- 3 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.
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Short filmTranscript
00:09THE END
00:37THE END
01:05THE END
01:33THE END
01:34Marginal note for Lord Bly, but leave it on all duplicates of the report for distribution, darling.
01:40Every single one.
01:44Sir John Wilder's office.
01:45Good morning, darling.
01:46How far are you from finishing Wilder's report on Yugoslavia?
01:49I'll need at least another hour.
01:50I'm not going as fast as I was last night.
01:53Well, I'm not complaining.
01:55Look, I want you to play back that tape about Naranda for me again, will you?
01:59Hold on, Minister.
02:00I'll have to change tapes.
02:05Let me have my cigars, Mrs. Jane.
02:14I know you don't approve.
02:16But you know, I once knew a man who smoked a cigar after breakfast every day.
02:21He lived to be 90.
02:23It's here.
02:25I will also, in case of second thoughts by your immigration people, be living in a house
02:31sold to me by the Ambassador for Special Situations and Trade, who, knowing me, would hardly agree
02:38with any other official of the government who decided I was an undesirable, deportable alien.
02:45Have you thought of that?
02:46Oh, yes.
02:48And you don't object?
02:50The only undesirable people in this country that I worry about are neither deportable or alien.
02:56They're natives.
03:01That'll do, darling.
03:03I think I have Wilder now.
03:05Might I ask where, Minister?
03:06Oh, on a fast plane somewhere where he'll remain unheard of for a while.
03:12Unless he resigns.
03:13He'll never throw in the sponge, not against you.
03:15Well, I hope not.
03:17I have a vested interest in his success, not his disgrace.
03:21I think his wife has him, too.
03:23Whatever Lady Wilder thinks is no concern of ours.
03:26Now, what does matter is Wilder's country house in Aranda.
03:30And that's more than enough.
03:32What Lady Wilder thinks is difficult to ignore.
03:34Listen for yourself.
03:36That was Fredalina.
03:39Asking if Darling is in.
03:42You will tell that girl not to ring you here again.
03:47The Foreign Office?
03:48Yes.
03:49That would be more active.
03:51That's the place to keep your foreign affairs going.
03:55Well, were you able to hear that?
03:57How did you come by that?
03:59Oh, I didn't bug them, Lord Blythe.
04:01I know you were there all night.
04:03I picked up some of Sir John's tapes by arrangement.
04:05This must have been left running during a private conversation.
04:08I removed it quite innocently and put on a new one.
04:10No doubt as innocently as Sir John would like Lady Wilder to think of his association with Miss Vanick.
04:15You know her, don't you?
04:17Well, Fredalina, yes.
04:18Let me have that tape for later in the morning.
04:21Well, you'll be at the Yugoslav embassy the rest of the morning.
04:24Sir John told me you'll go straight there and stay all day.
04:27Sir John really shouldn't use my private secretary to read him my appointment book.
04:33The question really is who is working for whom?
04:36Well, Wilder began to use my young Mr Hindlesham against me, long before I used you against him.
04:42Only defensively, just as my loyalty as private secretary to any ambassador could be exceeded by my loyalty to the
04:49minister to whom that ambassador is responsible.
04:52Good morning, Minister.
04:58John asked to speak.
04:59You've got this.
05:01Before you start on it, I'd like you to take around that stuff you've almost finished.
05:04All night, now all day.
05:06At least he made sure he got some sleep.
05:08Didn't you?
05:09I told you, I had things to get straight here.
05:11So you told me at five o'clock this morning.
05:13What the hell do you do here at that hour?
05:15Lots of people.
05:18The hardline Communist Party objection to participation by private British enterprise can be overcome by Minister-Councillor Kiddrish.
05:27Isn't that right?
05:30Isn't what right?
05:31Sir John's opinion of Kiddrish.
05:33If John's asking you to type that part of the report, he's taking you into his confidence.
05:37You know that.
05:38You sound surprised.
05:40I thought I'd avoided sounding surprised.
05:42Then you sounded as if you avoided sounding surprised.
05:45Why so?
05:45I'm his private secretary.
05:47Can you be as specific as to your staff position?
05:50Yes.
05:52I'm his friend.
05:53Then he'll have told you as he told me.
05:55That today we're all going to help him bowl a leg break at our minister.
05:58If he hadn't told me, you'd have been indiscreet just then.
06:02I thought you foreign office professionals were never that.
06:05Not that I've ever found them much else.
06:07You're mooching and brooding about this office like a favourite bloodhound, wondering if he's going to be surprised by the
06:11new cat.
06:13Odd, you should think of yourself as a cat.
06:16Are you the sort that scratches when it's stroked?
06:18I might as well ask if you, Rover, are the sort that bites when it's patted.
06:22Oh, don't worry.
06:23Between us, you and your doggy amateur way, me and my catty professional, we can make sure nothing goes wrong
06:30for our master today.
06:31If anything does, that can be right for him just the same.
06:36That's an obscurity, didn't he explain to me?
06:39No pussy.
06:40So stay in your basket.
06:44Marginal note for Lord Bly.
06:47But leave it on all duplicates of the report for distribution, darling.
06:51Every single one.
06:53Begins.
06:54It was to seek Kedrish that I returned to London as soon as I had landed in Belgrade.
06:59I was acting upon information of which you must have been ignorant, otherwise you would not have sent me to
07:05Belgrade.
07:06Straight to the Yugoslav embassy here in London.
07:10Let's have that again, Sir John.
07:14The utter blinding impudence.
07:26Come in!
07:44Hello?
07:46You're up early?
07:47I thought you were rushing off to the foreign office first thing this morning.
07:52Destroy Caswell Bly.
07:53I shall.
07:54When you take to knocking on my door, I know it's time to go somewhere.
07:58Well, this isn't our bedroom, is it?
08:00Well, if you missed me up there, that's how it should be.
08:03I quite like missing you.
08:06Had you not come down, I should have come up.
08:12Put this on there, will you, and listen to it.
08:17What is it?
08:18A grenade?
08:21My innocence.
08:25Oh, don't be such a fool, John.
08:27You may be able to lose it every week, but that doesn't mean to say you'll ever get it back.
08:31Once.
08:33Well, play it and see.
08:36Fredalina no longer exists for me.
08:38If she does for you, then you don't either.
08:41I mean for me, also.
08:43Well, whatever you mean, listen to this, and then you won't.
08:47Where are the deeds?
08:48Mine?
08:49I'm here for the deeds.
08:53Well, take them if you know what you're talking about.
08:56You, last night, agreed that we should let Mr. Naranda of Malia buy our country house.
09:02Those deeds?
09:04Those, before you change your mind.
09:06Why should I change my mind?
09:07Because, John, when you get caught, you get spiteful.
09:12You agreed to let Mr. Naranda buy our house last night because you thought I'd swallowed your lies about Fredalina
09:17hook, line, and stinker.
09:19Stinker?
09:20Stinker.
09:22Well, I don't carry deeds around in my dressing gown pockets.
09:25You carry spools.
09:27All right, I'll play the damn thing myself.
09:31You'll give me the deeds so that I can keep faith with Mr. Naranda.
09:35How can I?
09:36They're at the solicitors, surely.
09:38Whose, yours or mine?
09:39I thought there was only ours.
09:40Did you?
09:42You're not still retaining that childhood sweetheart of yours, that chump Charlie?
09:47Charles?
09:48For personal contingencies?
09:50Yes.
09:50Well, you have no personal contingencies this morning.
09:53This machine was on last night, going, recording, when you answered that phone for me.
10:03Listen, now listen, Pamela.
10:05You said to Dowling, who was on the telephone, is that you, Dowling?
10:10I said, is that you, Lincoln?
10:12And I corrected you.
10:13Now, I want you to hear yourself say that again.
10:16And consider what anybody who didn't know you were talking to somebody called Dowling might have misunderstood you to say.
10:22The deeds, please, and my arm.
10:25Later on, Fredalina called on that telephone.
10:28The machine was on, going, recording.
10:32And she said what you had said.
10:35She said, is that you, Dowling?
10:38But you thought, because she expected me to answer, you thought she said, is that you, Dowling, because of her
10:47Yugoslav accent?
10:50You may not be out of your mind, but I think I am.
10:54Pamela, I have admitted enough in the past.
10:59Why should I lie about this one?
11:02Because, John, you thought you could get away with it.
11:08The only way that a man can get away with it is if his wife knows and doesn't divorce him.
11:14Yes, in that way, I have got away with it other times, and I'm very glad to have done.
11:22Very glad, Pamela.
11:24So, play this.
11:26Then call me at the Foreign Office.
11:28No matter who they say I'm with, including the Prime Minister, get through to me.
11:33He'd be in Downing Street.
11:36He doesn't come to you, yet.
11:41Well, you come to me.
11:43Just this once, Pamela.
11:52You going to the Foreign Office in your dressing gown?
11:55No chalmers?
11:57I'm going up to our bedroom, where my clothes are.
12:02And then to the Foreign Office.
12:04You going to the Foreign Office.
12:19And then the Foreign Office.
12:20You going to the Ministry of Parliament.
12:26You going to the Foreign Office?
12:26No chalmers.
12:26Of course.
12:27I'm going to the Foreign Office.
12:28Who is it?
12:28Lincoln.
12:31Lincoln.
12:34Dowling.
12:36Is that you, Dowling?
12:39Yes, Dowling.
12:40Mr. John there?
12:42Come in.
12:46In there, is he?
12:47Hmm?
12:48The bathroom.
12:49Can you work this?
12:50Yes.
12:51Well, um, connect it up and start it and leave me with it, will you?
12:56Oh.
12:57Even put it wrongly on the spike, did I?
12:59Yes. Where did this come from?
13:01John gave it to me.
13:02Well, until you fit it, you can't record on it.
13:04Oh, it's recorded on already?
13:05If there had been anything on it, you would have erased it the way you've got the controls set.
13:26Nothing?
13:26Hmm?
13:29There's absolutely nothing on it.
13:32Absolutely nothing on it.
13:35You're wrong, Lincoln.
13:37It's the most eloquent piece of tape ever manufactured.
13:40Very well, listen for yourself.
13:42It's very intimate, Lincoln.
13:43Well, so's this.
13:44I can hardly leave it lying around.
13:46Well, you've no need to.
13:47Catch him outside if you rush.
14:12Hmm.
14:16Sir John Wilder's personal assistant, please.
14:22Uh, hello, Miss Denby.
14:24Lady Wilder's speaking here.
14:27Um, I want you to take down this message for my husband.
14:31No, no, it's quite short, but I want you to take it down just the same.
14:36Tell him his wife rang in order not to disturb him when he got in.
14:43Tell him she inadvertently set the controls of the tape machine in such a way that any tape played upon
14:53it would erase itself in silence.
14:58However, the tape given to her still spoke for itself.
15:04After careful thought, she has no doubt about the truth now.
15:12No doubt whatsoever.
15:17Yes, that's all.
15:20Good morning.
15:39Good morning.
15:41Good morning.
15:46Oh.
15:54It's so big.
15:56It has to be big.
15:58Even our family wouldn't.
16:00Fell it even if we brought them all over from Malia.
16:02There'll be other people over from Malia.
16:05Other people? Like whom?
16:07People won't come. Then go.
16:26You aren't going to turn it into a country hotel.
16:28No. More like an asylum.
16:33There's something I'm not to know.
16:35On the contrary.
16:36You must know so that you will know what conceal should anybody ask.
16:41Anybody? Like who?
16:43Like a watchdog.
16:45A pink and grey British watchdog from the immigration department.
16:49Keeping out of this country people as black as we.
16:53Of course I'm going to let hundreds in.
17:16Morning Lincoln.
17:18Morning Peter. Is more flying?
17:20No.
17:20On his way or has he his first appointment out?
17:23You'll find that open Lincoln.
17:25Hmm?
17:26My door.
17:27No.
17:28Well leave it as you found it please.
17:30Downing Street's waiting you know.
17:31Precisely.
17:37Lord Bligh's office.
17:39Yes Fred.
17:40No he's gone straight to the Yugoslav embassy.
17:43No all day he thinks yes.
17:46No I don't know what you might say to the PM to explain why he wasn't advised of my minister's
17:50movements in advance.
17:53Except perhaps it's usually assumed he knows everything.
17:57Right.
17:59Morning Hindleton.
18:01You might knock.
18:02I was just on that line.
18:03What does number 10 want Lord Bligh for today?
18:06Until I can be sure of your status if any in this ministry.
18:09Perhaps you'd like to ask my master himself.
18:11All right.
18:12May I go in?
18:13Since he's not there, yes.
18:15Where is he?
18:17Well this time of the morning, wouldn't you assume on his way in?
18:22I'll leave it open Henderson.
18:24I'm on my way out.
18:40Well morning Sir John.
18:42What have you got there?
18:43Darling Soap.
18:45What for?
18:46To wash with.
18:48In there.
18:55It's insanity in there.
18:57A grubby communal loo.
18:59It's no worse than the jungle discomforts Lord Bligh has in mind for you.
19:03Procession's going nicely.
19:05Procession?
19:06Darling, Henderson, not to mention innocence from other departments, all establishing that Lord Bligh has not come in today.
19:13Did Darling leave the report?
19:16No.
19:17I think you should have.
19:20What witnesses have you got lined up for one o'clock?
19:22Oh, the stroke of luck there are two assistant secretaries from the Home Office.
19:25They had an appointment with Lord Bligh in any case.
19:27So, there are quite a lot of people who say that I couldn't find my minister this morning.
19:32And if it turns out that my minister was called to Downing Street himself, he'll receive me there.
19:39Take my report, and as usual, my credit.
19:42Oh, Sir John.
19:44I can inquire exactly where Lord Bligh is before you make your move.
19:49I am the man's private secretary.
19:52Hmm.
19:55One has to wonder, Peter.
19:59I'm glad to say.
20:22Good morning, Minister.
20:24Good morning.
20:27Why not?
20:28Because he wasn't in, Sir John.
20:29Oh, what does that matter?
20:32Take the report up to his private secretary.
20:34You do realise that we'll be giving Hindlesham first look at it, and you did ask me to mark it
20:37Minister only.
20:40I haven't been in the Foreign Service long, darling, but I've been in it long enough to know that a
20:44private secretary is supposed to be his minister's eyes.
20:50So, take it up and deliver it.
20:52Having typed it, you know that it's urgent.
20:56Whose eyes are you today?
21:15You just worried pussy.
21:19Pussy?
21:21Two o'clock this morning, he was sure he knew what you were going to do today.
21:25No, he's not.
21:28Breakfast for two, Jill, please.
21:30Lady Wilder, telephone.
21:44Until lunch, whatever darling thinks, all I'm going to do, Donald, is sit and wait.
21:51Until the whole ministry have agreed that Lord Bly is God knows where.
22:03Peter?
22:05Come in, darling.
22:08Is that Wilder's report on Yugoslavia?
22:14Sure.
22:16Come in.
22:18Sit down.
22:26Henderson as good as told me that at two o'clock this morning.
22:29Sir John will put only one construction on your presence here. He'll think you didn't go to the Yugoslav embassy
22:35because I told you he was expecting you to go.
22:37Who told Sir John I'd go to the embassy? The only person I told was my private secretary, Peter Henderson.
22:42Well, I suppose if you can serve two masters, so can he.
22:45They won't stop Wilder. He'll blast both of us on sight.
22:49Have you got that tape?
22:55Nobody's blastable today, as for Hindlesham. Well, I'll blast him when it suits me.
23:01You see, darling, it's not what you two young fellows tell Sir John and me that's important.
23:06It's what we tell one another through you, which is generally a lot of false information.
23:13So your equal untrustworthiness to each of us is essential to both of us.
23:22And I did go to the Yugoslav embassy.
23:27Of course he'll go.
23:29And Minister Councillor Kidritch will say he's agreed everything with you.
23:33That'll take two minutes, so Caswell will gallop straight here.
23:37Kidritch won't tell him that because I've already told Kidritch that Caswell is a capitalist of Victorian conviction.
23:45That's why he sent me on that wild goose chase to Belgrade instead of straight to Kidritch here in London.
23:56The negotiation isn't simply to infiltrate British capital into a Yugoslav socialist Combinat.
24:04Combinat?
24:06Yes, a Combinat.
24:09It's to winkle British capital into a Yugoslav Combinat that is openly using Russian technicians
24:17and secretly sharing profits and costs with the Russians.
24:22The Russian hardline party members won't like it because it capitalises communism.
24:27The British hardline financiers won't like it because it communises capitalism.
24:33I thought he'd have understood all that without having to be told.
24:36I'm still to understand that Caswell's any sort of ist, except where it suits his pocket.
24:41So has Minister Councillor Kidritch of the Yugoslav energy.
24:46He'll stalemate Caswell all day until I show my report to the Prime Minister,
24:53who so likes to make quick, gritty, tough personal interventions.
24:59Darling!
25:03Is Lord Bly there yet?
25:05No, not yet.
25:22Don't close the door, Peter. Come in.
25:36I thought you were at the Yugoslav embassy, Lord Bly.
25:39The PM rang.
25:41We have an appointment for lunch. I want you to confirm it.
25:45Oh, by the way, I couldn't get very far in the two minutes
25:49that I spent at the Yugoslav embassy this morning.
25:54Well, Kedri thinks I'm the ghost of Gladstone.
25:57So I walked out on him.
26:04If he does walk out on Kedri's,
26:07Henderson will tell me.
26:09Shut up and eat your breakfast.
26:25Boil this report down to three pages, will you?
26:28Let me have it for lunch.
26:31Oh, but first, take out your notebook.
26:33I want to brief you for this meeting you've got with these Home Office people.
26:38You didn't tell them that I'd be at the Yugoslav embassy, I hope.
26:41No.
26:42Freddie, just to confirm Lord Bly will be lunching with the PM today.
26:46Yes, right.
26:48Freddie, tell the PM I'll bring the main course myself.
26:53Something palatable from Yugoslavia.
26:57Yes, well, it could be 15 million pounds more in trade.
27:08Well, I can't lunch with the PM and see these Home Office people too.
27:14So you'll have to.
27:15Lunch or see?
27:17See.
27:18Keep them talking, but don't tell them anything.
27:21But under no circumstances tell Sir John Wilder.
27:26Do you understand?
27:28Yes.
27:29As Wilder hoped to get to the PM today with this report to show that he didn't need your control.
27:35Instead, you're taking your version.
27:42And Wilder may be going to Burma.
27:47With respect, Minister.
27:49I don't understand how your version of the Yugoslav report could compel Sir John to accept a posting like that.
27:55It won't.
27:57But what will is the briefing that I'm now going to give you to these Home Office people.
28:04So take out your notebook.
28:07But why?
28:09I had no opportunity.
28:10He stayed at my elbow until he left for Downing Street.
28:12What time did he get in?
28:14While I was washing.
28:14Was my report in his hands or on your desk?
28:18In his hands?
28:21Then Darling gave it to him while you were washing.
28:25Is that consistent, Sir John?
28:26Was your private secretary, knowing you were asking for Lord Bly, surely he'd have told you he'd seen him?
28:31As I've indicated, it's difficult to tell whose private secretary is who.
28:38When you had the opportunity to contact me, why did you keep me waiting two hours? I missed my lunch.
28:44I had to handle the Home Office.
28:45About what?
28:48Lord Bly told me under no circumstances to warn you.
28:52I'm aware that you keep on taking your life in your hands for me.
28:56But this time, do it at the trot.
28:59It needs to be at the trot if you're to be in time to stop the sale of your country
29:03house to Naranda.
29:04I didn't agree to sell last night.
29:06He's been under investigation for deportation ever since he arrived in Britain last week.
29:10Why?
29:11For one thing, he got in under the name of Hobbes.
29:13That is his name.
29:15Yes, but in politics, it's Naranda.
29:17I never cared about his politics until I had to go and break him in Malia.
29:22And he was a communist.
29:22That's why he had to run when you exposed him.
29:25I didn't expose him as a communist, but as a bribeable member of the Malian government who was accepting communist
29:33payoffs.
29:34His own brother-in-law, the Prime Minister out there, told me that he did it under orders as a
29:40political blind.
29:42I almost believed him.
29:43The Home Office believes that he wants your house because you're an ambassador.
29:47It gives him a rather special patron.
29:49You hold Her Majesty's commission.
29:51That is why he wants my house. He said so, openly and plainly.
29:54They also believe he wants it because it's big.
29:56They've compared that fact with another.
29:59Do you know applications for diplomatic visas from Malians have tripled for next year?
30:04So?
30:05So.
30:06They're not diplomats.
30:08They're Malians who couldn't normally get past immigration.
30:11They're congregated around a secluded country house without work permits.
30:15Naranda will get them work and they won't go back to Malia.
30:19Ah, good luck to them.
30:21You'll be smeared with conspiracy in the deportation proceedings if your house is still involved.
30:25And you couldn't expect to remain an ambassador.
30:28Who told the Home Office about my house?
30:31That was why I have no hesitation in disobeying my minister and warning you.
30:36Trot, Peter. Trot.
30:38Yes, I already did.
30:39My minister told the Home Office about your house just as he no doubt told Naranda it was up for
30:44sale.
30:46I had a charming message from my wife this morning which Lord Bly couldn't possibly have known about.
30:52Ah, he's torn that up for me too.
30:54No.
30:56She likes Naranda, you see.
31:00Still,
31:03if one wishes to be a creature of government, I suppose one has to behave like one.
31:12Yes, Sir Jordan?
31:13Jill.
31:15Get me Lady Wilder, will you please?
31:18Yes, sir.
31:24When did you first notice your spine going?
31:30Shall I go, Sir John?
31:53She's there, Edith.
32:07She's there, Edith.
32:12Why is that notice going up again?
32:15I tried to get you in London.
32:17There's still no way of telephoning here.
32:21As the house is up for sale again, there's obviously still a way of phoning the estate office.
32:27What made you go back on your word?
32:29Oh, don't tell me things went badly with Caswell today.
32:32I'm rather tired of that elderly gentleman getting all the blame for your total lack of character, which is congenital.
32:38Did you get the deeds?
32:40I brought them down here.
32:41Naranda's taken them to his solicitor.
32:45Naranda's been here today.
32:47Unfortunately, it appears that your signature is required.
32:50So all you have to do now is to telephone your solicitor, who will tell Naranda's that you don't intend
32:55to sign.
32:56That's what's on your mind, isn't it?
32:57It would be the simplest way.
32:59Particularly as Naranda, after dropping the deeds in London, is flying to Switzerland to get the money to buy the
33:05house that you won't sell tomorrow.
33:08Doesn't it strike you that Naranda is in a particular hurry?
33:11You are demonstrating why.
33:14However, Trina is still here.
33:17Who's Trina?
33:18His daughter.
33:19She's on her way to begin a new school term.
33:22She's here looking at the house, which her father hasn't quite bought.
33:26She's making inventories of pieces that I might like to leave for him not to be able to buy.
33:32And you, John, if you are in any small way interested in retaining the unpaid services of that indispensable adjunct
33:41to an ambassador, the well-behaved wife will break the news to Trina yourself.
33:46I intended to break the news to Naranda.
33:49I still intend to when I can find a telephone and him.
33:53Leaving him to express his humiliation to his daughter? No, John. You express yours.
33:59Just consider this. Consider it.
34:02You would agree that I'm not very good with children.
34:06If you are really thinking about the girl's feelings and not only yours and Naranda's, perhaps you would also agree
34:12that you should do this.
34:14You will find her in the old kitchen, not the new.
34:18It fascinates her. She wants to restore it.
34:21I didn't know there was an old kitchen. You'll have to show me where it is.
34:25It's where I found Fredelina, waiting for you.
34:29You sent me a message this morning closing all that.
34:33There was nothing on that tape, John, and you know it.
34:37You thought that I would erase it all by mistake, but Dowling demonstrated otherwise.
34:53Where are you going?
34:59John?
35:02So that Naranda could go to Switzerland straight away, I undertook to drive Trina to her school tomorrow.
35:09From here. You will do that now.
35:12Oh, no.
35:14I'll see you with London, presently.
35:16You can't condemn me to spend a night here with a school girl.
35:21You could always send for Fredelina.
35:32Oh, good evening.
35:36I'm inquiring about an advertisement of yours.
35:40The property, Hackton Hall.
35:43Is it still for sale?
35:47Oh, was it?
35:49No.
35:50No, just an inquiry.
35:57He's moved.
35:58How was the PM?
36:00Delighted.
36:03Walder's country house is still for sale.
36:07That estate agent just told me that it is almost sold today, so that can only mean one thing.
36:12He's refused to sell the house to Naranda.
36:17So he's moved right into my hands.
36:20He thought you wanted him to sell to Naranda.
36:23So he didn't sell.
36:30How many times you've read this?
36:32I want you to read it again, inside out.
36:34Then you needn't be told that I want to dug out of the files tonight.
36:37I had a late night last night.
36:38Working for Wilder.
36:39Well, tonight you can work for me.
36:42The Race Relations Act.
36:44What's left of it?
36:47After Wilder's broken it.
36:48You're on a loser, Lord Bly.
36:51He's so colour unconscious, he's not even pro-colour.
36:54He's simply unaware, temperamentally there's any problem for him in a personal sense.
37:00You're against me in this.
37:02The colour question?
37:03Forget the colour question.
37:04The act is there to be used.
37:06Well, I advise extreme caution.
37:10But you're not my private secretary.
37:12You're Wilder's.
37:14Then you should have advised him not to refuse to sell his house to an immigrant.
37:17All that was on the tape.
37:19Naranda's name is Hobbs.
37:21I believe he did follow his brother's instructions in Malia.
37:23I think Wilder could prove it.
37:25Well, the more that can be proved about Naranda's good name, the better.
37:30Well, that covers the private side of it.
37:32Now, the public side of Wilder you'll find in the files.
37:35On three of the occasions that he's gone abroad as ambassador to a current country,
37:39he has either advised the withdrawal of aid, the application of sanctions,
37:43or the refusal to sell British Almonds.
37:45On your ministerial instructions.
37:47You will not find that in the files.
37:49Nevertheless, he complained loudly enough for me to hear.
37:51Oh, he does broadcast misleading renderings of my verbal instructions.
37:56Henderson would swear on oath it was a true rendering.
37:59Henderson?
38:01Who's Henderson?
38:03His creature.
38:05Ha!
38:05Whose creature are you, darling?
38:08So you could bring it down to your word against his, then?
38:11To his actions.
38:12Of which the house is the most important.
38:14That doesn't involve your word.
38:16I could harvest the files in five minutes.
38:18But his actions overseas as a government servant are excluded from the Race Relations Act.
38:23There's also the question of official secrets being inadmissible in evidence.
38:27One of our more civilized political leaders once said,
38:30An ambassador must deal justly and fairly with people of all races.
38:35And people of all races must have confidence in him.
38:38Now, what confidence would people have in an ambassador
38:41who could be charged with what I must charge Wilder?
38:45And the verdict won't matter.
38:48The Race Relations Act is a leech.
38:51Tear it off and it's still full of your blood.
38:53I should like your instructions to search files in writing.
39:02Foreseen.
39:23Hello, yes. Hackton Hall.
39:29Oh, good.
39:33I'd half forgotten that the service had ever been suspended.
39:40I thought I heard the telephone somewhere.
39:44Who are you and where's Trina?
39:47I'm Trina.
39:49And I know who you are.
39:58We met in Malia?
40:00No.
40:01I was at school here.
40:03But I've watched out for you on television
40:04ever since you forced my father to leave his own country.
40:09I'm to drive you back to school tomorrow.
40:11Oh.
40:12Do you intend to travel in there?
40:15I got dirty in the old kitchen.
40:17And I went up to change and found this.
40:19Your wife?
40:20I dare say.
40:22They have been diving in and out of things for the last 20 minutes.
40:25I've been looking for the old kitchen for the last 20 minutes.
40:29We won't find anything to eat here.
40:32Leave that on if you like.
40:35I know a country pub that it would suit.
40:37We'll dine out?
40:39If you'll eat with me when you've heard me speak to your father.
40:42Oh, he's gone to Switzerland.
40:44I was hoping you'd be able to tell me where I could telephone him.
40:47Um, the Imperial Hotel Bern.
40:50Where's Pam?
40:52Like your father.
40:53She had to leave suddenly.
40:57I was expecting somebody of 10.
41:01In grey pleats.
41:03And a tie.
41:05And 18.
41:09I'm going to tell your father that it's useless for him to buy this house.
41:14He's going to be deported.
41:16Oh.
41:17I was afraid of that.
41:18I saw the notice going up from the window.
41:22How long have you been in England?
41:24Since I was eight.
41:25But if your father doesn't return from Switzerland, there'll be no deportation hearing.
41:29And you can stay as long as you like.
41:33Although how you could wish to stay in a country which it takes all evening to make an urgent...
41:37Hello.
41:38Hello, yes.
41:39Yes, my number is 589.
41:44I wish to make a call to Switzerland.
41:47To the Imperial Hotel Bern.
41:51Mr. Noranda.
41:54Hmm?
41:55No, no, not a personal call.
41:58I want to know whether he's in, or if he's not, when he will be in.
42:03Hmm.
42:04Oh, by the way.
42:06If I'm out when you call, I shall be at the, er, Garret Lodge.
42:13Yes.
42:15My name is John Wilder.
42:20Oh, he mightn't be at the Imperial Hotel.
42:23The number of the cloud man usually invites him to his house.
42:26Do you, er, know his number?
42:28No.
42:29His name?
42:30No.
42:32More important than that.
42:36Will you dine with me?
42:38Yes.
42:43Why wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me this?
42:47Covering yourself?
42:48I am his private secretary.
42:49Who has just rifled his files.
42:51On his minister's instructions. His minister is also mine.
42:55Well, I can't phone him. The line isn't on.
42:58Well, if I could.
43:00How much time is there?
43:02Very little.
43:04You mean there's none, Lincoln.
43:08Even if, even if we did manage to sell the house to Naranda now, it would only prove his original
43:14guilt.
43:14Caswell would say it's extraordinary how he changed his mind just as you were collating and collecting the evidence against
43:20him.
43:22Just in case.
43:25If there is a Wilder miracle, you want him to know that it was you who warned him.
43:33I'm not going to offer you a drink, Lincoln.
43:35Miracle or not, if you can believe that, I think you should also have this.
43:39The one Sir John thought he'd given you.
43:41I removed it thinking it was one of his reports.
43:44And put on a new blank.
43:51Good morning, John.
43:57You're unshaven.
43:59And you're in the barber's chair.
44:02Do you mind?
44:05It might take you an hour to read that.
44:07It's evidence that I can bring against you.
44:10Against me about what?
44:12I can summarize in five seconds.
44:15Evidence against me about what?
44:20I received the Prime Minister's private secretary at 12 o'clock.
44:24If by then I have your acceptance of a posting to Berner, in writing, I'll present it to him.
44:31If not, I'll show him that.
44:39People can work all through the night for me too, John.
45:11Yes, Sir John?
45:14Jill, get me my wife, please.
45:16Yes, sir.
45:23Hello?
45:24If that's Sir John, Martha, tell him I've gone to my solicitor.
45:27Yes, madam.
45:32If you've been looking for me, John, I've been down at the...
45:36John?
45:43Draft my resignation.
45:50Don't keep looking at your watch.
45:52You know when it's five to twelve, he'll capitulate.
45:57Good morning, Minister.
45:59Say good morning two hours ago, Minister.
46:01You didn't know how good a morning.
46:04Will you have a drink?
46:06What'll you have, darling?
46:07The hamlocks.
46:09Champagne for victory.
46:12Unless, Peter, you'd prefer something else?
46:15Depends what we're celebrating, Lord Bly.
46:17Conquest.
46:22Your master's in some trouble today.
46:25His wife's suing him for divorce.
46:29Got it from her solicitor, Charlie Granger.
46:31Used to be in the Treasury.
46:33He's an old civil servant he thought we might like to know before the press splashes it.
46:37Fredelina.
46:38Hmm?
46:38No, no.
46:39Quite somebody else.
46:41Don't get a photograph out of her files.
46:44Home office files.
46:46Well, one woman or another is finished.
46:50Finished?
46:52No one can get John Wilder on race relations when he's being divorced for sleeping with that enchanting creature.
47:01Don't worry about where I got it from, but this resignation hardly fits the facts now.
47:07I'll draft another.
47:10Get her, Don.
47:12Get her, wherever she is.
47:16What's her number?
47:18Pamela!
47:20Yes?
47:23Out.
47:31Oh, yes.
47:34You put us together for the night.
47:38I do not intend to remember that, John.
47:41Any more than you should think of resigning or going to Burma.
47:45I shall instruct Charles to withdraw the suit because I had no idea you spent the night with Trina at
47:51the request of her father, Mr. Naranda, to whom you had just sold the house.
47:56No seducer, you, but chaperone.
48:00What is the masculine for that?
48:03When?
48:04When what?
48:05When will you tell Charles?
48:08As soon as you tell me, it's true.
48:11I tried to get hold of Naranda all night to tell him not to return to this country.
48:16Did you succeed?
48:17No, I couldn't contact him.
48:18Then don't bother.
48:20Just leave things as they are.
48:22All Mr. Naranda has to do now is to bring the money he went to get and move into the
48:28house.
48:30Is that not so, John?
48:34Yes.
48:37Yes, it bloody well is.
48:40Good morning.
48:43Pamela!
48:47She's only 18.
48:49What made you?
48:52How old was Fredalina, with whom you did sleep?
48:57That's what made me, John.
49:00A little taste of what I can do, whenever you do.
49:05You know I didn't.
49:07Darling gave you the tape.
49:09I told you he was your man.
49:12Ah.
49:14But I still don't know about Fredalina.
49:17Do I?
49:34Anything I can do, John.
49:39How the hell do I know?
49:42And I don't know what the hell Pamela has just done.
49:47Or why.
49:49Oh well, Ambassador.
49:52There's nothing unusual in that, is there?
49:54You know what happened.
49:56I'm going to know what happened.
50:03I love you.
50:08I love you.
50:21I love you.
50:23I love you.
50:23You are always going to be the man.
50:33The End
50:54The End
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