- 3 hours ago
First broadcast 11th November 1975.
Collinson seeks out the political limelight, but Alice finds his renewed political ambition difficult to come to terms with.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Ann Firbank - Alice Collinson
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
Michael Elphick - Ron Hibbert
Gwen Taylor - Dorothy Hibbert
John Leyton - Brian Griffin
Ian McCulloch - Peter Richards
Ian East - Maurice Wrigley
Steven Grives - Len
Pamela Manson - Beryl Gardiner
Anthony Wingate - Lionel Gardiner
Anne MacKenzie-Davison - Helen Richards
Wilfred Harrison - Dick Harrison
Marlene Sidaway - Gillian Harrison
Bobby Pattinson - Mr. Timmins
Sue Dexter - Mrs. Timmins
Peter Kerrigan - Mr. Bailey
Daphne Oxenford - Chairwoman
John Pickles - Headmaster
Sean Flanagan - Riley
Ronnie Bihuniak - Ronnie
Paul Duffy - Paul
Josie Lane - Mrs. King
Collinson seeks out the political limelight, but Alice finds his renewed political ambition difficult to come to terms with.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Ann Firbank - Alice Collinson
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
Michael Elphick - Ron Hibbert
Gwen Taylor - Dorothy Hibbert
John Leyton - Brian Griffin
Ian McCulloch - Peter Richards
Ian East - Maurice Wrigley
Steven Grives - Len
Pamela Manson - Beryl Gardiner
Anthony Wingate - Lionel Gardiner
Anne MacKenzie-Davison - Helen Richards
Wilfred Harrison - Dick Harrison
Marlene Sidaway - Gillian Harrison
Bobby Pattinson - Mr. Timmins
Sue Dexter - Mrs. Timmins
Peter Kerrigan - Mr. Bailey
Daphne Oxenford - Chairwoman
John Pickles - Headmaster
Sean Flanagan - Riley
Ronnie Bihuniak - Ronnie
Paul Duffy - Paul
Josie Lane - Mrs. King
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:28The
00:58PIANO PLAYS
01:27PIANO PLAYS
01:30PIANO PLAYS
01:41In a very beer-y voice, it was called The Miner's Dream of Home.
01:45Was it always The Miner's Dream of Home?
01:47Oh, invariably, on the opening night of the party conference.
01:51I'm told that he had other similar songs, the same sort of emotional extravagance,
01:57to do with Mother's Purse and Baby's Milk and the heart-rending insufficiency of both
02:02as the snow began to fall on the cobblestones and so forth.
02:08Yes, but I never actually heard him sing them.
02:11The Miner's Dream of Home was a sort of launching, an annual first midnight ritual.
02:17Once his portly, beer-y, lachrymose old lordship had sobbed his heart out over that,
02:22in the lounge of the Imperial, or the Metropole, or whichever hotel was being used as chief's wigwam,
02:28the whole orgy of booze and beastliness could get properly underway.
02:32Anyway, it was worth hearing, once.
02:36A performance to amaze our blissening fraternal delegates from Chad and the Upper Volta,
02:41whose finest sensibilities could be seen to twang with distaste as they listened.
02:46Lord Ted was simultaneously an education and an affront.
02:51Lord Ted!
02:52Lord Ted!
02:58But he never was a miner, was he?
03:00No, the man was from the East End of London.
03:02But he'd fastened on to the fact that the word miner
03:05is one of the most emotive couplings of syllables available to any professional in the Labour movement.
03:10An old fraud.
03:12No, not really.
03:13He simply confined himself to what he was good at.
03:16He continued his politics all his life, the way he first knew them.
03:20Even in committee, he was still seeing 5,000 people gathered in front of him,
03:23ready to be moved to tears and stirred to action.
03:27He used to trigger off a strange little fantasy in my mind,
03:30of myself pressing somebody's doorbell and being instantly engulfed by the Hallelujah Chorus.
03:36Oh!
03:37But your own local party chairman's from the same mold, isn't he, Chris?
03:40I seem to remember meeting him once when he brought a little band of brothers to see you at the
03:43house.
03:43There are echoes.
03:44King Bernard does have a certain talent with the Vox Humani.
03:49Old constituency joke, the chairman's name is Bernard King.
03:52Is that common bear edible?
03:54He's no longer the force he was.
03:56But there was a time when his control over that council and the party up there
04:00had a distinct medieval royalty about it.
04:03Disgraceful, of course.
04:05It's about as democratic as Berkter's garden.
04:07It's admirably effective.
04:09Bernard kept things orderly.
04:11I regret his grey hairs.
04:13Have you got problems in the constituency?
04:16Problems of life, they're all.
04:17One can't please all of the people all of the time.
04:21I did open three of these, didn't I?
04:24Oh.
04:26I think the most important point we've still got to decide is how much do we care?
04:31Are we going to canvas or not?
04:34It's not going to stay on the front pages forever, is it?
04:36Not the kind of papers people around here read anyway.
04:40If we want to keep it in their minds, we've got to stick at it.
04:43Systematic canvassing, just like a general election.
04:46No good sitting round here just talking about it amongst ourselves.
04:51It's not as if the common market was a burning issue in every pub, is it?
04:55Does that matter, though?
04:56People have already made the minds up, haven't they?
04:58There's no danger, is there, Rob?
05:00This town's going to vote.
05:02No.
05:03That's the women.
05:04The prices have all gone up.
05:05We don't have to tell them it's because of the common market.
05:07Ah, and should we count on that?
05:10I think it's very dangerous to make happy-go-lucky assumptions.
05:13We know, though.
05:14We think we do, Morris.
05:15This town will be solid.
05:17Look, we've got a pro-market MP.
05:19So what?
05:20He can be very persuasive.
05:21I can't see Chris doing a door-to-door canvas.
05:24He's going to be very active on the pro side.
05:26You watch.
05:27He's going to be on the telly a lot.
05:29Big name in the national campaign.
05:32Why should it matter?
05:34A lot to him.
05:36I think he's expecting some kind of reward.
05:39Loyalty to the leader in difficult times.
05:42Bound to get him noticed.
05:43Oh, he's finished as far as getting anything big goes, isn't he?
05:47It's another assumption, then.
05:49I mean, would you fancy him as minister for neutralizing the unions when Harold makes his big cabinet reshuffle and
05:57we get the great step backwards, otherwise known as the middle-class resurgence in about three months' time?
06:03Eh?
06:04Would you fancy him?
06:05The answer's no.
06:06He bloody don't.
06:07But why do you think it could happen?
06:09Oh, he couldn't.
06:10He's had it.
06:11He's a pretty boy.
06:12Gone to sea.
06:13Look, you lads haven't been reading the papers carefully enough.
06:16Our Chris has been putting himself about a lot.
06:19I've got a pile of cuttings there.
06:20I'll show you later.
06:22The firm government man.
06:24The spokesman for the middle ground.
06:26A forgotten eloquence is heard again in the land.
06:30The nightingale sings in Parliament Square.
06:33It's impressive stuff.
06:35All right.
06:37So what's that got to do with the referendum and why we need a big local campaign?
06:43I think we've got to keep him quiet.
06:45I don't see how we can sit on him as regards the common market unless we demonstrate we really care.
06:52He's got a very strong hold on the old men of the General Management Committee.
06:56Now, we've got to convince them it's important enough to tell him to come to heel.
07:00You'll not do that.
07:03Well, he's going to make himself bloody unpopular, isn't he?
07:07Yeah.
07:08All over.
07:11How's the literary world, Alice?
07:13Have you got anything shamelessly erotic coming out?
07:15Not our style, Helen.
07:17Don't you want to make dirty money by the ton?
07:18In a sense, we already do.
07:21Our gardening list is very popular.
07:23The romance of organic compost, spring bedding and all that.
07:28Now, would you like a pass?
07:30Oh, yes, please, Helen.
07:31There's a new Brian Griffin novel on the way.
07:33I can recommend that.
07:36Now, the trouble with Michael is that he's always lived in a kind of splendor of wishful thinking.
07:41Now, some people seem to have found this ennobling.
07:43A politician who looks at the world and sees no bullies, no greed, no brutal intention, only misguidedness, is an
07:51appealing creature.
07:53Unfortunately, he appeals to the greedy and the brutally intended more than to anybody else, for obvious reasons.
07:58I don't mind how much the man is lauded for his political piety.
08:02The gaunt, unswerving pilgrim, with his eyes fixed on a socialist heaven on earth,
08:07where the labourer shall be exalted, and the shop steward lie down with the lady chairman of British Leyland.
08:12Ah, sweet equality.
08:14He's a captivating man.
08:17But I find his conduct as a minister inept.
08:21One can call him a visionary, or say simply, he's sentimental.
08:25What is certain is that his view of industrial relations is unreal.
08:30He doesn't understand, amazingly,
08:33that the function of a trade union, necessarily and absolutely, is selfish.
08:37You're going for the kill, aren't you?
08:41Beryl, I've warned you before about the melodramatic content of your column.
08:45You do relish your image of Parliament as an endless performance of murder in the Red Barn, don't you?
08:49But he is your quarry.
08:52An ineffectual minister is the most damaging kind.
08:56He's still probably the best-liked man in your party.
08:59He's the oldest mascot in the game.
09:01You won't be popular.
09:02I'm used to it.
09:03You think this is no time for discretion?
09:06I have never much valued it, Beryl.
09:08Some people are going to say you're trying to do the opposition's work for them.
09:12That's about the best I can expect from a lot of your readers, Dick.
09:15It doesn't worry you.
09:17But it's not a bad thing, is it, that members of a party are seen trying to put their own
09:21house in order?
09:22What is the strength of your group now?
09:25It's growing.
09:26You should say it's about 40.
09:28That many?
09:30Not pissing about, then, is he?
09:33He's not exactly grabbing a mass audience, though.
09:36I mean, most of this stuff's for the lily-handed intellectuals in it.
09:42The bloody hell does out, he owns me.
09:44Eh, useless.
09:46Futile.
09:47He's going for the professionals first.
09:51Somebody here describes him as
09:53the most agile mind to desert the winos of the strangers bar
09:57since a barmaid called Hetty retired.
10:00Nice one.
10:03Crisis over up there, Ron?
10:05Yeah.
10:07Dorothy'll be back soon.
10:10Oh, I'm sorry, lads.
10:12All the beer's gone.
10:14How many nights a week does Dorothy teach?
10:17Two.
10:19What do you think of that lot, then, eh?
10:21I think we've got an MP who's not bothered to tell us he's joined the Liberal Party.
10:25When's he coming up next?
10:26Saturday.
10:27Surgery.
10:28It's, er, two weeks, isn't it, before the next GMC?
10:31Yeah.
10:32Gives us time to organise something.
10:36You can't help admiring his style sometimes, can you?
10:39See what he says about Arthur Scargill?
10:42Pitiably, he has convinced himself he is the most dangerous man in Britain.
10:48I like that.
10:54Very useful, really.
10:56Mmm, lovely evening.
10:57Lovely evening.
10:58You're very welcome, Beryl.
10:59Good night.
11:00Hi.
11:01Good night.
11:03Good night.
11:07You've earned a drop of your own brandy, I think, Chris.
11:09Nice to see you.
11:12You are right, Peter.
11:13Let me get it for you.
11:15Oh, thanks.
11:21I'll be Beryl with it, yeah?
11:24Perfect.
11:26Do help yourselves.
11:27No, no, we're well ahead of you.
11:31Ah, a welcome sound.
11:33Beryl the invigilator is not a task one undertakes lightly, is she?
11:37We got her at her best.
11:39She has been known to break off in mid-question to be adroitly sick in her handbag.
11:43Oh, is that horrible?
11:45The lady likes her claret.
11:49What can I get for you, Alice?
11:51I think I'll make a fresh pot of coffee.
11:53Any takers?
11:55Good idea.
11:59I'll clear some of that debris.
12:01Oh, yes, come on, dear.
12:02No arguments.
12:03I'll start with this lot.
12:04Thanks, Helen.
12:07Did you intend to be quite so colourful for Beryl's benefit?
12:10You know, she was lapping that up.
12:12A lot of it's going to appear in print on Sunday.
12:14Oh.
12:15She's likely to project a highly personalised attack on your part.
12:19She'll follow the rules.
12:20Usual hedging.
12:22Collinson is known to be contemptuous of.
12:24Um, in conversation with close friends, Collinson's characteristic candour has been weighted with an unusual seriousness.
12:34Privately, it is being said that a direct challenge to the minister's competence is imminent, etc., etc.
12:42The trick is to give her editor and her readers the impression that she's been talking to half the party.
12:47What do you expect from Dick Harrison?
12:49Oh, usual gypsy stuff.
12:52Don't be surprised.
12:53Don't be surprised if two of Labour's eggheads soon lock horns.
12:59Some cheerful, fatuous, nodding and winking with mixed metaphors of that kind.
13:04So is it worth the effort?
13:07You know, there are one or two much more respected political correspondents.
13:10Wouldn't it be better to cultivate them?
13:12Mm-mm.
13:13Not this way.
13:13It's too crude.
13:16The ones you can steer are the ones who are really intimidated by the privilege of confidences, like our two
13:23friends tonight.
13:29Grateful people are bloody hard work, aren't they?
13:35He's supposed to be on the same side.
13:38That's right.
13:44Why did you take on this job?
13:49You get paid nothing for it.
13:54You turn the house into a toy Kremlin with your mates coming around here every other night, playing at Revolution.
14:04You frighten the kids.
14:07Shouting at them all the time for messing around with your files and dossiers.
14:13You're like the spy omnibus with those silly dossiers.
14:22You hate half the people you're working with.
14:25And you're the agent to a man you'd sooner see strong up from a lamppost.
14:29What's the point?
14:34Dorothy, trying to explain politics to you is beyond my ability.
14:38I've tried before.
14:39It's a vague term, politics.
14:46You just hate the man's guts, don't you?
14:50I mean, all these meetings you have in here with these henchmen of yours, they're all about him, aren't they?
14:56How can we get rid of Chris Collinson?
15:00That's all you think about.
15:01You're obsessed with it.
15:05Oh, nice, Dorothy.
15:16When you took the job, did you tell the rest of them how you felt about him?
15:19They're only too glad to get someone to do the bloody work.
15:22They didn't want to know.
15:32It's not doing you any good.
15:35I mean you as a person.
15:38You're changing.
15:41With you nowadays, it's all work.
15:44All grim.
15:47What do you bloody want?
15:48A bit of wives swapping or something?
15:50I'm not the fun-loving type.
15:52I know that.
15:54So do the kids.
15:56Oh, you have had a hard day, haven't you?
16:00Look, this man you're trying to hound out of the place, he's just lost one of his kids only a
16:04few weeks ago.
16:04Don't you care about that?
16:06What the bloody hell has that got to do with anything?
16:08I think it ought to have something to do with you, the way you treat him just now.
16:14He's had plenty of sympathy.
16:22You can rest tomorrow, can't you?
16:24I've got some reading to do.
16:26But you don't need to go into the office.
16:28Good.
16:32Thank you very much for tonight.
16:34It was a great help.
16:35I'll feed Peter and Helen as often as you like.
16:37They're nice people.
16:38Well, I won't inflict the other kind on you.
16:42I wouldn't make a habit of it, I mean.
16:44Peter seems too gentle and sensitive a soul to be in a game you both play.
16:48Does he understand it?
16:50He's learning.
16:52God help him.
16:54And Helen.
16:58He's just the man you need at the moment, isn't he, a new face?
17:02No taint from past connections, no suspect motive, no immediate ambition.
17:09Youthful vigour, youthful innocence almost.
17:13Not quite innocence.
17:16He's no fool.
17:18You would put the two together.
17:20I'm sorry.
17:22My nagging tone surfaced again.
17:41No.
17:44No, I want to sleep.
17:54You still mistrust me.
17:57You still think I'm exploiting bereavement.
18:05I thought, I hoped, you got rid of that fear.
18:12You seemed a little closer.
18:16You've been able to look at me frankly like you used to these last few days sometimes.
18:23You worked very hard for me tonight.
18:26It wasn't only for you.
18:28Why should you think that?
18:31Well, I never imagined you'd find any pleasure in it.
18:35I've got to get back into being alive.
18:39I suppose I was giving myself some sort of test.
18:44That was brave.
18:46There were moments when I wanted to stand up and yell at them all.
18:49My son's been killed.
18:56And at me too.
19:02You're a very strong man, Chris.
19:05You gave a measured, perfectly controlled performance tonight.
19:09I think I know now why you've made enemies.
19:11It's not because you've let your tongue run away with you too often.
19:15People recover from being insulted.
19:18Are you saying I can be vindictive?
19:20That's hardly rare among politicians.
19:21It's not my point.
19:26It's a cold center in you.
19:29What a harmless sounding word.
19:33Dispassionate.
19:35Christ, what it means.
20:04What is it?
20:06Let me kiss you.
20:36To your mother, the young lion's ate Albert.
20:40And mother said, well, I am that.
20:43Then Mr. and Mrs. Rumsbutton,
20:45quite rightly, when all said and done,
20:50complained to the animal keeper that the lion had eaten herself.
20:56The keeper was quite nice about it.
20:59He said, what a nice to miss out.
21:01Are you sure it's your boy that he's eaten?
21:06Pa said, I'm not sure.
21:07Here's his cup.
21:11The mother should have to be sent for.
21:13He came and he said, what's to do?
21:16Pa said, your lion's ate Albert,
21:18and him in his Sunday clothes too.
21:22Then mother said, right, right, young fella.
21:40Please come over there!
21:42Keep thecomb!
21:43Take me over there!
21:48Take me over there!
21:48Come over there!
21:54Take me over there!
21:59Oh, no, Duncan, I suppose.
22:12Shut up!
22:16And put those fags out and do yourself a favour.
22:20You'll have lungs like rotten King Edwards by the time it's plenty.
22:24That's the most expensive way I know of committing suicide.
22:29All right, come on, settle down.
22:33Hey, I'm talking to you.
22:35They went to the police station in front of the magistrate chap
22:40and they told him what had happened to Albert and proved it to show him his cap.
22:45The magistrate gave his opinion that no one was really to blame
22:50and he said that he hoped that Ramsbottoms would have further sons to their name.
22:57I feel he was afraid I'd do something silly and let him down.
23:09And after 66 outings under half, I still hadn't...
23:21Go on. It's not a new word. Look, it's just got ED on the end.
23:24Put your finger over the ED.
23:27Now, where you got?
23:29Captain.
23:30Oh, I'll tell you a thing.
23:33Captain.
23:34Yeah, that's it. Go on.
23:36Take the noise down a bit, please.
23:41My country, a change of man-ager brings new hopes.
23:51And when?
23:53Don.
23:54Reve.
23:58Go on, sit down there.
24:00Mr. Hedlert.
24:04Where have you been?
24:09There's nobody at home till tonight, so the police brought him back here.
24:12Which copper was it?
24:14I can't remember for the moment.
24:16It's noisy, isn't it?
24:18I get used to it.
24:19Yes.
24:20I suppose it was a good idea.
24:22Well, I must get on.
24:27Hey, give it him back.
24:28I'm reading it.
24:30Reading pictures.
24:32Hey, come on.
24:33Give it him back.
24:34We're in the middle of something.
24:40What am I going to read, then?
24:45I'll come to you in a minute.
24:50Right, come on.
24:51Two more paragraphs.
24:52Alan Ball.
24:53He's no good.
24:55Anyway, it's past it.
24:56Leave it, will you?
24:57Come on.
24:59Never mind him.
25:00Go on.
25:12Well, there's one thing our generation can say for ourselves, ladies and gentlemen, and
25:16that's this.
25:17We do know how to make our own fun.
25:21I'm sure you'll join with me in thanking our president, Councillor King, OBE, for stepping
25:29into the breach at such short notice and giving us so much enjoyment in his own inimitable fashion.
25:40It's not often we're let down by entertainers, but now at least we know if it happens again,
25:47we can call on our president to deputise most ably.
25:54That's if he's not otherwise engaged.
25:56Of course, we all know what a busy man he is.
26:01So, uh...
26:05Thank you very much.
26:06Thank you, Mr. Peele.
26:07Thank you very much.
26:08Good evening.
26:09Good evening.
26:11Good evening.
26:12Good evening, sir.
26:12Hey, one thing.
26:13Thank you, Ron.
26:14Take care of yourself.
26:15All right, all right.
26:17All right, all right.
26:17All right.
26:18You know, Ron.
26:20Some poor old crocs in there.
26:23Broken on the wheel of life.
26:26Aye.
26:26Well, some of them, they make me feel like a two-year-old lamb.
26:32Terrible thing is old age, you know.
26:34Oh, that's why I decided not to go in for it.
26:38Well, that's what kills you, you know.
26:40Growing old.
26:41Oh, oh, oh, oh.
26:45So, uh, I decided I'd put a bit of faith.
26:49All right, well, what happened then?
26:50Well, I thought I'd have a bit of a joke with them.
26:53So I said, very serious, like, I said,
26:55now, you two honeymooners, in view of the world's population,
26:59have you seriously considered, uh, family planning?
27:03Have you thought about this, uh, new operation they have for husbands?
27:07Mind you, she's 70, he's 71.
27:15Do you know what she said to me?
27:17She said, no, Mr. King, I don't hold with it.
27:20Let God's will be done.
27:25That's all I said to me.
27:27Uh, you want a blessing on it, not a dressing?
27:32Well, at any rate, he's got a bit of a laugh.
27:38And, Ron, uh, what kind of a man do you think ought to represent us in Parliament?
27:44Uh, should it be somebody that looks like one of us, uh, in spirit-like, uh,
27:49never mind where he was born?
27:51Would that be right?
27:53Or, uh, product of a working-class family
27:56who's used to a bit of grime under the fingernails,
28:00whose natural instinct to decide with the industrial worker,
28:05the family on the dole?
28:07Someone you could identify with in a personal sense.
28:10Now then, have I got it right?
28:13Yeah, just about.
28:14But why can't we have someone who's one of us?
28:16Well, we did, yeah.
28:18Ah, you'll be too young to remember, I suppose.
28:23Billy Brooks was our MP from 1945 to 1958.
28:28That's when he died.
28:29And that's when we got Chris.
28:32Aye.
28:33Oh, Billy's credentials were perfect.
28:36Cotton worker.
28:37Son of a cotton worker.
28:39Solid union man.
28:41Good party man.
28:43Member of the lower-paid masses.
28:45A lad right off Mother Kelly's doorstep.
28:49And after 13 years of Billy,
28:52I welcomed Chris Collinson
28:55as if he was the second coming.
28:58Have you any idea why?
29:00Well, he must have been a very forceful personality in those days.
29:05Glamorous.
29:06Big future head of him, I know that.
29:09Aye.
29:10But you didn't know what Billy was like.
29:13And all the other Billy Brookses
29:15that our party used to have in the Commons.
29:18Oh.
29:19I used to go up to Westminster quite a lot in them days.
29:24Various deputations, you know.
29:25To try to get things done for this town.
29:28Why, with big stye slums by the mile and by the acre.
29:32mills and factories like hell-holes out of Dickens' novels.
29:36Bread-line wages.
29:38And no new industry's coming to this town, remember.
29:41No.
29:42And this isn't pre-war I'm talking about.
29:45This was after two post-war Labour governments.
29:50I was born here.
29:51I know a bit about all that.
29:53I was brought up in it.
29:54But you're not saying it's all been put right now, are you?
29:57Well, what I'm saying is that life in this place and other places like it
30:02is a damn sight better than it ever was.
30:06And I'm going to tell you something else.
30:09Emmett didn't try to make it better.
30:12Were your Billy Brookses.
30:13Your working class MPs.
30:15Aye.
30:16That's who.
30:18Oh, I used to see them in the house.
30:21They all looked the same.
30:23Put-in basin haircuts.
30:25Black boots.
30:26Blue serge suits.
30:29They'd been pensioned off all.
30:32Well, I thought they had.
30:34Aye, they plodded along with the unions of the local council.
30:37So, now they got the reward.
30:40A soft job.
30:41A subsidised canteen.
30:43And all some of them were expected to do was to do a bit of booing
30:47or a bit of cheering.
30:48According to instructions.
30:51Because it wasn't their fault, really.
30:54They should never have been there.
30:56They were frightened by Westminster.
30:59Because they couldn't understand.
31:01Well, if you felt so strongly about it,
31:03why didn't you get rid of Billy Brooks earlier?
31:08Hey, it's a big undertaking.
31:10It's a long and intricate procedure.
31:13Sacking an MP on a big nasty row is inevitable.
31:19Of course, not everybody around here thought the way that I did.
31:25But I was right.
31:27I determined we'd have no more Billy's.
31:30And when Chris came on the market, well, I snatched him up.
31:34Aye.
31:34Of course, I had to keep him waiting in the wings for a while and, well, that made him impatient.
31:41Naturally.
31:42And have you been satisfied?
31:45Well, I reckon he's made as much use of Westminster on our behalf as any MP can.
31:51And the evidence is in bricks and mortar and concrete mostly.
31:56Still part of the economy packed for second-class citizens.
32:01Aye.
32:02Whatever happened to Jerusalem, eh?
32:05That's what you're asking, Ron?
32:08Well, I'm glad.
32:10Keep on asking.
32:11Keep on pushing.
32:13Hey, do I seem a bit complacent to you?
32:17Oh, I realise your memories go back a lot longer than mine.
32:20And they're blacker.
32:22Are you being kind to me?
32:25Look, there's still a lot of people in this country get a lousy deal out of life.
32:30It needn't be that way.
32:31It could be made different.
32:33Listen, Ron.
32:35When you're picking your allies,
32:37don't worry about their accents,
32:39where the fathers came from or where they went to school.
32:44Go for the ones with the brains
32:46with a bit of right kind of arrogance
32:48that expect to get things done.
32:52Put them to work for you.
32:56You don't have to like them.
32:59And all the social tribunal you can say is no.
33:03Thus far and no further, Mr. Timmons.
33:06You're getting your entitlement up the hill.
33:09Well, alright if that's it.
33:12Fair enough as far as they're concerned.
33:15But what we are saying, Mr. Collinson, is this.
33:19Plain and simple.
33:21We've got a need.
33:25Somewhere in this welfare state of ours,
33:27there must be provisions laid down
33:29whereby that need can receive due consideration.
33:33See, I mean, we don't think,
33:37and we've been battering away at this for 11 years now,
33:42that welfare town hall is doing anything like enough.
33:47In fact, we thought we were being forward
33:50when she was still a new baby.
33:52And we were saying, look,
33:56we've got a plan for when she's growing up.
33:59And that's when we started asking for special appliances in the home for her.
34:03But nothing's happened yet.
34:05Nothing at all.
34:06We're worried sick about it.
34:07And, of course, we have to think about when we're growing older.
34:11Well, I mean, anything could happen, you see, we...
34:12Mr. Timmonson.
34:14Er, Mr. Timmons.
34:16Can you tell me exactly what assistance you have so far received?
34:21I shall need a detailed breakdown.
34:23Yes, sir.
34:23But it's all here.
34:27It'll make you laugh at this.
34:29Pathetic.
34:30It is, really.
34:34You've always had my vote, Mr. Collins.
34:37Yes, sir.
34:38Can I assure you of that?
34:40And hers.
34:47That's a lot.
34:52What happened to Mrs. Bailey Brothers, private hire, compulsory purchase of premises?
34:58Well, you know, Saturday, busy day, weddings, pub trade.
35:02They've got no case anyway.
35:04Just making a bloody fuss.
35:06Defiant small trader under siege.
35:10A modern English hero.
35:12Much loved of the Tory press.
35:16Well, give him a few more minutes.
35:18We don't usually hang about.
35:24Do you think you know enough about me, Ron, to say what is usual?
35:27Come on.
35:32I'm late.
35:33Hello, Chris.
35:33I'm sorry.
35:34Have I kept you?
35:35Mr. John Bailey.
35:37Ah, Bailey Brothers.
35:38How do you do, Mr. Bailey?
35:39How do you do, Chris?
35:40Good to know you.
35:41I've always wanted to.
35:43We could have privacy, couldn't we?
35:46And no offence, Mr. Hebbett.
35:49Seen your picture of the paper?
35:51You're very left, aren't you?
35:53And besides, what I've got to say about the council is dynamite.
35:57You understand, Chris?
35:59I'll be next door.
36:00All right, Ron.
36:00Do sit down, Mr. Bailey.
36:06Now, Chris.
36:08I've come to see you because I know that you're non-political.
36:13The wife says, don't go.
36:16They're all handling love.
36:18I said, you're wrong.
36:19This man is above party politics.
36:22So, here I am.
36:24You want to hear my telephone?
36:25Of course, Mr. Bailey.
36:26Please go ahead.
36:27Right.
36:27Well, it'll make your hair curl
36:28when you hear what I've been treating.
36:31Diabolical.
36:32Well, for starters, a question.
36:35Does our society still pride itself
36:38on the sturdy independence of the island race?
36:41I've always been naturally sympathetic towards individuality.
36:45That's a middle-class privilege.
36:47I'm more concerned about the people who don't get a choice.
36:50They're often referred to as the masses.
36:52They haven't been abolished.
36:54We're supposed to represent them.
36:56I don't like the concept of a lumpen proletariat.
36:59It's disparaging.
37:01I'm surprised at you, Ron.
37:20Thanks for digging me out today, Ron.
37:23Well, I promised you a joke.
37:25What do you think?
37:31Hilarious.
37:32Good.
37:32You should see it at night.
37:34Like a lump of old Pathy Newsroom at the Chelsea Arts Ball.
37:41How are things?
37:43Manageable.
37:45Sorry, that was a portentous sort of answer.
37:47I mean, things are okay.
37:52Chris seems to have established for himself
37:54what the politicos call a power base.
37:57Our gang, I call it, when I'm in jocular mood.
37:59How does he feel things are going?
38:02I haven't got into that too deeply.
38:07Marriage.
38:09The institution of.
38:10In a broad philosophical sense.
38:13What's its function?
38:14What's it intended to do or be, Brian?
38:17Am I best qualified?
38:19Do answer that.
38:19I'm a spectator.
38:20Dropped from the team at the moment.
38:22I'll offer an opinion.
38:26Well, it's a kind of a perpetuated act of faith.
38:30A mutual observance.
38:32Ritual.
38:34No.
38:35No, it needs to be more.
38:37Can we quantify more?
38:39Well, I can't. Not for someone else.
38:43I recognise that Hibbert has a young man's ardour.
38:46And we should value that.
38:47Oh, thanks, love.
38:48He's committed fiercely.
38:50He'd be a good strong-armed man in any Dockland flying picket.
38:52I can see him leading one.
38:54But I would like to think that that ferocity might be directed at some other targets.
38:58Do you think he knows we do still have a conservative enemy?
39:01Now, you and me, we both know, Chris, that in our party, fighting among ourselves well is just a habit.
39:09One of the customs of the tribe.
39:10It does a lot of good in many ways.
39:13It keeps the teeth and the claws sharp.
39:16Oh.
39:17It can be very distracting.
39:19I rarely can do without a 15-rounder in my own constituency.
39:23Since you've got your sights on something else.
39:28And what exactly do you think that is, Bernard?
39:32Now, Chris, there's no need for you and me to fence about it.
39:35If you can knock that cuckoo off, you'll get no complaints from me.
39:40Ah, he's not my type.
39:42I can't stand this weak-risted intelligentsia
39:46who think that by wearing red ties and calling me brother,
39:50they become the saviours of the working class.
39:52Now, I like practical politicians.
39:56Not drawing-room revolutionaries.
39:59You'll have Ron after you as well as me.
40:02Well, I don't think Ron really knows what he wants.
40:06Well, he wants things changed.
40:10Well, isn't that how we all started?
40:13I am not going to let him put my head on his mantelpiece.
40:16No. No, no. Of course you're not.
40:19But I say we need that latter.
40:22Now, we were all disappointed in your vote at the last election.
40:25Oh, nobody more so than you.
40:27And we don't want any more inquests now.
40:30Well, I've got to give you one of the reasons, Chris. I just won't.
40:33And that was poor organisation.
40:35I don't deny my own responsibility.
40:37Well, don't let's go over dead ground.
40:39I say that Ron's the hardest working secretary we've had in ten years.
40:44Now, you may see something sinister in that.
40:46I say, let's use his abilities.
40:49And next time we'll have all the organisation we need.
40:53And we must have that, Chris.
40:56Is it something good?
40:58No.
40:59Why are you watching it, then?
41:02I'm not. I think it's watching me.
41:05Oh, very mystical.
41:08Switch it off, love.
41:11Who's that?
41:13A Kim Tamaray.
41:15Rubbish.
41:17Well, I don't know.
41:18Bella Lugosi the second.
41:26I need a hairdryer.
41:28Come here.
41:30I'll do it for you.
41:35Oh, go easy.
41:39Sorry.
41:44One of my sin bin lads got stabbed today.
41:47Was he badly hurt?
41:49I don't think so.
41:51Just a mild kind of stabbing.
41:54Youthful high spirits outside a football ground.
41:57How did you hear about it?
41:58The police.
42:00They come round the committee rooms.
42:03He'd given them my name.
42:04Why?
42:06They wanted to know more about him, you know.
42:09Friends, relatives.
42:11Went round his house.
42:12No one in.
42:15There never bloody is.
42:21The police.
42:22His name's Riley.
42:23He comes from that section of the population we call the disadvantaged.
42:29He's the guarantor of permanent employment for Borstal governors, prison warders, social workers, social security clerks, means testers.
42:41Not a bad bloody joke, is it?
42:45Kids like Riley.
42:47Unemployable.
42:48Supplying jobs for thousands.
42:51The raw material of a whole industry.
42:53The human waste business.
42:56The human waste business.
42:57And it's my job to supply a steady flow.
43:01I'm doing pretty well, I think.
43:03You worry about it too much.
43:05You do your best for them.
43:08I'm a functionary, whose job it is to preserve the status quo.
43:14I'm required to suppress all expectations and discontent.
43:21My headmaster says to me,
43:22Oh, Mr Hibbert.
43:24I'm amazed at this rapport you have with these difficult boys.
43:28I've nothing of the kind, of course.
43:32Rapport.
43:33Jesus.
43:34They just tolerate me.
43:36Why?
43:38All the teachers get nowhere with kids like that.
43:42Try not to insult them.
43:45Their intelligence.
43:47They know what they're being prepared for.
43:49They can see the amount of time, respect they get.
43:56They know what society wants from them.
43:58And I hate what I'm doing.
44:14I don't know...
44:16Ones ofecaties?
44:51hello. did you want some tea? I thought I'd let you sleep on. it's all right. were you very late
44:56in last night. I didn't hear you. you were well away. you may need some hot water. how did your
45:06day go? drifted by. how's your standing in the bluff belligerent north? usual swings and roundabouts. hostilities continue.
45:17mhm. Bernard is making suitable, subtle arrangements. in return I shall be inoffensive, passive even, on the subject of the
45:33referendum. up there that is. in fact I shall stay away as much as possible. I can do plenty for
45:41the cause elsewhere, unpublicized, and Bernard won't object as long as I avoid provoking the Hibbert camp.
45:47he's still the puppet master is he? the great mediator keeps his touch.
45:53Bernard could have averted the crucifixion. you in the papers? nope. overtaken by events. the hoofing out of heifer. tough.
46:05in the event the silence is timely. at the cost of feasting the unspeakable bell off.
46:11she'll deliver in due course. the effort won't prove useless I assure you. good.
46:18how do you feel?
46:21you seem stronger or more relaxed or something a bit different from how you've been lately.
46:29do I? do I? I did sleep very well. I cleared Andrew's room out last night. I felt it was
46:37time.
46:41I would have helped. it's done now. it was time.
46:47if there's anything you particularly want just have a look otherwise I'll deal with it all tomorrow.
46:58how would you feel if I decided I wanted to go away for a while?
47:07for a holiday? no. not quite that.
47:12you do mean alone?
47:14you don't want to move at the moment do you? that wasn't a valid question anyway. yes.
47:20I do want to go away on my own.
47:26for how long?
47:28could we leave that open?
47:35you thought about where?
47:37Shropshire. my cousin's house. they're going to be away for some time. it's quiet there.
47:43the office don't mind my being away from London and
47:47be handy for David to come and see me.
47:50you think he doesn't want to come home here anymore?
47:53he doesn't feel at ease here?
47:55I don't want to lose contact with him.
48:01he's probably found a girl.
48:03Brian said that.
48:10you want to get away from me don't you?
48:13I think he would come and stay with me that is part of it.
48:16but mostly
48:17you don't want to live with me at the moment.
48:21I'm sorry.
48:29there was a time
48:32when we were so much part of each other
48:35so sensitive to each other's
48:38needs, thoughts, responses.
48:40it's been quite a while since it was like that Chris.
48:45but I know I love you Alice.
48:59are you telling me you're leaving me?
49:01I want some time on my own.
49:03that's all I'm saying at the moment.
49:07does
49:10Brian have anything to do with this?
49:12I'm not going to him.
49:13but you'll still be seeing him?
49:14yes but in just the same way as now.
49:16is that going to be enough for you both?
49:19he'll go rushing back to his wife tomorrow if he could.
49:27is there anything you want me to do that would stop you going?
49:30it would be unreal wouldn't it?
49:33to talk about how you could change.
49:36I don't think I'm priggish enough.
49:37am I to be capable of drawing up a code of conduct for us?
49:40the last thing you want is me playing the shroom.
49:45don't go.
49:47we can make it right again.
49:49isn't it a question of blame and fault of who's right and who's wrong?
49:53we are
49:56what we've come to know about us.
49:59let me see if I can come to terms with that.
50:01you don't become any less of a dominant presence Chris.
50:04I need some distance and time.
50:13I'm going to be entirely alone.
50:17you asked me how I would feel if you decided to go away.
50:22I feel frightened.
50:27I'm asking you Alice.
50:30please stay.
50:38i'm asking you Alice.
Comments