- 14 hours ago
First broadcast 20th October 1976.
During a séance, a medium writes down complex equations which seem to be the final work of a recently deceased physicist revealing the secret of cold fusion.
Michael Bryant - Sam McInstrey
Megs Jenkins - Eileen Gray
Peter Sallis - Major Venables
Estelle Kohler - Mary Stannage
Richard Hurndall - Sherborne
George Coulouris - Hans Daedalus
Eve Mortimer - Madge Baxter
John Atkinson - Perry
Rod Beacham - Sergeant Riley
Elisabeth Choice - Woman at Séance
During a séance, a medium writes down complex equations which seem to be the final work of a recently deceased physicist revealing the secret of cold fusion.
Michael Bryant - Sam McInstrey
Megs Jenkins - Eileen Gray
Peter Sallis - Major Venables
Estelle Kohler - Mary Stannage
Richard Hurndall - Sherborne
George Coulouris - Hans Daedalus
Eve Mortimer - Madge Baxter
John Atkinson - Perry
Rod Beacham - Sergeant Riley
Elisabeth Choice - Woman at Séance
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:03The End
00:36And, as you see, ladies and gentlemen, Fermi in Rome was the first to disclose the possibility
00:44of man-made fission.
00:46His most important experiment involved the attempt to manufacture Neptunium element 93.
01:18His technique was to bombard Uranium with neutrons and observe electrons emitted.
01:26Here is the reaction.
01:55Here is the reaction.
02:27Here is the reaction.
02:27Here is the reaction.
02:56I haven't trained yet, Sam.
03:01I always said if I went to the States, it would be the Ivy League way.
03:07Well, Stanford isn't that exactly.
03:17on the other hand
03:19post-doctoral research grants
03:21don't grow on trees
03:23I don't know why you want to go to America at all
03:26hmm
03:27a swallow fizzes this hole there
03:30especially the prettier kind
03:44on
05:40I'm not suffering from her.
05:42Sam, I've got hers.
05:43Others have got dandruff or chronic asthma.
05:46Talk about port noise complaint.
05:49Every time I go home these days, it's the fluttering in the chest, the mysterious swimming in the head.
05:56And I can't escape, no matter what I do.
05:58My father died years ago.
06:01Oh, emphasize the importance of marital togetherness, then.
06:05I'm sorry?
06:05The family that drops together stops together.
06:08Sam.
06:09Well, I should know.
06:11This wine is abominable.
06:13Where did you get it?
06:13It's best Bulgarian red hands.
06:15You didn't defect to the British for their wine.
06:18Who is that fellow out there?
06:20Am I five or six?
06:22What is the difference between five or six, incidentally?
06:24I never learned.
06:25You can get into six from the comprehensive.
06:27Ah, you magistrate, is that all you can do?
06:30Sit around and tell bad jokes.
06:32When I came to Whitebrook six weeks ago now, I say to myself, he's a scientist.
06:38He will understand.
06:39He will perceive.
06:40Oh, yes.
06:42Yes, you perceive, all right.
06:43You perceive my ability to teach elementary physics to children.
06:47But never once have you asked me why.
06:59Hans, something wrong?
07:02No, nothing.
07:03Nothing in the world.
07:07Hans.
07:31Hans, something wrong.
08:17Hans, something wrong.
08:35I'm sorry.
08:36I don't know your name.
08:38Ah, uh, Venomous, Professor Daedalus.
08:43I wonder, you let me take a bath or go to the lavatory alone?
08:46Perhaps you don't.
08:47Perhaps you have cameras where you can't go personally.
08:50Sir.
08:50I am not, sir.
08:51So very important, you know.
08:53They were very glad to get rid of me out of East Germany.
08:56We're sorry if you're inconvenient, sir, but our orders are to keep you under surveillance for the time being.
09:03Under surveillance?
09:04For the time being?
09:06How long is that?
09:07Ah, governments.
09:08They perceive, all right, but it's all for themselves.
09:11They take everything a scientist can give them.
09:14The atom bomb, the hydrogen bomb.
09:17Hans, I think we'd better have a talk.
09:18No.
09:19You know it's true, McInstrich.
09:21Because governments are so greedy and self-interested.
09:24They perceive more than anyone realises.
09:27They know all about the Midas Syndrome.
09:30Midas Syndrome?
09:39Well, it's not exactly a picnic for us either, all this.
09:43You think he might see that?
09:56Jean.
09:58Jean says she most happy here, Mr. Perry.
10:02Jean say to Klaus, you be happy too.
10:06Yes.
10:08Yes.
10:09But does she forgive me?
10:11That's what I want to know.
10:15Jean has a message for you.
10:17The accident, I mean.
10:19It was my fault.
10:21It was.
10:23I can't get that out of my head.
10:27Messages.
10:31Message.
10:35Messages.
10:36Yes.
10:49Oh.
10:52Oh.
11:01Oh.
11:03Oh.
11:04Oh.
11:05Oh.
11:16I don't know.
11:41I don't know.
12:06I don't know.
12:24I don't know.
12:25Help me.
12:26Help me.
12:27I don't know.
12:46I don't know.
12:49I don't know.
12:59I don't know.
12:59I don't know.
13:11I don't know.
13:21I don't know.
13:34I don't know.
13:52I don't know.
14:35I don't know.
14:42I don't know.
14:47I don't know.
14:50I don't know.
15:09I don't know.
15:14I don't know.
15:20I don't know.
15:39I don't know.
15:40I don't know.
15:49I don't know.
16:06I don't know.
16:08I don't know.
16:16I don't know.
16:19I don't know.
16:24I don't know.
16:48I don't know.
16:48I don't know.
16:50I don't know.
17:01I don't know.
17:04What work?
17:07I don't know.
17:07A private man.
17:09And the grave a fine and private place.
17:13Yeah.
17:14Well.
17:16Maybe that's where it ends after all.
17:19But I'll tell you something.
17:21We weren't just keeping tabs on Daedalus for routine purposes.
17:24It was bigger than that.
17:26Huh?
17:27We feared that he was going to be snatched.
17:30Snatched? Who by it?
17:31East Germans.
17:33Oh, well, we'd, uh, information.
17:35Anyway, the tip was that Daedalus had made an important discovery.
17:40We don't know what sort of discovery.
17:44In the energy field, presumably.
17:50So, I don't suppose the East Germans would have led him within sniffing distance of the free world
17:55if they'd been the least likely to have heard of anything like that.
17:58Only you could have informed us otherwise.
18:01Me?
18:02Now, don't scientists sometimes confide in each other
18:04when they wouldn't dare speak to those who are in authority over them?
18:08I'm told they do.
18:35Come.
18:41Come.
18:53come
18:56ah Mcinstray good of you to look in
18:59I'd like you to meet Miss Eileen Gray who lives in the town and her friend
19:03Madge Baxter
19:04Professor Mcinstray
19:05there it is
19:06well the fact is Mcinstray Miss Gray
19:09she's brought us this
19:16does it have any meaning
19:18I don't understand
19:19well if it's nonsense just say so
19:24Klaus said I was to write it all down and take it to the physics department at the university
19:29so that's what it did
19:31Klaus who's Klaus
19:33oh yes
19:35perhaps a word of explanation
19:37seems to be necessary here Mcinstray
19:39Miss Gray is what is commonly termed
19:43well a medium
19:45oh please
19:46I've got psychic powers that's all
19:49oh I don't go in for all that business of the lights going funny and moans in the dark
19:54but I've been psychic all my life
19:57what Miss Gray is trying to tell you gentlemen
19:59is that she is a non-professional sensitive
20:02you see professional sensitives welcome all and sundry and take money for what they do
20:07Miss Gray doesn't behave in that way
20:09she only holds sales is for friends
20:12she speaks with direct voice
20:15consequently she is open to all sorts of other paranormal phenomena
20:20oh quite
20:22and this Klaus you speak of is your spirit guide
20:27is that the term
20:31well we've given you our message so we'd better be getting along
20:34wait a minute Miss Gray there's more to be said
20:36these signs and symbols that you've written down
20:40they're comprehensible to you
20:42comprehensible
20:43oh you mean do I understand all that scientific stuff
20:47yes
20:48oh do you know
20:49I only had a very ordinary education
20:52what do you do
20:54well at the moment
20:55I'm assisting in a draper's shop
20:59and you say that this message
21:01came to you out of the ether
21:04from Klaus
21:06he said I was to take it to the physics department at the university
21:09when was this
21:10last night
21:11no I mean what time last night
21:13what's the time got to do with it
21:15about 8.30
21:16it really was the most extraordinary thing
21:19you see I had brought poor Mr Perry along
21:21because
21:21I don't think we ought to
21:23simply thought dear
21:24betray confidences
21:26so gentlemen
21:27if we can't help you anymore
21:29well it is really extremely kind of you
21:32to have come in like this today Miss Gray
21:34oh I had a duty Dr Sherbert
21:36a duty
21:38fulfilled
21:38fulfilled
21:39oh and we'll see your information
21:41gets the attention it deserves
21:43good morning Dr Sherbert
21:45good morning
21:46good morning
21:49are you two on the booze or something this morning
21:52I'm in the middle of a lecture
21:53and you dragged me up here
21:54honestly Mackinstray
21:55I would simply have recommended the poor creature
21:57to three weeks in a vacuum
21:58or a sanatorium at Chipping Sodbury
22:01but venerable
22:01it was hard that's all
22:03we'd have to be kicked around
22:04to see if there was anything going on
22:06anything such as what
22:09God knows
22:11messages from the great beyond
22:13talkative spirits called Klaus
22:15upon my soul
22:16we threw a lot out of the window
22:17when we threw out theological discipline
22:19didn't we
22:21belief in the resurrection
22:22rather than this survivalistic nonsense
22:24it's all survivalistic nonsense
22:26when you come down to it
22:26I'm sorry Mackinstray
22:27like all so-called religious intellectuals
22:30Dr Sherbro
22:31and you take up a position
22:32with both feet firmly planted in quicksand
22:34the private little RC heaven for you
22:37survival by papal indult cardholders only
22:41not only is that a gross distortion
22:43of catholic doctrine
22:44but it isn't even a good joke anymore
22:47the catholic heaven has become
22:49too egalitarian by half
22:52it's worse than a university intake
22:54Mackinstray does that mean anything
22:58it's a simple equation in conventional terms
23:02nothing significant
23:07no
23:12nothing significant at all
23:14nothing significant at all
23:38well
23:40who should I report you to?
23:41maybe Venables or the Rationalist Association?
23:44is Venables around?
23:45no
23:46ah
23:48gone up to London
23:49some quest or other
23:50it's afternoon
23:57thanks
23:58keep forgetting I need all the help I can get
24:02do you know
24:03there is a woman in Battersea
24:05or maybe Clapham
24:06who writes original works by Mozart
24:09now according to her
24:11Wolfgang Amadeus dictates the scores
24:13from the great concert hall in the sky
24:15well even the Rationalist Association
24:17can't deny that it's happening
24:20thanks
24:20but the lady in question understands music
24:23presumably
24:23how does that tie in with your Miss Grey
24:25and physics?
24:32how did she die
24:33exactly Sam?
24:35what?
24:37I've often wanted to ask
24:39well your wife
24:40I was only a graduate student at the time
24:43not my place to be curious
24:47my wife
24:49um
24:50yeah
24:51there was a doctor's balls up actually
24:54a brain tumour
24:56taking to be nervous headaches
24:57even went away on holiday
24:58so she could rest up
25:01depths of Wales
25:02when the agony started
25:05by the time I got poor Caroline to a hospital
25:07it was all over
25:08rather screaming
25:10tough luck
25:15hardly the cleanest of tactics either
25:16no
25:18to be young
25:19in need
25:20and securely dead
25:21is an advantage
25:22no woman should be allowed
25:23over another
25:26well for God's sake Sam
25:28it's about time we talked about it
25:31you seem not to want me to go to the States
25:33but I can't make out if that's all you want
25:35have I asked anything?
25:37is it just the old wound throbbing
25:39that's all I want to know
25:40death can come to anyone Mary
25:42the best things in life are free
25:44oh knock it off
25:47you don't have a monopoly on pain and desolation
25:50everybody has to take a few body blows
25:53in the end they often decide it wasn't such a bad fight
25:56fight the good fight with all your mind
25:58well isn't it rather more adjusted than tying yourself to a tombstone
26:02and wailing about how cold it is outside
26:05I think you ought to know I've given up discussing my neuroses
26:07with girls with mother fixations
26:09again
26:10until they bring their note from mummy
26:12saying it's all right
26:25you realise what this equation's all about
26:28don't you?
26:28who cares about the bloody equation?
26:30what does it matter?
26:31it matters
26:32I could do
26:34basically it's a
26:35it's an opacity equation
26:40it's about energy
27:10there we do
27:11thanks so much for watching
27:11you
27:11it's about 40 to 10
27:32Miss Gray?
27:33Why, Professor Mackenstray.
27:36Oh, come in.
27:45Um, do sit down.
27:49Would you like some tea?
27:51No, thank you.
27:52Oh, well, I always make tea when people come for seances.
27:57All right, Miss Gray, you...
27:59you have no training in physics.
28:03These symbols and figures are...
28:06all moonshine, do you?
28:08Please, I just sent the message to you like I was told to.
28:12To you alone this time.
28:13You were told to send it to me alone?
28:15Yes.
28:15Goodbye.
28:16By Klaus.
28:18He's a well-connected chap and knows all the best physicists.
28:21Don't make a joke of it.
28:24It's all so different.
28:26Usually Klaus gives me an important sort of messages.
28:30He speaks through me with direct voice, as they say.
28:36But this is different.
28:38He makes me write things.
28:42How?
28:44Just write things.
28:48I'm sure you'd like some tea.
28:50Really, Professor?
28:50It won't take a minute.
28:52Let's concentrate on the facts, Miss Gray.
28:55This equation is an advance on the original ones you sent me.
28:58Do you realize that?
29:01Well, it represents a progression which I was unable to make,
29:06but which you seem to have leapt to with professional expertise.
29:11Miss Gray, I must know how you got hold of these equations.
29:17I've told you.
29:18Klaus gave them to me.
29:20Klaus?
29:20Who is Klaus?
29:21Klaus, I mean, how can I believe in Klaus?
29:40This is Klaus.
29:44He was only 24 when he died in a concentration camp in Germany.
29:50Must have been terrible for those people.
29:54Bad enough for us here.
29:56My mother got killed in the Blitz when I was just a girl.
30:02I remember the night he came to me.
30:11It was a summer's night.
30:13Oh, ten years ago now.
30:16I'd just come to live in Whitebrook to get away from...
30:22well, unhappiness elsewhere.
30:26I was alone here in this room.
30:31When I suddenly became aware of this...
30:34presence.
30:37There was no mistaking it.
30:40A young man.
30:42Troubled.
30:44Acquainted with pain.
30:47A victim.
30:51He told me his name was Klaus.
30:54He even told me where I could find a picture of him.
30:57His relatives had come to this house as refugees...
31:00before it was turned into flats, it seemed.
31:04It was down in the cellar.
31:06In a forgotten box of old papers.
31:10Can you believe that?
31:13So I even knew what he looked like.
31:19Poor Klaus.
31:42Right, Mary, let's try it again.
31:43Mm-hmm.
31:47Ready?
31:50Right.
31:58Electron emission?
32:01Positive that time.
32:03What?
32:03Yes.
32:04No doubt of it.
32:04Look, just a spill.
32:05Good.
32:14What on earth is all that?
32:16Actually, it's a kind of laser outcome of that last equation from Miss Gray.
32:22Heat, you see.
32:23Absolute temperatures in excess of those to be found in the interior of the sun.
32:26Well, that puts us in the laser field.
32:28Then, hydrogen.
32:29Where do you go from there?
32:31Well, if you want to speculate on things like deuterium turning to helium, then...
32:34Bingo, before you can say fusion power.
32:36Fusion power?
32:37Isn't Van der Ball back from London yet?
32:39No, he isn't.
32:39But Mackinster, to make wild claims about fusion power...
32:43Who's making claims, Doctor?
32:44Not I.
32:45Oh, no, no.
32:46Not I.
32:48Fusion power.
32:51The world's coal and oil resources running out.
32:53Conventional nuclear power.
32:55Expensive, dangerous.
32:57With huge waste disposal problems.
32:59But fusion power.
33:01Atoms combining instead of splitting up.
33:04Clean and cheap.
33:06Abundant, inexhaustible energy.
33:09Did you know that somewhere towards the end of his life, Hans Daedalus was supposed to have made a scientific
33:13breakthrough?
33:16What?
33:17Venables told me that.
33:19Do you believe it's true?
33:20True!
33:20Ah!
33:21Messages out of the void, true equations floating on the night air, Klaus.
33:25I simply don't know what you're saying, Mackinster.
33:28Are you maintaining that these messages from Miss Gray are now to be taken seriously?
33:32Accepted as proceeding from a late colleague, who, having attained eternal rest from his labors, now seems curiously reluctant to
33:39rest.
33:41You ever heard of the Midas syndrome?
33:43Hans used the expression the night he died.
33:46What do you associate Midas with?
33:48The golden touch?
33:50Well, there's more to it than that.
33:52After he got rid of that, the gods inflicted asses' ears on him.
33:57Well, one of Midas's servants couldn't keep the secret, so he went out and took a hole in the ground
34:02and whispered the awful truth into that.
34:05But Reeds grew up out of the ground and whispered the secret to the wind.
34:10And the wind carried it to the four corners of the earth.
34:14And soon the whole world knew that King Midas had asses' ears.
34:18Well, maybe there's some kind of natural mechanism works that way, kind of telepathy.
34:27Hans in dying wants to confide all before it's too late.
34:30That releases thought energy, which Miss Gray's receptor picks up.
34:35She has to filter it out in her own way, of course.
34:39But it's been thought.
34:41It's there.
34:42It can't be denied.
34:46You can commit yourself to notions like that.
35:24Someone, someone different here tonight.
35:28Someone special.
35:32Why you don't tell Klaus someone special come?
35:38Just speak to her.
35:39It's Klaus you're addressing now, not Miss Gray.
35:43Klaus.
35:47Klaus.
35:50My name's Professor McInstray.
35:55Now, these messages you've been sending me,
35:59they're very unusual messages.
36:02Did you know that?
36:03Most strange messages.
36:06Most strange old man.
36:08Old man?
36:09So anxious.
36:12So upset.
36:14Always talking, Klaus.
36:16Telling Klaus, give messages.
36:19Does this old man tell you a lot?
36:21Has he told you other things?
36:24Things you haven't told me as yet?
36:28Klaus, answer me, please.
36:32I must know the rest.
36:35I must know the rest.
36:35What you've given me so far isn't enough.
36:37There's more to come.
36:38The most important part.
36:41Isn't that so, Klaus?
36:44Klaus!
36:53Message.
36:55New message.
36:58Message.
36:58New message.
37:27Please stop that! Stop that laughing!
37:31Caroline is dead! Who told her about my wife? How does she know?
37:36Now, you listen to me. Klaus, Miss Grey, whoever you like to pretend you are.
37:40That came here with the truth, and I'm going to leave it without it.
37:43Klaus, give good message here, Professor.
37:46I don't believe in your damn mumbo-jumbo.
37:48You'll be hurt now. You'll suffer.
37:51We're talking about Hans Daedalus, his information, his equation.
37:56Now, you know them all. You write them down. You write!
38:01Stop it!
38:08The dead are the dead.
38:10Death is where it ends, Miss Grey.
38:13Sane people all agree on that.
38:15Why do you have to pretend otherwise, hmm? Caroline doesn't exist anymore.
38:21Klaus never did exist.
38:23Klaus?
38:36Why?
38:38For pity's sake, why?
38:41A victim?
38:43Someone to put your paid onto?
38:46But this is no martyr of the concentration camps.
38:50It's an old newspaper photograph, God knows of who, taken in this country.
38:57You know then!
38:59You know then!
39:00You know that survival is idiocy!
39:03Klaus is a lie!
39:04Klaus!
39:06An illusion!
39:08Say it!
39:10Klaus!
39:12Klaus!
39:12Klaus!
39:13Klaus!
39:14What have you done?
39:16Eileen!
39:17I need...
39:17I'm not alone.
39:17...
39:19...
39:20...
39:31...
41:10I think you'll find this warrant is in order Miss Gray.
44:18of course you can't get away from unhappiness not if you've been marked
44:25out as a victim yeah yeah and of course I mean there was no reason in the world
44:35why anybody of the atomic energy authority should suspect you was there
44:41what are your political commitments Miss Gray or shall we have to get in touch
44:46with clubs to find out about them this great weight it's crazy crazy trying to
44:58make out that just oh no it's true you know I was a Communist Party supporter
45:03after the war yes very active for a time well it seemed to me that the
45:09Communists were fighting the awful I'm saying it's meaningless you still haven't
45:14been accused of anything have you I didn't persevere as a party member of
45:18course I came to see that lasting answers and don't lie in political systems
45:26only in yourself deep in yourself
45:33you're so sure of everything aren't you there isn't anything there can't be
45:38anything outside what you see here touch and so you'll destroy anything that
45:43doesn't fit in with those strict ideas you've murdered poor Klaus you'll never
45:50come back to me now victims I knew the awful evils of poverty my mother sickly my
46:01father a drunkard who used to beat up my mother and me when he was drinking then the
46:06war left alone with my father left alone for the man of his character don't you see
46:18there is there needs to be a world beyond beyond miss gray wait
46:32please there's more to say professor what's going on
46:44miss gray
46:51publicity god between us and the gutter press publicity stunt we've been made to look ridiculous
46:56mary academic life has been called into contempt what sort of an intelligence man does venables call
47:02himself not to have suspected something like that
47:12i've had such comfort from coming here miss gray truly it's splendid so many people coming for
47:18the seances now well i like to feel i'm healthy it's great oh thank you oh excuse me
47:31i hope i'm not intruding
47:40mary
47:43look be fair
47:48the espionage bit had to be checked out it was possible that miss gray was an east german agent
47:54trying to find out if we learned anything from daedalus before he died what by setting up as a medium
48:00claiming to be providing us with information rather than soliciting it of course i spread to catch a
48:05mackerel
48:09none of those equations was beyond the wit of a good research department to have dreamed up
48:16you've had stranger cases oh yeah
48:19the agent once who actually performed an operation sooner than allow his cover as a surgeon to be blown
48:26cheers
48:31oh no one's compelled to contribute professor mackenstray
48:35oh no no but there are expenses of course
48:41why did you go to the newspapers irene
48:45why did you have to cheapen it all
48:49oh mrs ludgate i'm so glad
49:05of course i understand why he had to destroy miss gray's beliefs or i think i do it would have
49:11meant the possibility of a life for caroline outside of him you see and he couldn't endure that
49:18no enduring things is the name of the game isn't it enduring
49:33look somehow god knows how you know it all everything hans daedalus ever thought
49:42well it's not too late i can accept claus i can i'll go along with anything you say please
49:54you're very arrogant professor mackenstray
49:5750 years ago it was my sort of people who would have been thought prejudiced blind
50:04strange how the world changes
50:23oh really mary you can't pretend to believe that if we'd gone along with miss gray and her
50:28spiritualism new physical knowledge would actually have emerged you've got a theological block that's
50:35a problem and sam's got a materialist one we have trouble all around leave me out of it dr
50:42sherbon the only spirits i know about coming a glass with ice and soda
50:49now we must all concentrate so that i can make contact with my spirit guide moony lao
50:57concentrate please
51:28it's really impossible for the dead to communicate with the living it's outside scripture tradition common
51:34sense didn't uh samuel come back for a word with king saw christian saints to encourage joan of arcs
51:42i suppose we really should have had a go where those equations were concerned you can say that
51:48you with hindsight and standard wonder what would have emerged if we just well played along
52:00we must all concentrate
52:24Moonilal, Moonilal, can you hear me?
52:29Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
53:12Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
53:40Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
53:59Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
54:00Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
54:00Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
54:00Answer me, Moonilal, answer.
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