- 4 weeks ago
Classy, intelligent, witty political drama series about the fascinating, ruthless businessman/politician sir John Wilder who becomes Special Envoy (the original name of the series was "Special Envoy'') - ambassador for special situations and trade - and has to deal with the equally ruthless competition. His wife is the witness, trying to support him without interfering much, while his handsome secretary is too ambitious for his own good. The sequel to "The Plane Makers". Starring Patrick Wymark, Barbara Murray, Jack Watling, Michael Jayston, Clifford Evans, Peter Barkworth, George Sewell, Ian Holm, Richard Hurndall, Barrie Ingham, Donald Burton, Norma Ronald, Robin Bailey, James Maxwell, Rachel Herbert, William Devlin, Philip Madoc, Norman Tyrrell, John Brooking, Peter Hughes, Peggy Sinclair, Ralph Michael. Written by Peter Draper, Wilfred Greatorex, Edmund Ward, John Bowen, Raymond Bowers.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00THE END
00:34THE END
01:05THE END
01:40THE END
02:05THE END
02:05THE END
02:09THE END
02:17THE END
02:17THE END
02:26THE END
02:26THE END
02:26THE END
02:27THE END
02:38THE END
02:39THE END
02:41THE END
02:41THE END
02:41THE END
02:43THE END
02:44THE END
02:44THE END
02:44THE END
02:45THE END
02:45THE END
02:45THE END
02:45THE END
02:45THE END
02:46THE END
02:46THE END
02:46THE END
02:47THE END
02:47THE END
02:47THE END
02:47THE END
02:47THE END
02:48THE END
02:48THE END
02:48THE END
02:51THE END
02:52THE END
02:53THE END
03:18THE END
03:31THE END
03:32THE END
03:33THE END
03:34THE END
03:38THE END
03:40THE END
03:42No mistake, Sir John.
03:43Representative phone next day about having electricity and such cut off.
03:46He took the message.
03:47Ah.
03:48No wonder we couldn't shave, cook or communicate.
03:51Representative who?
03:53Oh, Bert didn't ask. We'd already done it.
03:56And had you already carted off Tinder, the caretaker?
03:58The hospital did that, didn't there, yesterday.
04:01Appendicitis.
04:02We didn't hear about it till this morning.
04:04Why are all the messages being taken by the labouring staff and not the clerical?
04:08Because we start a day and the pen pushers don't get round it much before 10.
04:11And these both came through about 9, didn't they?
04:13Yes.
04:15Well, that is Britain today.
04:17Are you sure you heard Lady Wilder right?
04:19She's seldom clear at 9.
04:21She said, Lady Wilder speaking, I've just made up my mind, sell it fast.
04:25I said, sell what? She said, the house.
04:28Well, Lady Wilder has just had her mind changed.
04:30So take that down.
04:31Right.
04:32Where are you going?
04:37Shopping. There's nothing to eat.
04:38There's no gas nor electricity either.
04:41What are you going to cook?
04:42What are you going to buy with?
04:43Candles?
04:45Darling's scouring the cops for wood.
04:47And Fredelina's found a stove.
04:49The original kitchen rang.
04:51Who found Fredelina?
04:53And who is Fredelina?
04:54Well, Fredelina's the Yugoslav Dalmatian whose name nobody can pronounce.
04:58So we've, um, well, Fredelina is not so far off.
05:01Why are you playing cook's assistant to Friedrich LaCocca Varnick,
05:06who needn't be called Fredelina by anybody capable of saying Miss Varnick?
05:10Particularly somebody in the Foreign Service like yourself.
05:12Ring Pamela and ask her what she thinks she's...
05:16No.
05:17Tell her to get down here straight away.
05:19You know yourself, John, that every telephone in the house is dead.
05:22Well, ring her while you're doing her shopping.
05:24Do it while you're at the exchange, getting them to restore our lines.
05:27Then Pamela would ask me what I was doing back when she thought I was in Belgrade with you.
05:32And have the gas and electricity people restore services too.
05:35Oh, then she'd ask me what I was doing here when she thought I was still in Belgrade with you.
05:42Well, drive me to the village.
05:44I'll ring her myself.
05:45Well, in your pyjamas.
05:47Why not? She's still my wife, isn't she?
05:50You're an ambassador now, you know, John.
05:52Any village constable who found you flapping up and down the main street in your pyjamas
05:56looking for a telephone would destroy you. Now get out, I'll do it.
05:59Ah, come for the blow.
06:00It's years since I was in the Dodgham car.
06:04Oh, no, leave that down.
06:06Well, you'd expose your satins and silks.
06:08We'll be taken for a couple of queers.
06:10Well, give me your jacket.
06:12Well, I'll catch cold.
06:14Have my dressing gown.
06:15Come on.
06:22You're getting old, Don.
06:24It's hard to tell you from a bloody nanny lately.
06:27Well, there are two ways of getting old, John.
06:30And ambassadors who lapse into second childhood have to be nannied.
06:35And if Pamela's decided to sell the house, perhaps you shouldn't interfere.
06:39She, too, might know what's best for you these days.
06:43Don't stand about.
06:45Get that thing down before I'm back.
07:21Hey!
07:22What are you taking that down for?
07:24Perhaps it's been a sail already.
07:27Hey!
07:33Hey!
07:35Hey!
07:37Hey!
07:38Hey!
07:56Hey!
07:56He could have shut up the place.
07:57Hmm?
07:59Tinder.
07:59I can see three windows he left open.
08:02Well, the poor old boy was hardly in any condition to go clambering around the place with appendicitis, now, was
08:07he?
08:08He was in a condition to tell the ambulance people to shut that behind them, surely.
08:12That settles it.
08:13The estate agent's in here with a buyer.
08:16Oh, no.
08:16Estate agent's always closed doors and seals for drives.
08:20Don't tell me we're gonna find some burglars.
08:22I'd let you reconnoitry if I thought that, Lady Wilder.
08:30Hmm.
08:31Darkish place.
08:33No wonder you've moved.
08:35Morning sun used the tradesman's entrance.
08:39Hmm.
08:41Tinder disconnected the mains.
08:42I wonder if he thought of the gas.
08:44Well, I thought of it.
08:45And the telephones.
08:46I had the estate office disconnect everything.
08:48Except in Tinder's quarters.
08:50How are you going to cook the chicken?
08:51Oh, I thought you might.
08:53While I cool the champagne, Lady Wilder.
08:56Where are the caretaker's quarters?
08:58He only had a hot plate.
08:59You can't cook chickens on a hot plate.
09:02Also, he was a tidy soul.
09:04God knows where he kept it all tucked away.
09:06Also, he probably felt, and I hope still feels,
09:08that appendicitis doesn't compel use of the past tense.
09:14And he probably locked his little all thoroughly up.
09:18Well, where are the mains, then?
09:20You'll be wasting your time if they're cut off with the saws.
09:23And the chicken is a duck.
09:30Is that you, darling?
09:37Sir John, is that you?
09:44No, darling.
09:46It isn't.
09:47But I'm his wife.
09:49Can I help, or would I be intruding?
09:51I thought you, he was somebody else.
09:55No.
09:56No, darling.
09:57I don't believe that.
09:59But don't let me disturb you.
10:02My husband likes his eggs poached.
10:06Poached?
10:06What is poached?
10:19Poached.
10:20Keadridge?
10:21No, it's me.
10:22Ah, this time it is you, huh?
10:24What?
10:25You'll have to come in the way you went, darling.
10:27This is still padlocked.
10:28Still?
10:29Still.
10:30Hack it off!
10:32What?
10:33What is hack?
10:34Open a window.
10:35They're all barred. You couldn't get in, darling.
10:40I meant the wood, darling.
10:42What?
10:43Unload me.
10:44Ah.
10:46Must have rained last night.
10:47I'd have to sift the whole damn forest before I could find anything dry.
10:51I would have heard if it had rained. I would have walked you.
10:54Waked? Er, wakened. Why?
10:57Rain is so unusual in England. I would have shared it with you.
11:01There's a good little commie.
11:04What did you mean about me being me this time?
11:07I thought you were Kiedrich.
11:08Because you knew the door was padlocked and he didn't.
11:11Minister-Counselor Kiedrich is up.
11:12He went out with his gun.
11:14Really?
11:14He was promised shooting, was he not?
11:16He'd be the first guest of Sir John's to blaze away before breakfast.
11:20In Yugoslavia, Kiedrich sometimes shoots his breakfast.
11:23Yes, but this is England.
11:25One doesn't expect 65-year-old Serbo-Croat Bolshies
11:28to wander around manorial estates dropping pheasants.
11:31Oh, careful. Once these start, they never stop.
11:34You filthy, that fine garment.
11:37Poached is in water, is it not?
11:39No. Washed is in water, if that's what you're offering me.
11:42I mean how an egg is poached.
11:44Why?
11:45It's how Sir John likes them.
11:47He's up too.
11:48I thought you were him, but he was Lady Wilder.
11:51Lady Wilder's here?
11:52It was her I thought was you before I thought you were Sir John.
11:55Who did she think you were?
11:57Sir John's little secretary from the Yugoslav embassy or mine?
11:59I'm Kiedrich's secretary.
12:02You tell her I was here.
12:04Lady Wilder, there was no occasion.
12:05She just came down to say Sir John likes his eggs poached.
12:09Poached?
12:11Did she have her handbag with her?
12:13Yes.
12:14Where was she going?
12:15Well, if she had her handbag, it means she hadn't been to the bedroom.
12:18She must have gone out to look for Sir John to say him good morning.
12:21Well, certainly it's the same something.
12:24Would you like some more wood?
12:26No.
12:26You do, because I'm going to get you something in lieu of bracelets you have deserved.
12:55Where are you going?
13:01I was looking for you.
13:03I thought you were John.
13:05He's in Belgrade.
13:07No, he isn't.
13:08He's here.
13:10Somewhere.
13:12I couldn't produce anything.
13:14Neither light nor gas.
13:16I have.
13:17Both.
13:26Well, I didn't percolate up here.
13:28Shall we start the inventories?
13:29I have.
13:35If you can't produce gas to make coffee, corkscrews aren't needed to open champagne,
13:40or is the champagne apple food?
13:43Shall I bring three glasses?
13:44One for your husband?
13:46Oh, let's be utterly polite.
13:48Bring four.
13:57Bloody fools.
14:01Go back to the village.
14:03Find them.
14:04Stand over them until they've taken it down, then chop it up yourself personally.
14:07John!
14:11Eh?
14:13Give Frederilina the fodder, eh?
14:16Take it.
14:34Look out.
14:35Mr. Bird, you bag Sir John.
14:39Oh, you have averted an international incident.
14:43Come to think of it, yes. One down, one to play.
14:46Pardon?
14:47I said with buckshot. You'd only have winged him.
14:51Does he often take his walk in pyjamas?
14:54Yeah, habitually. From door to door.
15:15Blast! Blast, blast, blast!
15:38I think Sir John has himself locked out.
15:41I think so too.
15:43Ah, my secretary will open. She is up.
15:47But would she hear from down that part of the house?
15:51Oh, don't worry. Someone's sure to.
16:12Hello, darling.
16:15You do come in. It's still our house.
16:19Yes, it is. If only because I've returned in time to prevent you selling it behind my back.
16:26Is that why you're not in Belgrade?
16:28I'm not in Belgrade because I...
16:31Oh, don't worry. I know why, darling. I've just met. Why?
16:37Kiedrich. Is the old fellow up yet?
16:40Who's Kiedrich?
16:42Minister councillor from the Yugoslav embassy.
16:45Ah, Yugoslav. Then I've just met his secretary.
16:52Fredelina? Where is she?
16:53You don't know?
16:55She thinks you do.
16:57Anyone comes down, she asks if it's you.
17:00Well, these are for her. Will you give them to her?
17:04Pearls or diamonds?
17:06Oh, so that's it, is it?
17:09First time this year.
17:12First time noticed, that is.
17:15You'll need to be more patient.
17:18She's not my age.
17:20They so seldom are, these days.
17:44Where do you get the eggs?
17:47For the third, the rooster's coming.
17:54That, Kiedrich?
17:56Yes.
17:58What are you doing here?
18:00Helping, Sir John. Tinder's in hospital.
18:03We had to race down here unbreakfasted or leave the place open to burglars.
18:07Did we?
18:08A matter of finding a temporary caretaker.
18:11Always assuming Tinder doesn't actually croak.
18:15And while we were at it, we were going to make inventories of what furniture's for sale
18:19and what's for transfer to your London house or storage.
18:24I thought you were in Belgrade, Sir John.
18:26Obviously.
18:29Can you give these to Miss Varnick?
18:35When you have done, help her to cook it.
18:39Miss?
18:41Fredelina. She's in the old kitchen.
18:44Where's that?
18:52I didn't know Kiedrich was...
18:56was a shooting man.
18:59Not at 65.
19:03Well, that cancels out Kiedrich, doesn't it? He couldn't possibly be, darling. It was you she expected to bring home
19:12the bacon. Again.
19:13She sent Henderson to get the bacon.
19:15Oh, you're surely not going to try and put the blame on Henderson, are you?
19:19What blame?
19:20Where is he now? Buying the second batch of bacon? You're remarkably confused, John. You've just done the morning errands
19:27for her.
19:27In my pyjamas.
19:30Oh, why not? Don't you satisfy all her wants in your pyjamas?
19:35Bloody hell.
19:37I am an ambassador. I can't go flashing around in public in my pyjamas. And it's too damn dangerous in
19:44private.
19:45If you don't understand it, don't. I'm giving you no explanation.
19:49You never do. And I never ask for them. I haven't got all day, every day. But when you go
19:54brandishing your trivial little conquests under my nose in my own house...
19:58Our house? And why did you put it up for sale without consulting me?
20:02The wind.
20:04I was going to remind you, Pamela, that while I'm an ambassador, I require you to behave as an ambassador's
20:11wife. Did you come down with Hindlesham in that comic open car outside?
20:15It's his. He let me drive it. I enjoyed doing so.
20:18And anyone could have seen you and told anyone who hadn't.
20:21Told anyone? What? What you're pretending to believe now? First Henderson gets your blame, now am I to?
20:28You're to bloody well remember that we have to behave in public, to hell with private, in such a way
20:35that will not send shivers of delight down the grubby backs of the clean-mouthed, clean-living, dirty-minded taxpayers
20:42who are lusting to chop us down.
20:45When we show the first sign of the common humanity that they're too narrow-minded, jealous or incapable of enjoying
20:51for themselves, except by proxy through their Sunday newspapers.
20:55You asked me to cultivate Hindlesham, Ambassador.
20:58I asked you to cultivate Hindlesham as Caswell Bly's private secretary. What I didn't ask you to do was to
21:06cultivate my spy as your lapdog.
21:08You found him nowhere near my lap. You found him on your bed, which is in eloquent disarray.
21:15What happened between you and the fair, or to be more accurate, dark for a leader last night? Did you
21:21take it in turns to recite the whole of the Kama Sutra?
21:23You hadn't shaved. Going into the village in your pyjamas may be looked upon as merely eccentric, but to go
21:29there unshaven is decidedly unambassadorial.
21:33There was no electricity to shave with. That is also what I went into the village about, to get the
21:39supply put off.
21:40And did you succeed?
21:41Henderson did. I sat in his car, with the hood up.
21:51Dear me. Why bother to lie about a trivial little thing like electricity? I'm sure Fredalina's never been frightened by
21:59the dark.
22:00Have you ever heard of a public service which takes less than six months to get off its great...
22:09And where is Henderson now, failing to get the gas put back on, or is he perhaps where one would
22:14expect him to be, having breakfast miles away in London?
22:17He's at the estate agents, getting him to take down the sign which you should have never told them to
22:22put up.
22:23Don't believe you.
22:25Then wait. He'll return.
22:26No, he won't, because the telephones aren't working so you won't be able to ring him and tell him to
22:30rush down.
22:31I'm still waiting for an explanation.
22:33You?
22:35About the for sale notice.
22:36Well, you proposed we should sell first.
22:39Yes, but not when.
22:41When is now, because of the tax and because of the wind.
22:45That's twice you said that. The wind. You said that first off.
22:49Who thought of the tax? Hindlesham?
22:52Caswell.
22:55Caswell?
22:55Yes. Caswell. The good Lord Bly, your boss.
23:00Why not?
23:03Why so?
23:07It's a big house.
23:09Big enough for a large family.
23:12If your immigration department doesn't prevent me bringing them in?
23:16It didn't prevent you entering.
23:18I'm still wondering why you smoothed my way.
23:21What happened in Africa was between you and Wilder. My only part in it was to send him out there.
23:26I didn't tell him to ruin you.
23:28You think you can now tell him to sell me his house?
23:33I was never very happy about what happened in Malia.
23:38Perhaps this might make amends.
23:40Lord Bly, before I buy anything, even in my present reduced position, my first consideration is not why do I
23:48want it, but why the seller does not.
23:51Well, Lady Wilder would like to keep the house, but I warned her about the tax.
23:57Oh, she is selling, not him. It's hers.
23:59Nominally. Also a tax precaution. They apportion what they've got to one another legally.
24:04So that if one of them gets run over by a bus, the other doesn't get mauled. Fatally, that is,
24:09by death duties.
24:10I'd always heard that Wilder was personally careless about such things, being unable to accept that God intended him ever
24:18to die.
24:19The house is in her name.
24:21And it so happens that on the day after the immigration department consulted me about you, I advised her to
24:29sell.
24:30Because of tax.
24:32Is she understood, might I?
24:36Well, it's like this. In Britain, a householder can sell the house he or she is living in and pocket
24:43the profits tax-free.
24:46But if you own two houses, you can't live in one and sell the other without being liable to a
24:52pretty heavy capital gains tax.
24:55Now, Wilders, they own a house in London as well as the one you're trying to buy.
25:01But if they have two houses, they cannot escape this incomprehensible tax.
25:06Well, if they quit, they can.
25:08You see, the tax people allow a reasonable period for moving out and moving in.
25:12Now, this period is about up, which is another consideration, because Lady Wilder knows that, you know, she has to
25:17sell quickly.
25:19You think Sir John will not object?
25:23Why should he?
25:25He won't have forgotten my name.
25:29He's in Belgrade now. He'll be there for a week.
25:34Won't Lady Wilder know who I am?
25:38You obviously didn't know your Wilder.
25:42It's Lady Wilder I don't know now.
25:44Well, nor will she you.
25:46I don't think she had a clue of what happened in Malia.
25:49Lord Bly, why are you being so good to me?
25:54Because you're black.
25:57And in Britain we have a race relations act, which makes it advisable for people in public office to be
26:03civilized with everybody.
26:06Particularly black or yellow.
26:08Particularly and assiduously.
26:11I've read this act many times.
26:13Should you ever be charged with contravening it, you may write to me at the Wilder's former residence,
26:18and I shall be first to testify in court on your behalf.
26:22I'll remember that.
26:23Right.
26:26That's going to run over in a moment.
26:30You're aware both taps run cold.
26:34I knew about the tax, but this place has its uses at the moment.
26:38So I've noticed.
26:40Why did Caswell go out of his way to advise you?
26:43He likes me.
26:45Indeed he does.
26:46Because he knows that you take up much more of my time with your suspicions than, well, and even Malia
26:52did.
26:54My suspicions about you seem hardly to exceed yours about him.
26:58Caswell weighed in with the tax, just conversationally, when I happened to mention the wind factor to him,
27:05at that reception at the Yugoslav embassy, where everybody said how much they were hoping you'd enjoy your visit to
27:11Belgrade.
27:13What wind factor?
27:14The wind that blows the noise in from the motorway, and which is why you originally wanted to sell as
27:20much as I intend to do so now.
27:22The wind which blows it in for nine months of the year and then suddenly switches round.
27:28Which is why, if we're going to unload this place onto anyone other than somebody stone deaf, it will have
27:34to be now.
27:36All right, get rid of it.
27:39My advice to you and then Fredalina.
27:43Yes, it is cold.
27:45If that girl comes up here before I've gone, it will snow.
27:55You're going?
27:58Do you wish me to?
28:00I need to spend the day with Kiedrich.
28:03I need to spend it peacefully.
28:04It's important.
28:05It's why I'm here.
28:07It's why I'm not in Belgrade.
28:09It's why you didn't know about it.
28:12Because only Darling and Henderson should, not Caswell, to whom I try to spare you the pains of lying for
28:18me.
28:19You could stay now that you're here, but not in your present mood.
28:22If you can't disabuse your mind anent, Miss Varney, then would you please go to the state agents, confirm we're
28:31going to sell, and don't return.
28:34Taking Hindlesham with you.
28:37And after spending the day with Kiedrich, with whom do you intend to spend the night?
28:44You haven't believed me, Pamela, have you?
28:48Hindlesham knows you're not in Belgrade.
28:50Why are you so unworried about that?
28:52After all, he is Caswell's private secretary.
28:54And my spy.
28:55And your lapdog.
28:57So keep him on the lead all day.
29:00It doesn't worry you, John, that the young man might want to be something more than my lapdog.
29:07I shall be back in London by 11.30.
29:10Will you be in?
29:13If so, asleep.
29:16Don't wake me.
29:20For quite a long while, John.
29:23Don't wake me.
29:41Ah, you bastard.
29:44Sorry.
29:53Come on, John.
29:54Oddly little bastard.
29:54Oh, my God.
30:31Oh, my God.
31:17Oh, my God.
31:17I'm going to take the damn sign down.
31:19When's another matter.
31:21I think they like taking their instructions from Pamela.
31:25Pity we couldn't get her down here, John.
32:07The hardline Communist Party objection to participation by private British enterprise can be overcome by Minister-Councillor Kidry.
32:17Do you intend to spend the night here?
32:21You asked me not to wake you.
32:24When did you get back?
32:25I told you I'll be back by half past eleven. I must confess I was half an hour late.
32:31Who's typing in the study?
32:32Why didn't you look?
32:34Because it was the sound of a touch-typer. You don't touch-type. Does she?
32:40Miss Warnick is at the Yugoslav embassy touch-typing for Minister Kidrys.
32:46Now, might I get on with all this?
32:54Yes?
32:56Yes, he is. Is that you, Lincoln?
32:58His name's Dowling.
33:00Is that you, Dowling?
33:02What are you doing in the house, disturbing everyone on the house line at one a.m.?
33:07Working.
33:13Well, Henderson's got all that.
33:15Up the stairs, turn right.
33:17The last door on the left.
33:20Oh, and Lincoln, come up in about ten minutes.
33:22I'll have another reel ready for typing.
33:26Are they both working here tonight?
33:28All night.
33:30Why don't you do your dictation in the study and have Dowling type up here?
33:34I want to be close to the bed.
33:37Sleep in your proper bed. It won't disturb me.
33:39The internal phone would.
33:42They'll be ringing off and on, Don and Lincoln, for quite a while.
33:47Every time they get messed up with this report, which has to be ready by the morning.
33:54Shall I make them both some coffee?
33:57And you?
33:58We're managing on stronger stuff.
34:03Caswell Bly meets Minister Kiedrich tomorrow at the Yugoslav embassy.
34:10He'll stay with him all day, but he'll be a day late.
34:13Because you were with Kiedrich all today?
34:16Instead of being in Belgrade.
34:19Caswell sent me there to get me out of the way so he can nail Kiedrich here in London.
34:24It was to be another case of the Minister for Special Situations finding the man who could deal with the
34:30special situation while the Ambassador for Special Situations roved in vain.
34:36But this time, the Ambassador roved there and roved straight back again, picking up Kiedrich on the way and taking
34:43him to his country house for what Kiedrich wanted.
34:46Some shooting at Sunup.
34:48And also getting from Kiedrich what the Minister wanted to be able to tell Downing Street he got for himself.
34:54But how did he, you, know what Caswell was up to?
35:00He, me, always knows lately.
35:04Hindlesham.
35:05Yes, Caswell's private secretary.
35:09He, me, wasn't worried about this morning.
35:12And without Hindlesham too, you wouldn't have known about Caswell's appointment?
35:16No.
35:18That is why my report has to be ready by the morning.
35:22Since I don't officially know where Caswell is, and since the report would be valuable to the government only if
35:28it's acted on instantly,
35:30I have no alternative but to ignore the usual channel, which is Caswell.
35:34Send it directly to the foreign secretary.
35:38Caswell won't even be able to cut the guts out of it and dish it up as his own,
35:43which is his usual tactic when he's one nap behind.
35:48Unusual for you to tell me so much about your work.
35:52Are you sure you're not really telling me that you didn't sleep with Fredelina last night?
35:57You know I never explain about such things.
36:00There just wasn't time, was there?
36:04However vast the inclination.
36:09Give me a drink.
36:12This one's a bit weak for you, you'd better top it up.
36:15Is that the only glass we have up here?
36:18Hmm?
36:19Is it?
36:21Yes.
36:22Hmm.
36:23Well, we need another for the man I've been out with.
36:25Oh, and about that, why didn't you show the slightest curiosity?
36:29I gathered it was Hindlesham.
36:32Now, you've done your duty.
36:34Well, I don't want to see him just now.
36:36Oh, I'm not talking about Hindlesham.
36:37I'm talking about the man who wants to buy our house.
36:40Look, I've got a lot of work to do.
36:42Well, I told him you were in.
36:44If I tell him now that you're out, what will he think and how shall I feel?
36:48I don't want to interview house hunters at midnight in my bedroom with all...
36:52But this isn't your bedroom.
36:55Your bedroom is our bedroom.
36:58Upstairs.
37:14Upstairs.
37:16Yes.
37:18Don, Lincoln Dowling has got all that.
37:21In the study.
37:22Yes, the study.
37:44I gather I don't need to introduce you.
37:48Hey, watch out.
37:49Good evening, Sir John.
37:52Good morning.
37:53Noranda.
37:54I fear I would be disturbing you.
37:58Why, sir?
37:58If not for the time, for the subject.
38:01The last I heard of you, you were in Switzerland.
38:04That's where I fled to first.
38:07Oh, Marley will be having a new government sooner or later.
38:10You'll be able to go back.
38:10Well, I fear not.
38:12My job as Minister of Home Security in the Republic was to cultivate the Chinese publicly.
38:17So that the left would not notice that my brother-in-law, the Prime Minister, was adhering to the British
38:23secretly.
38:24You mistook my pretense for reality, stopped and broke me.
38:28So now the right don't want me because they think I am pro-Chinese and the left don't because they
38:33think I failed them.
38:36I still wonder what you think I really am.
38:39So do I.
38:41That is why, although Lady Wilder is in agreement, I thought I should consult you.
38:46What agreement?
38:48I told you.
38:51You want to buy our house?
38:53I believe I could have tonight, and would have, had you not been in this country.
38:59Where else might I have been?
39:02Well, as ambassador for special situations and trade, you travel so much, as you did to Malia.
39:08In any case, I should have hesitated.
39:11As long as you continue in your important position, I have every reason not to provoke you, if buying your
39:17house would do that.
39:19Why should it?
39:21It doesn't?
39:22I don't know.
39:23I don't know.
39:23You seem to think it should.
39:24Why?
39:26I am in Britain as an alien dependent.
39:30You have to be under 21 to qualify under that heading.
39:33I was granted a special dispensation, you see.
39:36No, I don't see.
39:37When did you get here?
39:38Last week.
39:40My father has been a British resident for 17 years, so...
39:44So with all that Chinese money in a numbered Swiss account, you were able to pass yourself off?
39:50Your immigration laws compel unusual humilities.
39:54None so humble as yours.
39:56We know all about your father.
39:57My father, I boned up on you and your family before I came out to Malia to scrap with you.
40:02Ha!
40:04So, you know my father is a bus conductor.
40:07Still?
40:07He retires next year.
40:09It is a problem.
40:11He is the only member of a somewhat multitudinous family who refuses to live on me.
40:16Well, that's so.
40:17I believe that at least about you.
40:19We checked it.
40:21Ha!
40:21So you will have also checked that although Naranda is my African name,
40:26my native name that I resorted to for political purposes.
40:29My father's name, my christened name, and the name on my passport is Alfred Hobbs.
40:37You came in as Hobbs.
40:39And was met by my father, Hobbs.
40:42Only my daughter caused a slight quiver in the scrutiny of the immigration people.
40:46She arrived in the uniform of her expensive and private school.
40:53That never influenced you, Sergeant.
40:56Hmm?
40:58Whilst you were making your mind how to regard me in Malia,
41:02that my children were invariably educated not in Peking, but here.
41:07Well, Karl Marx did his homework here in the reading room at the British Museum.
41:12Yes.
41:13Anyway, Trina wasn't in her school uniform tonight when you took us both out to dinner.
41:18I rather wish she had been.
41:19Lovely girl.
41:21Where is she then?
41:22Well, it was a little late even for holidays, so we sent her home in another taxi.
41:25You don't object, do you?
41:26I applaud.
41:28You're paying.
41:29I will also, in case of second thoughts by your immigration people,
41:34be living in a house sold to me by the Ambassador for Special Situations and Trade,
41:40who, knowing me, would hardly agree with any other official of the government
41:44who decided I was an undesirable, deportable alien.
41:49Have you thought of that?
41:51Oh, yes.
41:52And you don't object?
41:55The only undesirable people in this country that I worry about are neither deportable or alien.
42:01They're natives.
42:02So, you have the house, Alfred, and my husband has a night's work to do.
42:06Yes.
42:07No, I will see myself out.
42:09Ah, you will dine with me again in my new house with Trina?
42:13If I may bring my husband with me.
42:19Hard, lad.
42:21Of all the people to buy our house, it had to be someone you knew.
42:25Why did you see that it was up for sale?
42:29I never thought to ask.
42:31That's the external line.
42:33Do you want to be bothered with outside calls when you've got so much to do?
42:36Now.
42:37Well, then, listen to me being you.
42:40Un-thought-able.
42:44Yes.
42:45Is that you, darling?
42:49No, darling.
42:51It isn't.
42:57That was Fredelina.
43:00Asking if darling is in.
43:03You will tell that girl
43:05not to ring you here again.
43:08The Foreign Office?
43:10Yes.
43:10That would be more apposite.
43:12That's the place to keep your foreign affairs going.
43:18Next thing should be giving me messages.
43:22Yes.
43:23Yes.
43:23Yes.
43:24Yes.
43:28Yes.
43:31Yes.
43:32Yes.
43:33Yes.
43:33Yes.
43:34Yes.
43:58Is that you, Lincoln?
44:00His name's Dowling.
44:02Is that you, Dowling?
44:03Is that you, Dowling?
44:05What do you mean?
44:21Is that you, Dowling?
44:24Yes.
44:25Dowling here.
44:27You didn't hear what I said, Dowling.
44:29I said, is that you, Dowling?
44:32Did you?
44:34Oh, I trust I'm not understanding you, Sir John.
44:37We've had enough trouble of that sort in the Foreign Office, you know.
44:40Oh, be tranquil, Dowling, I don't know what sort of a boy you are.
44:45Miss Warnick just rang you and because of her accent she was misunderstood.
44:50It was thought she said, is that you, Dowling?
44:53And got herself disconnected.
44:55I now realise she said, is that you, Dowling?
44:59You'd better ring her back.
45:01She probably wants to speak for Kiedrich.
45:05Unless, of course, you're having an affair with her yourself.
45:08Oh, fascinating thought.
45:10Think of the clank when we draw the Iron Curtain overnight.
45:14Well, anyway, come down here shortly and I'll have another tape for you.
45:30Yes?
45:33Don, all that stuff is in my briefcase, which you have.
45:39No, I won't come and help you to find it.
45:43Unless, of course, you've got some scotch up there.
45:47Well, it's, it's not as far as the cellar.
45:51All right.
46:10Sir John?
47:08Is that you, darling?
47:09Darling, here.
48:00The hardline Communist Party's objection to participation by private British enterprise
48:06can be overcome by Minister-Councillor Kiedrich.
48:13Say, McGuilder's report will be ready by ten.
48:17You could have told me that on the phone.
48:19This is very important.
48:20I'd like you to hear something concerning Naranda.
48:23It should make compulsive listening for you.
48:25Better.
48:26This side of the morning.
48:28The only undesirable people I worry about in this country aren't alien or deportable.
48:34They're natives.
48:35So, you the house, Alfred, and my husband's and Ike's work to do.
48:42Excellent.
48:44What if Wilder finds out Naranda intends to fill the house with Marleyans,
48:47brought over on fiddles to avoid the immigration control?
48:52Well, then he'll back out of the deal quicker than he forced Naranda out of his country.
48:56Wouldn't it be up to the race relations board to prosecute him?
49:03Good night to you, darling.
49:23Good night.
Comments