Original subtitles

That's half past six.

You said you wanted to call at Gowley Street before you went to work.

Changed your mind?

No.

Well, you'd better get up then.

Oh, God.

Hangover?

Yeah.

There's some bicarb in the bathroom.

It's in the cabinet.

Little round cardboard box with a tin top.

Oh, Christ.

It's the coconut I wouldn't feed to the status last night.

Put in the glass case, shall I?

Don't wake Tom.

I remember when my mum died.

The time they told me.

My gran's arms round me.

I pushed her off and ran upstairs.

And heard my granddad say, nearly let him go, Polly.

I wanted none of them.

Sometimes you can remember the smell of a day.

The colours.

The taste of dust on your tongue.

The day my dad went off, he gave me a shilling.

Be a good lad for your mum, he said.

Stood at the bedroom window, looking at the street.

Both of them gone now.

The end of the world.

She left me a baby brother.

When they brought Les home, he cried for a week.

He did all me weeping for me.

And because I made no sound, they said, brave lad.

Good lad.

He's getting over it.

It'll pass.

As if the tide had come up and washed it away forever.

He never stopped looking, though.

Down at the street.

But if somebody comes, never stop looking.

Grained in you.

Flesh and blood.

Why didn't you wake me?

I've got me breakfast before.

You can treat yourself when you get your own.

Oh, don't I treat you then?

Course you do.

But stay home.

You're up at this time.

Why didn't you lean?

Oh, have it.

I should get used to it four weeks out.

Well, a fat lot of use that'll be.

You'll be off back to Cornwall then.

Aye.

I, um... I didn't like to say anything last night after your long journey.

But, uh, this house you mentioned that you said there might be a chance of...

It's only a chance.

I'm not certain.

Is it... Would you say it was as good as this then?

Nay, they've not had money spent on them that Sam spent on these.

It's fairish.

For down there.

Is it to rent or buy?

To rent.

Oh.

Our Frank's home, ain't he?

Aye.

Parliament's closed down.

For good?

No.

You know what they call recess, isn't it?

Eileen went down there for a week, just after Corby's funeral.

Just for a week she went.

He broke his neck, didn't he, Corby?

Paralytic drunk, they said at the inquest.

They were bankrupt, you know.

They had to sell off the house and furniture to pay the debts.

He's not left that lass of his a penny.

We went to see the day it happened.

She was with us, Sarah Corby.

That place that we went to, you know, that time.

When your daughter were alive.

Sam's still knocking about with you, Sarah Corby?

They've been thick as thieves all summer, ever since it happened.

Will they get wed, then?

There's no sign of it.

You know what he's always said?

He'll get wed on his 100th birthday, he's always said.

Brought some for you.

Thanks.

Did you peep at Tom?

Aye.

He opened his eyes, looked at me, and went straight off again.

He always told me his eyes were blue.

Blue like mine, you said.

They look more grey to me.

You must be colour blind.

I doubt a Mrs. Ash will sit for us again.

Why not?

I think she's twigged that you don't always go straight home.

They're taking the furniture to the sale rooms today, by the way.

Today?

Oh, it's all right.

I'm keeping the stuff in here.

And a few other bits and pieces.

And there's still a month before I have to move out.

Have you written to your grandad?

Yes, I said I'd give him a fortnight's notice if I was coming.

I must be off.

You've had no breakfast.

I'll get some back home.

When shall I see you?

Tonight.

If you want.

Bye, then.

Bye.

He's just sneaked in the back door from his night out.

Some?

Yes.

Half an hour's time he'll put on a big show about setting off for work.

As though he's been there all night.

You'll see.

He must think we're all daft.

You don't make a lot of noise, do you?

My grandad?

Up early, were you?

Early-ish.

No need for you to get up.

Off to work in your best suit, are you?

We've got some customers coming round the works.

I shall wear my overall over it.

You've made your bed, I see.

Aye.

You're a tidy sleeper, aren't you?

Your aunt Ethel put clean sheets on your bed yesterday.

There's not a crease in them.

Been peeping, grandad?

You'd think I were born yesterday.

The tails you've had me swallow.

I don't want you to swallow any tails.

Spit them out.

Why couldn't you say you've been out all night?

What, and do you out of your fun?

You like playing Sexton Blake, don't you, grandad?

Back to your old ways, is it?

Well, you tell me.

You're the bloody expert.

Corbis, lad.

Oh, mind your own business, grandad.

I thought you'd haven't soured on her and taken somebody your own weight on.

Don't you reckon she's got enough on her plate?

Her dad did not for her.

What do you reckon you've got to offer?

What's it to do with you, for God's sake?

There's talk going around.

Oh, so it's the talk that bothers you, is it, grandad?

We live in the same house.

You behave like a bloody libertine, it reflects onto me.

Well, I'm a chip off the old block, aren't I?

You've always said so.

What did you want me to stop for, then?

I want you to stop?

Who said I wanted you to stop?

You did.

They're all going, you said.

Aye, and small bloody wonder.

So I went away, grandad.

I saw the rest of the world are a good part of it.

Brazil, where the nuts come from.

Yankee land, where the real captives live.

Australia, where we sent the sheep-stealers.

I'm single.

I've no ties.

Why do you think I stopped?

I've seen better bloody places than this, grandad.

What have you seen in your life?

Aye, you like to belittle me, don't you?

You've belittled me all my life.

All my life I've been out of step from where you stand.

I thought we'd started to make a go of it these past few months, but no.

I can't put a foot right where you're concerned, can I?

You call what you're doing right.

I'm living me life, grandad.

Aye.

Fun and fancy.

And she'll pay the bloody price, won't she?

Ask her if she's any complaints, then.

When women have nobody to turn to, they've to take what they can get.

That's what life does to women.

You know all about it, don't you, grandad?

I know what your mother had to live with.

And I don't, don't I?

You think like Deakin.

I was a lad.

I knew nothing.

I could learn nothing.

That's the way you think, isn't it?

Aye.

You've seen it all and I can learn nothing except through you.

Well, what have you seen that gives you the right to show me the way?

The Promised Land.

Jerusalem the Golden.

Where is it, then?

Tell me where it is so I can go and have a

look at it and set it against what I've seen.

Show me the Promised Land, grandad, and I'm your man.

Only you can't, can you?

There isn't one, is there?

It's like you yourself said that time when you asked me to stop.

I never, I never.

It's just in your head and you drag it out once a year like Christmas.

You know, it's like those Sunday school treats

that grand used to get me all dressed up for.

Big fuss, big treat, and we'd end up in Stanley Park again.

Same old bag of buns.

Same old apple.

All dressed up and nowhere fresh to go.

I don't want that same old bag of buns, grandad.

I shall seek what I want and find it.

I'll live me life my way.

Like it or lump it, I'll be as I am, not as you think you see me.

Look, Sarah, I still think you should come and stay with us for a couple of weeks.

Look, Sarah.

I heard you.

And the answer's no.

Well, of course it is.

I want to stay friends, don't we?

Anyway, I drink too much and keep late nights, haven't you heard?

And I have this very odd friend.

Yes, well, I'm a bit off your odd friend, Sarah.

It was a nice thought, granny.

Both of you.

I'm glad of the thought.

Look, I'll be perfectly all right here.

They're leaving me a bedroom intact.

And a couple of chairs.

But it's... it's... it's so temporary.

Well, of course it's temporary, you're not.

She knows that.

She knows what I mean.

I mean she should be making plans.

What?

To go to her grandad's?

It's time I got to work.

Well, don't just keep saying it.

Go.

I'll walk back.

We've got other shops anyway.

You know where we are, if you need us.

Born worrier.

Yes, I worry too.

I don't.

I've given it up.

No, you haven't.

I know you.

You're worried sick, aren't you?

They'll be down in a minute.

What's wrong with him?

He works too hard.

Aye, I know that.

I suppose you think he does it just for the money.

To keep us, his family, the millstone round his neck.

It's a bad reason, is it, Cass?

Well, it's your idea of marriage, isn't it, Sam?

Oh, another that thinks she knows it all.

Know all about me, don't you, Cassie Dent?

Don't Cassie Dent me.

Crossman's my name.

Aye, I'm sorry.

I, er... I forget.

Like your father?

I forgot the last time you were here in the kitchen there.

It wasn't me in that kitchen with you, Cass.

It were two animals in there.

If it's on your mind, think of it like that and then forget it.

Forget it?

Just like that?

You don't understand, do you?

Neither me, nor yourself.

You want life as you think it should be.

You're like me grandad.

It blinds you to things as they are.

He's more honest than you, Cass.

If he's festering inside you what we did, tell him.

Let it out.

I'll tell him for you if you like.

You would do too, wouldn't you?

You'll not so easy forget it if you don't, Cass.

I promise you that.

Tell him.

I'll clear off.

He'd expect that of me, but he'd not blame you.

He knows more about life than you do, Cass.

You think you know more about him than I do?

I hope not.

You're married to him, Cass.

He's coming, don't you dare.

Let it stop as it is then.

Let it live.

Sorry about this, Sam.

She says you're not so well.

It's a long-standing stomach thing.

Comes and goes.

You want to know if you can take that chap on in my job?

Yes, we have to let him know tonight if we want him.

You didn't have to bother seeing me.

I could have spoken to Harry Webb.

Rubbish.

You're one of the family.

And a shareholder to boot, in a small way.

Aye.

How are they doing, the shares?

Don't you know?

I forget I have them.

They're not doing too badly at all.

Well, you can take that chap on.

You sure?

I am sure.

Right, well, I'll talk to Harry Webb.

Look, there is just one other small thing whilst you're here.

There's a chap up here from Surrey for a couple of days.

You might have seen him about the works.

Well, he's the brother-in-law of my cousin who helped finance the assembly plant.

He's been axed from the Navy.

He's looking for a job.

So, Jack thought he might suit us as sales manager.

I'd like to know what you think.

I know nothing about sales.

No, no, no.

It's the technical aspect.

You're supposed to know about diesels.

No formal qualifications, though.

I'd like you to have a chat with him.

Ah, well, I can manage that for you.

Right.

Look, why don't you take your girlfriend out for a night on the firm?

Cassie's taking him out to dinner tonight.

You could join him.

Sarah?

He once said, I'm all you've got and look at me.

He was ashamed because he thought he'd let me down.

Shouldn't you be at work?

Dinner on Crosman's tonight.

Oh?

Business.

Oh.

Looks empty, doesn't it?

Upset you?

Oh, you know.

Pick you up at seven.

Perhaps you should go on your own.

Don't want to come?

Look, Sam, I'm all right now.

It's worked.

I'm on my feet.

I don't need you anymore.

You don't?

I mean to...

to prop me up.

And you've got your own plans and your... your life to live.

I'll go to Grandad's and sort things out.

You can come and see me there if you want to.

There's no real point in hanging on here for another month, is there?

I thought you wanted to stop on.

I was seeing the furniture go, I think.

I felt like a bit they'd left behind.

Better to go now.

Happen?

I knew you'd think so.

Did you?

Maybe I will come tonight.

Last fling.

Last fling.

Well, Pat's coming home next week.

Yes, I know.

You told me.

How do you know she's coming home next week?

Did she write to you?

Well, you saw her in London, didn't you?

Well, you never told me you saw her in London.

Didn't I?

I meant to.

I wrote and told her what train I was coming on and she met me for half an hour.

You see?

He's that much happening in his life these days, he forgets half of it.

Is he the chap, were you?

The chap?

Aye, chap.

A friend, you know.

The chap.

What sort of a chap?

What's he do?

Where's he come from?

How long's she known him?

Aye, I thought I didn't ask him for his bloody birth certificate.

Can't even remember his name.

Well, you might have found out his height and his weight, and whether he's got any

birthmarks or other distinguishing features.

After all, she is your daughter.

Well, there's not we can do about it, any road.

Do about what?

Well, if she'd never left home and he'd lived next door,

she'd have done us your pleas, choose what we have to say.

She's not bloody married to him, as far as I know.

That means just somebody she picked up.

Picked up?

What an expression.

Well, she's got a home to come back to if she needs one.

It'll be Cornwall, of course, not here.

Still be her home.

She liked it round here, did your pap.

She's still got a few mates here.

It's funny, though, the number of old faces that are disappearing.

Frank says they're not going to build any more houses

over on Skeleton Estate, now they've closed down Cuddypit.

We were right to move, but nobody left soon.

Frank's been getting it from Jack ever since he's got home.

Jack says he should be asking questions in Parliament.

Says we're going to end up like a ghost town like they have in the Wild West.

There's a lot of money down south, you know.

There always has been.

Things are perking up up here.

Some parts, any road.

Happen it'll get better in time.

It'll come too late for us.

We were born too soon.

Who mended you these, for heaven's sake?

What did you say?

I thought I recognised that delicate touch.

Have you got any grey downy wool about that shade?

I might have, I'll have a look.

I've got to get back, any road.

One tin of black boot polish, black men's shoes for the use of, thank you very much.

Good heavens, he's returned something.

Oh, look at her, doesn't she look lovely?

Every time old Frank puts a year on, she seems to take one off.

Here, don't let him hear you say that.

And look at George with that southern suntan.

By God, he's handsome devil.

And as for you... I know, fresh as the morning dew.

Hey, you're in a good mood, aren't you?

Going out with the girls?

Two on them.

And they say Casanova's dead.

Come on, love, I'll go and get that woman.

What's the old place look like, George?

Not much different.

It looked worse to me when I'd been away for a bit.

It'd suit me.

No place like home, eh?

Not even Cornwall.

I suppose you think I'm daft.

No, I don't think you're daft, George.

Is there any jobs going in Foundry at Crossmans?

Good luck.

Can I stay till Sam comes?

Yes, if you want to.

Go on.

Hello, Tom.

Can you come and stay with me tonight?

Eh?

In the car.

Cassie tells me you babysit her problems.

Yes, I rang her.

She said you'd have a word.

I tried to ring you, but I couldn't get through.

I've cut the phone off.

Yes, I should have thought.

Tom wants to stay till Sam comes.

We're picking him up at Crossmans, so I'll drop him in then.

Yes, OK.

I'm sorry you had to drag out.

That's all right.

Tidying up?

Must seem a bit pointless when we're going.

Somebody will benefit.

Yes, somebody will.

So you're going out with Cassie, then?

It's something to do with Crossmans, with her business.

Yes.

Sarah?

You remember when I told you I was pregnant?

And you helped me sort it out and tackle Granny and so on.

Yes, I remember.

What of it?

I'll never forget it.

You were smashing.

What's brought this on?

Well, it's just that...

none of us seem to be able to get through to you.

To help.

And there's something...

I wasn't ever going to tell anybody.

And I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for this.

Jessie!

No, don't stop me.

It was one morning.

You were going to the seaside for the day.

Where we went with Granny that time.

You were going with Sam.

And Sam brought Tom round to Cassie's early in the morning for him to stay there.

I was up in the bedroom at home.

I don't know if you remember, but it looks down into Cassie's kitchen.

Cassie and Sam were in there and...

He's no use to you, Sarah.

There now, if you tell him to put that in the oven at four o'clock tomorrow,

it'll be ready for when you get back, OK?

Right, what about me then?

Seen the time, I'm hungry.

Ah, it's the visitor from London.

You half mean that, don't you?

We know we're not up to London standards.

Misses his tea on the terrace, you know.

Sure you wouldn't like it in the backyard?

Make you feel more at home.

Eh, no, don't come that sort of talk to me, Mrs Barraclough.

You'll get yourself in the Sunday newspapers

if you do that to the waitresses down south.

I'll get your tea.

I know me place.

What's she like when I'm away?

She pops in here a lot, goes round to see Ethel.

Ah, she should have had children.

Aye, there's plenty due that shouldn't.

She, er... she had a miscarriage, you know.

When Dickie was alive?

No, no, after we were married.

When you were away.

It didn't just grow in her, it grew in me.

Up here.

How he's braced himself to be a father at 43.

That's as near as I'll come to knowing what it means, I suppose.

I came near enough to knowing that it's different.

Different?

To the way I used to care about some of the kids in school, I mean.

The ones that obviously weren't cared for at home.

And you can care a lot.

When I left home that time, after Les and Dakin were killed, what month was it?

Spring of 48.

April, wasn't it?

About four and a half years back.

Aye, seems a lot longer somehow, doesn't it?

Aye.

I was never all that sure why you went.

Because of Les or Alan or because of Sarah Corby?

Well, it was about that time she went off with that chap she married, wasn't it?

Aye.

And there's plenty said I'd got me comeuppance.

And had you?

I wasn't thinking of marrying anybody at that time.

The politics keeping you busy.

You mean, am I going to sleep through the recess?

Oh, heavens no.

I'll have to plough through all the stuff we've discussed

on education and try and come up with a few ideas of me own.

I think a lot about you, you know, when we're

talking about comprehensives and the 11 plus.

There's a lad I know, I say, who might have had a different

life if we'd had a comprehensive system in the 30s.

What's that?

Well, somebody described it as an aristocracy

of achievement from a democracy of opportunity.

Well, that's putting it a bit too simply for me.

You'd not have had to prove yourself by the age of 11, that's for sure.

You were a classic late developer.

Too late, as things were.

Aye, and as some would say, I've not moved an inch since, eh?

Oh, you've moved.

You've had an easier time of it, though.

I'd have had an easier time still if me grandad

had let Toby pay for me to go to grammar school.

But to pay for his principles.

He knows that.

In fact, he said it to me once.

Lies on his conscience.

And he pays too, because he's got one.

It's a weird and wonderful world, eh?

You'll sort it all out in Parliament, though, eh?

There's a lot that'll never be sorted out in Parliament.

The most important parts of life, I sometimes think.

I'm glad you said that.

Why?

Well, I like a chap that knows his limitations.

Folks that can't put things back where they bloody belong.

Have you lost something, Grandad?

Where did you leave my screwdriver last time you used it?

It's on the front bedroom windowsill where you left it when you mended that catch.

Why, why?

He'll stop up there now till I've gone.

The minute he hears that door close, he'll be down like a rocket.

What's the trouble?

It's that part of life you were talking about.

It'll never be sorted out in Parliament.

Well, I've half an hour.

I can take my time, let him sit up there on the edge of the bed, and I can go.

Be charitable, eh?

See you.

See you.

He'd leave it laying there sooner than put it back in its rightful place.

Where's he off, did he say?

He'll be going with Sarah Corby, won't he?

She'll bloody row it.

Has he said all to you about them four hours of his down on the row there?

What about them?

Ernst Slater that lives in the end one says they've been given the chance to buy.

Buy some?

There is bloody houses.

What happened?

He needs the money for something.

For what?

He's got what you give him for yours, and he gets a good wage from Crossman.

He's packing his bags, I reckon.

He doesn't follow, does he?

Would you blame him if he did?

If he did want to leave this place, would you blame him?

Well, he went before and he came back.

A bloody changing room, that's what it is to him.

Somewhere he leaves his clothes.

Look at how George, forced down to Cornwall because there's not for him here.

Rooting himself up at his age.

Ah, well, a lot of people are going to have to do that, Dad.

Move out and up.

You should see the plans for some of the cities.

It's wrong.

Slums have to go.

Look, what did you used to say about condemned houses stopping up?

We have to find something different, fast.

That's what you said.

They take no account of folks' lives.

There are so many people, Dad, and every single one's a special case.

How do you cope with that?

You have to give them a choice.

Between slums and new houses?

That's Hobson's bloody choice.

Don't you want a new world?

I want a better bloody world.

That's what I want.

Have we learnt not that we chuck out the rubbish just to put more in its place?

You know what him that's just gone out said to me today?

Show me the promised land, Granddad, he says.

Only you can't, can you?

Because there isn't one.

That's what he said.

What would you say to me if I said that to you, eh?

I'd say you're assuming it was the same place for everybody.

It's not, is it?

You'd think it was, so look at what's going on.

Give them another ten years, you'll not tell one pub from another.

You'll travel 50 miles from one place to

another and think you're back where you started.

Aye, and we will be in all if we don't watch out.

What are you going to do about that then, Ethan?

Listen, that was wrong.

I mean, we think it can all come about through

what we do to change what's outside us.

If you can't change your life, change your pub.

What comes first, a better place, a better people?

Ah, but it's in us, not outside us.

Hello there.

All right.

Sarah?

I've changed, we're ready.

You'd rather stop here doing this, wouldn't you?

You think there's no point, do you?

Why?

Because I'm doing it for somebody else.

I think there's a point.

You ought to try gardening sometime.

It's uncomplicated.

Is it?

It's life without people.

You'll be four next, won't you?

Tom, yes.

Why?

About December, by my reckoning.

Hey, up.

Who's Cassie introducing him to?

Rainer.

He's one of the chaps that came up from Franklin's when they closed.

He's an accountant.

Like Granny?

Aye.

Granny's flesh and blood.

Maybe that's why you're in his bad books lately.

What have I done to Granny?

He thinks you're trifling with my affections.

What do you think?

I think we had an understanding.

Clear on both sides.

We've had fun and fancy.

No complaining here.

Thank you.

Thanks.

What's his name?

There's this chap we're out with.

I know it was said, but I've forgotten it.

Ornby.

Shouldn't forget a name like that.

Hmm.

Taken a dislike to him, have we?

It's not my time.

Is that bad?

You're after me tonight, aren't you?

What's he done that's upset you, besides speak with a public school accent?

He's a brother-in-law of a cousin that put some money up for the firm.

It's jobs for the boys.

Sorry about that.

I suppose we should order.

I am starving.

I'm sorry, old boy.

Same old rubbish.

Why do you always give me a load of rubbish?

You've to do the best you can with what you're given.

I know that.

I know that all my bloody life.

What I'm given, aye.

What I'm given, aye.

Be grateful for what you're given as others will soften you.

For what they're about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.

Stop chuntering.

Get on with it.

I'm going solo.

I'd have gone solo if it'd been my call.

No, but it weren't your call, was it?

Was there?

Oh, not again.

I shall get Ethel to come and make up hand when I've done this.

I'm weary of it.

You can ask her.

She'll not come.

Why not?

Why won't she come?

She hardly sets foot in here.

You can ask her why.

I can bloody imagine.

You what?

I said I can imagine why she doesn't.

Go on, then.

Let's hear it.

It's the way you behave towards her.

Always have done, since the day we was wed.

It's a pity when you can't go off for a month or two looking to work for yourself

and depend on your own to look after your own.

Look after?

What looking after does she need?

She needs less looking after than anybody I ever knew.

Look after her.

You're wicked, you know that?

You have a wicked tongue.

Now, don't take it out on us because she wants

you to go down south and you don't want to go.

Don't take it out on us.

Whose fault is it that I have to go down south?

What do you mean?

Well, you're on council.

You've been in union for years.

Why is there no work for me here?

I don't want to know if you've been so clever.

Now, don't get on at me.

Why not?

I've never been in politics.

Nobody's ever pointed a finger at me and said,

there's George Barraclough, he's a councillor.

No, they haven't.

If you want credit, take bloody blame.

And I've done... I'm bored.

I'm off.

You deal a bad hand.

Let him get it off his chest, the cheeky young bugger.

He's getting on for 50, Dent.

Eh?

Oh, look, I'll go.

I've got things to do.

What were that you said?

I said, he's getting on for 50.

You said, cheeky young bugger.

I said, he's getting on for 50.

Well, what about it?

Don't you think it's about time we started to treat him according to his age?

No, looky.

No.

No, you can listen to me for once.

He's cared for you all his life, and all his life

you've treated him like a simpleton, and he's not.

He's a good lad with a good heart.

Ma'am knew, she tried to tell you.

Give him credit.

I did, Dad.

And he's right, too, about you and me, in politics, the credit and the blame.

Why are the pits closing down?

Why have we made no provision for it?

And what's the coal board doing that we shouted so much about?

And whose side is the union supposed to be on?

You call yourself a socialist?

There are times, Dad, when I need a lot of faith.

A lot.

And a lot of hope.

And all the charity I can find.

I was only in public school for two years, actually.

I wouldn't have thought so.

Dad died when I was quite young.

Mum brought me up.

Well, that was marvellous.

But not what you're used to.

Not what I'm used to at all, as a matter of fact.

They drag their business in from far afield, do you?

They have to.

The locals can't afford it.

They seem to know you.

Well, I'm sure they do.

I'm a wealthy landlord, aren't I?

And heading for a seat on the board, aren't you, Sam?

No, Cassie, you know what they say.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

He wasn't being sarcastic.

What's all this?

He's leaving his job.

He's going to be an assistant to the works manager, aren't you, Sam?

So they tell me.

He's a bit shy about it, because his heart's really on the shop floor, isn't it, Sam?

With the workers.

Works manager's basically shop floor, I'd have thought.

Apart from the women.

Having a good time, Cass?

I'm doing all right, thanks.

And I don't mind saying so.

Yeah, have some more wine.

It'll go to what's left of your head.

My head's all right.

See how he talks to the boss's wife?

Cassie... I know, we were uneducated together.

Drop it, Sam.

Wine?

He's had enough.

I beg your pardon?

I said you've had enough.

I'll have some more wine, thank you.

No, you won't.

And what gives you the right to speak for me?

Give us some, Mr Hornby.

Now, Cass.

Where did you pick him up?

More for us.

He's what life made him, your dad.

Nobody else to blame.

All his life he's been telling us how to get there.

Never told us where we're bloody going.

You glad to be home?

I don't get cocoa down there.

They don't make cocoa at Diggs.

I have tea.

I don't like tea at night.

Makes me want to go.

This chap our Pat was with... Now, don't start worrying about that.

Oh, I'm not... Well, I am, I suppose.

How could I not?

What purpose will it serve?

Well, none, I suppose.

She'll live her own life in her own way, our Pat.

She'll have better than us.

Better?

Or more?

Well, it's the same thing, indeed.

Up to a point.

What point?

Well, I wouldn't know, would I?

We've never got there, have we?

Have we?

It's all has been work for us.

Work or do without.

What would we have done with it, do you reckon, if we'd had it?

Done with what?

Well, more.

If we'd had more, what would we have done with it?

Well, we'd have...

We'd have lived better, wouldn't we?

Up to a point, yes.

I can see that.

We'd have had a better life.

Yes, I know.

But after you've got all you need, and so on, I mean, after that,

what comes after that?

After things.

Well, you...

You live, don't you?

Do you remember young Les, with his gramophone?

The pleasure he got out of it.

All that classical stuff.

I could never make head nor tail of it.

It's all part of life, though, I suppose.

But we'll never know about things like that, George, you and me.

And there's Frank with his books.

I borrowed one once from Eileen.

Poetry, it was.

I always thought poetry was poetry, but it was modern, as she said.

Can't say I understood it all that well.

You have to be born to it, I dare say.

And yet he's your brother.

What makes us different, George?

Well, we're born like it, aren't we?

Are we?

I don't know.

Well, it wouldn't do if we were all the same, would it?

No, but...

I never feel I were given a choice, somehow.

Oh, and it's like you said about your dad.

They're that busy telling us how to get there,

they've forgotten to tell us where we're going.

Well, I know where I'm going.

Do you, George?

I'm going up to bed.

I'll take these in the kitchen.

George!

I don't want to go to Cornwall.

Hey!

I forgot to fetch Tom.

He's staying the night.

Good night, Sam.

Sarah?

Last fling, wasn't it?

Good night, Sam.

Sarah!

Sarah!

Sarah!

Sarah!

Sarah!

I thought you were going to bed.

Aye, I've just finished this fag.

We'll finish up here after all, then.

Aye.

Good night.

You'll see me all right at Crossmansville, Sam.

Not done much with us lives, have we?

Us others done less, I suppose.

We...

We've had us odd moments, though, haven't we?

Of course we have.

Don't be long, will you?

Poetry.

Smash the kitchen window.

You've got a damn cheek.

Aye, I survive on it.

That's what your dad used to say.

You're a cheeky young bugger, he'd say.

The way you behaved in there.

Over for all of that stupid wine business.

Because he was a Southerner with a public school accent.

That's all he has got.

Cassie told me he's broke and he needs the job.

So he has to be pleasant to a lout like you because

you might have influenced her go against him.

All because of her accent.

It's bred in me.

It's what they call a class war.

It's bred in him too.

It's a war, love.

Yes, and don't you love it?

No, I don't, as a matter of fact.

Let's go and fetch young Tom, eh?

He's staying the night there.

He is not going to be disturbed.

Right, I'll fetch him myself.

Then I'll go and tell him to show you the door.

I'm his mother.

Who's his father, Sarah?

And how long's that been going on up there?

On and off.

You went straight from me to David.

Do you want me to go into the details?

Spare me those.

Who is it, Sarah, this lout or the other lout?

Oh, did it hurt then?

I meant it to.

Who's Sarah?

Does it matter?

It matters.

It matters to me.

Why?

You care about him, do you?

You know I do.

Because you think he's yours.

Because when he's hurt, it's your own flesh and blood that's hurt.

Is his hurt any less, then, if he's not your flesh and blood?

Are kids that have no mother and no father less vulnerable to pain, then?

Less in need?

You should know the answer to that, if anybody does.

I want to marry you, Sarah.

And you'd better have a blood test first to make sure he's yours.

I'm buying this house.

You're what?

I'm selling me other houses.

I'm buying this house.

For you, Sarah.

You're not fair.

You are not fair.

You know I've nothing.

I'm a witch and with worry and you offer me a way out for all the wrong reasons.

Well, what are the right reasons, then?

He's not yours, Sam.

Dunce's corner, Sam.

You've got your arithmetic wrong.

Honest?

Wanted to be teacher's favourite, did you?

To do the right thing?

To be told to go to the top of the class and give the pen nibs out?

I'll send somebody round to mend that kitchen window tomorrow.

Yes, thanks.

Better lock the kitchen door tonight.

Yes, I will.

I'll let myself out.

Thanks.

Did...

Did it hurt tonight with Cassie?

Who told you?

I know, that's all.

Well...

You know all about me, then.

I'm old enough to know better, aren't I?

I used to tell myself that.

We hang on to things when there's no point.

Why?

What we're looking for.

I don't know, Sam.

I have this dream.

I'm a lad.

I'm standing at a window, looking down on the street.

I can hear somebody crying.

And I shout.

I shout, I want me dad.

That sale's not till next Wednesday.

If you want any of the furniture back, go and buy it.

We'll talk about the wedding in the morning.