Original subtitles

(gentle music)

- [Charlotte] Someone said that death might end a life,

but for the survivor, the relationship struggles on,

seeking resolution it may never find.

I suppose we should have guessed that

the death of one of us would bring us back together,

but none of us are under any illusion that time heals.

- Ms. Pugh?

Ewan Fleming, Gibson and Parks Solicitors.

- [Woman] Stanley, Stanley, how do you do?

- It was they who raised the alarm.

The police broke down the door,

bit of a make do and mend job, I'm afraid.

Once the postmortem confirmed death as natural causes,

the police got in a company to disinfect the place.

As executor of the will, you'll need

to settle the charge from the estate.

The chemicals, when they sanitized it.

Under the terms of the will, you and the other legatees

can dispose of any personal items as you choose.

Are they coming today, too?

- Mm.

- Is it right you all lived together?

Former flatmates, it says in the will.

- We lost touch over the years.

- When probate is complete, the flat will be sold,

all debts discharged, after which the estate

will be divided between you and the others.

Here.

Drop them off at your convenience.

- How long was it, before they found.

- Two weeks.

Joy of city life, eh?

(soft guitar music)

- [Jack] I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

- It was nice to meet you. - Thank you.

- [Girl] Thank you, bye.

- Next six.

The old man bought the lease.

Cheaper than shelling out on rent,

which makes me a landlord.

As a paid-up member of the all property is theft club,

the joke is on me.

A shared one, three guineas a week,

needs decorating and shit, like the others.

The other single, fiver a week.

And the double is across the hall.

Which one are you again?

- Charlotte Pugh.

- So, Charlotte Pugh.

You like what you see?

- I like.

I'm not about to lay a load of crap

about cleaning rotas on you, now just set out

a kind of modus operandi about living here.

We have a chance to challenge the status quo,

prove there's an alternative socioeconomic model

to live by other than the nuclear bloody family,

by sharing our labor, our energy, our resources.

- Like a commune?

- Works for them in China.

- Didn't they abolish landlords in China?

Execute them?

- Your name?

- Harper Alan, Alan.

- That's okay, thanks.

See what I'm trying to say, Alan, is,

what's the point in social mobility

if we just carry the same tired

old values around with us, you know?

So what we do is we construct a model

of living based on equality,

based on the welfare of the group,

rather than the selfish needs of the individual.

And up to and including sex.

(soft guitar music)

Aren't all relationships just another form of ownership?

- What is he on about?

- Eliminate the exclusivity of couples,

you eliminate jealousy and all the corrosive shit

which goes with it, so we make a rule.

No sleeping with the same person, flatmates included,

on more than three consecutive nights.

- What sort of godless set-up are you running here?

Now I want no part of it, frankly.

(Jack chuckles)

- Better out than in, as they say.

Let's take a vote.

All those in favor of the godless set-up as outlined.

- Okay.

Great.

Message received.

Over and out.

I'll let you know.

Send up the next lot, will you?

- [Radio Announcer] Since his stroke, the silent vigil

for Churchill's recovery continues

as the whole country prays for him

in this, his darkest hour.

His defiant vow, "We shall never surrender"

has never been more apt.

- [Charlotte's Dad] Amen to that, eh?

- [Charlotte's Mom] The girl who owns the flat you saw,

is she at your college, too?

- What does it matter?

If I was one of the chosen few, I would have heard by now.

- Susan Reynolds from Girl Guides.

She has a flat in Marble Arch.

Her mother says she's looking for someone to share with.

She's an air hostess now.

She'll be away half the time.

You'd have the place to yourself.

- Where's the fun in that, eh?

- The point is to be near college for her studies, isn't it?

- Doesn't preclude her having a bit of fun, does it?

- I didn't say it did.

Leave space for the crumble.

- Mum's okay about this, isn't she?

If I do move out?

- Nothing stays the same.

She has to face that, like the rest of us.

We only have one life after all.

(muffled chattering)

I can't afford to go away on holiday every single time.

Look, the reason I moved here is because I work,

I work damn hard.

("My Generation" by The Who)

* People try to put us down

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

- Hi.

* Just because we get around

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* Things they do look awful cold

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* I hope I die before I get old

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* This is my generation

* This is my generation, baby

* Why don't you all fade away

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* And don't try to dig what we all say

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* I'm not trying to cause a big sensation

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* I'm just talkin' 'bout my generation

* Talkin' 'bout my generation

* My generation

* This is my generation, baby

- [Announcer] First U.S. combat troops

deployed in Vietnam have.

- [Announcer] All day long there's been a sort

of pilgrimage to Sir Winston's house.

Families have come in from the country, young couples.

- No, sorry, no, north,

the signal comes from Alexandra Palace.

- Damn thing is not thickening.

- That's it.

- Everyone, this is Lilly.

Lilly, everyone.

- Hiya.

- Lilly's studying painting at where was it?

- Hornsey College of Art.

- I'm Jay.

- Hi.

- Hi, I'm Charlotte.

- [Lilly] Hi.

- [Orla] Come and get it.

- You know what, I've just clocked it.

I've just clocked it.

I've just clocked why he's chosen us.

Jack, why he's chosen us in particular.

We're his guinea pigs.

- His what?

- Exactly.

His socioeconomic mix.

Think about it.

He's got the class thing covered, hasn't he?

Race, you know, and you.

He's got the professions covered.

Computing, medicine, English, law, art and.

- Psychology.

- Yeah, and that.

So he's handpicked every one of us

to conduct his social experiment.

- Well, I'm not sure anybody is quite that cynical.

- Do you want to bet?

Cheers.

- Cheers. - Cheers.

(soft guitar music)

(door knocking)

- Jack?

Grubs up.

- Here you go.

Hold it in, don't exhale.

It's crap what they say, how it's an escape from reality.

You know when you get the feeling

life is utterly bloody futile?

You light up, it lifts you up.

Instead of looking into the abyss,

you're standing on the edge of the world.

You're invincible.

Feel anything yet?

How about this?

- Is that part of your social experiment, too?

- It's about being in the moment.

Seeing where it takes you.

It's quite a drop, be careful.

- Oh, I will be.

(light delicate music)

(phone rings)

You know the way.

Lilly.

- God, is it really 20 years?

I don't believe it.

Anyone else here yet?

- Uh, no.

I'm going to make a start in the kitchen,

so maybe you could do one of the bedrooms upstairs?

- Is that where it happened?

- Mm.

- Charlie.

There's not been a day when I haven't

regretted what I did to you.

Not a day.

(slow sombre music)

(soft bright music)

* And then we'll go downtown

- Bloody hell.

Wish we'd never started the damn thing.

It's supposed to be smooth like a mirror,

give an illusion of bloody space.

- Right, I'll see you later.

- Good luck with it.

- [Lilly] Bye, love.

- [Orla] Bye.

- [Charlotte] Where do you reckon it is

she goes every evening?

- [Lilly] Library, she says.

- [Charlotte] Maybe it's confession.

- Do you know what her mother told her?

That periods are called the curse,

because it's God's curse on us for Eve eating the apple.

- So much for your benign deity.

You been seeing anyone since coming to London?

- You?

- How about back home?

- Only a few local lads from school and that, you know.

No one special.

- So you didn't do it with any of them?

Go the whole way?

- The first time was my 16th birthday present to myself.

I couldn't wait to get it out the way,

see what all the fuss was about.

You?

- A girl in my class at the high school.

In the middle of her O-levels, she suddenly

drops out of school, drops out of sight.

I had this Saturday job at the

local supermarket on the till.

There was always this endless queue

of women with their kids,

stretching back as far as the eye could see.

They all looked so tired.

One day, I looked up, she was one of them.

Pushing a pram.

There but for the grace of a benign deity.

Still, all good things are worth waiting for, eh?

Then again, maybe I'll die chaste and virginal, like Orla.

- It may not be worth the wait, love.

Trust me, it's just not the big deal everyone says it is.

(door knocking)

(throat clearing)

- Rent time, girls.

- Oh, hold on, I left my bag downstairs.

- Cheers.

Thank you.

Thing about your benign deity,

yeah, it works in mysterious ways.

Thanks.

("Needle in a Haystack" by The Velvelettes)

* Well well, I once believed all fellas were nice

- Derivative, vacuous, pointless.

You want to paint by numbers,

go do it in someone else's class,

better yet, go work it out in a gym.

- Is that what you call constructive criticism?

- If it's any comfort, I'd not put myself out

unless I thought you had something going for you, would I?

- Please, God, say you're not falling for that crap.

This is the one place a woman can

take her clothes off and become invisible.

Sitting there all day, you see things, hear things.

You won't be the first notch on his belt, dear,

or the last.

- [Lilly's Dad] Could be your heating element.

- Or the capacitor, and if it is, I'm wasting my time.

- [Lilly's Dad] Here she is!

- Mum, Dad.

- We came down to pay our respects to Mr. Churchill.

- [Lilly's Dad] Near on 300 people there were.

Some had stood there all night.

- That's unusual.

- [Lilly's Dad] He'll pull through yet.

He's nowt if he's not a fighter.

- [Lilly] This is Victor.

He's on a law scholarship from Jamaica.

- Sorry.

Excuse me.

- You never said you were sharing with a.

- With lads.

We need to talk, love.

Is there somewhere we can.

- No, no, no, no, look.

I've got things I need to do upstairs.

So I'll.

It was very nice meeting you both.

- [Lilly's Dad] Now don't jump down our throats.

Just hear us out.

- [Lilly's Mom] It's your Aunt Helen.

She's, um, she's broke her hip.

- She needs somebody to help her out in the shop.

- And she says if you, if you come back, she'll train you up

and when the time comes, she'll sign the lease over to you.

- [Lilly's Dad] It's the only drapery in Heaton,

guaranteed custom, regular clients.

Set you up for life, a place like that.

- If I did that secretarial course,

you said I could go to art college.

That were the deal.

- You can still do your art and such on Sundays, can't you?

There's no future in it, love.

It's never going to put food on the table, is it?

It's not for the likes of us.

When the novelty of it wears off, and it will,

you'll wake up, see the world as it is,

not as you wish it to be, it may be too late.

You'll have burnt your boats.

- Bridges.

It's burning bridges.

And they're mine to burn.

(soft gentle music)

- When I was at school, my mam and dad used to go on at us.

"Oh, you've opportunities we never had.

"Work hard, get your exams, get ahead."

It was all fine while I was doing my degree up in Newcastle,

but when I moved down here for me post-grad,

it was a whole different tune.

Newcastle wasn't good enough for me anymore.

Now that I lived down here, I was above them all.

They thought I was leaving them all behind.

They were right.

(soft violin music)

- In the four hours since the last bulletin,

there has been no further deterioration.

- [Announcer] It was about an hour and a half ago

that Lord Moran, Sir Winston's personal physician, came out.

- [TV Host] And the essay, The Personal is Political,

do you think that means liberation

for women lies in our personal experience?

- [Woman On TV] It means we'll only realize our potential

if we transform our relationships with men.

The contraceptive pill has given us the freedom

to explore sexual intimacy without fear of pregnancy.

But so long as it's only available

to married women, the rest of us,

the majority of us, are denied that freedom.

And if our sexuality is stifled, so is our potential.

(breathing heavily)

(thunder rumbling softly)

- Orla.

- I started off in the hotel kitchen,

dishwasher and dogsbody.

Now I've graduated to the heady heights of chambermaid.

- You have a grant, don't you, like the rest of us?

- Most of it goes back home.

- You have to eat too, Orla.

They can't expect you to just--

- Well, they don't expect it.

I choose to do it.

In Belfast, if you're a Catholic.

Six years my father's been without work.

My mum holds down two cleaning jobs

and it's not enough, with four wee ones to feed.

Don't be worrying about me, I'll get by.

- How, slinking around eating our scraps?

- I don't want the others knowing, Jay.

I embarrass them enough as it is.

I don't always feel I belong here.

- Don't give away too much of yourself, Orla.

There'll be nothing left for the rest of us.

Night.

- Night.

(light guitar music)

- Morning.

- [Victor] That tea dead, that's a fresh pot.

- Any chance someone can cover my shift cooking tonight?

I'm late on an assignment.

- Well, I can, if it helps.

- You're a saint, Victor, so you are.

- All right.

Are you done?

- Yes, thank you.

- You don't have to do that, Victor.

Wait on us.

- Just doing me share.

- Have you heard?

Did you hear?

- [Radio Announcer] It's said that Sir Winston died.

- Churchill's died. - Shortly after

eight o'clock this morning.

Parliament will meet tomorrow to authorize a state funeral,

the first held for a commoner in this country.

- Some commoner, with his title and his country pile.

- [Radio Announcer] For a generation,

he led his people through the darkness of war.

He was an inspiration, rallying them to victory.

- God, what bollocks!

- Show a bit of bloody respect.

- What do you want?

A chorus of Rule, Britannia?

- [Alan] We'd be in a damn sorry state without him.

- Tell that to the people in the East End and Coventry.

When the Germans invaded Belgium,

did he order them to bomb the Panzers?

No, no.

He sent them to bomb innocent civilian German cities

and he calls Coventry in the Blitz war crimes.

You call that heroism, if you want.

Me, I call it hypocrisy.

- You know what they say, takes one to know one.

* There'll always be an England

* While there's a country lane

* Wherever there's a cottage small

* Beside a field of grain

* There'll always be an England

* While there's a busy street

* Wherever there's a turning wheel

* A million marching feet

* There'll always be an England

* And England shall be free

* If England means as much to you

* As England means to me

- [Alan] Do you know what, Jack?

- What?

- I have never, never met anybody so full

of predigested crap as you are.

- Victor, give it a bloody rest!

Slavery is over, haven't you heard?

- You are a truly unique human being, Jack.

One of a kind.

(weighty music)

(door knocking)

- Victor?

He's right, I'm full of crap.

It's like Malcolm X said, man.

"No one will give you equality, you have to take it."

I'm sorry, I lost the plot.

Am I proud of it?

No.

Will it happen again?

Almost certainly.

What's the thing in The Third Man, Harry Lime says,

"If one of those dots stopped moving forever,

"what would you feel?"

If you feel nothing, what does it say

about you, about your humanity?

Or is all altruism just self-serving bullshit?

- It's because you feel, you get so angry.

That's the proof of it, surely.

(soft gentle music)

- [Doctor] Married how long?

- [Charlotte] Six months.

- [Doctor] And your husband agrees

to you taking oral contraception?

- It's my decision, not his.

- You wouldn't credit how many girls come in here

wearing a curtain ring from Woolworths,

hoping to get the contraceptive pill.

They must think I'm a bloody halfwit.

(soft soaring music)

(fingers snapping)

* Trailer for sale or rent

* Rooms to let 50 cents

* No phone, no pool, no pets

* I ain't got no cigarettes

- We need to talk about your mother, Charlotte.

She's, um.

She's suffering.

It's the change.

She's just not coping with it.

- She seems fine when we talk on the phone.

- Oh, she doesn't want to be a burden, you know how she is.

It's the empty nest thing.

Keeps saying her life is over.

I've got so much going on at work.

I'm home all hours and so I thought,

perhaps, if you could come home,

just for a couple months, until she's through it.

- Why me?

Why can't Adam or Peter move back?

- Well, your brothers have their careers

to think of, don't they?

But you can commute, like you did

your first term, can't you?

It wasn't so bad, was it?

- I'll lose my room at the flat.

- We can get you another room later,

once we've sorted your mother out.

If I thought I could meet her needs, then I would,

but I can't, not in years.

If you think that's easy to admit, think again.

(weighty guitar music)

- Will you be going home at all this year?

- Well, um, my scholarship barely pays

for my fees and my maintenance so sadly no.

You know, all Jack's talk about poverty and inequality.

He knows nothing of them.

They're theoretical to him.

It's all just a way of him parading his radical credentials.

- Dad!

(window knocking)

(heavy afflicted music)

- It's six o'clock somewhere in the world.

Can you stay the night?

- I have a lecture first thing.

- Dad will be sorry to miss you.

He's home late, some panic at work.

Well, this is a nice surprise.

Out of the blue.

- I saw Daddy in London the other day, actually.

He was with someone.

- From work?

- Who knows.

I was with someone, too.

A boy.

It's not just girls sharing the flat.

It's boys, too.

- And one is your boyfriend?

- No, I just thought you should know.

- Why the secrecy?

Or do you think I am so stuck

in the dark ages I can't deal with it?

(weighty music)

I used to blame the war for stealing my youth.

And then your father for stealing my future.

I never blamed myself naturally.

Someone, somewhere, is out there

living the life I should have had,

because I gave it away to the first man I met.

(door buzzer buzzing)

- Hello.

- [Edward] Jack Walsh about?

- Who wants to know?

- [Edward] His father.

- I was just getting up.

- I'm on my way to the funeral.

I should have known he'd be dead to the world.

- Churchill's funeral?

- [Edward] Mm-hmm.

- I'm hoping to get there myself later.

Can I get you a cup of tea?

- If there's a cup free from infection.

Saw 5,000 at the rehearsal yesterday.

More heads of state clogging up

Westminster than us bloody MPs.

- Oh, you're an MP.

- For my sins.

Wilson was sandbagging de Gaulle

over dinner last night about producing

some Anglo-French supersonic airliner, so he claims.

Softening him up about the Common Market, more like.

- Best of British with that one.

- Thank God for Gallic obduracy, I say.

(Alan chuckling)

Ah, good morning.

We were just talking about Churchill.

I assume it's a vain hope

that you'll come with me to the funeral.

- God, all that xenophobic pomp.

My stomach couldn't take it.

- As no doubt you would have already observed, Alan,

my son's respect is reserved for malodorous dictators,

like Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh.

- [Alan] It was a pleasure meeting you, sir.

- You too, son.

Your mother ran into Mr. Bradfield at the bank last week.

He tells me you're overdrawn again.

- He has no damn right discussing my accounts with you.

- He's the manager and I'm your guarantor.

That gives him the right.

- Blame it on the cost of living in London.

- You did choose to forego your place at Balliol.

- Spare me the dreaming spires litany again.

- Balliol would have opened doors for you

just as it did for me.

Doors which you have voluntarily elected to slam closed.

Debts are like children.

Begot in pleasure.

Bought forth in pain.

Courtesy of my son, I seem to have a spare ticket.

It's a reserved seat at St Paul's, for family and friends,

if you're interested.

- Probably, if you're sure, sir.

- We could grab a bite at my club on the way.

And it's Edward.

Morning.

- Morning.

(weighty music)

(door knocking)

Posh car.

So what are you, an earl?

The right honorable someone?

- My father and I, our disappointment

in each other is mutual and terminal.

- Join the club.

- Best leave me to my own devices, Charlotte.

* Here I go again

* Watch me now 'cause here I go again

- [Charlotte] Daddy.

- Someone's birthday?

- Housewarming.

- Hardly the best taste, today of all days.

Or that either.

When did you start doing that?

- Why are you here, Daddy?

- I was up for the funeral.

I thought we might get something to eat.

- Oh, is what's her name not available, then?

- What?

- The tart in the miniskirt I saw you kissing.

And don't insult me by telling me it was nothing.

I know what I saw.

Tell me.

All those work trips over the years.

All the late nights in the office.

Is she the first?

Or the 21st?

- It's not like that.

- What is it like?

She was my age, Daddy.

Younger, even.

- I'm human, Charlotte.

I made a mistake.

Have some compassion, can't you?

- Compassion?

Where was yours when you tried

to talk me into moving back home,

so you could shag your way around bloody London?

- Whatever I've done, I'm still your father.

I deserve some damn respect!

- Respect.

There's a word.

- We'll do this some other time.

- Tell me, Daddy, what do you think?

Is it too short?

Too sluttish?

But I'm your daughter, aren't I?

Different rules apply.

From now on, I make my own rules.

("Hang on Sloopy" by The McCoys)

* 'Cause you know Sloopy girl I'm in love with you

* And so I'm singing

- Fun day?

- Aye.

* Hey, hey, no Sloopy

* Sloopy, hey, come on

- [Singer] That's right, give it to 'em.

- No, I like men.

Okay.

* Sloopy let your hair down girl

* Let it rain down on me

* Sloopy let your hair down girl

* Let it rain down on me, yeah, yeah

* Come on Sloopy, come on, come on

* For your love

* For your love

* For your love

* I would give the stars above

* For your love

* I would give you all I could

- Happy pill?

Huge personal sacrifice, but since it's you.

* For your love

* For your love

* For your love

* I'd give the whole moon if it were mine to give

* For your love

* I'd give the stars and the sun for I live

* For your love

* To thrill you with delight, I'd give you diamonds bright

* Double takes I will excite

* Make you dream of me at night

* For your love

* For your love

* For your love

* For your love

("You Really Got Me" by The Kinks)

* Girl, you really got me goin'

* You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'

* Yeah, you really got me now

* You got me so I can't sleep at night

* Yeah, you really got me now

* You got me so I don't know what I'm doin' now

* Oh yeah, you really got me now

* You got me so I can't sleep at night

* You really got me

- Orla!

Orla, please let me in.

Let me in, Orla.

Orla, open the door.

You can't tell anyone, Orla.

Please not a word, promise me.

It'll finish me if you do.

* Yeah, you really got me now

* You got me so I can't sleep at night

* You really got me

(moaning)

- Fuck.

Oh, fuck me.

What's the deal on that?

- We'll never get equality in the boardroom

until we get it in the bedroom, will we?

- You know how long I've waited to meet someone like you?

I mean, finally.

Finally, a girl who doesn't confuse

a bit of uncomplicated sex

with the romantic crap about commitment and love.

I'd like a pound for every time

I've been sucked into that particular hell.

Bloody hell, I'm famished.

Aren't you?

(weighty music)

(phone rings)

- Victor.

(soft weighty music)

(gentle orchestral music)