Original subtitles

Back in

the winter of 1959, I saw in the

shop window in New York a little white

jar with a notice on it saying, Royal

Jelly, 2 ounces, $350.

I'd never heard of the stuff.

The shop told me it had magical properties,

and it undoubtedly has.

So I wrote a storey about it.

Years later, Dick Van Dyke, who had read

the storey, sent me from France a box

of small glass files containing pure royal jelly.

I drank them one by one.

But I'm not going to tell you what

they did to me, or I'll ruin what

you're about to see now.

Hello, my beauties.

Hello, my girls.

Hey, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

Settle down.

It's only me.

You know me.

I know where you've been.

Up along the big house or along the

lavender, haven't you?

Well, then.

Down you go.

That's it.

Settle down.

So much work for one day, even for

bees.

That's it.

Night, night.

Baby, just a little drop more.

Come on now.

I know you can do it.

Look at that now.

You haven't drunk an ounce.

Won't do, my darling.

Really won't do.

Well, the clock stopped.

It's no use, you know.

She won't.

She just won't.

Tonight of all nights.

Is it too hot?

No, it's just right.

It's really, really worrying me, this, Albert.

What's the time?

You mustn't miss it.

It's 22.

Aren't you worried about her?

I mean, look at her.

She's nothing but skin and bones.

She'll pick up.

Won't you, my beauty?

I've been sitting with her for over an

hour now and she ain't drunk a drop.

Well, maybe you started too early.

No.

She didn't have nothing at her six o

'clock feeding, either.

Well, Dr. Robinson said you was to stop

worrying, Mabel.

So did that other specialist from Bicester.

Just a matter of time, they said.

So did the clinic and Miss Meakin, the

health visitor.

So, I think...

That I'm to stop worrying.

When our baby weighs two pounds less.

Two pounds less than the day she was

born, Albert.

Oh, I know that.

What time is it?

I told you, 22.

No, I meant the programme.

Oh, you and your precious programme.

Oh, come on, Mabel.

Didn't every night I'm on the TV?

Oh, no.

Albert Taylor, famous beekeeper.

The whole village will be watching.

I am talking about our daughter, Albert.

God knows we waited long enough for her.

Nine years.

At this rate, she'll die.

Come on, she'll pick up.

Pick up?

She's starving to death.

You just don't want to admit it, that's

all.

I mean, take a look at her.

Her arms are nothing but sticks, Albert.

It ain't natural for a six-week-old

child.

If she dies, I don't know what happens.

The doctor said you was to stop worrying.

I don't want to hear about Dr Albert

Taylor.

I hate him.

I hate him all.

It's starting, Mabel.

Oh, Vicky.

What's the matter with you, my baby?

Vicky, I know you'd tell me if you

could.

Good evening.

Now, you might wonder why I'm standing here

with this net over my face.

Well, what you can see behind me are,

of course, beehives.

Now, we all of us know about bees.

Or do we?

These beehives, standing in six acres of lovely...

Mabel, it's starting.

Good afternoon, Mr Albert Taylor.

Hello, Mr Taylor.

Hello.

Now, tell me, when did you first start

keeping bees?

Well, I built my first hive at the

age of 12.

And caught my first swarm the year after.

You sound funny, Mabel.

A touch unusual for a beekeeper.

Quite a local legend.

Oh, I don't know about that.

Well, they say you never use smoke, or

gloves, or a net over your face.

No, no, that's true.

And I've never been stung, neither.

Never?

No.

Now, why is that what you say?

Well, I don't know.

Bees have always liked me.

I've always liked them.

When I was a kid, I used to

let them crawl over my face and hands.

My dad used to say there had to

be a witch's stench about me.

But my mother took my part, said it

was a gift of God.

So you're a sort of St. Francis of

the bees?

Oh, no, no, I'm no saint, no.

No, me and bees is me and bees.

In a good year, Mr. Taylor's bees produced

nigh on 2,000 pounds weight of honey.

And it all began with that first hive.

Now he owns six acres.

How many hives, Mr. Taylor?

Eighty-four.

Eighty-four hives.

And a house he mostly converted himself.

No, don't leave me.

No, don't leave me.

This substance is produced in much the same

way as the mammary glands of vertebrate produce

milk.

But Mr. Taylor can tell us even more.

Well, royal jelly has amazing nourishing properties that

we do know.

It's fed to all the bee larvae, but

some of them only get it for three

days, while as the queen gets...

Excuse me.

I'm sorry, Mr Taylor.

We've got a piece of film coming up

here.

Now, this cell here is larger.

It's much larger than all the rest.

Yeah, of course.

That's the queen cell.

A cradle fit for a queen.

Yeah, that's it, Mr Hayward.

Yeah.

See, this larva here is destined to become

a queen.

The others, they're either going to be workers

or they're going to be drones.

Now, they only get royal jelly for three

days, but this one here is different, although

she started off the same.

She gets royal jelly for the whole of

her larval life, right up to the time

she emerges.

She swims in the stuff.

Yeah, but why is it so much larger?

Ah, because on a diet of royal jelly,

the queen larva increases its weight by 1

,500 times in five days.

How much, Mr Taylor?

1,500 times her own weight.

That's as if a baby weighing, say, seven

and a half pounds were to increase its

weight to...

Five tonnes.

Yeah, five tonnes, just on.

And that's not all, because royal jelly has

other amazing properties.

Some call it the elixir of youth.

Scientific fractional analysis, for example...

I

don't

want to hear it!

I don't want to hear nothing no more.

I can't stand it now.

I can't.

What time's your next feed?

Two o'clock.

Then six?

I don't want to hear it.

It's four hourly.

You know that as well as I do.

Right.

On to the next two feeds.

No.

Yeah?

No.

Out complete.

So you can relax for the next 12

hours.

Real sleep for you, my girl, all right?

You've got yourself into a state.

Give yourself a breakdown, you carry on like

this.

I'm taking Victoria this minute.

We'll be in the spare room, so you

can sleep right through.

Just leave it all to me, right?

Albert!

Thank you.

Sure thought of it before.

Albert!

I do love you.

And me you, Mabel.

You sleep.

Has he walked away?

I certainly fancy, of course, but...

I think Mr Taylor looks a little bit

like a bee himself.

Goodnight.

Albert?

What time is it?

Oh, Albert.

Albert!

Albert!

Oh, Albert!

What happened?

Oh, I'm sorry, I slept right through.

Is she all right?

Are you all right?

Hey, you look better.

Oh, did she take this then?

I fed her at two.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Sir

Ollingsby.

Did you remember that?

Come on, I'm not stupid.

You've been fed on the dot.

At two, she took half an ounce.

Oh, yeah.

At six, two ounces.

Two ounces?

Yeah, that's better, eh?

At ten, she asked me.

She did?

Yeah, she cried.

She didn't need changing either.

Took three ounces.

Three ounces?

Three...

Albert, that's wonderful.

Aren't you a good girl then?

Eh?

Who's my good girl?

I fancy she looks better already, don't you?

Yeah.

No, she...

She seems to be sleeping more placid-like.

Sort of plumper around the face.

Yeah.

You know, you could be right.

Oh, Albert.

Yeah, turn the corner, I reckon.

Like they all prophesied.

I hope to God you're right.

I'm certain of it.

From now on, you watch her go.

And you look 100% too.

Me?

Oh, I'm fine, thank you.

Oh, I'm awful sorry about last night.

I'll see you then on the telly.

Ah, he's all right.

Sounded a bit peculiar, I thought.

Again?

No, we're OK.

Ah, Mabel.

There's my girl again.

Hey, what are you doing then?

Bees don't mind.

You don't mind about the bees.

What about people see us from the road?

Cure for that.

Oh, Albert.

All the time.

Oh, it's man and daughter through.

Oh, now she can't be hungry.

Not yet.

Well, she could be.

Don't talk like that.

You know she's two hours too early.

Come on.

Looks like demand fading from now on.

Oh, it's a miracle.

Right.

Well, we'll carry on as we are.

I'll go on doing the night feeds.

Oh, no.

I'll take over now, Albert.

I'm sleeping really well.

No, it's better if I do it.

It's the age of equality, right?

Well, I'll do the sterilising and mixing of

the bottles then.

Ah, no, don't change the luck, girl.

No, I'd rather do it, Albert.

I really would.

Look, I did it all last week and

look what happened.

For Zoom.

Don't change the luck.

Hmm?

She stopped.

Well, so what?

She was early.

She'd taken all she needed.

Well, that's only three ounces.

Only last week you'd have been over the

moon about that.

She's doing fine.

Aren't you, my little queen?

Hmm?

Won't you then, precious?

For a minute.

Come.

All right, my beauties.

Come on.

Time you came, weren't it?

All right.

Come here, come here.

Yep.

Come here, come here.

Come on.

Come on.

Albert!

She's drunk it again.

Every drop.

Is she?

Well, what did I say?

Oh, you should have seen her face.

Yeah?

Oh, that were a real picture.

Oh, my goodness.

Right on the dot.

Wait, you have to...

Hmm?

Oh.

All right.

Come on.

Oh.

I swear it's been just a long run.

A run?

Perhaps in such a short time.

There we are.

I don't...

Look at that.

Straight away.

At this rate, we'll have to get a

bigger bottle.

Albert.

Hmm?

What was it you was going to tell

me the other night?

When I was too tired, you know.

Oh, that.

Yeah.

What are you grinning at?

Eh?

Was it to do with you on the

telly?

Yeah, I could say that.

Mind you, I'd known it all along, really.

What?

You really do think Victoria's looking better, don't

you?

Bigger, putting on weight.

Yeah?

What's that got to do with it?

Do you?

Yeah, well, of course I do.

You've only got to look at her, haven't

you?

Must be something to do with the way

you was mixing the milk.

You ain't been putting beer in our baby's

drink, have you?

Beer?

Would I put beer?

Don't be silly.

But you have been putting something in it,

haven't you?

Haven't you?

No, Figgy, wait a minute.

You tell me this instant, Albert.

What's this baby been drinking?

No.

Nothing else?

Albert!

Look, it's perfectly safe.

What?

What is perfectly safe?

Royal jelly.

Jelly?

Fruit jelly?

No, no, royal jelly from bees.

I told you lots of times how they

feed it to the larvae.

It's magic, Mabel.

I heard myself talking about it on the

TV, that's when I realised.

You must be out of your mind.

Of course, it's exactly what she needs.

Keeps people young, makes their hair grow.

That don't mean you can feed it to

babies.

Go on, she likes it.

Go on, have us good for it.

Go on.

In America, it costs more than gold, you

know.

All right.

That's it.

Look, I swear to you, Mabel, it can't

possibly harm her.

It's wonderful.

It's what turns a dull, plain, ordinary worker

into a great, big, beautiful, fertile queen.

What are you trying to say?

How are babies dull and plain?

Of course not.

But, you see, queen larvae get more royal

jelly than the others.

That makes them quite different.

See, worker bees have practically no sex organs

at all, but a queen...

Don't you talk dirty to me, Albert Taylor.

Why not?

No, it's a science.

What's more, a queen lives longer, and her

legs are quite different.

Worker bees have pollen baskets on their legs,

but a queen don't.

Oh, no, she's entirely different.

See, what's more, she's much bigger, and her

abdomen's shaped quite differently.

I've finished it.

Well, you are?

What did I tell you?

She ain't having no more of that.

I'll tell you that, Albert Taylor.

I don't know what's the matter with you.

I really don't know what's come over you

lately.

I swear, this baby weighs a tonne.

Thanks to royal jelly.

She's enormous.

What have you done?

She's all right.

She's got a double chin.

Don't, don't you touch her.

Oh, wait a minute, Mabel.

Don't touch her.

You must be mad.

Mabel.

You must be mad.

Mabel, I know what you're thinking.

Look, I've proved to you that royal jelly

is harmless.

How much have you given her?

How much have you given her?

How much?

Will you hear me, woman?

Now, why did you think that we had

only half our usual crop of honey last

summer?

Because it was short summer, that's what you

said.

Not only that.

I turned over dozens of our eyes to

the production of royal jelly.

Why?

Why?

Well, you never guess the reason, but she's

the result.

You see, royal jelly is a bit embarrassing,

really.

It also increases fertility.

I didn't like to mention it, but you

know how we tried for years to...

You took it.

Didn't you?

Gallons of it.

You took it.

Bags of the stuff.

Made me feel marvellous.

So different.

I went on taking it, even after you

said you was expecting.

Gallons of the stuff I must have drunk

during these last 12 months.

It's made a new man of me.

Hasn't it?

You can think how much better it's going

to work on a little baby than a

fully developed man.

Oh, my Lord.

Isn't it?

Isn't it?

Isn't it?

You've got to see it.

See the size of it.

It's been a great success, hasn't it, my

sovereign princess?