Original subtitles

GLASS SMASHES

POLICE SIRENS WAIL

It's crazy out there.

They're burning the place to the ground.

DOGS BARK

So much yelling,

and the dogs howling like it's a bloody full moon.

It's fantastic, isn't it, Jodie?

The crashing, the sirens, and alarms.

Isn't it exciting?

The final resistance is here.

And we're bringing a revolution.

Got this through my door this morning.

I've read it over and over, Jodie.

You should get out there and be part of it.

I know I'm not one to talk, watching from my window,

but if I could, Jodie, if I could.

The sickness, you see, I know it's left my body.

But my body hasn't left it.

And you get used to the air in the house.

It's like my greenhouse. Take me out of here,

and I don't know the air outside would keep me alive.

Not after so long.

I did try, though, that time, that was...

Ah, it don't matter.

My marching boots.

People used to say I would be buried in these.

When I wore them, people knew I meant business!

It's funny, that, living two lifetimes.

Like there's been two different me's.

Your dad's a cheapskate, always has been!

Listen here, Jodie, if I tell you one thing before I die,

it's that the people that say,

"It's the thought that counts," are the same people that say,

"Size don't matter."

These people are cheap liars, with small...!

Anyway, Jodie, trust Nana, you run in the opposite direction!

SHE LAUGHS

Good thing your Pop-pop weren't one of them people -

one thing he had going for him, I suppose!

Don't look at me like that.

You think you dry up when you turn 50 or something?

Look at Shirley Bassey, Vivienne Westwood, Toni Morrison.

Helen what's-her-face...

Mirren. That's it. Sade.

That black lawyer lady, Baroness Scotland.

We've all still got the juice, as you young people say.

If your Pop-pop was still alive,

he'd tell you Nana stays juicy!

What was I saying, now?

Oh, yes, you know your Nan-nan was front and centre on them protests.

Them people sitting in the ivory towers didn't give a damn.

People were dropping down left, right and centre with the AIDS back then.

They thought AIDS was just for gays.

But it weren't. And even if it were,

we are all human, you understand me?

My best friend, when I was your age, was a gay girl, Christine.

Didn't know she was gay.

At first, I thought she was religious,

or she didn't fancy black men.

Did I say she was white?

Well, if I didn't, I say it now.

She were a white girl.

Weren't allowed in her house, and she weren't allowed in mine.

Think both our parents were just a bit afraid.

Christina told me once that her mum had never voted.

Think the world was changing too fast for her.

My ma was nine months pregnant when she voted for the first time.

She had been having contractions for two days.

But she didn't tell me dad,

because he would have made her sit her backside in the house.

Ma said she had waited for it for so long to vote.

To be counted.

She grew up hearing all the speeches,

hiding in the backs of rallies and protests,

lost in the purple, green and white, trying to figure out

if it was for her or not. It weren't.

Ma said they were never really talking about her,

or talking to her.

So she said, one day, if she ever could vote,

that would be her own little protest.

But I think the world might have been changing too fast

for my ma too, that's why she sent me back to Trinidad for a bit.

I think she was scared because I wanted too much from the world.

But I told her we can't wait ten years, like she did,

we can't be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the table.

If we can't get a seat at that table,

then the table needs flipping right over!

But she always say,

"And when all them things on the table fly up in the air,

"whose head it gon' land on top of?"

But I didn't care.

I had a hard head, and legs made for marching.

I swear I looked like the future in these boots.

We were the future!

We were oracles.

Trying to drag the world forward to what we saw.

And we did.

We did it.

I met your Pop-pop on a march.

It was the first time I realise them ivory tower doors

could get banged down.

You don't have to relate, to empathise, to know what's right.

We are all human.

You understand?

Out there, there is so many of them, all different colours,

all wanting the same thing.

Like the flyer says, "To transform the character of our society,

"to do away with oppression and exclusion of any group,

"and to equally distribute safety, privilege and opportunity."

Safety?

It's clever, that. People forget that matters.

That not everyone gets to feel safe.

It may look like chaos from this side of the window,

but that flyer tells us that they are smart out there.

Would have cut you a bigger slice,

but I know you're watching your weight!

Told your mum to put you on the carrots.

I was chubby, too, before joining the Auxiliary Air Forces.

But then again, might have been just baby weight.

I was only about 15, had to lie about my age to get in.

Always had big breasts, though.

That's another thing you didn't get from this side of the family.

Shame.

There was a colour bar in the services at the start

of the Second World War, but then I heard on the radio

that some black women were turned away from the Army.

Imagine that, didn't even want us to fight for them.

Anyway, the women said they had better luck with the RAF.

Also, the uniforms were right sexy!

Had a black woman as my Corporal.

Imagine that!

Lilian Bader.

I never forget her.

I wanted to be her.

She was the kind of woman that no matter how little space

she tried to take up, you could tell she was bigger than it.

Not big like you.

I mean, big like the stars.

I used to think like that about Diane Abbott too.

I know, but look deeper.

She is Durga, the invincible.

What you see now is a warrior, weakened and dishevelled from war.

But a warrior, nonetheless.

Don't let the press fool you.

Diane was unapologetic.

Unapologetically a woman.

A black, socialist woman.

She couldn't have made it harder for herself if she tried.

I mean, this woman was just so unafraid to be on the outside,

if she felt it was the right thing.

Jodie, women can never be afraid to be on the outside.

I'm too old, but you, you don't ever be afraid.

You understand me?

Look, there's a meeting tonight.

You can borrow my boots.

You can be a part of changing the whole world.

For everyone.

Just like I did, just like my ma did in her little way.

Flip a table, and move out of the bloody way.

Because it will come crashing down,

then you get right to the work of building it back up again.

You make sure everyone has a seat at that table

and no-one has a tower to hide in.

We've been defying and fighting since Eve.

It's the deepest thing within us.

Esther, Boudicca, Elizabeth, Lilian, Diane.

It's OK, I know you're busy.

Well, you pop round again soon.

GLASS SMASHES IN THE DISTANCE

CAR ALARMS BLARE

POLICE SIRENS WAIL