Broken (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Helen - full transcript
Father Kerrigan counsels an enigmatic gambling addict, while a devoted mother is desperate for his help after her mentally ill son suffers a psychotic episode. New parishioner Roz confesses a dark secret to the priest.
In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You dirty, filthy beast! You horror!
You're sacked.
Why do people go to Mass, Father?
They get something out of it, yeah?
Yeah.
Well, I got this and this,
and I got the sack.
If I go tomorrow,
what am I going to get... cystitis?
It seems I've just been driving
people deeper and deeper
into poverty and despair.
You know that lovely dress that you
wanted? I'm going to get you that.
I'm a betting shop manager
who stole from her employer.
What kind of chance does that give me?
She's dead!
You weren't even going to tell me!
They'll call the police...
first thing they'll do is check
when her pension was last drawn.
When was that?
What do I do?
Broken windows in empty hallways
A pale dead mood in a
sky streaked with grey
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today.
Right.
Hello, Michael. Hi, Andrew.
Come in.
She's upstairs, on the, er...
up on the right.
Hiya, um, it's me. I'm...
It's just my sister. Oh, right.
Um... I'm being arrested.
Will you come and look after the kids?
Thanks.
The doctor thinks she's been
dead for three or four days.
Yeah, it's four days.
Yeah, Christina...
Well, she couldn't bring
herself to report it until now.
She's not been thinking straight...
Sorry, Michael, can you just...
just let her answer? Sorry, yeah.
When was her pension last drawn,
Christina?
This morning.
Was that you that did that?
Yeah.
For on the night he was betrayed,
he himself took bread...
and giving you thanks
he said the blessing,
broke the bread and gave
it to his disciples, saying,
"Take this, all of you, and eat of it,
"for this is my body which
will be given up for you."
In a similar way, when supper was ended,
he took the chalice,
and, giving you thanks, he said
the blessing and gave the chalice
to his disciples saying, "Take this,
all of you, and drink from it...
for this is the chalice of my blood."
"The blood of the new
and eternal covenant...
".. which will be poured
out for you and for many,
"for the forgiveness of sins.
"Do this in memory of me."
Pardon me, boy
Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?
Track 29
Boy, you can give me a shine
You leave the Pennsylvania
station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and
then you're in Baltimore
Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham
'n' eggs in Carolina
When you hear the whistle blowin'
eight to the bar
Then you know that
Tennessee is not very far
Shovel all the coal
in Gotta keep it rollin'
Woo, woo, Chattanooga there you are.
Wooo!
Good, that!
Are you OK?
Yeah. Yeah.
What is it?
I'm scared there's no heaven.
Death is just the end,
and I'm scared of that end.
To face that end,
you should be at your strongest...
but it comes when
you're at your weakest.
And I think that's a horrible
joke for God to play on us.
There's a heaven.
And you'll be there.
You and Dad.
You think so?
I know so.
Give us The Little White Bull.
Oh, right. Er...
Once upon a time there
was a little white bull
A little white bull
Very sad because he was
a little white bull...
When did you first know you
were called to be a priest?
Ah, it was one weekend, 39 years ago.
I was 18.
I'd turned my back on school
and church and faith...
with good reason,
I'd have said back then,
but...
I saw this falconer at work.
His hawk disappeared...
didn't come back.
The crowd drifted away and
there was just me and him...
and every half hour or so he'd call out,
"Come on, boy,"
and then say to me, "He'll come."
Total faith.
And then, after...
I don't know, maybe four, five hours...
he came.
God doesn't always come
when you call him...
but keep on calling, and he will.
I was a Catholic again.
Is there anything you'd like to say,
Mrs Fitzsimmons,
before we get to sentence?
Um...
Christina's asked me to say a few words,
ma'am,
if that's all right with you?
Yes.
I'm Father Michael Kerrigan and
I'm Christina's parish priest.
Um...
You may not know this, ma'am...
you may not believe this, ma'am...
but social services are talking
about taking Christina's
kids away from her.
Apparently,
they had this mental image of...
kids running round a
dead body for days on end
and nothing could be
further from the truth.
It's a cruel irony, ma'am,
because Christina did what she
did on account of those kids.
Every penny she has ever earned
she has spent on those kids.
Everything she's ever done she's
done because she loves those kids.
Ma'am,
I ask you to treat this wonderful woman
with as much leniency as possible
and to do all in your power
to ensure that those children stay
with the mother who loves them.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alright.
I'll do all I can to help you
with the children, Mrs Fitzsimmons.
As regards this case,
I'm going to grant you
an absolute discharge
on the count of preventing
a lawful burial...
but I cannot ignore the benefit fraud.
On that count,
I sentence you to six months in prison,
but I will suspend it for a year.
On both counts there are charges to pay
and there's nothing I can
do about those, I'm afraid.
They amount to, um...
?55.
How will you pay it?
Good question.
Eh!
Hiya!
Hello!
Hiya!
Oh, I've missed you!
Missed you, too.
Come here! Ooh, look!
Look what we've got!
I just don't know how she could do it.
Leave my mother lying dead, like that?
And I know what you'll say.
Father, I know.
She did it for her kids.
Doing such an awful thing, it just
proves how much she loves her kids.
The more awful the thing,
the more she loves them.
Well, that's bollocks,
because I've got kids,
and I love mine just as
much as she loves hers
and there is no way I would do that
to my mother, and no shite, please.
No "it's what she would have wanted"
shite,
because she wouldn't have
wanted to be left like that.
Yes, of course she'd want
her to get her pension.
She'd give those kids anything.
She'd have given them her life!
But, for God's sake,
she'd want a little bit of
respect after giving it.
Christina?
So, there's no way you would
do that to your mother?
No way.
If you had no money?
Hungry mouths to feed?
No way.
Well, do you think she loves
her less than you did?
Yeah. Yes.
I couldn't do what she did,
so, yeah,
I think she loved her less than I did.
What, even though she lived with her?
I wondered when that'd come up.
She let our mam move in with
her because it suited her.
Free childcare,
a couple of bob towards the rent.
Yeah, Mam got something out of
it and the kids kept her young,
but she got plenty out of it, too.
I'm going. I've paid Jimmy's dinner
money up to the end of the week.
Lisa's got athletics after school
tomorrow. She's lost her kit.
Thanks.
Bye.
I'm sorry. Really sorry.
You've started?
Vernon's coming home.
Is he well enough?
We think so, yes.
Vernon?
Last time we met,
you said how well he was doing.
Yes.
Yeah. Then why send him home?
Precisely because he's done so
well here. He's ready for it.
Is it money?
No.
He's the least unwell.
We've got somebody who's profoundly
ill and we've got no bed for them.
I mean, but..."least unwell"...
I mean, that doesn't mean "well".
So, Vernon is still ill, yeah?
Yeah.
Then why send him home?
We have to.
But, Helen, she can't cope with him,
physically.
We have taken that into account
when we've drawn up the care package.
Shall we take a look at it?
I'm ashamed of the way I reacted,
Father.
No, no, not at all...
I didn't think anything bad...
No, I am.
The head suggested uniform 15 years ago,
the previous head,
and they still all came in their
frocks... as I knew they would.
They want to dress up,
and the poorer they are
the more they want it...
their child a princess for the day.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I'll write to them.
You don't need to do that.
I'll insist this time that they
keep it simple. Plain and simple.
Yeah.
It's their child's first Holy Communion,
not My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Yeah.
Hm.
Am I too late?
For Confession? No. Yeah.
Not what I expected.
No? No.
I expected it dark.
A wee little shaft of light.
A few specks of dust spinning in it.
You've not been for a while, then?
No!
Right.
I'm Michael.
Roz.
How do you do, Roz?
How do you do, Michael?
Cat got your tongue?
No. No, I'd just sooner
listen for a while, you know?
Christ is with us...
sharing our pain.
This'll remind us of his presence.
I'm going to kill myself, Michael.
What? Why?
Do I look good?
Yeah. Yeah, you do.
Ted Baker. Kurt Geiger.
Agent Provocateur knickers. Mm-hm.
Chanel perfume.
I want to make a good
impression on the slab.
Well,
wh-why do you want to kill yourself?
I'm an office manager, and...
over the past eight years I've stolen...
?232,648...
and in a week or two,
for reasons I'll not bore you with,
my boss is going to find out.
What did you spend it on?
Some of it was on me...
but I'm a gambler,
and most of it went on machines.
I know this trick.
The silent trick.
No, it's not a trick.
I'm... genuinely lost for words.
You could ask me how I'm going to do it.
How are you going to do it?
I thought about standing
in front of a train...
or throwing myself
off a high-rise block...
but I'd look a right mess on the slab,
wouldn't I?
So it's pills and booze.
When?
Tonight.
Do you have a family?
It's a bit below the belt if you
don't mind me saying so, Michael.
I'm sorry.
Two boys. 15 and 16...
and a girl, 19.
Husband?
You might call him a husband.
I prefer "sick, twisted gobshite."
Do you believe in God?
I think it's about a thousand-to-one
that there's an afterlife...
but it's the only chance I've got,
so I'll take it, thanks very much.
You get a lot like that, yeah?
Yeah. Hm.
How do we start?
Is it just, "Bless me,
Father," and all that?
If you like.
OK, bless me, Father...
for I have sinned.
God knows how long it's been
since my last confession.
I've had other men...
. but only when I found out
he was having other women.
And I stole 230-odd
something thousand off...
my employer.
Is that it?
Yeah, well, there's other stuff!
Nothing special, though.
If this was Match Of The Day,
that'd be the stuff you'd see
the men and the money.
And are you sorry?
Not about the men, no.
As for the money, I'm...
only sorry I got caught.
It's not good enough, is it?
No.
I have to be truly sorry for
you to absolve me, right?
Well, I-I don't absolve you.
It's God who...
Please don't kill yourself.
Thank you.
If it's shame,
you can live with the shame.
Have you been there?
Yeah. Yeah, I have.
Were you suicidal?
Yeah.
Over?
Things I did when I was a young man.
Was it worse than stealing
?232,000 or whatever
off people that trusted you?
Much worse. Much worse.
How do you cope?
I atone.
I spend my life atoning for it,
and I just hope that when I die,
I'll... I'll have atoned enough.
Promise me you won't kill yourself,
promise me,
and I will show you how to atone.
I can't.
Then promise me you won't
kill yourself today,
promise me you'll come back
in two or three days' time
and I will make you want to live.
Promise?
Yes, I promise.
Will you join me in the Lord's Prayer?
Yes. Yes, I will.
Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name...
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done on
Earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who
trespass against us...
Hiya, Mam.
'It's Beth. It's Mam's birthday!'
Ah.
'Phone her on her landline, you prick.'
All right.
'Hello?'
Happy birthday to you. 'Oh!'
Happy birthday to you...
'I was beginning to
think you'd forgotten!'
Nah, I just haven't had the
chance till now. How are you?
You all right?
Yeah, I'm all right...
just been very busy today.
You having a nice time?
I only wanna be with you
I said no matter
No matter what you do
I only wanna be with you.
Come on!
The Karaoke Kid!
Anyway, still to come is the raffle,
and Father Michael is
going to draw that for us
immediately... after the bingo!
Eight and six, 86...
All the twos, 22.
'You have no messages in your mailbox.'
'You've reached Father Michael Kerrigan.
'I can't get to the phone at the moment.
'If you'd like to leave a
message and your phone number,
'I'll get back to you as
soon as possible. Thanks.'
'It's Helen Oyenusi here, Father.
'You're probably fast asleep,
so, never mind.
'It's just that Vernon wanted a word,
didn't you, Vernon?
'If you play this in the morning,
maybe you could phone him, Father.
'You know what he's like.
'Doesn't believe a word
his mother tells him
'but everything you say is gospel.
'No pun intended, Father.'
Phone him again.
He's in bed, Vernon.
He's not.
They won't let him pick up the phone.
Who won't let him?
You know who.
Can I phone the crisis team, Vernon?
No.
You're holding a knife, Vernon,
and I'm scared of what you might do.
They're not coming in here.
Not scared for myself.
I know you won't hurt your mother...
They're not coming in here.
I'm scared of what...
They're not coming in here!
Don't phone! I have to.
I won't let you hurt yourself.
Don't phone them.
Do not phone them!
Hello?
It's Helen Oyenusi here.
Hiya, Vernon.
Go away. We just want to talk.
I will not let you in.
We're here to help you, Vernon.
But I will do this before I let you in!
We're here to help... Now go!
The police are coming,
son, we have to let them in.
No.
We'll let them in and we'll let
the crisis team in and they'll...
No.
give you something,
everything will be fine.
You're only feeling like this...
No-one's coming in.
because it's your first night
away from the centre...
No-one's coming in.
No-one's coming in.
Hey, Vernon, it's me.
Andrew, Andrew Powell.
Go away.
What are you doing with the knife,
Vernon?
I'm protecting myself.
There are people who want to do me harm,
so I'm protecting
myself with this knife.
OK, OK.
I don't care.
I'm not going back in there and
I'm not going to talk to them.
Just let me talk to him.
I'll see to it, all right,
you got me word, all right?
No-one's going to harm you,
you need put down the knife, mate.
Open the door...
I don't want to do it...
let me in, I'll tell you what,
we'll go through there,
sit down nice and calm
and talk it through.
Let me go!
I'll see to it that no-one
hurts you mate, all right?
All you got to do... No!
is put the knife down,
open the door for me... No.
We'll go through to your living room,
sit down,
talk about things nice and calm,
like, yeah?
No.
Is your mam there, Vernon?
Yeah. Right.
Put the knife down, please. Get out.
Put it down. Get out now!
If you don't put the knife down,
I will have to spray you.
No. No. Don't spray him, Dawn!
Get out of this house!
Don't spray him, Dawn, he's sick!
Put the knife down,
or I will have to spray you!
Drop the knife!
I can't see!
Armed police!
I can't see!
Armed police.
Put down the knife or I will fire!
I can't see!
Armed police! Put down the knife!
Put down the knife or I will fire!
You stupid bitch!
Vernon, Vernon!
In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
The grace of Our Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God
and the Communion of the
Holy Spirit be with you all.
Her daughter Christina is with us today
along with her beloved grandchild Lisa,
and we remember all of
them in our prayers,
and, finally, we remember Vernon Oyenusi
who was so tragically
taken from us last night...
What?.. and of...
You haven't heard, Father?
No.
and we ask Almighty God to
ease the grief of his mother,
Helen Oyenusi,
whom many of us have known
since she first came here
four or five years ago.
We remember all of them in our prayers.
How did it happen?
I don't know.
Well, where is she?
His mother? Yeah, yeah!
Hospital. The General.
Is she hurt?
No. He's there.
The morgue.
What happened?
Oh! He got sicker and sicker.
I-I phoned the crisis team.
He wouldn't let them in
so they phoned the police
and the police gassed him and shot him.
Oh, God! Why didn't you phone me?
I knew you were in bed.
I'd phoned earlier and you didn't
answer so I knew you were in bed.
They won't let me see him.
They say you can, but I can't.
Yeah...
All right, just... I won't be long.
I'm afraid not. Evidence.
Have mercy on Vernon Oyenusi, Lord.
Forgive him his sins and
grant him eternal rest.
Amen.
God bless you, Vernon.
This lady's a police liaison officer.
I've told her I do not want one.
I will get all the help I need
from my priest and my church.
The police have done enough for now,
thank you very much.
Helen needs somewhere to sleep tonight.
We've still not finished with the house.
Oh, she can stay with me.
And the Chief Inspector
has asked to see her.
Yeah, I'll-I'll come with her.
Thanks.
Bye, Helen.
Bye, Father.
Yeah, bye.
They let you see him?
Yeah.
He looks so peaceful, Helen.
We were happy in Granby.
Vernon loved it there.
Lots of friends, lots of laughter...
but his dad wanted somewhere better,
and "somewhere better"
meant fewer black faces...
so we moved...
here...
and conversations suddenly
stopped when Vernon got to them.
People laughed at jokes and
wouldn't repeat them to him.
He got sick.
His dad couldn't cope with it.
The man responsible for the sickness
couldn't cope with the sickness...
so he left,
and the sickness got worse...
and worse.
Now it has killed him.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
That way.
The body of Christ.
The children were a credit to you all.
Their appearance, obviously,
er, but more importantly,
their behaviour throughout
the entire Mass...
and finally,
I have to mention one person
without whom today
wouldn't have happened...
Miss Pickering.
Miss Pickering?
Lisa, would you?
Apparently, um, this is the 20th
first Holy Communion celebration
that Miss Pickering's organised, so...
Miss Pickering,
on behalf of us all, thank you.
Thank you!
Helen will have questions, yes.
Why Vernon was discharged from
the centre will be one of them,
I'm sure. As will why police shot
dead a boy who wouldn't harm a fly.
The officer who used the
spray says she did so
because she feared for
Mrs Oyenusi's safety.
As does... That's not true!
That is what she says,
but of course, every statement,
every piece of evidence
will be thoroughly tested...
When can I see him?
The post mortem's tomorrow.
As soon as that's over.
Thanks.
What happened?
Policeman did it. That night.
Couldn't you have fixed the chain?
For God's sake!
She's grieving, vulnerable, alone...
couldn't you have fixed the bloody...
I'm sorry.
Thanks for this.
You still off the sugar?
Yeah, four days now.
Puts the crucifixion into perspective,
doesn't it?
So, what happened?
Oh, I got back late. Knackered...
and the phone rang.
Helen Oyenusi about Vernon.
I'd have picked up, but...
seeing them earlier in the
day gave me an excuse not to,
so I didn't pick up,
and a few hours later he was dead.
And if you'd have picked up?
I don't know.
I might have spoken to him,
you know, realised how bad he was,
gone galloping round there on my
white charger and saved the day.
And you might not.
Yeah.
I just feel as though I should tell her,
you know?
What good will that do?
Well, undeniably it will...
Look, she needs you, Michael.
And she needs to have
total faith in you.
I mean, why would you destroy all that
just to clear your own conscience?
It's not that.
No? No!
You lose a loved one suddenly,
unnaturally,
you want to know everything, Peter.
Every detail.
People, oh, they...
People try and hide it from you,
thinking it too painful,
but how dare they?
You've lost a son...
nothing can be worse than that.
And I'm going to be helping
her in that quest, Peter.
The police, they'll tell her lies,
we'll expose those lies.
"Total truth, please, officer"...
and I can't do that
while I'm hiding an
inconvenient truth of my own...
that, had I acted,
her son might well still be alive.
I know.
Yeah, but...
what she doesn't know won't hurt her.
'It's Helen Oyenusi here, Father.
'You're probably fast asleep,
so, never mind.
'It's just that Vernon wanted a word,
didn't you, Vernon?
'If you play this in the morning,
maybe you could phone him, Father.
'You know what he's like.
'Doesn't believe a word
his mother tells him
'but everything you say is gospel.
'No pun intended, Father.'
Hello again, Michael.
Hello again, Roz.
May I?
Yes.
How are you?
This is not my going away outfit so...
no immediate panic...
but I'm still going to do it,
I'm afraid.
When?
Soon.
All right, go on.
Sorry?
You said you'd give me a
reason to go on living.
Well, if I said that, it...
Well, you did.
If I said that,
it was arrogant of me, I'm sorry.
But I could suggest something.
Go on.
It'll take guts.
I've got guts.
You lost most of that
money on the machines?
Yeah.
Those machines in the betting shop?
Yeah.
The more you lost the more
you chased those losses?
Yes.
Tell the world.
What?
I want you to tell the world
what those machines have done to you,
Roz.
I'm killing myself
because I'm afraid it's
going to make the local paper
and you want me to tell the world?
Yeah.
There are four betting
shops in Hallcross Road.
No bank, no post office,
no chemist, but four betting shops.
Why? Why four,
when everyone round there is skint?
Those machines, Roz, that's why.
It's not just you, it's everyone.
You're not a criminal,
you're not a villain... you're a victim.
I don't think my boss
would see it that way.
Why did you steal that money?
The machines. Who got that money?
The machines. Tell the world.
If you don't tell the world,
it's a guilty secret that's
going to be revealed anyway.
If you do tell the world,
it's a campaign,
and it's your reason for living.
I'll go to prison.
Not immediately, and not forever.
What did you do?
Others will come forward, Roz,
with stories very similar to yours.
We'll get together,
and we'll stick together
until there's not one machine
left in Hallcross Road.
What did you do?
Promise me you'll think about it.
I promise. What did you do?
Promise me you won't do anything
until you've come back to see me again.
I promise.
What did you do, Michael?
I'm here to listen to you, Roz, not...
You said that you'd done
something worse than...
stealing ?200,000.
What was it?
I've done two things worse than that.
One of them's too recent, too raw...
and, er...
And the other?
I, er...
Who do you think Jesus confided in?
Peter with the poker up his arse?
Judas?
No.
Mary Magdalene.
She'd been there, done it,
bought the T-shirt. She understood.
I... I treated young women very badly.
When?
When I was 18, 19.
Not all young women,
just the ones I had sex with.
Why?
Because they let me have sex with them.
It was 40 years ago and I
could live with it then, but...
40 years ago,
the only good woman there'd ever been
was the Virgin Mary cos she'd
never done it with anyone,
whereas if a girl did it with a boy,
any boy,
well, she was filth,
and if she did it with a boy like me,
a boy in whom every
last bit of self-esteem
was well and truly banished,
well, she was less than filth...
she was scum,
and you can treat scum any way you like.
Have you seen any of them since?
Oh, yeah, in here every day.
I sometimes think that I'll track
them down and I'll apologise,
but I don't think I could...
or should.
Only you know the answer to that,
Michael.
Do I?
Yes.
You should do what your
conscience tells you to do.
Hello, Helen.
Hello. Father.
Trish is on her way.
OK, good.
Would you like to see what we've got?
Please.
This way.
This is, um, a log of every call,
text and e-mail we got about Vernon.
Would you like it?
Yes, please.
There'll be more,
but we'll pass them on, as well...
and these are some photographs
taken throughout his time with us.
On the wall, there's some of his...
artwork.
I'm so, so sorry!
I am so, so sorry, Helen.
Please say you forgive me.
Oh, there's nothing to forgive...
you didn't want to send
him away from here.
I'm here to say thank you, Trish.
Thank you for making him so happy.
He loved it here and
that was down to you.
Tell me what it's like in heaven
I hope it's kinder than it is down here
With all the trials and tribulations
All the worry and living in fear
Hallelujah
We might be bruised
but we're not broken.
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You dirty, filthy beast! You horror!
You're sacked.
Why do people go to Mass, Father?
They get something out of it, yeah?
Yeah.
Well, I got this and this,
and I got the sack.
If I go tomorrow,
what am I going to get... cystitis?
It seems I've just been driving
people deeper and deeper
into poverty and despair.
You know that lovely dress that you
wanted? I'm going to get you that.
I'm a betting shop manager
who stole from her employer.
What kind of chance does that give me?
She's dead!
You weren't even going to tell me!
They'll call the police...
first thing they'll do is check
when her pension was last drawn.
When was that?
What do I do?
Broken windows in empty hallways
A pale dead mood in a
sky streaked with grey
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today.
Right.
Hello, Michael. Hi, Andrew.
Come in.
She's upstairs, on the, er...
up on the right.
Hiya, um, it's me. I'm...
It's just my sister. Oh, right.
Um... I'm being arrested.
Will you come and look after the kids?
Thanks.
The doctor thinks she's been
dead for three or four days.
Yeah, it's four days.
Yeah, Christina...
Well, she couldn't bring
herself to report it until now.
She's not been thinking straight...
Sorry, Michael, can you just...
just let her answer? Sorry, yeah.
When was her pension last drawn,
Christina?
This morning.
Was that you that did that?
Yeah.
For on the night he was betrayed,
he himself took bread...
and giving you thanks
he said the blessing,
broke the bread and gave
it to his disciples, saying,
"Take this, all of you, and eat of it,
"for this is my body which
will be given up for you."
In a similar way, when supper was ended,
he took the chalice,
and, giving you thanks, he said
the blessing and gave the chalice
to his disciples saying, "Take this,
all of you, and drink from it...
for this is the chalice of my blood."
"The blood of the new
and eternal covenant...
".. which will be poured
out for you and for many,
"for the forgiveness of sins.
"Do this in memory of me."
Pardon me, boy
Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?
Track 29
Boy, you can give me a shine
You leave the Pennsylvania
station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and
then you're in Baltimore
Dinner in the diner
Nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham
'n' eggs in Carolina
When you hear the whistle blowin'
eight to the bar
Then you know that
Tennessee is not very far
Shovel all the coal
in Gotta keep it rollin'
Woo, woo, Chattanooga there you are.
Wooo!
Good, that!
Are you OK?
Yeah. Yeah.
What is it?
I'm scared there's no heaven.
Death is just the end,
and I'm scared of that end.
To face that end,
you should be at your strongest...
but it comes when
you're at your weakest.
And I think that's a horrible
joke for God to play on us.
There's a heaven.
And you'll be there.
You and Dad.
You think so?
I know so.
Give us The Little White Bull.
Oh, right. Er...
Once upon a time there
was a little white bull
A little white bull
Very sad because he was
a little white bull...
When did you first know you
were called to be a priest?
Ah, it was one weekend, 39 years ago.
I was 18.
I'd turned my back on school
and church and faith...
with good reason,
I'd have said back then,
but...
I saw this falconer at work.
His hawk disappeared...
didn't come back.
The crowd drifted away and
there was just me and him...
and every half hour or so he'd call out,
"Come on, boy,"
and then say to me, "He'll come."
Total faith.
And then, after...
I don't know, maybe four, five hours...
he came.
God doesn't always come
when you call him...
but keep on calling, and he will.
I was a Catholic again.
Is there anything you'd like to say,
Mrs Fitzsimmons,
before we get to sentence?
Um...
Christina's asked me to say a few words,
ma'am,
if that's all right with you?
Yes.
I'm Father Michael Kerrigan and
I'm Christina's parish priest.
Um...
You may not know this, ma'am...
you may not believe this, ma'am...
but social services are talking
about taking Christina's
kids away from her.
Apparently,
they had this mental image of...
kids running round a
dead body for days on end
and nothing could be
further from the truth.
It's a cruel irony, ma'am,
because Christina did what she
did on account of those kids.
Every penny she has ever earned
she has spent on those kids.
Everything she's ever done she's
done because she loves those kids.
Ma'am,
I ask you to treat this wonderful woman
with as much leniency as possible
and to do all in your power
to ensure that those children stay
with the mother who loves them.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alright.
I'll do all I can to help you
with the children, Mrs Fitzsimmons.
As regards this case,
I'm going to grant you
an absolute discharge
on the count of preventing
a lawful burial...
but I cannot ignore the benefit fraud.
On that count,
I sentence you to six months in prison,
but I will suspend it for a year.
On both counts there are charges to pay
and there's nothing I can
do about those, I'm afraid.
They amount to, um...
?55.
How will you pay it?
Good question.
Eh!
Hiya!
Hello!
Hiya!
Oh, I've missed you!
Missed you, too.
Come here! Ooh, look!
Look what we've got!
I just don't know how she could do it.
Leave my mother lying dead, like that?
And I know what you'll say.
Father, I know.
She did it for her kids.
Doing such an awful thing, it just
proves how much she loves her kids.
The more awful the thing,
the more she loves them.
Well, that's bollocks,
because I've got kids,
and I love mine just as
much as she loves hers
and there is no way I would do that
to my mother, and no shite, please.
No "it's what she would have wanted"
shite,
because she wouldn't have
wanted to be left like that.
Yes, of course she'd want
her to get her pension.
She'd give those kids anything.
She'd have given them her life!
But, for God's sake,
she'd want a little bit of
respect after giving it.
Christina?
So, there's no way you would
do that to your mother?
No way.
If you had no money?
Hungry mouths to feed?
No way.
Well, do you think she loves
her less than you did?
Yeah. Yes.
I couldn't do what she did,
so, yeah,
I think she loved her less than I did.
What, even though she lived with her?
I wondered when that'd come up.
She let our mam move in with
her because it suited her.
Free childcare,
a couple of bob towards the rent.
Yeah, Mam got something out of
it and the kids kept her young,
but she got plenty out of it, too.
I'm going. I've paid Jimmy's dinner
money up to the end of the week.
Lisa's got athletics after school
tomorrow. She's lost her kit.
Thanks.
Bye.
I'm sorry. Really sorry.
You've started?
Vernon's coming home.
Is he well enough?
We think so, yes.
Vernon?
Last time we met,
you said how well he was doing.
Yes.
Yeah. Then why send him home?
Precisely because he's done so
well here. He's ready for it.
Is it money?
No.
He's the least unwell.
We've got somebody who's profoundly
ill and we've got no bed for them.
I mean, but..."least unwell"...
I mean, that doesn't mean "well".
So, Vernon is still ill, yeah?
Yeah.
Then why send him home?
We have to.
But, Helen, she can't cope with him,
physically.
We have taken that into account
when we've drawn up the care package.
Shall we take a look at it?
I'm ashamed of the way I reacted,
Father.
No, no, not at all...
I didn't think anything bad...
No, I am.
The head suggested uniform 15 years ago,
the previous head,
and they still all came in their
frocks... as I knew they would.
They want to dress up,
and the poorer they are
the more they want it...
their child a princess for the day.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I'll write to them.
You don't need to do that.
I'll insist this time that they
keep it simple. Plain and simple.
Yeah.
It's their child's first Holy Communion,
not My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Yeah.
Hm.
Am I too late?
For Confession? No. Yeah.
Not what I expected.
No? No.
I expected it dark.
A wee little shaft of light.
A few specks of dust spinning in it.
You've not been for a while, then?
No!
Right.
I'm Michael.
Roz.
How do you do, Roz?
How do you do, Michael?
Cat got your tongue?
No. No, I'd just sooner
listen for a while, you know?
Christ is with us...
sharing our pain.
This'll remind us of his presence.
I'm going to kill myself, Michael.
What? Why?
Do I look good?
Yeah. Yeah, you do.
Ted Baker. Kurt Geiger.
Agent Provocateur knickers. Mm-hm.
Chanel perfume.
I want to make a good
impression on the slab.
Well,
wh-why do you want to kill yourself?
I'm an office manager, and...
over the past eight years I've stolen...
?232,648...
and in a week or two,
for reasons I'll not bore you with,
my boss is going to find out.
What did you spend it on?
Some of it was on me...
but I'm a gambler,
and most of it went on machines.
I know this trick.
The silent trick.
No, it's not a trick.
I'm... genuinely lost for words.
You could ask me how I'm going to do it.
How are you going to do it?
I thought about standing
in front of a train...
or throwing myself
off a high-rise block...
but I'd look a right mess on the slab,
wouldn't I?
So it's pills and booze.
When?
Tonight.
Do you have a family?
It's a bit below the belt if you
don't mind me saying so, Michael.
I'm sorry.
Two boys. 15 and 16...
and a girl, 19.
Husband?
You might call him a husband.
I prefer "sick, twisted gobshite."
Do you believe in God?
I think it's about a thousand-to-one
that there's an afterlife...
but it's the only chance I've got,
so I'll take it, thanks very much.
You get a lot like that, yeah?
Yeah. Hm.
How do we start?
Is it just, "Bless me,
Father," and all that?
If you like.
OK, bless me, Father...
for I have sinned.
God knows how long it's been
since my last confession.
I've had other men...
. but only when I found out
he was having other women.
And I stole 230-odd
something thousand off...
my employer.
Is that it?
Yeah, well, there's other stuff!
Nothing special, though.
If this was Match Of The Day,
that'd be the stuff you'd see
the men and the money.
And are you sorry?
Not about the men, no.
As for the money, I'm...
only sorry I got caught.
It's not good enough, is it?
No.
I have to be truly sorry for
you to absolve me, right?
Well, I-I don't absolve you.
It's God who...
Please don't kill yourself.
Thank you.
If it's shame,
you can live with the shame.
Have you been there?
Yeah. Yeah, I have.
Were you suicidal?
Yeah.
Over?
Things I did when I was a young man.
Was it worse than stealing
?232,000 or whatever
off people that trusted you?
Much worse. Much worse.
How do you cope?
I atone.
I spend my life atoning for it,
and I just hope that when I die,
I'll... I'll have atoned enough.
Promise me you won't kill yourself,
promise me,
and I will show you how to atone.
I can't.
Then promise me you won't
kill yourself today,
promise me you'll come back
in two or three days' time
and I will make you want to live.
Promise?
Yes, I promise.
Will you join me in the Lord's Prayer?
Yes. Yes, I will.
Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name...
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done on
Earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who
trespass against us...
Hiya, Mam.
'It's Beth. It's Mam's birthday!'
Ah.
'Phone her on her landline, you prick.'
All right.
'Hello?'
Happy birthday to you. 'Oh!'
Happy birthday to you...
'I was beginning to
think you'd forgotten!'
Nah, I just haven't had the
chance till now. How are you?
You all right?
Yeah, I'm all right...
just been very busy today.
You having a nice time?
I only wanna be with you
I said no matter
No matter what you do
I only wanna be with you.
Come on!
The Karaoke Kid!
Anyway, still to come is the raffle,
and Father Michael is
going to draw that for us
immediately... after the bingo!
Eight and six, 86...
All the twos, 22.
'You have no messages in your mailbox.'
'You've reached Father Michael Kerrigan.
'I can't get to the phone at the moment.
'If you'd like to leave a
message and your phone number,
'I'll get back to you as
soon as possible. Thanks.'
'It's Helen Oyenusi here, Father.
'You're probably fast asleep,
so, never mind.
'It's just that Vernon wanted a word,
didn't you, Vernon?
'If you play this in the morning,
maybe you could phone him, Father.
'You know what he's like.
'Doesn't believe a word
his mother tells him
'but everything you say is gospel.
'No pun intended, Father.'
Phone him again.
He's in bed, Vernon.
He's not.
They won't let him pick up the phone.
Who won't let him?
You know who.
Can I phone the crisis team, Vernon?
No.
You're holding a knife, Vernon,
and I'm scared of what you might do.
They're not coming in here.
Not scared for myself.
I know you won't hurt your mother...
They're not coming in here.
I'm scared of what...
They're not coming in here!
Don't phone! I have to.
I won't let you hurt yourself.
Don't phone them.
Do not phone them!
Hello?
It's Helen Oyenusi here.
Hiya, Vernon.
Go away. We just want to talk.
I will not let you in.
We're here to help you, Vernon.
But I will do this before I let you in!
We're here to help... Now go!
The police are coming,
son, we have to let them in.
No.
We'll let them in and we'll let
the crisis team in and they'll...
No.
give you something,
everything will be fine.
You're only feeling like this...
No-one's coming in.
because it's your first night
away from the centre...
No-one's coming in.
No-one's coming in.
Hey, Vernon, it's me.
Andrew, Andrew Powell.
Go away.
What are you doing with the knife,
Vernon?
I'm protecting myself.
There are people who want to do me harm,
so I'm protecting
myself with this knife.
OK, OK.
I don't care.
I'm not going back in there and
I'm not going to talk to them.
Just let me talk to him.
I'll see to it, all right,
you got me word, all right?
No-one's going to harm you,
you need put down the knife, mate.
Open the door...
I don't want to do it...
let me in, I'll tell you what,
we'll go through there,
sit down nice and calm
and talk it through.
Let me go!
I'll see to it that no-one
hurts you mate, all right?
All you got to do... No!
is put the knife down,
open the door for me... No.
We'll go through to your living room,
sit down,
talk about things nice and calm,
like, yeah?
No.
Is your mam there, Vernon?
Yeah. Right.
Put the knife down, please. Get out.
Put it down. Get out now!
If you don't put the knife down,
I will have to spray you.
No. No. Don't spray him, Dawn!
Get out of this house!
Don't spray him, Dawn, he's sick!
Put the knife down,
or I will have to spray you!
Drop the knife!
I can't see!
Armed police!
I can't see!
Armed police.
Put down the knife or I will fire!
I can't see!
Armed police! Put down the knife!
Put down the knife or I will fire!
You stupid bitch!
Vernon, Vernon!
In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
The grace of Our Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God
and the Communion of the
Holy Spirit be with you all.
Her daughter Christina is with us today
along with her beloved grandchild Lisa,
and we remember all of
them in our prayers,
and, finally, we remember Vernon Oyenusi
who was so tragically
taken from us last night...
What?.. and of...
You haven't heard, Father?
No.
and we ask Almighty God to
ease the grief of his mother,
Helen Oyenusi,
whom many of us have known
since she first came here
four or five years ago.
We remember all of them in our prayers.
How did it happen?
I don't know.
Well, where is she?
His mother? Yeah, yeah!
Hospital. The General.
Is she hurt?
No. He's there.
The morgue.
What happened?
Oh! He got sicker and sicker.
I-I phoned the crisis team.
He wouldn't let them in
so they phoned the police
and the police gassed him and shot him.
Oh, God! Why didn't you phone me?
I knew you were in bed.
I'd phoned earlier and you didn't
answer so I knew you were in bed.
They won't let me see him.
They say you can, but I can't.
Yeah...
All right, just... I won't be long.
I'm afraid not. Evidence.
Have mercy on Vernon Oyenusi, Lord.
Forgive him his sins and
grant him eternal rest.
Amen.
God bless you, Vernon.
This lady's a police liaison officer.
I've told her I do not want one.
I will get all the help I need
from my priest and my church.
The police have done enough for now,
thank you very much.
Helen needs somewhere to sleep tonight.
We've still not finished with the house.
Oh, she can stay with me.
And the Chief Inspector
has asked to see her.
Yeah, I'll-I'll come with her.
Thanks.
Bye, Helen.
Bye, Father.
Yeah, bye.
They let you see him?
Yeah.
He looks so peaceful, Helen.
We were happy in Granby.
Vernon loved it there.
Lots of friends, lots of laughter...
but his dad wanted somewhere better,
and "somewhere better"
meant fewer black faces...
so we moved...
here...
and conversations suddenly
stopped when Vernon got to them.
People laughed at jokes and
wouldn't repeat them to him.
He got sick.
His dad couldn't cope with it.
The man responsible for the sickness
couldn't cope with the sickness...
so he left,
and the sickness got worse...
and worse.
Now it has killed him.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
The body of Christ.
That way.
The body of Christ.
The children were a credit to you all.
Their appearance, obviously,
er, but more importantly,
their behaviour throughout
the entire Mass...
and finally,
I have to mention one person
without whom today
wouldn't have happened...
Miss Pickering.
Miss Pickering?
Lisa, would you?
Apparently, um, this is the 20th
first Holy Communion celebration
that Miss Pickering's organised, so...
Miss Pickering,
on behalf of us all, thank you.
Thank you!
Helen will have questions, yes.
Why Vernon was discharged from
the centre will be one of them,
I'm sure. As will why police shot
dead a boy who wouldn't harm a fly.
The officer who used the
spray says she did so
because she feared for
Mrs Oyenusi's safety.
As does... That's not true!
That is what she says,
but of course, every statement,
every piece of evidence
will be thoroughly tested...
When can I see him?
The post mortem's tomorrow.
As soon as that's over.
Thanks.
What happened?
Policeman did it. That night.
Couldn't you have fixed the chain?
For God's sake!
She's grieving, vulnerable, alone...
couldn't you have fixed the bloody...
I'm sorry.
Thanks for this.
You still off the sugar?
Yeah, four days now.
Puts the crucifixion into perspective,
doesn't it?
So, what happened?
Oh, I got back late. Knackered...
and the phone rang.
Helen Oyenusi about Vernon.
I'd have picked up, but...
seeing them earlier in the
day gave me an excuse not to,
so I didn't pick up,
and a few hours later he was dead.
And if you'd have picked up?
I don't know.
I might have spoken to him,
you know, realised how bad he was,
gone galloping round there on my
white charger and saved the day.
And you might not.
Yeah.
I just feel as though I should tell her,
you know?
What good will that do?
Well, undeniably it will...
Look, she needs you, Michael.
And she needs to have
total faith in you.
I mean, why would you destroy all that
just to clear your own conscience?
It's not that.
No? No!
You lose a loved one suddenly,
unnaturally,
you want to know everything, Peter.
Every detail.
People, oh, they...
People try and hide it from you,
thinking it too painful,
but how dare they?
You've lost a son...
nothing can be worse than that.
And I'm going to be helping
her in that quest, Peter.
The police, they'll tell her lies,
we'll expose those lies.
"Total truth, please, officer"...
and I can't do that
while I'm hiding an
inconvenient truth of my own...
that, had I acted,
her son might well still be alive.
I know.
Yeah, but...
what she doesn't know won't hurt her.
'It's Helen Oyenusi here, Father.
'You're probably fast asleep,
so, never mind.
'It's just that Vernon wanted a word,
didn't you, Vernon?
'If you play this in the morning,
maybe you could phone him, Father.
'You know what he's like.
'Doesn't believe a word
his mother tells him
'but everything you say is gospel.
'No pun intended, Father.'
Hello again, Michael.
Hello again, Roz.
May I?
Yes.
How are you?
This is not my going away outfit so...
no immediate panic...
but I'm still going to do it,
I'm afraid.
When?
Soon.
All right, go on.
Sorry?
You said you'd give me a
reason to go on living.
Well, if I said that, it...
Well, you did.
If I said that,
it was arrogant of me, I'm sorry.
But I could suggest something.
Go on.
It'll take guts.
I've got guts.
You lost most of that
money on the machines?
Yeah.
Those machines in the betting shop?
Yeah.
The more you lost the more
you chased those losses?
Yes.
Tell the world.
What?
I want you to tell the world
what those machines have done to you,
Roz.
I'm killing myself
because I'm afraid it's
going to make the local paper
and you want me to tell the world?
Yeah.
There are four betting
shops in Hallcross Road.
No bank, no post office,
no chemist, but four betting shops.
Why? Why four,
when everyone round there is skint?
Those machines, Roz, that's why.
It's not just you, it's everyone.
You're not a criminal,
you're not a villain... you're a victim.
I don't think my boss
would see it that way.
Why did you steal that money?
The machines. Who got that money?
The machines. Tell the world.
If you don't tell the world,
it's a guilty secret that's
going to be revealed anyway.
If you do tell the world,
it's a campaign,
and it's your reason for living.
I'll go to prison.
Not immediately, and not forever.
What did you do?
Others will come forward, Roz,
with stories very similar to yours.
We'll get together,
and we'll stick together
until there's not one machine
left in Hallcross Road.
What did you do?
Promise me you'll think about it.
I promise. What did you do?
Promise me you won't do anything
until you've come back to see me again.
I promise.
What did you do, Michael?
I'm here to listen to you, Roz, not...
You said that you'd done
something worse than...
stealing ?200,000.
What was it?
I've done two things worse than that.
One of them's too recent, too raw...
and, er...
And the other?
I, er...
Who do you think Jesus confided in?
Peter with the poker up his arse?
Judas?
No.
Mary Magdalene.
She'd been there, done it,
bought the T-shirt. She understood.
I... I treated young women very badly.
When?
When I was 18, 19.
Not all young women,
just the ones I had sex with.
Why?
Because they let me have sex with them.
It was 40 years ago and I
could live with it then, but...
40 years ago,
the only good woman there'd ever been
was the Virgin Mary cos she'd
never done it with anyone,
whereas if a girl did it with a boy,
any boy,
well, she was filth,
and if she did it with a boy like me,
a boy in whom every
last bit of self-esteem
was well and truly banished,
well, she was less than filth...
she was scum,
and you can treat scum any way you like.
Have you seen any of them since?
Oh, yeah, in here every day.
I sometimes think that I'll track
them down and I'll apologise,
but I don't think I could...
or should.
Only you know the answer to that,
Michael.
Do I?
Yes.
You should do what your
conscience tells you to do.
Hello, Helen.
Hello. Father.
Trish is on her way.
OK, good.
Would you like to see what we've got?
Please.
This way.
This is, um, a log of every call,
text and e-mail we got about Vernon.
Would you like it?
Yes, please.
There'll be more,
but we'll pass them on, as well...
and these are some photographs
taken throughout his time with us.
On the wall, there's some of his...
artwork.
I'm so, so sorry!
I am so, so sorry, Helen.
Please say you forgive me.
Oh, there's nothing to forgive...
you didn't want to send
him away from here.
I'm here to say thank you, Trish.
Thank you for making him so happy.
He loved it here and
that was down to you.
Tell me what it's like in heaven
I hope it's kinder than it is down here
With all the trials and tribulations
All the worry and living in fear
Hallelujah
We might be bruised
but we're not broken.