Inspector George Gently

(singer singing indistinctly) (car engine revving) (tires squealing) (metal crunching) (gentle suspenseful music) - [Passenger] Help me.

My foot, I'm stuck!

I'm stuck.

I'm stuck, I'm stuck.

(sobbing) I'm stuck.

(sobbing) Please, please help me!

Help.

Help me.

(sobbing) (engine rattling) (gentle suspenseful music) (door rattling) (water splashing) (gentle suspenseful music) (water trickling) (distant bell ringing) - And in and slowly out.

And again, please.

(George breathing) - [George] Will I survive another year, doctor?

- You're as fit as a lop as they say up here.

No idea what it means.

Lived here 26 years, still no idea what anyone's saying.

Tell me, Chief Inspector, when does it hurt the most?

First thing in the morning or last thing at night?

(phone ringing) (clock ticking) - Oh, your phone.

(phone continues ringing) No, I can't remember either, pet.

(phone continues ringing) - I don't miss her less as time passes.

I just, I just miss her differently.

- How long?

- (inhales) Four years, three months, two weeks and... It's the never again, you know?

Never.

- Do you talk about this to anybody?

- No.

- Your sergeant perhaps.

- (laughing) Ah, yeah, that's a thought.

- Is she identified?

- Who?

- is the woman identified?

- Which woman?

- [John] Who do you think I'm talking about?

Twiggy?

The woman in the car.

(banging mic) Listen, tell them do not move that car until I get there.

Is that understood?

- Aye.

- [John] And where's Gently, has anybody found him?

Has he gone fishing, huh?

I bet he has.

I bet he's gone, I bet he's gone fishing and not told anyone.

- [Dispatch] I don't know where he is.

- Okay, thanks George, thanks.

I'll look after the dead woman, shall I?

On me only day off this month, thanks.

- Do you believe in dreams?

- Try me.

- [George] I've been having the same one recently, time and time again.

I go back to a house that I used to live in and I meet the woman on the doorstep.

She's, she's leaving and our hands brush and she tells me she'll meet me again later.

- Your wife?

- Can't see her face.

And I go through the door.

I'm glad to be back.

And then slowly, I realize that everything's different.

All the rooms are different; different shapes, different sizes, different things in them and everything's changed.

And then- - And then?

- [George] And then there's water coming down the walls and across the floor and I'm drowning, helpless and drowning.

(suspenseful music) (water splashing) (metal creaking) (suspenseful music continues) - Morning, sir.

- Good morning, John.

- Right well, (clears throat) I wanted to have a look before they disturbed it.

Got a girl here with a bruise on her head.

Could've been unconscious.

(bird squawking) - Let's hope so.

- [John] This was in the car.

- What about the driver?

- Ah, there's no sign of him.

Metal's caved in by the impact and her left foot is trapped.

You can see it.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Right, let's cut her out.

(footsteps crunching) (crew speaking faintly) I don't think she was unconscious.

- Well, either way, he didn't call for help.

Panic, maybe, because he'd nicked the car.

Young man too much to drink or an older one with a wife somewhere.

- He left her to drown.

She was helpless.

Dead and alone out here all night.

(saw whirring) I woke up with a complete stranger next to me this morning.

- Some men pay money for that.

- Should've seen the state of her.

It's like waking up next to somebody's grandma.

Hair was sticking up and- (dispatch voices chattering) Two secs.

Yes.

- The Austin A40 is registered to Hector Blackstone.

- Guv.

- The address is Abberwick Hall.

- We got a trace on the vehicle.

Say that again for Mr.

Gently, will you please.

- [Dispatch] Abberwick Hall.

- Registered to Hector Blackstone.

He's the 13th Earl of Guyzance don't you know?

- Friend of yours?

- No.

No, but I know his son pretty well, James Blackstone.

I've nicked twice for being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

- And?

- Mommy and Daddy hired expensive lawyers, and Mommy and Daddy waved a magic wand over the charge sheet, which then magically disappeared into thin air.

And then Mommy and Daddy got me reprimanded for victimization.

Yes.

- Nothing on her, sir, except this key.

- Thank you.

We haven't even got her name.

- I bet you 100 quid the right honorable James Blackstone will know her name.

(upbeat music) - Well, let's go and ask him.

Nicely.

Tell me how you feel Say how you feel - Are we nearly there?

(laughs) I mean, how much of England does one bloke allowed to own?

(upbeat music continues) (car horn honking) Do we get to Abberwick Hall if we keep going?

- Did yous come through a big gate marked Abberwick Hall?

- [John] Aye.

- And have yous turned off the road since?

- [John] Have you got a cold or something?

- Throat cancer.

- Huh.

(dog barking faintly) - You look more intelligent.

- Faint praise.

- Hey, I've got four O-Levels, me.

- Tell us who wrote this and I'll tell yous the way.

- Oh look, no.

We don't have time for "Double Your Money", pal, all right?

- Who is there that has not jeered at the House of Lords; the military caste, the royal family, the public schools, the hunting and shooting set, the horrors of the country society?

- I'm sorry.

I have no idea.

- Rudyard Kipling.

- Kipling was a king and country imperialist, you clot.

George Orwell and Orwell knew summit that gets forgot these days.

The English ruling class are not as stupid as they look.

Look at the workers in Paris last night, pulling up the pavements and chugging them at the boss class.

Now, look at me.

Repairing the boss's fences to keep his deer out of his rose gardens.

Makes you think about this country doesn't it, bonny lad?

- Sorry?

- 200 yards.

(engine revs) Hang on to your wallets.

They'll have the rings off your fingers.

They've stolen them from the workers.

(engine revving) (lively upbeat music) - What was that all about?

Huh?

- You ever meet the Earl and his good lady?

- Oh, no.

Goodness golly, gosh, me?

No, no.

Never granted an audience.

But if there anything like the son, get ready to throw up.

Say how you, tell me how you feel Say how you feel (door slams) (footsteps plodding) - Inspector Gently, Sergeant Bacchus, I'm so sorry.

I was in the stables working on my motorcycles.

Something about a car I'm told?

- Yes, a car registered to you has been involved in a fatal accident, sir.

- Hector, just call me Hector.

- Is your son in at the minute there, Hector?

- Fatal to whom?

- A young woman.

Early 20s, late teens.

- [John] Does does your son have a girlfriend, Hector?

- Which car was this?

- Austin A90.

- A40.

- [John] A40 Farina, blue registration number BOJ174C.

- Are you saying that you weren't even aware that this car was missing?

- Totally.

- Any chance to talk to your son, Hector, please.

- Well, I'm not sure if he's even here, Sergeant.

Uh, my wife may know.

Uh, have you seen my wife, Colin?

- Oh, she's still here, sir.

Just in there.

- Alethea.

- Workers took to the streets in protest.

- Ah, there you are.

These two gentlemen- - Just give me a second.

This man, Cohn-Bendit, someone should shoot him, shouldn't they?

Like they did the German, Red Rudi.

(TV dial clicks) Be realistic, demand the impossible.

The naivety.

Do they really think they can overturn the natural order of things by throwing a few stones?

De Gaulle's run away, of course.

- Chief Inspector Gently, Sergeant Bacchus.

- Is there a problem?

- A fatality.

A young woman.

- Oh, dear.

- We found your husband's car, Mrs.

Blackstone, upside down in- - I beg your pardon?

- You hard of hearing?

- My wife prefers to be your ladyship.

- Well, I wouldn't mind being Bobby Charlton, but you know- - Your ladyship, an Austin car belonging to your husband was found five miles away upside down in the river with a dead girl inside.

(container clatters) (lighter clicking) - Well then, somebody's stolen one of our cars.

Is it a write off?

- Don't you care about the dead girl?

- Why should I care about a car thief?

- What if it wasn't stolen?

- What other explanation is there?

- Is your son at home?

- He may be.

It is a large house.

- Would you like me to organize a search party?

- Was he here last night?

- We had supper together.

Hector was at one of his musical, self-flagellation evenings in the village.

- Musical what?

Sorry.

- My husband likes the music of downtrodden workers.

Fiddles and squeeze boxes.

Starving children.

Wicked mine owners.

Tragic underground explosions.

Singers with their fingers in their ears, that sort of thing.

- So you stayed in with your son?

- Um-hmm.

James and I sat talking and playing backgammon.

I kissed him goodnight at 1: 00 AM.

- And you haven't seen him this morning?

- I'm his mother, not his maid.

- Could you go and find your son now?

- What sort of school did you go to, Sergeant?

- One with an outside lav.

- And did they teach you the word please?

- Please.

- Thank you.

(footsteps plodding) - When did you last use your car, sir?

- It was the Austin, you say?

- Yeah.

- How many cars you got?

- [Hector] Well, there are seven or eight dotted around the estate.

All registered to my name for insurance purposes, but intended for common use.

- Austin A40 Farina, blue registration number- - No idea when I last drove it.

I tend to avoid cars if at all possible.

Prefer my motorcycles.

So you don't know who the girl was then?

- No.

No, not yet.

Now you say various people had access to this car.

- Well, it's a very large estate.

- Who keeps the, uh, ignition keys?

- Well actually, they're usually just kept in the cars.

- Right, well I'm gonna need a list of all the employees then.

- Of course, - Right, more money than sense.

- Um, my wife has misremembered one thing, Inspector.

James did, in fact, come down to the village last night to hear the music.

He then had a late supper with his mother on his return.

- Oh, not you?

- No, I went straight to my rooms.

- [George] Your wife's a very forceful woman.

- Alethea's my second wife.

Hence, the discrepancy in our ages.

My first wife died 30 years ago.

Bonnie, that was her name.

Though, in fact, she was very bonny.

An incurable disease.

- Do you still miss her?

- Miss her?

Well that would be disloyal, wouldn't it?

- Guv.

Guv!

- Excuse me.

(suspenseful music) - You found him then?

- (laughing) Oh, of course, it would be you.

Oh, um?

- Bacchus.

- Sergeant Bacchus.

- Right?

- [James] Yes, of course.

How splendid to see you again.

- Oh, well that's a nasty cut you've got there, your highness.

Did you get that playing backgammon?

- Sergeant.

- Uh, I actually don't mind what he calls me, Chief Inspector.

- Well, I do.

So now then, how did you come by that injury?

- I fell into the French windows and broke a pane.

- Anybody corroborate that?

- [Alethea] I can, if you're actually doubting my son's word.

- So how did you come to walk into a pane of glass?

(anxious music) - Um, brandy.

- When was this exactly?

- I can't exactly remember.

- Don't remember?

A whack like that?

- Of course, he can remember.

- I'm not asking you.

I'm asking him.

- It was just after supper.

- Yes, it was, uh, just after supper.

- Supper.

Yeah.

- [George] I think I'd like you to come down to headquarters if you wouldn't mind.

- Are you harassing my son again?

- No-no.

No, I'm just asking him to come down to headquarters.

- Are you arresting my son?

- No.

But if he doesn't come voluntarily, I will arrest him.

- A lawyer will be present at all times.

- No, you don't need a lawyer.

Don't need a lawyer.

He's not being charged with anything.

- Our solicitor will be present at all times.

Hector, get on the phone.

- Come on.

- Mr.

Gently, you had better be so careful.

- Yes.

Yes.

- You know this could go very badly for you.

- Do you know what makes me laugh, your battleship?

- Your career prospects?

- After all your greed and all your wealth and all your privileges and it's all been shown up and the whole country is laughing at you for wearing tweed underwear and shooting furry animals and going, "Oh, yah.

Yah, yah, yah, Gertrude."

You still think you should be running the country, don't you?

- You know when I first met you, I took you as one of those angry young men with a, with a chip on his shoulder.

But now I see you are actually quite well balanced.

You have a chip on both your shoulders.

- Oh, (laughs) you for the knackers yard, Mrs.

Blacksmith?

- Sergeant.

- Tell me, Sergeant, who does run the country?

Grammar school boys like Mr.

Wilson.

Clever little men like David Frost?

The Boilermakers Union?

The Marxist at the BBC?

The Royal Shakespeare Homo Company?

- Okay, you're the expert on the Right Honorable James Blackstone.

Let's have it.

- He's 24.

He's just resigned his commission in the Coldstream Guards, which was Hector's regiment.

Studied at Marlborough Public School, then went on to St.

Edmond Hall, Oxford, which apparently that's where the thick ones with money get in.

- Says who?

- I asked a friend of mine.

- (laughs) Wow.

Well good work, Sergeant.

How many O-Levels did you say you've got?

- General science, biology, German and technical drawing, okay.

- Fully rounded human being.

- Look, are we discussing me or him?

- Sorry, go on.

Carry on.

- All right.

Continuing the military theme, he got made general of the Bullingdon Club.

Their main activity is getting plastered, smashing restaurants up, throwing loads of money on the floor and then leaving with stupid smug grins on their faces.

Now about to take up a position.

Look, take up a position.

That's known to the rest of us is getting a job.

In the City at Lloyd's.

Where, no doubt, he'll sit on his backside until it's time to shoot pheasants or murder young women in car crashes (indistinct).

- I don't think James'll be sitting on his backside.

Not with a mother like that.

- Sir.

- Busy.

- [Taylor] Bob Anderton's ready for you, sir.

(suspenseful music) - Unknown female, approximately 20 years of age.

No distinguishing marks or features.

Except the fingers are cut and scratched.

Death was by drowning.

- How about this bruise on her head.

- Consistent with the crash, but a glancing blow.

I doubt whether she lost consciousness.

Sexually active.

- Recent?

- Mm, I'd say fairly recent.

The fingernails on the left hand are much more worn than the right.

Presumably, she was scrabbling at the door with that hand.

- [George] Or because she plays the violin.

- [Bob] Yes.

- Anything else I should know at this point, Bob?

- Uh, yeah, a blood sample on the metal frame driver's side.

- Aye?

- Yeah, uh, it's a pretty rare type actually, might help you, A2B positive.

- After all night in the river?

- Apparently, the car was at a slight angle.

Not all pf the frame was submerged.

- I see.

Okay, well I think we're done here.

Thanks.

- James Blackstone have a rare blood group?

- Hmm, I can't remember.

Why don't we go and ask him.

(gentle apprehensive music) - I'll ask the questions.

You take a back seat.

- Sir, Assistant Chief Constable waiting for you in the office.

(door slams) - Ah, your questioning of His Lordship will take place here with Mrs.

Acklington in attendance.

I'll remain but will play no part.

- Oh, I think you already have, sir.

- [Gordon] This is not for discussion, Chief Inspector.

It's a necessary precaution given the history.

- How would you like me to address you?

- James is fine.

- Very well.

James, (sighs) may I ask you once again how you came by that cut on your head?

- Uh, you don't have to answer that.

- Well he's already told us, in fact, that he fell into a window frame whilst under the influence of alcohol.

Would he care to elaborate on that?

Where the French windows open or closed, for instance?

- They were open.

I was talking to my mother not paying attention properly.

- Why were they open?

- That's what French windows are for.

- (chuckles) Quite.

So, were you on the inside or on the outside?

- Um, we were outside.

- Just the two of you?

- Yes.

- [George] No one else to distract you?

- No, I was drunk.

- Yeah, you were drinking with your father at a musical event in the village.

Although, Her Ladyship had previously told me that you were at home having supper and playing backgammon.

So, which is true?

- The Countess isn't here to answer questions.

- The question is for James.

- They're both true.

James and his father came back about 11.

- So why did you first- - The Countess isn't here to answer questions.

- Well, he has no problems answering for her son, I notice.

(John clears throat) James, we have a car upside down in a shallow river and a young girl dead.

Do you know what happened to her last night?

- The Chief Inspector must ask specific questions, not go on a fishing trip.

- Agreed.

- I'm asking James what he knows about a young girl whose life ended in the early hours of this morning, trapped, frightened and helpless in a metal tomb waiting for the cold river water to enter her lungs and drown her.

Just a name would help.

Little bit of dignity for her.

- Uh, I-I think I might know her.

- [Alethea] Put a stop to this.

- There's absolutely no obligation.

- Why might you know her, James?

- Um, just, um, I just, if she's, if she's local, I might recognize her.

- So would you like to see her?

She's here just down the corridor.

- Uh, yes, I would, very much.

- Stop this.

James, I forbid this!

- I strongly object to this- - Mr.

Blackstone has very kindly agreed to assist in identifying the body.

This way, James.

- You said you could control this man.

- Come on.

Down there.

(heels clicking) (sorrowful music) James?

(sorrowful music continues) - Ellen.

Her name is Ellen.

- No, no, no.

You can't touch her.

You will never touch her again.

- Never?

- No, never.

(somber music continues) Were you driving the car, James?

James, were you driving the car?

(James sobbing) (people chattering faintly) Your son's waiting for you in reception.

- What did he tell you?

- Just the dead girl's name.

Nothing more.

Aren't you curious to know what it is?

- Yes, of course.

- Ellen Mallam.

- [Alethea] Oh, well that begins to make sense.

Her father works for us.

(purse snaps) - Oh.

Does he have access to the car?

- He's free to use it anytime.

Gosh, what a run of bad luck he's had.

He lost his wife, lost his job at the pit.

Throat cancer, now this.

- Throat cancer?

- Um-hmm.

(gentle somber music) (car engine revving) - Yous wanna buy a compass, you two.

Straight past the House of Lord's stableblock.

Gotta be quiet 'cause they're fast asleep in the afternoons.

Turn right at the Profumo Swimming Pool, over the bridge at the Christine Keeler Goldfish Pond- - Billy Mallam?

- Aye.

I went over the water to see Ellen Wilkinson speak the day that Jarrow March set out.

A Fiery Spark they called her.

You know she had that thing about her.

You moved towards her, you know?

And I thought to myself, and I hadn't even met her mother yet, if I ever have a girl child, I'll call her Ellen.

(lively upbeat music) And my Ellen had that fiery spark and all.

("Matty Groves") (lively upbeat music continues) (lively upbeat music continues) A holiday, a holy day The first one of the year Lord Arlen's wife came into church The gospel for to hear When the meeting it was done She cast her eyes about And there she saw little Matty Groves Walking in the crowd Come home with me, little Matty Groves Come home with me tonight Come home with me - [George] And this was last night?

In the Miners' Welfare in your village.

- Aye.

- I'm gonna need the names of the other band members.

- [Billy] It was whoever who was free, except Anthony.

I can see you are Lord Arlen's wife - [Billy] Anthony always played.

- Anthony?

- Anthony Baugh.

- [John] How can I find him?

- Well he's here usually, in the library writing some kind of book.

- Weren't you concerned when Ellen didn't come home last night?

- Oh nah, 'cause she told us she was getting the bus out of Newcastle for London.

Bus leaves at three o'clock in the morning.

Her bags were packed, sitting on the floor.

She was gonna slip in later.

Pick them up after I'd gone to bed.

They were still there this morning.

So was the bus ticket.

- Did she have a boyfriend up here?

- No.

No.

- And how long had she been home from London?

- Three or four days.

- She was a student, yeah?

- The Royal College of Music.

From a bairn, Mr.

Bacchus, she could pick up any instrument and play it.

(scoffs) I don't know where she got that from.

Not me or her mom.

(distant lively upbeat music) But her voice, she made the angels weep Little Matty Groves, he lay down And took a little sleep When he awoke, Lord Arlen Was standing at his feet Saying how do you like me feather bed And how do you like me sheets How do you like me lady Who lies in your arms asleep Oh well, I like your feather bed Well, I like your sheets The better I like your lady gay Who lies in my arms asleep Well get up, get up, Lord Arlen cried Get up as quick as you can It'll never be said in fair England I slew a naked man - [George] Who was in the audience?

- [Billy] People from the village, farms round about.

People from the hall.

- [John] Who, who from the hall?

- [Billy] Well, Hector, he always came when Ellen sang.

- So Hector had known Ellen all her life.

- Always used to tell her she was beautiful, you know.

Give her presents on a birthday and that.

And she'd give him that big smile and say, "Hector, give all the land and money you've pinched back to the workers and I'll have a dirty weekend with ya."

Oh, she made me blush sometimes.

She reminded him of his first wife, I think.

- Okay.

Yeah, so Hector was there.

Why was James there?

- I don't know, but I do know he never took his eyes off Ellen all night.

And Lord Arlen took his wife And he sat on his knee Saying who do you like the best of us Matty Groves or me And then up spoke his own dear wife Never known to speak so free I'd rather kiss dead Matty's lips Than you and your finery Then Lord Arlen he stood up And loudly he did bawl He struck his wife right through the heart And pinned her against the wall A grave, a grave, Lord Arlen cried To put these lovers in But bury me lady at the top For she was of noble kin - She had your politics.

- She believed in justice and fair shares.

(audience applauds) - Thank you.

You've been listening to the Fiery Spark.

Please give generously to the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign.

Support the people of Vietnam.

Victory to the Viet Cong.

America out!

- One last time, Ellen Mallam.

(audience applauds) (audience cheering) If you wanna hear her do one more, you better let her know.

(audience cheering) (coins clinking) - Thank you.

- Beautifully done.

Beautiful.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much.

- Did James have a gash on his head, Mr.

Mallam?

- A gash?

- Aye.

- No.

- Why?

- Sure?

- [Billy] Has he got one now, lad?

(tense music) - He says he walked into the French windows.

- He's done this before, you know.

Crashed cars and got away with it.

- [George] Could you think of any reason why Ellen would be in a car with James Blackstone late last night?

(gentle suspenseful music) - [Billy] They were talking after the concert.

- [John] What were they talking about?

- [Billy] They were too far away.

(gentle reflective music) (car door slams) I just remember thinking there he goes again drunk behind the wheel.

- Well, her coach was at 3:00 AM.

Could he've been offering to come back later and give her a lift to the coach station in Newcastle?

- She did say she had a lift.

- With James?

- [Billy] Well, I assumed Anthony.

- Anthony?

Oh, Anthony Baugh the, uh, the guitarist who's writing a book.

Why did you assume that?

- Because that's what usually happened.

They were close.

They grew up together.

- Does he got a car?

- No.

Uses the ones off the estate.

- So if he thought he might be needing a car last night- (door clicks) - So sorry, Inspector.

Billy, it's appalling.

It's appalling.

I'm sorry, I just wanted- - It's all right.

We're finished anyway.

We wanna speak to Anthony Baugh.

- Uh, well, I-I'm afraid he's not here today.

- Could he have borrowed the Austin yesterday?

- Yes, of course.

He frequently takes a car.

- We need to find out who left her to drown, Hector.

- Yes, Mr.

Gently will I'm sure.

- Whoever it is, Hector- - Yes, of course.

Whoever... (sighs) I'm so sorry.

(footsteps plodding) - He won't hesitate.

- To do what?

- [Billy] Pull whatever strings it takes to save his son's neck.

Why aye, he's gonna be Prime Minister one day we keep getting told.

Whereas a young lass like Ellen who had more brains and more heart in her little finger than he'll ever have, her life can be snuffed out like that.

(fingers snapping) (doves cooing) (gentle reflective music) He's killed her, hasn't he?

The only one at any time for him and he's killed her.

(gentle apprehensive music) Why is he not looked up?

- Hall here.

Village here.

They went to Newcastle and the coach station here, river winds around this way.

Death occurs here at the bridge.

- Is there any point to this?

- She had a ticket to London and her father told us that she left the luggage in the middle of the floor.

So presumably, whoever was driving her went back to pick it up.

The rest of her of the band had gone home in the van.

- Guv, me brain's gone.

We'll talk about this tomorrow.

- You've got nothing to say to me?

- What about?

- Okay, let me just tell you one of the vast array of things wrong with planting false evidence.

- (chuckles) Whoa there, Nelly.

False evidence?

- Yeah, the blood smear.

James Blackstone is A2B I take it.

Come on, you must know from all the times you tried to nick him.

- So?

- So, a smear of it turns up conveniently on the car frame.

That blood sample never even existed did it?

- Guv, he's got a three-inch gash on his head.

He's got previous for drinking and driving.

They tried to stop us putting him away twice before.

And now guess what?

He's killed somebody.

And you're trying to stop us a third time?

- No, I'm trying to stop you from perjuring yourself and ruining Bob Anderton's career.

He is got a wife and four kids depending on his salary!

And you are asking him to risk all of that, because you are sure you got the right man.

You just haven't got the evidence to prove it.

- Aye, blokes your age you can't help yourselves, can you?

- What?

- Huh?

This bloke here.

He was in the Army.

He must be a good bloke.

This bloke here, he's got a posh accent.

He couldn't possibly tell a pack of lies.

How many times do these people get a free pass?

Just because they won the pools on the day that they were born.

- Is that what you think of me?

Somebody who knows his place?

- It's my governor calling this stuck-up cow, Your Ladyship.

- And that excuses you from inventing evidence against her son?

- A, I'm doing nothing of the kind.

You're imagining it.

B, he's guilty and C, do you think these people got all their land, all their titles, all their wealth by sticking to the rules?

- Go home.

- Guv.

- [George] Go home.

You disappoint me, John.

("It's All Over") We had it all Every moment was painted in gold We were made And the world was ours Untouchable souls Living life on the edge No regrets, no control Dying oh so young Nothing is real Nothing to fear Just burn like a flame And go out Oh, where did it all go wrong Didn't we have it all (urgent knocking) Now it's all gone Oh it was the perfect dream Nothing we couldn't be But it's all over now Look at us now What a waste, what a crime How could we fall so far 'Cause the world was ours We paid for the price Can hold us together no more Now it's all come crashing down Oh it was the perfect dream Nothing we couldn't be But it's all over now (water trickling) (siren wailing) - This wouldn't have happened if we arrested him yesterday.

- [George] Four O-Levels and 2020 hindsight.

(vending machine clinking) (fluid sloshing) - What business is it of theirs?

- How's your son?

- We don't really know yet.

Would you like a cup of tea?

- No.

- I wouldn't mind.

- [Hector] Anthony, hand a tea for Sergeant Bacchus.

- Anthony Baugh.

- Yeah, you find out all you can.

I'll take him outside.

- Hmm.

- [George] So Alethea found James with his throat cut?

- Yes.

- Did he manage to say anything?

- Presumably not, with his throat cut.

- Were you at the Hall last night?

- At night?

Of course, not.

- How come you learned about James so quickly?

- Oh, the Countess telephoned.

She was, um, very upset and I came over.

- You think he'd tried to kill himself?

- James was, is probably the most unhappy human being I've ever met and one of the least likable.

- What makes him unhappy?

- I'm not a psychiatrist.

- What makes him unlikable?

- Proximity to him.

- Where do you fit in at Abberwick Hall, Anthony?

- The ruling class of England went mad about 10 years ago.

Shortly after Suez.

Didn't you notice?

I'm writing a book about it, "Through a Class Darkly: The Decline of the Old Order".

Think it'll sell?

(people chattering faintly) - Is that your son's blood?

- [Hector] Do you know how these things work?

Do you put it in there, do you?

Put it in that- - Why doesn't he make them open the kitchen?

Is there really not a woman here to boil a kettle?

- What happened to to your son?

- He used to be a soldier.

They play with death.

They're reckless.

- I'm sorry, you're saying that James accidentally cut his own throat?

- (sighs) He really is quite unbelievable, isn't he?

- Darling, do you have any shrapnel?

- My husband was conceived upon a flannel.

- Beg your pardon?

- His mother, my predecessor as the Countess of Guyzance was a notorious horizontale.

- Sorry, I- - Rarely in the vertical plane.

- Oh, right.

- Why am I telling you this?

Well sometimes we just need to talk, don't you?

- My parents owned the village shop.

James and I were at school together.

- You went to public school?

- Yep.

- [George] Thrifty shopkeepers.

- Yes, but not that thrifty.

Hector paid for my education.

And no, I'm not as illegitimate offspring.

It was pure philanthropy.

Hector does a lot of good in this world.

All he asks in return is that you try and do the same.

- And will you?

- I'd like to go into politics.

- As James is meant to.

Except he's got a mother who controls the local Tory party and decides who the MP will be.

- Lucky boy, eh.

- But if James was no longer a candidate- - Oh, crikey!

Am I a suspect?

- Tell me why you shouldn't be.

(people chattering) - [Hector] Thank you very much.

- What's your name?

- John.

- [Alethea] Well, John, she slept with everybody.

Except Hector's father, whom she couldn't abide.

You won't say a word of this to anyone, will you?

Promise?

- I promise.

- So there came a point where they hadn't had conjugale for six years, at which point the old bird announces she's pregnant.

Well, even Hector's father who was giving dinners at Eton for his imbecility, even he could do simple arithmetic.

So he sued her for adultery in the High Court.

Tried to have Hector declared a bastard.

- What happened?

- Oh, he lost his case, obviously, - Can I get you anything, you chaps?

- Oh, no, no.

- You sure?

- [John] Well, how did the, um, the old bird get away with it?

- She simply told the judge the facts of the matter.

- Which were?

- That because he wasn't getting any sex, Hector's father was in the habit of relieving himself on a flannel in her bathroom.

One night in her bath, she used the flannel to wash herself down there with his sperm.

- And the judge believed that?

- Of course, he believed her.

Her father was a Duke.

- So who's Hector's real father?

- That would explain a lot about Hector.

- Tea, at last.

Getting to know each other?

- Is there a Mr.

and Mrs.

Guyzance here?

- A friend of yours had just lost her life in a car crash.

Somebody that you were close to, according to her father.

Were you?

- Hmm.

- [George] So why weren't you driving the car?

'Cause Billy, Billy assumed that you would be giving her a lift to the coach station.

Why didn't you?

- She wasn't going to the coach station.

James was driving them both to London.

- How do you know this?

- She told me.

- [George] How close were you, Anthony?

Did you love Ellen, Anthony?

- All my life.

(door creaks) - Governor.

(gentle somber music) - He lost too much blood.

They couldn't bring him back.

- I'm very sorry.

What can you tell me about what happened?

- Very little.

I heard my wife's screams.

I went to the window.

I saw the scene and I immediately phoned for help.

When I got outside, (sighs) there was blood everywhere.

James was barely alive.

We tried to bandage his neck, but he was drowning in his own blood.

The ambulance took an age.

- And you saw no one else?

- Well, such as who?

- Anthony Baugh, for instance.

- No, of course not.

- And the previous evening, the night that Ellen met her death, was he at the Hall then?

Why would he be there in the evening?

- Hector, I, I'm sorry, too.

The silver dagger that was found beside James?

- It's a letter opener.

- Was it familiar to you?

- It's my wife's.

- Oh.

- [Hector] A gift from James on her 40th birthday.

There's an inscription on it, to Mummy from James.

It normally lives on a desk in the day room.

- Do you think that your son could've ended his own life with it?

- Yes, I do.

- Why would he do that?

- [Hector] I don't know.

- And yesterday evening, were the three of you at home together?

- Yes, I myself went out for a while.

- To go where?

- I went to Billy Mallam's house to share a drink with him, but he slammed the door on me.

There was real hatred in his eyes.

I fear he may've been led to the wrong conclusion about his daughter's death.

- I think your son killed himself last night because he felt responsible for the death of Ellen Mallam.

Why do you keep pointing your finger at other people, I wonder?

- Confucius had a saying, Sergeant, "When a wise man points at the stars, only a fool stares at his finger."

(sorrowful music) Darling.

(sorrowful music continues) (sorrowful music continues) - We're letting Anthony go?

- Yeah, for now.

- These people are weird.

- Yeah, better question Billy Mallam.

- Oh, right.

Yeah.

Yeah, Billy Mallam has now gone to the Hall, has he?

- No.

- Huh?

- [John] To open James Blackstone's throat with a silver dagger that belonged to Alethea, huh?

And all because of me, apparently.

You're taking this rubbish seriously?

- I have to.

- What?

Because an Earl says that it's true?

Oh, well then it must be.

- You, you as good as told Billy Mallam that James was driving the car.

- It's a smoke screen, Guv.

The truth, the truth has just walked out that door.

- Listen, you don't have to be there.

I'll question him on my own.

- Oh, no, no.

No.

I'll do it, sir.

I'll do it.

Hey, it's all my fault, apparently.

So I'll do it.

- That's for slitting envelopes, not throats.

- There's easier ways than that for killing a man, bonny lad.

- Such as?

- A shotgun.

- [John] Yeah, but you wanted, you wanted justice though, didn't you for your beautiful, artistic daughter?

Cut the killer's throat with a knife inscribed to his mummy, what's sweeter than that?

- Having Ellen alive would be sweeter than that, bonny lad.

- Yeah, but she's not alive though, is she?

You're never gonna see her again.

Billy, never.

You had hate in your heart last night, Billy.

- Says who?

- Who came knocking at your door?

(tense music) - Hector put yous up to this?

- James Blackstone left Ellen to drown.

James Blackstone drowned in his own blood.

Nobody, nobody on earth would blame you for that, Billy, nobody.

- Did you leave the house after Hector came to see you?

Where did you go to, Billy?

(tense music) - The river.

I went to the river.

(water trickling) To see where my bairn lost her life.

Thinking I might die in the same spot.

(gun clicks) I couldn't kill myself last night.

This was not simple cowardice.

At age 19, I spent six days trapped by a rockfall underground on me own.

So I've met despair before.

Wrapped tight around my throat in the dark.

But I survived it, as I will the loss of Ellen.

As I have everything else.

- Anthony Baugh says James and Ellen were leaving for London together, knows it for a fact, he says.

- He only knows one thing for a fact.

That Anthony Baugh will one day be at the top of the grease pole.

I've watched that lad grow up.

He believes in nothing except his self.

- Aye, all the same, why would make it up, huh?

I mean you said yourself, didn't you?

James held onto her hand.

She kissed him.

That's a funny thing for a fiery working-class lass to be doing, standing necking on the street with a bloke whose mom's posher than the Queen.

- Billy, the post-mortem tells us that Ellen had sex with somebody in the days before she died.

- Did yous have to tell us that?

- Could it have been James?

- Never in a million years.

- Anthony?

- [Billy] I think they used to, but that was years ago.

- All right.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Mallam.

I'll arrange for a squad car to take you home.

- When the undertakers have done their work, people can come and pay their respects.

He was so, so very loved, my son.

(doves cooing) England has lost a future leader.

Have you ever lost anyone you were really close to, George?

Of course you have.

We're the generation, aren't we?

I lost my father and my brother in the war in the same week.

- I lost some comrades, Anzio.

Sicily before that.

I also lost my wife a few years ago.

- I'm so sorry.

- It's been very much on my mind recently.

Can't quite work it out why.

- It's because you're a sensitive man, George.

But life will be good again.

Life always works out well in the end for good men like you.

- Your Ladyship- - Why don't you call me Alethea, hmm?

When no one else is around.

- I think I'll call you Your Ladyship, if it's all the same to you.

The night Ellen died.

- [Alethea] Back to that again, are we?

- [George] Anthony Baugh says James and Ellen were going away to London together.

- [Alethea] Gosh, hasn't he a lot to say for the son of village shopkeepers.

(door clicks) (chair scraping) - Can I help you in some way?

- Yeah.

Sometime before she died, somebody shagged Ellen.

Any idea who?

- (scoffs) You really are something.

- An easier one then.

Was it you or was it James?

- Body's hardly cold, Sergeant.

- I'm sorry.

If you want coppers with good taste, then maybe they should send us all to public school.

Could learn how to cane each other.

I just went to the local Grammar, me.

So I never really got into bondage.

- This is an amazing, kind, beautiful, talented human being who's lost her life in tragic circumstances.

The fact that you think it's funny, the fact that you think she's to be mocked, does you no credit.

And actually, maybe that is something to do with your education.

- Oh, where did I go wrong?

Let me tell you what I'm thinking, Ant.

(fist bangs) I'm thinking this.

There's you sent to school to learn how to parrot the upper classes, right.

But it'll always be all right, wouldn't it?

Because there's Ellen, childhood sweetheart.

The Fiery spark, Red Ellen.

And as long as she still loves you, then you haven't turned into a complete toady.

And then one day disaster, right.

(chuckles) She thinks to herself, why am I wasting my time dropping my knickers for a pretend upper-class twit when I can have a proper one?

Right?

James never took his eyes off her at that concert.

That must've made you angry.

Did it?

And he leaves her to drown in a river.

You expect me to believe that you spent all last night playing draughts with your mom and dad up in Seahouses.

- Ask them.

- I have.

"Ah yeah, no, he was here the whole time.

Honest."

What are mom and dad's for?

(lighter clatters) (gentle anxious music) - [George] What was James' relationship with Ellen Mallam?

- Relationship?

James was a man of action, a soldier.

They're allowed to sow wild oats.

Well, village girls sometimes get the wrong idea.

She laid herself down for him and then expected a wedding ring.

- So she threw herself at him?

- She ensnared him with sex.

- Well, this proud working-class girl named after a famous working-class heroine, expected a life with your son?

- And isn't that just typical of the working class as once they smell money and opportunity?

- Yes, they envy wealth, success, brilliance, all the things that James had in spades.

- Exactly.

- So why'd he kill himself?

- [Alethea] He didn't kill himself.

- Well, your husband says it was suicide.

- How would he know?

He, he wasn't there.

- [George] Nor were you.

- Exactly.

Nobody was.

So nobody can say that James killed himself.

- Hmm, Anthony Baugh says so too.

- Well, damn Anthony Baugh.

He would say that wouldn't he?

- Why?

- Because he hated my son.

Hated and envied him.

Because you can give a boy an education, but you can't give him breeding.

- But Anthony's family really, isn't he?

(door creaks) - James is home, my dear.

- Would you excuse us now, please.

(heels clicking) - One more question.

Did Ellen visit you the night she died?

- [Alethea] What an absurd idea.

(gentle somber music) - Were you here at the club the night Ellen Mallam was playing?

- I wouldn't miss it.

- So you knew Ellen, I assume.

- [Caretaker] Watched her grow up.

Lovely lass.

(exhales) Breaks your heart, you know.

- Was there anything different about her that night?

Anything unusual happen?

- Well, she was never usually short of a lift.

- Sorry?

- Turned that lights out, locks the place up.

She was right here, sitting here on her own.

- And what'd she say?

- Just her lift never turned up.

- Did she say who the lift was?

- No.

She just said, "I don't care.

I'll walk."

Like determined, you know.

- If I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the window.

- [Caretaker] (chuckles) She gives us this big smacker on the lips.

She was happy.

- Heading which way?

- That way towards.

- Towards Abberwick Hall.

- [John] It's a simple enough question, Ton, was it you or was it James who shagged her shortly before she died?

- Well, it wasn't me.

No.

- Oh, dear.

The thought of her and James would've hurt you, wouldn't it?

But it wasn't James either, was it?

I nicked him twice before for being drunk behind the wheel.

Both times he was with a lad.

Different lads, but never any sign of any lasses.

And Billy, he just laughed at the idea of her and James.

- James was queer.

Everybody knew that, except one person of course.

- Four prancing horses will draw your carriage.

(tender sorrowful music) You will be engraved in marble.

(tender sorrowful music continues) Earls and Dukes will attend you and men and women everywhere will weep for their fallen hero.

(tender sorrowful music continues) - Ellen gave him hope.

For the first and only time in his stupid life, he had hope.

- How'd she do that?

- By singing to him, a song called "Silver Dagger".

- [John] Silver Dagger?

- It was the last song she ever sang.

(audience applauds) It's about a mother who won't let go of her son.

- One more then.

This is for mothers everywhere.

("Silver Dagger") Don't sing love songs, you'll wake my mother She's laying there right by your side And in her right hand, a silver dagger She says that I can't be your bride All maids are false, says your mother They'll tell you wicked, winning lies And the very next evening, they'll love another Leave you alone to pine and cry Go find yourself a rich young maiden And hope that she will be your wife For I've been wronged and I've decided To live alone all of my life (tender violin music) - So what were your movements after the concert?

- Packed up the instruments, offered Ellen a lift but she declined because she was- (door bangs) - Carry on.

- She was waiting for James to come back and pick her up.

Which, obviously, he did.

- Why do you say that?

- (scoffs) Come on.

We all know who was driving the car.

- But it wasn't James' car that crashed.

It was an old Austin.

- Well then, that's the car he was driving that night.

- No, no.

James was in his Volvo P1800 earlier outside the Miners' Welfare.

- Well then for some reason, he must've come back for her in the Austin.

- Why?

- What car were you driving, Anthony?

- Just one of the Abberwick cars, sir.

I don't remember which.

- Don't you?

- Ellen walked to the Hall.

I have an eye witness.

Five miles on the road in the dark.

It is now nearly one in the morning and Ellen will soon get into the car that will crash and drown her.

(owl hooting) Where were you?

- I was at home.

- Stop wasting our time.

You were about to get a big surprise, weren't you?

Not to mention the Countess.

- Oh.

(chuckles) Oh, is that why he paid for you to go to that posh school, is it, Anthony?

So his wife could have a bit of well spoken rough or is this your way of saying thank you Hector?

- I was with Alethea when Ellen arrived.

- Doing what, exactly?

(upbeat music) - How's the uprising going, village boy.

- Oh, it's, it's coming along.

Give me some of that.

(lively upbeat music) (Alethea exhaling) - Good, because I'm ready.

(upbeat music) (bow thumps) (mournful violin music) - [Reporter] Resembles a battlefield after hours rising on a scale unequaled in the Post-War period.

- That'll be you one day, My Lady.

Your house will burn, baby burn.

- Oh, really?

- Um-hmm.

- [Alethea] I'm so scared.

The working class is on the rise, at last seeing through all our ruses to keep them enslaved.

Oh lord, what shall become of me?

- You'll be up against a wall.

- Oh, will I?

- Mm.

- Up against a wall?

- Hmm.

- [Alethea] And where will you be, village boy?

- I'll be standing right behind you.

(faint mournful violin music) (mournful violin music continues) - This girl is insane.

- She's come to collect James, Alethea.

He wants to go to London with her.

He wants to drop out, find his own space.

- The police can deal with this.

Tell her she has 10 minutes to get off my property!

- I can't talk to her.

- Oh, she still doesn't know.

Well, I think that it's about time that she did.

- Alethea, why not just let him go with her?

He isn't what you think he is.

He isn't clever enough.

- Oh, and you are, I suppose?

Don't get ideas above your station, Anthony.

Your parents run a shop.

- He's weak, Alethea, and not very bright.

- Have you ever met any government ministers?

- I wrote his essays for him all through school and Oxford.

- And were amply rewarded.

- Can't you see what you've turned him into?

He's a vain, lazy, stupid- (hand smacks) That I've decided to live alone all of Anthony?

Oh, Anthony.

I always worried you might sell your granny, but I never thought you'd shag her.

- Make her shut up.

- You are a total nightmare, Mrs.

Guyzance.

Do you know that?

Does Hector know?

- Well, good luck.

- Get rid of her.

(mournful violin music) - I'll take you to the coat station, Ellen.

- No thanks.

I've got a lift.

(mournful violin music continues) - But she did get in that car.

Who with?

- I don't know.

I went back upstairs.

That was the last I ever saw of Ellen.

(car engine humming) (birds chirping) (birds squawking) (brakes squeak) - [George] Stay here.

Don't talk to anybody.

(car doors slamming) (motorcycle engine rumbling) - I call them my steeds.

They're like old friends, really.

- Ellen Mallam came here the night she died.

You've been lying to us.

Isn't that against the rules for barons?

- Yes, she was here.

- Were you expecting her?

- I thought I was dreaming.

(mournful violin music) Shall I tell you something, Chief inspector?

If I'd been 40 years younger, I wouldn't have hesitated.

I would've run off of with her myself.

- You knew why she'd come then?

- To rescue James.

Right by your side And in her right hand, a silver dagger - James wasn't at all what he appeared to be.

He was a frightened young man, really.

Desperately unsure of what he wanted of life.

Desperately unsure he could deliver what life seemed to be asking of him.

- What life was asking of him or his mother.

- Where was she while all this was happening?

- You'd have to ask her that.

- Oh no, I'm asking you.

- No, no.

- What?

- [George] We spoke to Anthony Baugh.

We know where your wife was.

- Where is your wife now, please?

- Asleep.

Exhausted.

- Somebody's responsible for the death of Ellen Mallam and I think she knows who.

So could you go and tell your wife wakey-wakey now, please.

- [Hector] All right.

(object clatters) - You do it your way.

I'll do it mine, all right?

I'm sick to the back teeth of these toffee-nosed hypocrites.

- All right, we'll do it your way.

- All right.

Ellen Mallam walked here at 1: 00 AM the night she died.

According to your husband, she came here to talk to James.

You were in your bedroom, with him.

Oh aye, he's given us all the gory details.

So what happened next when Ellen tried to take your son away from you?

(mournful violin music) - [Alethea] Go back to bed.

- Come with me.

It's not as hard as you think, James.

- Go inside, James.

- There's an amazing world out here, beautiful man.

You'll find different friends.

Do different things.

I promise, I'll help you.

- Just, uh, forget about me, Ellen.

- No, I won't just forget about you.

- The police will be here shortly, my dear.

So I suggest that you pack up your fiddle and clear off back where you belong.

- Let him choose his own life, Elethea.

- He has chosen, haven't you, James?

Get back in the house.

Now!

(suspenseful music) (glass shattering) - For goodness sake!

Oh my god, James.

Are you all right?

Oh, god.

- (gasps) Now, do you see what you have done?

- Oh!

- [John] So Anthony had gone upstairs, yeah?

- Yeah.

Another man she had twisted round her little finger.

Really, what was the attraction?

Why all this fuss about her?

- For goodness sake, Alethea, she was an extraordinary creature.

- So, she left in a car driven by whom?

- We have no idea.

We were with James and his cut head.

- James was, (sighs) hardly conscious.

- Chief Inspector, it seems to me that you would like us to solve this mystery for you and you've, obviously, failed to come up with any evidence of who was behind the wheel or you'd have produced it by now.

- That's where you're wrong.

- John.

- No, no.

No, they're not getting away with this.

We have a blood sample taken from the crashed car.

It's quite rare.

A2B James' blood type.

So presumably, one of yours as well.

- Blood types?

- Well, it's quite simple, Mrs.

Blackstone.

James was A2B.

So one of his parents must be.

What are you?

- O.

(clock ticking) - [John] And you?

- It was my blood.

I drove the car.

Somebody had to.

James was incapable.

My wife was under the influence.

So I took the nearest car and drove Ellen home for her baggage.

Except, we didn't get there.

I lost control of the car on a bend.

I lost consciousness for a while.

When I came to, we were upside down in the river.

Ellen was trapped.

I tried to free her.

Water was rising.

(water splashing) I kicked my door open and I scrambled out.

God help me I tried to save her, but I couldn't free her foot.

I talked to her and I held her hand until she was covered by the water and then she drowned.

- You could've just told us all this from the beginning, man.

- What and have all this brought up for public scrutiny?

My life, our lives, a laughing stock.

There go the aristocracy again; mad, degenerate, sexually incontinent.

No longer fit to lead.

- Who wants to be led by people who can leave a dead girl in a drowned car all night?

You're under arrest.

- He's under arrest when I say he is.

Your blood type's B, Hector.

I checked in the hospital.

- Huh?

That's just basic police work, Sergeant.

- Then how could there be an A2B bloodstain in the car?

- Well, yes, good point.

How could there be, Sergeant?

- (clears throat) Must've been some kind of mistake.

- Yeah.

- Just like Hector thinking the James was his son.

- I was never under that misapprehension, Sergeant.

- We have no evidence, except your confession.

Do you wish to retract it?

- No.

Someone should pay.

I was brought up to honor a debt.

- You are a fool, Hector.

- Perhaps so, but I can live with being a fool, Elethea.

What I couldn't live with, however, was knowing that I'd as good as killed my own son.

How could the poor chap live after all you'd done to him?

- No, it was a, a silly accident.

- I saw it, Alethea.

I saw it.

- Please James, please.

I am begging you, sweetheart.

Please don't.

- I'm gonna count to 10.

- No, no, please don't.

- One.

- [Alethea] No, no, no.

Because you're brilliant.

- Two.

- This is us.

We can talk away any problem.

- Three.

- I love you with every fiber of my being.

- Four.

- What if I do this?

What if I crawl?

What if I crawl to you?

Okay.

(James laughs) Yes, laugh at me.

But don't destroy yourself.

Please.

Not after everything that we have done together.

- What have I ever done?

- The world is waiting for you.

- Oh, (laughs) the world.

Five, six.

- Please, please, let me take all the pain away.

- She was the only friend I've ever had, because she didn't want anything from me.

She only wanted to help me.

(whimpering) Tell me, Mummy, why did she have to die?

(crying) - It's so, so hard to lose what's precious.

Which is why you must not do this.

- Why?

Because it will hurt you?

- Because the world needs you.

You know that, James.

You've always known that.

We've always said that, haven't we?

Since you were a little boy.

- No.

No, you have always said that.

I just wanted a life to live.

- You are the master of your own destiny, James.

And one day of all our destinies, my darling, son, my brave, brave boy.

- She was right about you.

You are a nightmare.

- James?

- Seven, eight, nine, 10, Mummy.

(sobbing) (flesh squishing) (Elethea screams) - Oh!

Hector!

- Hector, would you stand up please?

Hector Blackstone I'm charging you with causing death by dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be used in evidence.

Do you understand?

- Perfectly, thank you.

- Is there anything?

- Yes.

No, I'd like you to hear this too, Elethea.

I want you to know exactly what happened because I will never tell it to a court.

(car engine humming) - Stop for a minute, I want to talk to you.

(hand brake clicking) Hector, when did you stop breathing?

Let's go for a walk.

- But- - There's bags of time.

Me daddy he's a handsome devil He's got a chain five miles long And on every link a heart does dangle Of another maid he's loved and wronged - What are you thinking of?

Or should I say who?

- I've never ever been so happy in all me life.

- Ah, is he waiting for you in London?

- It can happen for you as well, Hector.

(Hector laughing) I want you to believe that.

Can you?

- I'll try to believe it.

- [Ellen] (chuckles) (kiss smacks) Good.

When you get home, start making changes.

Okay, promise.

- I promise.

- [Ellen] Look at the time.

- Oh God, come on.

(Ellen giggles) (gentle serene music) - It's perhaps hard for you to understand what those few minutes meant to me.

Just to be touched by a beautiful young woman.

It was only when Ellen kissed me that I realized the truth of what she'd said.

I had stopped breathing.

I had stopped breathing the day Bonnie died.

(clock ticking) (door bangs) We were late.

(tires screeching) I wanted Ellen to get to London to meet the man she'd fallen in love with.

I drove too fast.

(metal crashing) (somber anxious music) (somber anxious music continues) (door slams) - He'll get off, Guv.

I'm telling you, he'll get off.

His posh lawyer will say he was in shock or something.

- He held her hand until she died, John.

And then he walked home and he told his wife and his wife's boyfriend what had happened.

- I don't understand these people.

It's like the "Wizard of Oz", isn't it?

Everyone thinks there's some amazing brains running the operation and you look behind the curtain, it's just some weird Hooray Henry who was once in the Bullingdon Club.

Well the game's up, because once you start laughing at the high ups, they lose their power.

- I wouldn't worry too much on their behalf.

You might be all over for the toffs, but they've trained the Anthony Baughs of this world to carry on the good fight.

- Hi, I'm Anthony.

I think you know people like me 'cause I'm a straight sort of guy.

That's why people trust me.

(clears throat) Hi, call me Tony.

Okay, why should you vote for me?

(gentle anxious music) - All right, the blood thing that, that was a mistake.

But it got us a confession, so bingo.

- No, not bingo.

- Well, I wouldn't have had to make it up would I, if he'd have coughed up in the first place?

I mean, what were all the lies about?

- Honor, I think.

Dignity.

Memory.

- Well like I said, I don't understand these people.

- Just out of interest, what sort of people do you think should be running this country?

(lively upbeat music) - People like me.

(George laughs) ("Matty Groves") A holiday, a holy day The first one of the year Lord Arlen's wife came into church The gospel for to hear And when the meeting it was done She cast her eyes about And there she saw little Matty Groves Walking in the crowd (dramatic whooshing) (no audio)