In Celebration (1975) - full transcript

Steven?

Your mother's gone out.

She went shopping an hour since.

I expect my dad's in.

Is he on nights?

- That's right.
- Oh.

Ah, well. See you.

[children chattering, laughing]

[child] Good clay.

[dog barking]

[children chattering, laughing]



Dad?

Dad?

[door opens]

[man coughs]

[footsteps approaching]

Dad.

Steven.

You're early. I...

I'd scarcely woken up.

I got away early.

Oh. How are you, lad?

You're looking all right.

So's yourself.

A bit older.



Bit more weight to go with it.

[chuckles]

Oh, take no notice of me.

I only got back from work
three or four hours ago.

Nights.

MY age!

You'd think they'd give me something else.

Your mother's out.

Yes.

Gone to buy herself a hat.

A hat?

For tonight.

I can't tell you.

I've heard nothing else
for the past fortnight.

You'd think we'd come up
with a few thousand.

Oh, no. You don't, do you.

Common sense.

Me, I'm choked up to here--

[coughing]

Coal dust. It's a wonder I'm still alive.

I've heard that before.

Ah, but you won't hear it for much longer.

[chuckles]
I've heard that before, as well.

[father sighs]

Well, do you fancy a cup of tea?

How's the family, then? They keeping well?

All right. Up and down.

Look at this.

I don't think aught's changed here
since I was last up.

Family, lad, family.

Nothing more important than that.

A good wife, children,

God's good grace.

You got good health and a family.
You don't need anything else.

Aye.

Sixty-four years next month.

If I've not learned that,
I've learned nothing.

Hey. Damn near lost my hand last week.

Look, seven stitches.

You'll have to watch out.

[laughing] Watch out?

At my age?

You're joking.

One more year, and I'm finished.

They'll pension me off.

Fifty years I've had down with that lot,
you know?

- That's what I've got to show.
- Oh.

And a little bit more.

[chuckles]

I mustn't grumble.

Well then, how's your lot?

How's Sheila?
Best daughter-in-law I ever had.

She's all right.

Four kiddies,
hardly ten months between them,

I don't know how they do it.

I thought I were impetuous.

There were two or three years
between you kids, you know.

She's cleaned them windows a dozen times.

It's a wonder there's any glass left in.

Nearly polished them right through.

[dog barking]

There's not much changed out there,
either.

-[teapot whistling]
- Ayup.

Get your jacket off, lad.

Make yourself comfortable.

And mind where you put yourself.

She's puffed up every cushion,
straightened every chair.

Just like being in the army.

How long are you staying?

- I'll have to get back tomorrow.
- Oh?

How's the work going?

All right.

I wish I got half what you got,
I can tell you.

And for doing twice as much.
I shouldn't worry.

It's got its drawbacks.

Drawbacks?

It could draw back
as far as it liked for me.

[scoffs] Teaching.

[woman calling]

Anyone in?

Ayup, look out. She's here, good God.

I thought I saw you, Steven.

How are you keeping, love?

Hello, Mrs. Burnett.

Well enough.

Pretend she's not here. She'll go away.

Oh, doesn't mind me popping in.
Always the same.

How's your kiddies?

Oh, surviving.

I've heard.
I've seen the photographs, you know.

- And your wife?
- Fine.

Your mother never mentions them,
but I know.

It all goes on inside.

She's ever so excited about tonight.
Where are you taking them?

Into town, Colin's arranged something.

Oh, your Andrew and Colin
not here then yet?

They're coming up by car.

[Mrs. Burnett]
It's a lovely treat for them.

I hope so.

Forty years, they'll not forget.

Yakking, yakking, yakking.

Smells tea a mile off.
The human bloodhound.

She's never out of this house.

Oh, he hasn't forgotten me, don't worry,
after all these years.

No, that's true.

He doesn't let you forget, don't worry.

He's out shouting it across the backs
whenever he has any news.

You get tired of hearing it,
I can tell you.

[father] Tired? They spend all day
flat on their backs round here.

Don't know what work is.

Soon as their husband's gone off,
out it comes,

teapot, cushion behind the back, feet up--

I know, I know.
That's why you never have anything to eat,

and your houses are full up to the chimney
with last week's washing.

[father] Last week's?
Last bloody year's, more likely.

We have to bolt the door sometimes
just to get a bit of peace.

Last week he gave your mother
a bit of a shock though.

Came in white as a sheet, he was.

[father] Jumping up and down.

They had to fetch the doctor.

Heart.

He didn't treat it lightly, don't worry.

"Better take it easy, more rest."

I said, "You must be joking.

How would you take it easy
with ten ton of rock

coming down on top of your head?"

- What did he say?
-[father] He laughed.

They don't give a damn.
Why should they? An old man!

I should have been dead years ago.

I don't think that's right, somehow.

Nay.

I've no illusions, none.

I've had a good life with a lovely woman.
I can't ask for anything more.

Still.

[Mrs. Burnett] My...

[Sighing] Ay, well.

Ah, go on. Get shut..

She's waiting for a cup of tea.
She'll be here all clay if you let her.

I'll pop in later, love.

And remember, pinch of salt. [laughs]

"Pinch of salt."
I'd like to pinch her bloody salt.

Her nose is ten miles long round here.

She'll be out there,
yakkin' it across the backs.

Uh-huh.

We had a letter from our Colin.

He's moved his job.

Cars.

Works liaison. [chuckles]

I nearly missed you there, you know.

One of the works cars, is it?

I thought you were waiting
at the next one.

I could only get a lift to here.

You mean you thumbed a lift all this way?

Why not?

Better get in.

How long have you been waiting?

Not long.

- You look like a tramp.
- I am a tramp.

Ah, it's gonna be one of those visits.

[laughs]

[father] We had a letter from our Colin.

Moved his job.

Works liaison.

Factory that big,
take you a fortnight to walk round it.

Cars.

He offered to get us one.

Brand new, good price.

You ought to take it.

What?

Now what would I want with a car?

You can't shove it, pedal it
or hang it on a wall,

it's no use to me.

Hey.

He has to argue.

Whenever the workers, that's us,
are coming out on strike,

or think we ought to,

Colin's the one called in
by the management to negotiate.

[laughs]

Industrial relations.

A family with relatives like ours,
and all.

Uh-huh.

He told me I ought to get out.

Retire now.

Buy a house.

He put up all the cash.

Why den": yam?

What?

Andrew's another.

Chucking up his job to become an artist.

He's nearly 4O
with two children to support.

By go, it takes a reckoning.

A career as a solicitor
that he's worked at...

That I'd worked at.

Many is the night I spent with him
at that table, I could tell you.

Decimals, fractions, Latin.

I seem to remember.

You were the last, Stevie.

But, by God, you were the best.

There were nothing I had to teach you.

The others?
Had to shove it down their throats.

It's like trying to eat burnt porridge.

Why don't you take up Colin's offer?

We could all chip in a bit.

I was 15 when I first went down that pit,
lad.

Yes?

Forty-nine years, half a century.

One more will make it a round number.

Not worth risking your health for.

No.

Well.

You remember the war?

Used to carry one of you out there.

Me.

YOU?

Aye, I think it were.

They hardly bombed around here.

Must've flown over
and thought it weren't worth it.

Made a mistake there.

[laughs] They made no mistakes about that.

Miles and miles of nothing, this place.

Always has been, always will be.

Only thing that ever come out of here
were coal.

And when that's finished, as it will be...

there'll be even less.

Row after row of empty houses
as far as the eye can see.

Hundred years ago, this was all moorland.

Sheep.

Bit of wood.

When they come to dig it up
in a thousand years,

they'll wonder what we made
such a mess of it for.

They'll look at the foundations and think
we lived in little cells like goats.

We did.

Aye.

Well, how's the book going?

All right.

One of them was gonna be famous,
I always thought it would be you.

Why's that?

Well, you were always so clever.

Now don't tell me
that's something you forget.

I think I must've done.

Aye.

Would you like a wash?

I'll forget my head one of these clays.

I'll go UP-

Have a look around.

Not much to see, I can tell you.

Two rooms, back and front.

If the water's not hot enough,
give us a shout.

I'll heat some up for you.

Won't take a minute.

Right.

[door opens]

[door closes]

There you are.

Where else would I be?

Oh. You've had some tea, then?

Aye.

Two of you?

Mrs. Burnett called in.

Oh, yeah?

And you gave her some tea, then?

Well, I thought I'd better.

Oh, yes.

And what's going on, then?

Going on?

Oh, Steven's upstairs. I forgot.

[sighs] Oh, forgot.

[laughs]

It slipped me mind.

He's having a wash.

Having a--
Harry, have you given him a clean towel?

Towel. Oh, no, I forgot.

[gasps] Honestly.

Don't worry. Nothing's moved.
Nothing's shifted.

Well, we could do with some more coal.

Well, then.

And where have you been all this time?

Oh, about.

Oh, you're not looking too good, love.

The climate. I'm not used to it up here.

Are they looking after you?

Oh, they are, all right.

Let's have a look at you.

[chuckles] You've put on a lot of weight.

Or taken a lot off.

I can't remember.

I forget myself.

Have you had your tea?
Let me get you something to eat.

There's no hurry.

Aw.

Well, how is your family?

Oh, Well.

They must take a lot of upkeep, you know.

How old's Roger now?

Three months.
And Patrick's getting one and a quarter.

Oh, I don't know. I've lost count.

I don't know. Seems to be a lot of them.

I, uh...
I hope your dad hasn't been too much.

No, no.

I think you'd do a lot of good,
now you're up here,

if you persuaded him
to come out of that pit.

He's only another year.

Yes, he's told me.

[chuckles] Pride.

You've never seen anything like it.

Shh. I'll just take these out.

I'm good for carrying
if I'm good for nothing else.

They'll send me back as a donkey.

Reincarnation!

Written all over me from head to foot.

You better be careful,
somebody might hear you.

Oh, he don't bother with me.

Now, don't you think
she's looking a picture?

Yes.

Forty years of married bliss
has left its mark.

Do you know
when she walks down that street,

people step back just to bow to her.

[laughs]

I come back as a donkey.
She'll come back as a queen.

I was just saying, love,
you look a picture.

Oh, I know. What of?

You know what I mean.

She spends that long
in front of the mirror

that when I get to look at it,

I find her still in there, looking out.

He doesn't change, does he?

You ought to see him skip in the back
and comb his hair

when Mrs. Burnett comes around.

Mrs. Burnett!

By go, I've have to be down to
the last woman on earth to consider that.

As it is, love,
I'm still up with the first.

I don't know. He doesn't know
where to put himself, you know.

Since he's known you were coming.

I don't think
ever since you went to university

he's known what to do with himself.

And that's... what, how long ago?

- Fifteen yea rs?
- Longer.

Education, lad, you can't do without.

Look at your mother.

Left school when she was 16.

Sixteen! By go, that were
nearly retiring age in them clays.

She's still got her certificate upstairs.

I remember.

Proficiency in domestic science,
nature study,

-and the English language.
- Oh!

All done out in copperplate script.

Miss Helen Swanson.

Her father were a pig breeder.
Just out of town.

A smallholder.

[Mr. Shaw] A pig breeder! He kept pigs.

By go, you had to be in love
to step inside her house.

Well, I've heard some things!

And] she ends up marrying men

You've never forgiven me, have you, love?

Nay, but you know I love you.

And I married you, all the same.

I'll show you my hat later, love.

Ah, yes.

It won't frighten us, will it?

Remember, we got to walk
down that street with you in public.

Now, I don't mind walking with a woman
if she--

Well, in that case,
you've got nothing to be ashamed of.

Oh, I'd never be ashamed, love.

Whatever you wear, my darling,

I never have been
and I never will be ashamed.

Well, in that case, we'll be all right.

[chuckles]

Embarrassed, now, I might be embarrassed.

But never ashamed. [laughs]

She's a good woman.

One of the best.

A lady.

That were a bit of a let-down,
marrying me.

Oh, now.

I wouldn't have thought so.

Nay, lad. Never one to grumble.

Well, then, Steve.
What's it feel like to be home?

- Home?
- After all this time.

Well, I don't know, Dad.

Very much the same.

[Mr. Shaw chuckles]

[children chattering]

[horn honks]

Tell her I won't be long.
Not safe to leave it parked round here.

- I'll find somewhere on the road.
- All right. See you.

Hey!

You've forgotten your bag.

[whistling]

Hey!

Hey, where are we?

Come on, then! Open up.

[Andrew] Hey!

Here we are. [knocks on door]

What's going on?

Can't get in.

- Oh!
- Hey!

-[laughs]
- When you coming down?

Oh, there you are, love!

We wondered where you'd got to.

On the lav then, were you, eh?

Oh, I was not!

[Mrs. Shaw laughs]

Ooh, by go, there's been a lot
put on around here, hasn't there?

Oh, go on. Get on.

Where is he, then?

Come on, then.

Where's he hiding?

I'll be up there, old lad.

Snoring off his head.
I'll go up and I'll tip him out.

- You won't. He's out.
- What?

Went down to the pub with Steven.

- Steven?
- After dinner.

I've been expecting them back any minute.

Isn't Colin with you, then?

Parking. Didn't think it was safe
to leave it outside.

Oh, I'm not surprised, these days.

I don't know.

Like a museum is this.

Hasn't changed in 5,000 years.

We just had it decorated
a few months since.

Oh, what with then, eh?

Soot?

I can see somebody hasn't changed.

Gunsmoke in Paradise
I used to marvel at that.

My dad's reading age hasn't risen
beyond when he was ten years old.

Yes, well, we can't all be educated,
you know.

No.

No.

Thank God for that.

Whereas, what you've clone with yours...

Oh, I shouldn't mention it, I suppose,

but what Peggy must be thinking,
I can't imagine.

She must be out of her mind with worry.

What are you living on?

On love, my dear, love,
like everybody else.

We've been married now for 17 years.

If we haven't got a bit of that
left in stock,

we might as well not try.

But how are you living?

I mean,
what sort of pictures do you paint?

I know.

Well?

You think I paint...

young ladies.

- What?
- Or better still, young men.

- What?
- Come on. Admit it.

She thinks I spend my time painting
young ladies with no clothes on.

- Oh--
- She thinks I gave up my career

as one of the greatest solicitors
in the land

in order to peruse certain young ladies
without their clothes on.

I thought nothing of the kind.

Go on! You're as bad as Peggy.

- She thought the same.
- Well, I'm not surprised.

It really puzzled her.

- What?
- The picture, Peggy.

Came in with it tucked beneath me arm.

She thought--
Well, I don't know what she thought

she was gonna see.

She was half blushing before
I'd even had a chance to put it down.

Lo and behold...

triangles.

Triangles?

After that, squares.

Sq Ila res?

Rectangles, rhomboids.

Sometimes even... nothing.

- Nothing?
- Well, I say nothing.

You know there'd be a spot of something,
a little red...

touch of viridian, cerulean trickle there.

Ooh, lovely. [chuckles]

Still... old-fashioned.

-"Old-fashioned"?
- Yeah.

Yeah, I don't use paint now, you know.

Oh... well.

Plastic compounds.

Plus miscellaneous bric-a-brac picked up
from the refuse dump outside the town.

Got arrested once.

Arrested?

Yeah.

Loitering with intent. [laughs]

Ran rings around them at the station.

"You better get a solicitor," they said.

"I have a solicitor," I said.

"Why, Mr. Shaw," they said,
"We didn't recognize you."

"Artist now, mate," I said.

"Don't you forget it."

Well, I don't know
why you ever gave it up.

After all those years
you spent studying with it,

it seems such a waste.

You were never interested in art before.

No. I'm not now, either.

Well, I...

[sighs]

Well.

I've said enough.
You must know your own mind.

Oh. [chuckles]

Mad River Guns, eh?

He must get through these faster
than he does a cigarette.

He brings them home from work.
I don't know where he gets them from.

Well, I hope you fumigate them
before they come into the house.

I've thought about it a time or two,
I can tell you.

I'll bet, I'll bet.

No alien bodies in this house, eh?

That's always been our motto.

What was that subject?

Subject?

You were always top in at school.

Domestic science.

No, no.

Human hygiene.

I remember you telling us
when we were lads.

Human hygiene.

The sort of vision those words created.

It was an experimental class.

Never been taught in a school before.

Never looked back since, hey?

No wonder we were so clean.

[barking]

Go on.

Came top, eh?

Well.

Used to tell my friends about it
at school.

Human hygiene,
frightened them all to death.

They thought--
Well, I don't know what; they thought.

[chuckling] Oh.

Anyway, I never had any trouble
with them after that.

There he is! Look!

He must have walked for miles.

I don't know.

[sighs]

Hello?

[Colin] Hello?

Hello.

- What?
- I said hello.

- Oh.
- She thinks you're coming in the back.

Mother.

- Did you park the car?
- Yes.

Mother.

Mother.

Oh, there you are, love.

I thought you were coming in the--
Oh, how lovely.

Oh, thank you, love.

Mmm. I do appreciate that.

Trust him to come in the front.
Only for royalty is that, you know.

Workers have to use the rear.

Pay no notice, love.
He's in one of his moods.

- Iconoclastic!
- What?

I'm iconoclastic.

I remember her telling me that when I was,
how old, 11, 12?

"I've just got the word for you, my lad,"
she said.

And she took out her dictionary.
You know, her first prize for, uh--

- Hygiene.
- Ha! You see now. He remembers that.

I don't remember looking.

I didn't dare mention it for years.

I went round all that time thinking
it was some sort of sexual deviation.

Well, I don't remember that.

Iconoclastic.

First girl I ever took out,
when we got to her gate, moon shining,

I said, "I think I'd better warn you
before I start anything.

I'm iconoclastic."

[chuckles]
She said, "Well I better get in then."

"Yes," I said, "I think you should."

Three hours of that I've had in the car.

You've heard about his painting?

[mother] I have.

The only reason he took it up is because

they couldn't stand his conversation
in the office any longer.

He's got his father's nature all right.

I think I must have.

Where is he, by the way? In bed?

[Andrew] At the pub.

I'll get you a cup of tea, love.

Oh! There's your dad now, and Steven.

I won't be a minute. You're back then?

-[Steven] Aye.
- Hope we haven't kept you waiting, love.

[mother] You know
that Colin and Andrew are here?

- All right?
-[father] Are they? Oh!

All right.

Well, there you are, then.
How are you, lad?

You're looking pretty well, yourself.

How are you?

You're a damned old wreck.
How many have you had, hey?

Nay, I go down there for social reasons,
not for anything else.

[chuckles] Aye, we know.

I'm not the drinker in the house.
She's in there, stoking up.

[chuckles] Don't you worry.
They know you of old.

Heart of gold. Never stops working.

Were that your car
Mrs. Burnett told us about?

We just come up with her.
She saw it down the road.

Mmm. They'll bury that woman
in a glass coffin.

Ahh!

If she couldn't look out,
she'd never step inside.

Well, then, Steve.
How's your writing going?

All right.

[Colin] Mother said in your last letter
you were going to publish a book.

I was.

Well, then.
I shall look forward to seeing it.

He's got all the brains, has Steve.

And all the kiddies, too.

Ah.

Are you all right now there, love?

I'm all right. Don't you worry.

They oughta run tea in pipes round here
instead of water.

- They'd make a fortune.
-'Round here, they would.

[coughing]

Slakes your thirst.

Dust.

Sounds as though you've got half a ton
of best nugget down there, Dad.

I have. Don't worry.
I shouldn't be surprised.

I'll go and see if my mother needs a hand.

Executive.

Nice bit of coat.

[father] Yeah.
You won't find one of them where I work.

[Andrew] Oh, I don't know.

They tell me miners earn
as much as dentists these clays.

[father] What?

At the bloody dogs, they might.
It's the only place they can.

I've even thought of going down myself.

You've got a career, you have.

I spent half my life making sure
none of you went down that pit.

I've always thought...

coal mining was one of the few things
I could really do.

One of the few things
for which I'm ideally equipped.

And yet the one thing in life
from which I'm actually excluded.

You are ideally equipped
to be a professional man.

Or ought you want. That place?

An animal could do what I do.
And I can tell you most of them are.

Aye, he's right.

[growls, chuckles]

Hey, I've been studying your library.

What?

One of the first things I ever remember
was a picture in one of them.

A cowboy with a hat out here...

and trousers,

flapping like wings,
mounted on the back of a rearing horse.

Somehow, it still sums it all up.

What?

Don't know.

Freedom.

They're nothing. They just pass the time.

- I'll bet you can't remember a single one.
- What?

What happens at Bloodstone Creek...

when Barry Hogan rides up and sees
a light glinting from amongst the rocks?

[father] I couldn't tell you.

[Andrew] Ha! You're stunted.

Bring the tea, love.

[father] It's a wonder
I've grown one foot at all.

Here we are.

Oh, thank you, dear.

He'd make a lovely mother.

You better watch out.

He'll shove it right over your head.

He couldn't knock a fly
off a rice pudding.

[Colin] Don't be too sure.

He'd negotiate with it first.

You're a quiet one, love.

Sure your dad didn't persuade you
to have too much too drink?

No.

He doesn't say much,
but he doesn't miss out. Do you, lad?

How's your book going then, Steve?

All right.

Well, not really.

I've packed it in.

Packed it in? Why, it's years!

Aye.

Well, Why'd you give it up then, lad?

Not my cup of tea. [chuckles]

Stick to what I've got, I suppose.

Aah.

He's better off looking after his wife
and family, not writing books.

What was it all about then, Steve?

Oh...

Modern society, to put it into words.

I don't know.

Indicating without being too aggressive...

how we'd all succumbed
to the passivity of modern life...

industrial discipline,
and moral turpitude.

Don't mock him.

I'm not mocking him.

He let me read a bit of it once,
what, four years ago.

Been writing it nearly seven.

I don't know why he's packed it in.

I agreed with every word.

Ag reed with what?

His view of society.

The modern world.

Nay. [chuckles]
I can't make head nor tail of it.

[Mrs. Burnett calling]

Are you in, love?

Or are you out?

No, we're out.

Don't worry. We've had her in here before.

He never changes, does he.

Take no notice, love. We're in.

We hear all about you now, you know.

-[Colin] Not too much, I hope.
-[Mrs. Burnett] No, no.

Just the right things.

What your father wants to tell us.

Don't worry, I tell her nothing.

How are you, Andrew?

I hear you've given up your job.

Aye, that's right. If you have anything
going around here, just let me know.

Oh, that'll be the clay,

when he comes looking for a job
round here.

Ah, it'll be sooner than you think.
Don't worry.

We're thinking of setting up in business.

Business?
What sort of business then's that?

- Glass coffins.
-[laughs]

Glass coffins?

Or wooden ones with little windows in.

Would you like a cup of tea, love?

Oh, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't say no.

Like asking a dog if it wants to piddle.

It must be a proud clay, love. Forty years.

That's right.

We'd have waited
until we'd been married 50,

only I don't think either of us
would have lasted that long.

Oh, now!

Forty years, it's a round number.

I'm near retiring, God willing,
and what with one thing and another,

Mother, here, she's gonna be...

well, she's gonna be a certain age
next week.

[chuckles] I shall be 60.

Well, I don't mind them knowing.

She were a young lass at 20
when I married her.

And, in my eyes,
she's been the same age ever since.

Oh, come now.
Don't let's exaggerate too much.

Nay, you're as old as you feel,

and that's the way
I'll always see you, love.

Look at the time.

[father] Aye. Come up.
We better get moving.

-[Mrs. Burnett] The Excelsior Hotel?
-[father] That's the one.

[Mrs. Burnett]
They only finished it last year.

Twelve stories high.

Cost you a pound to take your coat off.
If you sneeze, it costs you a fiver.

You ask for a glass of water,
you gotta tip ten bob to pour it out.

I tell you,
I'm in the wrong bloody business.

[women laugh]

[Mrs. Burnett] Aye, well.

I'm only sorry

-your Jamey never lived to see it.
-[father] Aye.

Well...

He was a lovely lad, he was.

Aye, we'd have been all right
with the four of them, we would.

[Mrs. Burnett] They wouldn't remember him.

[father] Nay.

You have your tribulations.

Missed him, you did,
by about three months.

And Colin there was--

He was almost two.

Andrew, nearly five.

Now, he could have been an artist.
He could draw like a little angel.

How old was he?

He was seven when he dlied.

[father] He had a little book.

His teacher sent it home from school.

Drawings, you wouldn't know
they hadn't been done by an artist.

Shapes, colors.

There were one of three apples on a plate.

You could almost pick 'em up.

Pneumonia.

Didn't have the protection against it
in them days like they do now.

I'd have cut off my right arm,
I bloody would.

Aye.

Well...

Right then.

Let's get moving.

On with the dance.

[Mrs. Burnett] Ah, well.
I best be getting back.

How are your lads then, Mrs. Burnett?

Oh, well enough.

Half a dozen kiddies, not two minutes
to come up and see their mother.

Still, that's how it is.

That's where you're lucky, love.
Your lads come home.

Don't disown you,
don't forget you when you're getting old.

Aye, we've been lucky, we have.

If you drop your key off, I'll make sure
your fire's in when you get back.

- Oh, thanks, love.
- Now don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Well, that don't leave us so bloody much.

Ta-ra, love. I'm off before he starts.

One of the best, she is.

One of the best what?

Forget it.

[Andrew]
Ooh, you should have heard him in the car.

Talk about the two nations.

The dignity of the manual laborer.

"Laborer"?

I should forget it.

Never ask an expatriate working class man
about his views on his former class.

Do you know? When he left school
and went to university...

Colin was a card-carrying member
of the CP.

"CP"? What's that?

- Communist.
- Communist?

To my mother,
Communist is synonymous with sex deviate,

pervert, luster after young girls,
defiler of young men.

- I never said that.
-[chuckles]

I didn't know you were a Communist, Colin.

No, neither did he. It only lasted a year.

It gives him an aura of respectability now
when he's negotiating with the men.

You'd go down well, I can tell you.

Down well, where?

I've gone down.

You can't get much lower
than where I am, mate.

Now, look. We're here to celebrate
not to have arguments.

I can remember when they were all at home.
[chuckles]

Arguments! It was like a debating palace.

Your head got dizzy
trying to follow each one.

- Here, I'll take this.
- Oh, thank you, love.

Well, I'll go up and get changed then.

Are you coming, dear?

Aye, I'm coming.

Well, all right, then?

Uh, look, lads...

About Jamey.

I wouldn't talk about him too much.

I know you didn't bring it up, but...

Well, your mother...

As you get older,
you start thinking about these things.

What about them?

Nay, I've said enough.

All right.
I'll get up and get polished up.

Leave a bit of muck on, Dad.
We won't know you without.

[chuckling] Some hopes of that.

I'll get a proper inspection.

hygiene.

Hygiene. Ha! That's it. [chuckles]

All right, then. Think on it.

Well... this time tomorrow
we'll all be back home.

I should just lay off, you know.
Just once, give it a rest.

Are you gonna negotiate with me
or something, Colin?

We're here to give them a good time,
something they'll remember.

God alone knows they deserve it.

Aye, he's right.

What about you, Steve? Hmm?

What are you so quiet about?

Silent Steven.

They called him that at school.

I've just thought.

I'll have all that way to walk back
to get the car.

Ring for a taxi.

It's the same distance to the phone box
the other way.

You forget, don't you,
what a primitive place this really is?

You know, the other morning we ran out
of toothpaste at home

and I suddenly remembered
we never had toothpaste here.

We used to clean our teeth with salt,

three little piles on the draining board
every morning.

We never had any cakes either.

Do you remember that?

There was a jam tart and one piece
of sponge roll for tea on Sunday.

And old Steve used to have to stand
at table 'cause we only had four chairs.

- Ah.
- Aye, I remember.

Hey, would you believe it.

Do you remember
when old Shuffler came to see my dad

about my going to university?

[chuckles]

-[Steven] Shuffler?
- He left by the time you got there.

Sixth form.

Careers.

He came here one night to talk to my dad
about the pros and cons

of going to university.

He sat in a chair--

We had it there.

Put his hands out like this...

Ping! Bloody springs shot out.

[all laugh]

Nearly dislocated his elbow.

[laughs]

And my dad said to him...

"Would you mind not putting your hands
on the arms, Mr. Rushton?

The springs are coming out." [laughs]

Bare floors...

we had a piece of lino,
which my mother moved around each week,

trying to fit the chairs
over the holes and spaces.

Newspaper on the table for dinner.

Breakfast, supper and tea.

Don't read when you're eating.

After he came here,
Shuffler never spoke to us again.

Whenever we met in the school corridor,

he used to gaze at some point
exactly six inches above your head.

Talk about the pain of poverty.

I still dream about that look.

I do.

I often wake up trying to convince him
we're not as poor as that any longer.

Well.

That's what comes of going
to a good school.

One of drapers' sons, minor bureaucrats

and the children
of the professional classes.

[Andrew] My dear old Col,

your children are the children
of the professional classes.

I have no children.

Good God! You haven't.

I forgot.

Why have you never married, Colin?

Don't know.

Haven't had the time.

Hey, you're not, uh...

Are you?

I don't think so.

I mean, 'cause if you are...

for my mother's sake,

- I'd keep it under your hat.
-[Colin] Oh, sure.

[Andrew] The one thing
my mother cannot stand.

I don't mind a man being as promiscuous
as he likes,

within reason, of course,
and with the sole exception of my dad.

But the thought of one man
going with another.

I don't think we've quite come to that.

In any case,
as far as marriage is concerned,

I probably might have to.

What?

Good God! You don't mean...

There's not some unfortunate lassie
carrying an embryonic Colin in her tum?

No, it's just less embarrassing
to be married than not to be.

Oh, I see. Hmm. Well.

As long as it's only that.

Your one grievous disability, Andy,
if you don't mind me mentioning this,

is not only have you never grown up,

you've never even put in
the first preliminary effort.

Management talk.

His men's talk is both more subtly obscene

and more overtly gratuitous.

[Colin] I must say,
it's come to a sorry bloody pitch.

I could've got him a job years ago
if he'd wanted.

I could even have got him on the board,
what with his gifts,

his tongue,
his golden sense of opportunity.

He might even have clone a bit of good.

You are listening to a man,
believe it or not,

whose life is measured out in motorcars.

In blood, in men, in progress.

Do you know what he told me
on the way up here?

Cigar in mouth,
gloved hands firmly on the wheel.

The well-being of this nation is largely,
if not wholly dependent,

on maintaining a satisfactory level
of export from the motor industry.

Their nation.

If my bloody nation
is largely dependent on that,

I'd rather crawl around on all fours
with a pigskin on my back

and a bow and arrow in my bloody hand.
I would!

You probably might have to.
Sooner than he thinks.

May God speed that clay. May God speed it.

And that, mind you, after witnessing
my poor old father's life,

crawling around in pitch-black
on his belly

his life hanging on the fall
of a piece of rock

for 5O bloody years.

[Andrew] My father, old friend,
has more dignity in his little finger

than all you in your bloody
automated factories could conjure up

in a thousand bloody years.

Yes.

[sighs] You know, I weep for you,
I really do.

To think you once lived here
under this roof.

My brother! And you end up--
Just look at you.

Like this.

I think I'll go and have a wash. Steve?

No, I've, uh...

I shan't be long.

Sorry to hear about your book.

Yes.

I thought it well worthwhile.

Yes.

What's gone wrong then, Steve?

I don't know what you mean there, Andy.

I remember you very well at school.

Yes?

That silence.

I read into it, at that time,
a kind of arrogance,

disdain, a sort of feeling of contempt.

No, no. I respected you very much
because of that.

Misplaced contempt it may have been.

God knows, the educated sons
of that school, Steve.

But you...

where's all that venom gone?

Where, for Christ's sakes, Steve,
is the spirit of revenge?

I've often thought it.

You and Colin are very much alike.

[chuckles] Alike.

The morality of vested interest
on the one hand...

and the morality of destruction
on the other.

In a way, you're both evangelists.

And you?

I'm not a moralist like you.

Attitudes like yours are easily adopted.

All you have to do is destroy
what's already there.

Look, that book of yours...

I think I agreed with every word.

I even felt I'd written it myself.

It was so true, so apt to reflection
of all the indignities,

the perversities, the abominations that I,
and I alone at that time,

I imagined had endured and suffered.

And to have all that confirmed...

enhanced, not by someone I never knew,
but by you.

And now look at you,
detached, aloof, transformed.

When at long last
you've identified a cancer,

it is no commendation
of your powers of loving

to get down on your knees
and give it a damn great kiss.

- What would you have us do then, Andy?
- I'd never give up.

I'd rather run out there
with a bloody gun, I would.

- Yes, I really think you'd do it.
- I would.

What choice is there? I'd...

I really would.

I remember you too, Andy.

I remember you very well at school.

Coming home one night
and devastating all of us.

Me, certainly.

With why it was no longer tenable,
a belief in God.

As if belief were some kind of limb
to be hacked off at will.

Oh, Steve.

Believe me.

Destroy any part of it
and all the rest goes with it.

I don't understand.

You've lived here half your life.

What kind of vengeance
do you have in mind?

How are you going to survive then, Steve?

Amoral, aseptic, uninvolved.

How are you going to manage, Steven?

Steve.

For Christ's sake.

For Christ's sake?

I must say,
for somebody who doesn't believe in God,

he invokes him an awful bloody lot.

You should have heard him.

Four hours of that,
I've had inside that car.

If you ever have a car,
don't let him inside.

Two miles with him in the passenger seat
and you'll drive into the nearest wall.

Oh, all right.

Good God. Amazing.

When poor old Jamey died...

Do we have to go through all this again?

Andrew has a new theory about his origins.

Not new and not theoretical either.

He's discovered...

I told him a little time ago...

that Jamey was born
three months after my mother got married.

Good lord!

No, no, upright, still standing.

Can you imagine for one moment
what went on

during those six-month negotiations
prior to the event?

Oh, let me see--

Now, this is something
you should be particularly good at.

I mean, first in human hygiene--

Now, why does he go on about that?

English language, domestic science.

Didn't leave school till she was 16.

Religious.

Raised by a petty farmer to higher things.

Ends up being laid in a farm field
by a bloody collier.

hygiene.

Never forgiven him, she hasn't.

Dig coal, he will, till kingdom come.
Never dig enough.

Retribution.

- Do you know what I'd say to you?
- What?

Mind your own bleeding business.

[scoffs]

Oh, all right.

[Colin] Poor old Jamey.

[Andrew] Poor old Dad!

[Colin] Poor old Dad.

[Andrew] Well that's it, exactly.

- What?
- Guilt!

Subsequent moral rectitude.

They fashioned Jamey, as a consequence,
in the image of Jesus Christ.

I can think of worse examples.

When Mary said we have a son,
her husband said, "Tell me another one."

Andrew thinks Jamey died
because he could never atone.

Atone for what?

For whatever my mother felt.

He died of pneumonia
according to the certificate.

I remember seeing it myself, years ago.

- Do you remember Jamey?
-[Colin] Not really.

I was only two or three at the time.

Well I was nearly five.

I remember him very well.

Sitting there, drawing.

Or upstairs crying.

Now, they never beat us, you know.

But him, he was black and blue.

And like Steven there,
but for his bloody little pictures,

silent as the tomb.

- Come on.
-"Come on," what?

Honestly, the way he dramatizes
the slightest infraction.

Black and blue, I don't remember that.

And I remember my dad landing me one
once or twice, I do.

And you.

Well?

[chuckles] Come on. Fair's fair.

If Colin wants to whitewash everything,
why not give him every chance?

It's nothing.

- Nothing?
- It's nothing.

- Years ago--
- Years ago.

My dad...

My father...

Look, it's really nothing.

My father told me,
shortly after Jamey died...

my mother tried to...

What?

Kill herself.

Oh, no, fair's fair. Now, look here.

She was already six months gone
with Steve...

sitting here on this floor hugging a knife

when the old man staggers in
through that door.

Not drunk?

- From work.
- Oh.

You see, this doesn't interest him at all.

Do you think, in all honesty,
that it should?

All right, she tried to kill herself.

- And Steve?
- And Steve, he wasn't even born.

No, he wasn't. Waiting there,
that's all, to be delivered.

Look at him, still waiting.
Solemn, silent.

All right, all right.
I mean poor bloody soul.

And supposing it should be true.

Is it something I should bear with me
every second, every day?

Are we supposed to be endlessly,
perpetually measured

by our bloody imperfections?

Just what precisely are you after, Andy?

You want someone to hold your hand
throughout your entire bloody life?

- Ask Steve.
- What about "ask Steve"?

He has more bloody common sense.

Go on, tell him.

Well, giving up his book
isn't exactly what you'd call

a sign of his maturity, his growing up,
is it?

He actually has been having nightmares.

In true, I might add, evangelical style.

Nightmares? What about?

Jamey.

He sees him crying out.

Trying to appease
the Immaculate Conception.

Trying to tell him
that it wasn't his fault.

Jamey in the wilderness,
Jamey on the mountaintop.

Jamey at the window saying,
"Even if you were first in human hygiene

and you intended marrying someone smarter
than my dad, it wasn't my fault.

Please, God, forgive me.

Please, God forgive me, Ma.
It's not my fault."

What's he on about, Steve?

For Christ's sake!

I wrote Andy a letter a few months back...

asking him what he felt.

Revenge, I'm afraid, is his only answer.

Revenge? On what?

[Steven] On them.

On them? For what?

I don't know. Everything.

Oh, I see, nothing less than that.

Projecting him into a world
which they didn't understand.

Educating him for a society which existed
wholly in their imaginations.

Opportunistic, philistine, parasitic.

Bred in ignorance, fed in ignorance,
dead in ignorance.

Only, of course, his common sense,
perhaps even his compassion

forbids him to do anything of the sort.

The most tedious thing about
his social attitudes, his moral judgments

is the perversity of their motives.

That's something I've always felt
about these screaming revolutionaries.

But now...

I understand.

You think by some superb gesture
of self exorcism,

powered and engendered by God knows what,
you can rid yourself of all this.

Your dreams, your nightmares.

No.

No.

You're like a man with one foot
on either side of an ever-widening chasm.

This detachment
that you are trying to tell me about

very soon is going to rip you wide apart.

Yes, well.

You can't be for this crummy world
and at the same time

be for your own psychic, spiritual,
moral autonomy any longer.

It is now the season of the locusts,

and if you have anything to save,
then save it.

Grab it in both hands and run.

- Yes, well.
- Well, what?

- Let's hope there aren't too many of you.
- Too many?

Someone has to stay behind.

Behind, you're not behind.

You're nowhere. You're overrun. You--

[banging noise]

Now, look. Forget it.

- Do you want a hand, or can you manage?
-[father] I don't damn well know.

Now, look. Lay off.

[Andrew whistling]

[groans] Bloody braces, they're
like a straight jacket on your back.

Your mother will be down in a minute.

I had to hang around up there,
give her a hand.

She can't reach
any of her buttons these days.

Look at that.

She's had me polishing that
since a week last Sunday.

You shine a light on that,
that'll burn your eyes. [chuckles]

Look, I'd better get the car.

Ah, I were thinking about that.

Can you wait till she comes down?

She wants to make an entry.

She'll be another half hour,
doing her gloves up,

straightening her hair.
You'll have plenty of time.

Ah, well, there's no great hurry.

- We could have a drive around.
- Aye, she'd like that.

She's had a hard life.

She worked very hard.
Kept this place like a palace.

One woman in a house of men.

She'd have given anything
to have had a daughter.

You know.

Somebody to talk to.

[footsteps approaching]

Ayup, here she comes.

-[mother] Are you ready?
- Aye, we're ready, love.

Ooh! Oh, just a minute.

That's a button gone.

Are you ready, then?

Here she comes.

Wow.

Beautiful.

Lovely.

[chuckles]

Do you like it?

It's very nice.
I couldn't have clone better myself.

Oh. [chuckles]

[father] Dear, let me have a kiss and all.

Have you locked up the back?

Oh, no. I'll go and do that now.

Do you like it?

Well, are we ready then?

I'll go fetch the car.

Oh, nay, love. Why don't we all walk down?

It's only half a mile.

Well, if you feel up to it.

We've walked down that road together
often enough in the past.

Once more won't hurt us.

Are we to go in front,
or do we follow on behind?

Oh, I don't know.

We'll go in front, show the flag.

Now, have you all got your coats?

That's an old familiar question.

"Cleaned your shoes, washed your faces,
tie straight, got your handkerchief?"

Right then.

[men] "Have you all got your coats?"

Right, we're all ready.
We're all locked up.

Nay, Mother.

Out of the front door today, love.

Oh. [chuckles]

Dad, bring up the rear.

Bring up the rear?

- Who's the boss around here?
- You and me, old lad.

[Colin] Steve!

[Andrew] Come on, Steven.

We're not leaving you behind.

Steven.

[chattering]

[father] Hey! Burglars.
We've been invaded.

[both yelling]

[laughs]

It's Mrs. Burnett.

All safe, come in.
They thought they were being raided.

And what did I tell you, eh?
Lovely and warm.

Have you had a nice time, then?

Grand, grand. Couldn't have been better.

We've had to hold her up.
Got us nearly arrested.

Hold me up! I'm quite all right.

Oh, that's a lovely fire.

I do appreciate that. Thank you, love.

I put the key on the sideboard.

Now don't rush off.
We're having a celebration.

We still got a bit put by.

- Oh, well, I don't--
- I'm having the finest night of my life.

The Excelsior! I've seen nothing like it.

We had that many waiters running
round the table,

you couldn't see the food. [burps]

Oh, now.

Oh, it was lovely.

Oh, I am glad.

The view!

All the walls are made of glass
on that top floor in the restaurant.

You could see right across the town.

Aye, from the muck heap at one end
to the muck heap at the other.

[both laugh]

[mother] Go on.
It wasn't like that at all.

You can see the moors up there,
sweeping away. And rocks.

When the sun was setting, you could see
the light glinting on a little stream...

It must have been miles away.

Yes, that's right.

And then when it got dark
all the lights came on,

and you could see right up that valley.

Lines of lights, little clusters...

and a train.

Just like a snake, it was,
winding in and out.

I don't know.

We've lived here all our lives,
but I've never seen anything like that.

[chuckles]

We skinned our Colin. Ain't that right?

I'll bet he won't come back up here
in a hurry, I can tell you.

Champagne.
He's even got a bottle in the car.

- Aye.
-[father] We still got space

-for a drop more?
- Oh, not for me, thanks.

Go on, we'll have another toast.

Ta. Hey. [chuckles]

Halfway through the meal,
restaurant full of people,

mill owners, engineering managers,
leaders of our imports and exports.

Never clone a hard day's work
in their bloody lives.

He gets up and goes round to every table.

What?

"I'd like you to know," he says,

"that that lady and that gentleman sitting
over there are my mother and my dad.

The finest mother and the finest father
you ever saw."

[Mrs. Burnett] He said that?

At every table.
He went round to the entire place.

He did. I didn't know where to put myself.

"If you want to do something,

which in years to come you can recount
to your grandchildren with pride,

with a sense of achievement... [laughing]

Then get up off your backside and go
over there and shake 'em by the hand."

-[Mrs. Burnett] What? He said that?
-[mother] He did.

I thought they'd throw us out.

Throw us out?
They couldn't bloody well afford it.

Oh, now. He hasn't been too discreet
with some of his jokes tonight.

- A toast then.
- A toast.

A toast, a toast.

- You totted up, Steve?
- Yes, I'm fine.

To the finest mother and the finest dad
that these three sons have ever had.

[all laughing]

To the finest mother and the finest dad.

[men, Mrs. Burnett]
The finest mother and the finest dad.

- Hey, you don't say it, you daft nut.
-[father] What?

It's you we're toasting.

Oh, never lost the opportunity
to take a glass.

She's right. I never have.

To the best wife, my darling.

To the best wife in the land.

That's right.

The best wife that any man could wish for.

[men, Mrs. Burnett] The best wife.

To the best family in the land.

[all] Oh, the best family in the land.

To the best neighbor a man could wish for.

[mother, sons] The best neighbor.

And I've damn well run out.

Allow me, father.

Oh, we'll soon get through this stuff.
Come this time tomorrow.

Now, there's plenty more
where this came from.

Oh, no. I think I've had enough.

Oh, well, perhaps just a little one then.

Ah, go on. The sky's the limit.

Just like the old clays, Harry.

Aye, like the old days.
You're right, there.

Shall I tell you something, now?

Do you know how high it is
where I'm working at present?

Thirteen inches.

- Can't be.
- Thirteen inches.

He's right. The Rawcliffe seam.

You so much as cough, the whole
damn roof will come in on top of you.

Two hundred yards of rock above
and the center of the earth beneath.

Well, you're no more than a piece of stone
yourself, propped up on either side.

And you lie there with your belly
shoved up against your throat.

Oh, come now. We've just had our dinner.

[father] They don't believe me.
They don't.

I've often thought

I'd like to take her down just the once
in all these years.

Just to show her what it's really like.

I've heard enough about it
without having to find out.

Nay, you don't know.
Not unless you've been down.

You get a view of life down there
you don't get anywhere else.

Then you really learn the meaning
of what God's good protection is.

[coughing]

I tell you, you stuck me with a pin,
you wouldn't find any blood.

There'd just be
a little trickle of coal dust come out.

[father and Colin laugh]

He ought to come out, you know,

while he's got two arms and two legs
and a head to go with it.

They don't understand.

You've got your pride.

Damn it all!

You just can't walk out and leave it.

What's it all add up to?

Fifty years of good fortune.

How many men have you seen maimed?
And killed?

[shouts]

Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm not gonna get morbid
at this hour of the night.

Now, come on, Mrs. Burnett,
another little drop.

Oh, no. No, I ought to be going.

Well, perhaps just a little one then.

She has a taste for it.
I saw it at a glance.

Once at Christmas,
that's the only time I try.

And an occasion like this, of course.

You remember those shelters
during the war then, do you?

A certain one, I do.
The largest hole you ever saw.

This lot, they won't remember it.

[Andrew] Remember it.

We dug the bloody thing.

That went down, what was it?
Fourteen feet.

Opened it up first night of the bombing,
let her in.

Swam around, didn't you, love?

Swam? I nearly drowned.

Calls himself a miner! [scoffs]

[father] Ladies first.
That's always been my motto.

Whole place full of water.

Frightened of being bombed to death,
you end up being drowned.

[Mrs. Burnett] Spent all the time
in the cupboard underneath the stairs.

[father] Ah.

Many's the night we spent playing cards
by the light of a candle

with the sound of German bombers overhead.

I used to carry young Stevie out to watch.

[Mrs. Burnett] I remember.

-[father] Rockets.
-[mother humming]

Aye. Thank God we've reached
the twilight, love.

All in one piece.

In one piece, that's right.

[mother continues humming]

? While the tempest ?

[both] r sun is high w

Hide me, O my Savior, hide J"

? Till the storm of life is past ?

? Safe into the haven guide ?

? O receive my soul at last J"

Remember Sunday school?

Huh. Crusaders.

I was in St. Andrew's,
appropriately enough.

He was in St. Peter's.

[mother] I remember.

- Each saint, you see, had a different pew.
- A different valor to each group.

St. Peter was a fish,
eyeballs like damn great saucers.

-[laughs]
- St. Francis, a bird.

[Andrew] With one leg and a beak
like a damn great parrot.

He was not artist, that's for sure,
who painted those.

[Andrew] No.

Jamey, now...

He'd have gone down like a bomb.

Mmm. He would.

Do you remember the night he died?

I do.

Woke her up, knockin' at her door.

Aye, and I shall never forget it.

We were lying there in bed
when suddenly...

on the wall above, there were
three damned great crashes like a fist.

Bigger.

Like a damned great giant shook the house.
Frightened us to bloody death.

Went to Mrs. Burnett. She sat with us.

The rest of the night.

I could never work that out.

There were you two...

You never heard it.

Slept right through.

[father] He died without any warning,
you know.

He caught a chill one night.

He were dead the next morning.

I'd have given anything to save that lad.

I've asked him a time or two to take me
in his place.

I willed them...

them bloody rocks to come down on my head.

He were a lovely lad.

I...

Aye... well...

I shall have to go to bed, you know.
I'm falling asleep sitting here.

All this excitement.

Oh, look at the time.
I only came across to make up the fire.

I've left the light on and the door open.

Do you want me to see you across,
Mrs. Burnett?

No, no. I'll manage on my own, thank you.

Leads you into puddles
when he's in these moods, you know.

I'm so glad you've had
such a good night, love.

Thank you, love.
See you in the morning, all being well.

All being well. Sleep tight.

I'll see my own way out, thank you.
Good night.

- Good night, Mrs. Burnett.
- Good night, Mrs. Burnett.

Good night, love. An.d thank you.
It's been a lovely evening.

Good night, love.

Good night, mother.

Good night, love.

I'll see you in the morning.

Good night and thank you all again.

[sighs]

[Andrew] Well.

Heads, I sleep upstairs.
Tails, you sleep down here.

Right.

Tails, you sleep down here.

- Heads, I sleep upstairs. Tails, you--
- Now, wait a minute.

The destiny of 15,000 men rests
in his hands.

- You can fiddle him with a penny.
- It's late, that's the only reason.

God bless our motor industry
and all who crucify themselves inside her.

All right, now. Hang on a minute.
Hang on a minute.

The shortest match sleeps down. Right?

Stevie.

Not me.

Andy.

"Me?
'Aye.

Well...

That were a damn fine night.

This time tomorrow I'll be back down.
Nights.

This is one I'll always remember.

I want you to know that you've made
your mother and me very proud.

Nothing of it. We'll all be back here
this time next year, don't you worry.

[laughs] I might hold you to that,
you know.

You off up then, Steve?

Aye.

Is Steve all right?

Oh, he's all right.

Well, he don't look very well.

He works too hard.

Always put too much
into everything he did.

He'll be all right.

Ah, Well.

I'll get off up.

- Good night.
-[Colin] Good night, Dad.

[Andrew] Good night.

Oh.

Don't make too much noise.

Your mother sleeps very light.

A fiver.

- What?
- The bed.

Ooh. Iron.
They must have had this 20 years.

They haven't.
I bought it for them only last year.

- Rest of the furniture too?
- Just about.

- What about it?
- Not likely.

You stingy sod.

No dependants, the money you earn.

You won't give up five quid
for a decent bed.

It's not that.
It's just a feeling of repugnance.

Repugnance?

My brother selling me his bed,
while not even his for ?5.

Course you could go in the car.

Or back to the Excelsior.
Don't worry. I know your mentality.

The fact is for me it is a privilege
sleeping in this house.

Privilege? Here? Are you all right?

Look. I honor what my mother
and father have done.

And I don't give a sod
for your bloody family analysis.

- Four pounds, ten.
- No.

All right, then, a sacrifice. Four.

Nothing. I'm sleeping here.

High pressure meetings
in the morning, hmm?

I have, as a matter of fact.

Tomorrow afternoon.

I don't know how they've managed
without you.

Must be, what,
ten hours since they saw you last.

You're not getting undressed, are you?

Not entirely, no.

I just can't make this out.

Only two years ago, it seems,

you were running in through that door with
little short trousers and a snotty nose.

I'm tired.
I have to drive back into work tomorrow.

Yes, well. You're a busy man.

I expect you've got
a secretarial assistant.

Yes.

Don't you ever feel you could make
a little progress with her?

She happens to be a man.

A man?

The assistance I require is not the sort
that you imagine.

There are any amount of women
pushing typewriters.

I see.

Well, yes, on second thought,
I think I might be safer upstairs.

Good. I'm glad.

Good night.

Shall I put out the light?

If you don't mind, I'd be very grateful.

Is anything the matter?

I forgot to say good night.

Good night.

- Three quid.
- Good night.

- Two.
- Good night.

Well, I hope it kills you.

One pound, ten?

Piss off.

Right.

Steve?

[Steven whimpering]

[continues whimpering]

Steve?

[continues whimpering]

- Steve.
-[whimpers]

[Andrew] Psst.

[Colin] What?

You asleep?

[groans] For Christ's sake.

Steven.

What?

He's at it again.

What?

Crying in his sleep.

- What's the matter with him?
- How do I know?

Well, can't you wake him?

All right. I suppose I'll have to.

- He may have drunk too much.
- Oh, you must be joking.

It could be anything. Indigestion--

All right, well you go then,
if you're so bloody efficient.

Perhaps you could negotiate
some suitable compromise, eh?

Let's say a whimper?

I can't hear anything.

Probably not.

Is this something you've...

What are you doing?

Well, I can't sleep up there
with that row going on, can I?

It's all yours for nothing.

Now, look here.

[door opens]

Oh, God, there's somebody getting up.

- That could be Steven.
-[footsteps]

No, it's my dad.

Oh, Christ.

Better get the cards out.
We'll be here all night.

Where's that Scotch?

Bit more on the fire, we'll be all right.

Look, you better get up off there.

[footsteps approaching]

What's going on?

Colin's just off up. I've swapped him.

Hey, need a spot of oil.
Hear them springs? Christ.

There's Steven.

Steven?

I've just been in.

Sleeping. Wind.

I've never heard a noise like it.

Okay, Col.
You'd better go up and have a look.

What?

All right, I'll go.

What'd he say?

Nothing.

Right, well. Soon settle that, eh?

We can't have him say nothing, can we?
[chuckles] Right.

Well.

When I bent over him,
he just shook his head.

He never cried as a baby.

Do you know that?

He only cried the once when--

[footsteps]

He's coming down. Dressing gown.

[chuckles] Would you believe it!

Dreaming. Wind.

That Steak Diane.

Almost made a complaint
when I first saw it.

Did you see him put it in the pan?

- No.
-[Andrew] Damn faded color.

Bet they've had that in there for weeks,

just waiting for someone like us
to come along.

Inexperienced, uneducated. [chuckles]

What was yours?

Tamra steak

Oh, now that must have been very fresh.
Going by the color. Blood red.

Yes.

- Steve's was the rump, wasn't it?
- Sirloin.

Oh, it could easily have been that, yes.

I wouldn't have minded having
another look at them carrots.

All right.

You all right, Steve?

Yes.

It's not fever, is it?

No, no.

It could be tonight.
I mean, all the excitement.

It's been a very emotional evening
for all of us, isn't it.

- What with that.
- And that Steak Diane.

- Look, I think we've had enough.
- Yes.

You know, your mother would be very upset
if she thought you were unhappy.

[Andrew] That's very true.

She would.

She would.

[Andrew whistles]

Watch it.

What?

[Andrew] Watch it.

[sighs]

Look, I have just about had enough.

His systematic bloody disparagement
of every bleeding thing inside this house.

Now, look.
I don't know what's going on here.

But you keep your voices down.
Your mother's asleep.

You got any arguments then,
well, save them till tomorrow.

Why?

What's she got to be protected from?

What?

That goddess we've got up there--

Take no notice. He's drunk.
He doesn't know what he's saying.

Oh, he'd know, of course,
the supreme bloody sycophant.

The professional passer-over,
the shoddy, fifth-rate, sycophantic whore.

Look, you better get out.

Get out? I've never been in.

What?

This family.

Oh, God.

Look, tears.

What the hell is he crying for?

You better get out.

Go on. I'll bloody turn you out myself.

Dad. Wise up.

You've enshrined that woman
in so much adoration

that she's well nigh invisible to you
as well as she is to everybody else.

- What is--
- You owe her nothing.

What are you trying to pay off?

You better go. Go on.

I'll give you the keys.
You can drive to the hotel.

I've got no money on me.

Here.

Are you actually aware
of what you're doing?

- I'm protecting--
- Protecting?

You're protecting nothing.

He's the one you want to kick out,
you know. Him.

Him and that one with him up yonder.

That one that's made us all
so bloody clean and whole.

- What are--
- Leave him.

It's envy. It's jealousy.
Listen to nothing he has to say.

Come on, Steve.

You heard it. You've not deaf.

What is it seething round inside
that head of yours that causes you...

and, look, my dad to cry.

- I...
- No. No rush, no hurry.

What's eating out your mind?

I...

Nay, Steve. You mustn't.

God, I'll bloody kill you for this.

[father] You mustn't, lad.

All of them are animals.

Every night, I...

I hope she's listening.

I hope you're listening!

I hope in all sincerity
that she can hear her sons,

her abject bloody lover
commend their bloody souls to thee.

Dad. Forty years.

What challenge have we ever had with that?

Go on, Steve. Tell him.

[Colin]
I'll bloody kill you for this, I will.

I?ll bloody kill you.

Now, let's negotiate a settlement, Col.

Forty years of my father's life
for a lady like my mother.

Conscientious, devout, sincere.

For getting her with child
at the age of 18, 19, 20. I forget which.

On the back of which imprudence
we've been borne all our lives.

Laboring to atone for her sexuality.

Laboring to atone for what?
Laboring to atone!

When I think of all the books
I've had to read, eh?

The texts I've had to study, the facts
I've had to learn, the exams I've had...

With that vision held perpetually
before me.

A wife, a child, a home, a car.

A rug that didn't have holes here
and there. A pocket that never leaks.

I even married a rector's daughter.
Christ, how good could I become?

The image of my life...

of his life, built up on that.

We are the inherited of nothing. Totems.

While all the time,
the godhead slumbers overhead.

You blame them for that?

Blame?

Blame? Good God, no.

No blame. No bloody nothing.

No.

No.

Dad.

Dad, what was it?

What image did you have down there?

Crawling round every night,
panting, bleeding, blackened.

What world was it you were hoping
we would inherit?

[Colin] Shut up.

For Christ's sake, shut up.

These aren't your sons, old man.

I don't know what you see here.

As these are nothing.

Less than nothing.

Washouts, has-beens...

semblances.

A pathetic vision of a better life.

I think you've said enough.

Enough?

Life measured out in motorcars,
I'll stick one on your bloody tomb.

Steve.

Dad?

Dad.

Fast asleep. Well, why not?

Steven.

Nothing.

Right.

Well, I'll go on up then.

Cheerio.

[Colin] My God.

Dad?

Dad?

Aye.

It's all right, Dad. It's all right.

Nay.

Whatever's happened?

Dad.

There's nothing I wouldn't do
for you lads.

You know that.

Aye, we do.

Trust the Shaws. Not two minutes together
and out it comes, fists all over.

I'll never forgive him for that.

I won't.

Dad... don't.

Your mother ever got to hear about this...

it would tear her in two.

Dad.

Leave it.

Aye, I know.

You do too much, Steve.

You've got to live your life
as well as work.

Yes.

Well, you go to bed, eh, Dad?

Oh, I could sleep down here.

Now, what for?

You go on up.

Well, don't you sleep with him up yonder.

Dad.

He was upset as well.

You let him lie up there alone.

All right.

Now go on.

You get off.

Aye, go on, Dad.

We'll be all right.

Oh, God. I hope she's not awake.

She won't be. Don't worry.

In the morning--

Don't worry.
We'll have that troublemaker out.

Aye.

Oh, well. Good night.

[Colin] Good night, Dad.

Want a drink?

No.

I'll have one.

I'll have two, I think.

Christ.

Thanks for small mercies.

[Steven] Hmm?

My dad didn't understand a word.

He's like a child.

Andrew? You can say that again.

The funny thing is...

The funny thing is he raised us
to better things...

which in his heart, my dad,
he despises even more than Andrew.

I mean, his work
actually has significance for him.

While the sort of work he's educated us
to do is nothing but a past-time.

A sort of soulless stirring of the pot.

Good God. What hope have any of us got?

I'll have another.

What actually do you do with it, Colin?

I mean this feeling of disfigurement.

This crushing bloody
sense of injury inflicted,

as he says, by holy innocent hands.

I better get up.

Have you had any medical advice?

- Advice?
- Some sort of guidance.

I mean, Christ knows
there's any amount of stuff nowadays.

- If...
- If we all thought

like that maniac up yonder,
we'd all be what?

Artists, most likely.

[laughs]
And I can just see the sort of art.

First thing in the morning
we must have him out.

Yeah.

Are you okay, then?

Sure.

Now, good night then, Steve.

Aye.

Good night.

Ooh.

I thought it would either be you
or Steven.

Trust Andrew, snoring his head off in bed.

Aye.

Oh! Fire's still going from last night.
We were that late.

Did you sleep all right?

Like a top. Thank you, love.
It was a lovely night.

Well, I'll call the others.

I'll have a wash.

Andrew will sleep all day, if remember.

- Dad.
- I'm coming.

Call the others.
Tell them it's getting cold.

Aye, I will.

And what time do you have to be off by?

Oh, soon as that one up there is ready.

Huh. He's wrecking his career.
I suppose you realize that.

Aye, I do.

I don't know. He was always wild.

Of course, he took it very badly...

when Jamey died.

He was five years old, was Andrew.

We put him out with Mrs. Burnett
when Steve was born.

Why was that?

Oh, nay, love, to save me the work.

Save my life, you did, you know.

We kept you at home. You were only two.

I don't think he's ever forgiven me,
Andrew.

He was away six weeks.

He used to come to that door,
asking to be let in.

I tried to explain to him.

Oh, yes. If he'd been here,
we'd have had a terrible time.

What with your dad at work and Steve
and... Jamey.

Ah, well. We all have our problems, love.

Oh, yes.

As you get older, you find these things
more and more work themselves out.

[Colin] Aye, that's right.

Dad? I'll have to tip it away in a minute.

[father] Aye, we're coming.

- And how's your work going?
- Oh, very well.

Well, I didn't want to tell you about it
till I was more certain.

[chuckles] Nay, now you'll have to.
Come on.

Well, it's not finally settled, but...
fairly soon now, um...

Come on.

I might be getting married.

Well!

It's not all been agreed yet,
but it's on the cards.

[chuckles] Here, love,
let me give you a kiss.

Congratulations. I knew something was up.

- Up?
- Your mood, you know.

On top of things.

- What's she do?
- A dentist.

A dentist.

I'll bring her up,
or better still you could come down.

Show you around the factory.

Well, then.

Have you told your father?

No, no one yet.

Oh, after all these years,
going to take the plunge.

I thought you'd never get to it.

Oh, we thought you'd gone to work
or something.

Nay, I were waking them lot upstairs.

Well, we have got some news for you.

- Hey, are you feeling all right?
- What news?

Oh, nay, you've got to be in a proper mood
to hear this.

I told you he had too much to drink
last night.

I am in a proper mood.

I was telling my mother,
I might be getting married.

That's very good.

Are you going to say any more than that?

I'm very pleased.

Oh, well, if that's all you've got to say.

Congratulations, lad.

I'm very pleased.

When are we going to see her?

Well, I was just saying I could
bring her up or you could come down.

- Aye.
-[Andrew whistling]

[chuckles] Wait till the others hear this.
This will wake them up, all right.

Morning, morning, morning.
And a lovely day it is.

[mother] Oh, it is. He's right for once.

How is my old mater this morning, eh?
Apple of my eye.

Oh, I'm very well, thank you.

Mmm. Been dreaming about you, I have.

Hmm. I hope something pleasant
for a change.

Oh, very pleasant, very.

How are you, old chap, today?

All right.

He has just given us
some very wonderful news.

That's how well he's feeling.

Good God.

He can't...

For one moment there,
I thought he might be pregnant.

[sighs] He is getting married.

Ew. Oh, look at this... all dried up.

-[sighs]
- Tea cold.

I must say!

Nay, Mother. Leave them to it.

Now, now. He's hot enough really.
I assure you.

So, when's this happy event
going to take place then, eh, Col?

Hasn't been announced yet.

She hasn't started suing you yet then,
eh, Colin?

No, merely that it hasn't been announced.

Well, I hope she's one of us, Col.
Not one of them.

A dentist.

A dentist?

Good God. I knew he'd marry a sadist.

Formative experience, can't beat it.
Every time.

Oh, this tastes very nice.

Good job you came up with the goods,
Colin.

My mother was beginning to get
a bit worried.

She thought you might be one of those.

I thought nothing of the kind.

Well, you must have thought something.

I mean, all that time
you couldn't have been thinking nothing.

I thought he was taking his time.

Taking his time?

He's been through half a
dozen motorcars while we've been waiting.

I thought he'd given up the human race.

Look, well, if he'd fathered a string
of shooting brakes

and a line of two-toned limousines.

As it is, well done, eh, Col.

Come up to scratch.

What did I tell you, same as usual.

- Well, what did you tell him?
- Oh, nothing.

Except we might have expected
something like that.

Oh, might you?

- I'm as predictable as that, am I?
-[father] Look.

Can we just have our breakfast.

Oh, you don't have to defend him.

He's always been old enough
to look after himself.

Aye, that's right.

Ever since I was turned out
I've been able to look after myself.

You weren't turned out.

No, no.

Brought back into the fold now, eh?

I remember.

- Oh.
-[door opens]

[Andrew] Here's Steven now.

Looking as bright as a Christmas penny.

Good morning, love. How are you?

Well, thanks.

Aren't you going to give your mother
a birthday kiss?

Forty-first year of marital bliss
we're moving into.

Colin's got an announcement to make.

Oh! aye?

What's that?

Oh, nothing calamitous, Steve.

Don't worry.

What he's trying to say, love.
I don't know whether you can tell.

That Colin here is going to get married.

Oh.

Galvanized him into action. Look.

Congratulations, Col.

Thanks.

I must say!

What's gotten into you all this morning?

I think it must be the atmosphere up here.
Industrial pollution.

It's noticeable the moment
you step off that train.

We'll be going in a few minutes.

But, as soon as that?

Important meetings, destiny of the nation.

Steve and I can prop up our feet
a little longer.

Keep things ticking over.

I thought you were coming back with me.

Well, I'm not leaving at this hour.
Damn it all, I've just got up.

If you were an artist,
you'd understand these things.

Well, as for me, you can stay all clay,
you know that.

We see so little of you.

[Andrew] You're very kind.

And we appreciate it. Don't we, lads?

I don't know.

Next time we have one of these, I'll see
you don't drink so much for a start.

Oh, are you eating anything, Steve?

No, I... This tea's fine.

Oh, well. That's all you're having,
I might just as well start clearing away.

Sorry.

I'll give you a hand.

Oh, thank you, love.

Ah, well, I'll get my work things out.

What on earth's the matter with you?

You're not going to work for what,
another ten hours, yet.

The way you're looking I think
you ought to stay home another day.

I've told you before.

Once you start, you just don't know
how much you're drinking.

I played one night. I can't play another.

[Andrew] I think it'd be better, Dad,
if you retired altogether.

What?

Well, Mother was saying before,

it doesn't do any good,
all this digging, digging, digging.

What are you trying to dig out, anyway?

[Colin] Look.

Oh, no. I was just asking.

For his own good, Colin.

Well, I'm not trying to dig out anything.

No. No, you'd be silly if you were,
wouldn't you?

There's nothing down there, is there?
Except lumps of bloody coal.

Ah, well, I'll go up and get dressed.

You are dressed.

It's time I was leaving.

What on earth?

Well, the trouble is, Mother, you see--

That's enough.

We had a little argument last night.

-[mother] Oh?
- After you'd gone to bed.

One of the usual Shaw domestic tourneys,
nothing to get excited about.

You were probably too replenished to hear
our little contretemps.

But one or two people here,
unless I'm very much mistaken...

got very worked up, indeed.

Oh, what was all that about, then?

Oh, you'd be very interested to hear, ma.

Politics.

Oh, I should've thought
you'd have all been on the same side.

What with your background and experience.

Oh, we are. We are.

Only Steve, unbeknown to us...

had some very unusual opinions to express.

Oh? And what opinions were those, Steve?

[chuckles] Nay, love.

If you don't want me to hear,
that's quite all right.

I'm broad-minded enough, I think,
for most things.

That's what she says.

Look,
I appreciated what you said last night.

-[father] Look, I--
- No.

Dad.

But judgments in certain situations
come very easily to hand.

You've got to make a decision sometime,
Steve.

I've made my decision.

- Decision, Steve.
- I've made my decision.

Now, you, of course,
can ignore it if you like.

But actually I've made it.

- I too, then, have a choice.
- Yes.

Vengeance is mine then.

I don't want you doing any damage here.

- Here?
- I don't want you doing any harm.

Harm?

Is it true your father was a breeder?

A breeder?

Of livestock and the like?

Oh, yes.

- He had a few.
-[father] Now, look!

I remember. Kept them all in little pens.

-[mother] That's right.
- Pigs.

I remember you telling us often.

Not dirty animals at all,

unless their environment was allowed
to become polluted.

Yes, that's right.

He kept them very clean.

Oh, he did.
He looked after them very well.

A habit.

What?

I say, "a habit..."

cultivated by his daughter.

[Colin] Look.

[chuckles]

[Andrew] Would you mind?

What?

Warming up the engine.

- What?
- Go on then, Col.

Go on.

[chuckles] Well, I don't know.
I've always said we were a funny family.

[Andrew] Oh, I think we are.

A family of comedians.

Clowns!

Excruciating tricks.

And all for your amusement, Ma.

[chuckles]
The drink's clone him no harm at all.

No. The harm that I was clone
was clone a very long time ago, indeed.

Andy.

Do you remember when I used to cry
outside that door, "Let me in. Let me in."

Oh, now.

- Why wasn't it ever opened? Why?
- Andy!

Why wasn't it ever opened, Steve?

Andy.

Why wasn't it ever opened, Steve?

Shall we dance?

[laughs]

[mother laughing] I don't know.

Honestly,
I don't know what we're all coming to.

Salvation. I can feel it in my bones.

[Mrs. Burnett calling]

Well, dear.

All up.

Thought I should have to come around
and ring a bell.

We're on our way. About to take our leave.

The others, as you can see,
are somewhat overwhelmed.

I too have been overrun... encapsulated.

Caught well before my time.

I don't know.

It's some joke of theirs,
left over from last night.

If you want a bit of fun,
you know which house to come to.

Look.

I'll just pop UP-

I'm sorry you've got to go so soon, love.

They've all got their work to go to.

Except Andrew, of course.

Always the sole exception.

-[Mrs. Burnett] Men of the world.
-[mother] That's right.

I wish I'd my time to come over again,
I do.

Aye.

The opportunities around them!

That's right.

Well, then. All set.

A car like that,
you'd think you'd have no trouble.

Yet.

Well, then, you ready?

Steve's just packing his few things
together.

Ave, right.

- Good-bye, mother.
- Good-bye then, love.

And I'm very pleased about you-know-what.

- Mrs. Burnett.
- Good-bye.

Good-bye, Dad.

Good-bye, lad, and congratulations.

Look after them, Mrs. Burnett.
They're very precious.

Keep an eye on them, you know?

She kept an eye on my at one time,
when I was little.

Never looked back since then.

Oh, I wouldn't claim any credit for that.
But I'll watch them.

- Bye, Mother.
- Good-bye then, love.

Bye, Dad.

Remember now, when you're down in that pit
you dig one out for me.

Remember now.

I'll remember.

Right then, best be off.

Good-bye, Mother.

Good-bye, love.

And take care.

Aye, I will.

- Good-bye, Mrs. Burnett.
- Good-bye.

Remember the future's all in front of you,
Steven.

- Ah.
- He's four of his own to remind him.

- Good-bye, Dad.
- Good-bye, lad.

Yeah.

Give you a kiss and all, shall I?

Off we go, then.

- After you.
- No, youngest first, always will be.

After you, old pal.

Right, right.

First time I've seen him without a shave.

Are you coming, love?

No, Dad. You go.

Well, come on, Mrs. Burnett.
We'll give them a shove off.

These big-town lads will probably need it.

[Colin] Bye, Dad.

-[father] Bye.
-[Andrew] Bye, Dad.

[Mrs. Burnett] Mind how you go.

- Drive safe.
- Bye.

Bye.