Original subtitles

FOOTSTEPS

DISTANT, ECHOING SCREAMS

LOUD GASP

MATCH STRIKES

SHE SIGHS

Mm.

KNOCKING AT DOOR Oh!

HE SIGHS

Dear lady.

SHE COUGHS

I've heard that tone before.

Is the doctor displeased?

I have warned you...

I'm rather past warnings, aren't I?

COUGHING INTENSIFIES

Come. You see...

Ooh, what would my late husband have said?

THEY CHUCKLE

Not much, I suspect.

Ah...

Don't tell me - a miracle!

I will survive to 102!

How does one live out one's last days, Doctor?

Funny thought, isn't it?

I always imagined I'd like to be wheeled out into the sunshine.

One more dance around the hollyhocks!

But, now it's here,

I find I rather like lying in bed,

smoking Old Virginia,

making phantoms in the air.

Making phantoms.

You might write.

SHE SCOFFS

One final imperishable tale from the famous nib? Ugh!

Tell me a story, then.

One of your old ones. Oh...

What? The Railway Children.

People always want The Railway Children.

It is rather wonderful.

My mother read it to me when first we came here.

Oh? Nice to be remembered, though.

For something? For anything?

DISTANT DOG BARKS

When I'm gone, what will people remember about me?

That you had a wonderful bedside manner and were

terribly, terribly handsome.

HE CHUCKLES

Have you ever read any of my other stuff?

My, shall we say, grimmer tales?

Fairy stories?

Come and sit on the counterpane, I'll tell you a story.

I have other patients.

They'll live.

HE SCOFFS

Just a few more minutes, then.

Excellent!

HE CHUCKLES

I might even put you in the story, Doctor!

Every ghost story should have a rational medical man

to offset the nonsense.

So, where shall I begin?

Let's say it's 40 years ago.

1880s.

And let's imagine a young couple.

We shall call them... Laura and Jack.

They've not long since married,

but there's already trouble in the union.

So they've moved in to a charming cottage in the countryside

for a fresh start.

Or so they thought.

Plain stuff.

Plain but wholesome.

I've never had complaints.

Fish on Fridays.

Mutton on... Mutton on Wednesdays.

Yes, you said.

Well, nothing wrong with good, honest English cooking!

Won't you sit, Mrs Dorman? Oh, no, thank you, ma'am.

Wouldn't be proper.

You'll find us a simple household.

Just me and the little wifey here.

For now.

How you finding the village?

Not had chance to see much yet.

We enquired in all manner of places before we settled on this one.

Those that looked ideal had no drains...

SHE CHUCKLES ..or resembled tea-caddies!

Fever traps, disgraces to beauty,

or vine-covered porches with corruption lurking within.

You did not want to stay in London?

Impecunious bohemians, you see. Mm.

You're an artist, sir?

For my sins. And you're a writer, ma'am? Hmm.

Would I have read anything?

Er, well... Oh, Lord, no, no!

Just the odd silly little story for the periodicals,

that sort of guff.

Anything to bring in the jingling guinea, eh, wifey?

HE CHUCKLES

That's a good chap.

Wherever you can find a space. Righto.

INDISTINCT

Good morning! Ah.

I gathered we had some new blood in the district.

I'm Zubin.

Oh, yes, I heard about you.

Er, local sawbones, eh?

Hmm. Heard about me?

All bad, I hope!

JACK CHUCKLES

My arrival did cause something of a stir, as you may imagine.

The locals are a little set in their ways.

You know, I've been here five years,

and they still think of me as a "blow-in". Hmm.

John Lorimer.

Oh, and this is my wife.

Doesn't she have a name? Laura. SHE CHUCKLES

Delighted.

It is to be hoped we shan't need to see too much of you, Doctor. Oh?

Till the little ones arrive, anyway.

Jack! We've only just got married!

We've only just got married.

Never too early to start planning, eh?

Two boys, two girls. Well...

For a start, at any rate.

But I should show you around,

if you're game. Lord, yes.

Anything to get away from unpacking!

Is there much to see? Frankly, no.

Except the church, of course.

Church?

Dismal old spot. Oh, it's wonderful.

It's 14th century, I think. Mm. I believe so.

How can you tell?

SIMULTANEOUSLY: The windows. The windows.

LAURA CHUCKLES

Good Lord, Laura. You've made a friend, I think.

She can talk for hours on the subject.

Oh? Hours.

Always got your head buried in a book, haven't you, wifey?

Well, I-I like to learn. Don't worry, darling!

It's not a criticism.

It's one of the reasons I adore you.

Besides, it's good for you to have a hobby.

This way, is it? Mm.

It's one of those funny old places that's out on a limb.

No-one really comes here much.

It's...friendless, shall we say.

No minister?

They won't stay. Why ever not?

Heavens! What a pair of beauties!

Ah, yes! These are our prize specimens.

But Mrs Dorman will tell you all about them.

She's the local oracle.

Probably the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter or something.

No names.

Looks like they've been scored out.

Like those ones we saw in... Where the deuce was it?

Durham. The Cathedral. Mm.

They were all smashed to pieces

when they housed Scottish prisoners there.

Never a good idea,

letting foreigners into your house.

DISTANT, ECHOING SCREAMS

LAURA GASPS SCREAMING CONTINUES

What is it, darling? Jack, I don't know.

They're horrible somehow!

SCREAMING INTENSIFIES

LOUD SLAM

Ah! Mr Sowerby.

The sexton.

I'll take it from here, old boy.

Of course.

Excellent as ever, Mrs Dorman.

Just a John Dory.

Fish on Fridays... Mutton on Wednesdays!

Yes, how well you know us by now.,

And it's all right for me to take Thursday next off,

sir, as arranged? Yes, yes! Quite all right.

I can subject myself to Laura's cooking for one evening.

Rotten timing, though, with Christmas coming.

I am sorry, sir. My niece, you see, taken bad.

Always a sickly child. But enough of that, Mrs Dorman.

Bless me, I'd nearly forgotten - your local doctor was telling us

that you know a lot about the local customs.

Legends.

Dare say I do.

Pull up a chair! Er, no, sir...

Oh, I forget, you don't...

But you'll tell us all about them?

The myths of the village, mm?

Imperial! This is what Christmas is all about, eh?

Nothing I like more than a proper blood-freezer

on a winter's evening!

Well, there was smuggling hereabouts, back in the day.

Ooh, smugglers! You hear that, kitten? Mm-hm.

And the old hall - just a ruin now -

they say there's a Grey Lady there.

Headless, is she?

You've heard of her, sir?

No, no.

They always seem to be headless, and grey.

Why are phantom ladies always grey, wifey, do you think?

Perhaps their laundresses aren't up to scratch!

And those two knights? Mm.

Knights? In the church.

The effigies on the tombs.

The doctor said... Them two bodies, you mean?

Drawn out, man-size, in marble?

What a turn of phrase you have!

Great fodder for your little stories, kitten... Sh, sh!

A big house once stood where this cottage is,

long way back, from when the church was built.

And...

..many deeds was done here.

Deeds?

They do say, as on Christmas Eve...

..them two bodies sits up on their slabs

and gets off of 'em,

and then walks down the aisle, in their marble.

As the church clock strikes 11,

they walks out of the door and over the graves

and along the bier-balk.

And if it's a wet night,

there's the marks of their feet on Christmas morning.

And where do they...

..go?

They comes back to their home, ma'am.

They comes here.

You don't mean to...

You don't mean to say people have seen them?

If you'll excuse me now.

No, no, no, no... The dishes.

Christmas Eve, eh?

Thursday. Mm!

Mrs Dorman?

DISHES CLINK

The legend.

You didn't say why the knights get up and walk...

..in their marble.

They comes to punish.

QUIETLY: Punish?

Them two knights, see, when they come in from their wars,

whatever their wars was, they was told, see,

that their wives had not been faithful.

And so they throttled the life out of their poor women.

Despite everything they had themselves got up to

while they was away, and despite those same women

being quite, quite innocent.

That hardly seems fair.

The way of the world...

..is it not, ma'am?

There's been trouble...

..hasn't there, ma'am?

And there still is, I see.

You can tell me. There's nothing I ain't seen.

WHISPERS: It isn't easy for him.

The life of an artist.

H-He gets frustrated. Mm.

In our previous place, in town,

Jack saw me conversing with the grocer's boy.

Such a scene.

That's why we came here.

To get away. To start anew.

It is their world, my poor lamb.

Theirs to sully and despoil.

Whose? They're all alike, all of them.

Them two knights, all them centuries ago.

Your husband.

Mine.

Whether hewn from flesh or stone...

..they are all as one.

SCORE DROWNS OUT SCREAMING

SHE GASPS, PANTS

Ah! Mrs Lorimer! Oh!

A pleasure to see you.

I trust I find you well.

Quite well. Thank you, Doctor.

Your colour says otherwise.

Oh!

THEY CHUCKLE

Mind if I...?

Are you quite all right, dear lady?

Perhaps I've been rather overdoing it.

My scribblings are the only thing

keeping the household running just now.

Cannot your husband...? It is difficult for him.

He has yet to be discovered.

But he-he will be, I-I know he will be.

DISTANT CHURCH BELL TOLLS

I must apologise again.

Apologise?

That day in the church.

You must think me an awful goose.

Nothing to apologise for.

Those statues are pretty fearsome-looking.

Enough to frighten anyone.

There is just something about them.

Those cruel, cruel faces,

etched with...evil.

Do you think something like that could last?

Can continue...

..beyond the grave?

I am a rationalist, Mrs Lorimer.

I have no truck with spooks and such.

Mrs Dorman says they walk...

..on Christmas Eve.

Do they now?

Perhaps we should have a picnic in the graveyard and hold a vigil.

Oh!

THEY LAUGH

PEN SCRIBBLES

UTENSILS CLATTER

It was overdone.

It was capital. It was like old shoe leather.

Mrs Dorman is much missed.

I trust her niece will recover soon. Mm.

I shall take my pipe outside.

You look a little pale, pussy.

I don't want to add to it with my noxious vapours!

Let me come, too.

No, sweetheart.

You're much too tired.

I shan't be long.

Get to bed, or I shall have an invalid to nurse

on Christmas morning, as well as the boots to clean.

I shall read a while.

You won't be long? No.

No.

DOOR CREAKS OPEN, SHUTS

DOOR OPENS

DOOR SHUTS

Mm-hm.

CHURCH BELL TOLLS

TOLLING CONTINUES

HER BREATH QUIVERS

CHURCH BELL TOLLS

TOLLING CONTINUES

HEAVY FOOTSTEPS

SCRAPING

TOLLING CONTINUES

CROWS CAW

FOX SCREAMS

Come on, blast you.

HE GASPS

HE WHIMPERS

CHURCH BELL TOLLS

HEAVY FOOTSTEPS

DOOR UNLOCKS, CREAKS OPEN

HEAVY FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

SCORE DROWNS OUT SCREAMING

Good heavens! Mr Lorimer! Get back! What's..?!

Get out of my way, please! Pull yourself together!

Don't you understand? They're gone!

Th-They're gone! What are?!

The marble statues. From the church.

Th-They're not there!

ZUBIN SCOFFS

I-I think you've been working too hard, my dear fellow!

Or Mrs Dorman has been filling your head with those scary stories...

Damn Mrs Dorman!

I've seen the bare slabs! Just now!

They're not there!

Come back to the church with me... No! No, come back and look.

Then you'll see this is all just in your mind.

A trick of the light.

JACK PANTS

I imagine you've had a glass or two tonight?

Yes.

Well, then! Yes.

Come along, I insist.

Come along.

Come, come.

HE CHUCKLES

There you are, you see?

HE EXHALES

HE SIGHS

You're right.

I must have been overworking.

And your note?

An urgent matter, you said, regarding your wife.

Not ill, I trust?

No.

I...

Just a silly fancy of mine.

A jealous husband seeing things that perhaps are not there.

Mm.

Hello.

What is it?

There's been some mischief here, in any case.

The hand on this one is broken.

Perhaps someone tried to remove them.

A practical joke. That wouldn't account for what I saw...

What I thought I saw.

Too much painting and tobacco will, though!

Mm!

HE CHUCKLES SHEEPISHLY

Come on.

Laura'll be worrying.

Fresh start. Will you join us for a tipple?

I'd be glad to.

Hmm. We'll drink to... confusion to ghosts...

..and better sense to me!

HE CHUCKLES

I'll take all your recommendations. Ah, I like to be useful.

Oh, Mrs Dorman!

HE SIGHS

Hmm.

How is your niece?

Wha...? Oh. Much recovered, sir.

You should be careful about leaving doors open, sir.

Hmm.

But I didn't leave it open.

I should not have left.

I should not have left her.

Laura, my dear?

She's asleep.

Laura, are you...?

JACK GASPS

HIS BREATH QUIVERS

She's dead.

She's been strangled.

QUIETLY: Oh, God.

What the devil has happened here?

HE WHISPERS: True.

I-It's all true!

Th-Those brutes have destroyed my Laura...

HE SOBS

But...you must believe me.

Just like the story you told.

Just as the legend foretold!

Legend?

That's just a story, sir.

A silly story.

But you told us, Laura and I, that

the knights, the men of marble,

coming back here to kill!

Mrs Dorman. Would you be so kind as to fetch the constable?

Yes, sir. I shall remain here with Mr Lorimer.

Constable? What the hell...? What the hell do you mean? It...

It's all too clear what's happened here.

A beautiful young wife.

A jealous husband.

Your own words, sir!

Now, look at the consequences.

No. No!

They walk! Just as you said.

They walk!

D...Don't you see?

They walk!

Th-They walk!

They walk!

They walk!

ECHOING

DOOR CREAKS OPEN

DOOR SHUTS

FAINT RECITING IN LATIN

KEYS JINGLE, DOOR OPENS

LABOURED BREATHING

DR ZUBIN: But you cannot leave it there!

No? Well, did he do it or not?

And what of the marble effigies?

Did they really walk?

Perhaps.

THEY LAUGH

I have stayed well past my time.

You are a wicked woman, Miss Nesbit.

Forgive me, but this story...

..is any aspect of it true?

True?

SHE SCOFFS

It's a ghost story, my dear doctor.

But from what I've read...

..your own marriage, your...

..husband's dalliances...

Hmm.

I took in a friend.

She was despoiled by a married man.

Hubert and I raised the child as our own.

Only later did I discover

the married man who'd despoiled her...

..was him.

Good Lord.

So perhaps you can indulge a dying woman her little fantasy,

and forgive - as I forgave...

..probably unwisely.

SHE TUTS

SHE SIGHS

Hm.

I shall come again tomorrow.

If I'm spared.

Hmm.

SHE GULPS

SHUDDERING BREATH