Yeah.
01:13:41That's better.
01:13:42Country life can't send us all.
01:13:45I mean...
01:13:47Yes, he came round last night.
01:13:49I heard so.
01:13:51We must all wish him luck in his new venture.
01:13:57What was Peter doing here last night?
01:14:00Peter, too.
01:14:02But there would be no occasion for him to say farewell.
01:14:04Well, the village is his home.
01:14:08Yes.
01:14:09Well, that was very naughty of him.
01:14:11Did anyone else see him?
01:14:15Only Rob.
01:14:17Oh, he's no longer with us.
01:14:21Why are you letting me leave when I could go to the police?
01:14:24About what, Miss Palmer?
01:14:27Mrs. Figo
01:14:29said something rather curious to me this morning.
01:14:33She said
01:14:35What good would a woman's blood be for the land?
01:14:39No good at all.
01:14:40It takes a math.
01:14:42Indeed, yes.
01:14:45You understand it, then?
01:14:47Study of religions is one of my many interests.
01:14:49I am a reading man, you know.
01:14:51Known for it.
01:14:53The goddess of fertility in the old legends
01:14:57was in some ways like yourself, Miss Palmer.
01:15:00Not a married lady.
01:15:03But nevertheless,
01:15:04if you'll excuse the freedom,
01:15:06not a virgin either.
01:15:09In the autumn, she would couple with the young king.
01:15:12King?
01:15:12He'd be treated like a king.
01:15:15He served and
01:15:17pampered, you might say.
01:15:19And then, of course...
01:15:21Killed.
01:15:22He would pass away, yes.
01:15:25Assisted to it, you might say.
01:15:28And from his blood,
01:15:30the crops would spring.
01:15:34A Greek legend, Mr. Fisher.
01:15:37And Egyptian.
01:15:38Mexican.
01:15:39Many places.
01:15:40You must read a book
01:15:42by Sir James Fraser.
01:15:44The Golden Bough in seven volumes.
01:15:46But not an English legend.
01:15:50Robin Hood.
01:15:51Robin of the Dale.
01:15:53Even Robin Redbreast.
01:15:55One of the very birds in your garden.
01:15:58The male Robin only lives a year, you know.
01:16:01The female has many partners.
01:16:04Always Robin.
01:16:07Such a bounty there was.
01:16:09Such fruitfulness, Miss Palmer.
01:16:11From the blood that drained from Robin Hood.
01:16:13So the old stories say.
01:16:17But they are only stories, of course.
01:16:21And if that's all one had to say to the police,
01:16:25how very foolish they would think one.
01:16:30Your car's ready now.
01:16:37Oh, there's just one other small matter.
01:16:41You'll forgive me
01:16:44if
01:16:45I offend you.
01:16:49Your, uh, little one.
01:16:52The expected little bundle.
01:16:55Mrs. Viggo was afraid
01:16:56you might be modern in your thoughts.
01:16:58But I was sure
01:16:59you would not wish to take a life.
01:17:02What are you saying, Mr. Lisher?
01:17:05I have very good friends,
01:17:06Miss Palmer,
01:17:06to local orphanage.
01:17:10And in
01:17:1420 years?
01:17:15It would not concern you.
01:17:26No.
01:17:30No.
01:17:31No, I...
01:17:32I don't keep stuff.
01:17:42No.
01:17:58No.
01:18:10Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
01:18:52Oh, oh, oh, oh.
01:18:59Oh, oh, oh.
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