Original subtitles

Your mother left her handbag in that office we were last in.

Good on, Mum.

What do you bet she leaves it in Oslo when we come back?

Well, go on, your legs are younger than mine.

You mean, please, will I go and get it?

Oh, I've to ask, have I?

Well, I was brought up to say, please, Dad, thank you, Dad.

Aye, all right, well, I'll fetch it.

I didn't say I wouldn't.

Oh, don't bother, I'll fetch it.

Hope they don't spoil it.

For themselves, too.

Oh.

Nice to be going somewhere.

To be going somewhere.

We haven't really been anywhere much.

Not really.

When they were kids, we'd just look for a beach and hope for the sun to shine.

Sun to shine.

Who's going for your bag?

Try to keep the peace, hmm?

Hmm.

I mean, he's going to Norway on work.

He didn't have to drag us along.

And Grandad and Ethel, too.

Drag us along?

Well...

It's not as if...

Mum, are you all right?

I looked down and I'm all right now.

The ship moved, I'm all right now.

Are you sure?

Don't worry, silly, I'm all right now.

The ship moved.

Well, I hope the ship moved when Newcastle did.

Newcastle.

Aye.

I shall be sick.

Now, you've taken your pills, haven't you?

Pills?

I'm taking no pills.

Them that wants to take pills can take pills.

I'm taking no pills.

I've taken mine.

I shall be sick even so.

Oh, aye, she'll be sick, all right.

Nubbish.

She said she'll be sick, so she'll be sick.

She's set on it.

Grandad, don't be disgusting.

Pills.

I need no bloody pill.

Oh.

It's a pity you weren't feeling hungry.

It was a lovely meal.

I think I'm going to enjoy this Norwegian food.

There's some funny-smelling cheeses, though.

You all right, Grandad?

Reindeer.

That's what I'm looking forward to.

You can get it in Oslo, they said.

Reindeer steak.

Very gritty, they say.

Not fatty, gritty.

You're unhappy, aren't you?

I've taken the pills, he says.

You were the one who was going to be sick.

Oh, I could be, yet.

I don't think I will be, though.

I quite like the motion.

Look, come and lie down, great-grandad.

Come on.

He's dearing me today.

He'll be all right.

Shall I go with him?

He'll be all right.

Keep him quiet for a bit.

Poor old bastard.

If you can live through what his generation's lived

through, and look like him at his age, you'll see me out.

Determinates, are you?

How are you now?

No.

You don't want to talk about it, don't you?

No.

Well... I've said nothing yet to you nor nobody.

It's half a dozen words and I'm off.

Drugs are for sick folk.

You can be sick of life.

Aye, you can.

But when you've lost somebody you care about, you

find there's a cure for turning your back on life.

You know a lot of folks I know will give a week or so

after the funeral, or after Blackpool for a few days.

It surprises you, does it?

This town.

It's Blackpool we go to because that's where

the cheap trips go and it's what we can afford.

Not for the golden miles so much.

It's that out there we go for, mostly.

What's coming off that sea out there?

Breath.

Breath of life.

Take it into your lungs.

Go on.

Go on again.

Is Tom expecting his father to meet the boat at Oslo?

I don't know, Sarah.

Why?

I'm worried that we didn't hear from David, that's all.

Well, there wasn't much time for when we wrote, was there?

Oh, maybe not.

There'll probably be a letter waiting when we get back home.

Anyway, I shall maybe see him first.

How do you know he's going to be at this seminar you're going to?

He's down for a talk on the quality of working life.

I wonder why he left Germany.

There isn't much going on in Scandinavia.

More, maybe, so far as industry's concerned.

Industry?

As David knew about industry, there's no wonder they've a spanner from the other.

Do you, er...

Do you want to see him again, David?

Why?

Don't you want me to?

Well, it's up to you.

Why shouldn't I?

Anybody think he was my lover instead of my long-vanished ex-husband?

Jealous?

Course not.

Don't have to be so emphatic about it.

Maybe I want you to be jealous.

Well, there's nothing to be jealous of, is there?

Need you ask?

Honestly, married to a woman who's well on her way to 50 and jealous?

Well, I'm well on my way to 50.

Different from men.

What are you jealous of, hmm?

Do you think there was ever anything?

Anything at all with David that wasn't better with you?

Wasn't there?

Don't you know?

Sam, you're hurting.

What is it?

What is it, Sam?

It's cold.

Let's go inside.

What's that thing out there?

It's an oil rig for the North Sea, love.

Hey.

Did he have any breakfast?

He ate them out of house and home.

Made a miraculous recovery overnight.

His first sight of foreign soil.

Look at his face.

It was worth bringing him.

I knew it would be.

I think the others want to go now.

I'll go and fetch him.

What about that then, Grandad?

It's no different to bloody Newcastle.

Look, there's your case.

I told you it had not been pinched.

He was a porter.

How did I know?

I don't talk it, do I?

What the turkey?

I don't talk it.

Here, look at this, Grandad.

How's that compared to Newcastle?

Tell me there's some grand bits of course around Newcastle.

You know, you should feel at home here.

He had a socialist government for 30 years up to 1965, and now they're back again.

What did they chip them out for in 1965, then?

High taxes, bureaucracy, inefficiency, you know, too many cooks.

Are they right, then?

Right.

It's no different to bloody Newcastle.

They've taken the cases up.

That is, unless somebody's pinched them, they have.

Grandad's counting them.

What went wrong, Ethel?

Wrong?

What's wrong with that?

I'm not looking at that.

I'm looking at the stacks on the pit fields at Skeleton.

And I'm asking you, what went wrong?

Some lovely country round Skeleton.

If you look for it, that is.

But they say it's all like this here, and better.

No slag heaps, no Skeleton, no pit fields.

We had an industrial revolution, Mum.

She's right, we did.

That's right, we did, didn't we?

I've heard about that.

What did we get out of it that made it more worthwhile than that?

We ran out of wood.

As far back as the Tudors it started.

Then we had the coal, steam, and iron age.

Industrial revolution.

I know we had it.

I live on the rubbish tip they left behind them.

I asked you what we got out of it that made it more worthwhile than that.

Cars?

Question mark.

Washing machines?

No question mark.

Parker Morris houses?

Well, that's the new technologies, new politics.

But they've got all that here.

Well, they probably saw what a mess we'd made of it and decided to do it better.

They don't live on each other's doorsteps like we do.

Now they've got oil coming, they'd better watch out.

You sound like our Pat sometimes, you know.

I used to think she should have gone in for teaching,

instead of messing about with people's insides.

God forbid.

People change up here, their insides don't.

She's too old-fashioned.

Old-fashioned?

Oh, Pat, she's not 40 yet.

You're old-fashioned at 30 these days if you're as doctrinaire as she is.

It's not clever to use words folks don't understand, you know.

I mean, she sticks to the book and the book's out of date.

It's like trying to service this year's car from a pre-war manual.

I'll see you back at the hotel.

I feel like something in a museum sometimes, you know.

It's as if they looked at you and said that's what they used to be like.

Weren't they funny?

They'll make a better world than we did, Ethel, given the chance.

What chance had we?

Not much.

I suppose each generation does the best it's equipped to.

Life's been better for Sam and I than it was for you.

I'd like to see the world they'll make.

You'll see some of it.

I shall not.

Do we get something to eat soon?

Yes, of course.

Ethel?

Hmm?

When we get back home, I have to go into hospital for a bit.

Hospital?

What for?

Oh, nothing much.

I've been getting the odd giddy spell.

I've... I've told Cassie and she says she'll help

out, but I said you'd stand in when she couldn't.

Aye, of course I will.

Thanks.

Have you told Sam?

Not yet.

When we get back home, I'll tell him.

I don't want anything to spoil all this.

Come in.

Where's Mum?

She round with Ethel?

At least she was when I went out.

I nipped round to that address we had for your dad.

I was looking for you to come.

He knows we're here if he wants to come, doesn't he?

Well, we didn't know where we were staying when we last wrote.

That's why I went round.

So he'll be coming?

No, he wasn't in.

Couldn't make sense of the woman who answered the door.

She didn't speak English.

Anyway, he'll be at this place I'm going to tomorrow.

You can come with me then.

No, I think I'll go and see the contiguous aftermath.

I've started a dialogue with the Swedish bird that's staying here.

You don't waste any time, do you?

Ah!

This is your first aid box.

I found it.

Thanks.

Where were you?

Ah, all right.

See you.

Did he go?

Ah, he wasn't in.

I'll see him tomorrow.

Tom going with you?

He says not.

Makes out he couldn't care less.

He'll come though.

Still living in that tip, is he?

David?

I don't know.

I didn't go in.

It was a German woman he married, wasn't it?

Must have been her who answered the door.

What's Tom expecting of David, Sam?

Just curiosity, is it?

Aye, happened.

He's so much better now.

I hope he's not going to be disappointed.

Coffee's same here as it is at home.

Well, of course it is.

Why shouldn't it be?

I don't say it shouldn't be.

I said it was.

Same as at home.

He'll go back home now and all he'll have

to say is coffee's same there as it is here.

Have you made your mind up yet where you'd like to go?

Take us where you want us then.

Have another look at these then while I go and get my mac.

When she gets back, you say where you want to go.

You understand?

Don't flummox her.

Your dad's not here yet.

Not here?

Well, nobody is.

We've arrived early.

Shall we go outside and walk round for a bit?

Come on.

Mum's not coming.

Let's go, shall we?

Not coming?

No, she felt a bit dizzy.

She's taken something and she's gone to lie down.

What's she feel dizzy for?

Mind your own business, Grandad.

Mind my own business?

You're not supposed to ask.

Oh, he'll ask now.

Now he'll ask.

Now he's not supposed to.

It's because you're a man, Grandad.

It's something you're not supposed to know about.

What is?

Women's complaints.

Something you men know nothing of.

Know nothing of?

Women's complaints?

I've had them all my life.

Women's complaints.

All my life.

Know nothing of me?

If there's all I know about, it's women's complaints.

Don't expect too much, Tom.

Who?

David, your dad.

Expect too much?

All right, all right, I know.

You don't expect anything of anybody.

You've just come for the ride.

You want nothing from my generation and even less than nothing from him.

Let's take it as ready, shall we?

I get under your skin sometimes, don't I?

Ah, you do, when I'm daft enough to let you.

You knew him, didn't you?

No.

You told me once you did.

I said I'd met him.

Not that I know him.

I've met you several times a day for the last 20 years.

Do I know you?

No, I don't know you no more than you know me.

The question is, do I want to?

Not if you've any sense.

I can be as daft as a brush when it suits me.

I don't expect anything.

I'm just curious, that's all.

Well, we've that in common, at least.

We're just like a club.

I was curious about my dad when I was your age.

He, er... He came back, you know, about eight or nine years ago.

He'd been in my mind all my life.

And then there he was.

There he was.

Just a fella that had lived his life and held with everybody.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, which is more than you give me, eh?

Is it?

Oh, God!

You use questions for answers.

You don't like to risk being wrong, do you?

Well, maybe we don't have any answers.

Maybe we're back to square one.

Maybe we don't ever like the question, so

we throw another question back in its place.

Work that one out.

Oh, women's complaints.

Oh, my bloody life.

What do they do at the college?

They, er... They train trade unionists for industry.

There's one or two lads from the Institute back home being here on study courses.

That's how I learned about it.

The firm sent you, didn't they?

No.

Rosmers wouldn't send me to a seminar on industrial democracy.

No, I brought myself.

The others on the board, they don't approve.

But they keep quiet.

Humour me.

It's because you get on with the men.

Keep the revolution up there.

Hello.

Been talking to that mate of yours, Charlie Tripp, have you?

He's another that wouldn't approve.

Oil in the wheels of capitalism, he'd say.

Industrial democracy.

Is it?

Well, it's... It's giving people a say in their working lives.

It's, er... It's making them feel a part of things.

See, Charlie wouldn't approve because it...

It makes the system work, like it works in Germany.

Charlie doesn't like the system, does he?

What about you?

You on his road yet?

Convert?

Marxists can put you off Marx, like Christians can put you off Christianity.

People like Marx and Christ always get interpreted.

We don't want to fit the world as they see it.

We want to make it fit us.

We don't want to be created.

We want to create.

When the message is strong, you can't turn your back on it altogether.

You can bend it a bit here and there.

Interpret it.

Make it fit you.

Deviate.

Dissent.

Is it good, though?

Yeah.

Yes, I think it is, yeah.

It's where me and Charlie fall out.

Me too, maybe.

Happen we've more in common with each other than we thought, eh?

Aye.

Happen we have.

Happen.

Is Mother all right?

All right.

Why shouldn't she be?

She had that dizzy spell on the boat coming over.

Well, she's never liked boats.

She looks tired.

Aye.

That's why I brought her.

For the rest.

She spent too much of her life serving us.

Too much.

We could do with a bit of democracy there, eh?

For women.

Bit of a women's libber, are you?

Aye, all me life.

Well, ever since I could think.

I'd never have guessed it.

I was bred to the other.

You can't shake everything off you were bred to.

Not in one lifetime, you can't.

Choose what you come to think later on.

Shall we, er...

Shall we go and see if he's come yet?

Yeah.

What do you think of this country, Tom?

Very beautiful.

Aye.

Please.

Could you get me a doctor?

Please.

They've, er... They've had a message.

He's had to go to Stockholm.

They've sent somebody in his place.

Oh, well, maybe he'll do.

That's what I'm used to, isn't it?

Somebody in his place.

He said he'd be back the day after tomorrow.

That's when we go, isn't it?

No, no, it's the day after that.

You'll see.

Er... They're sending a taxi to take you back to Oslo.

It's a bit rough, isn't it?

Done me out of a morning with that smashing Swedish bird.

You've never seen anything like that before, Grandad?

I have, you know.

Course I have.

You've been left home less than I have.

When have you seen out like that?

It's not changed much since I saw it last.

Saw that?

You?

Of course, I've seen it before, many a time.

You?

It means on telly, don't you, Grandad?

Telly.

Telly.

No comparison.

It were better on telly.

Better?

We're here.

We're looking at it in the flesh.

How can it be better?

What's it meant for, eh?

Skiing in winter.

It's meant to have snow on it.

If it's meant to have snow on it, it's best seen with snow on it.

I've seen it with snow on it.

On telly.

It were better on telly.

It were as it were meant to be.

Better on telly, it were.

Ma'am.

Ma'am.

Ma'am.

Ma'am.

I've told him to come and get some fresh air before the day's gone.

All right.

Don't know that he will, though.

Leave her.

Must have been an awful shock for him, finding

her like that, not knowing she'd had an injection.

Aye.

Did you talk to that doctor?

Aye, I did.

He said she'll be fine when she comes out of it.

And for how long after it?

Don't know, I thought.

I see.

She thought you didn't know.

As she was ill, I mean.

She told me.

Didn't want to spoil it for you.

She had to tell somebody in case she had a turn like this, I suppose.

Aye.

She's to go into hospital when you get back.

Aye, I know.

Who told you?

Well, she told Cassie and... Cassie thought I ought to know.

I went to see Sarah's doctor before we left.

Aye.

Ah, well...

I'll not bother you with it more.

Hey, how's Grandad?

He's seeking to find fault with everything.

Well, it's abroad, Ethel.

It's got to be less than British.

It's like down south.

It's not up to Yorkshire standards.

That's how you learn to cope with being treated

as a second-class citizen all your life.

Glory in the place you live in.

Worship your local rugby team.

Oh, Tom's coming now.

I'll go.

I want to talk.

That is him coming over there, isn't it?

Aye, listen, he'll...

You used to talk to George a lot.

When you were a lad, you know.

You talked more to him than anybody.

You'll not remember, though.

I remember.

Grew away from him as you got older.

Went past him, I suppose.

No, no, don't say that, Eth.

No, not in a wrong way.

No, not puffed up.

No, I didn't mean that.

It happens so, doesn't it?

Between one generation and another.

Growing up.

Up, up and away.

I cared for him all my life.

I think of him still.

I know what you do.

It's to your credit.

It's what counts.

Shall I tell her that you knew?

No, no, I'd sooner not.

I'd sooner leave it to her.

Now, then.

Hello, there.

She awake yet?

No.

I'll go and sit with her for a bit.

We could give her a good day tomorrow.

Tomorrow?

Well, the doctor said maybe she'll be about, maybe she'll be fine.

You seen him?

No, I phoned him.

Did he say what was wrong?

No, he didn't, no.

He said she'll have to go into hospital for a check-up when we get home.

But why can't she go when we're here?

I mean, it'll be days before we get there.

Well, it's better when we get home, he said.

I mean, she can go straight in.

It was arranged before we left.

You knew she was ill?

Aye.

Why didn't you tell me?

Because I'm not supposed to know.

And neither are you.

Now it's out, respect her reasons for it, will you?

She didn't want it to blight the holiday.

How did you find out?

I went to see the doctor back home.

It's time we went to eat.

Eat?

For what else?

Eat!

You're to carry on as if you know nothing about it.

You're to do as she wants it.

Orders.

I don't need to give you orders, do I?

Instructions on how to behave towards one's mother in her hour of needs.

The voice of experience.

Orders from the top.

Do you know, I thought we'd moved a step closer to each other today.

It's serious, isn't it?

What's wrong with her, I mean?

You want me to tell you?

No, no, don't tell me.

She's the only damn reason I stay with this family, you know that, don't you?

Maybe.

No, not maybe, it's true.

Be as she wants us to be then, if only for now.

You never know, it could become a habit.

She wants to know that we can live in peace with each other.

She wants to see us holding each other up, not tearing each other down.

Do you care for her?

You know what your grandad would say?

What you care is what you do.

Wagerland has said that the 17th of May is the most blessed of days.

The anniversary of our constitution has been for us for years and years.

The symbol of things we look upon as fundamental and imperishable.

Hospital of Saturday.

We had a mile of pennies for hospital every year in Scotland before the war.

Pavement edge whitewashed, pennies put edge to edge along it.

More than a mile, and never would have taken, even after pit closed.

Now we have national health.

Who would have the ear of one?

What would he say?

They've been socialists for over 30 years.

Don't they look healthy enough?

It's a grand, clean place.

Everybody in work the same.

There'll be some bloody drawback to it.

There'll be some bloody drawback to it.

What time did Sam say he and grandad would meet us?

Oh, with an hour or more yet.

He said he'd meet us by the monolith.

It sticks up, he says.

You can see it from all around.

Like a... something or other symbol.

Would that be it?

I should think so.

It looks like a something or other symbol to me.

Deb and Tom are going that way.

Feeling all right?

Yes, I'm fine.

I'm fine.

Is it today your father comes back from Stockholm?

If he comes.

I thought he'd left a message to say he would.

Said he hoped to.

I think he's chickened out.

Doesn't want to face his sordid past.

Would you care if he had?

I mean, if it was deliberate?

It'd be the end of a myth, wouldn't it?

Sorry no-one heard of that name.

Door closes.

Last door.

Last known address.

Something Sam once told me about.

Germany after the war.

People missing.

Families split up.

Prisoners not heard of.

They put pictures up in the streets.

Has anybody seen this person?

It's like that time I was a witness when I'd seen that bloke knocking his wife about.

He'd beaten the kids too, regularly.

They went into care.

But when the little lad came into court and saw his father... he ran in tears.

He threw himself at him.

Dad, he shouted.

Dad!

It's a disease, flesh and blood.

We should cure ourselves of it.

Stops us from growing up.

Does that apply to mum?

Mum?

Oh, God, no.

No, not mum.

What do you make of it, eh?

Old man.

Old, old man.

Wondering what their catch is, are you?

Wanting to believe there is one.

That British is best still.

We might be broke, but we're honest.

Up the rovers.

There's no bloody pubs for a star.

Hard to admit that you've lived in a mucky hole all your life.

That we've lost out because there's too many of us.

And not enough to go round.

Look for somebody to blame.

Anybody but us.

Blame the other side.

I'm sick of sides, Grandad.

Both of them.

We'll get a taxi.

You got what you wanted.

I came for an address.

It's a long way to come for a bit of a lecture.

Norway.

Learned, taught, have you?

I know a bit more than I did before.

They've so much to teach us, then.

There was a Norwegian at that first lecture I went to who reminded me of you.

There's too much teaching, he said, not enough practice.

Too many intellectuals writing books.

Get it done, he said.

Get on with the job.

Who's in charge here?

Us or them?

It's a bit of both.

Works, does it?

It does for now.

Then there'll be them that want the lot and all, eh?

Both sides of the fence.

Well, there always is, isn't there?

Power.

It goes to your head.

I've seen it in men we put on the council that weren't up to it.

That were no better than what we put them up against.

We're less excuse.

You kept off council, and you're old.

Why?

You asked me once where I stood in life.

I couldn't tell you then, but I can tell you now.

Although you'd say there's no such place in politics.

I'm beginning to think there's no other place.

It's time we all stood up in it.

It's the space between the trenches, Grandad.

It's called no-man's land.

I've been there.

Cast out.

You last longer on your belly than on your feet.

I said a place to stand in.

To stand up in and recount it.

Well, I had my go at opting out, didn't I?

Flattened my face.

Who am I to complain if he doesn't turn up?

I'm sorry.

There's no need to apologise to me for him.

I married him.

You're here as a result.

And you don't like life very much, do you, Tom?

I'll get round to it.

You get nothing from your work.

I get bread.

Time to think.

Tick over.

I've got a few ideas, you know.

I'll talk it over with Sam when I've sorted things out a bit.

Oh, I wish you would.

Will you?

I said I will.

You had such an awful time when you were having treatment.

I knew.

I did know.

And I hardly dare ask, but...

I thought you might blame Sam in some way.

I want you two to get on more than anything.

Well, we're...

working on it.

You're not just saying that...

just to please me.

When have I ever said that?

Or done that?

You liking it here?

Oh, yeah.

It's clean.

Clean.

We stack dwellers notice that sort of thing, don't we?

I wonder if they appreciate it.

What they've got.

Take it for granted, probably.

Probably.

We all of us do that, don't we?

Take things for granted.

For the beauty of the stacks, for the glory of the pitfields, we thank thee,

good Lord.

They're back.

Yeah.

You like marriage, don't you?

This one, anyway.

This one, yes.

I don't think I want Alice to come back now.

You see, I'm calling him Alice.

Alice, where art thou?

Drop dead, Alice.

What a mess he must be.

Must have been.

To have left you.

Takes two, you know.

Rubbish.

You're beautiful, you know.

When I walk with you in the street, I want to say

all the time, this beautiful woman is my mother.

You lie.

You're beautiful.

That's Deb.

I wanted to show her.

What's beautiful about old men without their clothes on beats me.

They come off better than tall women as far as I can see.

Look at this one here.

You've seen all I want to see, thank you.

Is it phonography, this, then?

Is this what they call phonography?

It's not an F.

It's a P. A?

It's a P. It's a P, I said.

Phonography.

They'd liven up Galwick Park, some of these Jews, won't you say?

I can imagine what would be written on them and all.

There'll be a bloody drawback to it someway.

Tired, love?

Yes, I am a bit now.

Home tomorrow?

Yes, home tomorrow.

Home tomorrow.

Little white houses.

Have you taken your tablets, Granddad?

Doesn't it make you wish we'd been able to bring the kids up in a place like that?

If we'd been born between different sheets, you mean.

In another place, in another country.

It's a pointless exercise, Sarah.

If.

Remember how we were going to win the peace after we won the war?

After five years of nothing, it was keep your belts tight, cut the rations even more.

Everything for export.

Shivering your officers to save the fuels to get out for the promised land.

We should have asked for a written guarantee for the next generation, if not for us.

Some of it came right.

The money started to flow, the cars came off the lines, washing machines.

And then the rubbish started.

Anything that would sell.

Keep shoving the metal in the couplers, keep it coming out.

If you see a cube, get on it.

There must be something good at the end.

Grow.

I've said it myself.

Never mind what this generation's stuck with.

We're stuck in the old days.

In the days when you had to go out and scrap for it, they had grained in us,

the bad times.

Bad times can come again.

That's what I fear for them, Sam.

Well, if they do.

..

and they wake up one morning and the fire's gone out and the cupboard's empty.

..

I shall go out with them...

and teach them how to root for the things they've taken for granted.

You promise?

I promise.

I promise.

The place is important.

Of course it is.

But you have to live where your work is.

Alan Dakin worked years down the pit... and he feared every day of it.

You could live for a lifetime in...

and you'd never know what he knew when he came home to that...

bitter time he had with me mum.

It was gold in his life... like you've been in mine.

They don't know that either.

No more than I did then.

I know it now.

Sam...

I know it now.

You wouldn't believe it, would you?

When you listen to all the old bang-bang at home.

What?

They're in love with each other.