Original subtitles

I've some toffee I've made here for Sam's kids for the bonfire tomorrow.

I want no toffee.

I give up toffee when I've got my new teeth in.

Cocoa, you said?

I didn't, but I'll have it.

It's not compulsory.

Nay, go on, I'll have it, I'll have it.

Don't make a big issue of it.

You can read that if you like.

It's not private.

I know it's not, I've read it.

If you were the only girl in... I'll see who that is, will you?

Latches down.

If you were the only girl in the world And I were the only boy in the... Dan.

Back already?

Left her to do the washing up, have you?

Young Tom's gone off.

Gone off?

Gone off where?

Gone off.

Vanished.

We thought he might have come round here.

I'm trying to get through on the phone, but it's engaged all the time.

There's something wrong with it, I think.

Have you been fiddling with that phone?

Fiddling, fiddling.

You've been fiddling with it, haven't you?

No, I've not.

Noisy, noisy, will you?

Young Tom's gone off.

I set light to the bonfire before he went.

You were round at Sam's?

What were you doing round there?

You went out to eat, didn't you?

Aye, well, we called in after.

I see.

And where's our Pat?

Pat, I don't know.

Yeah, we'll go into that later.

Now, what's to be done about this lad?

We've had no sight of him here.

Is that what you've come for?

Aye.

Well, I'd better go and use our phone and tell

him he's not been here before I do anything else.

What's he want to go and do a thing like that for, young Tom?

Reminds you of old, does it?

Sam, you mean?

When he were a lad?

I spent hours chasing over pitfields for that one like father, like son.

Aye, you used to say that about Sam.

Only this time you're wrong, aren't you?

Well, I mean, he's not his real dad.

Not in that sense.

Not his own flesh and blood.

I didn't mean Sam.

I meant that other that she were married to that cleared off.

He's his flesh and blood.

That's what counts, is it?

It doesn't count, does it?

By God, it doesn't.

Did you and I, George, take no account of your

responsibility for bringing life into the world?

Pat, we're wanted.

You know she was.

Then why do you ask if it counts?

You make life, you make misery.

You take an obligation on yourself to care for it, to sustain

it till it comes to a point where it can take care of itself.

Men and women make life, not governments.

Governments come, governments go, but life goes on.

I wish I could believe in the almighty.

I wish I could believe that the wrath of God had come upon

them that create life and then turn their backs on it.

That's what I mean by flesh and blood.

Remember Davies at school?

Fag end of the tickety profession.

If they knew her, we'd remember a bad'un, eh?

Do you remember he made you stand at the end of your bed

and you were scared stiff and peed all over the floor?

Charming.

I'm going to go and join your friend in the ladies' room.

Her name's Liz.

Yes, I've gathered that much.

Liz?

She's not...

I thought she was your wife.

My wife's called Sarah.

Oh.

How long have you known Pat?

Four years.

And Eileen and Frank have known all this time.

Yeah, more or less.

Yeah, we met at a party in London, you know, a medical school jamboree.

I found we both came from Skeleton.

Same street, too.

Long Roll.

Yeah, Long Roll.

Still there, is it?

Aye, it's still there, all right.

Same old slum.

You'd not credit it, would you?

What happened to Grandad's brave new world, eh?

Oh, maybe this is it.

You reckon?

Well, we seem to have done all right, innit?

First time back, is it, in all these years?

Yep, first time back.

You wrote a book about us, though.

Hmm?

From memory.

Set back in the 30s.

You haven't read it, I take it?

Sorry.

I used to read a lot one time.

I keep meaning to borrow one.

Don't borrow one, mate.

Buy one.

How do you think blokes like me live?

It went down quite well, from what I've heard.

Eileen liked it.

Bit spicy, she thought.

How did you get started on writing?

Well, reading a lot, mostly, I suppose.

You know, I was going from one dead-end job to another.

No qualifications for anything else.

And life seems more real in a book when you crawl home one deadly day after another.

Although the other's the reality, you know.

I was, er... trying to write my way out of it.

You made it.

Yeah, in a way.

I'm terrified of slipping back.

You know, sometimes I wish I'd had a trade like you.

What?

Security?

Aye, but when you've got it, do you want it?

Restless?

I'm restless, aye.

I've been all me life.

I tie meself to the bedpost at night so I won't sail away while I'm sleeping.

You know, maybe if I had what you've got, I'd want this back again.

Maybe there's no such thing as contentment, eh?

I don't know what it is I'm looking for.

I couldn't put a name to it.

Could you?

I'd like to think I could.

Pat?

Yeah.

Won't she be serious, then?

You want to go and get round her mother, Ethel.

She's always telling her she'll end up an old maid.

Hasn't she taken you home yet?

No.

No, she, er...

I'm married, you see.

I've got three kids.

Oh.

So that's why Eileen and Frank kept quiet.

Protecting Ethel, were they?

And her father.

She was terrified of hurting him.

Aye.

She would have been.

Sarah?

I can't get through.

Through where?

To Ethel's.

I can't get through.

It's engaged all the time.

You think Tom might have gone there?

Well, not there, but he's lit the bonfire.

He's what?

Mrs. Kershaw saw him.

Well, she thinks it was him.

No, he's not there now, love.

Frank and I went.

She might have telephoned.

Surely she should have realised it was unusual to

say the least for him to be out at this time even.

Unusual?

Not in this household?

Oh, come off it, Granny.

You know as well as I do that Sam and I have had a running battle in this

household on issues like being in on time, behaviour at meals,

swearing and all that middle-class rubbish, as he calls it.

I'm behind the times.

I'm living on the past.

The neighbours know who wins the battles in this house, I can promise you.

Look, shouldn't we try to get hold of Sam?

Well, if you want to get hold of him, you know where he is, don't you?

Hm?

This is one of your employees, isn't he?

Oh, yes.

Yes, yes.

He's at Billy Tripps, isn't he?

Well, there's the phone.

Feel free.

It's Tom I'm concerned about.

Sam can go to hell.

Well, I don't think Billy's on the phone, actually, Sarah.

I mean, he's weekly paid.

He clocks on.

Serfdom, Sam calls it.

Oh, I get it all.

Believe me.

Er, Frank should be at Ethel's by now.

Is her phone still engaged?

Well, he'll ring back then.

Look, I'll nip up to Tripps, to Billy's in the car and get hold of Sam, hm?

Yes, and when you've done that, Granny, nip over to

Yeadon and get a plane to Germany and bring David back.

He's Tom's real father.

After all, we might as well have everybody here.

Shh!

Don't do whatever you want to do, Granny!

Excuse me.

He's trying to help, Sarah.

Yes, he's trying to help.

That's Granny.

A great trier.

A great help in time of trouble.

A pillar of the establishment, whatever that means.

That's what Sam calls him.

A pillar of the establishment.

Whose fault is it, I wonder, that Tom's gone off?

His or Sam's?

I sometimes think there's not much to choose between them.

Good night.

Good night.

WHISTLING Where are they?

Gone.

But we've been invited to follow on for a drink.

Where, for God's sake?

Her place.

She drew the route on the back of the menu, didn't I?

Back to his old ways.

Bit of a lad, is he?

Not since he was married.

Not up until now, to my knowledge, anyway.

Oh, this one's serious, I can tell.

He's a look in his eyes that I learned to recognise in you.

Then you should feel sorry for him.

It's Sarah I care about, not Sam.

It's the woman who sits at home waiting for the door to open.

You are a great defender of your sex, aren't you, Pat?

If only Helen could know how you protect her interests.

And what safe hands her marriage is.

Oh, you don't make it easy, do you?

Don't I?

Why should I?

You make it damn hard for me.

You made it hard for yourself by coming here.

You didn't have to come.

I told you my letter.

I'd understand if you weren't there.

I just wanted to see you.

To what end?

To what purpose?

Nowhere, no purpose.

I just wanted to see you.

I don't live to an end or a purpose.

I live!

Hey.

Are we going, then?

Sam said you wouldn't.

He did, did he?

He didn't stay long, then.

Quarter of an hour or so, Mr Naylor.

No more.

And he didn't say where he was going?

Something about champagne, he said.

Some sort of celebration, it sounded.

Pulling my leg, I dare say.

Great leg-puller, Sam.

You asked to see him, I believe.

He told you?

We are both directors of the company, Tripp.

Oh, it was this talk of redundancies.

Yes.

Christmas.

Christmas is coming.

We don't enjoy having men redundant, Tripp.

Anyway, it's not likely to happen now, is it?

That's what Mr Wilson told you, was it?

He seemed hopeful it wouldn't.

I see.

Look, I've only got beer, but you're welcome to a glass... No, no, no, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Look, he goes into the Brown Cow now and again.

They'll be closing in about ten minutes.

If you like, I'll pop round and have a look.

No, no, I'll call myself on my way back to Galwick.

Your son's at Skeleton, isn't he?

Aye, same class as Mr Wilson's boy.

He reckons he's leaving.

Tom, who told you that?

He told my child.

He said he was leaving because his dad wanted him to.

I told Sam.

Mr Wilson.

Didn't seem to make much sense to him.

Your son's friendly with young Tom, isn't he?

They sit together in class.

Is he here?

Oh, he's gone to bed.

I'm babysitting while the wife's at this bingo.

It's the craze round here.

I spent half an hour babysitting.

Do you want to talk to him, do you?

Tom's gone off.

We don't know where.

Gone off?

Yes.

He left the house about an hour or so ago.

He was supposed to be going on his way up to bed.

I'll get Charlie up.

You could ring the Brown Cow from the phone round the corner...

while I'm fetching him.

No, it's all right.

I'll call.

But I don't think I'll find Sam there.

No.

I think I know where he is.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, fine.

How long can you stay?

As long as I like.

Want me to go?

No.

Coffee?

Abracadabra.

I'm having a drop of this.

Don't you think you're spending a little too much on that?

It sounded just like Sarah, then.

Do you know that?

There's a shelf full of bottles in various degrees of emptiness in the pantry.

Just like home, eh?

Is it?

It nearly was for a minute.

Beginnings of an argument.

We don't argue, do we, you and me, Liz?

No.

We don't argue.

Well, that's all right.

Every man's dream of home, is it?

Come here.

You're not my lord and master.

Come here, I said.

What is it, eh?

What's what?

Something's different, isn't it?

You or me?

It's not me.

It's not me.

I want some coffee, even if you don't.

See you to the door, will you?

I've been sent to help you with the coffee.

You persuaded her to come, eh?

She persuaded me.

She means to interfere, then.

She'll be at me.

Not much of a leg to stand on, has she?

Well, we seem to be in the same boat, Sam.

A drop of this, Tad?

Yeah, why not?

Thanks.

Last time we were in the same boat, I jumped out and swam for it.

At the orphanage, remember?

I hit old Davis with a pillar and ran for it.

Yeah.

I had nowhere to run to.

No relatives, even.

Oh, it was a lousy school.

I'd have joined you if there'd been somewhere to go.

The place taught me that much, that when

you've got nowhere to go, you're a dead duck.

That's where Pat and I fall out on politics.

I want a choice, an option.

A way out, I suppose.

Somewhere else to go, even if there's nothing more than that.

I know only too well what the other thing's like.

And most people don't.

Well, maybe it taught me the same thing.

That I was lucky to have a place to go to.

What I was talking about back there earlier on, about my gran leaving me

outside the school and me feeling sick, and then looking

back on it and thinking it all passes in time, it doesn't.

It sticks.

It's part of what you have for good.

Part of your education for life.

Don't bugger, Sam!

It's Tom I want back!

Sarah, it wasn't a wasted journey.

Tripson knows Tom at school.

They're going to a couple of places where he thinks Tom might have gone to.

But Sam had been there.

Yes, yes, yes.

He had been, yes.

I think he should know what's going on, Sarah.

To know is to care, is it?

I'll keep on looking for him, eh?

All his haunts, do you?

Where all his ghosts are?

You know something else too, don't you, Morris?

You know what you said to Tom that made him go off.

Is that what you know?

Does Tad take milk?

He did when I last saw him.

That was 12 months or so ago.

He doesn't seem to have changed any other of

his habits, so I think you'll be safe with milk.

How long have you known Sam?

A year.

I work at Crossman's.

Yeah, I rather thought you did.

Oh, I'm not going to attack you, you know, about Sam.

Because I'm a friend of his wife's.

The pot can't call the kettle black, can it?

Well, if it's a very hypocritical pot, it can, I suppose.

Tad's married.

Three kids.

There's no future in it, is there?

I'm going away.

I've put the house up for sale and I've given my notice in.

Do you know what hurts most?

Well, not most, but a lot.

It's that my intelligence didn't protect me.

How can we shout about women's rights when we go around behaving like we've done?

We've prayed on other women, you know that, don't you?

Yes, I suppose so.

Sam know you're going away?

No.

No, he doesn't.

Think you'll make it?

Yes.

Oh, yes, I shall make it.

Make what?

I'll take this through.

Happy?

Been putting the knife in for me.

You need my help.

What was it you said was fretting young Tom?

Oh, it's his education.

There's a battle going on between Sam and Maurice Naylor about it.

The atmosphere's been a bit thick lately.

What's Maurice Naylor got to do with it?

He's spent most of his time round there, since his wife and kids were killed.

It's helped him, Sarah says.

Theirs have become a sort of substitute for his own, I suppose.

And he helps young Tom with his own work.

Why can't Sam help him with his own work?

You'd better ask him that, when they manage to get hold of him.

Where is he, then?

He went to see shop steward at Crossman's, Billy Tripp.

What does she want for his education, his mother?

She wants him to go to this private school.

And Sam, what's he want?

He supports comprehensive education, doesn't he?

Does he?

I don't know what he supports.

As far as I can tell, he's never known himself what he supports.

If there'd been comprehensive schools when he was a lad, and

no 11 plus, he'd have got off to a better start, wouldn't he?

Or if I'd let his granddad Toby pay for him as he wanted to.

He's stuck to your principles, Dad.

And he'd pay the price.

He knows you were right.

Does he?

He's standing for the same thing you stood for.

Not to have people set apart.

What's that supposed to mean?

Well, they'll set themselves apart, won't they?

Choose what politicians like him do about it.

What's your answer to that?

You think we should encourage it, do you?

Well, it'll happen, whether you encourage it or not.

I might not be well up on politics, but I know human nature.

Theory's one thing, practice is another.

What have you to say to that?

Why don't you say something?

Because I don't bloody know.

80 years I've lived on this earth, near enough.

I'm wiser now than I was.

I don't know.

What was it she wanted for him, his mother?

What was it you said she wanted?

She wants him to go, I said.

She'll be fighting for it then.

She's a fighter, is that one.

She comes right out of it.

Not like your mother.

She got away with stealth.

Oh, she didn't know.

You like that, don't you?

You like that.

There's more ways of one than killing a cat, mister.

Women learn that of other long married.

It doesn't take us 80 years.

Where have you been?

I thought you were coming back for me.

Morris dropped me off.

They've still not found him.

Isn't this telephone working yet?

You did fiddle with it, didn't you?

If you've got it in your mind, I did.

Saying I didn't will do it all for me, will it?

Who's with her?

Morris is going back when he's had another look for Sam.

Police came, took a description, but what can they do?

You've left her on her own?

Well, she made me.

Kids came down.

I didn't dare say anything for fear of letting them know Summit was up.

Oh, get round, old.

Now, don't you go out looking for him, you understand?

They've looked everywhere they can.

We can do nothing but wait.

Do you understand?

We've troubles enough.

You'll die of pneumonia if you go out there.

Oh, my God, you'd miss me, wouldn't you?

You brought it up, not me.

We drifted onto the subject of divorce.

We drifted there.

Nobody brought it up, so let's drop it, eh?

No, you're not going to get away with it that easy.

With what, for God's sake?

Well, you start chucking figures around to prove that kids suffer more if marriages

break up than if the parents are living and screaming.

I said nothing of the sort.

You're bloody well dead.

Don't swear at me.

Oh, she did say that, didn't she?

Don't drag us into this.

It happens to most people in their lives, you know.

You'd be surprised.

People you never even thought of, like your dad, for instance.

Dad?

Well, why not?

It could have done.

You said it did, not it could have.

Well, it did then.

Sam, you're drunk.

When?

While you were still at school.

When I was going for me school cert that time.

So that's what it was all about.

Well, it's water under the bridge now, anyway.

Oh, no, you wouldn't let it drop.

Go on.

About what?

Dad and this other woman.

It was nothing, nothing.

A passing fancy, that's all it was.

Just a bit of stuff, was she?

A pastime?

I thought so at the time.

Changed your mind, though?

Happened.

Did it for thee, Josh.

All right, then, don't answer me.

Sorry, what?

Why didn't he leave mum?

Because of me?

I didn't ask him.

You know, though, don't you, Sam?

Why didn't he?

He cared more for Ethel.

It was nothing to do with you, in the end.

It was Ethel.

He didn't want to hurt Ethel.

You're sure of that?

Yes, I'm sure of it.

He wanted it both ways.

He wanted to share himself.

He had a big heart.

It can be a fault, that, Sam, as well as a virtue.

It can blind you to other things.

Oh, Tad knows all about that, don't you, Tad?

Tad writes from the heart, don't you, Tad?

I don't hide in my head like you do.

Rooting around for answers to problems that don't have any answers.

You don't acknowledge any such thing, do you, Pad?

A problem without an answer?

No.

Oh, there you are, then.

What do you mean, there I am?

There you are, and here I am, and never the twin shall meet.

A traction of opposites.

One of the great uncommitted.

Right, there's another one here.

I thought you'd drawn her fire for the minute.

What's she on about now?

Politics.

I thought she might be.

Yeah, she lost her spiritual home after Suez.

Well, Hungary.

Same thing, really, wasn't it?

Look, we walked into Suez, so the Russians walked back into Hungary.

What price moral superiority, eh?

So who are we to talk, then?

Look, nations are composed of people.

People like us.

Including us!

Who wrote?

I didn't.

I can sort my own problems out without writing them down.

Yeah, to her satisfaction, she means.

Look, it's half the battle wanting to believe.

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour said.

Oh, straight from his choir boy days.

It's marvellous.

And I will give you rest.

Amen.

You sound like Morris Naylor.

You know why Morris is religious?

Yes, his wife and kids were killed in a car crash and he

wants to believe he's going to see them on the other side.

Then let him and shut up.

The opium of the proletariat.

Morris, the proletariat?

What's your opium, Pat?

I want a better life here on this bloody earth.

Now, that is opium.

It would be if it were left to people like you.

And Marx didn't say opium, he said opiate.

The sigh of the oppressed creature, he said.

The spirit of unspiritual conditions.

That's what religion is, he said.

It boils down to the same thing in the end, doesn't it?

To what?

Bloody nothing.

We live.

We live to no purpose.

Once on a high and windy hill... Well, I'm not doing anything more useful.

I might as well go.

In the morning, Miss, two lovers kissed and a world...

Oh, I really am enjoying myself.

I'm really glad I came.

Even if it was for the wrong reasons.

Oh, they say if you expose yourself long enough to it, you're cured.

Some men is...

Well, talk of the devil, eh?

Shall I see if he's gone to bed?

No, we'll have a peep.

It's time we were going anyhow.

He wanders a bit nowadays.

He wanders in his mind.

You know, I went in there the other day and I could swear he was talking to Polly.

I've caught him doing that once or twice.

Isn't it awful the way we all have to leave each other?

Oh, for God's sake, Eileen.

Well, it is.

Why can't we all go at once?

All together, all them that's cared for each other.

Why do we have to leave in dribs and drabs?

Oh, my God.

I'm going.

I don't like the way this conversation's working out.

I'll, er... I'll see if there's a light in his window.

Oh.

I'd better give Sarah a ring as well.

Night, Ethel.

Night, love.

I'll be round in a minute.

Aye, I've heard that before.

Does he like it still, being an MP?

Oh, I think so.

He gets a bit worried about getting out of date.

So many things crop up from day to day.

Problems.

He gets no time for catching up on anything.

You'll like him round here any road.

Do you know, I've never heard a bad word against him.

He's a good man.

Pity there aren't more like him.

Who's this fly-be-night our Pat's got tangled up with?

Who told you?

Never mind who told me.

You didn't, did you?

Is that where she's gone tonight, out with him?

I'm sorry, Ethel.

She asked us.

Trying to pull the wool over me eyes.

Well, she knew you'd not like it.

Having read his book.

Well, the book's one thing.

But there's another, isn't there?

He's married.

It says so on the back of it.

Yes, but that's not the end of the world these days, is it?

I mean, people look on divorce differently these days, don't they?

Some people might.

I don't.

Is he getting a divorce, then?

Well, I don't know.

I mean, you don't ask, do you?

I shall.

I shall ask.

What would you do, Ethel, if I was you?

Leave well alone's never been my motto, Eileen.

Well, I think it'd be best, Ethel.

Honestly, I do.

I don't think it'll come to anything.

Why?

Well, he's a nice man.

And his wife's a very nice woman, by all accounts.

And I'm not saying he wouldn't leave home.

But I don't think it's likely.

I'm happy as shit.

Yes.

She cares a lot for him, does she?

Yes, though she covers it up.

You know what she's like.

Yes, I know what she's like.

Her dad was soft all through.

She puts a shell on it.

Like another one we know that's in trouble.

Who's that?

Well, I don't think she's told anyone else, so keep it to yourself.

It's Sam and Sarah.

What's he up to now?

It's a girl at work.

Crossman's.

He thinks Sarah doesn't know.

She does.

She told me tonight.

Damn level crossings.

They close these gates half an hour before they need.

Where are we going?

Billy Tripps.

His lad thought he might know a couple of places where Tom might have gone.

They went off to look.

I said I'd call back.

He's a mate of Tom's at school, is Charlie.

Yes, sir, I gather.

They sit next to each other.

Tom helps him.

Yes, sir, I was told.

It means something to Billy, you know.

Send my lad to the same school as his.

Well, that's nice for Billy and Charlie, but it doesn't help Tom, does it?

Let it go in one ear and out the other, Sam.

The devil's talking.

It would have saved a journey back if you'd taken Sam's car home for him.

Sam's a weak vessel.

He needs my moral support.

I can handle my side of the argument, thanks, Pat.

He'd like me to tell Sarah where I'd driven it from, too.

Wouldn't you, Morris?

His moral principles are outraged.

I can see the hairs on the back of his neck from here.

I think we'd better not go into that, don't you?

Tom told Charlie he was leaving the school.

You know what Billy thought?

He thought if I was taking Tom away, it must be a bad school.

But you're not taking him away.

Oh, leave it to me, will you, Pat?

It is a bad school.

Well, let's make it a good one, then.

Billy has to leave his kid there.

That's all there is for Charlie.

How do you think Billy feels?

Look, there's a parents' committee.

He doesn't serve in it, as far as I know, and neither do you.

What time do I get, Morris?

Well, you could give up some of your other... interests.

Right in the stomach.

There's Christian charity for you.

All right, I ask for that.

But leave it there, Morris.

You've made your point.

She'll want to see you about the other things, too.

You've absolutely no right to tell Trip these redundancies won't happen.

They will.

Oh, one thing at a time, eh, Morris?

Oh, yes.

One thing at a time.

Certainly.

People like you, Morris.

People like me, yes.

Just look at this.

What's wrong with it?

Well, of course nothing's wrong with it from your point of view.

It's good old England, and the brain with a frill.

I heard very little of that.

But please, don't bother to repeat it.

Come on, now.

You've been up quite long enough.

Treat over.

Oh, can we stop at Buton?

The winds will be north-westerly.

Moderate to fresh.

It's a great shame, isn't it?

Hi, Billy.

We've found him.

Where is he?

He's in the kitchen having a cup of cocoa with Charlie.

Where did he get to, then?

Well, he asked me not to say.

Kids like to have a place where the grown-ups can't get out of, don't they?

Well, look, they're waiting for me outside, Billy.

Could you tell him I'm here?

What's he been up to?

He's for it, is he?

No, no.

I'll tell him I'm here.

Come on, Tom.

Your dad's here.

Hello, Tom.

What's all this about, then, eh?

I don't know.

I'm used to nasty shots, but what about your mother, eh?

She's done nothing, has she?

Is it me?

Cat got your tongue?

No.

Ah, well, we'll bother about it later, eh?

You're not unique, you know.

I took off a timer to meself when I was a lad.

I used to go and hide in the shed in the allotment.

Your Uncle Morris is outside with the car.

Let's get off home, shall we?

Hey.

Why did you tell Charlie I wanted you to leave the school?

You do, don't you?

I asked first.

I thought you didn't want me to.

I told Uncle Morris you didn't.

He said you did, but he couldn't admit it,

because it was against what he'd believed in.

Bear won't come back.

Sam has to, for his car.

He'll be well chaperoned, though, I think.

I think I shall... drive back to London tonight.

I'm, er...

I'm booked in a pub in Wakefield, but...

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I... shall go.

Have any coffee?

Hmm.

You like it down there?

Yes, sometimes.

Sometimes not.

I'm rooted up here.

I thought you said you hadn't been back here for years.

I haven't.

We came here a dozen or so years ago.

From Bournemouth.

I shan't go back there.

I think London might suit me well.

I'd have had a different life if I'd stayed here.

Practical.

More settled.

Secure, perhaps.

If... me mum and dad hadn't died.

You know, some of the pit villages are pretty grim, but...

they've got something that most of us have lost.

Community.

There'd have been faces all around me that I'd known

since I first learned to tell one face from another.

Habits.

Routines.

We all have those.

Yeah, of course we do.

What's different then?

I don't know.

I've been thinking about it...

well, for years, actually, but more in this last day or so.

And I think it's because...

the pattern was set then, if you know what I mean.

See, I was brought up to expect a certain way of life, and then it all changed.

Happens to a lot of people.

Yeah, look, I'm not trying to set myself apart.

Except that because of what happened then...

I broke out of the pattern.

But I didn't want to, really.

I don't think.

I want everything to stay...

exactly as it was.

I'm not like Sam.

Sam?

Yes, Sam broke out of the pattern when he came back.

It's all around him, he doesn't belong anymore.

I see Pat, she's predictable, she reacts to it, but Sam doesn't.

He lives between one world and another.

And he won't commit himself to either.

He wants the best of both worlds, you mean?

Is that bad?

Is it possible?

Sometimes, perhaps.

But as a way of life.

Well, it's not comfortable.

Maybe it's so.

Maybe it's closer to the truth of things.

Maybe that's how we were meant to live.

Maybe that's what we can't accept.

Living uncomfortably.

And wanting what's beyond our reach.

Get by that fire!

Don't you bully me!

Why are you coming out on a night like this?

It's no more than two stops of the bus ride.

They said you were on your own.

Is he not back yet?

Tom, no.

He'll be back when he feels he's made his point.

Where's that other fly-by-night?

He went out early, something to do with work.

Morris has gone to look for him.

Work, eh?

Work, work.

Here he is.

The prodigal returned.

Mum.

Up to bed.

No inquest tonight.

Drink?

He had one of Billy's.

He can answer for himself, can't you?

I had one with Charlie.

Come on, then.

Say goodnight to Grandad.

Goodnight, Grandad.

Has he said as to where he went?

No.

It'll be somewhat of note.

It usually is, except him, of course.

Happen he just wants to know where he is.

Eh, Morris?

In respect of school, you mean?

Yes, in respect of school, I mean.

Have you not sorted that out yet?

Well, Morris has, hasn't you, Morris?

I suppose you think you've as much right to sort his future out as I have,

seeing as neither of us is father to him.

You're his bloody father.

Don't talk daft.

Same as I were yours for want of him that went off and left you.

You?

Was I not, then?

Who did you kick against?

Who gave the orders out?

Who said, you didn't know anything?

What's this about you telling him I wanted him to change schools, Morris?

I told him that, yes.

And that I couldn't admit it because it goes against everything I believe in?

By God, you took something on yourself, didn't you?

It's true.

What's right for Tom cuts right across your principles, doesn't it, Sam?

Don't say that to him.

No, but it's true, isn't it?

Admit it.

Do what's best for Tom.

For Sarah's sake, too.

I'll do what I think is best, not what you think is best, Morris.

They're my family, not yours.

Yes.

Yes.

And don't look at me as if you think you know something that puts you above me.

I'm in charge in this house.

I don't dispute it.

But what are you going to do, Sam?

Insist on having things your way because you're in charge?

Right or wrong?

Say goodnight to Sarah for me, will you?

I'll let myself out.

Well, Grandad.

Aye.

Aye, aye.

What's I supposed to mean?

Want me to make your mind up for you, do you?

Tell you to do as I do, take it off your back, is that what you want?

I never asked nobody to make my mind up for me, as far as I know.

I did what I felt I had to do.

As far as I was wrong, it's on my conscience and nobody else's.

And it's there because I wasn't the only one that suffered the mistakes.

Your grandmother suffered a good many and your mother, too.

Happen you suffered one or two yourself, if you look back on it.

Going around the house is as usual, Grandad.

Make your point.

You've proved me right, haven't you?

That I didn't let your Grandad Toby pay for education.

You've proved me right.

You've made some of your life where I deserve.

I was able.

Some aren't.

And some won't bloody try, will they?

Arguing against yourself, Grandad?

It's a fact.

Those lads in this village have been given every chance and made note of it.

Aye, and there's some that deserved the chance and didn't get it.

Theirs is the complaint.

A chance for everybody.

We don't ask to be born into this world.

Most of us are bloody accidents.

Was I right or was I wrong, then?

You did what you thought was best at the time.

You sweated on it.

What more can anybody do?

Well, go on.

Go on?

About what?

Why was I not with Eileen and Frank?

Where have I been?

I'm your mother, not your keeper.

You're another generation.

Anybody that went out with a married man when

I was your age was in for a load of trouble.

We couldn't afford those sort of goings-on apart from anything else.

Who told you?

Mind your own business.

It wasn't Frank or Eileen either.

Where have you been?

I've just come back from taking Sam's car out.

Where from?

Mind your own business.

It's mixed blessings to education.

What's that supposed to mean?

It means what it says.

Do you know what it's like to have your husband go with another woman?

Depends whether you get him back or not, I should think.

And that's all?

I suppose it's different if they're a kid and he's the breadwinner.

You put no more weight to it than that.

Hurt pride?

Oh, yes.

That's true.

It comes into it, does that?

Not what you were thinking of, though, eh?

No, it's not what I was thinking of.

Well, then?

I'm not sure you know what I mean.

Try me.

Sex, I was thinking of.

You know all about it, you lot, don't you?

Your generation.

I don't think I've ever heard you use that word before.

No, but you got it at school, I mean.

You were taught.

Now it's all over the place, isn't it?

Most of my generation were brought up...

well, religious, in one way or another.

It was something we didn't talk about.

It was... well, wrong, really, I suppose.

As it came to us, I knew nothing when I got married, you know.

Nothing.

Your father didn't either.

Less than me, if anything.

We sort of...

well, learned it together.

Made it special, in a way.

Well, for me it did.

Just me and him.

I couldn't in the least imagine him with anybody else.

Not in a thousand years.

And then...

one night I looked through the window of a pub and he was sitting there with a woman.

And I felt naked to the world.

As if he'd stripped me in public.

You don't know, do you?

No.

You haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about.

In a way, perhaps.

It hurt... too much, really.

It was too much.

The sort of thing you remember all your life.

Too much.

It was different after that.

Not bad, or anything.

Just different.

I always used to worry when I was young that...

I never talked to you about it, but I knew they did it at school.

Yes.

They did it at school.

Better than I could ever dare say.

I just thought I'd tell you.

We've different ideas, haven't we?

Maybe yours are better.

More...

open-like.

I just thought I'd tell you.

You've got no bonfire now.

What did he lie to tonight for?

Why did he do it?

Had he got his fireworks, I'd have been here.

Maybe he felt that he couldn't be sure of it, that you'd be here.

I always am, aren't I?

His father walked out on him.

Maybe he feels it can happen again.

You and Boris arguing the toss over his education.

Perhaps he sees it as I do.

It isn't always a question of who's right, but who wins.

He'll win.

Will he?

How can I go against him?

He's me in the flesh again.

I'm not his father, no.

But I can be inside his head.

I can feel his hurt.

What's that word you said that means you can put yourself in somebody's place,

feel as they do?

Empathy.

And what about me, Sam?

You can feel my hurt too, can you?

What hurt?

Oh, I hurt too, you know.

If you cut me, I bleed.

Oh, I know, I'm just a silly bitch who's always complaining, but I do react to pain.

What pain?

Come here.

No, leave me alone.

Sarah.

I said no, don't touch me, leave me alone.

One at a time, please, Sam!