Original subtitles

Love is like a butterfly, soft and gentle as a fly. The

multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings.

Love makes your heart feel strange inside. It flutters like soft wings in

flight. Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.

The pale pink way to happiness.

Especially designed to create just the right friction on the skin.

Rub gently over the body and face and see how youthful and supple your skin

becomes.

What rubbish.

Wonder puff.

Hello. Hello.

How about a good morning?

More than can be said of the butterflies.

I confused them by arriving before they were awake.

Ben, couldn't you put them somewhere else? I hate dead things on the table.

Have you seen this electricity bill?

I glanced at it, yes.

£78?

Well, that's how it is today.

Everything's going up.

We'll have to cut down. It's nonsense.

Tell me how and I'll do it.

Well, Adam and Russell, for a start.

You seen the gadgets they've got up there?

Hi -fi tape recorders, electric blankets, clock radios, spot lamps,

Well, that's why they're still at home, isn't it?

That's why we're still a family.

That's why they don't go out mugging people.

They mug me every Friday for their pocket money.

You always forget to give it to them, don't you?

I passed the bathroom this morning and there's Adam still asleep with an

electric toothbrush sticking out of his mouth.

Yes, his girlfriend gave it to him.

However, I tell him in future he must go there and plug it in in her place.

In fact, he could easily take all his things and plug them in in her place.

And Russell could take all his things and plug them in in someone else's

And then there'll only be you and me with our things plugged in in our place.

My God, now I'm a homebreaker.

Pan cleaners.

I need pan cleaners. Sad, isn't it?

Sad? What is sad?

Apart from the fact I have to pay that electricity bill.

Then I have to tax my mind with things like pan cleaners.

I mean, I don't sit in an office surrounded by telephones making large

decisions.

I don't sit in a field full of poppies painting landscapes. I don't bash at

bestsellers on a typewriter.

I just have to figure out how to scrape eggs off pans.

Hi.

Ah, call yourself a dead butterfly, Adam.

Had another busy morning waking up, have you?

Doesn't get any easier, Dad. Doesn't get any easier.

We, uh... We wanted to ask you something, actually.

Something important.

Well, go on.

There has to be a black spot in every day.

It's about the bomb.

The nuclear bomb.

Russ and me, we've been thinking about it.

I suppose it's a change from sex.

You know how the back garden isn't doing anything particularly constructive at

the moment?

We'd like to build a shelter.

A four -lap shelter.

For the bomb. When it falls.

If it falls.

So that we can survive.

There won't be any point in surviving. Oh, come on, Dad. You've had your life.

We're just beginning ours.

Adam, we have not had our lives. We were just about to when we had you.

What he means is that you've been around longer, and you're fed up with the

whole damn world scene, so it's not going to be so hard for you to go.

He's right. I can't wait to be splattered all over the place. Can you?

I have the sheer joy of knowing that one day I'll just turn into a cinder.

Now, look.

This is serious, folks. Right. When that four -minute warning comes, you're

going to be glad of the hole we dug in that garden. Ultra glad.

There is no need for you to remind your mother and me of the seriousness of it

all. We were around when the first bomb went off.

I fought in one war, and I'm acutely aware that fighting won't be the answer

the next.

We have discussed all the dreadful possibilities, but you wouldn't know

Of course, you were charging up and down the road on a skateboard at the time.

Well, we're into it now.

So how about it, then?

All we need is your permission.

Just a small part of the garden.

This hoe.

Are your mother and I invited?

Or are you just going to salvage a couple of girlfriends and start a whole

race?

My God, what a threat to England.

Of course you're invited. After all, you're footing the bill.

And now they're building this shelter. Would you believe it? Oh, yes.

Things are changing.

The world is full of the young sorting out the old.

You don't think they're being a bit dramatic?

No.

I'm going to have one built myself.

Where will you put it? You live in a flat.

Oh, I'll buy a piece of land.

You really think it's going to happen, then, this bomb?

Who knows? It only takes one lunatic.

Oh, I'll buy a piece of land.

It's very nice being rich.

Yeah.

I can have anything I want.

Well, almost.

Hey, shall we have a drink?

No. No?

You're drinking a lot, aren't you?

The answer within the vessel.

You can always tell when a man drinks. His face looks permanently baffled.

I think that's got more to do with life than with drink.

You're always blaming life.

Yes, I'll walk over then.

Have we come to the end of our road?

No, we've come to the end of your lunch hour.

Oh, I can always make it longer.

Being rich.

I can't.

Being married.

Bye.

Bye.

Oh, by the way, you're welcome to share my shelter.

I've got nobody else.

Life again, you see.

Ria?

It is Ria, isn't it? Ria Collinson.

Parkinson, I'm married now.

Kathleen.

Kathleen Holt, remember?

Ribot school, class four. I came top, you came second. You put a frog in my

lunchbox.

Good heavens,

I can't believe it. You look so... You look... Oh, I know.

Oh, boy, has it been fun.

Listen, where are you going?

Shopping. You know, the usual excitement. Oh, the hell about.

Let's grab a coffee.

Oh, hi.

Oh, OK, pal.

Sandbags have come.

I beg your pardon?

50 sandbags has ordered.

Urgent, it says.

I'm afraid you have the wrong house.

Oh, bloody hell. I don't know why I do this job, honest or don't.

Parkinson. Yes?

Number 11?

Yes. Jade Road.

Yes. Well, apart from your blood group, that's it, isn't it?

I mean, that's what's known as conclusive evidence.

Oh, hi.

It's OK, Dad. No hassle.

Round the back, OK.

I don't know why I do this bloody job.

Oh, great.

Oh,

train him right to get the sandbags cheap.

It's really great to see you again.

You know, I only got back to England three months ago.

Yes, I remember. Your father was an American. Right.

We went back home, you know. I married Bud and we bought this little place on

Long Beach.

Long Beach.

But he wasn't really right for me, you know.

He grew kind of fat and aggravating.

One day I was watching him floating in the pool like a humpback whale.

I said to myself, my God, what is? this? What is this?

So then I married Roger.

Oh, he was cute.

But Tony's better.

I might just make it with Tony.

Three times married, two divorces.

Aren't you worn out?

Of course I'm worn out. How do you think I got to look like this?

I've been lucky.

I married Ben about 20 years ago.

We have two sons.

There's been no one else.

You call that lucky?

Well, it's less exhausting.

Well, I was watching tennis, but I'd rather join in the game.

Oh, but listen, honey, don't get me wrong.

If you found a man that's worth giving up your life for, that's really great.

What you don't try, you don't miss.

I suppose what I do miss is having a friend, a close friend, one I can talk

You've just got yourself a friend.

Not that there's anything to talk about, really.

Oh, there's always nothing to talk about until you start talking.

Oh, God, don't you just love gooey things, Dee? Sometimes I'd rather eat

chocolate cake than have sex.

There is someone.

A man.

Relieved to hear it, honey.

We've only walked in the park.

And once we spent the day in London.

But we haven't... done anything.

I mean, that really is romantic. Does he buy you presents?

No. Send you little notes?

No, not really.

Flowers?

No.

What's his problem?

I am married.

Oh, that's your problem. What's his?

It isn't a problem being married. I like being married.

You're in love with the guy, aren't you?

Oh, no. Of course you are. You have got that crazy look.

No, it's more delicate.

It's more delicate than that. It's more subtle. It's not sordid.

I don't creep out of my husband's house with my nightie in my handbag or

anything like that.

Once he was ill and I went to see him.

And he... He definitely would have if I'd been inclined.

Well, I was inclined.

But I was afraid.

And in London, he wasn't ill then, and he more definitely would have, and I was

even more inclined. But we didn't.

You're really torn, aren't you?

Kathleen, you don't know. You don't know.

Oh, I do, honey, I do.

I feel like that worm, the one the thrush is tugging at. Half of me is safe

under the ground, and the other half is being...

pulled and stretched.

It's just a matter of time and then plop, there I go, right up the creek.

You want to sleep with this guy.

I... I want to try out things.

Like I said, you want to sleep with this guy.

When I'm old, I want to be able to snuggle into my thermal underwear and

to myself, Brigitte Bardot, beat your heart out.

Leave the heavy stuff to me, okay?

Now, what have you got to lose?

Ben, you're going to tell him?

Myself. Oh, honey, you lost her the day you walked down the aisle.

What did you lose?

A whole lot of frustration.

Oh, here, I'll get the check.

Kathleen.

ever talked to anyone ever before.

Oh, sure, sure.

Honey, does he buy your record?

You know, romantic song.

Did you ever kiss?

Hold hands?

I guess when you go to the park, you feed separate ducks.

Well, like I said.

It's very subtle.

Nice to hear you singing.

I suppose one could call it that.

I feel happy today, so I'm making happy noises.

Meeting your American friend yesterday was a good thing, it seems.

Yes. Oh, it was nice. Getting together, swapping news.

I can imagine it, yes.

chatting and confiding and philosophising. I can't think of a more

Did either of you listen to the other?

Oh, women can talk and listen at the same time. It's a gift we have.

Well, why not?

Badgery girls can do it.

That's strange.

What's strange?

I think I'm going to turn out a decent lunch.

I think that's the kind you can eat.

Well, we'll be able to cope, I wonder.

after the bomb.

It'd be like going back to barbarism.

People shooting each other to death over a can of beans.

We've still got enough food for a month. By then things will have started to

grow again. We can live on grass.

There's not a lot to look forward to, is it?

Spending the rest of our lives grazing.

Being dead.

Being dead might be nice.

Have you thought of that?

Being dead might be that perfect existence we all dream about.

I'd definitely rather be alive.

Lethargic but alive.

Okay, sunshine, so who shifted the most soil out there? You were slumped over

your spade most of the time. Only when you sliced through my foot.

If you can't agree now, what chance have you living in a hole together?

Now go and wash your hands, both of you. Go on.

Not in there, in the bathroom.

Oh, Marlon.

Adam. Yeah?

I found that T -shirt distasteful.

Sorry, it's torn, so there's a word missing. It should read, have you had it

today?

Hello? Is that you, Ria?

Kathleen, hi.

You got it, honey.

Oh, I'm glad you rang. I was thinking, how about meeting up again next week for

coffee? Sure, sure, why not?

Listen, Ria, would you do me an enormous favor?

Try me.

Well, I have this friend, Colin.

Did I talk to you about Colin?

No, there was a bud.

And a Roger and a Tony.

Right.

Well, this is a real sweetie.

And he's asked me to go out to dinner with him tonight.

Well, you know how it is. Tony's a bit strange. He's got this suspicious

So I told him I was meeting you tonight.

I think he'd kind of like that idea better.

Well, is that okay with you?

Yes. Oh, yes.

Where are we going?

Oh, we're not going anywhere.

You're a place, you know, to talk about old times. Now, isn't that terrific?

Yes, terrific.

Okay, honey. I'll call you Monday. We'll make a date for coffee, right?

I don't think it's all that... Listen, Ria.

You can always pretend you're coming over to my place some night. You know

I mean?

See you, honey.

And thanks a mil.

I think I can smell burning.

What kind of sandwich would you like?

Adam, there were seven pieces of toast on that rack.

Dad ate it all.

Your father only had coffee.

Russell, then. Russell isn't up yet.

Can't think who it was.

What time is it?

It's eight o 'clock.

Eight o 'clock?

Yeah, in the morning.

Two mornings on the run, I've been up early. I was thinking about the shelter.

Oh, Adam, about that shelter. You must put a light out there when it's dark.

Your father went out to the tool shed last night.

He was too proud to say anything, but I could tell he'd fallen down a hole.

OK, will do.

Is the bathroom free?

Your father's in there.

I'll go and crash out then. That toast has made me feel tired.

Hello? Hello, is this Ria?

Yes. Hi, I'm Tony, Kathleen's husband.

Oh, hello.

I'm sure he's nice to talk to you. I wonder if I could have a word with

Kathleen, please?

Kathleen?

Yes, that is if it's not too much trouble.

I'm sure glad she stayed with you last night. I hear you're having a bad time

right now.

Oh, yes.

She's, um...

She might be in the bath.

I'll just go and see.

Oh, thank you.

Hello? Yes?

I was right. She is in the bath.

Is it important?

No, nothing to worry about.

Look, would you ask her to call me at the office when she gets home?

Yes, I will.

All right, thank you. Goodbye.

Has he phoned? Yes, he has.

Oh, God, what did you think? I thought you were in the bath, but...

Ben, this is Kathleen, my American friend.

Oh, how nice to meet you. Thank you.

She's come for breakfast.

They do that in America, you know.

Yes.

Well, I'll see you tonight.

Yes, I'll see you tonight, darling.

Bye. Bye.

Oh, honey, where's your phone? I just gotta get to your phone.

It's there.

Kathleen.

I'm not at all happy about all this.

Sam's such a nice man.

I'm not used to deceiving people.

Hello, Tony.

Oh, how are you, darling?

Good.

Yes, yes, she's okay.

Well, it was a bit of a shock.

But I talked to her, and she's calmer now.

No.

No, he hasn't come back yet.

But she... Smiling through.

Well, I'll see you then, darling.

Bye.

Back? Who's not back?

Oh, boy.

Was I ever lucky that time? Who is not back?

Oh, I told him your husband walked out on you. Gave me a good excuse to stay

night.

Honey, have you got any coffee around here?

You told him what?

Well, we came to an arrangement.

Dinner, you said. Dinner.

difference? Well, one is eating and takes an evening. The other is something

else and takes all night.

Come on, honey. We were both modern thinking women.

Modern thinking, but not modern doing. Not me.

Now, who are you trying to kid?

The next time we have coffee together, maybe you'll tell me all about it,

Kathleen, I spoke to you in a way I've never spoken to anyone ever in my life.

thought I'd found a friend.

Well, you had.

Sweetie, you don't think I'm going to tell the whole world about you and your

man. Your secret's safe with me.

Birds of a feather.

Get out of my house.

What, no coffee?

Get out.

Okay, okay.

It was an old school friend. She came for coffee.

I heard, Mum.

Calm down, Adam.

All of it?

Yeah. I was coming back down for my coffee, but it became kind of

That was an old school friend. We met in town yesterday.

I confided in her.

Confiding in a woman. That's bad news.

She got it all wrong, Adam.

She got it all wrong.

There is the man.

I see him sometimes when I'm walking or shopping.

He... He... Fancies you.

Adam, I hate that word. It sounds so thwarted.

Does he?

Yes. And you?

He's a nice man.

Well, you fancy each other great.

Well, don't you think it's wrong?

It's fun. Why should it be wrong?

Well, because I'm your mother, married to your father.

You don't stop being human just because you're married.

It's not an affair. Nothing like that.

Oh, I know what it's like. No, Adam.

This is not the sort of thing that you and Russell would know about.

You're all, hello, let's... get this thing over with and goodbye.

Furtive walks, furtive lunches, furtive thoughts. I've done it all, Mum.

Furtive?

You've no need to be furtive. You're young and free.

Yeah, well, she was old and married.

You fell in love with a married woman?

Not fell in love with, fancied.

Who was she?

Guy's mother.

I used to do odd jobs for her.

Guy's your best friend? So what?

He was round here doing odd jobs. He fancied you.

Are you kidding me, Adam?

Look, all I'm trying to say is don't feel guilty, Mum.

We're all at it.

Is that how you describe it?

This fragile thing?

At it?

Afraid so.

It's not unusual enough to be called anything else.

Isn't it strange?

In your young and wise way, you've taken the fear out of it.

Call me any time.

The trouble with being older is that you tend to think that you're not allowed

to indulge in the little games of life.

That's all it is, isn't it? A game.

Right.

You do know, don't you, that there'll never be anyone quite like your father?

Dad? Yeah, he's someone else.

That straight guy I married. With all those hang -ups?

That thing.

And those knees.

Oh, boy, where did he get those knees?

You and Russell must finish that shelter.

If the bomb drops, those knees must be preserved.

Hey, I'll get it, Mum.

Hello?

Oh, hello.

Sorry, I seem to have got a wrong number.

No, no, no, I don't think you have. She's right here.

It's for you, Mum.

By the way, have you ever tasted Mum's cooking?

Leonard!

You sound very bright.

Yes, I do, and I am.

Was that your son? He seemed to know who I was.

Yes. Well, we talked about life and people, you know. I mentioned you, if

all.

I'm ringing because I have to go away.

He was telling me about the games people play.

He's very wise.

When?

Soon.

Any time.

Urgent business.

How long for?

It could be permanent.

Can I see you tomorrow?

It's fun, he said.

People.

Fancying people.

All that.

Have fun.

Love is nice because it's nice.