- 9 minutes ago
First broadcast 4th November 1975.
Christopher Collinson entered Parliament in 1958 as a talented, ambitious young man. Now, frustrated and cynical after seventeen years on the back benches, he still wants - and even expects - power.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Ann Firbank - Alice Collinson
David Wilkinson - David Collinson
Marc Harrison - Andrew Collinson
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
John Leyton - Brian Griffin
Ian McCulloch - Peter Richards
John Garvin - Clem
Brian Hawksley - Doctor
Betty Baskcomb - Woman
Mike Hayward - Policeman
Josephine Woodford - Mary
Don Hawkins - Van Driver
Christopher Collinson entered Parliament in 1958 as a talented, ambitious young man. Now, frustrated and cynical after seventeen years on the back benches, he still wants - and even expects - power.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Ann Firbank - Alice Collinson
David Wilkinson - David Collinson
Marc Harrison - Andrew Collinson
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
John Leyton - Brian Griffin
Ian McCulloch - Peter Richards
John Garvin - Clem
Brian Hawksley - Doctor
Betty Baskcomb - Woman
Mike Hayward - Policeman
Josephine Woodford - Mary
Don Hawkins - Van Driver
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00.
00:38MUSIC PLAYS
01:00you're still too stiff dad. it's your shoulders mostly. you look as if you're
01:05playing a piano. thank you very much Andrew. I like the image. you're getting
01:10better though. but you don't think I'm ready for Epsom yet? just relax. move with
01:15the horse. I know the principle. all I need is more encouragement especially from
01:21you. it's more practice you really want because when people get older it's the
01:27regular train and it counts. all the old footballers say that. anyway remember about the shoulders.
02:24I could do some toast.
02:26that is intended as a joke of course. what's funny about toast? exactly. I like toast.
02:41got any biscuits?
02:43little place.
02:47is that your sole diet on the campus? pre-packed stodge?
02:55where did you get to last night?
02:59you made a very noisy entrance of whatever time it was.
03:09how late was it?
03:13right on my tomb died under interrogation.
03:17beware the demon drink my son.
03:21advice is unnecessary. can't afford drink. not habituated drink anyway.
03:29well that's all the more reason to be more circumspect if you're not used to it.
03:35it's a pretty inoffensive bit of advice isn't it?
03:38I shall nominate you mum of the year.
03:41thanks.
03:45the mounties are back.
03:49it's a very odd aura for the obeying parliamentarian to carry around with him.
03:54smell of saddle soap and horse shit.
03:56david.
03:58is dad going round the twist?
03:59and what's it gonna be next?
04:03if andrew takes up country and western somehow the smith boozer?
04:08is dad gonna tag along in his buffalo bill suit?
04:11that's enough. you've stopped amusing me.
04:14please try to get through today without too much friction.
04:18I always try.
04:24good morning.
04:26he's gone. he's very good.
04:27you see?
04:29don't blame me.
04:31what's all that about?
04:33i was asking for a little sweetness in life.
04:35very desirable.
04:36david the beer's in the fridge.
04:39do you want me to open it sir?
04:41yes please old son.
04:45and what were we today?
04:47was it a couple of regency box?
04:51or was it cowboys?
04:53tall in the saddle.
04:54the magnificent two.
04:56billy the kid and son.
04:58what?
04:58don't be so damn pompous david.
04:59just pour us all some beer.
05:12it's the pygmy quality that's so disappointing.
05:16it's liliputin.
05:18great enemy shot.
05:20even the jokes are minuscule.
05:26small detail is the essence of the diary.
05:30they accepted intention from peeps to jennifer.
05:33but that's supposed to be one of the leading political minds of the century.
05:38and he's supposedly giving us the truth about the way a cabinet runs the country.
05:43he was an acute observer.
05:44i wouldn't rate his terms more highly than that.
05:48is it history?
05:49oh!
05:50roxon is away down the left again.
05:53this time he's got two to cross to.
05:54hmm?
05:55jennings coming.
05:55there's simply one component.
05:57partial view.
05:58he should have scored then andrew.
06:01it doesn't seem to mean they have complete coordination with limbs.
06:07littleness.
06:09if he's got it right.
06:11the whole cabinet didn't have the mental power of the average rat catcher between them.
06:15worthless analogy.
06:17vague insult betrays floundering thought.
06:20less than twenty minutes remaining.
06:23what did you think of that cabinet?
06:26not a lot.
06:29it dealt in expediency.
06:31it was quick on its feet but inhibited.
06:33it was like these people it had no strategy.
06:35it had nobody who could use the long ball.
06:38christ dad.
06:40politics for the common man.
06:44he is ever in my thoughts david.
06:46who do you make man of the match star?
06:49jennings will seize on it.
06:50the referee.
06:51hmm.
06:54predictable politician's answer.
06:56the bonds.
06:58the gold couldn't quite hook it back.
07:11take it easy.
07:13what?
07:14mind how you go.
07:26this industry's very impressive but oughtn't you to be doing some homework now.
07:30it'll get done.
07:31the same devotion that you're showing to these monsters.
07:35you can't expect that. i like doing this.
07:37i've noticed.
07:40how was your father's horsemanship today?
07:44i think he's doing pretty well considering.
07:46he gets a lift out of it anyway.
07:48that's the main thing isn't it?
07:49of course.
07:51well don't let the detestable homework completely slip your mind.
07:54it is supposed to take priority remember.
07:57all right.
07:58don't keep going on about it.
07:59dad doesn't.
08:03honest i'm keeping up to date.
08:11why do you think it is you and david fight more now than when he was here all the time?
08:18you say fight?
08:20squabble then wrangle.
08:23you ask me to pay more attention.
08:25david is naturally argumentative hence we argue.
08:28you tease him.
08:29he takes me on.
08:31you could be a bit gentler.
08:34he's very aggressive.
08:36he tries to sound like you.
08:39i don't think so.
08:42did i ever have that priggishness of his?
08:46you drive him into corners so he strikes attitudes.
08:48he's trying to be grown up and he isn't quite.
08:51you might remember that.
08:53when i was his age i'd been in a war for a year.
08:55is that relevant?
08:56i'm saying he's not a child.
08:59what happens if i defer to him?
09:01he'll then accuse me of condescension.
09:03don't you like him?
09:06not a great deal.
09:10you're not fair with them chris.
09:11you know that don't you?
09:15david can be very tiresome.
09:16i cannot tolerate that righteousness.
09:19adolescent modernizing is the least acceptable kind.
09:22censure without experience.
09:24rectitude out of ignorance.
09:26the lofty judgment delivered from the vantage point of naivety.
09:29he's immature and idealistic.
09:31a very young 19.
09:32well i don't like being hectored by him.
09:35i have no doubt he's a dominant figure among the university infant fabians.
09:39but his clever little boy's callow polemic merely irritates me.
09:44what are you laughing at?
09:46you're so alike.
09:47rubbish.
09:48you've always been impatient with david and indulgent with andrew.
09:52how can you discriminate like that?
09:54andrew doesn't inspect me. he accepts me.
09:57we must all do that must we? no questions must be asked.
10:01every hour of my public life i'm being questioned.
10:04weighed, suspected, judged, doubted.
10:08the politician is everyone's great disappointment.
10:11it is our essential function.
10:12that ant-heap down at westminster exists primarily to be blamed.
10:15i play my apportioned role as the public punch bag.
10:18oh for god's sake!
10:19i'm surprised.
10:19i hope for some trust at least from my own children.
10:22you have to win it.
10:23andrew gives me that.
10:24you buy it from him.
10:30i didn't want to say that.
10:33thank you.
10:34but it's true.
10:38i don't see any affectation in him.
10:40or greed.
10:41or viciousness.
10:42or anything else that suggests a spoilt brat.
10:44he isn't one.
10:45then how am i harming him?
10:48it isn't andrew i'm worried about.
10:50it's you.
10:56well i suppose i should be grateful.
10:58even if confused.
11:02what's the matter?
11:03has your boyfriend dropped you?
11:19anything?
11:20more tea?
11:24toast?
11:27anything?
11:32there's a great thing in here about dad's favorite center half.
11:35terry mancini.
11:37he says
11:39no more fortuitous eye for the trajectory of a flying object since king harold.
11:44good isn't it?
11:46is that the publication known as the voice of football's radical left?
11:49it's the best.
11:51always having a dart at the powers that be.
11:53football's tribune.
11:55more like private eye.
11:57i'd say that the running of football was about as close as you'd ever get in your life to what
12:01might be called a political concern.
12:04what do you think andrew?
12:07that's why you charm your father so much.
12:09i don't like that word.
12:11charm.
12:12bit sissy is it?
12:13nor that one.
12:15no one said that in living memory.
12:17thank you.
12:18very gracefully expressed.
12:30you and david pursued your usual acrimonious silence yesterday.
12:35what's the matter there?
12:36you used to get on well enough.
12:39he sneers at everything.
12:41everything you and your father do you mean?
12:44just about everything anybody does.
12:46i find him boring.
12:48well.
12:49he's a different type from you.
12:51you're a natural enthusiast.
12:53exuberant. physical.
12:56he's got no real friends.
12:59that's david's trouble.
13:00that's why he comes home at weekends and takes it out on dad and me.
13:03why don't you give him the odd cheery word?
13:05there's no effort to you. it is to him.
13:09it's difficult.
13:11when he picks on dad.
13:14i don't think it's fair.
13:16don't you think your father's quite good at looking after himself?
13:21he looks dead knackered to me.
13:26i think he ought to get out of politics.
13:28can you really imagine him doing that?
13:31well it hasn't done him any good has it?
13:33i mean they've just left him to rot haven't they?
13:36have you ever told him that?
13:39he never mentions work to me.
13:42i wouldn't give him my opinion unless he asked.
13:45what do you think he'd do if he left politics?
13:47i haven't thought about that.
13:52my point is...
13:54well...
13:55it's not as if he's got any ambitions left.
13:57there is he.
13:58i mean he can't have.
14:00he's just sitting about looking on.
14:09i think he's taken a bit of weight off since he started the riding now.
14:12don't you?
14:16did i overstate the matter last night?
14:18which particular one?
14:20we had our increasingly familiar brisk canter through the trials and tribulations associated with this household.
14:25i made a bad joke about brian griffin.
14:28oh yes. so you did.
14:32i'm trying to apologize.
14:35why so tentative?
14:36not as if you're short of practice.
14:38i thought you were pitying me.
14:40i'm never going to stand for that.
14:41so you conjure into our lives this steamy affair i'm supposed to be having
14:46with someone who's been a mutual friend for god knows how long.
14:48i knew it was in your mind.
14:50i didn't believe you'd actually convince yourself it was true.
14:52so that you could trot out the accusation when the going got too rough for you.
14:57i'm sorry i hurt you.
15:00you haven't hurt me.
15:02you've appalled me.
15:04i like that man very much.
15:06he's a damn likable considerate attentive person.
15:10yes he and i see a lot of each other.
15:12we have two common interests.
15:13his writing and you.
15:14a lot of the time we sit looking at each other caring about you.
15:18you've always needed, demanded a hell of a lot of caring.
15:22but that isn't enough for you anymore is it?
15:24now that you've decided you're a casualty, a victim of life's conspiracy
15:27you have to identify the traitors in your life even if it means inventing them.
15:31and that's how brian griffin and i get into bed together
15:33in one of your squally little fantasies of persecution.
15:38i'm naturally jealous. you know that.
15:41i'm having lunch with him today. would you care to join us?
15:44we've just finalized the text of his new novel.
15:48it's good.
15:51it's not dazzling. it's not the product of an exceptional talent.
15:54it's not dotted with rare insights and understanding.
15:59not to be candid exciting but it has a
16:03reassuring agreeable it's got solidity.
16:07do you want to come along?
16:09you find me disturbing lately.
16:12as well as shall we say disheartened.
16:16between the whiskey and the obsessive derision for everything that follows it
16:20you're doing yourself a lot of damage.
16:22you use these weekends at home to dry out
16:26and let Andrew copes a bit of genuine feeling for life back into you.
16:29christ that boy loves you.
16:30i'm glad you make sure he doesn't see which you're worst.
16:33he knows i get a lot of scotch down.
16:34i'm talking about those moves you reserve for the early hours
16:37after a late sitting when you watch the front benches performing their various pirouettes
16:42and you've reminded yourself that you by writing your brilliance ought to be there
16:46and how much better you could do it.
16:48and then you've come reeling back here to snarl out your frustration
16:53and reminisce so eloquently about your distant sexual triumphs.
16:59i don't pretend i'm proud of those performances.
17:03but don't you pretend they're frequent.
17:05who is counting?
17:13well
17:16you've given me a great start to the week Alison.
17:21lift up your hearts was never like this.
17:45that man was the last of a particular old breed.
17:48the last i knew anyway.
17:51reared on the public library the wesleyan sunday school and printer's ink instead of cod liver oil.
17:57you could quote by the yard from the ragged trousered philanthropist
18:01a tale of two cities
18:02and the national union of journalists rule book.
18:05oh and he seemed to know the book of job verbatim.
18:07but when in drink
18:09he gave you the lot with gestures and a vibrato like judy garland.
18:13a joy to know obviously.
18:15yes.
18:16yes he was a defiant relic.
18:18sort of man who gives nostalgia a good name.
18:22of course i was too young at the time to appreciate him properly.
18:26i was the oops.
18:27i was the small boy on the paper.
18:30i just thought he was an amusing lump of the living past about the place.
18:34but i wish i'd been perceptive enough to see the decency and courage and all that eccentricity.
18:39let's drink to him.
18:42why not?
18:48you're very good for me brian.
18:50oh? how's that?
18:52your sanity. your...
18:54your blitheness. i think that's the quality.
18:57i hope you're not telling me i'm smud.
18:59no hang-ups.
19:01no resentments.
19:03it makes such a refreshing change.
19:06what are you going to eat?
19:08you're quite sure my publisher's paying?
19:10certainly.
19:12right well uh...
19:13i shall start with the uh...
19:16gigantic asparagus.
19:17quite right.
19:39the very last thing we won't just know from a member of the cabinet...
19:43is that he's about trampling all over another one's territory just like that.
19:47out of the blue.
19:49he wasn't a bad word for the political nature of his performance.
19:54all prepared with handouts for the press.
19:57calculating his timing so that all the weekend for the bloody media to whip up another bloody great labour split
20:04story.
20:06man's a liability.
20:08it's like having a rat in the privy.
20:12terrible time i'm gonna have now in my constituency dumping down the wild boys.
20:17yes.
20:18look clem they'll be saying.
20:20the government is riddled with the right wing just like we said it to them.
20:25the phoning socialists.
20:28the self-protecting middle class.
20:31the ones who like to peg us down in the dirt.
20:34clem come on now.
20:36something quite trivial and really rather daring has happened.
20:39the man has allowed himself to be caught thinking out loud.
20:43something he should never do in your opinion.
20:45because the activity reveals what is supposed to be concealed.
20:49but ministerial belief and common ministerial utterance have no necessary connection.
20:56but the public is aware of that intuitive thing.
20:59all we've got here is a little light knockabout entertainment for the political correspondents to nourish.
21:03it's light relief.
21:04people don't object to a dispute among ministers.
21:07on the contrary the public's relieved to see it.
21:09just for once they can catch a glimpse of human beings losing their rag.
21:12instead of the usual unconvincing front of collective agreement.
21:17don't worry about it clem.
21:19well that sort of stuff will get me a bloody thick word if i try to open my people.
21:22i'm not suggesting you should clem.
21:24i've got some very anxious men breathing down my neck.
21:28haven't we all?
21:29i just don't think the party can afford public louse between ministers.
21:34especially over something as critical as the social conflict.
21:39my people are going to want something for me to allay fears and suspicion.
21:44sing to them chel.
21:50it ought really to be called the return of the native.
21:53but that's been done.
21:55back to square one.
21:58yes well it lacks a little magic perhaps.
22:01you see what i think about february the 30th is it's a smashing title.
22:05it'll jump off the cover but it doesn't suit the book.
22:08it isn't it isn't enough as the americans say.
22:11too flip.
22:12it isn't a brian griffin title.
22:14i was very proud of it.
22:16but you're quite right it won't do.
22:18i think you should keep working on the word winter.
22:20there's a sense of weight and eventfulness about winter.
22:23very well ma'am.
22:25i shall do as you say.
22:27i wish all my writers took my suggestions so equably.
22:30i'm sure you get your way.
22:32i'm just a writer's midwife.
22:35more coffee.
22:39this one's going to sell brian.
22:41honestly.
22:43you'll get some decent promotion.
22:44the chairman's a fan of yours.
22:48what are you going to do next?
22:50oh a little holiday i think.
22:52anything exotic?
22:53well i'm taking the kids to the seaside.
22:56the french seaside.
22:57britney.
22:58well done.
23:00presumably not with pamela.
23:03no.
23:04all finished.
23:06well let's say that it's off at the moment.
23:10she puzzles me.
23:12yes well um
23:14i think that
23:16my equability goes sour on her.
23:20maybe she's rejected it for good by now you see.
23:22with the unequable it's not easy to read intentions.
23:26how do the kids take all this?
23:29politely.
23:30i think they certainly want to go to britney.
23:32because you're taking them.
23:35and how are your two men?
23:38they have their problems.
23:40anything big?
23:41it's called dad at the moment.
23:43i'm not sure whether that's big or very small.
23:47that's his problem too.
23:51you know when i first knew him
23:53when i was the newest of god's gifts to campaigning journalism
23:57and making very free use of his grasp of a social problem
24:00the one that would get me a nice big byline in the evening chronicle
24:04chris had a
24:06self-belief
24:07that was positively glittering.
24:11i know.
24:15oh no peter.
24:17no committees.
24:18not at this point in the game.
24:20i'm well out of all that.
24:21yes but why?
24:22at least you'd be involved.
24:24well employed if you like.
24:26when the party is in power
24:28that's not gainful employment.
24:30the committee is something you use
24:33when you're in opposition
24:34when you're on the attack
24:36then the committee is
24:38a launching pad for the ambitious.
24:41and by god i invested some sweat in my early days here.
24:47at one stage
24:49i was a walking textbook
24:51on industrial safety.
24:53i just crammed the subject like a foreign language.
24:57i could puke my figures on the management of private insurance
24:59that the companies didn't even know they'd got.
25:02i actually enjoyed it.
25:03that elation
25:05when i watch a minister
25:07wriggling, squirming
25:08desperately trying to prise himself out of the trap that i'd set for him.
25:12he'd be close to panic.
25:13even with all his advisers and comforters
25:15from his department lining the walls.
25:18he'd still turn to jelly
25:20because he hadn't got the speed of thought.
25:22exciting wicked days.
25:30sorry about that.
25:31little splurge.
25:33put it down to the scotch.
25:34i was impressed by the passion.
25:38so was i.
25:40but you're not saying that you were
25:43actually happier in opposition.
25:48some people remember the second world war with a
25:53perverse affection.
25:55it's a matter of recalling a time
25:58when they were most tamed by life.
26:02and in my own case i have to admit
26:04that i've never since
26:06felt quite the same kind of certainty.
26:09if you like
26:09the same awareness of my own potency
26:14as i did during those first five years here.
26:18he must have been bitterly disappointed
26:19it took so long before he gave you a job.
26:22and then such a small job
26:24for such a short time.
26:27however
26:28that was better than the total disregard
26:31which was yet to come.
26:34i've never fully understood why he left you out this time.
26:37oh
26:38how many of our favoured people is one permitted to insult?
26:42and how often?
26:42yes well since when was politics about being amiable?
26:45oh there's a time and place for it.
26:48but i've always found
26:50the prudent kind of amiability
26:51very distasteful.
26:54i have a dangerous liking
26:55for mischief.
26:59a lot of us think you should be given something to do.
27:04thank you.
27:06well how keen are you?
27:09you could only ask that if you felt some doubt.
27:12well it's certainly got nothing to do with the way you chop people up still.
27:18you don't need the booze Chris.
27:22you don't need the seedy ciphers you waste your time on in here.
27:35is that a personal view?
27:38or does it come out of some kind of group discussion?
27:42it's a defensive.
27:47there are a few of us who've got together over some special concern.
27:50now we've only met a couple of times.
27:52we want to give ourselves some
27:54kind of definite focus.
27:56now your name crops up often
27:57and so do
27:59opinions, attitudes we associate with you.
28:02it just seems absurd that you're not one of us.
28:06but i was asked to make the point.
28:09two points.
28:11one. come and join us.
28:13two.
28:15behave yourself.
28:17there are things that government must be told.
28:22now we need your standing.
28:24oh.
28:26do i still have some?
28:28haven't you noticed i've been getting the wrong kind of publicity lately.
28:31one or two editors have been dragging me through the where are they now treatment.
28:35you mean labels like the nearly man.
28:38a year ago you wouldn't have bothered to read the stuff.
28:42that may be significant.
28:45what do i have to spell it out in embarrassing detail.
28:48you've got a lot of friends here.
28:51now we're prepared to allow you to make use of us.
28:54and we want to make use of what we think you still have to offer.
28:57and that is your integrity and your ability to command a hearing.
29:02and you happen to have more of both than most numbers.
29:13but you think the crucial question is
29:17whether i've still got the stomach for it.
29:21that's why it's you who's making the approach.
29:28yes sir i've got to see someone.
29:31you know where to find me.
29:55okay. keep back.
30:02keep back then.
30:04come on. keep back.
30:06right back.
30:34i saw everything. it was him. he's to blame.
30:39they think it's a race track all these van drivers.
30:42the kid didn't have a chance.
30:44no chance at all.
30:45went straight into him.
30:47they don't give a damn.
30:49i saw it all.
30:50all right madam.
30:52take it easy please.
30:55didn't have a cat in hell's chance.
30:58all right madam.
31:00i saw it.
31:02i saw it.
31:19i saw it.
31:20i saw it.
31:50i saw it.
31:50all right..
31:50By, Alice, give me a ring if there's anything at all.
32:28Chris, I don't want to pile on the agony, but we haven't had much chance to talk.
32:34I thought you'd like to know that I've brought a lot of messages down with me from the constituency.
32:41Alice, I was just telling Chrissie that I've brought a lot of messages down from the constituency.
32:48See, where the news got around, well, that phone hardly ever stopped ringing.
32:53The folks up there, you know, have things to thank you for.
32:58Well, they want you to know that they feel very deeply for you.
33:05Of course, they're the people, you know, that knew you when first Chriss arrived in the town.
33:12Aye.
33:15Still a lot of us left, you know.
33:18Aye.
33:19And they're the ones that'll be most upset by this terrible thing.
33:24Of course, I know that it's David they tend to think of whenever your family's mentioned,
33:30but that's only because they remember him as a baby.
33:34Aye.
33:36That first election campaign.
33:40You won't remember much about that, I don't suppose.
33:44Among one of my happiest memories,
33:48Chriss,
33:50they were unbeatable.
33:53Yes, they were great days, Bernard.
33:56Aye.
33:57They were that.
34:00Oh, well, uh,
34:03I'd better be getting along, I think.
34:04Thank you, Bernard.
34:05I hope your wife will be better soon.
34:08Oh, it's nothing serious, you know.
34:09It's just the journey we thought about, it didn't seem wise.
34:12Well,
34:14goodbye, Chriss.
34:16Goodbye, lad.
34:17Goodbye, Bernard.
34:18And, uh,
34:19thank you for everything.
34:20All you've said.
34:23Uh,
34:24I'll be coming up soon.
34:25I know there's a great deal to be done.
34:27Aye, take your time.
34:30No need for you to go rushing up there.
34:32I'll tell you this, Alice.
34:32There's nothing that I know of that won't wait for a bit.
34:35You will hold the fort, won't you?
34:37Well, you've done it often enough before.
34:40And, uh,
34:41you'll be seeing me shortly.
34:42Ah, of course you will.
34:44Take care of yourself.
34:50Oh, uh,
34:52goodbye, David.
34:54Goodbye, Mr. King.
34:56Mary?
34:57Goodbye, Mr. King.
34:58I'll get your raincoat, Bernard.
35:02I'll get your raincoat.
35:09Are you all right, Dad?
35:12Yeah, I'm fine, thanks, David.
35:15Now, do you want any help, Mary?
35:17No, no, I'll see to it.
35:19But why don't you sit down, Chris?
35:21You seem to have been rooted there for hours.
35:24Have I?
35:28They were nice kids, those, weren't they?
35:32What was that teacher's name?
35:34Um,
35:35Pritchard.
35:36Oh, yes.
35:38Yeah.
35:41Well,
35:42I, uh,
35:46I think I'll go into the study for a while.
35:47I think I'll go.
36:07Dad.
36:09Dad.
36:15Oh David. Come in.
36:25Do you want anything to eat?
36:28No thank you.
36:30Drink?
36:41Okay. Don't go David.
36:45Come and sit down.
37:04How's your mother?
37:06She's gone to bed.
37:12She told me to tell you she was taking a sleeping pill.
37:17How are you?
37:19I'm alright.
37:21You've been very helpful these last few days.
37:24Thank you very much.
37:27I'm afraid I've been rather seized up.
37:32That's alright.
37:35We know how you felt.
37:51Extraordinary.
37:54Andrews accent.
37:56Poor Mr Cockney kid.
38:01It was at school.
38:04It didn't affect you all.
38:10Was Andrew...
38:13would he have been the lucky one of the three of us I wonder.
38:20He had a very different cast of personality from you and me.
38:26Immediate emotional responses.
38:31It isn't always easy is it being possessed of an intellectual nature.
38:36It can be isolating.
38:41It isn't that one claims any excellence or superiority because of it as so many people seem to imagine.
38:46It's simply that the mind, the nature, reacts in the only way it can.
38:53With instant examination.
38:57Evaluating compulsively.
39:00The thought processes are always ahead of the emotions.
39:05Like when the intellectual says yes or no.
39:10He's seldom making a moral judgment and that can be very isolating.
39:13because most people deal overwhelmingly in moral judgments.
39:21That's what makes politics so...
39:25arduous.
39:27And yet tantalizing.
39:31Seductive.
39:33Addictive.
39:34For someone like me.
39:36I assume, because of my nature,
39:39that there are solutions which must be found
39:43to reconcile conflicts in society.
39:47To sustain individual freedoms and public well-being.
39:55Yes.
39:58To reconcile.
40:00That is a compulsion.
40:05And yet I find so much of political argument conducted in slogans
40:08a substitute for thought even at the highest level.
40:12Because the currency of politics is banality.
40:19It is...
40:22What?
40:24Arrogance.
40:26Self-delusion.
40:29Perhaps even some sort of rogue romanticism
40:31that keeps someone of my kind drifting along.
40:34Still believing he can help to change that and many other things
40:37long after doubt and even despair have set in.
40:44I still want office.
40:47I still expect power.
40:50Absurdly.
40:52After so many years of denial.
40:55It's the assumption I make
40:57that reason is paramount so I'm bound to prevail.
41:04That's what grips me.
41:07Petrifies me.
41:09In this state of...
41:12suspicious yet...
41:14relentless...
41:16hope.
41:17hope.
41:31Andrew would never have had to say anything like that would he?
41:38I hope you never do.
41:44You haven't been a failure.
41:47You've written your books.
41:50And there's more to come.
41:53Aren't there?
42:02Maybe.
42:12As the handsome, grave, white-coated chap in the old Horlicks ads used to say, Chris,
42:17There's nothing organically wrong.
42:20You're very fit.
42:23Heart, lungs, blood pressure, all in entirely respectable condition.
42:28I must say I'm surprised.
42:30Considering the way you've been mistreating your flesh and organs for as long as I've known you,
42:34there's every reason why you should be in a very poor way indeed.
42:38You're a bit tense.
42:42And...
42:43It wouldn't do you any harm to lose half a stone.
42:48Apart from that,
42:50you're an exasperatingly robust health.
42:56What did you expect me to find?
42:59Exactly that.
43:00Should we congratulate each other?
43:04The last time you came to me you were about to fight an election.
43:08And what's the reason for this visit?
43:10I thought it timeless, Stephen.
43:13How's Alice?
43:17Well, she's getting over it.
43:19She's a bit tired, of course.
43:21She took all the weight when it happened.
43:23I'm afraid I just switched off.
43:25Oh, don't be guilty about it.
43:26The body makes its own decisions sometimes.
43:29Why don't you take her away for a couple of weeks?
43:31Or longer, even.
43:33The country can manage without you.
43:35You know what I think about MPs.
43:38If every one of you went to sleep tomorrow for 12 months,
43:41under proper medical supervision, of course,
43:44the nation would benefit enormously.
43:47The balance of payments would right itself in sheer relief at blessed neglect,
43:51like an irritated bowel responding to starvation.
43:54I've got to get on with some work.
43:55Resist it.
43:57Do yourselves a good turn.
44:09You're going to use Andrew, aren't you?
44:12You're going to grasp an opportunity.
44:14Sympathy is available and mustn't be wasted.
44:17The politician will turn grief to advantage with dignity.
44:20There'll be nothing crude about it.
44:22Christopher Collinson MP may be many things,
44:25but nobody could ever call him vulgar.
44:29Do you want to break yourself up, Alice?
44:31Because that's what's going to happen if you keep on...
44:32Are you telling me I'm wrong?
44:34You know you're using him.
44:35The bereaved father is unassailable.
44:38So now, after years of sulking, yes, years of it,
44:42every now and then you've primed yourself for the big show.
44:45An assault on the constituency to make sure they still know what you look like.
44:49A sudden brilliant bit of fireworks on the box or in the house
44:52to grab a few headlines and remind the world at large that Wonderboy is still around.
44:58Most of the time you've just been nursing your frustration
45:01with that practised air of martyrdom.
45:03Until now.
45:05Now it's brave, resilient Chris.
45:08Rededicated, off the bottle, purged by tragic ordeal,
45:11marching back into the crusade.
45:13Don't tell me you're not using the death of our son.
45:25Alice, please listen.
45:26Don't touch me.
45:27Please.
45:29Please listen.
45:34There is a sense in which you're right.
45:38What's happened?
45:40Losing Andrew
45:42has done something to me.
45:46I'm not going to try to define it
45:48to say that it's shocked me into action
45:52or that I must try to achieve something in his memory
45:55or that I feel
45:58compelled to immerse myself in work
45:59so that I won't
46:01cripple myself by
46:04dwelling on his death.
46:08Perhaps...
46:09perhaps none of those things is really true.
46:11And yet perhaps there's little truth in all of them.
46:16It would be pointless to try to analyse what I'm doing
46:18and I don't think it's necessary to
46:21justify it.
46:25Someone I loved
46:26has died.
46:29Probably much more important than that.
46:33Somebody who loved me
46:34has died.
46:38And because of that
46:40I feel
46:43something is
46:46demanded of me.
46:48I must do something.
46:52If I appear to be exploiting Andrew
46:55I can only tell you that I don't know I am.
46:58And if it seems to you disgusting
47:00that I should choose this time
47:02to involve myself ambitiously
47:05in the intrigues and aggressions of politics
47:10I can only say that is what my work entails.
47:15I am presented with an opportunity.
47:18Perhaps it's been confronting me for years
47:19and I haven't
47:20seen it because I've been too distracted by
47:24disappointment
47:26and it may be
47:29fear of failure.
47:31But opportunity exists only when you see it yourself.
47:38Do you understand me Alice?
47:43What matters is whether I believe you.
47:46And do you?
47:49I don't know.
47:55Well, we have managed to grow a long way apart, haven't we?
48:00Have we ever known very much about each other?
48:04I thought so.
48:08Describe me.
48:13You're the woman I love.
48:17I would have accepted that once.
48:18It would have been enough.
48:20And it isn't now.
48:22I don't know what you mean when you say it.
48:24You've ignored me, belittled me, shut me out from you so many times.
48:29Well, you've never been some meek, submissive suburban drudge.
48:32You've never been that kind of marriage.
48:33You've given me hell when you felt like it.
48:35I've fought back.
48:36You started roused.
48:37I've tried to force you out of those pathetic grovelling bouts of self-pity which you enjoy so much.
48:42I could have left you a dozen times when you were like that.
48:45What detained you?
48:47Andrew!
48:48Andrew!
49:02Well, you've got to hand it to them.
49:04It's an impressive piece of work.
49:06Deliberate timing.
49:07What they're saying, in effect, is here you are, Chancellor, we've done your budget for you.
49:11And he can't dismiss it, not with the Transport House seal of approval on it,
49:14because that's the implication of all this stuff from the research department.
49:17The timing helps us, actually.
49:19Well, how can I do that? They've got it ahead of us.
49:21So, it gives us something to discuss.
49:23A good, respectable reason for getting together.
49:26We're entitled to concern ourselves with a major statement of aims from the left.
49:29We can be expected to comment upon it.
49:31So, we don't have to pick our own issue for the first skirmish.
49:35We use theirs.
49:37Actually, this cuts a couple of corners for us.
49:39The government's got to pay attention to us, right from the start, because we're offering help.
49:44A bit ingratiating.
49:47But they'll be great for.
49:57But most of the group were expecting to kick off with labour relations.
50:00It's one of the main reasons they wanted you.
50:01That could come next.
50:03Let's seize on this first.
50:05When we get into the committee rooms, do you want to launch straight into it?
50:07There's nothing like starting right off the cuff.
50:09I've always found spontaneity exhilarating.
50:12All right, Chris.
50:13It's all yours.
50:15Brothers, we are on our way.
50:38We got an action dificil pronto�� if we can help.
50:44We're on our way.
50:50In this time, we're not at its own time.
50:54But but, we're not on our way.
51:00And you arerefker.
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