Original subtitles

[gunfire]

[men chanting in native language]

[thunder rumbling]

[dog barks]

So I have to hit my yellow ball

without touching this black ball at all.

Is that right?

Don't pretend you don't know the rules.

It's really irritating.

How often does she go and see her mother?

You can always tell 'cause she'll be in a filthy mood.

Ahh!

I don't want to go to Hull.

Why are we going to Hull?

They're building a retail park on the edge of town

and need us to check the archaeology.

[Gregory] Bloody Hull.

I say. That was rather good, wasn't it?

Please stop doing this.

[Gillian] The new girl, Viv, is settling in.

The boys seem to like her.

Then again, she's female, and she breathes.

[sighs]

[Gillian] Remember this, Mum?

Jacques de Saint-Omer.

Look at the shape of the sword.

Ring any bells?

Take care, Mum.

I love you.

[woman] Do you think America is ready

for an African-American president?

I think America is ready for change.

It's not about black. It's not about white.

It's about the people.

[man] The senator for Virginia,

comfortably ahead in all polls for the Democratic nomination,

has been sensationally accused

of leaving comrades to die in the Gulf War.

Oh, how gratifying.

I'm away from the lab for one hour, and you all go to the bar.

We're going to Hull. A chap needs some libation.

Are you a big girly-girl

who screams at the sight of a bit of mud?

No.

Good. Because there's been a change of plan.

- We're not going to Hull. - Oh, joy!

There is a God!

So where are we going?

[Gregory] This is absolutely appalling, Gillian.

And we've got an hour and a half to excavate four bodies

before the tide comes in.

[Ben] Another femur.

[Gillian] What do you think, Ben?

It's strange, but I'm not finding any hands anywhere.

[Gregory] You do know the tide rips through here

at 12 knots, don't you?

[Gillian] All right. Let's just dig it out.

What? And risk losing archaeology?

[Gillian] It's either that, or we risk losing everything.

We'll just dig it out as a block deposit

and sort them out back at the lab.

[Gregory] Aah!

Look!

[Gillian] It's manacles.

Slaves, do you think?

How amazing is that?

[grunts]

[grunts]

[Gillian] What is it, Dolly?

A ship's bell.

With writing on it.

That should clear things up.

Slaves still shackled together?

Well, that's just an educated guess.

We're attempting to carbon-date the bones.

It's also potentially a can of worms.

Let us be absolutely sure what we've got before--

All right. I'll wait.

For awhile.

[door opens]

[Ben] Lots of bones and skulls.

They've been pretty bashed around by the tides.

Somerset. Somerset.

[Sandie] Here you are, Professor Parton.

Oh. Lovely.

Oh, SANDIE?

Can you get these samples down to the lab for an isotope test?

- Yeah, sure. - Thanks.

If it was down to me,

I'd remove every vestige of the slave trade.

It was an obscenity, and we still have streets

named after slave traders.

Music venues. Statues.

You're not one of these frightful people

who thinks Enid Blyton is a fascist, are you?

No, I'm just saying--

I once had a Golly brooch collection

that was the envy of the Lower Fourth.

He's winding you up. Ignore him.

Got it. Somerset.

Well, she was a transport ship

sailing between the American colonies and Bristol.

I'll check her out at the admiralty office.

[Gillian] And now we know who owned her.

The Carrs.

[Henry] So, you say this bell was found with the bodies of slaves?

It's all a bit of a mystery.

[Ben] Is there anything else you could

tell us about the Somerset?

[Henry] You mean, was the Somerset a slave ship?

We had so many, you see.

No, it's of no interest to me.

Do you have your family's shipping records from that time?

Oh, you'll get no help from me.

You see, in my opinion, my forefathers--

They did nothing wrong.

No offense to either of you, of course.

[chuckles]

No, different times. Different, uh, values.

You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I shall do nothing to help you excoriate them now.

[Gregory] According to the local admiralty office,

the Somerset successfully completed its last voyage

delivering molasses to Bristol.

At the end of her working life,

she was chopped up for firewood in Nova Scotia.

So, what's she doing at the bottom of the Bristol Channel?

Not only that,

there is no record that she ever carried slaves.

[Gillian] Well, it doesn't actually make sense--

manacled slaves in the Bristol Channel.

[Viv] But Bristol was built on the slave trade.

Well, we took metals and other trinkets to West Africa,

where, with assorted African chiefs and warlords,

we swapped them for captured slaves.

[Viv] The British didn't do the capturing themselves?

No. Divide and rule.

First rule of colonialism.

[Gregory] So slaves off to the West Indies and America,

where, in turn, they are exchanged

for sugar, tobacco, and other goods,

which returned to Bristol on ships like the Somerset.

There would have been black servants in Bristol, obviously,

but not manacled together.

That would only happen between Africa and the colonies.

[Gillian] So the records say the Somerset

ended its days in North America.

But we know that's not true.

- Doesn't make sense. - Well, it's a mystery.

And you know what I think about mysteries.

- You don't like them. - You don't like them.

[shouts in foreign language]

Ben?

It's just the first time...

What these people went through. It's unimaginable.

[telephone rings]

Hello.

Gillian.

You know that can of worms you told Mastiff about?

I do believe one's got out.

[man] Community leaders in Bristol are tonight outraged

by the revelation that the remains of four bodies

found under the Severn Bridge may be those of slaves.

Their discovery has reprompted calls

for an official apology from the city

for its part in the slave trade.

[Ben] Quite a turnout.

- Professor Magwilde? - No.

Is it true that you found some

slave skeletons in the Bristol Channel?

No.

It seems that this man thinks that you did,

and he wants them back.

You've got to get them to stop. This isn't helping.

Excuse me.

We're the archaeologists.

Is that an Ashanti chant?

Where do you stand on this debate?

Have we something to apologize for?

Oh, God.

Okay, bones.

[speaks foreign language]

Let's talk bones.

[indistinct talking]

Excuse me, please. Excuse me, folks.

Senator Joy, did you leave a man to die?

[man] You stinking coward!

Senator Joy, are you still running for office?

Yes, of course he is.

[woman] What have you got to say for yourself?

- Senator Joy! - Senator Joy!

[man screams]

[woman] Mr. Lester, I have the latest poll results.

[Preston] For God's sake, we were so close, so damn close.

I don't understand.

They're saying, when the senator's tank was hit...

You ran and left your comrades to die?

- It's not true, Bobby! - Our tank took a direct hit.

Before I left,

I checked every single one of my comrades, my friends.

They were all dead.

So how can they be talking to survivors?

It doesn't make sense.

Because they're lying, you dumb-ass.

There are some people, Bobby...

...very powerful people,

who do not want a black man for president.

Come on, people.

We have been doing well,

but we always knew this moment would come.

They were never gonna hand over the keys of the Oval Office

to a black man.

Not without one hell of a fight.

Now you know you're in a fight.

So come on.

Come on! Work to do.

Grab that stuff right now.

[Gillian] "Dr. Peter ADABANKAH.

Accra University, Ghana."

"Specializing in Political History and Human Rights."

The young people of St. Paul's invite me

to help them resolve this matter.

You really want to take the bones back to Africa?

Oh, I will take them back to Africa.

It's where they belong.

[Viv] We don't even know if they're slaves yet.

Yes, we do.

Where are your ancestors from?

Mine are from Ghana, via Trinidad.

Glasgow, via Glasgow.

And you?

Don't know.

If you don't know your past, how can you know your future?

You know that a 14-year-old black kid

was killed near here last week?

Yeah.

By a white gang.

Mm-hmm. So we don't need any more tension.

Exactly.

And you do know that the remains of the slaves,

if indeed that's what they were,

belong to the heritage of this country now?

And until we find out what happened

to them and the Somerset, they're not going anywhere.

There are powers in the universe

greater even than the English law.

I'm sorry, Dr. ADABANKAH,

but that sounds remarkably like a threat.

[sighs]

My ancestors will come home.

[Gillian] I knew this would happen.

As soon as the word "slaves" was mentioned.

Too many people with too many agendas.

Maybe the guy has got a point.

Why is it every time we dig something up--

[tires screeching]

[gasps]

- What happened? - I swerved to avoid them!

Them who?

The men in the middle of the road!

How many drinks did you have?

[Gillian] I didn't have any!

They -- They were right there in the middle of the road.

- [man] Aaah! - [screams]

- Hey! Gillian! - [screaming]

What is going on with you?! What's going on?!

Don't tell me you can't see them!

- Can't see who, Gillian?! - [screaming]

Calm down!

Calm down. There's no one there.

There's no one there.

- Oh, shit. - [siren wailing]

[sobbing]

[Ben] Someone must have spiked your drink.

All right, calm down.

Simon, they're not accusing you

of cheating on your exams, you know?

They're accusing you of being a coward, of being unpatriotic.

Lester.

Let's get ready.

There are people to inspire.

All right. I'll play it your way.

[alarms wailing]

What? I can't hear you.

Oh, for crying out loud. It's a bomb scare!

- [man] Come on, everybody. - Guys.

It is not a bomb scare.

Sir, will you leave now, please?

It is not a bomb scare!

Guys, get him out of here.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I wasn't drunk.

You swerved to avoid an African hunting party

which just happened to be crossing

the Kings Weston Road.

I was drugged.

A senior member of the faculty, drunk.

I was not drunk!

Lucky for you, the chief constable is a friend of mine.

I don't need any favors from you.

I was drugged. I've asked toxicology to run some tests.

There are people in this university, Gillian,

who would like to shut us down because we are not relevant.

Now we have a chance to be very relevant.

- Give the man his bones. - No.

I'm still working on them.

Daniel, please, just let me do my job.

Gregory, does Ben have a girlfriend?

Hmm? No.

Far too in love with himself for that.

Seriously.

Well, there have been a few.

But no one of importance since he and Gilly parted company.

He went out with Gillian?

Look through the microscope, young lady.

[Viv] What am I looking at?

[Gregory] A thread.

This is the admiralty records' final entry

relating to the Somerset.

This thread is from the stitching found on that page.

What color is it?

- [Viv] White. - Mm-hmm.

Now, this thread is from the stitching found

throughout the rest of the book.

[Viv] Sort of cream.

One is nylon.

The other cotton.

Now, the paper appears to be consistent throughout,

as does the ink and the handwriting, but they can't be,

because this thread is different.

Why was it faked?

This is the interesting thing.

This sort of nylon binding thread came in in the 1960s

and was only in use for a decade or so.

Why would anyone want to fake a ship's voyage?

200 years after it happened.

Yeah. I'll call you tonight.

[beep]

What is it?

They found out he plays golf with Fidel Castro?

It's from our people in England.

For his Eyes Only.

Virginia, Preston.

We're going back to where it started.

[Viv] What does this show?

[Gregory] If the original page was written in situ,

then the pen would have left an impression on the page below.

The highly charged areas retain more toner.

So in theory...

You should have embraced a life of crime, Gregory.

I tried it once.

Matron thrashed it out of me.

[Viv] There's something there.

"Somerset.

Sailing between Virginia and the port of Bristol.

December 15,1781.

Lost at sea with all hands."

Nova Scotia indeed.

It's a cover-up.

Get the others.

[glass breaks]

Now, there's more.

But I can't read it all.

"Political prisoners."

Political prisoners?

Another word.

I think that's a "C-I-M --"

No. Damn.

Line below.

"O-B"?

That's all I can make out.

Black slaves as political prisoners?

What can it mean?

I don't know.

I know a man who might.

You people have a nerve, coming here asking me for my help.

You're a fellow academic, Doctor.

We thought it might appeal to you.

Do I get my bones?

No.

But you get to solve a riddle.

Go on.

What political prisoners might have been manacled

and carried between the States and Bristol?

Slaves are not political prisoners.

They are victims of a gross crime against African humanity.

Oh, come on, Doctor.

We're just trying to get to the bottom of this thing.

Help us.

No. I don't think I will.

Oh, just one other thing.

You didn't slip something into my drink,

did you, Dr. ADABANKAH?

Anthony.

Show these people out.

Someone covered up the death of these slaves.

I want to know who and why.

[beeping]

Very strong signal.

[Gillian] What did I say about removing all metal

when you're working with the mag?

No rings, zips, coins, piercings?

Are you wearing a brassiere?

- Yeah. - Ah.

It's the under wiring. Sets the machine off.

Okay, bras off. All of you.

[beeping intensifies]

God, I love this job.

Viv, do you want me to help you dig around

and find out about your past?

- I've got a friend who does-- - No.

[beeping]

Got a belt buckle on?

No.

- Keys? - No.

Bolt through your John Thomas?

Ben!

[Ben] It must be quite deep in the mud.

[thud]

I wouldn't be so sure.

My mother wanted me to be a vicar.

The tide's coming in, Gregory. Whenever you're ready.

[Bobby] Senator, why are we here?

And what is it with that button, sir?

My grandmother gave it to me.

It's been passed down from generation to generation.

She said one day I would understand.

[Preston] Sir?

Bad news.

The CNN poll looks bad.

Their smear campaign is working.

We're in Freefall, Senator. We got to do something.

Yes, we do, Preston.

Now?

In the middle of a campaign?

Simon, the last time we got close to them,

your brother ended up dead.

Now is the time, Preston.

Now is the time.

Disarticulated finger bones.

Fingers?

Look at this.

The hand's been sheared off.

By a sword?

No, no. That's not possible.

Even with the sharpest sword,

you'd have to hack through human bone,

not slice through it like a knife through butter.

Well, maybe it wasn't an ordinary sword.

Gillian.

[Gillian] Someone severed their manacled hands.

[Ben] But why were they put in a box?

Whoever it was was trying to make a statement.

[Daniel] This is marvelous.

White slavers cut off the hands of these poor men.

Excellent work, people.

Everything comes to he who fights, my friend.

I don't mean guns and knives.

I mean knowledge.

What knowledge?

[Adabankah] A secret that has been

kept from us for generations.

What knowledge?

[chuckles]

I'm too thirsty to talk.

Rum and Coca-Cola.

[Gillian] So, big storm at sea.

All hands lost.

[Gregory] Rather literally in this case.

Why would they cut their hands off before they sunk?

- Bra back on? - Yes.

[Gregory] Fair enough.

It's the stable isotope analysis on our long bones.

Ah, no, don't tell me. Don't tell me.

I reckon African.

So me a lie-meal, bush meat traces, grains, and nuts.

No, I reckon second-generation escaped Virginian slaves,

so salt fish and fruit.

More like Sunday roast.

It's a European diet.

What?

Our black political prisoners, our slaves -- They're not.

They're not what?

They're white men.

From Bristol.

[groaning]

No!

I beg you! Please, no! No!

I beg you, no!

Please, no!

No, please.

No, no, no.

[Slitting]

[gasping]

[gasping stops]

[clattering]

[Anthony] Dr. ADABANKAH, are you okay?!

Help!

Someone help us!

[Daniel] I don't understand.

What are white?

The bones we pulled out of the Severn mud.

- Our slaves? - They're not slaves.

They're the bones of white people.

Bristolian white people.

No, they're not.

[chuckles] Yes, Daniel. They are.

Well, you don't get white slaves, now, do you?

They are the bones of white Bristolians.

- Have you been drinking? - No!

Bugger.

Who else have you told?

Only you, our beloved leader.

Well, you keep it that way.

Aaaaaaaah!

- Cimarrones. - [Ben laughing] What?

From the ledger -- "C-I-M." "Cimarrones."

A Spanish word meaning "wild, fugitive, unruly."

- "Maroons," we would say. - Yeah, I know what it means.

Are you saying you think there were political prisoners

aboard the Somerset?

Even better than that. The "O" and the "B" -- Oban.

The most mysterious Maroon of them all.

[laughs]

Our image of the slaves

is usually one of pitiful sufferers,

helpless victims of superior Western technology

and organization.

Well, the truth, of course, is always more complex.

These fierce gentlemen are Maroons,

escaped slaves who formed a warlike new tribe

in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.

But there were also Maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp,

which sounds like Swindon, but is in fact a marshy region

of the coastal plain of southeast Virginia

and northeast North Carolina.

Very little is known about them.

The North American Maroons escaped the colonial plantations

and harried the British colonists for decades.

I'm terribly sorry. Don't know how that got in there.

They were led by a particularly ferocious gentleman called Oban.

We have a few records of his existence

in the Great Dismal Swamp into the 1770s,

but then nothing.

So the forged ledger proves that, on the Somerset,

there were Maroon political prisoners,

and we have a bunch of white men's bones.

So where are our Maroons?

What I think is most amazing is that someone in the 1960s

went to all that trouble

to obliterate that information from public record.

[Gregory] On the 15th of December,1781,

there was indeed a terrible storm in the Bristol Channel.

What if they were able to sail the ship away?

In a storm? With the sailors slain?

Impossible.

- I don't understand. - [Ben] Well, think about it.

There's a terrible storm,

some sort of uprising below decks.

They fight, and then they throw the white guys overboard.

How long would it have taken to sail from America to Bristol?

About six, seven weeks.

So if you take it backwards from the storm,

what was happening in Virginia when they left?

The last stages of the American War of Independence.

Siege of Yorktown ended...

19th of October,1781.

The point remains,

all we know for sure is that Oban and the Maroons

were on the Somerset,

and the Somerset is at the bottom of the sea.

Can we help you?

Doctor ADABANKAH.

He's dead.

Look, the police said he killed himself

whilst under the influence of some sort of drugs.

Someone called us and said there was trouble brewing

in one of our streets.

When we got there, nothing.

How was Doctor ADABANKAH when you left him?

He was good.

He'd found something out. Something that excited him.

He didn't kill himself, you know?

All right, all right.

What's the mood like out there?

He was our guest.

And now he's dead.

Murdered.

And the kid that was killed last week.

How do you think it is?

This was addressed to you.

"Hun"?

It doesn't mean anything.

[door opens, closes]

Do you think ADABANKAH was murdered?

Drugged. You know, by the same people who drugged me?

What could he possibly know that was worth his life?

[tires screeching]

[Gillian] Friends of yours?

Come on.

No.

Sod this. I've had enough.

- Well, maybe another time. - Yeah, it might be wise.

What do you want?

Mr. Carr, I really do need to have a look at your records.

I said no.

And I mean no.

I'm an archaeologist. A scientist.

I've got no agenda against you or your family.

That's what the last bugger said.

Borrowed some of my most precious books

and never came back.

When was this?

1968.

I have a long memory.

What was his name?

[Preston] Dr. Magwilde, I presume.

Why am I standing in the middle of a rugby pitch?

Because it won't be bugged.

We heard you made some interesting finds.

Some Maroon bones.

How did you know we found evidence of Maroons?

We hear things.

- Did you kill ADABANKAH? - Hold on, Gillian.

No, I'm sorry.

You're not in America now.

I'm going to the police.

They won't believe you, Dr. Magwilde.

Did you kill Dr. ADABANKAH?

No, ma'am.

We did not.

H-U-N.

Hun.

- [Viv] What? - Hunley.

Sebastian Hunley.

- Carr told me. - Never heard of him.

Where are the others?

Gone for a curry.

In the 1960s, Sebastian Hunley was often in the press,

promulgating various far-fetched archaeological theories.

Why would Dr. ADABANKAH want Gillian to know his name?

He met a bizarre death at Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore?

It's a national monument!

Carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and so forth.

[Viv] Yes, I know.

But the interesting thing is, a few months before his death,

Hunley was at the Carr house

researching the Somerset and its cargo.

[dings]

Follow me.

We were edging toward the White House.

No doubt about it.

Then they accused me of cowardice on a battlefield,

of being unpatriotic.

Then the polls went into Freefall.

So why aren't you over there

fighting for your political life?

Because I thought I'd fight for it right here, Ben.

Who's "they"?

A lot of people, very powerful people,

will fight hard to stop a black man

from being the leader of the United States of America.

What? Republicans?

No, this is an older battle even than that.

This is old families. Old money.

Old power.

And why are you interested in the Maroons?

We know that Oban and the Maroons

fought for the Americans against the British.

At the siege of Yorktown.

Their tactics proved decisive.

[indistinct shouting]

Helped change the course of the battle, even the war.

Aaah!

My grandmother said...

...when someone in the family tried to find out more,

something terrible would happen.

My brother supposedly killed himself.

And my grandmother was a victim of a hit-and-run.

What's so special about Oban?

Do you have anything else?

Anything that can let us know where Oban went?

No. Nothing.

Well, then, ma'am,

I thank you for your time.

Ben.

Uh...

Is he really all that amazing?

[chuckles]

I'm not a politician. I'm a history professor.

I was weary, cynical.

Sick of the whole thing.

Senator Joy came to give a talk in my hometown.

And I had heard a bit about him.

So I decided to check it out.

He was outstanding.

He gave me back my hope.

He gave me back my love of nation...

...of man.

I know that sounds stupid to you folks, but--

No. No, it doesn't.

He could make a difference.

Thank you.

[fire crackling]

No.

[siren wailing]

We stopped at this little diner on our way up to Mount Rushmore.

Seb said he was about to become very famous

and I'd have to get used to that.

About an hour later, we were at Mount Rushmore,

looking at the presidents.

My husband suddenly started acting quite strangely

and laughing.

Before I could ask him what he was laughing at...

...he just...

...jumped.

I'm very sorry.

Do you know what he was working on at the time?

He said it was safer that I didn't know.

Mary, please, if there's anything you can remember...

It's as I told that charming West African gentleman.

ADABANKAH?

Dr. ADABANKAH has been here?

My husband said something about how some important slaves

might have escaped and made their lives in England

or near England.

Anything else?

No.

I don't know anything else.

Your husband would want his research

to see the light of day.

That nice Dr. ADABANKAH...

He's dead, Mary.

- Do you know what this is? - [Viv] No.

This is Lord Cornwallis's surrender

after the siege of Yorktown.

My husband said if people came looking and I trusted them...

May I?

Oh.

"Nathaniel Masters. American diplomat.

Died,1803.

Fell from Avon Gorge, Bristol."

[Viv] "Andrew Downing.

Amateur archaeologist from Cambridge.

Died, Washington,1902."

This was all happening long before the 1960s.

A list of dead archaeologists.

To that we can add my husband.

And Dr. ADABANKAH.

Whoever gets close to this...

...whatever it is, gets destroyed.

[Mary] Perhaps you'd better have this.

It was Sebastian's pride and joy.

[Gregory] It's a button from a military tunic.

The Virginia Regiment.

He heard that someone had found it

washed up somewhere in the Bristol Channel.

Somewhere off the Devon coast, I think.

Well, if they could have stopped the ship from keeling over,

the dominant current that night would have swept them

down the Bristol Channel towards North Devon.

[Gillian] Where the Hunley button was found.

[Ben] Hold on, hold on.

If they'd come ashore anywhere here, people would have noticed

the color of their skins and raised the alarm.

Still would in some parts of North Devon.

[chuckles]

Well, the current that night would have been over 15 knots,

so it could have ripped them out towards this island.

[Ben] Hell Rock.

This was outside for you, Gregory.

Ex Libris.

Good old Mr. Carr.

"Some years ago, in the late '60s,

some American gentlemen came to see me.

They persuaded me that certain of my papers

were important for their archives.

Unbeknownst to them, I held one book back.

It was a diary kept by one of my forefathers."

[Gregory] "He was captaining a ship

that was attempting to break the blockade at Yorktown

and resupply Cornwallis.

He was captured."

Look. He's marked a page.

"October 20th,1781.

I was waiting with other officers

to be bartered for American prisoners --"

Oh, some sort of prisoner exchange.

That explains why the Maroons were on an English ship.

"...when I saw this most strange of sights.

The man himself appeared amongst the lower ranks of negroes,

wastrels, and Frenchmen."

[Viv] "The man himself"?

[Gregory] "I saw him give a negro his own pocket watch."

Hmm.

[Ben] Come on, people.

Anchors aweigh.

[Gregory] Hate to ruin the luxury cruise,

but everyone else who's looked for the Maroons before

has wound up dead.

[Ben] Gregory, what's that?

[Gregory] Second World War gun emplacement.

[Gillian] So if there was anything to be found,

it would've been found then.

If we can prove that Oban and the Maroons made it here,

then maybe we might find out why Senator Joy

is so interested in them.

[Gregory] No one could survive out here, Gillian.

[Gillian sighs]

Well, I guess they didn't make it.

Well, then, my shipmates,

I've got a nice fatty stew in the galley.

Gregory, hold on.

Hold on.

What is this stuff?

[Gregory] Well, apart from being miserable-looking,

I'd say it's Virginia creeper.

Virginia creeper?

[Ben] And look at the size of these trunks.

It's old.

And how did it get out here?

In the ballast of a ship?

You remember, the Somerset was normally a transport ship.

They were here.

Aren't we jumping ahead a little now?

[Gillian] Look.

The oldest roots of this creeper have been deliberately planted.

If you follow this line,

and this one...

...it narrows.

There's a shape.

[Viv] What shape?

[Gillian] Tell her, Ben.

[Ben] Well, it looks like kind of a sword.

They had the sword.

My father wanted me to be a racing driver.

Wish I'd listened to him.

[tapping]

[sighs] We don't even know what we're looking for.

[tap]

What have you got?

[Gillian] Good girl. Be careful.

[Ben] S-O.

Somerset.

[chuckles] My God, it's a door.

[sighs]

You know, we should get back to the university,

get a proper team down here, and really take our time.

Yeah, we should.

[straining]

Torch.

Limestone.

An ancient extension of the Mendip Hills.

Clay pipes.

18th century.

They made it.

They made it!

Oban.

They lived out the rest of their lives as free men.

[Gillian] They lived and died here on this island.

They must have been extraordinary men.

[Ben] Gillian.

More light.

The man himself.

- [creaking] - What was that?

My apologies.

We followed you.

Oban?

Yes.

They made it.

Well, I think I know who the man himself is.

"Geo. Washington."

- May I see that? - Yeah.

George Washington.

They fought with Washington!

Aaaah!

[chanting]

[Senator Joy] They helped win independence for America.

This watch is the proof

we've been looking for, Preston.

[Gregory] "I saw him give a negro his own pocket watch.

This did impress the lower orders of negroes

but did not, I fear, impress his officers."

[Senator Joy] Oban was my ancestor.

Oban was my ancestor, Preston.

And he was a warrior.

They were more than that, sir.

Yeah, yeah, they...

They should have been among the Founding Fathers

of the United States of America.

[Preston] Whitewashed from our history.

[Senator Joy] My grandmother always said

I was capable of greatness.

And the people who have tried to hide Oban's place in history

are the same people who have hurt my family

and tried to stop me reaching the White House.

The generals around Washington were not prepared

to share power with a black man.

Washington was forced to withdraw his offer,

and Oban was betrayed.

The world will know your story, sir.

I give you my word.

[Ben] That's why they cut off the sailors' hands.

[Ben] That's why they cut off the sailors' hands.

They were betrayed by Washington.

George Washington would have shared power

George Washington would have shared power

with escaped slaves?

But Washington himself was a slave owner.

In his private correspondence,

he was a lot more sympathetic towards emancipation.

He was the only Founding Father to free his slaves when he died.

All that time racked with guilt over his betrayal.

Oh, look! Firefly.

Photinus macdermotti.

That's not a firefly. That's a -- Take cover!

Take cover!

- Bastards! - Who is it?

Old families, old power.

We have to get off the island!

We've got to get rid of them first. They'll cut us to pieces.

Man down!

Sir, get back inside!

Got one!

- They're on the run! - [gunshots]

Hold your fire! It's all clear!

Does anybody else have an underpants situation?

- Senator. - [gun cocks]

- Bobby. - Nobody will know the story.

- Bobby. - Nobody will know the story.

What the hell are you doing?

Oh, Bobby.

You and all the people like you,

you can't keep a lie locked away forever.

100 years, 200, but the truth will out, Bobby.

Now is that time.

[Ben] No, no.

[Gillian] No, Ben! Aah!

You're okay.

They were blanks, Bobby!

How did you know?

I knew.

I always knew.

No blanks in this, Bobby.

Enough!

Let him live, Lester.

Let him see a black man in the White House.

Until this news gets out, we are just sitting ducks.

Then the news must get out.

What? London?

Or should we go back to Washington?

Do you have a theater at your university?

Yeah.

Then we put the show on right here.

- All right. - [cellphone dialing]

Ah, there you are!

Don't you people ever do any work in here?

- Daniel, I'd like you to meet-- - Yes, yes.

Not now. I have some amazing news!

George Washington sharing power with escaped slaves?

It's bigger than that. Ken Livingstone.

- Ken bloody Livingstone. - What about him?

He has only agreed to come down here

and lead the apology over the slave bones.

But they're not slave bones.

Come on. That's mere semantics.

This area needs healing!

And this university needs funding.

Bloody marvelous!

Thank you.

I owe you people a great deal.

Well, you just, um...

...knock 'em dead.

Mr. President.

It's your destiny, Simon.

Embrace it.

[camera shutters clicking]

[applause]

My dad was from the West Indies.

I think his family came from the Ivory Coast.

My name is Senator Simon Joy.

And I am a warrior.

[applause]

[Ben] He was impressive, wasn't he, our senator?

[Gillian] He was.

[chuckles] So were you.

He might make a difference, you know?

We certainly made a difference to him.

I... [chuckles]

I did a really uncool thing.

Oh, what?

I asked him for his autograph.

[laughs]

- [Ben] Look, look, look, look. - You didn't.

[laughs]

So did I.

Ah!

[both laugh]

Well, he didn't have any photographs left.

Come on, you big hero. I'm going home.

[chuckles]

[gulls crying]

[Gillian] Look at this.

The hand's been sheared off by a sword.

[Ben] Even with the sharpest sword,

you'd have to hack through human bone,

not slice through it like a knife through butter.

[Gillian] Well, maybe it wasn't an ordinary sword.

- Get your coat. You've pulled. - What's happened?

[Gregory] Some people have been gassed.

There's a hollow area under these baths.

We've never had a chance to get at it until now.

[rumbling]

Our way out is blocked by a ton of rock.

Our friends are down there.

What's going on? What the hell's happened?

Boudicea!

[Gillian] Boudicca in love with a Roman.

Ride a little imagination once in a while.

Love makes no sense.

You're scared, Ben.

That's ridiculous.