Original subtitles

(serene guitar music)

- Scape, or?

- Charity.

- I have dibs on that.

- You could scan it, make copies.

- Good plan.

- What do you want done with these?

- Oh.

Silly of me, I guess.

Lilly said

that your marriage didn't work out.

I'm really sorry to hear that.

- My heart wasn't in it.

She knew it.

(ethereal music)

(exhales)

- [Alan] So much for quittin'.

- Tell me first, Al said.

- Yeah.

You pull out the music, I'll hum it.

(cell phone ringing)

Hello, Alan Harper.

Hello Orlie, how are you?

Orla.

Right well I'll,

square it with Lill and get back to ya.

No, I will today, don't worry.

Okay, alright then tada.

They're gettin' together before the flat sells this weekend.

- Will Charlotte be there?

- Yeah.

And Victor.

You're afraid, aren't ya?

Seein' everyone?

- Why not.

Oy.

- Oy, oy!

On scratching that.

I'll hunt you down, go on.

(men talking in the distance)

- He's different.

The scarf and the bum.

Had it seen to.

- Plastic surgery?

You used to blather how your looks were a curse,

not a blessing.

- We need to talk about something, mom.

Dad?

A word.

You know how they bought in that thing about

buying council houses?

And you said you'd be six foot under

before that day ever dawned for you?

That day is here.

- I rang a load of estate agents

and got a few valuations out of 'em.

- It's too much, we can't.

- No, no, no, no, look, we made a packet

selling our own place and Lilly's business has taken off

like a bloody Exerset.

I've got a few irons in the fire,

as it were, so to speak, so,

you know, posh, posh, as Mr Rumfield'd say.

It's not like we've got children to share it with, is it?

- Appreciate it, thank you.

- Hey, come here.

- Thank you.

- Well, that's what they say, isn't it?

Money can't buy you happiness?

(somber music)

- Here West was meeting East

in one huge whoop of joy.

(cheering)

More duration here.

Few commentators predicted such seismic political change

was drifting through so fast. (phone ringing)

And dig out that Thatcher piece we did

on how a single German state

would distort the power balance in Europe.

Charlotte Pew.

- [Victor] Hello Miss Pew.

- Hello.

Listen Orla called, the farewell due for the flat

is this weekend.

- We'll need to sort childcare for Emma.

- Well why don't we take her with us?

We haven't seen anyone since the move up North.

She can finally meet everyone.

- She'll be bored silly!

She can stay with a friend, I'll make some calls.

See you later.

(phone hangs up)

(crowd bustling)

- Any joy?

- No, I'm the man of the moon and they're bloody queuing up.

What have we got?

- A no from Dennis Heely.

And Roy Hadersly says he has no vacancies

for an SDP refugee.

(scoffs)

- Unforgiving bloody bunch.

- Want me to try Gordon Brown?

See if he's an opening?

- I'd as soon have a root canal.

- You've got a visitor.

She said you were expecting her.

- Copies of the bills you're after.

Rights, utilities, and the tenancy agreement.

- Fantastic

- You are coming this weekend, Jack?

It's important we're all there.

- Do the others know yet?

- I said it's a get together to say goodbye to the flat.

- Jay?

- [Orla] The same.

- If he won't listen to you, why would he to the rest of us?

- Because we're the closest thing to a family he's got.

If enough of us say the same thing, he'll have to listen.

- He won't thank you for ambushing him.

- I'll not sit by and do nothin'

while he does a kamikaze on his entire life.

- [Man] Jack?

- I'll let ya get on.

- You and he look for somewhere together, or...?

- If he's still speakin' to me after the weekend.

- Things as they are now,

I have no choice but to sell Orlie.

- I have to move on.

- I no longer believe it possible

to resolve that conflict from within this government.

That is why I have resigned.

(knocking door)

In doing so, I've done what I believe to be right.

- Do you have any washin' that needs done?

- Oh, yeah.

(news continues)

One second.

- You have off tonight?

- Yeah, shh, he's sleeping.

- Thank you very much.

- Thanks.

Not too late, Jay.

They're gettin' here before lunch tomorrow, remember?

- Oy.

Hey beauty.

(men laughing)

(pensive piano music)

(laughing)

(laughing)

- [Alan] Oh god, what?

(cell phone rings)

- Hello?

Ah.

We're all here, except for you.

I'll see you then.

Stuck in traffic.

(laughing)

- [Jack] So what's with the facial hair eh?

- [Lilly] He's going through a Tom Selleck phase.

- Who said it was a phase?

(laughing)

Cheers everyone.

(glasses clinking)

- [Lilly] So is Victor not going us Charlie?

- He's dropping Emma off at her cousin's in Kapam.

- Pity.

I was looking forward to meeting her finally.

- Seven years now, Charlie.

- Eight.

Truly.

- Orla told me about your mother.

How it was you who found her.

- So, now the SDP's folded, what's next?

Throw your lot in with Labor again?

- There'll be snowplows in Hell

before Kennick lets us lot back in the fold, no.

He blames us for his humiliation at the polls.

By splitting the vote we let Thatcher back in.

- What exactly does a special advisor do?

- Ah they're ghosts in the political machine, Jay.

The power behind a throne.

- Or the fall guy when things go down the pamp.

- Charlotte, how's life in the North?

Still keeping call in buff are they? (laughing)

- They have to keep it somewhere, don't they?

- We're still waitin' on our invite.

- Turn the cup.

- Give the poor bitch a break. (laughs)

Oh I caught your credit,

on their box again the other night.

I felt absurdly proud of you, actually.

Motherhood.

How's that been?

Best thing that's ever happened to me.

Bar none.

And you?

What's with you on the home front?

- Well as it happen--

- What's the deal with Hezzletine's bid

for the leadership jack?

Think Maggie'll survive it?

- If she can survive the debacle of the poll tax,

she can survive Tarzan doing his worst, I'm sure.

(chuckling) No I think she'll manage.

She'll manage. - Here he is.

- Come on, big girl.

Sorry we're late.

- Why did you not take her to Clepper?

- [Victor] Their youngest had chicken pox.

- [Orla] And this must be Emma!

- Yes, and this is Lilly, Alan's wife.

This is Jay the doctor.

- [Jay] Hello, Emma.

- [Victor] And this is Jack.

He used to share a house with Mummy and Daddy too.

- Jesus, Jay!

- [Orla] I'm on it, I'm on it.

- Ah.

I'm fine, I'm fine.

- [Charlotte] It's alright darling, it's only a nosebleed.

He'll be alright.

Shall we get you some crisps?

Yeah?

Just this once, though.

What would you like?

(exclaiming)

(laughing)

- He's really bought into it, fatherhood.

- [Charlotte] She made us complete.

- [Lilly] Is that why you didn't have any more?

- Victor says its like his color's invisible to her.

Without our own, she'd always be reminded she's not his.

I tell myself deceiving him is a necessary lie.

For the greater good.

- You didn't move to Manchester to hide her from everyone?

Your so-called best friend

cuts you out of their life for years,

what do you expect, a red carpet?

(melancholy music)

- I had no choice!

If I'd have stayed in London, stayed in touch,

I would've made you a participant in the lie.

- I'll remind you two of it.

- [Jack] When do we do the deed?

- When we get back to the flat.

- Well make it sooner rather than later.

My father's had another turn.

I have to pop off and see him tonight.

- Had enough.

- [Charlotte] Oh, Alan!

- Orla.

- Oh, my god.

(exhales)

- I've got a stitch.

(groans)

Hey this is where Karl Marx came

when he was cranking out his theory of Communism.

Must be turning his his bloody grave,

seeing the whole edifice come crashing down.

Still he got summit right.

If Communism's about owning the means of production,

then the information super highway,

that's where it's at.

I mean you can forget the Industrial Revolution, Jack.

This is the electronic revolution,

it's a global game changer.

I'm talking about entire nations electronically connected.

It's very exciting.

(eerie music drowns out Alan speaking)

We're looking at venture capital,

it's a chance to come in at ground level.

Jack?

Jack?

- Ah sorry.

The information, what is it?

- On Saturday morning, I had ballet class,

and Mummy and I went shopping.

- [Charlotte] Two Ps, isn't it?

One there, and one there.

(eerie music drowns out talking)

- [Reporter] The contest for the leadership

of the conservative party has become increasingly bitter

as we move closer to tomorrow's vote.

Mrs Thatcher says--

- [Orla] Right, dig in guys.

- [Alan] Yeah Orla, have you made enough?

- [Jay] Still cooks for an army

even though there's only two of here.

- [Orla] You get through it, doncha?

Cheers everyone.

(toasting)

- We've still got our gin.

- I'm multi-tasking.

- Truth be told I've got you all here under false pretenses.

Want to tell them what's been going on with you, Jay?

Say I'm overreactin', fine.

Let's see what people think

when they find out what you're doing.

(scoffs)

- I'm afraid you've had a wasted trip, guys.

Tonight's foreshow is cancelled.

Indefinitely.

- He's HIV.

He was diagnosed six months ago.

- Oh you're in on this as well, are you Jack?

It's under control!

I'm AZT, I'm doing fine.

- [Orla] Except for the side effects.

- Is that what the nosebleed was about?

- And there's more.

He hasn't said anything to anyone at work about it.

- You're allowed to do that?

Operate when you've got AIDS?

- [Jay] HIV is not AIDS.

- [Jack] But it's the virus that leads to it.

- Not in every case, it's not.

You can't catch it from a handshake.

From Princess Di I guess that much.

- What if you have a nosebleed while you're operating?

- [Alan] What if you cut yourself?

- I've never cut myself in an operation, not once!

- Before you operate on a child,

you make sure the parents have the relevant information.

So they can make an informed decision.

What don't they have the right to know this too, Jay?

- A surgeon can go home and hit the bottle!

Do a line of coke,

do you not think that affects his performance?

I mean the patients don't know about that, do they?

Look there's not one recorded case of HIV

being transmitted by an infected doctor!

- How about off the record?

- It's not like you can't still practice medicine.

There's radiography, research.

(slams table) - I'm a surgeon!

It's what I do!

It's what I am.

Jesus why do none of you bloody get that?

(dramatic piano music)

- I think someone should go an talk to him.

- Let him cool off a while.

- Someone has to tell him what it would do to him,

living with a lie like that year after year.

(laughing)

- Oh I'm sorry, that's just...

It's outrage coming from you.

Oh come on.

Glass houses and stones.

I mean I am to blame, too.

I said to her when she told me about Jack and the baby,

I said she should tell you that it was someone else's.

A one night stand.

She said, what was it you said Charlotte?

What kind of a person would that make me?

Someone who wants it all ways, apparently.

- Lilly.

- Hey.

I was in the dark, too.

(door shuts)

(dramatic piano music)

- [Charlotte] Finally.

- It's bloody--

- Jack-O!

(laughing)

- Here he is!

Tardy bugger.

- Lilly.

We have a grizzly job eh?

- You could say that.

- And she was alone when it happened.

Two weeks before they found here.

- Maybe Jack should take a look at the safe?

(laughing)

- She had a fire safe.

And we can't find the keys!

- I'll be there.

(sighs)

- I'll make a start on the bathroom.

(thoughtful guitar music)

- You could take it to a locksmith.

Let them have go at it.

- Well best not let it out of our sight

till we know what's in it.

- I'll get a locksmith to come here.

We need to talk about her ashes.

What to do with them?

- Nothing in the will?

- No.

- I'll sort it.

(chuckles)

(vibrator buzzes)

(thoughtful piano music)

(panting)

(sobbing)

(door opens)

- [Charlotte] It was while we were doing the detox for him.

He was hurting.

- Pity shag.

- Before she was born, when we were waiting to see--

- What color she was.

- I'd made up my mind

if it turned out she was his, I'd tell you the truth.

Even if it meant losing you.

But then you held her.

And it wasn't just about what I'd lose anymore.

- So you did it for her?

Well then you're in the clear then, Charlie.

I won't pretend that the thought never crossed my mind.

I dismissed it,

on ground that you were incapable of such deception.

You know when a witness lies in court,

they're held in contempt?

I've understood what that meant until just now.

(pounds glass)

I can't actually look at you right now.

- Vicky I'm begging you, Victor!

Forgive me, please try!

Please!

(door opens)

(somber piano music)

- That must be our faller.

Tell Charlie I'll,

I'll be in touch.

- Sure, you go Jack.

Leave someone else to pick up the pieces after you as usual.

A trick I never quite mastered.

- Good evening, good evening.

(reporters talking over each other)

I'm actually very pleased that I got

more than half the Parliamentary Party

and disappointed that it's not quite enough

to win on the first ballot.

So I confirm it is my intention

that my name go forward for the second ballot.

(switches TV off)

- Did he come back yet?

Victor?

- How anyone comes back from something like that,

God only knows.

- I thought you'd given up on all things Godly.

- Oh I've occasion to call him now and then.

- Say one for me while you're at it.

- I always do.

- Okay.

You win.

I'll tell them.

- It's the right thing, Jay.

I mean--

- You struck oil, Orla.

There's no need to keep drilling.

- So on a scale of one to 10, how mad are ya at me?

(scoffs)

- Off the bloody scale.

- This too shall pass.

(dramatic piano music)

- [Charlotte] Is he here?

(exhales)

- Mystery solved.

The move up north.

Dropping out of sight all this time.

I get it now.

(exhales)

What exactly do you want me to do about this, Charlie?

Step up?

Do the father thing?

Or step back?

I mean she already has a father, I get that too.

I don't wanna complicate things.

- Jack.

Car's around the corner, I couldn't find the damn house.

- This is Alicia.

And James.

Charlotte.

- Hi.

Ready?

Go to Daddy.

Good boy.

- God knows you wouldn't want to complicate anything.

(exhales)

- Come on, Alan.

If you were in Victor's place, you'd want to know the truth.

- Bloody hell fire, Lilly.

Have you any idea of the damage you've done?

I mean what possessed you to say such a thing!

- [Lilly] Well then just take me home.

- No, no, no, you're staying.

You face the music.

Something made you say that, Lilly.

It wasn't just the booze talkin'.

All yours.

- The day after we met that time at the pub, I rang.

Remember?

I told you I couldn't bring myself to tell him.

If you felt it was so reprehensible,

why not say something then?

Or were you just biding your time?

For fuck's sake, say something!

I'm not the only one with a secret am I?

Alan doesn't know about Jack and the abortion does he?

That's the reason you can't have children.

As you reap, love.

(door opens)

- You alright?

Victor'll come around.

There's no way he'll lose you.

Either of you.

- In his place, could you come around?

(inhales)

- I'd like to think so.

- Alan.

She doesn't deserve you.

(gasping)

(somber music)

- Can we go home now, please?

- Come on.

(door closes)

(clock ticking)

- I'm looking for a Minister who is dull,

totally loyal, and above all, someone who'll stand by me--

- Owen's upper right chicks claim

it was their relentless piss take of it

which put us in the scrap heap.

- Thatcher seemed to has seemed to have ride the same beast

without too much trouble.

- She's bulletproof, isn't she?

- Bedtime reading?

(flips pages)

Did you do all this?

- Your mother.

She was,

boring the doctor with it just now.

Anyone who sets foot inside the house gets it.

- [Jack] Your handwriting, Dad.

- Well.

I helped around the edges.

(groans)

- "Vote for us and break the mold of British politics."

"Challenge the tribal factions in Westminster."

- You came quite close there for a while.

It was the first pass the post thing which did for you.

- With the timing.

Which in my cases sucked, as ever.

- Well it's not too late to follow the others,

join the liberal alliance.

- It was a revolution I wanted to be part of,

not some hybrid coalition born out of political necessity.

When the Gang of Four started,

they toyed with the name "The New Labor Party"

did you know that?

(scoffs) They should've gone with it.

If only to show the red cards of Labor,

modernize or die.

- Maybe Labor will have its own

felded revolution.

That's a sort of legacy.

- Perhaps it's a generation thing.

There's just no cause that's worth fighting for now.

You lot did all that for us, didn't you? (scoffs)

- That's a convenient excuse.

Oh Jack.

I think I've worked out what it was all about.

All those years of your sacrificing yourself

on the altar of rebellion.

It wasn't about fighting me, was it?

It was about fighting all of this, waiting for you.

And you were right.

Success isn't the same as succession.

(pensive music)

- Mum?

Mum.

(gasps)

- Sweetheart.

Time to go.

Come on.

(door opens)

- [Emma] Can I watch a video?

- Mhmm.

Victor?

(breathing trembles)

(mournful music)

(crying)

- [Locksmith] Whose property is it?

- She's deceased.

- [Locksmith] Someone's been messing with this.

- That's why we called in the services of a professional.

- I'll need authorization before I can touch it.

- Well, I'm the Executor of her Will.

That's all the authorization that you need.

- ID?

Cup of tea wouldn't go amiss.

Langsing if you have it.

Don't let me keep ya.

(drill buzzes)

- What are we gonna do with the computer?

- That's down to Charlotte.

Right.

It's okay, I can manage.

- No, no, no well, many hands,

et cetera, et cetera.

- So how does one address a viscount?

- Well in a letter it's "Dear Lord",

paradoxically on the envelope, it's "Viscount"

then again on official I'm the "Right Honorable Viscount"

but verbally I'm just plain,

"My Lord".

You'd have a more appropriate mode of address,

hypocrite, being in pole position, I'd imagine.

How's Emma?

- She's in New York.

Research project.

Columbia.

- She and I did meet.

I'm assuming she told you that.

Summer of '05, she'd have been...

- 23.

- Yeah.

I mean.

Her initiative,

she made it very clear from the start,

coffee, not lunch or dinner.

Just the one meeting, not looking for anything ongoing.

She asked me a load of questions about my family,

my sons, her half-brothers,

about how Charlie and I had...

Yeah well.

That was it.

She thanked me for my time, shook my hand and left.

No recriminations, no reproaches about

how I'd failed as a father.

In fact a triumph of nurture over nature.

- Perhaps you both failed her.

- [Alan] Safe's open guys!

- [Jack] She was carrying your picture in her wallet.

Which is a damn sight more than what my kids do with mine.

- So.

Premium bonds.

Bank stuff.

Oh, title deeds to the flat.

Copy of.

- [Jay] When was it she bought the flat?

- [Alan] '93 was it?

- No end of '90, I made a deal with her

when the first bank dropped out.

- Oh my god.

She had a brother called Connor didn't she?

- [Alan] Christ.

- "Dear Orla".

From her mum.

Dated 1973.

"In this circumstances, your father and I

"do not think it appropriate that you come

"to your brother's funeral.

"Connor told us that he came to you for..."

Something "sanctuary in London.

"That you sent him away, that you chose your friends

"over your flesh and blood."

Oh my god.

- Let me see.

- "I just hope they never turn their backs on you

"when you need them, as you did on Connor.

"As far as your father and I are concerned,

"they're your family now, Orla.

"We want no part of you."

- I didn't know he'd ever been to the flat, did you?

- Someone did.

I can't remember if it was him.

- But she was always on the phone to her family, wasn't she?

Do you remember?

And then those phone calls and the visits home just stopped.

- And we never thought to ask why, did we?

We never gave it a second thought.

- We're not mind readers.

She didn't confide in us, did she?

- If the IRA were after him,

she'd have thought that put us at risk.

Given what happened to him, she was right.

- She made the right choice.

- For us or her?

- [Jack] There's no booze in the place, is there?

What's next?

- Here, hang on.

"To Orla, from the gang on your retirement,

"with love and respect.

"November 2010."

- [Jack] Is there anything to play this on?

(applause)

- [Man] So class is charged, guys.

And this is just a little something from everyone.

- Oh.

Oh my goodness!

Oh, that's beautiful.

I don't know what to say.

(applause)

- [Audience] Speech, speech!

Go on!

- There's a,

a forest in Japan,

so vast it's the size of a small ocean.

And it's so dense, no compass can work there.

They call it the Sea of Trees.

And for generations, people in trouble have gone there,

well in despair.

To end their lives.

Only sometimes they're uncertain

about what they intend doing, so

they leave markers on trees,

in case they chance their mind and

want to find their way home.

And I think our job as therapists is like that.

We're like compasses.

People come to us in despair,

and we try

and help them find their way through it.

Make peace with the past.

And so if I have succeeded, even just once,

in doing that.

Then, well.

I really think our job,

is a job well done.

So, thank you.

- [Man] Oh that's lovely.

(applause)

To Orla.

- [All] To Orla.

- To Orla.

- [Charlotte] Orla.

- [Alan] To Orla.

- To Orla.

- She did it for me, you know.

Buying this flat.

So if I ever got sick,

I'd always have a roof over my head.

Two years later I met someone.

I upped sticks to Ember with him.

Without a backward glance.

- What was it she said?

"Hindsight is knowing where you've been,

"foresight is knowing where you're going."

- [Jay] "Insight is knowing you've gone too far."

- Well maybe that should come under hindsight, too.

Have you had any thoughts about

scattering the ashes?

(dramatic piano music)

- Just a minte.

- Where's that going?

- It's going in the games room.

- Oh yeah?

- See if I can improve my aim.

- Let's not leave it so long next time.

- [Jay] Seconded.

(hopeful guitar music)

- Soon, yes?

- Charlie.

I go to Washington tomorrow.

A human rights case.

But I'll be back within a fortnight.

Maybe we could,

have lunch sometime?

- My cup runneth over.

(hopeful guitar music)