Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) - full transcript
Laura and Martin have been married for four years. They seem to be the perfect, happiest and most successful couple. The reality of their house- hold, however, is very different. Martin is an abusive and brutally obsessed husband. Laura is living her life in constant fear and waits for a chance to escape. She finally stages her own death, and flees to a new town and new identity. But when Martin finds out that his wife is not dead he will stop at nothing to find and kill her.
Hyah. Hyah.
Come on, hah.
Come on, come on. Hah. Hah. Come on.
He's off again.
Well, it's better
than not budging at all.
Yeah, but also for him?
Did you see him at lunchtime,
when he staggered and nearly fell?
But he didn't say anything.
What, and hold us up? No, he wouldn't.
All right, I'll keep an eye on him.
Come on, Dylan.
Come on. Come on, come on.
Come on.
There are still two hours
of daylight left.
Hardly that.
Well, it's needless to finish so early.
What, has Hubert found us
somewhere, then?
Jenny has.
They live in a place called the Tollbar.
So what?
Come on, Dylan.
Leonard Woollen is the name.
Len to me mates.
Charles Vaughan, Jenny Richards.
- Sam sent you over?
- Aye.
He said you might be able to find
a room for us somewhere.
We'll get you some beer and a warm-up.
- That's handy.
- Aye, that's it for a while.
Uh, you could mine the stuff yourself,
couldn't you?
If the surface stocks run out.
Oh, you reckon, do you?
You were a coal miner,
weren't you?
My! Aren't you sharp?
Look, chalk scars.
Tattoos of my trade.
Come on, Sam, show him your scar.
Let's see if he can tell
what your occupation was.
That's not fair.
- Go on, no harm in it, not now.
- He's right, love, all in the past.
- Yeah, but he should leave it.
- It's who we are now is counts.
Aye, you've got something
to be proud of, haven't you, Sam?
You enjoy humiliating him, don't you?
He's right, we have to learn.
A junkie, wasn't I?
Finished, written off, terminal.
They reckoned me
a couple of years at most.
If the Death plague hadn't come along
to save me.
- This do him, love?
- Lovely.
- Soon get warmed up.
- Great, ta.
- Got a hottie in t'bed.
- Oh, smashing.
Noticed his colour.
Needs feeding up, does that one.
Well, it's his heart, I'm afraid.
Oh, aye?
Then he's in t'right place now, love.
Mmm, if we can persuade him to rest up.
It wasn't just me it saved.
The whole rotten system was finished.
That plague, I reckon it were
the best thing ever happened.
- Chance to start fresh and clean.
- Enough of that, Sam, no pulpit stuff.
- Please...
- Look, you know the rules.
Oh, come on, it's good stuff.
Well, that's as maybe.
I've got other things to think about.
Like who let the dogs loose
amongst those fowl again today.
All right, you can hardly rule out
the wider considerations.
- No?
- No, as Sam says,
what went wrong before, how to stop it
happening again in the future.
All in good time.
We've had three years now.
That's time enough to
start thinking of social organisation,
mutual defence, cooperation.
We've no call to start
leaning on others, thank you.
We're making on just fine.
In isolation. Now, maybe but...
Look, tell him the rules,
someone tell him.
- No talk of politics or religion.
- Oh. Got it?
- What, like in the army?
- Aye, barrack room rules.
This isn't politics,
it's basic survival.
- We have to rebuild.
- Leave it, mister.
Typical foreigner.
Look, we'll feed and board you,
all right?
But don't push it, that's all.
We've figured out our needs
and we don't need no new ones coming
from a fast-talking politico like you.
Know as how he couldn't speak
plainer than that, squire.
- Damn it, man, I'm no politician.
- And I'm no sucker.
I know a tub-thumper when I meet one.
And as leader,
I'll thank you to watch it.
Ah, it's blissful.
They're a hospitable bunch.
Aye, if we can stop Charlie
blathering on.
- Missionary zeal.
- There's you to worry about.
Me, why?
- Your ticker's playing you up, isn't it?
- Ah.
- Let's see your feet.
- Oh, you mean all this?
It's the privilege of seniority.
- Oh, aye, just fancied an early night?
- That's right.
Come on, Frank.
You've been listening to Jenny,
haven't you?
She's the one
that has the heart trouble, you know.
Ah, because of this Greg fellow, yeah?
The heart has reasons
that reason knows nothing of.
Oh, come on now.
Let's have another one. Come on!
Now, come on!
- No hard feelings, then?
- No, no, of course not.
- Cheers!
- Yeah.
Ahh. Now, that's a nice drop.
Well, it's goodness to that
swill from down south.
Brewer.
Oh, I see. Point taken.
Hey, that old chap that just left now,
he's a bit sharp, isn't he?
Who, Frank? Aye, well, he used to be
with personnel selection,
what they used to call a headhunter.
- Get on.
- Handy bloke.
Mmm-hmm. He's also somewhat
of a liability, I'm afraid.
How's that?
Well, he's fitted
with a cardiac pacemaker.
A what-er?
It's a small machine,
stimulates the heart.
Oh, yeah.
Well, it's powered by an atomic battery
and it's running out.
Oh, aye?
Oh aye, go to the foot of our stairs.
Said he needed to rest on.
Look, what was I saying before,
you know, about staying,
I mean, you can do as long as you like,
no limits.
Oh, that's very kind of you, Len,
but he keeps insisting that he's fine
and we should carry on up north.
So what do we do?
Well, there's plenty of work for you
here, if it's excuses you're after.
Aye, help our Sam
with the mine tackle, for one.
The Scots bloke. Hot on the electrics.
Transmission field engineer
with the Generating Board.
Well, that's it, then.
Uh, help us out with the generator
for one, won't he?
No more bets?
- You just watch my wall, me lad.
- The wall...
See you, then.
- Look, he's just fine, I told you.
- Yes, Doctor.
- Frank told me himself.
- And of course you believed him.
- Why not? He's got no call to pretend.
- No? Oh, really!
- Why should he? What possible reason?
- You, of course.
How do you figure that, exactly?
Because of you and your damn...
Never mind.
Of course I mind.
Come on, what about me?
Forget it.
Oh, I see, very clever.
Make out somehow it's my fault.
Get me feeling guilty,
when all the time it's a crafty scheme
to get your own way.
- To get my own...
- If anyone's pretending, it's you!
Oh, for God's sake!
Any excuse to get after
your beloved Greg!
Oh, women!
The mine tackle.
You mean get the hoist cage working?
And the pumps, flooded all through
the lower levels.
Now, they've got
an emergency generator.
It's diesel, but it won't start.
Starter batteries.
Petrol charger, but it still won't go.
So? Alec.
If we can persuade him.
I reckon there's still a couple of days'
work on it.
- That long?
Aye.
- Oh, you're so grateful to Len.
- Och aye.
Have you tried it yet?
- You're the resident manipulator.
- Thank you.
Uh, what about Jenny?
The friendly persuader?
Friendly? All that cat and dog stuff?
You mean, cock and hen stuff?
What, you mean Alec and...? Oh, come on!
No, look back at what happened.
The man was suffering
from total withdrawal.
Two years of acute bereavement neurosis.
Then we came along, challenged him.
There was a big pressure build-up,
then the final catharsis.
And how.
Yes, but you remember the key
to that catharsis?
Aye, the drug we slipped him.
And more especially
the role played by Jenny.
For a while she was Rita, his wife.
So, there must be a keen sense
of association going between them.
Well, if that's so,
why all the squabbling?
What is it, simple jealousy over Greg?
Yes, but above that,
a confused sense of guilt.
Years loyal to the memory of his wife.
- And now?
- And now, fancying our Jen.
Oh, dear.
And so, if you want to get to Alec,
get to Jenny first.
Ooh.
She'll be enchanted.
By the heck. You blokes!
Talk about devious.
Not a politician, he says?
- Elementary leadership.
You what?
- It's all in the mind.
- Or the gut.
Are you drunk?
Far from it.
Seriously asking me
to prostitute myself?
No, just chat him up.
It's no more than you've done before,
remember?
What about Greg,
your friend, my husband?
Two years together. My son Paul.
Does that mean nothing?
Are you telling me that it really means
the same to you, Jenny,
after all this time?
What is that supposed to mean?
Just what the hell
is that supposed to mean?
Well, sending Agnes back to us
instead of coming himself.
- Couldn't help that.
- No?
Come on, Jenny, you as good as
acknowledged it yourself last month.
- What? That was 60.
- Excuse me.
You know, going back to Challoner,
to your son,
instead of meeting up with Greg.
- You're wrong about Agnes.
- Am I?
Just because they've been together
doesn't necessarily mean that...
- No?
- No.
She's not the type.
She's far too hooked on
fulfilling her father's dreams.
All right,
so she may have influenced Greg,
she may have sent him off,
chasing from one end of the country
to the other while she stayed here,
but that's not the same thing as, as...
No?
Well, you know
what a right little madam she is.
What?
Well, I'm glad, really,
about Alec Campbell
and his Scots hang-up. I'm very glad.
It just showed that other people
can have priorities.
Other people can see what's what.
Make her get her pathetic Vikings
over here.
Why not?
Instead of influencing Greg and ordering
him about and telling him what's what
and confusing him and telling us
he's at one end of the country when...
Jenny!
When he's the other.
Ordering him about, bossing him.
Keeping us apart!
Oh!
He may need a practice.
Mind the lady's wall,
will you?
Oh, there's a nice little fella...
Poison to me now, this stuff.
Don't let Harper hear you say that.
I mean the booze, full stop.
Any sort. What about you? With your...
Your compulsion.
- Depends on your viewpoint.
- What does?
Why don't you get back to them skittles?
I'd like to hear how it was with him,
it's all the same to you, Mrs...
It's not all the same.
Look, like Len said, love,
there's no shame in it now.
Look, I was going to die, right?
Cause, inadequacy. Condition, hopeless.
Except they were wrong.
Death plague proved that.
The trouble with me was their treatment.
- Oh, Sam, leave it.
- It's true.
Discipline, authority,
that's what I needed.
I wouldn't have got to fixing
in the first place
if it hadn't been
for the soft option of...
Sam!
Straight up, I tell you,
the handouts, dole,
hostels, treatment centres.
All you wanted was a quick kick
up your oh be joyful.
Right, mate, right.
Like all them graduate social workers
all coming round bleeding for you.
Mmm.
Easy as touching the street, mate.
Nip out and get your methadone fix
if you groaned loud enough.
Cover for you if the fuzz come round.
And forever telling you
how tough life was.
How it's all loaded against you.
Moaning on about rights
and civil liberties and victimisation.
So what else
are you going to believe in?
Underprivileged, dependent.
They get you so choked up
with self-pity,
you couldn't even button
your own fly any more.
Off to bed, love? Feeding time.
I shan't be long.
Here. She took with the same trouble?
No worse than a couple
of million others.
No direction, no purpose,
so busy being deprived,
she never got herself together.
Why we have to get it
different this time.
Pioneers, that's how they've got to be,
our kids.
Hard, independent,
self-disciplined, resourceful.
All the initiative.
None of your welfare hand-outs
and gutless indifference any more.
Pioneers.
Here. I thought you was going to
blame it all on the generation gap.
- Hmm?
- You know, generation gap?
So what about, what about you?
You and the booze?
Oh, well... Well, like you,
I got the Death to thank, ain't I?
Huh! And mighty obliged I am, too.
I'm a man who's can respect myself.
Thanks all to the squire Vaughan
over there.
- Saved, eh?
- Oh, yes.
A young lion to the man
who only wanted a fork.
To the Death, eh?
She's a very...
She's a very sensitive girl.
Determined.
Do you find her attractive?
Stubborn.
She's very worried over Frank.
- You reckon?
- Mmm-hmm. Mmm.
Well, who else, Greg?
Greg? No, hardly.
Oh, but of course, you don't know.
How could you?
Well, she's always going on about him.
Oh, of course she is.
He's the father of her child.
But she is also very intuitive.
She knows there's something
wrong with Agnes.
- The Norwegian woman?
- Mmm-hmm.
And Jenny is hoping
to win him back, yeah?
Well, if she is, she's going about it
in a very odd way.
How come?
She's always trying to get after him.
No. No, no, no, no.
Not always.
Last month she had the opportunity.
Big reunion.
She let it go.
She went off to Challoner to her baby.
- That's reasonable.
- No, not for Jenny.
No, I think she knows
there is something wrong.
And I think she has half accepted it.
Or hasn't.
- Dredging it all up like that.
- Don't fret, love.
Sam's cured now.
Big rehabilitation bit. Ta-da!
Thanks to you.
You and this... and this little guzzler.
I hate these people.
- Ah, give over.
- Southerners.
- They don't mean us no harm.
- No?
And they're going to work
on the generator. That's your job.
- Good luck to them.
- No.
They'll get it going
and then that will be them,
not you, like it should be.
- Them.
- Oh, aye?
Go away!
Please.
- Alec?
- Yeah.
- What do you want?
- Just to talk.
- Have you been at that beer?
- No.
Couple of pints
and everyone's going mad.
Not me.
Just listen to Hubert down there.
And Charles is no better.
Hmm.
- What did you want?
- To apologise.
- For what I said about you pretending.
- About Frank?
Yeah. I had no right to assume
it was Greg Preston you were on about.
No.
Anything else?
- Look, I have said I'm sorry.
- I accept that.
Now, if you don't mind,
it's getting cold and...
Well, get into bed.
Go on, I won't touch you.
I told you, I haven't been drinking.
I don't really see
there's anything more to say.
Only that I hadn't realised
what it was like between you before.
Between...
You and Greg.
And now you have?
Look, all along I've been assuming...
I mean...
The way you've been
going on about him...
- He is the father of my child.
- Yeah, but...
Now, there's this...
What's her name? Agnes.
What about Agnes?
- Maybe I misunderstood.
- What, exactly?
- Oh, I won't discuss it.
- Misunderstood from who?
Maybe you as much as anyone.
Have you forgotten so soon?
Sitting there by the woodpile,
trying to hold my hand,
telling me about, about living,
about the need to come alive again? Eh?
Yeah. Perhaps I did misunderstand!
- That was for...
- Pretence?
- For...
- Just to con me along?
You know, work on his mood, girl,
show him we really care.
Well, so, what's wrong with that?
All right, I was sorry for you
and I did want to help you,
but that's no reason
to confuse pity with...
with whatever you thought.
Alec, I...
One for bed?
- No, I've had enough.
- Twist my arms, guvnor.
Right.
There you go.
You creep!
Anything to get your own way! Anything!
Lying, scheming...
Jenny, I...
- Don't lie, I know it was you.
- Who what?
- Who told Alec I was finished with Greg!
- Now, just a minute, Jenny...
- Don't you touch me, you Welsh bastard!
All right. All right.
I did tell Alec that.
Did you ever pause to consider why?
Because Alec has to be persuaded
to stay here somehow.
If not by me, then by you.
- I already told you several...
- And if Frank Garner
is half as sick as you say he is,
then, my girl, you shouldn't be
standing there swearing at me,
you should be in bed!
And I don't mean your own,
I mean Alec Campbell's.
Uh... I won't be a minute.
Don't you think about it,
Frank.
- What?
- Stay there.
- Oh, but...
- Have a good rest.
See, you'll...
You'll just be in the way at the mine.
- Alec's agreed, then?
- Aye.
Suggested it himself.
Woke me up first thing this morning.
Hmm. What did I tell you?
Jenny the way to a man's heart.
Don't.
Your inspiration nearly cost me
my manhood last night.
No. Whatever swayed him,
it wasn't Jenny.
At least, I don't think so.
You know, I vaguely remember
giving her some rather specific advice
at one point.
Perhaps she took it.
Or then, perhaps not.
No, she can't have done,
otherwise old McSporran would be
all revitalised this morning.
- And he isn't?
- No.
He's behaving the way I feel,
as though I had a one-man scrum
with the Pontypool front row.
Behaving like
a lot of children.
- You, worst of all.
- Oh!
Young Hubert, he be the worst.
Where is the old devil?
Won't see him much before midday,
I'll bet.
Oh!
So, decided to have a go
at the mine again, have you?
- Have a look at it, anyway.
- Oh.
Well, come on, lad. Mind the gear.
That's your department.
Oh, well, they're ready for off.
Oh.
# Hi ho, hi ho
# It's off to work we go #
Oh!
Have a nice, lazy day, Frank.
Whoops.
- Oh!
- You deserve to be worse.
- Good morning, patient.
- He's the one who should be in bed.
Nonsense. He deserves
a ducking in the horse trough.
- How are you feeling?
- Is that a proposition?
Honestly! You men!
Thank you, nurse.
Tell me, is this some kind
of elaborate conspiracy?
If you mean that farce of trying
to seduce Alec Campbell into staying,
well, he seems to have
talked himself into it.
No. I mean the farce of seducing me
into taking a rest.
Well, there's not much point
into your going into the mine head.
It's just an excuse, isn't it?
You don't fool me, Jenny.
You're concerned about
little Mr Cardio, aren't you?
All right, Frank, one truth for another.
I'm right to be frightened, aren't I?
I saw you yesterday,
staggering about like that, all dizzy.
I told you, it goes on the blink
from time to time.
Except that it's been getting worse,
hasn't it?
More frequent, hasn't it?
Look, there's no point
in playing silly heroes,
not with something as important as this.
It's your life.
Jenny, my life is my own
to do what I choose with it.
Yes, but day after day, on a horse,
in your condition,
it's just plain bloody stupid.
Not at all. Not so long as I'm needed.
Needed?
Ah, well, if you're thinking
about Mr Alec Campbell...
- Which I am.
- Well, then, don't worry,
I can handle him.
I'm sure you can, Rita.
Any handling will be done as me,
as Jenny Richards,
not as his dear departed Rita,
thank you very much.
All right.
Anyhow,
don't change the subject.
What about you?
What about this Mr Cardio creature?
Jenny, we all know it's got to fail
sooner or later.
But until it does, there's nothing
to be gained by slowing up.
It won't make it last any longer.
Well, there must be some chance
of a replacement.
What, an isotopic nuclear one?
Well, we could try
searching the hospitals...
Hospitals? From what I hear,
you should know better than that.
Look, even if by some
million-to-one chance
we were to find a battery
that still had some power in it,
where are we going to find a surgeon
to implant it?
- Well, there's always Janet Millon.
- But she's a vet.
Well, no, she's more of a doctor now.
What you think I am, a poodle?
So, you need electricity to run
the pumps and the cage hoist.
And for lighting and ventilation
down at levels.
A pretty high wattage load, eh?
We've plenty of diesel hidden away,
except we can't get the genny started.
- Well, Alec, it's up to you.
- Yeah.
A- ha.
- Well, what do you think?
- We'll see.
Let's see.
I know someone who could fix it.
- Greg Preston.
- Greg Preston.
Ah, I can put this one right okay,
it's just a matter of time.
You say you've got a battery charger?
Ah. That old thing, yeah.
You know,
this place has got fair promise.
See, if I take that generator...
I'll need to watch that piece of...
And I hope I don't have
to take the head off this.
Boy, what a job...
The trouble is somewhere
in the fuel injector.
It shouldn't be a big problem.
- So, it's on then, yeah? It'll go.
- Yeah, I reckon.
How about this, uh, coal gas bit?
Oh, probably rig up
some kind of extractor plant.
There's an old gasworks on the way,
couple of mile off.
That could be the answer.
Or we could try to restart
a coal-fired power station.
How soon?
Ah, you'll have to wait
till we've been up north,
sort out the hydroelectric stations
in Scotland.
Double two.
He's obstinate as ever.
Has he finally admitted it? The battery?
Mmm.
There must be something we can do.
- There he is. Hubert.
- Good morning, squire.
- Hey!
- It's afternoon. Now listen, Hubert,
get on your horse,
go to Sloton Spencer as fast as you can,
get Janet Millon and get her back here.
With any luck you should make it
by the day after tomorrow.
Hubert, this is an emergency.
- How come?
- For Frank Garner.
Forget the beer, Hubert. Go!
- Pioneers?
- It's the only hope,
for our kids, for mankind.
Tough, disciplined, resourceful.
But what chance of anything else,
the way things are, they're...
they're bound to grow up as pioneers.
Only if we let them.
You mean, we've got to lay
the right social foundations?
I mean, we've got to let them
work it out for themselves.
Break new territory,
fresh and clean, challenging.
Not land them with
all the trash and relics of our lot,
all the soft options
and popular fallacies,
the corruption, pollution, shortcuts!
It wasn't all of it all that rotten.
It was.
There were mistakes, yes,
of course there were mistakes.
There was corruption
and incompetence and wastage
but Sam, you can't condemn
the whole vast heritage of knowledge
and experience...
We have to!
They'll relearn what's of true value.
But to stick them with relics,
like that coal mine,
it has to be wrong.
- The coal mine?
- Yeah.
Let them learn for themselves,
build what they need.
It's got to be their decision, not ours!
Speak to Alec and Mr Vaughan,
they'll listen to you.
- Explain it to them, Frank.
- But...
Why do you suppose
the place isn't working now?
Because I couldn't allow it.
- Sam.
- It's wrong, you see.
I know it's wrong.
You manage your lot very well, Len.
Aye. While it's tough, maybe.
While it's still a job of strength,
it suits me fine.
You mean you manage them by fear?
No, by the example of the sweat, I do.
And a couple of tricks
the old man taught me
about how to run a gang on a coalface.
- Maybe.
- Well, make a definite target quarter,
long-term.
And make sure
that every bloke in that gang
thinks that he's the key to reaching it.
- Individual self-esteem.
- If that's your fancy way of putting it.
Oh, it's good principles, Len.
I dare say. Now, you two blokes
want to start this mine up again.
- You telling me you don't want to?
- Oh! Like George Stephenson said,
"It's better to travel hopefully
than it is to arrive. "
They'll listen to you,
respect it from a man like you.
But I don't agree, Sam.
- You do about pioneers.
- Yes.
"The spirit", you said.
Yes, yes, but for heaven's sake,
not about destroying
all the plant and machinery
in the whole kingdom, never!
Have to.
Just because it was created by people
that you disapprove of...
- No.
- ... people that you resent,
because in some twisted way,
you blame them
for being the way you are.
What?
Yes, that's the core of it, Sam,
isn't it?
That's the basis of the whole thing,
it's your drug addiction.
It is. You were dependent and corrupted.
You were a mess
and you want me to believe
that everybody else was the same as you.
- No! I mean, yes, they were...
- Yes, yes, yes.
- But not like...
- Yes, it is.
It's your past you wanted to wipe out.
Yes, it's your own past
and you're confusing that...
No!
I've learned from it, don't you see?
Learned, like you have to.
It's all right
when the dangers are for real.
Dog packs, scavengers, hunger.
But what happens when they're gone?
That's what worries me.
That's what gets my knickers in a twist,
when the enemy is boredom
and nostalgia.
Hmm. And there's no real crisis, eh?
No siege economy.
Oh, you've got the words for it,
haven't you?
Well, I think I got
the answers, too, Len.
Oh, I'll happen you have.
I think you're, uh,
twisting your knickers unnecessarily.
You've got to get this place
going again, Len.
- What, this...
- It'll be a beginning, not an end.
This lot? Oh, don't fret about that.
I wouldn't seriously try and stop you.
And if Alec can get it repaired,
good luck to him.
You've changed your mind?
Oh, I know a bunch of fellows
who wouldn't stop at a bit of trading.
But that's the whole point, Len.
Coal wasn't just trading.
I mean, you could use it to,
- to run a railway.
- Oi! Don't rush it, lad.
Look, you have some flash ideas.
Now, what going to happen
to people like Sam?
Their self... What is it, self-esteem?
Now, he's been working hard here,
beefing away.
What's going to happen to him
when it starts running again?
What then?
I could stop them myself.
I could set a torch to the whole works.
Burn it, once and for all.
- I would, too, except...
- Yeah, but, Sam...
I would except for Mary Jean
and the babe.
Honest, I wouldn't care for meself,
for what they'd do to me.
But for them.
That's why it has to be you, see?
You persuade them.
That Scots Alec, he'll do what you say.
You tell him to make out it's US.
It needs more work. You tell him.
Mr Garner?
What's up?
Hold up, eh?
Mrs Jay?
- How's it going, Alec?
- There's a bit missing.
- What bit?
- Uh, the connecting pipe
from the fuel pump
to the relief valve here.
- You mean, broke?
- Missing.
- How could that be?
- Somebody could have taken it.
You mean, deliberately? To disable it?
Could be.
You don't think...
Mr Vaughan! Quick!
It's Mr Garner.
He's...
Sam...
He wants... He...
Just take it easy, old fella.
- He's going...
- Try and relax.
He's going...
He's going to... Sam...
Sam is...
Sam?
Sam.
What about him?
He's...
It's no good, I can't...
He keeps trying to say something.
He won't rest.
It seems to be, I don't know, about Sam.
Alec? What's wrong?
But for me...
Alec, the pighead, right?
Rush off up north!
The Tartan Army, as you said.
- Alec, you can't blame yourself.
- Who else, then?
Such a mad rush, wouldn't listen!
Telling myself it was just...
just you and that Greg.
Ah.
How selfish can a body get?
Alec, you're so wrong.
Oh, aye?
Listen, that man that we found
would let in the others.
You weren't in that state
because you didn't care.
Self-pity!
No. Grieving, yes.
Because you couldn't be with your wife
when she died, that's not selfishness.
That's three years of misery
because you cared.
Aye, but who for?
It's all over.
Switch on and press the starter.
Wish me luck!
Luck doesn't come into it!
Okay, Len.
Yes!
Alec, you did it. Well done!
Listen to her! Well done!
Keep going!
Look at that!
Alec!
Oh, cheer up, Sam.
I never thought...
Come on. This is your achievement.
All we did was press buttons.
Aye.
Sam,
you know we're planning to go on north,
get the hydroelectric generators
on load again?
Power unlimited.
Maybe.
You know, we're planning to meet up
with that engineer I told you about,
Greg Preston.
Be quite a formidable team.
Sam, we need someone like you.
Want to come with us?
- Leave us?
- Won't be for long, love.
- Few weeks, at the most.
- Sam?
Not long. Mrs Jay will see you right
till I get back.
Why?
Hey?
Well, they've no need for you.
Ah, well,
that's maybe not as it looks.
See, that Mr Vaughan figures
it's vital to chain up
as many engineers as possible...
- Engineers?
- Got this long-term plan, hasn't he?
Get folk working together
through power and mechanisation...
Pioneers, Sam, you always said...
I have to go.
There's no use this generation
picking up with the relics
of how it was before. You said...
- Right.
- Right.
Next generation has to start fresh,
decide what they need
and then build it up for themselves.
Don't you see,
it's for him I am doing it.
Now, if you go to Scotland...
Then I can stop them.
Stop?
You should have seen them today,
down at that coal mine, dancing round.
Mad! Crazy mad, both of them.
They have to be stopped, love.
Stopped by someone who's learned,
who can see the truth,
so as our little fellow
has a chance to start fresh.
Stopped.
You mean Mr Vaughan and Alec.
You mean you.
Oh, Sam.
I have to.
Railway line.
Well, you don't want to cart it
all round in wheelbarrows, do you?
I'll hand it to you.
What?
You'd talk a rabbi
into eating a pork pie!
Charles!
You want to meet Greg Preston!
Oh, there's Hubert.
Aye, thirsty and all, I'll warrant.
I'll bet.
I've been thinking about getting
a diesel engine to work off coal gas.
- Oh.
- I think it would work, it really would.
A big job.
And I'd need to find the right tools.
I've also been wondering about
getting one of their
North Sea gas rigs yielding again.
So, why not?
Bound to have had
an automatic shut-off system.
- It's worth investigating.
- Oh, I'm sure.
So, why the giggle?
I was just thinking about you.
Oh, aye?
The change from that zombie
I tried to get through to
by the wood pile not so long ago.
Aye, well, I've got myself
a fair size debt to pay off now,
for Frank Garner.
Jenny? Jenny?
- A bit of news.
- Is Janet here?
She's away treating an outbreak
of food poisoning.
Oh.
- Agnes was there,
with news of Greg.
He was at Challoner
and they've sent him on.
He made it, Jenny.
- Well, then, where is he?
- Ah, wait.
He's gone off to check about a doctor
mentioned in her father's notes,
a man called Adams.
They're expecting him at Sloton
any day now.
Oh, marvellous!
Now, Agnes suggests a rendezvous,
up near Swaffham on Friday.
But why so long?
Why can't we go to Sloton now?
Don't start that again.
Why Swaffham?
Agnes's idea.
Oh?
Yeah, she reckoned they got a lot
going for them
and there was some bloke, some fella,
she reckoned Greg ought to meet.
She reckons? Who is she to decide?
Never mind, Jenny.
It's not long till Friday.
It is to me.
Come on, hah.
Come on, come on. Hah. Hah. Come on.
He's off again.
Well, it's better
than not budging at all.
Yeah, but also for him?
Did you see him at lunchtime,
when he staggered and nearly fell?
But he didn't say anything.
What, and hold us up? No, he wouldn't.
All right, I'll keep an eye on him.
Come on, Dylan.
Come on. Come on, come on.
Come on.
There are still two hours
of daylight left.
Hardly that.
Well, it's needless to finish so early.
What, has Hubert found us
somewhere, then?
Jenny has.
They live in a place called the Tollbar.
So what?
Come on, Dylan.
Leonard Woollen is the name.
Len to me mates.
Charles Vaughan, Jenny Richards.
- Sam sent you over?
- Aye.
He said you might be able to find
a room for us somewhere.
We'll get you some beer and a warm-up.
- That's handy.
- Aye, that's it for a while.
Uh, you could mine the stuff yourself,
couldn't you?
If the surface stocks run out.
Oh, you reckon, do you?
You were a coal miner,
weren't you?
My! Aren't you sharp?
Look, chalk scars.
Tattoos of my trade.
Come on, Sam, show him your scar.
Let's see if he can tell
what your occupation was.
That's not fair.
- Go on, no harm in it, not now.
- He's right, love, all in the past.
- Yeah, but he should leave it.
- It's who we are now is counts.
Aye, you've got something
to be proud of, haven't you, Sam?
You enjoy humiliating him, don't you?
He's right, we have to learn.
A junkie, wasn't I?
Finished, written off, terminal.
They reckoned me
a couple of years at most.
If the Death plague hadn't come along
to save me.
- This do him, love?
- Lovely.
- Soon get warmed up.
- Great, ta.
- Got a hottie in t'bed.
- Oh, smashing.
Noticed his colour.
Needs feeding up, does that one.
Well, it's his heart, I'm afraid.
Oh, aye?
Then he's in t'right place now, love.
Mmm, if we can persuade him to rest up.
It wasn't just me it saved.
The whole rotten system was finished.
That plague, I reckon it were
the best thing ever happened.
- Chance to start fresh and clean.
- Enough of that, Sam, no pulpit stuff.
- Please...
- Look, you know the rules.
Oh, come on, it's good stuff.
Well, that's as maybe.
I've got other things to think about.
Like who let the dogs loose
amongst those fowl again today.
All right, you can hardly rule out
the wider considerations.
- No?
- No, as Sam says,
what went wrong before, how to stop it
happening again in the future.
All in good time.
We've had three years now.
That's time enough to
start thinking of social organisation,
mutual defence, cooperation.
We've no call to start
leaning on others, thank you.
We're making on just fine.
In isolation. Now, maybe but...
Look, tell him the rules,
someone tell him.
- No talk of politics or religion.
- Oh. Got it?
- What, like in the army?
- Aye, barrack room rules.
This isn't politics,
it's basic survival.
- We have to rebuild.
- Leave it, mister.
Typical foreigner.
Look, we'll feed and board you,
all right?
But don't push it, that's all.
We've figured out our needs
and we don't need no new ones coming
from a fast-talking politico like you.
Know as how he couldn't speak
plainer than that, squire.
- Damn it, man, I'm no politician.
- And I'm no sucker.
I know a tub-thumper when I meet one.
And as leader,
I'll thank you to watch it.
Ah, it's blissful.
They're a hospitable bunch.
Aye, if we can stop Charlie
blathering on.
- Missionary zeal.
- There's you to worry about.
Me, why?
- Your ticker's playing you up, isn't it?
- Ah.
- Let's see your feet.
- Oh, you mean all this?
It's the privilege of seniority.
- Oh, aye, just fancied an early night?
- That's right.
Come on, Frank.
You've been listening to Jenny,
haven't you?
She's the one
that has the heart trouble, you know.
Ah, because of this Greg fellow, yeah?
The heart has reasons
that reason knows nothing of.
Oh, come on now.
Let's have another one. Come on!
Now, come on!
- No hard feelings, then?
- No, no, of course not.
- Cheers!
- Yeah.
Ahh. Now, that's a nice drop.
Well, it's goodness to that
swill from down south.
Brewer.
Oh, I see. Point taken.
Hey, that old chap that just left now,
he's a bit sharp, isn't he?
Who, Frank? Aye, well, he used to be
with personnel selection,
what they used to call a headhunter.
- Get on.
- Handy bloke.
Mmm-hmm. He's also somewhat
of a liability, I'm afraid.
How's that?
Well, he's fitted
with a cardiac pacemaker.
A what-er?
It's a small machine,
stimulates the heart.
Oh, yeah.
Well, it's powered by an atomic battery
and it's running out.
Oh, aye?
Oh aye, go to the foot of our stairs.
Said he needed to rest on.
Look, what was I saying before,
you know, about staying,
I mean, you can do as long as you like,
no limits.
Oh, that's very kind of you, Len,
but he keeps insisting that he's fine
and we should carry on up north.
So what do we do?
Well, there's plenty of work for you
here, if it's excuses you're after.
Aye, help our Sam
with the mine tackle, for one.
The Scots bloke. Hot on the electrics.
Transmission field engineer
with the Generating Board.
Well, that's it, then.
Uh, help us out with the generator
for one, won't he?
No more bets?
- You just watch my wall, me lad.
- The wall...
See you, then.
- Look, he's just fine, I told you.
- Yes, Doctor.
- Frank told me himself.
- And of course you believed him.
- Why not? He's got no call to pretend.
- No? Oh, really!
- Why should he? What possible reason?
- You, of course.
How do you figure that, exactly?
Because of you and your damn...
Never mind.
Of course I mind.
Come on, what about me?
Forget it.
Oh, I see, very clever.
Make out somehow it's my fault.
Get me feeling guilty,
when all the time it's a crafty scheme
to get your own way.
- To get my own...
- If anyone's pretending, it's you!
Oh, for God's sake!
Any excuse to get after
your beloved Greg!
Oh, women!
The mine tackle.
You mean get the hoist cage working?
And the pumps, flooded all through
the lower levels.
Now, they've got
an emergency generator.
It's diesel, but it won't start.
Starter batteries.
Petrol charger, but it still won't go.
So? Alec.
If we can persuade him.
I reckon there's still a couple of days'
work on it.
- That long?
Aye.
- Oh, you're so grateful to Len.
- Och aye.
Have you tried it yet?
- You're the resident manipulator.
- Thank you.
Uh, what about Jenny?
The friendly persuader?
Friendly? All that cat and dog stuff?
You mean, cock and hen stuff?
What, you mean Alec and...? Oh, come on!
No, look back at what happened.
The man was suffering
from total withdrawal.
Two years of acute bereavement neurosis.
Then we came along, challenged him.
There was a big pressure build-up,
then the final catharsis.
And how.
Yes, but you remember the key
to that catharsis?
Aye, the drug we slipped him.
And more especially
the role played by Jenny.
For a while she was Rita, his wife.
So, there must be a keen sense
of association going between them.
Well, if that's so,
why all the squabbling?
What is it, simple jealousy over Greg?
Yes, but above that,
a confused sense of guilt.
Years loyal to the memory of his wife.
- And now?
- And now, fancying our Jen.
Oh, dear.
And so, if you want to get to Alec,
get to Jenny first.
Ooh.
She'll be enchanted.
By the heck. You blokes!
Talk about devious.
Not a politician, he says?
- Elementary leadership.
You what?
- It's all in the mind.
- Or the gut.
Are you drunk?
Far from it.
Seriously asking me
to prostitute myself?
No, just chat him up.
It's no more than you've done before,
remember?
What about Greg,
your friend, my husband?
Two years together. My son Paul.
Does that mean nothing?
Are you telling me that it really means
the same to you, Jenny,
after all this time?
What is that supposed to mean?
Just what the hell
is that supposed to mean?
Well, sending Agnes back to us
instead of coming himself.
- Couldn't help that.
- No?
Come on, Jenny, you as good as
acknowledged it yourself last month.
- What? That was 60.
- Excuse me.
You know, going back to Challoner,
to your son,
instead of meeting up with Greg.
- You're wrong about Agnes.
- Am I?
Just because they've been together
doesn't necessarily mean that...
- No?
- No.
She's not the type.
She's far too hooked on
fulfilling her father's dreams.
All right,
so she may have influenced Greg,
she may have sent him off,
chasing from one end of the country
to the other while she stayed here,
but that's not the same thing as, as...
No?
Well, you know
what a right little madam she is.
What?
Well, I'm glad, really,
about Alec Campbell
and his Scots hang-up. I'm very glad.
It just showed that other people
can have priorities.
Other people can see what's what.
Make her get her pathetic Vikings
over here.
Why not?
Instead of influencing Greg and ordering
him about and telling him what's what
and confusing him and telling us
he's at one end of the country when...
Jenny!
When he's the other.
Ordering him about, bossing him.
Keeping us apart!
Oh!
He may need a practice.
Mind the lady's wall,
will you?
Oh, there's a nice little fella...
Poison to me now, this stuff.
Don't let Harper hear you say that.
I mean the booze, full stop.
Any sort. What about you? With your...
Your compulsion.
- Depends on your viewpoint.
- What does?
Why don't you get back to them skittles?
I'd like to hear how it was with him,
it's all the same to you, Mrs...
It's not all the same.
Look, like Len said, love,
there's no shame in it now.
Look, I was going to die, right?
Cause, inadequacy. Condition, hopeless.
Except they were wrong.
Death plague proved that.
The trouble with me was their treatment.
- Oh, Sam, leave it.
- It's true.
Discipline, authority,
that's what I needed.
I wouldn't have got to fixing
in the first place
if it hadn't been
for the soft option of...
Sam!
Straight up, I tell you,
the handouts, dole,
hostels, treatment centres.
All you wanted was a quick kick
up your oh be joyful.
Right, mate, right.
Like all them graduate social workers
all coming round bleeding for you.
Mmm.
Easy as touching the street, mate.
Nip out and get your methadone fix
if you groaned loud enough.
Cover for you if the fuzz come round.
And forever telling you
how tough life was.
How it's all loaded against you.
Moaning on about rights
and civil liberties and victimisation.
So what else
are you going to believe in?
Underprivileged, dependent.
They get you so choked up
with self-pity,
you couldn't even button
your own fly any more.
Off to bed, love? Feeding time.
I shan't be long.
Here. She took with the same trouble?
No worse than a couple
of million others.
No direction, no purpose,
so busy being deprived,
she never got herself together.
Why we have to get it
different this time.
Pioneers, that's how they've got to be,
our kids.
Hard, independent,
self-disciplined, resourceful.
All the initiative.
None of your welfare hand-outs
and gutless indifference any more.
Pioneers.
Here. I thought you was going to
blame it all on the generation gap.
- Hmm?
- You know, generation gap?
So what about, what about you?
You and the booze?
Oh, well... Well, like you,
I got the Death to thank, ain't I?
Huh! And mighty obliged I am, too.
I'm a man who's can respect myself.
Thanks all to the squire Vaughan
over there.
- Saved, eh?
- Oh, yes.
A young lion to the man
who only wanted a fork.
To the Death, eh?
She's a very...
She's a very sensitive girl.
Determined.
Do you find her attractive?
Stubborn.
She's very worried over Frank.
- You reckon?
- Mmm-hmm. Mmm.
Well, who else, Greg?
Greg? No, hardly.
Oh, but of course, you don't know.
How could you?
Well, she's always going on about him.
Oh, of course she is.
He's the father of her child.
But she is also very intuitive.
She knows there's something
wrong with Agnes.
- The Norwegian woman?
- Mmm-hmm.
And Jenny is hoping
to win him back, yeah?
Well, if she is, she's going about it
in a very odd way.
How come?
She's always trying to get after him.
No. No, no, no, no.
Not always.
Last month she had the opportunity.
Big reunion.
She let it go.
She went off to Challoner to her baby.
- That's reasonable.
- No, not for Jenny.
No, I think she knows
there is something wrong.
And I think she has half accepted it.
Or hasn't.
- Dredging it all up like that.
- Don't fret, love.
Sam's cured now.
Big rehabilitation bit. Ta-da!
Thanks to you.
You and this... and this little guzzler.
I hate these people.
- Ah, give over.
- Southerners.
- They don't mean us no harm.
- No?
And they're going to work
on the generator. That's your job.
- Good luck to them.
- No.
They'll get it going
and then that will be them,
not you, like it should be.
- Them.
- Oh, aye?
Go away!
Please.
- Alec?
- Yeah.
- What do you want?
- Just to talk.
- Have you been at that beer?
- No.
Couple of pints
and everyone's going mad.
Not me.
Just listen to Hubert down there.
And Charles is no better.
Hmm.
- What did you want?
- To apologise.
- For what I said about you pretending.
- About Frank?
Yeah. I had no right to assume
it was Greg Preston you were on about.
No.
Anything else?
- Look, I have said I'm sorry.
- I accept that.
Now, if you don't mind,
it's getting cold and...
Well, get into bed.
Go on, I won't touch you.
I told you, I haven't been drinking.
I don't really see
there's anything more to say.
Only that I hadn't realised
what it was like between you before.
Between...
You and Greg.
And now you have?
Look, all along I've been assuming...
I mean...
The way you've been
going on about him...
- He is the father of my child.
- Yeah, but...
Now, there's this...
What's her name? Agnes.
What about Agnes?
- Maybe I misunderstood.
- What, exactly?
- Oh, I won't discuss it.
- Misunderstood from who?
Maybe you as much as anyone.
Have you forgotten so soon?
Sitting there by the woodpile,
trying to hold my hand,
telling me about, about living,
about the need to come alive again? Eh?
Yeah. Perhaps I did misunderstand!
- That was for...
- Pretence?
- For...
- Just to con me along?
You know, work on his mood, girl,
show him we really care.
Well, so, what's wrong with that?
All right, I was sorry for you
and I did want to help you,
but that's no reason
to confuse pity with...
with whatever you thought.
Alec, I...
One for bed?
- No, I've had enough.
- Twist my arms, guvnor.
Right.
There you go.
You creep!
Anything to get your own way! Anything!
Lying, scheming...
Jenny, I...
- Don't lie, I know it was you.
- Who what?
- Who told Alec I was finished with Greg!
- Now, just a minute, Jenny...
- Don't you touch me, you Welsh bastard!
All right. All right.
I did tell Alec that.
Did you ever pause to consider why?
Because Alec has to be persuaded
to stay here somehow.
If not by me, then by you.
- I already told you several...
- And if Frank Garner
is half as sick as you say he is,
then, my girl, you shouldn't be
standing there swearing at me,
you should be in bed!
And I don't mean your own,
I mean Alec Campbell's.
Uh... I won't be a minute.
Don't you think about it,
Frank.
- What?
- Stay there.
- Oh, but...
- Have a good rest.
See, you'll...
You'll just be in the way at the mine.
- Alec's agreed, then?
- Aye.
Suggested it himself.
Woke me up first thing this morning.
Hmm. What did I tell you?
Jenny the way to a man's heart.
Don't.
Your inspiration nearly cost me
my manhood last night.
No. Whatever swayed him,
it wasn't Jenny.
At least, I don't think so.
You know, I vaguely remember
giving her some rather specific advice
at one point.
Perhaps she took it.
Or then, perhaps not.
No, she can't have done,
otherwise old McSporran would be
all revitalised this morning.
- And he isn't?
- No.
He's behaving the way I feel,
as though I had a one-man scrum
with the Pontypool front row.
Behaving like
a lot of children.
- You, worst of all.
- Oh!
Young Hubert, he be the worst.
Where is the old devil?
Won't see him much before midday,
I'll bet.
Oh!
So, decided to have a go
at the mine again, have you?
- Have a look at it, anyway.
- Oh.
Well, come on, lad. Mind the gear.
That's your department.
Oh, well, they're ready for off.
Oh.
# Hi ho, hi ho
# It's off to work we go #
Oh!
Have a nice, lazy day, Frank.
Whoops.
- Oh!
- You deserve to be worse.
- Good morning, patient.
- He's the one who should be in bed.
Nonsense. He deserves
a ducking in the horse trough.
- How are you feeling?
- Is that a proposition?
Honestly! You men!
Thank you, nurse.
Tell me, is this some kind
of elaborate conspiracy?
If you mean that farce of trying
to seduce Alec Campbell into staying,
well, he seems to have
talked himself into it.
No. I mean the farce of seducing me
into taking a rest.
Well, there's not much point
into your going into the mine head.
It's just an excuse, isn't it?
You don't fool me, Jenny.
You're concerned about
little Mr Cardio, aren't you?
All right, Frank, one truth for another.
I'm right to be frightened, aren't I?
I saw you yesterday,
staggering about like that, all dizzy.
I told you, it goes on the blink
from time to time.
Except that it's been getting worse,
hasn't it?
More frequent, hasn't it?
Look, there's no point
in playing silly heroes,
not with something as important as this.
It's your life.
Jenny, my life is my own
to do what I choose with it.
Yes, but day after day, on a horse,
in your condition,
it's just plain bloody stupid.
Not at all. Not so long as I'm needed.
Needed?
Ah, well, if you're thinking
about Mr Alec Campbell...
- Which I am.
- Well, then, don't worry,
I can handle him.
I'm sure you can, Rita.
Any handling will be done as me,
as Jenny Richards,
not as his dear departed Rita,
thank you very much.
All right.
Anyhow,
don't change the subject.
What about you?
What about this Mr Cardio creature?
Jenny, we all know it's got to fail
sooner or later.
But until it does, there's nothing
to be gained by slowing up.
It won't make it last any longer.
Well, there must be some chance
of a replacement.
What, an isotopic nuclear one?
Well, we could try
searching the hospitals...
Hospitals? From what I hear,
you should know better than that.
Look, even if by some
million-to-one chance
we were to find a battery
that still had some power in it,
where are we going to find a surgeon
to implant it?
- Well, there's always Janet Millon.
- But she's a vet.
Well, no, she's more of a doctor now.
What you think I am, a poodle?
So, you need electricity to run
the pumps and the cage hoist.
And for lighting and ventilation
down at levels.
A pretty high wattage load, eh?
We've plenty of diesel hidden away,
except we can't get the genny started.
- Well, Alec, it's up to you.
- Yeah.
A- ha.
- Well, what do you think?
- We'll see.
Let's see.
I know someone who could fix it.
- Greg Preston.
- Greg Preston.
Ah, I can put this one right okay,
it's just a matter of time.
You say you've got a battery charger?
Ah. That old thing, yeah.
You know,
this place has got fair promise.
See, if I take that generator...
I'll need to watch that piece of...
And I hope I don't have
to take the head off this.
Boy, what a job...
The trouble is somewhere
in the fuel injector.
It shouldn't be a big problem.
- So, it's on then, yeah? It'll go.
- Yeah, I reckon.
How about this, uh, coal gas bit?
Oh, probably rig up
some kind of extractor plant.
There's an old gasworks on the way,
couple of mile off.
That could be the answer.
Or we could try to restart
a coal-fired power station.
How soon?
Ah, you'll have to wait
till we've been up north,
sort out the hydroelectric stations
in Scotland.
Double two.
He's obstinate as ever.
Has he finally admitted it? The battery?
Mmm.
There must be something we can do.
- There he is. Hubert.
- Good morning, squire.
- Hey!
- It's afternoon. Now listen, Hubert,
get on your horse,
go to Sloton Spencer as fast as you can,
get Janet Millon and get her back here.
With any luck you should make it
by the day after tomorrow.
Hubert, this is an emergency.
- How come?
- For Frank Garner.
Forget the beer, Hubert. Go!
- Pioneers?
- It's the only hope,
for our kids, for mankind.
Tough, disciplined, resourceful.
But what chance of anything else,
the way things are, they're...
they're bound to grow up as pioneers.
Only if we let them.
You mean, we've got to lay
the right social foundations?
I mean, we've got to let them
work it out for themselves.
Break new territory,
fresh and clean, challenging.
Not land them with
all the trash and relics of our lot,
all the soft options
and popular fallacies,
the corruption, pollution, shortcuts!
It wasn't all of it all that rotten.
It was.
There were mistakes, yes,
of course there were mistakes.
There was corruption
and incompetence and wastage
but Sam, you can't condemn
the whole vast heritage of knowledge
and experience...
We have to!
They'll relearn what's of true value.
But to stick them with relics,
like that coal mine,
it has to be wrong.
- The coal mine?
- Yeah.
Let them learn for themselves,
build what they need.
It's got to be their decision, not ours!
Speak to Alec and Mr Vaughan,
they'll listen to you.
- Explain it to them, Frank.
- But...
Why do you suppose
the place isn't working now?
Because I couldn't allow it.
- Sam.
- It's wrong, you see.
I know it's wrong.
You manage your lot very well, Len.
Aye. While it's tough, maybe.
While it's still a job of strength,
it suits me fine.
You mean you manage them by fear?
No, by the example of the sweat, I do.
And a couple of tricks
the old man taught me
about how to run a gang on a coalface.
- Maybe.
- Well, make a definite target quarter,
long-term.
And make sure
that every bloke in that gang
thinks that he's the key to reaching it.
- Individual self-esteem.
- If that's your fancy way of putting it.
Oh, it's good principles, Len.
I dare say. Now, you two blokes
want to start this mine up again.
- You telling me you don't want to?
- Oh! Like George Stephenson said,
"It's better to travel hopefully
than it is to arrive. "
They'll listen to you,
respect it from a man like you.
But I don't agree, Sam.
- You do about pioneers.
- Yes.
"The spirit", you said.
Yes, yes, but for heaven's sake,
not about destroying
all the plant and machinery
in the whole kingdom, never!
Have to.
Just because it was created by people
that you disapprove of...
- No.
- ... people that you resent,
because in some twisted way,
you blame them
for being the way you are.
What?
Yes, that's the core of it, Sam,
isn't it?
That's the basis of the whole thing,
it's your drug addiction.
It is. You were dependent and corrupted.
You were a mess
and you want me to believe
that everybody else was the same as you.
- No! I mean, yes, they were...
- Yes, yes, yes.
- But not like...
- Yes, it is.
It's your past you wanted to wipe out.
Yes, it's your own past
and you're confusing that...
No!
I've learned from it, don't you see?
Learned, like you have to.
It's all right
when the dangers are for real.
Dog packs, scavengers, hunger.
But what happens when they're gone?
That's what worries me.
That's what gets my knickers in a twist,
when the enemy is boredom
and nostalgia.
Hmm. And there's no real crisis, eh?
No siege economy.
Oh, you've got the words for it,
haven't you?
Well, I think I got
the answers, too, Len.
Oh, I'll happen you have.
I think you're, uh,
twisting your knickers unnecessarily.
You've got to get this place
going again, Len.
- What, this...
- It'll be a beginning, not an end.
This lot? Oh, don't fret about that.
I wouldn't seriously try and stop you.
And if Alec can get it repaired,
good luck to him.
You've changed your mind?
Oh, I know a bunch of fellows
who wouldn't stop at a bit of trading.
But that's the whole point, Len.
Coal wasn't just trading.
I mean, you could use it to,
- to run a railway.
- Oi! Don't rush it, lad.
Look, you have some flash ideas.
Now, what going to happen
to people like Sam?
Their self... What is it, self-esteem?
Now, he's been working hard here,
beefing away.
What's going to happen to him
when it starts running again?
What then?
I could stop them myself.
I could set a torch to the whole works.
Burn it, once and for all.
- I would, too, except...
- Yeah, but, Sam...
I would except for Mary Jean
and the babe.
Honest, I wouldn't care for meself,
for what they'd do to me.
But for them.
That's why it has to be you, see?
You persuade them.
That Scots Alec, he'll do what you say.
You tell him to make out it's US.
It needs more work. You tell him.
Mr Garner?
What's up?
Hold up, eh?
Mrs Jay?
- How's it going, Alec?
- There's a bit missing.
- What bit?
- Uh, the connecting pipe
from the fuel pump
to the relief valve here.
- You mean, broke?
- Missing.
- How could that be?
- Somebody could have taken it.
You mean, deliberately? To disable it?
Could be.
You don't think...
Mr Vaughan! Quick!
It's Mr Garner.
He's...
Sam...
He wants... He...
Just take it easy, old fella.
- He's going...
- Try and relax.
He's going...
He's going to... Sam...
Sam is...
Sam?
Sam.
What about him?
He's...
It's no good, I can't...
He keeps trying to say something.
He won't rest.
It seems to be, I don't know, about Sam.
Alec? What's wrong?
But for me...
Alec, the pighead, right?
Rush off up north!
The Tartan Army, as you said.
- Alec, you can't blame yourself.
- Who else, then?
Such a mad rush, wouldn't listen!
Telling myself it was just...
just you and that Greg.
Ah.
How selfish can a body get?
Alec, you're so wrong.
Oh, aye?
Listen, that man that we found
would let in the others.
You weren't in that state
because you didn't care.
Self-pity!
No. Grieving, yes.
Because you couldn't be with your wife
when she died, that's not selfishness.
That's three years of misery
because you cared.
Aye, but who for?
It's all over.
Switch on and press the starter.
Wish me luck!
Luck doesn't come into it!
Okay, Len.
Yes!
Alec, you did it. Well done!
Listen to her! Well done!
Keep going!
Look at that!
Alec!
Oh, cheer up, Sam.
I never thought...
Come on. This is your achievement.
All we did was press buttons.
Aye.
Sam,
you know we're planning to go on north,
get the hydroelectric generators
on load again?
Power unlimited.
Maybe.
You know, we're planning to meet up
with that engineer I told you about,
Greg Preston.
Be quite a formidable team.
Sam, we need someone like you.
Want to come with us?
- Leave us?
- Won't be for long, love.
- Few weeks, at the most.
- Sam?
Not long. Mrs Jay will see you right
till I get back.
Why?
Hey?
Well, they've no need for you.
Ah, well,
that's maybe not as it looks.
See, that Mr Vaughan figures
it's vital to chain up
as many engineers as possible...
- Engineers?
- Got this long-term plan, hasn't he?
Get folk working together
through power and mechanisation...
Pioneers, Sam, you always said...
I have to go.
There's no use this generation
picking up with the relics
of how it was before. You said...
- Right.
- Right.
Next generation has to start fresh,
decide what they need
and then build it up for themselves.
Don't you see,
it's for him I am doing it.
Now, if you go to Scotland...
Then I can stop them.
Stop?
You should have seen them today,
down at that coal mine, dancing round.
Mad! Crazy mad, both of them.
They have to be stopped, love.
Stopped by someone who's learned,
who can see the truth,
so as our little fellow
has a chance to start fresh.
Stopped.
You mean Mr Vaughan and Alec.
You mean you.
Oh, Sam.
I have to.
Railway line.
Well, you don't want to cart it
all round in wheelbarrows, do you?
I'll hand it to you.
What?
You'd talk a rabbi
into eating a pork pie!
Charles!
You want to meet Greg Preston!
Oh, there's Hubert.
Aye, thirsty and all, I'll warrant.
I'll bet.
I've been thinking about getting
a diesel engine to work off coal gas.
- Oh.
- I think it would work, it really would.
A big job.
And I'd need to find the right tools.
I've also been wondering about
getting one of their
North Sea gas rigs yielding again.
So, why not?
Bound to have had
an automatic shut-off system.
- It's worth investigating.
- Oh, I'm sure.
So, why the giggle?
I was just thinking about you.
Oh, aye?
The change from that zombie
I tried to get through to
by the wood pile not so long ago.
Aye, well, I've got myself
a fair size debt to pay off now,
for Frank Garner.
Jenny? Jenny?
- A bit of news.
- Is Janet here?
She's away treating an outbreak
of food poisoning.
Oh.
- Agnes was there,
with news of Greg.
He was at Challoner
and they've sent him on.
He made it, Jenny.
- Well, then, where is he?
- Ah, wait.
He's gone off to check about a doctor
mentioned in her father's notes,
a man called Adams.
They're expecting him at Sloton
any day now.
Oh, marvellous!
Now, Agnes suggests a rendezvous,
up near Swaffham on Friday.
But why so long?
Why can't we go to Sloton now?
Don't start that again.
Why Swaffham?
Agnes's idea.
Oh?
Yeah, she reckoned they got a lot
going for them
and there was some bloke, some fella,
she reckoned Greg ought to meet.
She reckons? Who is she to decide?
Never mind, Jenny.
It's not long till Friday.
It is to me.