- 6 weeks ago
First broadcast 18th November 1975.
As Collinson concentrates on the intensifying Common Market campaign, he is almost taken unawares by events in his constituency.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Kate Fahy - Millie Dutton (as Katherine Fahy)
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
Michael Elphick - Ron Hibbert
Gwen Taylor - Dorothy Hibbert
Ian East - Maurice Wrigley
Brenda Elder - Shirley Wrigley
Nicholas Le Prevost - Philip
David Scase - Chairman
Helen Rappaport - Liz
David Valla - Steve
Oliver Maguire - Jack
Graham Rigby - George
Phil Corke - Mr. Binks
Joyce Kennedy - Woman
Wenda Brown - Reporter
Robert Whelan - Bouncer
Earl Tobias - Waiter
Spider Jive - Group
As Collinson concentrates on the intensifying Common Market campaign, he is almost taken unawares by events in his constituency.
Tony Britton - Christopher Collinson
Kate Fahy - Millie Dutton (as Katherine Fahy)
Wilfred Pickles - Bernard King
Michael Elphick - Ron Hibbert
Gwen Taylor - Dorothy Hibbert
Ian East - Maurice Wrigley
Brenda Elder - Shirley Wrigley
Nicholas Le Prevost - Philip
David Scase - Chairman
Helen Rappaport - Liz
David Valla - Steve
Oliver Maguire - Jack
Graham Rigby - George
Phil Corke - Mr. Binks
Joyce Kennedy - Woman
Wenda Brown - Reporter
Robert Whelan - Bouncer
Earl Tobias - Waiter
Spider Jive - Group
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00The
00:34If Britain, on whatever pretext by the government, remains in the community,
00:40then the things that will crawl out from under the carpet
00:43and the things that will take place in the months, let alone years following,
00:47will be such that the great bulk of the British people will rise up and say,
00:51we were deceived, we were taken for a ride, and we'll have no part of it.
00:56Well now, Mr. Collinson, allowing for Mr. Enoch Powell's customary apocalyptic language,
01:02do not feel that on this particular issue he is right.
01:05Isn't there indeed a very grave danger of violent public reaction in the future
01:10because people will see themselves as deceived?
01:13Sovereignty is going to be lost.
01:15It is the intention to make the EEC a supranational state.
01:18Mr. Chairman, please.
01:19Isn't it very irresponsible of the pro-marketeers to suppress discussion on this matter?
01:23Mr. Chairman.
01:24Now, unquestionably it has been expressed.
01:26It really does seem to me to be very shabby behaviour.
01:29Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry, but most of us aren't here
01:32because we want to listen to ourselves speak.
01:35Framing a question.
01:37Framing one? You're papering the walls with it.
01:44A lot of us have questions you want to ask, Mr. Chairman.
01:47All right, thank you, thank you.
01:49I think I've got your message.
01:51Could I ask all of you to be as brief as possible?
01:54Mr. Collinson, would you like to answer the last question of the issue of sovereignty?
02:00Yes.
02:06Let me start with this accusation of deceit.
02:13There has been none.
02:16If sometimes we on the pro-market side have appeared determined to disregard the issue,
02:23that is because we want to focus the public mind on what we think matters most.
02:31I, uh, I really do find this picture of a future Briton rendered voiceless and helpless
02:40under the heel of the white wogs of Mr. Chairman.
02:45Exasperated in its suit.
02:47The date for the end of the Hundred Years' War is generally accepted as being 1453.
02:54I always enjoy the devil's advocate role.
02:57I'm not a power-like, but I admire his capacity to concentrate the minds of others.
03:02Today I thought I would assume his line of thought.
03:05I was intrigued that in your reply you should carefully ignore it.
03:09I hope we may have a chance to return to the subject in the second session.
03:13Well, all you have to do is to catch the chairman's eye.
03:16Would you excuse me, please?
03:18We resume on the half hour, do we?
03:19Yes.
03:20Anything you want.
03:21No, thank you.
03:22More tea?
03:22No, I want to take up a couple of very interesting points at somebody.
03:30Hello.
03:31Hello.
03:35Would you care for a breath of fresh air?
03:45What do you teach here?
03:47I'm not part of the main machine.
03:49I'm with the extramural department.
03:51It's a much better life.
03:53I get working lads and genteel old ladies
03:56pickled in lavender water in the same classes.
04:00It's more lifelike.
04:02I'm dealing mostly with the fictional history of industrial society.
04:08Some of my older students have memories to challenge what I laughingly call my knowledge.
04:14Book learning is not enough.
04:17I wouldn't have categorized you as unworldly.
04:21I look as if I've been around, do I?
04:24A bit warm.
04:27You know, I meant that, um, you're plainly not any kind of enclosed academic.
04:32I mean, I imagine you've traveled abroad, for example.
04:34Is that right?
04:35I had two years in Africa.
04:37Kenya.
04:38I taught at a teacher's training college through the voluntary service overseas thing.
04:43Exciting?
04:43Sometimes.
04:46Flamingos.
04:48The odd political rally like a Janis Joplin concert.
04:52Daily riot of color like the travel books say.
04:59Sometimes, often in fact,
05:02it's disturbing more than exciting.
05:05Poverty is repulsive.
05:11Did the job involve you in that?
05:13Not the job.
05:15I wanted to know about the place.
05:16That's why I went.
05:17Curiosity.
05:20I'm afraid I'm a bit prone to curiosity,
05:23like some people are to drink.
05:25Or hay fever.
05:27I'm told it'll get me in trouble someday.
05:34My name's Millie Dutton.
05:45Welcome to Anonymityville.
05:56Thanks.
05:57It belongs to some friends of mine.
05:59I've just borrowed it.
06:02All I have to do is keep it clean
06:04and leave the food and drink stock the way I found it.
06:08Is there a way on a month's holiday?
06:12Cheers.
06:23Oh, yes.
06:26Excellent.
06:28There's plenty more in the fridge.
06:34I call it the waiting room, actually.
06:37There's a transit camp.
06:38It seems to break new ground.
06:42Meets the current need.
06:46Haven't you got a place of your own?
06:49I'm looking around.
06:52There was a place
06:53and there was someone I shared it with,
06:55but you don't want to know all about that,
06:56now, do you?
06:58I want to know whatever you want to tell me.
07:01Well, not now.
07:02I think that's best.
07:11I was intrigued to know
07:13what you'd be like in the flesh.
07:15You're part of my education.
07:18On the reading list in foundation year.
07:21Always cropping up
07:22in other people's bibliographies.
07:26According to some, I'm dated.
07:28An entirely invalid word.
07:34Now, I'll tell you what comes next.
07:37We're going to have something to eat.
07:39I'm going to get dressed up
07:40and then I'm going to show you
07:42what this city gets up to
07:43on a Saturday night.
07:54Millie, love!
07:56How great to see you.
07:58Hello, Liz.
07:59Look who.
08:01Hello, Millie, baby.
08:03Hello, Steve.
08:04You're not on your own, are you?
08:06I'm with Chris.
08:07Chris, Steve and Liz.
08:09Hello, Steve.
08:11Hello.
08:12Could I check your membership, please?
08:15And your handbags, ladies.
08:18Chris, I'm sure we've met.
08:21I'm sure we have.
08:22Are you going to help me out?
08:24Because I'm sure that we...
08:26Christ, of course.
08:28You're Christopher Collinson, MP.
08:32Well met.
08:33And I really mean that.
08:35You're one of the reasons I vote Labour.
08:39Liz, have you realised who this is?
08:42No, of course you haven't.
08:43It's that bloody Wilmslow background of yours.
08:46I'm, uh, educating her slowly.
08:48When I first met her,
08:49she thought Jeremy Thorpe was a communist.
08:52Well, what can you expect from somebody
08:53whose old man plays a record
08:55of Land of Hope and Glory every night
08:56before he goes to bed?
08:57Oh, he doesn't.
08:59Not every night.
09:01Only Christmas.
09:12I'm a social democrat like you.
09:15Greatest good for the greatest number.
09:18That's what we've made, isn't it?
09:21Advancement of the working class.
09:24Certainly.
09:27I'm basically working class.
09:29At any rate, that's where I come from.
09:32Oh, I'm a fancy myself.
09:34I'm an employer.
09:36A boss.
09:38Part of the bourgeoisie now, I suppose.
09:40But I still believe in my social responsibility.
09:45I run a Rover 3,500
09:50with a velt Labour sticker
09:51permanently in the rear window.
09:54Now, what I'm saying, Chris, is
09:56it's people like you
09:57who've got to do some straight talking.
10:00The working man needs to be told and led.
10:04We've got to encourage the Labour force
10:06to take the long-term view.
10:13Now, there's an old catchphrase.
10:17Enlightened self-interest.
10:18That's what we've got to preach.
10:22Advancement of the working man, certainly.
10:25But not too fast.
10:27Not too much too soon.
10:30Are you with me?
10:33It's got to be commensurate.
10:35No, wrong.
10:37Not commensurate.
10:40Compatible.
10:41That's a word.
10:43Compatible with the good of the country.
10:45The wild men of the left
10:46are more dangerous to the working man
10:48in the long term.
10:50Now, that's the point, isn't it?
10:51Look in ahead.
10:52Socialists should always look ahead.
10:53Steve, we're going to dance.
10:56Come on.
10:57You're being a real drag.
11:00I'm talking to my magic.
11:04I'm sorry about that.
11:06He loses a lot of charm
11:08as the drink gets at him.
11:09Oh.
11:11It's a drunk or sober.
11:12He was talking what a lot of people
11:13would call decent common sense.
11:16You're getting serious again.
11:18We're going to avoid that.
11:21Dance with me.
11:22What?
11:22Come on.
11:23Come on.
11:24We're going to dance.
11:26Hey, hey, hey.
11:27Bimbo.
11:41We're going to dance.
11:45Bimbo.
11:47Oh.
11:52Hey, hey.
11:56Boom.
12:11Hey, hey.
12:12Hor惡.
12:12Hey, hey.
12:29The point is, Millie, that the members of, uh, what shall we call them, the, uh, the
12:38new boutiquity, like Steve and his band, the new first-generation middle-class, the harvest
12:47of our post-war social mobility, the issue, as Enoch would say, of my party's loins.
13:11You see what damage a few months of moderation can do to a grown man's capacity?
13:27The new breed of labour-voting middle-class, the smart and moneyed young.
13:38They present us, me, my kind, my generation of polemicists, with a certain wry irony.
13:51We preached change, a new social order.
13:54We even achieved some of that.
13:57We realised the constrictions, took some of the fear out of working life, encouraged dissatisfaction,
14:04and higher expectations.
14:08And now, we have a whole new breed of beneficiaries, like our friend, Steve, telling us, enough.
14:18Stop the others from being so dissatisfied and demanding.
14:25And crudely though they may express it, Millie, they confront me with a worrying question.
14:31Do I really want the upheaval and the conflict that was always bound to follow if the working
14:37class acted to bring change?
14:40How much do I want to actually happen?
14:55Is your head clearing now?
15:00Hmm.
15:02Have you had enough din and dancing?
15:05Hmm.
15:08Shall we go and find my car?
15:17I've always regarded myself as being totally unsentimental.
15:21Give or take the odd spasm of nostalgia for the careless agilities of yesterday whenever
15:28I hear a snatch of Fred Astaire or Glenn Miller.
15:31I was impressed by your gymnastics on the dance floor.
15:37But, actually, memory plays false here because I never did much dancing and seldom went to
15:46the pictures.
15:46It is simply that I have let myself accept a popular contemporary affection for something
15:53associated with that supposedly carefree optimistic time of youth.
16:02Now, here's a modest little analogy, Millie.
16:08Speculative enough to suit the small hours.
16:11I'm bracing myself for it.
16:13Ah.
16:14Well, here it is, then.
16:17I am expected to feel guilty and apologetic because I cannot support the big battalions,
16:24the most demonstrative representatives of the working class, when they insist that they've
16:29got to have a lot more money.
16:31Now, I am expected to feel like that because I am supposed to have failed them.
16:36I have apparently deserted the cause.
16:39Gone back on my word.
16:41Cries of shame and never mind, you can't win them all.
16:44But, I have to ask, what word?
16:48When was it that I, and my kind of socialist, ever dealt in promises of affluence?
16:56A just society was what I asked for.
17:00And I don't think we arrive at that by letting some people name their price.
17:06But, nostalgia, partial distorting memory, says that the sweet life was promised.
17:15That the vision of youth was of money, power and control.
17:23I have to remind myself, because popular memory is persuasive, that my vision was of something
17:30very different.
17:34Of compassion, concern, and tolerance.
17:41And among all that, the corrected distribution of money was never anything more than one obvious
17:46means to those ends, and means which had to be tactically used.
17:52I never offered my services as some kind of people's Midas.
17:58Perhaps you ought to say all that more publicly.
18:02Not just to a sympathetic audience of one.
18:10I do tend to lecture at people I feel... close to.
18:24I haven't had much opportunity lately.
18:38I suppose...
18:40I could plead that it's been a very long day.
18:46That must have sickened you.
18:53Look at me.
18:57I feel... ridiculous.
19:06Comic.
19:10Please, Chris.
19:12Cena.
19:20Hold me, Chris.
19:24Hold me, it's enough.
19:29It's all I want.
19:37Hold me till I'm asleep.
19:54Hold me, I'll let my face it.
19:55I won't be asleep.
19:56I can't at all.
20:05Is I gonna score it?
20:06I'm gonna score it.
20:08Hold me, Chris.
20:09I can't at all.
20:12I can't at all.
20:20I don't know.
20:48I thought you'd have made it by now.
20:50Give us a chance.
20:51Time for one.
20:53This place gets more like a rag yard every day.
20:58Where's the bloody tea thing?
20:59Sit down, do your crossword. I'll look after the tea.
21:06What time do you say Collinson's put him? 11?
21:09We said about that.
21:11Put the other lads over here earlier.
21:14He's got to drive over from Manchester.
21:16What's he been doing there?
21:18Common market meeting.
21:20Some privileged bloody discussion group.
21:26He can do as much of that as he likes as far as I'm concerned.
21:30I just want him to keep his trap shut here.
21:34Make sure the kids have finished the breakfast and cleared out by 10.
21:38Our aunt is awake anyway.
21:44I've got this bloke beat.
21:47Easy.
21:54I'm going to start devising crosswords.
21:57I know you are. You tell me every Sunday.
22:05We'll do it.
22:18On the face of it, it's a rent strike.
22:22Council tenants indignant about rent increases.
22:24but that is only the start of it.
22:25On its own, it would have fizzled out, as God knows how many such things have before.
22:29But this one has acquired a very bizarre accretion
22:34in the form of three drunken dustmen.
22:38Anyway, a supervisor or foreman of some kind says
22:42they went boozing at lunchtime and were unfit for work in the afternoons,
22:47so he had them sacked.
22:49Then, re-enter the already disgruntled Tenants' Association,
22:55making loud and angry noises about victimisation,
22:58because the three boozy dustmen
23:02happen to be among the more enthusiastic rent withholders.
23:07There is much acrimony.
23:09Do you involve yourself in much of that sort of thing?
23:13Avoid it like litres of Algerian red in plastic bottles.
23:16No.
23:18There is a certain type of MP,
23:21the self-appointed King Solomon type,
23:23who feed on these local cause célèbes, can't get enough of them.
23:26To me, they're trivial, just part of local life going on.
23:30They're material for a novelist, not a politician to deal in.
23:34I'm meeting these people today because I've been specifically asked.
23:39Refusal would be bad for the reputation.
23:48Also, I'm intrigued.
23:50The leading light of this miserable affair
23:52is a chap called Maurice Wrigley,
23:54who is part of my agent's camp,
23:55which has of late been very hostile.
24:01I'm surprised he should come to me.
24:05Would you like me to drive you out there?
24:08Oh, no.
24:09No, it could drag on all day.
24:15I'm a familiar face in the constituency.
24:18So is my wife.
24:23We can meet for lunch, though.
24:24Would you like that?
24:27Run for the hill.
24:29What happened to the grass blocks?
24:30And the kids' recreation feed we were supposed to have, eh?
24:33Doors, Jack.
24:33Tell them about the doors.
24:35Right.
24:35The doors and the flats.
24:37Now, I can take you round those flats this morning.
24:39And there's hardly a door that's a proper fit.
24:42I'm short of two.
24:43This after a year's occupancy, mind.
24:45And the rent's put up.
24:47On top of the fact they were higher in the first place
24:49than we were told when they moved us out of the slum clearance.
24:51We were better off where we were.
24:54She's got no door, no bathroom and toilet.
24:57Supposed to be put right the day after they moved in.
25:00That's the sort of thing we're putting up with.
25:02Now, I can give you a list of names and addresses
25:05and defects that will stretch from here to the mayor's parlour.
25:09Windows, heating, ceilings.
25:11Yeah, the department has admitted some teething troubles.
25:17Admitted it and as much as said hard bloody luck get on with it.
25:21Now, why do you think we're going through all this aggravation?
25:24Sent for you, congregating here on a Sunday morning.
25:27Now, we've all got better things to do.
25:29It's because we've tried everything else, that's why.
25:33Petitions, deputations.
25:35Nobody takes a blind bit of notice.
25:37They're all sitting about down there.
25:39The planners and the jumped-up clerks they call the administrators.
25:44They're not bothered about what we want.
25:46The little secretaries bring them their morning coffee
25:49and their afternoon tea
25:50and they spend two and a half hours having lunch in the wool pack
25:53and calling in a working session
25:55doing their little bit of social engineering.
25:57That means getting us out of sight and out of mind.
26:00That's how we're going to be stuck out here,
26:02a gallon of petrol away from our jobs
26:04and the women carrying their shopping and two buses
26:07and now we're supposed to pay nine quid a week.
26:09Twelve? Some of us, twelve.
26:14You can say that, um, uh, you can say this.
26:20I've spoken with a number of residents
26:21who are coping with a very trying situation.
26:26I've been shown structural deficiencies
26:29which I feel ought to receive urgent attention.
26:34And I fully understand the anger
26:39that some residents have felt
26:42at the delay that there has been
26:44in dealing with their compassion.
26:45What about the victimization?
26:47Yes, Mrs. Collins, are you going to take up the men's case?
26:49I feel that that is a separate issue.
26:50No, no, no, no, no. It's all one.
26:53My immediate concern is the state of the flats.
26:57I will certainly be making representations
26:59to the appropriate departments of the local authority.
27:03Do you think the men were unfairly treated?
27:06Well, I understand that at least one of them
27:08has found other employment.
27:09They were scapegoats.
27:12Excuse me.
27:14Um, there are one or two points
27:17I should like to take up with you privately.
27:20So you won't be doing anything about the dustman?
27:23I think I've said all I want to say at the moment.
27:25I bet you have a drink at dinner time.
27:27Redundancies by another name, that's what they were.
27:29Supposed to be a Labour council, Labour government, Labour MP.
27:32That's a bloody joke.
27:33It's been quite a big running story locally.
27:35Did you tip them off about today?
27:37They were a bit late, as a matter of fact.
27:39I wanted them at the meeting at my house.
27:41Still, I don't suppose they like working Sunday morning
27:43any more than the rest of us.
27:45Surely should have some coffee on for us.
27:54When someone like Anthony Crossland tells us,
27:58and he's telling us, the wage-earning council tenant families,
28:01that the party's over,
28:03that's when the blood starts boiling a bit.
28:06All those people who've been shouting at you today,
28:10you don't like being shouted at, do you?
28:13Everyday noise levels are higher in working-class life.
28:16It's to do with machinery and communal eating,
28:20and less privacy than you're used to.
28:22All those people have come from the old terrace rows in town.
28:27No baths, outside lavatories.
28:29The classic British slug.
28:31They've just escaped in 1975.
28:36There was nobody older than, say, round 40, was there?
28:39But they've got personal memories of real squalor.
28:44Your dad didn't have to be on the dole.
28:46There were grades of poverty.
28:48I know you could probably quote more facts and figures on that
28:51than I've ever had.
28:52The point is, those people are part of it.
28:55It may be social history to you.
28:58It's living experience for them.
29:02For you as well?
29:03Oh, yes.
29:05You sound different, if I may say that.
29:09My father was a rare character.
29:12Working-class bookworm.
29:14We were the ones with the quiet house in the street.
29:17I think the same way as Big Jack, though.
29:21He's right when he says
29:24what characterises the working class
29:26is that they're not supposed to have any choices.
29:30Authority tells us where and how we live our lives.
29:33Hmm.
29:34Was that what he was saying?
29:36Yes.
29:38Maurice, why didn't you do the talking this morning?
29:41I thought we needed some shouting.
29:46Want some coffee, Mr. Collinson?
29:48Ah, yes, thank you.
29:52Have you any complaints about your own house, by the way?
29:55Oh, no.
29:56Oh, we had our pick, didn't we?
29:59Oh, no.
30:01Okay.
30:04Okay.
30:11Okay.
30:29I suppose you'd have to call it a pious household.
30:33It's not solemn or gloomy.
30:35You can never accuse my parents of that.
30:38Salvationists believe in making a joyous noise unto the Lord.
30:42Oh, God, how they believe in it.
30:45I don't suppose you can picture me blasting away at a cornet, can you?
30:49The king of love, my shepherd is, and all that stuff.
30:53Well, I did.
30:55I rejected the tambourine at a very early age.
30:58It seemed such a silly, timid, wet sort of thing.
31:01All that flapping.
31:04But you could be quite rude with a cornet.
31:09It's odd what stays in the mind from those endless, hymn-singing Sundays.
31:14A very passionate submissiveness.
31:17That's the sense of what I remember.
31:21Verses like...
31:22Sinners whose love shall ne'er forget
31:26The wormwood and the gaule.
31:32Go spread your trophies at his feet
31:34And crown him Lord of all.
31:36Jesus.
31:40When did rebellion break out?
31:42With puberty.
31:44Ah.
31:45You fell in love with a 14-year-old atheist?
31:48No.
31:49With my father.
31:51Great turmoil in the breast.
31:54He was...
31:55He still is.
31:57A handsome bloke.
31:59There's a terrible feeling of wickedness that had to be coped with.
32:02I can still summon up the shame I used to feel whenever he put his arm round me.
32:07My mother wasn't very demonstrative.
32:10He obviously looked to me and my sister for a bit more show of affection.
32:14My mother saw all that, of course.
32:17I used to see a very peculiar range of emotions whenever she and I caught each other's eyes sometimes.
32:24I coped by withdrawing from both of them.
32:27And everything else that went with home.
32:30Anyway, that's what my psychiatric counsellor and I worked out in my very turbulent second year at university.
32:37Now, he was an exquisite little thing.
32:39Like a Persian kitten.
32:46Did you have a breakdown at university?
32:49No.
32:49They were too fashionable.
32:51I just went through a kind of flamboyant introspection.
32:55I told you, I'm naturally inquisitive.
32:58Are you two the chicken in the basket?
33:05Man, those plastic forks they break.
33:07They must be the worst buy in the history of catering.
33:25How long were you together?
33:29Nearly a year.
33:35What's he do for a living?
33:38He's a lecturer.
33:40History.
33:43Man most likely to attract.
33:49And you didn't want it to break up?
33:53No.
33:55What happened?
34:02I think I expected too much.
34:06How?
34:10Well, I suppose the word's commitment.
34:13I thought that we could live inside each other's minds.
34:17Lives.
34:21It's over-romantic, of course.
34:24It's over-romantic, of course.
34:24Kid stuff.
34:26Silly for an adult.
34:31He wanted something less involving, hmm?
34:35He was married.
34:40It hadn't occurred to me he might be looking for something less than he'd got.
34:45It was quite painful to learn that.
34:50I gather he was a bit older than you.
34:53Ten years.
34:58I think I've got over it now, though.
35:02I think I have.
35:11I do tend to be a bit over-aggressive at times.
35:14Men can find that chilling, I know.
35:20I picked you up.
35:26I've done it before.
35:29But I didn't expect to like you so much.
35:31I didn't bargain for that.
35:39You slept like a little child.
35:42I felt marvellous all day.
36:03Oh, God.
36:05Oh, I don't.
36:07Oh, I don't.
36:10Oh, I don't.
36:21He was never going to be that stupid, Ron.
36:24Why should he step in when the union won't?
36:27Well, I thought he would have welcomed the chance to speak up for the individual.
36:30It's supposed to be his style.
36:32Those three are the original lost causes.
36:35Would you employ them?
36:36Look, they've been conditioned to believe they're useless, expendable.
36:39That's why they behave like it.
36:40Maybe.
36:42Anyway, our Chris is going to ignore them.
36:44He knows most of them all, but are only pretending they care.
36:48I'll say this for him.
36:49I think he was genuinely disgusted by the state of the flats.
36:53Oh, yeah, bound to come as a bit of a bloody shock, isn't it, seeing the common man in
36:57his natural habitat.
37:01He tries to avoid too much close contact with the natives when he comes up here on his reluctant
37:06safaris.
37:09Must be quite some time since he actually went inside people's homes.
37:14I don't hate him like you do.
37:16Oh, I want him out, because I think he's a danger.
37:19He's one of the obstructions.
37:22We'll never get things right in this country as long as we've got people like Collinson
37:26thinking up some lovely distant future for us while carefully making sure we all stop
37:31exactly as we are.
37:32Right.
37:33But I quite like him.
37:34Why?
37:35Well, he doesn't have to do it, does he?
37:38There are lots of jobs he could have done and never stuck a foot in politics.
37:41He wants power.
37:42He's always wanted it.
37:44He's a bloody mandarin.
37:46He thinks he knows what's best for us.
37:49He spent half his life trying to get it.
37:51Nothing.
37:52But that's what he's got as well, isn't it?
37:55He's not made money.
37:56Well, not by the standards of blokes in big business or the top lawyers of the private
38:01doctors.
38:02And it's odds on that, well, evens anyway, that he won't make it to the top politically.
38:07Well, OK, I agree with you.
38:09He's been bad for the party.
38:11It's been bad for you and me and all the others who were born into our class with our
38:14built-in disadvantages.
38:16But I think he's believed that what he was doing was right and that he had to do it.
38:24Well, that's quite brave if you think about it.
38:27You're a bloody sentimentalist, Morris.
38:30Him and his kind will have you in the dole queue and tell you it's for the good of the
38:33nation if you let them.
38:35Ah.
38:35Yeah, that nation the Unions take turns in holding up to ransom.
38:40Where is that place?
38:42What's it consist of?
38:44The Cotswold Villages?
38:46St. John's Wood?
38:49Chalpont St. Giles?
38:52I wonder what you have to do to get in.
38:54Obviously, it's no good saying you make cars or dig coal or work power stations or do anything
39:00productive like that because you'd be told straight away you're the ones who are threatening
39:05this nation.
39:08It's very exclusive wherever it is.
39:12You should take up politics more seriously, Morris.
39:16You could make a lot of headway.
39:18You could be where Collinson is now.
39:22You call yourself a friend of mine?
39:28Mary has a little fun.
39:33Please.
39:34More.
39:42In my opinion, I can't see any reason why we as a council have to apologise for our record
39:50on rehousing.
39:51He'll get no apology from me on that.
39:55With the problems we had, look at the legacy of neglect and dereliction we inherited.
40:02Twilight areas.
40:03Half the town was one.
40:06No, Chris.
40:07Don't expect to lay complaints at our door on rehousing and not get some comeback.
40:14Perhaps you'd like to think about lack of continuity of central government policy.
40:20George, that was one of your favourite speeches.
40:22Then why shouldn't it be?
40:23It always was.
40:25No offence, lad.
40:26I do the same myself.
40:28Aye, and just as often.
40:29But, er, you have a fair point.
40:32Chris, you're going to offend a lot of good people if you're not careful.
40:37I'm not proposing to mount a general attack on the local authority's housing programme,
40:42past or present.
40:43No.
40:44But our opponents will.
40:46They'll seize on every opportunity that you're going to give them.
40:51Oh, aye.
40:52They'll love you for it.
40:55What, a long list of complaints from the MP?
40:58That's a fine big stake to beat us with.
41:01The people on that estate have been poorly treated.
41:04They have asked me to help them, and I'm going to.
41:07You've got more trouble, Mayor Kissel.
41:09Yes, I know.
41:09I know.
41:11I've got genuine complaints from things to be dealt with through the proper channels.
41:17Bernard, it's the time they've been waiting that angers them most.
41:21Yes, but we can't have tenants refusing to pay rents.
41:31I've kept you informed about my involvement in this, because I thought you ought to know.
41:38But I shall take it up with the officials, because this is clearly a case for quick, practical action.
41:44And you're surely not suggesting it's a matter of council policy whether ceilings collapse or not.
41:48You'll be supported a rent strike.
41:52Representing constituents very reasonably aggrieved.
41:59Not your favourite territory, is it?
42:02I'm a bit surprised to find you rushing headlong into a local dispute.
42:08Some people have been contemptuously ill-treated by petty authority, ignored...
42:14Are you sure you're not being a bit gullible?
42:16Well, we've got some of our celebrated villains up there, Chris.
42:21And every town, I mean, it's got its problem families, so we are no exception.
42:28But I assure that you know what's bad building and what, shall we say, well, self-inflicted damage.
42:39No.
42:41That estate was set aside, well, partly, for some of our rough element.
42:47I wouldn't have described Morris Wrigley like that.
42:50No.
42:51Nor a lot of other people are there up there.
42:54But you know why Wrigley's here, don't you?
42:57Wrong Hibbert persuaded him to get the ward organised.
43:02Didn't you know that?
43:04I had associated the two.
43:06But I hadn't thought of Wrigley as one of Hibbert's placed men.
43:10Well, don't make it sound too sinister.
43:13After all, it's for the good of the party.
43:14Yes, quite, Bernard.
43:17And there are many different ways of serving the party, aren't there?
43:21Aye.
43:23Some carry the banner.
43:25Some carry the can.
43:27Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
43:30ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
43:31I don't know what you're going to do.
43:44Right, come on, girls.
43:46What are you going to drink?
43:47Quickly.
43:47I'm thirsty.
43:48Is this a masterful like that?
43:49You're celebrating.
43:51I think it's just hammered a nail into somebody's coffin.
43:53Don't you, darling?
43:54The cartoon coffin.
43:56And me.
43:58Come on, let's get the other music.
44:04I want some noise.
44:06Otherwise, I'd love to listen to the Revolutionary Councils all night.
44:10Right, you want a pint, Morris?
44:11I'll bring them over.
44:14It's the first night out since Easter.
44:16What were we celebrating then?
44:17Somebody died, I think.
44:32Get on the right track, baby.
44:34Get on the right track, baby.
44:37Get on the right track, baby.
44:41Come home, treat me wrong again.
44:46Well, I feel so sad and lonely.
44:49I cry both night and day.
44:52I'll send you one more time, girl.
44:54Hello, darling.
44:55Hello.
44:56Hey, let me give you a hand.
44:58That's your party over there, is it?
45:00Yeah.
45:01Dorothy, Morris.
45:02Ah.
45:04Hey.
45:06Hello, Morris.
45:08Good evening, ladies.
45:09Hey.
45:11You're looking very lovely, the pair of you.
45:14Hey.
45:15You're looking a lot, you know, Morris.
45:17You and Ronnie.
45:19You got both beauty and brains in the same house.
45:24I hear that you've had quite a busy day up your end of the town.
45:30Hmm.
45:32I wish I'd been invited.
45:35Don't leave me out next time.
45:39Otherwise, I might think that, er, I'm not wanted.
45:51Are you going to drop the complaints from all those people?
45:54No.
45:55Good.
45:59Why do you care about them?
46:01I was thinking about you.
46:06There's no alternative.
46:08Of course there is.
46:10You haven't seen those flats.
46:15You're a very simple man, really, aren't you?
46:24I can't remember ever being called that before.
46:29Some people seem to think I am unpleasantly devious.
46:35I find you very direct.
46:39You encourage that.
46:42And you're warm.
46:48With you.
46:50It's not me making me feel like this.
46:54Excited, safe.
46:57You're doing that.
47:01Thank you, Millie.
47:06I've missed...
47:09closeness lately.
47:12I've been surprised to find how much it matters.
47:16How vital it is.
47:19I'm very glad I met you.
47:26It can last, can't it?
47:29Well, I don't mean forever.
47:31It's just silly to say that.
47:33But I mean...
47:37long enough to make it matter.
47:56Chris?
48:03Chris?
48:14Morning.
48:18I didn't want to disturb you.
48:20My normal routine only started with all the papers.
48:23I had to nib out and get them, of course.
48:27I appear in three of them.
48:30The local boys must have made a quid or two.
48:32Northern editions only, I should think.
48:34But the constituency will see them.
48:38Usual smudge likeness.
48:41Nice headline.
48:43Brand new slum, says MP.
48:46Perhaps I did.
48:52I'll go and put something on.
48:56The weekend has been full of surprises.
49:00I certainly never reckon on a story in the Nationals.
49:03It's forced a change of plan.
49:06I shall make an unexpected appearance at the Town Hall.
49:13I'll call you tonight from London, Millie.
49:17A cup of tea, please.
49:18A cup of tea, please.
49:21Good morning, Mr Finks.
49:22Good morning, Mr Collinson.
49:24I know I'm very unpopular in this building today.
49:26Thank you for seeing me at such short notice.
49:28I won't waste your time.
49:29I think you'll agree this morning's publicity
49:31has advanced the situation for both of us.
49:34I would say it's cut out a lot of time-consuming letter-writing, wouldn't you?
49:38I would also say
49:39that the sooner the local paper can print pictures
49:42of those tenants waving gratefully
49:44from their newly-perfected windows, rendered openable,
49:48the better for all concerned.
49:51Wouldn't you?
50:16I would say,
50:17if you'd like to see your beautiful jacket,
50:17This is a woman's time to wear a Saturday.
50:17I would say she's my little kid.
50:17I would say that it's like her.
50:17And I think it's not that day.
50:18I'd like to attend a Saturday night.
50:19I think it was a good day.
50:19I never would say she's my little kid on my iPad.
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