Original subtitles

That car of theirs is a lousy starter.

It'd gone by the time I got it going.

I've left it down there at the side where we usually leave it.

Hey.

I'm talking to you.

Oh, er... Leave the keys in there with Mick.

I'll run you back.

I haven't seen them for weeks.

They'll run me back.

You should have told me.

I'd not have bothered coming.

Hello, Mick.

Hello, Sam.

Good old Mick.

What's Dr Beeching going to do with Mick when he closes his 2,000 stations?

I shall miss the trains.

When do you use a train apart from trips to London?

You don't have to use them to miss them.

It's because you don't use them enough that he's taken them away.

So that's where you were when I came.

Missing trains.

I went off to sea from here.

After Les and Alan were killed.

I went off to Germany and married David.

I saw Tom off to school for the first time from here.

I wanted to go with him.

Aye.

It's the going off you remember.

Not coming back.

What were you and Maurice arguing about last night?

Oh, work.

We've slowed down the forklifts for safety.

It's a word Maurice doesn't like.

Slow.

It'll make no difference.

The men will make up the work in their lacking time.

Playing time.

It's time they've got to spare when they've worked at too fast a rate.

British industry working too fast.

Go on.

They're as bad as Maurice.

It evens out.

We've a good work rate at Crossmans.

It's the board that needs sharpening up.

You're on the board.

Aye, and I'm one of me own too, I'll tell you.

Where's that train got to?

Up and it's their lacking time.

It's Tom's half term next week.

Are you going up to fetch him or do you want him to catch the train?

How many times in the past two years has he had to catch the train?

I'll go and fetch him, of course.

You used to object to chauffeuring, as you used to call it.

I never minded chauffeuring.

I minded not having the time.

And having a stepson that goes to a public school.

Do you still mind that?

You've forgiven me, have you?

You stuck out for what you believed in.

You won.

I lost.

I've never been too sure why I won.

Was it the fact of the situation?

Was it because you had a conscience about being unfaithful to me?

Or would you rather I didn't ask?

You can ask.

Ever heard from her again?

Liz?

No.

No, not again.

I wonder if Tom understands how you felt about it.

The school, I mean.

He will one day, Hoppen.

Will you realise how much better a father

you've been for him than David would have been?

You reckon?

Yes, I reckon.

Where's Frank?

And Cassie?

With Frank and Eileen, it's Cassie.

Aye, it's Cassie.

Don't come in, don't come in, all you flaming horses, don't come in!

Jack?

Aye?

Not remember me, Jack?

What about the others?

Sarah brought Frank's car down for them.

We bring it down and leave it.

They ring us up and ask.

What's Frank messing about, Tara?

He's lost his ticket.

Nobody knows I wrote you, by the way.

I'll keep your guilty secret.

They're having an argument with Mick.

He says he'll be glad when Beeching retires him.

It's not been the same since bloody nationalisation, he says.

He'll have his grumble, choose whose boss.

Let's have a proper look at you.

How long's it been?

Three years now, isn't it?

What brought you back?

It wasn't the climate, I promise you.

You know, you actually look younger than when you went away.

What's the secret?

Money, love, just money.

Page, you did it, leaving out Dora and the lad.

Done all right for yourself, have you?

I can see you have.

I know a bloody good overcoat when I see one.

Your dad would have been proud of you if

you'd come to his funeral in a coat like that.

You're 15 years too late for that, though, aren't you?

I was in Australia when he died.

He'd been gone six months when I heard.

You were a weak vassal, your dad.

He deserved more than he got from you, though.

Did you never think to come home and comfort your mum?

I've been away too long.

It's 30 years since I left here, Jack.

I know how bloody long it is to the day, almost since you left here.

Who do you think got left with the trouble you left behind?

Dad wrote and said he'd take care of Dora and Sam.

We took note of Toby.

I knew he had the means, so I left it at that.

It was all I could do to keep my head above water those first few years.

Dad was fond of Sam.

You think I'd let him care for the lad after what he made out of you?

My God.

My God, it dies hard with you, Jack, doesn't it?

Hard, hard, hard, till the day I bloody die.

Do you know, Norter, what went on here after you turned your back?

I was moving around.

Dad wrote me now and then, but he said very little about it.

Then he wrote and told me that she had died.

There comes a point when it's too late to go back.

A door shuts behind you.

She lived with a chap called Dakin.

No, live with him, in this place, where they make more of sin than Satan.

They wanted to wed, but they needed you for the divorce.

She died in Ponty Infirmary having his bubby.

It were brought up a bastard and it died in a drift mine near Cuddy because

somebody else that couldn't care less,

couldn't be bothered to block the bloody snout.

Dakin died with him.

Life didn't stop just because you went off, you know.

Life nor death.

You'll take your debts to the grave, will you, won't you?

They're all dead that were all but you.

There's Sam.

He turned his back on you the day you turned yours on him.

He'd pass you by on the street and not know you.

I can tell him who I am.

He'll spit on you then.

You've made sure of that, have you, Jack?

Me?

You made sure of that the day you left for me.

And why I left... Why, why, why?

I've never been put to it.

You left them for another woman.

That's all he's been told.

And we know what else to be told when he can't.

You remember just what you want to remember, don't you, Jack?

You remember what happened in the end, not what led up to it.

What is it they say in the courts here?

The truth.

The whole truth.

And nothing but the truth.

Hey, what are you after coming here?

I'm a director of a company in Cape Town that has the agency for Crossman's Diesels.

Our chief engineer used to work with Sam.

Came up from England four or five years ago.

Les Thomas!

He did well to leave.

He weren't liked.

Did it never occur to you, Jack, that that's maybe why I left too?

Because I felt not liked?

You've come here on business, then, have you?

Partly.

I've got another very good reason, though.

I don't think I'll bother you with it, though.

I doubt if you'd give it much weight.

You think you can put things right in this life?

You can't.

He'll not clean your bloody slate for you.

You know not of what we suffered here after you slung York.

I've lived with it round me all my life, what you turned your back on.

We've the same houses still.

But you could knock the lock down, it'd still be alive.

Her I cared about, not suffer on account of you.

With chair she sat in, pit fields where she used to walk.

You think you'd insult her memory returning to you because he's your flesh and blood?

Go and see him, then!

Tell him who you are!

Tear him apart!

Damage him like you did thirty years back!

You think that's what I want?

You think you've a case, don't you?

A case against me?

That's not what I came for either, Jack.

Then go, get you gone and leave us be.

I suppose somebody could have lived here while I was gone.

Aye, they could have.

I was only going for a month.

I got caught up with the life out there.

Thought of staying and getting the kids out.

I couldn't make my mind up and in the end I got homesick.

Oh, I didn't thank Sarah for having them last holidays, the kids.

I had them too, you know.

I'll thank you then.

Well, it all works.

Gas, electrics.

I could have told you that.

Could you?

That's what you left the keys with Sarah for, wasn't it?

So I could come round and check.

You mean you actually did?

Aye, now and then.

I even set them out traps.

Mice?

There weren't any.

Nothing here for them, was there?

No life.

Seen the kids?

Yes.

Went to school as soon as I got here.

Looking forward to coming home.

Aye.

What did I mean?

That I shouldn't have left them all this time, I suppose.

How are you then, Cass?

I'm fine, Sam.

Fine.

Thought you'd never ask.

Why did you write to me?

Well, er, I didn't want your cheques to bounce.

My cheques?

You live off the company, don't you?

I'm not sure I like the way you say that.

What's wrong with the company anyway?

Don't you know?

I've been away three years.

How would I know?

Peter Crossman would have known.

Here or away.

I'm not Peter Crossman.

I'm Cassie Crossman.

Cassie Dent, that was.

You take the money he took, though, don't you, more or less?

He left it to you, I know.

Shouldn't I?

Aye, it was his to leave.

But he worked for it, Cass.

You don't, do you?

He worked to leave me and the kids all right.

It was one of the things he worked for.

He did well at it.

Left me better off than I deserved.

No, no, Cass, you're putting words into me mouth.

They're right ones.

Look, er... I think we'd better get back to where we started.

You ask me what was wrong with the company, well, I'll tell you.

We're on the edge.

We've been there for years, dithering.

Everybody's taken the plunge but us.

And if we leave it another 12 months, it'll be too late.

And I'll be gone.

Gone?

Gone where?

Where you've just come from, Appen.

Australia.

Somewhere I can see a future for the kids.

You don't think there's a future here for them?

Not if we're gone as we are now, don't.

Come on, Sam, what's going on?

Nothing.

Nothing's going on.

That's the whole point.

We're static.

The board won't invest.

They don't want to make problems for themselves.

They want to tick over, stand still.

So the men tick over, too.

And the ones that can't because they're not

made like that, well, they just get up and go.

Draftsmen, we've lost the best.

Well, they're for the time service.

We're only alive because we make a well-designed engine.

It costs more because we're inefficient and overheads are high.

It costs more now and it's worth more, but in 12 months'

time we'll have priced ourselves out of the market.

Inflation's on the rip and we'll go with it.

Wages will go through the roof this autumn.

Union trouble.

Union trouble.

What do you know about it, Cass?

Union trouble.

We've to keep pace with the others, haven't we?

The firms like us.

Union trouble.

Billy Tripp was made convener while you were away.

He's the best for miles around.

He knows the problems as well as I do, but he's to fight for the men, hasn't he?

All we can offer them is money.

And if we don't, they'll chuck Billy out and put somebody in his place.

Friend of yours, is he?

Oh, Cass, you shouldn't say a thing like that.

Sarah's a woman too, but she'd know better than to come out with that.

A woman too?

My goodness, there's a bit of male superiority for you.

Anyway,

I shall have to talk to Morris, shan't I?

You don't believe me, do you?

You'd believe Morris, wouldn't you?

But not me, eh, Cass?

Knowing you of old, as they say, maybe I just wonder whose side you're on.

Side?

Well, that's the game, isn't it, Sam?

Two sides and a ball.

Or is it the referee you see yourself as?

How long have you been here?

I came round after he went.

Who?

After who went?

I hardly recognised him.

I am right, aren't I?

He was Harry Wilson, Sam's dad, wasn't he?

You say no to nobody.

Travelling incognito, is he?

I know who you are, Wilson, I says.

My name's Carter these days, he says.

What's he changed his name for, then?

Crooks and gangsters change their names, don't they?

Not honest bloody men.

They don't, do they?

After all these years, eh?

You say no to nobody.

Hoping he'll go away like a bad dream, are you?

Aye, like a bad dream.

What time is it?

You're all right, it's not half-past.

I'm not, you know.

The car won't start.

Morris is picking me up.

Well, if you're sure it won't start, I'd better ring the garage.

Well, it wouldn't have started last night.

I was off to the coal.

Gave it up, went to bed instead.

Ah, I wondered why the early night.

You were fast asleep when I came up.

Did you get cast straightened out?

Oh, not much to do.

We sat around nattering most of the night.

What's she been up to in Australia?

Oh, no spectacular disclosures, if that's what you mean.

What do you think she's been up to?

You mean men?

She's thick, Cass.

She chooses to be.

All she cares about is spending money, having a good time.

She had it all going for her in the old days up here.

She had a brain.

She could have made a mark in life like our Pat's done.

She'd shaped herself.

She brought a family up.

Her brothers and sisters.

A fat lot of time that left her to make a

mark in life and two of her own following on.

What are you talking about?

She sent her own to boarding school.

She's had time on her hands.

Time she's had since Peter Crossman died.

What's she done with it?

What should she have done with it, in your opinion?

Use the gifts God gave her.

The brain she was born with.

Or words of that effect.

All right.

I know.

I talk in clichés.

I'm the walking voice of the dead.

Me sometimes happen.

I'm not ashamed to use the words that helped get them through life.

Me gran, George, me mam.

Use the gifts God gave you.

Waste not, want not.

The devil makes work for idle hands.

What it boils down to is she's got a brain.

It's time she started using it and stopped gallivanting.

To what particular purpose?

To the purpose we all bloody well survive.

That's to what purpose.

Imagine.

All those years I worried about nothing.

Worried?

Jealous I was.

Of Cass?

She was the light of your life in those days, wasn't she?

You came back from sea, found she'd married Peter Crossman and married me.

That's how it was, isn't it?

I'll get it.

I've left my shoes upstairs anyway.

It'll be Morris.

On time, as usual.

Morning.

Hello, Morris.

You ready, then?

No, I'm not.

She's in there.

Morning, Sarah.

He's not had his breakfast yet.

Oh, well, I'm early, perhaps.

A little, yes, a minute or so, yes.

Coffee?

Oh, yes, yes, thanks, yes.

Yes, please.

Sam mentioned the visitor to you, did he?

No, what visitor?

A chap coming to the works for a week or so from our agents in Cape Town.

Used to live round here as a lad.

Asked if there was someone he could talk to about the old

days, so I wondered if you'd mind if I brought him round here.

I'm supposed to be an expert on the old days, am I?

Thank you.

Old Sarah.

No, I know it's a bit of a bind.

You had a works visitor last week, didn't you?

I was wondering if Sam's grandfather or Ethel, someone

who might remember him, could meet him perhaps.

What's his name?

Carter.

One of Sam's old mates went out there as their chief engineer.

Carter seems far more interested in Sam than what he's supposed to be here for.

I shall have to watch him.

He's up to all sorts of tricks, you know, these

merchants from sunny climates that have so much to offer.

Maybe he wants to pinch Sam from us, entice him away with a promise of better things.

I'd better invite him round for a meal then, hadn't I?

Hm?

You can bring the wine.

We always do the posters for the shop elections, do we?

They're not up, are they?

They should be.

What about the ballot slips?

We've those in hand as well, they should have.

I'll try stationary again.

Hang on.

Stop shaking.

Shaking?

Who's shaking?

You are.

Stationary.

Posters for the shop elections.

Oh, they're in today.

Going up before dinner time?

No, no, no complaints.

They should have been up on Friday.

Oh, so everybody could look at them Saturday and Sunday.

What are you worried about, Billy?

The democratic process.

What, in this place?

Does it give you a seat on the board?

You know damn well it doesn't.

What's democratic about it then?

That's where decisions are made.

You'll get a vote in the next general election.

I'll give you a seat in the cabinet then.

The only vote that counts at Crossman's is a shareholder's vote.

What say do we have in who's on the board?

What say do they have who's on a union executive?

If everybody had a say, there wouldn't be a war, boy.

Oh, that's what you want, is it, Billy?

A war?

It's what I bloody got in it!

What, Nick?

Billy?

How's the lad?

He's mending.

Tell him Tom's home for half-term this week.

That'll cheer him up.

Aye, I will.

I'll tell him that.

Everything OK?

They were late with the posters.

Where were yeckers like?

You were impatient, you mean.

Look...

democracy's at stake.

What's wrong with Billy?

He thinks he'll not get voted back.

Why?

Democracy depends on Billy getting voted back.

You think it doesn't?

Sam, this is Mr Carter from Roberts in Cape Town.

Hello.

Pleased to meet you.

You know Les Thomas, then?

I was at his home last week.

Got his swimming pool, yeah?

He always wanted a house with a swimming pool, Les.

Went to the right place, didn't he?

That's where the money is, eh?

One of Sam's hobby horses.

Well, if the money keeps leaving this country, we'll have to follow it, shan't we?

There'll be no expansion here.

You think you might emigrate, then?

Over my dead body.

Get the board to invest more money here, then,

Morris, instead of giving it all to Mr Carter.

No, we get most of our capital from the US.

Does he like it out there, Les?

I don't think he's got any regrets.

His wife didn't want to go.

Didn't want to leave her mum and dad like yours, eh, Nick?

She'll not move to Martin.

That's only five miles off.

Sometimes it's a question of move or die.

In terms of ambition.

Of a living, even.

It certainly was in the old days.

Why?

Well, Nick'll show you round.

I'm tied up this morning.

I'll see you later, please.

You can bring Mr Carter back to my office when you've finished.

Yes, Mr Nalahan.

I hope you find it interesting.

Yes, I'm sure I shall.

Bye.

How long's he here for?

A week or so.

You won't be bothered with him much.

He'll spend most of his time in the drawing office and at Lawson's in Bradford.

I had a chat with Cassie last night, by the way.

Sarah said you were having a good old natter.

She was asking me how things were with the company.

I bet she didn't even know what the turnover was last year.

She did, as a matter of fact.

What did you tell her then?

Oh, I just gave her a general rundown.

Odd she should turn up now, just when we were about to argue

the toss on Jameson's scheme for diversifying production again.

We could get it through this time with Cassie's vote.

Providing we still wanted to, of course.

The market's drying up, Morris.

We've got to diversify.

Look, the Ministry have extended their contract.

There's a letter in this morning.

What difference does that make?

It takes the urgency out of the situation.

It gives us a breathing space.

It gets tighter every year, that breathing space, Morris.

Every year, we're a few men down.

Good machinery, lying idle, factory space, going to waste.

We've a capital investment on 250 bogs and only 200 blocks to use them.

Yes, well, that sounds like Billy Tripp to me.

Maybe.

Look, Sam, it's our job to manage.

It's his job to represent his members.

Don't you ever tell him that when you're having one of your little chats?

We don't give him a chance to represent his members, Morris.

Apart from wages and conditions, and he's lost a few battles there.

We could do a lot worse than Billy.

You've done it again, haven't you?

I always do.

I never go a bundle unless I'm sure of my scent.

Round again, are we?

Oh, he's like that little gadget our bat used to have.

Perpetual motion, it were called.

We can play without you, you know.

We don't need you to play.

Give us a rest, will you?

Look at Eileen.

Her eyes are going round in circles.

They look funny going round in squares.

Oh, I'll go put the kettle on.

It'll help us to forget.

Forget what?

Eh?

She says it'll help us to forget.

What will?

Well, tea, I suppose.

Tea?

Forget tea.

No, no.

Forget what, then?

That's what I asked.

Forget what?

Eh?

Forget it, Dad.

How can you forget something you can't even remember,

supposing you knew what it were in the first place?

Hey, look at this.

What?

You, electioneering.

Your first election.

Good heavens.

Imagine anyone voting for that.

Imagine.

Hi, Frank.

Sam.

Where's Ethel?

Kitchen.

We're still going up to London next week.

Down to London, you mean, don't you?

Some say up, some say down.

Aye.

Depends where you come from, eh?

Down, lad.

Aren't we to hear it, then?

I'll turn it up when news comes on.

There was talk about mechanisation in the pits last night.

60% of output now.

That's what mechanisation accounts for.

And there were 22,000 less colliers at work last year, and they brought up 200

million tonnes of coal, and they're still closing the collieries.

There's oil now to take the place of coal.

Your great British public will take more heed of

this lot striking than colliers not fetching coal.

They can do without coal, but they can't do without the bloody tolly.

We can go round to Sam's next Friday, can't we?

Will you still be here, Frank?

I think so, yes.

What, all of us?

Don't see why not.

Oh, Sarah, thank you.

Did you say we were all to come?

I'm not on this one.

I should hope not.

That's your mother's wedding.

Can I borrow it, the almond?

Er, what for?

Sure, Sarah, I was as beautiful as a little lad as I am today.

That's me there.

Who's that funny-looking woman?

Cheek.

And that other chap, that sarky-looking one.

All right, we know.

You don't look a day older, Grandad.

You'll all be coming Friday, then?

Don't see why not.

On your best behaviour, mind.

We'll be seeing you.

Er...

We have a chap coming called Carter.

Hello.

Harry Carter.

Used to live here years back.

Does it mean anything to you?

Yes, yes, it does.

I don't remember anybody you look like.

You can.

Just thought I'd mention it.

It's for you.

Yes?

Well, when?

All right, well, I'll get round the hospital right away.

Yeah, all right.

Billy Tripps had a heart attack.

Oh.

Better get off.

Can I give you a lift?

Aye, if you want.

I'll not be long.

All right.

I meant to put that album away after we'd had it out this morning.

He left the Communist Party, you know, Billy.

Aye, he told me.

Comes to my surgery every other week to chivvy me up.

Joined a pottery class instead.

He never talked politics much to me.

Outside union matters.

He sees you as management.

He sees me as a political nit.

He asked me once, you know, if I'd ever read the Communist Manifesto.

I walked straight into it.

No, I've not read it.

I said because I don't agree with it.

You were a communist once, weren't you?

I remember Grandad flaying you for it.

Breathe there a man with soul so dead it wasn't in the 30s read.

Somebody else said that to me once.

Dave Ellis, Sarah's first husband.

Tom's father.

Has he never been back to see him?

No.

It's hard, that.

To have somebody alive in the world that you're

responsible for bringing into it and no one to see them.

To know how they are.

Curiosity, even.

Aye.

Your dad sent you a present once.

A book.

We had a heart to heart in the allotment shed about it.

You'd be 10 or 11 then.

Grandad did it.

You wanted to think of him as dead, your dad.

Dead and gone.

Out of your lives.

Your mother was all the world to him, you know.

All the world.

We use these odd expressions, don't we?

I must go after this, I'm afraid.

Thanks.

Family waiting for you?

No.

No, I live alone.

How many children has Sam?

You or Mr Wilson?

Oh, three.

Three.

Tom's the eldest.

He's away at boarding school.

That is odd, coming back, you know.

Life used to be pretty rough around here when I left in the thirties.

I thought they'd have pulled the whole place down by now.

And the streets where I used to walk.

And the stacks, still up.

And faces.

Faces like faces I used to know.

Someone comes towards you in the street and on the tip

of your tongue there's a name from thirty years ago.

It might be their sons.

Or their grandsons, I suppose.

Yes, grey faces from the past.

They were grey years.

I got out of it.

My family clung, you know.

Like they do in these villages.

Stay by the fire, it's cold outside.

Stay with your mum and dad.

It was the greyness I couldn't stand.

So I got out.

Seemed to me that there was something more to life.

Do you regret it at all?

Regret?

Well, I regret some things.

Not getting out.

What was one supposed to do?

Stay and do what?

Endure it?

Suffer it?

For what purpose?

What end?

Sam's been saying he'll emigrate.

But he'll not.

Well, I doubt it anyway.

Why do you doubt it?

He's rooted.

He clings to his people.

Well, like you said.

Stay by the fire.

Stay with your mum and dad.

I wanted to go in with the lads, but they

shoved me in here for observation, they said.

It'll be our May's doing, I'll bet you anything.

So she can slip in for a crafty drag.

She works here, you know.

It's what they call an amenity ward.

You pay a few quid extra to be private.

Who wants to be private?

Well, my mum did last year.

Couldn't bear to see all the people suffering, she said.

Well, it was worth a few bob, you know, to keep her happy.

Hey, I didn't drive her away, did I, your wife?

No, no, she had to see to the kids.

Oh.

Hey, who was that you were with round the works today?

Oh, a customer, a chap from South Africa.

Oh, they use the old .45 in a pumping outfit they make themselves.

We should be making more engines for jobs like that.

That's what Sam says.

He's been pushing the scheme of Jamesons for the last two years.

You know what the board's like.

I wouldn't know the board from a plank.

He's more interested in Sam than the works.

Who?

This chap I took round.

Wanted his life history.

After him for a job, perhaps.

They do that, don't they?

Offer a bloke more than he's getting across the road.

Ah, poaching, it's called.

Well, it's one way to get a bloody rise, you get nothing by asking.

Oh, talk of the devil.

He's a private patient, they said.

Private?

My foot, yourself or me?

Come and sit down.

I've brought your parliamentary representative to see you.

He's come to convert you to socialism.

Really?

Hey, I'm not ready for the last rites yet.

Nick Ransley.

Me uncle Frank Baratlow.

How are you doing?

Er, they won't mind us all being in, will they?

Ah, stop where you are, you'll be all right.

Hey, crate of ale and a pack of cards next time, eh?

Well, you don't look too badly.

I'll be out in a day or two when they find there's nothing wrong.

Hey, you'll still be there, will you?

Me?

Well, he reckons this chap from South Africa is going to offer you a job.

Hey, you said that, not me.

I said he was quizzing me, that's all.

What does it feel like to belong to the idle rich?

That's what Sam calls me, isn't it?

No, of course not.

It was a joke.

He's always looked on me since I married Peter.

Let's have a drink.

He's right, of course.

I am idle.

I'm rich.

By most people's standards, anyway.

I suppose that's what being rich means, doesn't it?

You can afford to be idle.

Scotch?

Yes, please.

I think he'd like you to take more interest in the works.

Why?

What use am I?

Apart from the fact that I've got this massive

shareholder in the thing, what possible use am I?

I'd have thought I was better off out of the way.

What does he want, an interfering woman?

He has this scheme that he can't get through.

Ah.

He wants my vote, you mean.

He doesn't want me to roll up my sleeves or anything, he just wants my vote.

What he actually said was that he could have made you a mark in life.

She's got a brain, he said, and it's time she bloody well used it.

Oh, I probably shouldn't have told you, but there it is.

Thanks.

Oh, Cassie, he meant it.

That'll be Morris.

I got a bit fed up with him just walking in and started dropping the latch.

HE CHUCKLES It came in one night when Sam and

I were in here in front of the fire and...

Well, you know.

And he still walked in after that.

Maybe he was hoping for a repeat performance.

I'd better go.

Evening, sir, I've brought Pat along.

Sam?

Door's door.

Hi.

Frank's run Nick home.

I'll wait for him in the entrance, let you get some rest.

No, no, I'll be stuck here on my own long enough.

You thought you looked all right.

Who?

Frank.

Oh, I am.

I will be.

Oh...

Anything I can get you?

No, no.

Schoolmaster, weren't he?

Who, Frank?

Yeah.

Taught at Skeleton.

Young Charlie's not doing as well as I'd hoped.

You were right.

Right?

Take your Tom away.

It's not the school it should be, is it?

Why did you say I was right?

Was I right?

Happened I should have left him where he was.

Joined with the others and helped make it the school it should have been.

That's the theory, isn't it, Billy?

I tried.

Joined the parents' lot.

They just wanted us to make tea and buns at concerts.

They don't like you putting your oar in, teachers.

Theory's one thing, Sam.

Practice is another.

I learned that in politics.

What went wrong for you in politics, Billy?

I know I've kidded you about it, but you're not the kind to let go easy.

You change one lot of bosses for another.

In theory, they should be better.

Not bosses at all, but answerable to you.

To everybody.

In practice, there is bad or worse than the ones you've already got.

Well, it's not the theory that's wrong, Sam.

It's the bloody people.

There's better people we need.

Where do we get them, Billy?

Not from our generation, eh?

Why not?

We're discredited, aren't we?

We've debased our coinage.

What kind of a world is it, Sam?

The rubbing board's gone, there's machines to do the washing with, cars for the

working man, but... What kind of a world is it, Sam?

Aye.

Um...

You were, er...

carrying on with the bird once, weren't you?

Now, don't look at me like that.

You can't hit the chap who's bad in bed, can you?

Anyway, I, er...

I caught you at it once in the foundry stores, didn't I?

But, er...

Well, I'm entitled to ask.

Ask me what?

Tempted to leave home, were you?

Aye, once or twice, happened.

You didn't know, did you?

Couldn't happen to me, Zee Boy, with my ugly mug.

No treat, no temptation, but...

I wonder what I'd do, given the chance.

Do what I'd do.

Stop when you're better off.

And go on letting the kids tear you to pieces?

Why?

I worry about Charlie.

He's a bright lad.

He'd have done better at another school.

I brought him into the world, Sam.

I knew there were too many people in it.

I'm not daft, I'm noob.

Theory and practice, eh, Sam?

I... What's his bent?

He'd make a good draughtsman, given the chance he could go on from there.

I'll see him right at Crossman's, Billy.

You will?

Aye.

He can go to Tech, take his Iron National.

He'll not suffer in the end, that one.

You give your lives to him, don't you, kids?

You give your lives to him.

She wouldn't let me give her a lift home at first.

I happen to like walking.

The station's not all that far.

The station?

I wouldn't want to walk from the station to Carley Street.

But then I'm bone-idle where walking's concerned.

Oh, London's boring these days.

Boring?

Rubbish.

It's a delight.

They may tickle your jaded senses, these trendy young things.

They just make me glad I got out.

Back to the slagheaps and Yorkshire puddings, eh?

I like people.

I hate to see them exploited.

Yes, well, I'd better be off, then.

Yes, I must go.

I wanted to see you about the thing Sam was talking about.

Well, yes, of course.

It sounds like a good idea.

Well, it has... possibilities.

I thought you supported him.

Well, I did.

I do, up to a point.

There are snags, though.

Things you really wouldn't appreciate.

Well, perhaps you can make me appreciate them.

Well, yes, of course.

I'll explain it all, of course.

Right, well, I'll come round to the works.

You probably do with the woman about the place.

Clean out a few of the cobwebs.

Oh.

That's put the wind up him.

Not at all, not at all.

Well, I'd better go, then.

Yes?

Goodnight.

Goodnight, Boris.

Goodnight.

LAUGHTER Oh, that's so funny.

Oh, Boris.

It always takes him ages to go.

Oh, it's my fault, really.

When he says, I'll be off, I usually say, Oh,

don't go yet, or something I don't really mean.

What hypocrites we are.

But you like him to come.

Of course I do.

It's just that he... he outstays his welcome, sometimes.

Well, tell him, then.

Oh, Pat, he'd be hurt if he'd stay away.

He'd be miserable and we'd feel guilty.

Anyway, we'd miss him.

Oh, he'd adjust to it.

You think we should all be totally honest, do you?

Totally honest.

Totally exposed.

You're looking different.

Not my usual self, you mean?

I think you had a good time in London, in spite of what you said.

Maybe.

Maybe I did.

See anybody we know?

Maybe.

I'll be back in a minute.

She's happy.

Isn't she usually?

She's not been a very happy person these last few years.

It changes people, doesn't it?

Happiness.

Makes them... quite different.

Now, listen, Jack, listen to me, just a moment.

Look, I've been all around Skeleton, I've been all around Longrow, and I've

been all around Cuddy looking for someone, anyone, who can talk to me about my father.

I even... I even went to the con club, where he used to...

When I told you he were a weak vessel of a man,

your dad, your mother wiped the floor with him.

If he made no mark in life, what could there be when he'd gone?

Well, you can put me out if you like, but you're all I can find that's left of him.

Oh, God, he'd shrink in his grave if he could hear you talk like that.

He thought I was a devil incarnate, did Toby.

I stood between him and his grandson, that he wanted a

tech to fill the place you left when he slung you round.

Dad never gave me any sign that I'd leave any place that needed filling.

Ah, Dora, did she give you no sign, did she not?

I just wanted to go at first, to go to take her with me, but she wouldn't.

So why should she?

You wanted but naught compared to most.

You had bread on the table.

While standing still, Jack, looking at a view I'd begun

to hate, I wanted to reach out, get something better.

You got too big for your boots, you mean.

Is that what you mean?

Oh, yes.

Yes, it was always a crime round here, wasn't it?

To get too big for your boots.

To reach with your head what you couldn't get with your hands.

To dream.

We deal in facts, Rowley, not dreams.

You get no from dreams.

You know, sometimes I could wake her to it, Dora,

to what I wanted in life for her, for all of us.

But you had rooted her here, Jack, here, in this place.

Your promises of a better world.

One day, she'd say, they're going to pull all this down, and they'll build little

white houses for people to live in, and the stacks will be gone.

Who says so, I'd ask her.

Dad does, she'd say.

Dad, Dad.

And it was a hope for the boy, not for us.

He'd given up hoping for us.

Yes, it always got to the woman first around here.

The end of hope.

It was always the women who grew old before their time, waiting on their men,

waiting for something that never came.

Dead promises.

Dead hopes.

You could see it in the streets.

Lots more.

I can see it now.

And you talk to me about dreams.

Oi, Sarah says, do you want chips with it?

I'll say.

She wants chips with it.

Don't they feed you at home?

Not been home.

Came straight off the train from London.

This is ours, isn't it?

It's your mother's, yeah.

You were a wicked-looking little devil, weren't you?

Shades of things to come.

How's Tad?

What makes you think I saw Tad?

Didn't you?

What makes you think I did?

It's written all over you.

What is?

Disaster.

Oh, here we go.

You're heading for the biggest load of misery you've ever had in your life,

and you're happy because you've stopped thinking.

That's what I call disaster, Pat.

Well, go on.

Go on?

It's you that goes on.

You and Tad on and off for how long?

And every time it starts up again, it gets worse.

Blame him, mainly.

He's a man, he should know better.

You're a real, genuine, 100% anti-feminist, aren't you, Sam?

I don't know what that means, but it sounds like me, aye?

We should all be like you, shouldn't we?

Sweated out, do our duty, don't allow ourselves the indulgence.

Like you, perfect.

I'm not perfect, Pat.

Say it with more conviction, Sam.

Say it as if you mean it.

I wasn't perfect where Liz was concerned, was I?

You never really cared for Liz.

Didn't I?

Well, if you did, why can't I let go like you did?

Because you're a woman.

Pig.

Woman.

Drop dead.

What's in the future for you with Tad, anyway?

I thought you were in love with Karl Marx.

Look, he's not like you.

Who, Tad or Karl Marx?

You're a hell of a puritan, aren't you, Sam?

A moralist.

You reckon?

You joke about Marx, but you're closer to him than I am.

You stink of disapproval of knowing better than everybody else.

Tad converted you, has he?

You let go easier than Billy, didn't you?

Bit of sex, that's all it takes.

I'm an expert on broken marriages, Pat.

I started when I was ten.

I care that you shouldn't be hurt, that's all.

Well, be glad for me, then.

Because this time it's on for good.

He's leaving his wife, and he's coming to me.