Original subtitles

Ticking

Ticking continues

rustling

wind howls, ticking

Inaudible chatter in distance

woman: 'One three is three, two threes are six,

'three threes are nine, four threes are 12.'

she giggles

'five threes are 15, six threes are 18.'

chuckling

Quietly in distance: 'Eight threes are 24, nine threes are 27.

'Ten threes are... 30!

'Ten threes are 30.

'11 threes are 33, 12 threes are 36!'

she chuckles

'now, come along, Helen, it's time for bed.'

'but you promised I could have one more!'

'oh! Henry?'

'please, daddy?'

'all right, all right. I know, little miss muffet!'

'yes!'

'but this time you read for mummy and daddy all by yourself.'

'yes! Little miss muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey.

'There came a big spider,

'which sat down beside her, and frightened miss muffet away!'

one more!

No, no more, it's late. Oh, please, mum!

No! Please?

Oh, come on, there's time for another one.

Oh... well, all right, then, but just the one.

Erm...

Mother and daughter: Ring-a, ring-a roses, a pocket full of posies.

A tissue! A tissue!

We all fall down!

Ticking

Clicking

Ticking continues

wall clock stops

desk clock stops

all ticking stops

he sighs

Dad?

Eerie electrical humming

Dad? What's that noise?

All the clocks have...

Electrical humming continues

Man: 'All irregularities will be handled by the forces

'controlling each dimension.

'Transuranic heavily elements may not be used

'where there is life.

'Medium atomic weights are available.

'Gold, lead, copper...

'..Jet diamond, radium, sapphire, silver and steel.

'Sapphire and steel have been assigned.'

Sobbing upstairs

Squeaking

Squeaking stops

where's mum and dad?

Gone.

It's all right, Helen. I'm here.

So, where are they, mum and dad?

Gone.

Gone? Gone where?

Out of the door, downstairs?

Well, where, then?!

Just... just went away...

Here? In the room?

You mean they disappeared, Helen?

Yes.

And the room didn't.

They just went away.

But not here, not in the room?

Yes. They went away.

Wind whistles

Footsteps on gravel outside

footsteps continue

Drink your milk, Helen.

Everything's all right, see?

I ran all the way to the phone box at skarl's edge,

telephoned the policeman's house at the point.

I told him.

He's coming out here!

So, everything's all right, then, isn't it?

I mean, that policeman,

he'll only have to come to the other side of the point,

and cross the bay in a boat and he'll be here.

So, just drink your milk, Helen.

I think it's going to be all right.

Knock at door

stay there.

Who is it?

Man: 'Robert Steven jardine?'

yes?

'You asked for help.'

I did, yes!

'Then unlock the door.'

that was quick.

I've only just phoned.

I don't know you!

Only... the policeman at the point!

The policeman at the point isn't coming.

I've contacted him

and told him that everything down here is under control.

Well, it isn't!

No.

That's why we're here and not him.

He's a shade too serious, but you'll get used to him.

But he's got no right to tell the policeman.

Your parents have disappeared, right?

Yes! And you want them back?

Oh, course I want them... Safely?

Yes.

Well, then, your policeman at the point with his idiot notebook

and his idiot questions, stands no chance of getting them back for you.

But we do.

Whatever it is that's happened to them, my mother and father...

..Is it serious?

Dull electric whirring

yes.

How old would you say the house was?

At a rough estimate, 250 years.

It's old land, arable land.

It's probably been that way for centuries.

There could have been other buildings on these foundations,

back in time. Yes.

Genuine antiques?

I'd say, most of them.

Some vibrations!

And the surname, jardine.

Old French.

The father's name is Henry, the mother's name is Sarah

and the child is called Helen.

How do you know?

Old names, an old house.

Lots of old things.

Lots of old... old echoes.

A pressure point, then?

It could well be.

Could well be it.

You know so much about us?

We do, yes.

Then perhaps you'd like to say who you are, what your names are.

My name is sapphire and my friend's name is steel.

Sapphire? Yes.

That's a... What?

Well, that's a beautiful name.

Thank you.

There are lots of clocks in this house.

Yes, my father collects them and makes them work.

Then why aren't they working now? They do work.

They all stopped when...

Yes?

Well, just before it happened.

I did search the house after.

At the time it happened, where were you?

Down here in this room.

And your parents were where?

In Helen's room itself, they were reading to her.

Mummy and daddy just went away.

I think we'd all better go up to the top room.

Yes. We'll take some clocks with us.

Bring the child.

When the clocks stopped, did you hear anything?

I heard Helen crying.

Anything else?

Well, there was this... Kind of sound.

What kind of sound?

Well... Describe it!

It was like a low murmur, a low rumbling sound.

So, where've they gone?

My parents?!

Look! I want to know... now!

I mean, you... You come here, just like that,

this place where you can hear people or cars approaching from miles away!

But you two, you arrived, just like that.

Yes.

So...

Well, I want to know at least something before we go in there

to do whatever we're going to do.

There is a corridor...

'It can't be explained to him.'

'it can, in a way, but not by you, perhaps.'

there is a corridor and the corridor is time.

It surrounds all things.

And it passes through all things.

Oh, you can't see it, only sometimes, and it's dangerous.

This corridor... Can you enter it?

No, not in the way you imagine.

You cannot enter into time, but sometimes...

Time can try to enter into the present.

Break in.

Burst through and take things.

Take people.

The corridor is very strong - it has to be.

But sometimes, in some places, it becomes weakened.

Like fabric, worn fabric.

And when there is pressure put upon the fabric...

Time comes in?

Reaches in and takes out what it wants.

And we think that time has broken into that room.

Broken through, and taken away your parents.

Come on.

Will they work again?

Yes.

They've simply wound themselves down, that's all.

But my father winds those clocks almost every day!

I expect he does.

But clocks don't do that, it isn't possible!

No, and yet it happened.

You were in this room with your mother and father and sister

before you went downstairs? Yes.

And that's the last you saw of your parents?

Yes.

Where was the child?

Sitting up in bed.

Like that? Kneeling.

Kneel.

It's all right, Helen.

Your father was where?

Sitting in that chair.

Sit in it, will you, please?

What?

Just sit there.

Please don't touch anything.

Your mother was sitting in the rocking chair?

Yes.

So, all three like this, then? Yes.

I take it your mother was reading aloud to the child.

Yes.

Reading from this book.

She did it... She does it every night.

My dad often sits with them.

Traditional nursery rhymes.

Do you know which particular rhyme was being read

when the clocks began to stop?

No.

When things began to happen... No, I was downstairs.

It is important to know the exact rhyme.

Do you know which one it was?

Helen? She's not very talkative with strangers.

Then you try.

Helen... when mamma, just before mum went away, you remember?

What was she reading to you? Which nursery rhyme?

I don't know.

You do know, Helen, tell us... please?

The best one.

Your favourite?

Ring-a, ring-a roses?

Good.

Ring-a, ring-a roses dates back to the time of the plague!

Yes, another echo, another ingredient.

Pages turn I've found it.

Wait!

Read the rhyme carefully.

He winds clock whenever I raise my hand, stop.

When I lower it, continue.

Right.

Clock ticks if I say "back, back",

reverse the order of the words immediately.

I know. But carefully.

Not one mistake, not even one wrong letter.

No.

All right.

Now... begin.

Ring-a, ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies,

a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.

The king has...

Ticking continues

the king has sent his daughter to fetch a pail of water.

Ticking stops

he whispers: Go on...

A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.

Knocking

the bird upon the steeple sits high above the people.

Door opens, creaking

a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.

The cows are in the Meadow, lying fast asleep,

a tissue, a tissue, we all get up again.

Wind whistles

she screams

she squeals, glass shatters

electric humming

the cows are in the Meadow, lying fast asleep.

A tissue, a tissue, we all get up again.

Male voice echoes: 'The cattle in the Meadow...'

the wedding bells are ringing, the boys and girls are singing.

Electric humming intensifies

a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.

Hush, hush, hush, now we all get up again.

The cattle in the Meadow, lying fast asleep.

Hush, hush, hush, now we all get up again.

No!

Back! Backwards!

Ringing are bells wedding the, singing are girls and boys the.

Tissue a, tissue a, down fall all we.

Down...

Fall all we.

Pictures! I saw pictures!

Yes, Helen.

So, it's there, then? Yes.

We can't seal it yet?

No. Not till we've brought those people back.

But tear the rhyme out of the book!

Destroy it.

Has the child somewhere else to sleep?

She can sleep in my room.

Take her there, then, will you?

Come on.

Becca!

Is there a key to this door?

No. It was lost years ago.

No-one is to come back into this room, do you understand?

Not till we've done what we have to.

Take it downstairs and burn it.

Wind whistles

he sighs

Helen's fast asleep.

Ticking

oh! I suppose I've surprised you. Well, I fancied a change.

Steel says I shouldn't use time as if it's some sort of a wardrobe,

but he's so serious.

I get bored wearing the same old clothes.

Now, salt and pepper?

Over there.

But where did you get them from? What?

The clothes?

Oh, these aren't real. Not real?

No, these aren't real ones.

Salt and pepper.

Look, this was my favourite last week, what do you think?

Well, I think that... Yes?

..I just think that you are beautiful.

Thank you.

And the name, sapphire... Like blue, as if you were blue.

And steel?

Well, I suppose he's... Like steel, gray.

Hm.

The corridor, have you ever seen it?

Seen inside it?

Not properly. I did catch a glimpse once, on a ship.

A ship? Mm, in the middle of the sea.

Anyway, it was a simple operation, we fixed it.

And you say you saw...? Well, just a glimpse.

It was like looking through frosted glass,

all the images were blurred, and broken.

Like the images upstairs?

Something like that, yes.

Sorry.

Perhaps when you're finished telling the boy

about the nicer aspects of our job, you'll tell him about the dangers.

He knows about them. He knows about them?

About the dangers in this house?

The corridor... Don't try and imagine it.

It's immense. Time is immense.

Try and imagine instead, you, Rob, or your lifetime,

as approximately one inch in length.

Then compare it to the corridor of time, which is...

A thousand million miles long.

One inch, you.

Time and the unknown, a thousand million miles.

Just compare them.

It's very, very big.

And it's very, very dangerous.

Dangerous?

There are things, creatures, if you like,

from the very beginnings of time, and the very end of time.

And these creatures have access to the corridor.

They're forever moving along it.

Searching...

Looking, trying to find a way in.

Ticking intensifies

they're always searching, always looking.

For the hole in the fabric?

Yes.

But they must never be allowed in, never, ever!

Ticking slows

you've already seen what can happen upstairs, this evening.

But we stopped them...

..Held them.

Took the trigger away from them.

The trigger?

Yes, the final ingredient.

A certain traditional nursery rhyme, spoken in a certain room.

Mumma, daddy.

No pictures!

No pictures, Rebecca.

Ring-a, ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies...

That's why we tore it out of the book.

'Ring-a, ring-a roses...'

that's why we burned it.

A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down!

And that's why sapphire and I...

'The king has sent his daughter to fetch a pail of water.

'A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down!

'The wedding bells are ringing, the boys and girls are singing.

'A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.'

the bird upon the steeple sits high above the people.

A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down.

Loud electric whirring

echoing: 'The cows are in the Meadow...' Helen!

'..Lying fast asleep. A tissue...'

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