Screen Two (1985–2002): Season 12, Episode 1 - Great Moments in Aviation - full transcript
A young woman becomes involved with a man who not only may be an art thief, but a murderer.
[crickets chirping]
[light orchestral music]
[knocking on wood]
Quiet now.
Quiet.
Give a moment to Vesuvia.
Every year, we gather here
to keep the memory
of my husband Thomas.
[group murmurs agreement]
You all knew him as a magician,
an entertainer,
a man of the air.
[group murmurs agreement]
Nine years ago,
while he was flyin' that
old mail plane, he vanished.
We don't know where
his body came to rest,
but his heart was always
where it should have been,
and his spirit is
with us here tonight.
[group murmurs agreement]
[Man] Yes, ma'am.
Tonight, my granddaughter
Gabriel is setting out
on a journey to
find her fortune.
Like her granddaddy
Thomas, she says she knows
it's out there somewhere.
Gabriel is going to England
to join her husband Michael.
Yeah.
His hard work has sent her
the money for the passage.
-[all murmuring]
-[clapping]
But it's his love that's
truly taking her there.
-[all murmuring]
-[clapping]
It was granddaddy
Thomas who said,
"Gabriel, you can
walk all day just
to find the rainbow's
already gone,
or you can get your
feet off the ground
and fly into that rainbow."
[all murmuring]
Come forward now,
each one of you.
With your hearts and your hands,
give Gabriel the blessin'
she needs for her journey,
our journey.
I touch you with money
for all your needs.
I touch you with health
for all your days.
I touch you with laughter
for all your woes.
[Man] Hmm, I touch you with
pleasures for all your nights.
[Man 2] I touch you with
children for your old age.
[Woman] I touch you with
strength for all you must do.
[Woman 2] I touch you with
wisdom for all you must say.
[Man 3] I touch you with
food for your belly.
[laughs]
[Man 4] And I touch you with
a roof and four square walls.
[Vesuvia] I touch
you with my courage
and your granddaddy's dreams.
[Man] Hear, hear.
[all clapping]
-[light orchestral music]
-[car horn beeping]
-[horn beeps]
-[bicycle bell ringing]
[parrot squawking]
[kids giggling]
[all chattering]
Whoo-hoo.
[all chattering]
[vocalising]
[goat bleating]
[bicycle bell ringing]
[elephant trumpeting]
Be strong.
Good-bye.
Good-bye!
[vocalising]
[Gabriel] Goodbye.
[vocalising]
[all chattering]
[Man] I think we have
to go one deck down.
Yes.
[air expels from bagpipe]
[Duncan] Oh, hello.
I'm glad to see you, but it's
always a good idea to knock.
This is my cabin.
That's my suitcase.
[air expels from bagpipe]
I thought you were the, uh, D22?
[Gabriel] D22.
Well, it's D22.
-Miss Gabriel Angel-
-Mr. Gabriel Angel-
-and Miss D. Stewart.
-And Mr. Duncan Stewart.
Well, I'm Mr. Duncan Stewart.
And I'm Miss Gabriel Angel.
[Duncan] You're
supposed to be a man.
And you're supposed
to be a woman!
Well, I'm not.
[Duncan sighs]
Do you mind passing
my trousers, please?
[woman muttering]
[all chattering]
[Man] Here we are.
Good morning.
Gwendoline Quim,
at your service.
Can I introduce my
colleague, Dr. Angela Bead?
[Duncan] I'm delighted.
Duncan Stewart, always
at your disposal.
Do forgive me, Mr. Stewart,
but as a medical lady,
I feel I ought to tell you
your trousers are unbuttoned.
[light orchestral music]
[door clicking]
Don't kill the bearer of
bad news, but this boat
is packed to the portholes.
We're gonna have to make due.
Like me, they assumed
you were a man.
So, bottom bunk?
Top.
I like heights.
[clattering]
[glass breaking]
[Gwendoline] Dashed damn thing!
Is everything all
right in there?
[Gendoline] Perfectly all right.
Thank you very much.
Gwendoline Quim here.
Who are you?
Gabriel Angel.
-Pleased to meet you.
-Slipped with a number seven,
I fear.
[thudding]
Ah, steward, come in.
Join the party.
I come about the amateur
dramatics evening, sir.
[Duncan] Is this a
ship or a sideshow?
-[thudding]
-[glass breaking]
I was born in a sideshow.
[Steward] On the last night,
we always stage a
ship's entertainment.
Perhaps you would like
to play the bagpipes?
Uh, no, thank you, steward.
It says here that bagpipes
are the national
instrument of Scotland.
Very good, but I
shan't be playing them.
They're far too noisy.
You could practise down
by the engine room.
No, no, no.
Please, don't ask me.
Why not?
-Excuse me, sir.
-Because I don't like
to say no to a lady.
Say yes then.
-No.
-Yes?
-Amateur dramatics, miss?
-Last night entertainment!
[Steward] Yes.
For 30 years I've been in
charge of the nativity play.
You know, Mary, Joseph,
the donkey, three wise men.
The nativity play
and the golf club.
[Steward] Uh, that sounds
very exciting, madam.
Leave it to me, steward.
You can depend on me.
-[upbeat orchestral music]
-[crowd cheering]
-[engine whirring]
-[steam hissing]
[light orchestral music]
[Woman] Try this one.
[Woman 2] What
else have you got?
[woman laughing]
[Man] You didn't
pack my pyjamas.
I can't find them anywhere.
[Woman 3] What about
those stripy things
in the bottom of the case?
[Man] Oh!
[door opens]
[Gabriel] Sorry.
[flash bulb popping]
Miss Angel.
These are for the
first class, sir.
Well, that's all right then.
Oh.
We're not first class.
[Duncan chuckles]
No, but we ought to be.
[man chattering]
[Man] Get you an ice cream, eh?
Did you enjoy your
foray into the bowels?
I wanted to explore.
I got lost.
You can only get lost if
you've got somewhere to go.
I never have anywhere to
go, ergo I never get lost.
Aren't you going somewhere now?
What?
Back to Scotland.
Scotland?
Oh, yes, Scotland.
I don't recommend it.
There's a section in
my guidebook called
"the rest of England."
You're in it.
I'm delighted.
Why are ya goin' to England?
Why did you take my photograph?
Why not?
You can show it to your
children and tell them,
"This is how your mother came
to England when she
was young and pretty
and photographed by a
tall, dark stranger."
So what will you do in England?
I have to save up
to buy an aeroplane.
I beg your pardon?
I'm an aviator.
[light orchestral music]
Don't let me down now.
I've got to make it up there.
Heave it for me.
Heave it!
[Vesuvia] You
madman, Thomas Angel.
Oh!
[Vesuvia] You go up there today,
and you're never
coming back down.
That's a fact!
You take no risks.
You stay on the
ground all your life,
like a two-bit sugar picker.
There's money for us
if I make it up there.
I've got to make it!
[engine chugging]
Let me come with you.
I'll bail out the water.
I can take over while ya eat.
And what will your
Michael say if his angel
came home with
rain on her wings?
Oh.
-[chuckles]
-[engine starts]
[vocalising]
I'll be home ahead of the moon!
-[light orchestral music]
-[vocalising]
[clock ticking]
Oh, yes, Professor Goodyear.
My colleague and I
are going home too,
though not to
receive a knighthood.
You flatter me, Dr. Bead.
Of course, art has been my life.
Ah, one's grateful for some
recognition of that, but truth,
truth has been my passion.
You should have
been a missionary.
With respect, Dr. Bead,
God lacks the originality
of an early titian.
After you.
So would you say that
you are an art expert
or a lie detector?
Very clever, Dr. Bead.
Perhaps there really
is no difference.
Every time I expose a
fake, I open the way
for a little more truth.
We all want certainties
in this life.
I'm sure we can agree on that.
Ah, every day one of the
crew will move the vessel
and change the coordinates.
You see these two
vertical lines here?
In four days' time, we will
be precisely mid-ocean.
Nothing but sea.
Point of no return.
Good God.
Alistair Birch.
Alistair Birch?
You remind me very much of a
friend I once had in Cairo.
-A friend?
-Oh.
Long time ago now, and he
certainly wasn't a Scot.
Besides, he's dead.
Rex Goodyear.
Delighted to meet you.
Duncan Stewart, at your service.
Of course, I recognise
you professor.
One of England's famous faces.
Oh, Mr. Stewart, we meet again.
You know one another?
Ships that pass in the night.
-Ms. Quim.
-Oh!
And you are?
Gabriel.
-Uh-
-We met through the wall.
Oh!
Very Pyramus and Thisbe.
How do you do?
Angela Bead.
Hello.
Well, let's all go and
have a drink, shall we?
[light orchestral music]
[light piano music]
So, England.
The promised land.
It's 30 years since
I've been home, Gabriel.
1927.
Tuck in, Gabriel.
When I was your age,
I longed to travel.
The open air, adventure.
Just like Dick
Whittington and his cat.
Oh, Gabriel, Dick
Whittington was a poor boy
who set out to find his fortune
and ended up becoming
lord mayor of London.
Thanks to his cat.
I love a good animal story.
London.
The streets are paved with gold.
Might have been at
one time, my dear.
These days you'll
need a metal detector.
[chuckling]
I'm going to seek my fortune.
[Angela] Quite right.
When I was your age, I could
have walked around the world
with nothing but a
packet of sweets.
Punctuality is a
virtue, Mr. Stewart,
but it's only half-past five.
Dr. Bead, can a man ever
be too early for his wife?
[Angela] I am sorry
that we can't invite you
and your wife to dinner.
No, we-
[Angela] But we're promised
to professor Goodyear.
Who knows?
Perhaps I'll bring him a
little closer to our saviour.
-Where is he?
-Our saviour?
No, the professor.
You know, he's devoted
his entire life
to seeking out and exposing
forgeries in old masters?
Without him, we would barely
know the truth from a lie.
If a painting is
good, then it's good.
What does it matter
who painted it?
[sighs]
You meet so many
oddballs at sea.
You're safer at home.
You fancy a stroll?
Mr. Stewart, you
are not my husband.
Oh, dear.
Do you not think I'd
make a very fine husband?
Mr. Stewart, you and
I are not married.
No.
I admit it.
But it's the two old
ladies I was thinking of.
How will they feel
when they find out
you're sharing a cabin
with a man ya hardly know?
[light orchestral music]
I hope you tell us about the
Titian scandal, Professor.
Didn't that almost
ruin your career?
Art expert fooled
by famous forger.
That was nine years
ago, my dear lady.
Forgive me if I prefer
not to live in the past.
-[light orchestral music]
-[all chattering]
[Steward] Balloons.
Any colour you like.
[all chattering]
[helium filling balloon]
Mrs. Stewart!
Mrs. Stewart?
It is Mrs. Stewart, isn't it?
We met last night,
but only briefly.
I didn't see you ladies after
dinner, only your husband.
Professor Rex Goodyear.
Pleased to meet you.
Please, call me Gabriel.
I prefer games with more
challenge than chance.
Please.
[light orchestral music]
Angel?
That must be your maiden name?
Yes, it is.
Make a wish, and let it go.
[Rex] Wishing is not my
style either, I'm afraid.
If someone makes a wish,
somebody's flying their mind.
If your mind doesn't fly,
what can your body do
but walk the same old dirt road?
You better have two wishes then.
I'll give you mine.
-[grand orchestral music]
-[crowd cheering]
Have you been married long?
[Gabriel] Two years.
But I've known my
husband all my life.
[Rex] Really?
Mr. Stewart doesn't
look the kind
to be a childhood sweetheart.
Duncan is very kind.
Mr. Stewart reminds
me so much of a man
I used to know very well,
even better than my own wife.
She was entirely unpredictable.
He, at least, had some
rules that I could follow.
Is your wife travelling
with you, Professor?
My wife is dead.
Sorry.
She was murdered.
Professor?
Hello.
I didn't know you were
interested in balloons.
I bumped into your
charming wife,
and we were passing the time.
I believe she made
a wish on my behalf
and sent it by balloon
to wherever it wishes to go.
She's far more optimistic
about the world than I am.
But then perhaps, as yet
it has not deceived her.
If you will excuse me.
[Duncan] What's the
matter, Gabriel?
He just told me his
wife was killed.
He wasn't asking
you about me, then?
Why should he?
He doesn't know you.
So you didn't tell
him anything about me?
I don't know anything about you.
Let's put on a
mediaeval morality play.
Can't we have a panto?
No, Gwen.
We cannot have a panto.
Right.
Have it your own way, but
who's going to play the devil?
[Angela] Professor Goodyear!
How timely.
Ah.
You'll come to our rehearsal
tomorrow, won't you?
We're going to do
Massinger's "The Temptation."
I can't act, I fear.
Don't worry.
None of us can.
Do come.
We've persuaded Mr.
and Mrs. Stewart.
We all have a part to play.
You can be whoever you like.
If only that were true.
Well, if the Stewarts to be
there, then I must be there too.
I can't let the side down.
Excuse me, ladies.
I must go and practise
in front of the mirror.
Don't you like a man
with a sense of humour?
[laughs]
[upbeat jazz music]
The Duncan-Stewart
modesty changing room.
Patent pending.
[Gabriel laughs]
[Gwen humming]
[all chattering]
[Woman] Good evening.
[woman laughing]
[swing music]
Ms. Quim is going to
teach me to play golf.
What?
Everyone in England plays golf.
'Tis an old English game.
Oh.
You have to play a game with me.
It's an old Scottish game.
It's called "Truth or Dare."
[couple laughing]
I can ask you anything.
Ya have to answer.
You can ask me anything,
and I have to answer you.
The one who dares to
tell the most truth
wins.
[woman laughing]
Don't you get tired
of keeping secrets?
I haven't got any secrets.
Well, you can have some of mine.
See, when I was young,
as young as you,
I thought I'd make money.
[cork pops]
Make a name for myself.
Get married.
Have something in my
hands for middle age.
But I've got nothing.
Just other people's
secrets, a few of my own.
If you really had nothing,
you'd have nothing to hide.
Oh! [laughs]
My granddaddy
Thomas had nothing.
He worked for the mail
company loading sacks.
But while he was
loading, he was learning.
He learned to fly.
He volunteered when the weather
was so bad no white man would
risk leaving the ground.
They let him do it,
because they had to.
After that, he made all the
bad runs for half the price
of a white man on a fine day.
And that plane was the most
worn-out beast I ever saw.
As bad as me?
Maybe not.
Come on.
Let's sit down.
He never got his pilot licence.
[Duncan] Well, thank God I
don't need a licence to dance.
You wouldn't get it.
[Duncan laughs]
[snaps fingers]
[Man] Yes, sir.
Do ya have to do the same
thing as your grandfather?
Thomas used to tell us,
that's Michael and me,
stories about our ancestors
who worked in the field
with chains on their feet.
They sang songs to one
another about wings,
about wings pushin' out
of their shoulder blades,
wings lifting them away
from the sun without shade
and the irons that
tied 'em to the dust.
When Thomas learned
to fly, he was tryin'
to carry their dream.
In my experience, dreams are
too heavy to carry alone.
[Man] There you are, sir.
Ma'am.
Thank you.
[audience applauding]
Tails, I start.
Heads, you don't.
Truth or dare.
Who's Michael?
Your brother?
Not exactly.
We were brought up together.
We were both orphans.
My grandmother Vesuvia took
us in, because she said
that the nuns taught a child
to look down all the time
and that life's the
science of looking up.
You're funny sort of girl.
Yoo-hoo!
Yes.
Michael said that where the
other girls have breasts,
I have propellers.
Care to take a turn, Gabriel?
[Duncan] How would he know?
Michael's my husband.
[upbeat jazz music]
Scotch, isn't it?
For tonight, yes.
Thank you.
They say that a man
can change everything
except his tipple.
Oh, really?
Well, I'm not
preferenced myself.
I just find scotch
steadies the seasickness.
Thank you.
Cheers.
-You been married long?
-Five years.
We're settling in Scotland.
Oh, forgive me if I stare.
It's just your resemblance to
my friend is quite uncanny.
Quite remarkable.
There are very few faces
in the world, Professor.
We like to think of
ourselves as individuals.
Look closer.
We're all one of a kind.
[Rex] Ah.
Now you even sound like him.
Who?
Alistair Birch.
Friend of my wife.
Oh.
[Rex] The last person
to see her alive.
Have you not seen him again?
I see his name in
every hotel register.
See his face in every crowd.
Sometimes I think I see
his face in my own mirror.
Of course, he's dead.
Oh, Dr. Bead.
A glass of champagne?
Thank you.
I'm absolutely teetotal.
Seasickness tonic.
I'm looking for Gwen.
Oh!
Gwen, you will certainly
have a heart attack
and die without enjoying
your retirement.
This is my retirement,
and I am enjoying it!
Gabriel, gentlemen,
pleasant dreams all.
Come along, Gwen.
Doctor's orders.
-Good night.
-Ladies.
One with a face
like a cricket ball,
the other like a love note
somebody crushed in their fist.
Lesbians.
Is that a kind of missionary?
So I'm told.
I'm sure your
husband will explain.
Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Stewart.
Professor.
[light orchestral music]
A last dance, Miss Angel?
[light orchestral music]
Truth or dare.
Does your husband dance?
When he can.
Does he put his hand
on your back like this?
Tell me about Scotland.
Read your guidebook.
I'm not much use.
Can't you remember
what it's like?
Dancing with a woman like this?
No.
Scotland.
I'm not a Scot.
[light orchestral music]
-You asleep?
-Yes.
So am I.
Why are you pretending
to be Scottish?
[Duncan] Doesn't everyone
pretend about themselves
from time to time,
especially in public?
They don't pretend
to be Scottish.
Oh.
Well, let's just say
I loved somebody who loved me.
She's dead now.
And since that day, I
haven't known who I am.
So for the time being, I
might as well be a Scotsman.
How did she die?
She drowned.
She thought she was
stronger than the waves,
but she was wrong.
I'm sorry.
It's a long time ago.
Truth or dare.
What about Michael?
Isn't he very much alive?
Very much.
We've always been together.
He's in England now.
I'm going to be with him.
He's made money.
Done well.
That's him in the photograph.
He always told me England
was the promised land.
Does he fly, like you?
No.
He holds the string.
I need that.
[Duncan] Do you?
[light orchestral music]
Who's going to play the devil?
Surely that will
be the professor.
After all, wasn't the
devil an Englishman?
I thought that was God.
All the better then
to cast against type.
You have the face of the past.
Mr. Stewart will play the devil.
Professor Goodyear will play
the character of morality.
In this play, morality
sees everyone else's sins,
never his own.
Angela, you be the narrator.
And I'll play the fool.
Oh!
[light orchestral music]
'Twas in the year 1703,
in the country of Portugal,
Father Bartholomew came up
with the idea of flying.
He liked to imagine the angels
with their great gold
wings cut across the sun
and their bodies
bright as dragonflies.
[vocalising]
[Thomas] Don't be like
be Icarus, little girl.
Icarus flew too near the sun.
And the sun took revenge
on his wings by melting the
wax that bound them together.
Got to be smarter than the sun.
But I say you will,
Gabriel Angel.
I know you will.
[light orchestral music]
[Gabriel giggles]
[light orchestral music]
[piano music]
[Man] Would you
care to choose, sir?
[Woman] Oh, doesn't
she look lovely?
[Duncan] How lovely women are.
Can't it be just me?
It is just you.
You look like all the
women I've ever admired.
And you look like yourself.
I ordered champagne.
I'd like to say, "here's to
us," but somebody beat me to it.
I'll drink a toast to Michael's
good fortune, shall I?
Why are you still playing games?
[Duncan] I'm a lighthearted man.
What is your name?
Whatever it is, it
isn't my married name.
[Duncan laughs]
Who's the one that's
got to be careful?
No one's meeting
me in South Hampton
with an armful of flowers
and a place to live.
Stop it!
I realise that this is
your wedding anniversary.
Mr. Stewart told me
only this afternoon
when we were talking.
I hate to interrupt.
But, Mr. Stewart, I think
you dropped this earlier.
I'm very anxious to
return it to you.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Was that woman his wife?
I'm useful to you, aren't I?
A safe, cheap alibi!
Trust me.
What kind of fool
do you think I am?
[Duncan] A noisy one.
Please, be quiet.
You don't want to draw attention
to your happy marriage.
-You're behaving badly.
-And you're not?
It's all right to behave badly
as long as you do it
with a quiet voice
and a smile on your face.
But when I open my
mouth because I'm angry,
ya treat me like a child.
Duncan?
[dishes clatter]
Duncan!
I'm trying to eat
my soup in peace.
[Gabriel sighs]
Go ahead!
[crowd gasps]
[dishes clatter]
[piano music]
[engine whirring]
Gabriel?
Gabriel!
Don't be silly.
I'm not the one covered in
soup, holding two dinners.
I'm not the one
with two husbands.
I haven't got two husbands.
True.
Sad, but true.
Who are you?
Duncan Stewart from Aberdeen.
I've got a birth
certificate to prove it.
True, it's not my birth
certificate, but then,
all babies look very much alike.
Gabriel, won't you come down?
This journey is my
one chance at life.
This is my last chance at life.
Please, come back down.
[thunder rumbling]
We're in the same boat.
[Duncan laughs]
The night, the stars,
moonlight of romance.
Professor, can I be of
any assistance to you?
On the contrary, I think I
can be of assistance to you.
You dropped this earlier.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Perhaps you didn't
hear me the first time.
That picture does
not belong to me.
Oh, dear.
I quite forgot.
How could I?
I hope I haven't offended you.
You seem offended.
You know you have an
extraordinary look of someone-
Someone you once met in Cairo.
Tell me, Professor,
was this before
or after you authenticated
a late Titian,
which turned out to have
been painted in 1945?
Still, what is 400
years between friends?
-[Duncan groans]
-[dishes clattering]
[Duncan grunts]
Did I say something
to upset you?
[Rex groans]
[Gabriel] Duncan?
[Woman] Oh!
[Rex groans]
[Man] What's going on?
What have you done to him?
Let me through.
Let me through!
I am a doctor.
Steward, get a stretcher.
He insulted my wife.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[door opens]
[light orchestral music]
[buzzer buzzes]
[Gabriel exhales]
No.
Don't be afraid, Miss Angel.
You frightened me.
What do you want?
Please, come this way.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[thunder rumbling]
[engine whirring]
Please.
Don't be afraid.
I have something to show you.
[horse snorts]
[door latch clicks]
[horse whinnies]
[Gabriel] What are ya
doing with that painting?
Why?
Have you seen it before?
[Gabriel] No.
No, never.
I don't understand.
[horse nickers]
When a man is determined
to know the truth,
he will find it out at any cost.
[thunder rumbling]
The truth has brought
us to this room.
[horse squeals]
Oh, Gabriel, you're shivering.
Does Mr. Stewart have a
painting like this one?
Exactly like this one?
Why do you want two?
I don't want two.
I want my own.
You see, my friend, Alistair
Birch, was a famous forger.
A very talented man.
And this is one
of his paintings.
Well, you might almost
think it a Titian,
if you knew anything
about Titians.
Well, let's say that through
an oversight on my part,
the forger has the real thing.
I have the forgery.
All I want to do is
return to him his property
and reclaim my own.
Unfortunately, I cannot find it.
[horse nickers]
I can't help you.
Truth, Gabriel.
Isn't that worth a
little sacrifice?
[horses whinnying]
The foundation of my life
has been to know what is
genuine and what is not.
No matter how we wish it,
a fake can never
be the real thing.
The world is littered with
fakes and fake makers.
Alistair Birch, this painting.
[horses whinnying]
And it seems even the dead
can come back to life.
What evidence do ya have
that Duncan is this man?
[horse nickers]
None at all.
[hooves clatter]
[horse whinnies]
[horse whinnies]
[dramatic orchestral music]
-[man moans]
-[Gabriel gasps]
-[dramatic orchestral music]
-[Gabriel panting]
[door creaking]
[Gabriel gasps]
Ow!
It's you?
Who do I have to be to
get a gun in my head?
I'm sorry.
It's not loaded.
[Gabriel sighs]
[door creaks]
[Duncan exhales]
I thought you were Rex Goodyear.
Rex?
Just because you hit
him, you think you have
to hide behind a
door with a gun?
I told you, he's a
very dangerous man.
Where were you going?
Ya didn't tell me.
Ya haven't told me anything.
But I can tell you I was
going to the bathroom.
You went the long
way around then.
[Gabriel] I found a
painting in the wardrobe.
What is it?
Oh, now who's the snoop?
It's our wardrobe.
We share this cabin, remember?
When I was a small child,
there was a reproduction
hanging above my bed called
"Saint Nicholas
Calming the Tempest."
It comforted me when
it stormed outside.
There was a small boat
on a blue-black sea.
[Duncan sighs]
The wind roars,
and the disciples
huddled together in fear.
Beneath them, a great fish.
And up above, in full dress
and mitre, Saint Nicholas
comes flying through the sky.
The stars hang all about him.
What's that got to do
with your painting?
You're not the only
one with dreams.
I loved that painting so much
I learned how to copy it.
Imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery.
I am sincere, Gabriel.
Are you Alistair Birch?
No.
Are you the man Professor
Goodyear thinks you are?
What are you doing?
Getting out.
No, it's all right.
I'll go.
Point of no return.
[Steward] Good morning, sir.
[Duncan] Anything could happen,
I suppose, in the
middle of the sea
by ourselves like this.
Only ourselves to answer to.
You ever find anything happens?
Anything unexpected?
Not as a rule, sir.
The occasional disease.
[Duncan] Alone on
the wide, wide sea.
Not quite.
Your husband is
not your husband.
And he might not be Mr. Stewart.
And you think he
knows Rex Goodyear.
And you met Rex Goodyear
in the middle of the night,
and he showed you a painting.
There is a woman who is dead,
and there is a woman in a photo
who might be the same woman.
And you feel fonder of Mr.
Stewart than you ought.
Am I following you?
Royal Scot?
I had a destination
and a place to go.
I'm not a fool, Miss Quim.
Although Professor
Goodyear and maybe Duncan
even think me so.
I'm not a fool.
I know England isn't
the promised land.
But neither is the Caribbean.
Either you fight for your
life, or you lose it.
Only now, because of Duncan,
I don't know what my life is.
My dear.
But how can you care so much
for someone you hardly know?
It started with his accent.
[light orchestral music]
I wanted to listen
to his voice all day,
even when he said silly things.
Then it's his eyes.
He looks at me so seriously,
even when he's
not being serious.
That's part of the trouble,
because I can't tell when
he's joking and when he's not.
He changes all the time.
I was brought up to believe
that a good man is a stable man.
A good man is someone
you can rely on.
Duncan has sharp edges in him.
And I know that he can cut me.
But at least there are
no blunt places in him.
If Duncan is a bad man,
what does it say for all
the good men I've met;
looked at me without seeing me;
who said my name,
and I never wanted
to hear their voice again?
[Thomas] The trick is
to know who you are,
so that you can
know what you want.
Most people can only see within
their eye range, Gabriel.
Maybe they see things
bigger and fancier,
but it's still the
same old things.
The Wright Brothers,
Orville and Wilbur,
they made bicycles, but
they saw aeroplanes .
It was bitterly cold
on the morning of the
17th of December, 1903.
The first time in the world
that a man flew
on his own wings.
Can you see the plane rising
like an angel, Gabriel?
Immortality for 12 seconds.
And how many years of faith
and work for every one
of those 12 seconds?
[grand orchestral music]
Gabriel!
Gabriel.
Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel!
[laughs]
Gabriel!
-Gabriel!
-Gabriel!
Oh!
What are you gonna
do about this?
The observation pole
is out-of-bounds
to passengers, sir!
-Get a blanket.
-Sir!
No!
Sir, please!
Sir!
-[crowd murmuring]
-[wind howling]
-Gabriel?
-Oh, hello.
"Hello"?
Is that all you're gonna say?
What are you doing?
You're crazy.
I had to clear my head.
[Duncan laughs]
You couldn't take an aspirin?
They were all terrified.
I thought you were gonna jump.
[light orchestral music]
Won't you come down?
[Duncan chuckles]
Hmm?
[wind howling]
[all murmuring]
-I'm stuck.
-What?
It's the pole.
I'm, I'm afraid of heights.
[Gabriel] We'll
go down together.
Watch.
Look, be careful.
[wind howling]
Very romantic.
[Gabriel] Just look at
me and concentrate, hmm?
If I look at you, I won't
be able to concentrate.
[Gabriel] Slowly.
All right.
[wind howling]
Have you seen this about
the prime minister?
[all chattering]
"He opens her dress
and traces the outline
of her breast.
He says, 'your breasts are
beehives pouring honey.'"
It is a little on the
steamy side, Gwen.
Got to be.
It's called "The Temptation."
I didn't know you
were so familiar
with the compulsions
of the flesh.
Ah, well.
Didn't you ever
feel that we might
have missed out on
a few slices of life
in the last 30 years?
Don't torment yourself
with questions like that.
Everybody made their choices.
We made ours.
What I really wanted was
to work for Thomas Cook.
-What?
-As a tour leader.
I wanted to travel.
They didn't take girls, though.
Yes, I was a girl once.
So I thought, righto,
I'll be a missionary.
They get a bit of travelling in.
So it wasn't our saviour then?
Afraid not, old girl.
Are you frightfully upset?
A little surprised.
I thought I knew you.
[light orchestral music]
[all chattering]
They say the camera never lies.
What about the photographer?
I too have some photographs.
Resemblance is uncanny.
If you are so sure
Duncan has your painting,
why don't you ask him for it?
I'm not sure.
You think me an unfeeling
man, don't you, Miss Angel?
Perhaps I am these days.
I only ever loved two things:
My pictures, my wife.
Alistair Birch took them both.
You said your wife was murdered.
Alistair Birch murdered her.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Gabriel] No.
[Woman] What has she got into?
I don't believe that
Duncan killed your wife.
Belief has nothing
to do with it.
When you discover the truth,
you must live with it.
Her body was washed up on
the shores of Brittany.
She and Birch had planned
to settle in France.
A romantic, rural life.
She was found dead.
Birch wasn't found at all.
You have no proof that
Duncan is this man.
I have no doubt the police
could get to the bottom
of our identity crisis.
Would you like me
to tell the captain
of my suspicions that we
have a murderer on board
sharing a cabin with
his supposed wife?
[Rex chuckles]
No.
I'm a man of the world.
I'll give you a chance.
Both of you.
Get me the painting,
the real painting,
and the man you love
will never see me again.
I don't love him.
The fool: A new beginning.
Six of swords: Travel with
difficulty to a foreign land.
The lovers.
That must be you and Michael.
The nine of swords:
Heartbreak and pain.
[card slaps floor]
Two of cups: Love again.
A gift from the sky,
a mystery, a dream.
[vocalising]
The tower: Disillusion, change,
loss.
The safe walls are
falling, child.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Gabriel gasps]
[chamber clicks]
[upbeat swing music]
[all chattering]
* Please don't talk
about me when I'm gone *
Darned if I know how this
thing should end, Angela.
Shouldn't it have
a moral ending?
Why?
because it's about temptation.
I've got to the bit
where the angel,
imprisoned in the tower,
goes off with Satan
into his boudoir.
Now, what should
we do after that?
Boudoir?
Satan's boudoir?
Boudoir?
It's French.
It's nonsense in any language.
Hello, Gabriel.
Excuse me.
I'm attending to my butterfly.
[Woman] Three, four.
[Gwen chuckles]
Have ya ever been in love?
Oh, yes, my dear.
[Gwen sighs]
And did it take you by surprise?
There's no other way
for it to take you.
Duncan told me that, that you
and Dr. Bead are lesbians.
I knew you were happy together,
but I didn't know the word.
Oh, no, no!
Absolutely not!
Gwen and I have never had
a physical relationship.
Held hands, yes.
A little peck on the
cheek at cocoa time.
A little hug.
A little hug.
When was that?
Three years ago on my birthday.
[Duncan] Ladies, nice
afternoon crew, is it?
[Duncan screaming]
Angela?
What did I say?
-Angela?
-Lesbians.
-Angela!
-Oh, my, oh, God.
Gabriel, you,
ya didn't, it was a joke!
Oh, god.
[Duncan panting]
Did you kill Rex
Goodyear's wife?
[zipper unzipping]
We were in a small
boat, fishing.
We were very happy.
And Rex came alongside
in a motor launch.
He was very angry.
He was crazy.
We had a fight.
We went overboard.
Samantha went overboard.
Only she didn't come up.
Why didn't ya go to the police?
I was frightened.
I was out of my mind
with grief and terror.
I knew Rex would blame me.
And who'd believe
me against him?
He belongs.
He's one of the club.
Understand that, Gabriel?
I don't belong.
I've always been an outsider.
Because ya are a forger?
You make me sound like
a spiv with a line
of five-pound notes.
[belt buckle jingling]
[fabric rustling]
I want to show you I've
got nothing to hide.
[light orchestral music]
Here's to you.
[Gabriel sneezes]
[Woman] One, two, three.
[flash bulb popping]
[Duncan laughs]
[dramatic orchestral music]
Duncan didn't kill your wife.
It was an accident.
[Rex] Oh?
He told you that, did he?
At least we agree we're
talking about the same man.
It's rather difficult to
stab yourself in the back.
What?
You said she was
washed up on the beach.
She was.
But it wasn't death by drowning.
She was already dead when she
was thrown into the water.
[Gabriel gasps]
Please, Miss.
Everyone has to fill
in immigration papers.
Everyone like us.
It's simple.
You just fill in
each set five times.
Miss, it's all right
for you, you know?
You got the husband, a
white husband, an address,
money, place to go.
Most of the girls I see
got nothin', like me.
They come from nothin', and
they're going to nothin'.
Me, I can't get off the
ship just to steady my legs.
No papers.
You should be glad
of these papers.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Professor Goodyear
came to me just now.
He said his wife didn't drown.
He said she was
stabbed in the back.
Did Duncan do that?
Calm yourself, Gabriel.
There may be nothing
in this story at all.
Professor might be lying.
What if Duncan is
the one who's lying?
We'll have to have a plan.
We have to have a
rehearsal in 20 minutes.
Gabriel, you'll have to
confront him yourself.
It's the only way.
He's got a gun!
Oh, he has, has he?
Well, don't worry
about that, my dear.
He's not the only one.
[shotgun cocks]
This might be the last
painting Titian finished
before he died.
It'd been lost since 1560.
I followed it around the
world from exhibition
to exhibition,
drawing it, photographing it,
reproducing it bit by bit.
Why didn't ya paint
something of your own?
A painting's more than just
a famous name scribbled
in the corner.
No.
It's a living thing.
A moment of clear seeing
in a world that keeps
its hands over its eyes.
It's a dream.
A dream of who we might
be, not just who we are.
A forger is someone who
knows when he's lying
and why.
But the people who really lie
are those who take the
truth and dilute it.
The second-rate artists
who say little things
in loud voices.
Why isn't Rex exposing them?
Why?
Because he's too busy guarding
the reputations of dead men.
And dead women, Duncan.
In all this art, there's
a woman who's dead.
What about her?
Why did you kill her?
I didn't kill her.
I didn't kill her.
I can't remember what happened.
There was a knife.
His hands were covered in blood.
My hands were covered in blood.
But I didn't kill her.
I know I didn't.
I didn't!
Look, Gabriel.
I got on this boat looking
for Rex, and I found you.
Are you Alistair Birch?
He's dead.
Ask Rex.
He flew out especially
for the funeral.
I am my own forgery.
If you're tellin' the truth,
then give him back his painting.
Is that your price?
I can't be bought.
No.
[dramatic orchestral music]
I've held in my hands some
of the most precious
things in the world.
But none so lovely as your face.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[chair scraping floor]
Oh!
Leave that good woman alone!
I am a magistrate!
[Duncan groans]
Well done, Angela.
The Bible still packs a
punch, I'm glad to say.
It's my steel-plated
emergency Bible.
He didn't do it.
It was Professor Goodyear.
But you squealed, and
your dress is undone.
I slipped.
He was kissing me.
But, he's not your husband.
No, but I am married.
[Angela] What?
To someone else.
His name is Michael.
Perhaps the time has
come for the whole truth.
My dear, we will be next door.
Gwendoline.
[door opens]
Duncan?
You all right?
What?
Oh!
So you see, Angela,
I have loved you with
all my heart all my life,
ever since I first saw you.
Your hair was cut in a bob then.
And when you bent to
read, it fell slightly
and hid your face.
I never wanted your
face to be hid.
[clock ticking]
For 32 years you've
kept this secret?
I had to.
But first you told me you
joined the missionary service
because you couldn't get
a job at Thomas Cook's,
and now you tell me that
for 32 years you've felt
the same way for me as
a man feels for a woman?
No, Angela.
I love you as a
woman loves a woman.
It's quite different.
Were you glad when I
didn't marry Johnny?
[both laughing]
Handlebar Johnny.
The man and his moustache?
Do you remember when he came
to college and you and I were
ready to spend the
day together working
or off on our bicycles,
and he used to say,
"Move over, Gwen.
Let the dog see the rabbit."
[both laughing]
He didn't have a way
with words, did he?
What did he have?
A moustache.
[both laughing]
Well, at least you
gave him up for Jesus.
Not quite.
I gave him up for you.
[Angela laughs]
What?
i preferred your company.
We were closer friends.
We were better partners.
You used to put your arm
around me, and I liked that.
I didn't make the leap
into thinking that
you and I could be,
should be-
Lovers.
Lovers.
I didn't have the courage, Gwen.
I,
you have to have courage
not to do the obvious thing,
but to do the right thing.
I was no better.
Look, Angela, you've always said
it's a measure of God's grace
that people get given
a second chance.
Now, look.
This is our second chance.
God or not.
Don't buy that little
bungalow by yourself.
Let's buy a big
farmhouse together.
[light orchestral music]
And keep hens.
I've always wanted to keep hens.
And have cats.
And a dog, called Rover.
And plenty of rooms
where people can stay.
We don't know anyone.
We will.
Look, help me down with
these mattresses, will you?
We'll put them side by side.
Side by side?
[light orchestral music]
On the floor.
What about my back?
what about your heart?
[light orchestral music]
[both laughing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
Alistair Birch.
Pleased to meet you.
I've come for my painting.
I've come for my life.
I wasn't aware that you had one.
For the past nine years I've
been a dead man, Professor.
A man without hope.
I came on this boat looking
for the only other
dead man that I know,
and I found Gabriel Angel,
a woman with a life so bright
in her she made me
see myself as I am.
A forger, adulterer and liar!
And as I might be.
Once before, I put an
obsession in the way of love.
I kept the obsession.
I lost the love.
I won't let that happen again.
Here.
Take your painting.
You fool.
You destroy the most
precious thing in the world.
[Duncan] I never even
raised my voice to her.
You killed her.
Your knife killed her.
Rex?
We both killed her.
My knife, your hand.
The hand that was meant for me.
But that's what
happened, isn't it?
We fought.
A woman got killed.
I go back to that
place again and again.
The water, the boat,
the painting, the knife.
My best love can't change
it, not even for a day.
But love can change now.
This water, this
boat, this journey.
[swing music]
[tambourine rattling]
[party favour blowing]
[all chattering]
Whoo-hoo!
[Man] Ladies, come!
[party favour blowing]
[party favour blows]
There's something
I want to tell you.
I thought you had no secrets.
Secrets?
Oh, don't we all have a skeleton
in the cupboard somewhere,
Mr. Stewart?
Oh, I like to think of
them as family pets.
Ladies, I wanted to
apologise to you.
I was very-
As a medical lady, Mr. Stewart,
I can tell you that guilt
will do you no good at all.
And as a woman, I can tell you
that the best remedy for guilt
is love.
Oh!
I'm very jealous.
There's something
I have to tell you.
And there's something
I want to show you.
[all chattering]
All this was my life.
If you can call living
in the past a life.
[Gabriel] It's about Michael.
I've only got two hands.
I'm gonna need them both
if I'm gonna hold onto you.
Please, listen.
You're gonna stay
with him, aren't you?
There is no Michael.
He's on his way back to Grenada.
I thought I was the
one with the secrets.
He wrote to me every
week for two years.
He wrote to me in between
scrubbing other people's floors
and cleanin' other
people's toilets.
He washed away their vomit.
He wiped up their mess.
All he saved from England,
from the promised land, was,
was enough money to
take him back home.
Do you see?
Yes.
No.
No.
Why are you going to
a place without hope?
The hope's not in the place.
It's in me.
I have left my family.
I have left my home.
I have taken everything
that is Gabriel
and put her on this boat.
We are dreaming
people, my people.
Thomas' dream got
him off the ground,
and he chased it across the sky
until the sky took him.
You've got to risk the
best of what you've got
if you want a
little bit of life.
And I want my life,
not Thomas', not Vesuvia's,
not Michael's,
not my ancestors'.
All I can do is walk my own road
and maybe fly a
little bit of the way.
Can I come?
If I bring my own wings?
[light orchestral music]
[waves crashing]
-[group chattering]
-[laughing]
"Dear Vesuvia, you
ask me how I am.
No sun, but plenty of rain.
[all laughing]
Remember what uncle Silas said?
'I touch you with a roof
and four square walls.'
Well, I have needed
every tile on that roof
and every brick in that wall
and still the rain gets in."
[Gabriel] Duncan laughs at me.
[Vesuvia] "Duncan laughs at me."
[Gabriel] He says he
was born in a puddle.
I dream of the
sky, blue and gold.
Remember what
cousin Simone said?
"I touch you with laughter
for all your woes."
I have needed her laughter.
For me and for Duncan.
All the time people
stare at us, and I know
that they only see
what's black and white
and never the
colour of our love.
Did I tell you that
his eyes are green?
Remember what Errol said?
"I touch you with children
for your old age."
Give him love from my heart
and from my belly too.
[all laughing]
Give my love to all of
them, and I will keep
what they have given me.
I keep thinking of those days,
washin' floors, washin' doors,
washin' rich men's cars, washin'
poor men's bars on my knees
and not to pray.
But every now and then,
I'd raise my head and
hear their voices.
"I touch you, Gabriel."
And when I turn back
to the dirty floor,
it was the sky I saw
and me in it.
I got the pilot licence.
[all clapping]
Earned it and flew it and
kept it, and it is mine.
Mine.
What you have given me:
My grandmother's courage
and my granddaddy's dreams.
[Man] Yes!
[aeroplane approaching]
[vocalising]
Gabriel!
[laughing]
[all cheering]
[All] Gabriel!
[Gabriel] This is
where the story starts,
stretched out in front of me,
road like a runway,
heading for the blue sky.
But the road bends,
and the sky is still
dark over there.
I can't tell if I'm going
into it or against it.
What matters is that I go.
* Angel Gabriel *
[light orchestral music]
[light orchestral music]
[light orchestral music]
[knocking on wood]
Quiet now.
Quiet.
Give a moment to Vesuvia.
Every year, we gather here
to keep the memory
of my husband Thomas.
[group murmurs agreement]
You all knew him as a magician,
an entertainer,
a man of the air.
[group murmurs agreement]
Nine years ago,
while he was flyin' that
old mail plane, he vanished.
We don't know where
his body came to rest,
but his heart was always
where it should have been,
and his spirit is
with us here tonight.
[group murmurs agreement]
[Man] Yes, ma'am.
Tonight, my granddaughter
Gabriel is setting out
on a journey to
find her fortune.
Like her granddaddy
Thomas, she says she knows
it's out there somewhere.
Gabriel is going to England
to join her husband Michael.
Yeah.
His hard work has sent her
the money for the passage.
-[all murmuring]
-[clapping]
But it's his love that's
truly taking her there.
-[all murmuring]
-[clapping]
It was granddaddy
Thomas who said,
"Gabriel, you can
walk all day just
to find the rainbow's
already gone,
or you can get your
feet off the ground
and fly into that rainbow."
[all murmuring]
Come forward now,
each one of you.
With your hearts and your hands,
give Gabriel the blessin'
she needs for her journey,
our journey.
I touch you with money
for all your needs.
I touch you with health
for all your days.
I touch you with laughter
for all your woes.
[Man] Hmm, I touch you with
pleasures for all your nights.
[Man 2] I touch you with
children for your old age.
[Woman] I touch you with
strength for all you must do.
[Woman 2] I touch you with
wisdom for all you must say.
[Man 3] I touch you with
food for your belly.
[laughs]
[Man 4] And I touch you with
a roof and four square walls.
[Vesuvia] I touch
you with my courage
and your granddaddy's dreams.
[Man] Hear, hear.
[all clapping]
-[light orchestral music]
-[car horn beeping]
-[horn beeps]
-[bicycle bell ringing]
[parrot squawking]
[kids giggling]
[all chattering]
Whoo-hoo.
[all chattering]
[vocalising]
[goat bleating]
[bicycle bell ringing]
[elephant trumpeting]
Be strong.
Good-bye.
Good-bye!
[vocalising]
[Gabriel] Goodbye.
[vocalising]
[all chattering]
[Man] I think we have
to go one deck down.
Yes.
[air expels from bagpipe]
[Duncan] Oh, hello.
I'm glad to see you, but it's
always a good idea to knock.
This is my cabin.
That's my suitcase.
[air expels from bagpipe]
I thought you were the, uh, D22?
[Gabriel] D22.
Well, it's D22.
-Miss Gabriel Angel-
-Mr. Gabriel Angel-
-and Miss D. Stewart.
-And Mr. Duncan Stewart.
Well, I'm Mr. Duncan Stewart.
And I'm Miss Gabriel Angel.
[Duncan] You're
supposed to be a man.
And you're supposed
to be a woman!
Well, I'm not.
[Duncan sighs]
Do you mind passing
my trousers, please?
[woman muttering]
[all chattering]
[Man] Here we are.
Good morning.
Gwendoline Quim,
at your service.
Can I introduce my
colleague, Dr. Angela Bead?
[Duncan] I'm delighted.
Duncan Stewart, always
at your disposal.
Do forgive me, Mr. Stewart,
but as a medical lady,
I feel I ought to tell you
your trousers are unbuttoned.
[light orchestral music]
[door clicking]
Don't kill the bearer of
bad news, but this boat
is packed to the portholes.
We're gonna have to make due.
Like me, they assumed
you were a man.
So, bottom bunk?
Top.
I like heights.
[clattering]
[glass breaking]
[Gwendoline] Dashed damn thing!
Is everything all
right in there?
[Gendoline] Perfectly all right.
Thank you very much.
Gwendoline Quim here.
Who are you?
Gabriel Angel.
-Pleased to meet you.
-Slipped with a number seven,
I fear.
[thudding]
Ah, steward, come in.
Join the party.
I come about the amateur
dramatics evening, sir.
[Duncan] Is this a
ship or a sideshow?
-[thudding]
-[glass breaking]
I was born in a sideshow.
[Steward] On the last night,
we always stage a
ship's entertainment.
Perhaps you would like
to play the bagpipes?
Uh, no, thank you, steward.
It says here that bagpipes
are the national
instrument of Scotland.
Very good, but I
shan't be playing them.
They're far too noisy.
You could practise down
by the engine room.
No, no, no.
Please, don't ask me.
Why not?
-Excuse me, sir.
-Because I don't like
to say no to a lady.
Say yes then.
-No.
-Yes?
-Amateur dramatics, miss?
-Last night entertainment!
[Steward] Yes.
For 30 years I've been in
charge of the nativity play.
You know, Mary, Joseph,
the donkey, three wise men.
The nativity play
and the golf club.
[Steward] Uh, that sounds
very exciting, madam.
Leave it to me, steward.
You can depend on me.
-[upbeat orchestral music]
-[crowd cheering]
-[engine whirring]
-[steam hissing]
[light orchestral music]
[Woman] Try this one.
[Woman 2] What
else have you got?
[woman laughing]
[Man] You didn't
pack my pyjamas.
I can't find them anywhere.
[Woman 3] What about
those stripy things
in the bottom of the case?
[Man] Oh!
[door opens]
[Gabriel] Sorry.
[flash bulb popping]
Miss Angel.
These are for the
first class, sir.
Well, that's all right then.
Oh.
We're not first class.
[Duncan chuckles]
No, but we ought to be.
[man chattering]
[Man] Get you an ice cream, eh?
Did you enjoy your
foray into the bowels?
I wanted to explore.
I got lost.
You can only get lost if
you've got somewhere to go.
I never have anywhere to
go, ergo I never get lost.
Aren't you going somewhere now?
What?
Back to Scotland.
Scotland?
Oh, yes, Scotland.
I don't recommend it.
There's a section in
my guidebook called
"the rest of England."
You're in it.
I'm delighted.
Why are ya goin' to England?
Why did you take my photograph?
Why not?
You can show it to your
children and tell them,
"This is how your mother came
to England when she
was young and pretty
and photographed by a
tall, dark stranger."
So what will you do in England?
I have to save up
to buy an aeroplane.
I beg your pardon?
I'm an aviator.
[light orchestral music]
Don't let me down now.
I've got to make it up there.
Heave it for me.
Heave it!
[Vesuvia] You
madman, Thomas Angel.
Oh!
[Vesuvia] You go up there today,
and you're never
coming back down.
That's a fact!
You take no risks.
You stay on the
ground all your life,
like a two-bit sugar picker.
There's money for us
if I make it up there.
I've got to make it!
[engine chugging]
Let me come with you.
I'll bail out the water.
I can take over while ya eat.
And what will your
Michael say if his angel
came home with
rain on her wings?
Oh.
-[chuckles]
-[engine starts]
[vocalising]
I'll be home ahead of the moon!
-[light orchestral music]
-[vocalising]
[clock ticking]
Oh, yes, Professor Goodyear.
My colleague and I
are going home too,
though not to
receive a knighthood.
You flatter me, Dr. Bead.
Of course, art has been my life.
Ah, one's grateful for some
recognition of that, but truth,
truth has been my passion.
You should have
been a missionary.
With respect, Dr. Bead,
God lacks the originality
of an early titian.
After you.
So would you say that
you are an art expert
or a lie detector?
Very clever, Dr. Bead.
Perhaps there really
is no difference.
Every time I expose a
fake, I open the way
for a little more truth.
We all want certainties
in this life.
I'm sure we can agree on that.
Ah, every day one of the
crew will move the vessel
and change the coordinates.
You see these two
vertical lines here?
In four days' time, we will
be precisely mid-ocean.
Nothing but sea.
Point of no return.
Good God.
Alistair Birch.
Alistair Birch?
You remind me very much of a
friend I once had in Cairo.
-A friend?
-Oh.
Long time ago now, and he
certainly wasn't a Scot.
Besides, he's dead.
Rex Goodyear.
Delighted to meet you.
Duncan Stewart, at your service.
Of course, I recognise
you professor.
One of England's famous faces.
Oh, Mr. Stewart, we meet again.
You know one another?
Ships that pass in the night.
-Ms. Quim.
-Oh!
And you are?
Gabriel.
-Uh-
-We met through the wall.
Oh!
Very Pyramus and Thisbe.
How do you do?
Angela Bead.
Hello.
Well, let's all go and
have a drink, shall we?
[light orchestral music]
[light piano music]
So, England.
The promised land.
It's 30 years since
I've been home, Gabriel.
1927.
Tuck in, Gabriel.
When I was your age,
I longed to travel.
The open air, adventure.
Just like Dick
Whittington and his cat.
Oh, Gabriel, Dick
Whittington was a poor boy
who set out to find his fortune
and ended up becoming
lord mayor of London.
Thanks to his cat.
I love a good animal story.
London.
The streets are paved with gold.
Might have been at
one time, my dear.
These days you'll
need a metal detector.
[chuckling]
I'm going to seek my fortune.
[Angela] Quite right.
When I was your age, I could
have walked around the world
with nothing but a
packet of sweets.
Punctuality is a
virtue, Mr. Stewart,
but it's only half-past five.
Dr. Bead, can a man ever
be too early for his wife?
[Angela] I am sorry
that we can't invite you
and your wife to dinner.
No, we-
[Angela] But we're promised
to professor Goodyear.
Who knows?
Perhaps I'll bring him a
little closer to our saviour.
-Where is he?
-Our saviour?
No, the professor.
You know, he's devoted
his entire life
to seeking out and exposing
forgeries in old masters?
Without him, we would barely
know the truth from a lie.
If a painting is
good, then it's good.
What does it matter
who painted it?
[sighs]
You meet so many
oddballs at sea.
You're safer at home.
You fancy a stroll?
Mr. Stewart, you
are not my husband.
Oh, dear.
Do you not think I'd
make a very fine husband?
Mr. Stewart, you and
I are not married.
No.
I admit it.
But it's the two old
ladies I was thinking of.
How will they feel
when they find out
you're sharing a cabin
with a man ya hardly know?
[light orchestral music]
I hope you tell us about the
Titian scandal, Professor.
Didn't that almost
ruin your career?
Art expert fooled
by famous forger.
That was nine years
ago, my dear lady.
Forgive me if I prefer
not to live in the past.
-[light orchestral music]
-[all chattering]
[Steward] Balloons.
Any colour you like.
[all chattering]
[helium filling balloon]
Mrs. Stewart!
Mrs. Stewart?
It is Mrs. Stewart, isn't it?
We met last night,
but only briefly.
I didn't see you ladies after
dinner, only your husband.
Professor Rex Goodyear.
Pleased to meet you.
Please, call me Gabriel.
I prefer games with more
challenge than chance.
Please.
[light orchestral music]
Angel?
That must be your maiden name?
Yes, it is.
Make a wish, and let it go.
[Rex] Wishing is not my
style either, I'm afraid.
If someone makes a wish,
somebody's flying their mind.
If your mind doesn't fly,
what can your body do
but walk the same old dirt road?
You better have two wishes then.
I'll give you mine.
-[grand orchestral music]
-[crowd cheering]
Have you been married long?
[Gabriel] Two years.
But I've known my
husband all my life.
[Rex] Really?
Mr. Stewart doesn't
look the kind
to be a childhood sweetheart.
Duncan is very kind.
Mr. Stewart reminds
me so much of a man
I used to know very well,
even better than my own wife.
She was entirely unpredictable.
He, at least, had some
rules that I could follow.
Is your wife travelling
with you, Professor?
My wife is dead.
Sorry.
She was murdered.
Professor?
Hello.
I didn't know you were
interested in balloons.
I bumped into your
charming wife,
and we were passing the time.
I believe she made
a wish on my behalf
and sent it by balloon
to wherever it wishes to go.
She's far more optimistic
about the world than I am.
But then perhaps, as yet
it has not deceived her.
If you will excuse me.
[Duncan] What's the
matter, Gabriel?
He just told me his
wife was killed.
He wasn't asking
you about me, then?
Why should he?
He doesn't know you.
So you didn't tell
him anything about me?
I don't know anything about you.
Let's put on a
mediaeval morality play.
Can't we have a panto?
No, Gwen.
We cannot have a panto.
Right.
Have it your own way, but
who's going to play the devil?
[Angela] Professor Goodyear!
How timely.
Ah.
You'll come to our rehearsal
tomorrow, won't you?
We're going to do
Massinger's "The Temptation."
I can't act, I fear.
Don't worry.
None of us can.
Do come.
We've persuaded Mr.
and Mrs. Stewart.
We all have a part to play.
You can be whoever you like.
If only that were true.
Well, if the Stewarts to be
there, then I must be there too.
I can't let the side down.
Excuse me, ladies.
I must go and practise
in front of the mirror.
Don't you like a man
with a sense of humour?
[laughs]
[upbeat jazz music]
The Duncan-Stewart
modesty changing room.
Patent pending.
[Gabriel laughs]
[Gwen humming]
[all chattering]
[Woman] Good evening.
[woman laughing]
[swing music]
Ms. Quim is going to
teach me to play golf.
What?
Everyone in England plays golf.
'Tis an old English game.
Oh.
You have to play a game with me.
It's an old Scottish game.
It's called "Truth or Dare."
[couple laughing]
I can ask you anything.
Ya have to answer.
You can ask me anything,
and I have to answer you.
The one who dares to
tell the most truth
wins.
[woman laughing]
Don't you get tired
of keeping secrets?
I haven't got any secrets.
Well, you can have some of mine.
See, when I was young,
as young as you,
I thought I'd make money.
[cork pops]
Make a name for myself.
Get married.
Have something in my
hands for middle age.
But I've got nothing.
Just other people's
secrets, a few of my own.
If you really had nothing,
you'd have nothing to hide.
Oh! [laughs]
My granddaddy
Thomas had nothing.
He worked for the mail
company loading sacks.
But while he was
loading, he was learning.
He learned to fly.
He volunteered when the weather
was so bad no white man would
risk leaving the ground.
They let him do it,
because they had to.
After that, he made all the
bad runs for half the price
of a white man on a fine day.
And that plane was the most
worn-out beast I ever saw.
As bad as me?
Maybe not.
Come on.
Let's sit down.
He never got his pilot licence.
[Duncan] Well, thank God I
don't need a licence to dance.
You wouldn't get it.
[Duncan laughs]
[snaps fingers]
[Man] Yes, sir.
Do ya have to do the same
thing as your grandfather?
Thomas used to tell us,
that's Michael and me,
stories about our ancestors
who worked in the field
with chains on their feet.
They sang songs to one
another about wings,
about wings pushin' out
of their shoulder blades,
wings lifting them away
from the sun without shade
and the irons that
tied 'em to the dust.
When Thomas learned
to fly, he was tryin'
to carry their dream.
In my experience, dreams are
too heavy to carry alone.
[Man] There you are, sir.
Ma'am.
Thank you.
[audience applauding]
Tails, I start.
Heads, you don't.
Truth or dare.
Who's Michael?
Your brother?
Not exactly.
We were brought up together.
We were both orphans.
My grandmother Vesuvia took
us in, because she said
that the nuns taught a child
to look down all the time
and that life's the
science of looking up.
You're funny sort of girl.
Yoo-hoo!
Yes.
Michael said that where the
other girls have breasts,
I have propellers.
Care to take a turn, Gabriel?
[Duncan] How would he know?
Michael's my husband.
[upbeat jazz music]
Scotch, isn't it?
For tonight, yes.
Thank you.
They say that a man
can change everything
except his tipple.
Oh, really?
Well, I'm not
preferenced myself.
I just find scotch
steadies the seasickness.
Thank you.
Cheers.
-You been married long?
-Five years.
We're settling in Scotland.
Oh, forgive me if I stare.
It's just your resemblance to
my friend is quite uncanny.
Quite remarkable.
There are very few faces
in the world, Professor.
We like to think of
ourselves as individuals.
Look closer.
We're all one of a kind.
[Rex] Ah.
Now you even sound like him.
Who?
Alistair Birch.
Friend of my wife.
Oh.
[Rex] The last person
to see her alive.
Have you not seen him again?
I see his name in
every hotel register.
See his face in every crowd.
Sometimes I think I see
his face in my own mirror.
Of course, he's dead.
Oh, Dr. Bead.
A glass of champagne?
Thank you.
I'm absolutely teetotal.
Seasickness tonic.
I'm looking for Gwen.
Oh!
Gwen, you will certainly
have a heart attack
and die without enjoying
your retirement.
This is my retirement,
and I am enjoying it!
Gabriel, gentlemen,
pleasant dreams all.
Come along, Gwen.
Doctor's orders.
-Good night.
-Ladies.
One with a face
like a cricket ball,
the other like a love note
somebody crushed in their fist.
Lesbians.
Is that a kind of missionary?
So I'm told.
I'm sure your
husband will explain.
Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Stewart.
Professor.
[light orchestral music]
A last dance, Miss Angel?
[light orchestral music]
Truth or dare.
Does your husband dance?
When he can.
Does he put his hand
on your back like this?
Tell me about Scotland.
Read your guidebook.
I'm not much use.
Can't you remember
what it's like?
Dancing with a woman like this?
No.
Scotland.
I'm not a Scot.
[light orchestral music]
-You asleep?
-Yes.
So am I.
Why are you pretending
to be Scottish?
[Duncan] Doesn't everyone
pretend about themselves
from time to time,
especially in public?
They don't pretend
to be Scottish.
Oh.
Well, let's just say
I loved somebody who loved me.
She's dead now.
And since that day, I
haven't known who I am.
So for the time being, I
might as well be a Scotsman.
How did she die?
She drowned.
She thought she was
stronger than the waves,
but she was wrong.
I'm sorry.
It's a long time ago.
Truth or dare.
What about Michael?
Isn't he very much alive?
Very much.
We've always been together.
He's in England now.
I'm going to be with him.
He's made money.
Done well.
That's him in the photograph.
He always told me England
was the promised land.
Does he fly, like you?
No.
He holds the string.
I need that.
[Duncan] Do you?
[light orchestral music]
Who's going to play the devil?
Surely that will
be the professor.
After all, wasn't the
devil an Englishman?
I thought that was God.
All the better then
to cast against type.
You have the face of the past.
Mr. Stewart will play the devil.
Professor Goodyear will play
the character of morality.
In this play, morality
sees everyone else's sins,
never his own.
Angela, you be the narrator.
And I'll play the fool.
Oh!
[light orchestral music]
'Twas in the year 1703,
in the country of Portugal,
Father Bartholomew came up
with the idea of flying.
He liked to imagine the angels
with their great gold
wings cut across the sun
and their bodies
bright as dragonflies.
[vocalising]
[Thomas] Don't be like
be Icarus, little girl.
Icarus flew too near the sun.
And the sun took revenge
on his wings by melting the
wax that bound them together.
Got to be smarter than the sun.
But I say you will,
Gabriel Angel.
I know you will.
[light orchestral music]
[Gabriel giggles]
[light orchestral music]
[piano music]
[Man] Would you
care to choose, sir?
[Woman] Oh, doesn't
she look lovely?
[Duncan] How lovely women are.
Can't it be just me?
It is just you.
You look like all the
women I've ever admired.
And you look like yourself.
I ordered champagne.
I'd like to say, "here's to
us," but somebody beat me to it.
I'll drink a toast to Michael's
good fortune, shall I?
Why are you still playing games?
[Duncan] I'm a lighthearted man.
What is your name?
Whatever it is, it
isn't my married name.
[Duncan laughs]
Who's the one that's
got to be careful?
No one's meeting
me in South Hampton
with an armful of flowers
and a place to live.
Stop it!
I realise that this is
your wedding anniversary.
Mr. Stewart told me
only this afternoon
when we were talking.
I hate to interrupt.
But, Mr. Stewart, I think
you dropped this earlier.
I'm very anxious to
return it to you.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Was that woman his wife?
I'm useful to you, aren't I?
A safe, cheap alibi!
Trust me.
What kind of fool
do you think I am?
[Duncan] A noisy one.
Please, be quiet.
You don't want to draw attention
to your happy marriage.
-You're behaving badly.
-And you're not?
It's all right to behave badly
as long as you do it
with a quiet voice
and a smile on your face.
But when I open my
mouth because I'm angry,
ya treat me like a child.
Duncan?
[dishes clatter]
Duncan!
I'm trying to eat
my soup in peace.
[Gabriel sighs]
Go ahead!
[crowd gasps]
[dishes clatter]
[piano music]
[engine whirring]
Gabriel?
Gabriel!
Don't be silly.
I'm not the one covered in
soup, holding two dinners.
I'm not the one
with two husbands.
I haven't got two husbands.
True.
Sad, but true.
Who are you?
Duncan Stewart from Aberdeen.
I've got a birth
certificate to prove it.
True, it's not my birth
certificate, but then,
all babies look very much alike.
Gabriel, won't you come down?
This journey is my
one chance at life.
This is my last chance at life.
Please, come back down.
[thunder rumbling]
We're in the same boat.
[Duncan laughs]
The night, the stars,
moonlight of romance.
Professor, can I be of
any assistance to you?
On the contrary, I think I
can be of assistance to you.
You dropped this earlier.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Perhaps you didn't
hear me the first time.
That picture does
not belong to me.
Oh, dear.
I quite forgot.
How could I?
I hope I haven't offended you.
You seem offended.
You know you have an
extraordinary look of someone-
Someone you once met in Cairo.
Tell me, Professor,
was this before
or after you authenticated
a late Titian,
which turned out to have
been painted in 1945?
Still, what is 400
years between friends?
-[Duncan groans]
-[dishes clattering]
[Duncan grunts]
Did I say something
to upset you?
[Rex groans]
[Gabriel] Duncan?
[Woman] Oh!
[Rex groans]
[Man] What's going on?
What have you done to him?
Let me through.
Let me through!
I am a doctor.
Steward, get a stretcher.
He insulted my wife.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[door opens]
[light orchestral music]
[buzzer buzzes]
[Gabriel exhales]
No.
Don't be afraid, Miss Angel.
You frightened me.
What do you want?
Please, come this way.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[thunder rumbling]
[engine whirring]
Please.
Don't be afraid.
I have something to show you.
[horse snorts]
[door latch clicks]
[horse whinnies]
[Gabriel] What are ya
doing with that painting?
Why?
Have you seen it before?
[Gabriel] No.
No, never.
I don't understand.
[horse nickers]
When a man is determined
to know the truth,
he will find it out at any cost.
[thunder rumbling]
The truth has brought
us to this room.
[horse squeals]
Oh, Gabriel, you're shivering.
Does Mr. Stewart have a
painting like this one?
Exactly like this one?
Why do you want two?
I don't want two.
I want my own.
You see, my friend, Alistair
Birch, was a famous forger.
A very talented man.
And this is one
of his paintings.
Well, you might almost
think it a Titian,
if you knew anything
about Titians.
Well, let's say that through
an oversight on my part,
the forger has the real thing.
I have the forgery.
All I want to do is
return to him his property
and reclaim my own.
Unfortunately, I cannot find it.
[horse nickers]
I can't help you.
Truth, Gabriel.
Isn't that worth a
little sacrifice?
[horses whinnying]
The foundation of my life
has been to know what is
genuine and what is not.
No matter how we wish it,
a fake can never
be the real thing.
The world is littered with
fakes and fake makers.
Alistair Birch, this painting.
[horses whinnying]
And it seems even the dead
can come back to life.
What evidence do ya have
that Duncan is this man?
[horse nickers]
None at all.
[hooves clatter]
[horse whinnies]
[horse whinnies]
[dramatic orchestral music]
-[man moans]
-[Gabriel gasps]
-[dramatic orchestral music]
-[Gabriel panting]
[door creaking]
[Gabriel gasps]
Ow!
It's you?
Who do I have to be to
get a gun in my head?
I'm sorry.
It's not loaded.
[Gabriel sighs]
[door creaks]
[Duncan exhales]
I thought you were Rex Goodyear.
Rex?
Just because you hit
him, you think you have
to hide behind a
door with a gun?
I told you, he's a
very dangerous man.
Where were you going?
Ya didn't tell me.
Ya haven't told me anything.
But I can tell you I was
going to the bathroom.
You went the long
way around then.
[Gabriel] I found a
painting in the wardrobe.
What is it?
Oh, now who's the snoop?
It's our wardrobe.
We share this cabin, remember?
When I was a small child,
there was a reproduction
hanging above my bed called
"Saint Nicholas
Calming the Tempest."
It comforted me when
it stormed outside.
There was a small boat
on a blue-black sea.
[Duncan sighs]
The wind roars,
and the disciples
huddled together in fear.
Beneath them, a great fish.
And up above, in full dress
and mitre, Saint Nicholas
comes flying through the sky.
The stars hang all about him.
What's that got to do
with your painting?
You're not the only
one with dreams.
I loved that painting so much
I learned how to copy it.
Imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery.
I am sincere, Gabriel.
Are you Alistair Birch?
No.
Are you the man Professor
Goodyear thinks you are?
What are you doing?
Getting out.
No, it's all right.
I'll go.
Point of no return.
[Steward] Good morning, sir.
[Duncan] Anything could happen,
I suppose, in the
middle of the sea
by ourselves like this.
Only ourselves to answer to.
You ever find anything happens?
Anything unexpected?
Not as a rule, sir.
The occasional disease.
[Duncan] Alone on
the wide, wide sea.
Not quite.
Your husband is
not your husband.
And he might not be Mr. Stewart.
And you think he
knows Rex Goodyear.
And you met Rex Goodyear
in the middle of the night,
and he showed you a painting.
There is a woman who is dead,
and there is a woman in a photo
who might be the same woman.
And you feel fonder of Mr.
Stewart than you ought.
Am I following you?
Royal Scot?
I had a destination
and a place to go.
I'm not a fool, Miss Quim.
Although Professor
Goodyear and maybe Duncan
even think me so.
I'm not a fool.
I know England isn't
the promised land.
But neither is the Caribbean.
Either you fight for your
life, or you lose it.
Only now, because of Duncan,
I don't know what my life is.
My dear.
But how can you care so much
for someone you hardly know?
It started with his accent.
[light orchestral music]
I wanted to listen
to his voice all day,
even when he said silly things.
Then it's his eyes.
He looks at me so seriously,
even when he's
not being serious.
That's part of the trouble,
because I can't tell when
he's joking and when he's not.
He changes all the time.
I was brought up to believe
that a good man is a stable man.
A good man is someone
you can rely on.
Duncan has sharp edges in him.
And I know that he can cut me.
But at least there are
no blunt places in him.
If Duncan is a bad man,
what does it say for all
the good men I've met;
looked at me without seeing me;
who said my name,
and I never wanted
to hear their voice again?
[Thomas] The trick is
to know who you are,
so that you can
know what you want.
Most people can only see within
their eye range, Gabriel.
Maybe they see things
bigger and fancier,
but it's still the
same old things.
The Wright Brothers,
Orville and Wilbur,
they made bicycles, but
they saw aeroplanes .
It was bitterly cold
on the morning of the
17th of December, 1903.
The first time in the world
that a man flew
on his own wings.
Can you see the plane rising
like an angel, Gabriel?
Immortality for 12 seconds.
And how many years of faith
and work for every one
of those 12 seconds?
[grand orchestral music]
Gabriel!
Gabriel.
Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel!
[laughs]
Gabriel!
-Gabriel!
-Gabriel!
Oh!
What are you gonna
do about this?
The observation pole
is out-of-bounds
to passengers, sir!
-Get a blanket.
-Sir!
No!
Sir, please!
Sir!
-[crowd murmuring]
-[wind howling]
-Gabriel?
-Oh, hello.
"Hello"?
Is that all you're gonna say?
What are you doing?
You're crazy.
I had to clear my head.
[Duncan laughs]
You couldn't take an aspirin?
They were all terrified.
I thought you were gonna jump.
[light orchestral music]
Won't you come down?
[Duncan chuckles]
Hmm?
[wind howling]
[all murmuring]
-I'm stuck.
-What?
It's the pole.
I'm, I'm afraid of heights.
[Gabriel] We'll
go down together.
Watch.
Look, be careful.
[wind howling]
Very romantic.
[Gabriel] Just look at
me and concentrate, hmm?
If I look at you, I won't
be able to concentrate.
[Gabriel] Slowly.
All right.
[wind howling]
Have you seen this about
the prime minister?
[all chattering]
"He opens her dress
and traces the outline
of her breast.
He says, 'your breasts are
beehives pouring honey.'"
It is a little on the
steamy side, Gwen.
Got to be.
It's called "The Temptation."
I didn't know you
were so familiar
with the compulsions
of the flesh.
Ah, well.
Didn't you ever
feel that we might
have missed out on
a few slices of life
in the last 30 years?
Don't torment yourself
with questions like that.
Everybody made their choices.
We made ours.
What I really wanted was
to work for Thomas Cook.
-What?
-As a tour leader.
I wanted to travel.
They didn't take girls, though.
Yes, I was a girl once.
So I thought, righto,
I'll be a missionary.
They get a bit of travelling in.
So it wasn't our saviour then?
Afraid not, old girl.
Are you frightfully upset?
A little surprised.
I thought I knew you.
[light orchestral music]
[all chattering]
They say the camera never lies.
What about the photographer?
I too have some photographs.
Resemblance is uncanny.
If you are so sure
Duncan has your painting,
why don't you ask him for it?
I'm not sure.
You think me an unfeeling
man, don't you, Miss Angel?
Perhaps I am these days.
I only ever loved two things:
My pictures, my wife.
Alistair Birch took them both.
You said your wife was murdered.
Alistair Birch murdered her.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Gabriel] No.
[Woman] What has she got into?
I don't believe that
Duncan killed your wife.
Belief has nothing
to do with it.
When you discover the truth,
you must live with it.
Her body was washed up on
the shores of Brittany.
She and Birch had planned
to settle in France.
A romantic, rural life.
She was found dead.
Birch wasn't found at all.
You have no proof that
Duncan is this man.
I have no doubt the police
could get to the bottom
of our identity crisis.
Would you like me
to tell the captain
of my suspicions that we
have a murderer on board
sharing a cabin with
his supposed wife?
[Rex chuckles]
No.
I'm a man of the world.
I'll give you a chance.
Both of you.
Get me the painting,
the real painting,
and the man you love
will never see me again.
I don't love him.
The fool: A new beginning.
Six of swords: Travel with
difficulty to a foreign land.
The lovers.
That must be you and Michael.
The nine of swords:
Heartbreak and pain.
[card slaps floor]
Two of cups: Love again.
A gift from the sky,
a mystery, a dream.
[vocalising]
The tower: Disillusion, change,
loss.
The safe walls are
falling, child.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Gabriel gasps]
[chamber clicks]
[upbeat swing music]
[all chattering]
* Please don't talk
about me when I'm gone *
Darned if I know how this
thing should end, Angela.
Shouldn't it have
a moral ending?
Why?
because it's about temptation.
I've got to the bit
where the angel,
imprisoned in the tower,
goes off with Satan
into his boudoir.
Now, what should
we do after that?
Boudoir?
Satan's boudoir?
Boudoir?
It's French.
It's nonsense in any language.
Hello, Gabriel.
Excuse me.
I'm attending to my butterfly.
[Woman] Three, four.
[Gwen chuckles]
Have ya ever been in love?
Oh, yes, my dear.
[Gwen sighs]
And did it take you by surprise?
There's no other way
for it to take you.
Duncan told me that, that you
and Dr. Bead are lesbians.
I knew you were happy together,
but I didn't know the word.
Oh, no, no!
Absolutely not!
Gwen and I have never had
a physical relationship.
Held hands, yes.
A little peck on the
cheek at cocoa time.
A little hug.
A little hug.
When was that?
Three years ago on my birthday.
[Duncan] Ladies, nice
afternoon crew, is it?
[Duncan screaming]
Angela?
What did I say?
-Angela?
-Lesbians.
-Angela!
-Oh, my, oh, God.
Gabriel, you,
ya didn't, it was a joke!
Oh, god.
[Duncan panting]
Did you kill Rex
Goodyear's wife?
[zipper unzipping]
We were in a small
boat, fishing.
We were very happy.
And Rex came alongside
in a motor launch.
He was very angry.
He was crazy.
We had a fight.
We went overboard.
Samantha went overboard.
Only she didn't come up.
Why didn't ya go to the police?
I was frightened.
I was out of my mind
with grief and terror.
I knew Rex would blame me.
And who'd believe
me against him?
He belongs.
He's one of the club.
Understand that, Gabriel?
I don't belong.
I've always been an outsider.
Because ya are a forger?
You make me sound like
a spiv with a line
of five-pound notes.
[belt buckle jingling]
[fabric rustling]
I want to show you I've
got nothing to hide.
[light orchestral music]
Here's to you.
[Gabriel sneezes]
[Woman] One, two, three.
[flash bulb popping]
[Duncan laughs]
[dramatic orchestral music]
Duncan didn't kill your wife.
It was an accident.
[Rex] Oh?
He told you that, did he?
At least we agree we're
talking about the same man.
It's rather difficult to
stab yourself in the back.
What?
You said she was
washed up on the beach.
She was.
But it wasn't death by drowning.
She was already dead when she
was thrown into the water.
[Gabriel gasps]
Please, Miss.
Everyone has to fill
in immigration papers.
Everyone like us.
It's simple.
You just fill in
each set five times.
Miss, it's all right
for you, you know?
You got the husband, a
white husband, an address,
money, place to go.
Most of the girls I see
got nothin', like me.
They come from nothin', and
they're going to nothin'.
Me, I can't get off the
ship just to steady my legs.
No papers.
You should be glad
of these papers.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Professor Goodyear
came to me just now.
He said his wife didn't drown.
He said she was
stabbed in the back.
Did Duncan do that?
Calm yourself, Gabriel.
There may be nothing
in this story at all.
Professor might be lying.
What if Duncan is
the one who's lying?
We'll have to have a plan.
We have to have a
rehearsal in 20 minutes.
Gabriel, you'll have to
confront him yourself.
It's the only way.
He's got a gun!
Oh, he has, has he?
Well, don't worry
about that, my dear.
He's not the only one.
[shotgun cocks]
This might be the last
painting Titian finished
before he died.
It'd been lost since 1560.
I followed it around the
world from exhibition
to exhibition,
drawing it, photographing it,
reproducing it bit by bit.
Why didn't ya paint
something of your own?
A painting's more than just
a famous name scribbled
in the corner.
No.
It's a living thing.
A moment of clear seeing
in a world that keeps
its hands over its eyes.
It's a dream.
A dream of who we might
be, not just who we are.
A forger is someone who
knows when he's lying
and why.
But the people who really lie
are those who take the
truth and dilute it.
The second-rate artists
who say little things
in loud voices.
Why isn't Rex exposing them?
Why?
Because he's too busy guarding
the reputations of dead men.
And dead women, Duncan.
In all this art, there's
a woman who's dead.
What about her?
Why did you kill her?
I didn't kill her.
I didn't kill her.
I can't remember what happened.
There was a knife.
His hands were covered in blood.
My hands were covered in blood.
But I didn't kill her.
I know I didn't.
I didn't!
Look, Gabriel.
I got on this boat looking
for Rex, and I found you.
Are you Alistair Birch?
He's dead.
Ask Rex.
He flew out especially
for the funeral.
I am my own forgery.
If you're tellin' the truth,
then give him back his painting.
Is that your price?
I can't be bought.
No.
[dramatic orchestral music]
I've held in my hands some
of the most precious
things in the world.
But none so lovely as your face.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[chair scraping floor]
Oh!
Leave that good woman alone!
I am a magistrate!
[Duncan groans]
Well done, Angela.
The Bible still packs a
punch, I'm glad to say.
It's my steel-plated
emergency Bible.
He didn't do it.
It was Professor Goodyear.
But you squealed, and
your dress is undone.
I slipped.
He was kissing me.
But, he's not your husband.
No, but I am married.
[Angela] What?
To someone else.
His name is Michael.
Perhaps the time has
come for the whole truth.
My dear, we will be next door.
Gwendoline.
[door opens]
Duncan?
You all right?
What?
Oh!
So you see, Angela,
I have loved you with
all my heart all my life,
ever since I first saw you.
Your hair was cut in a bob then.
And when you bent to
read, it fell slightly
and hid your face.
I never wanted your
face to be hid.
[clock ticking]
For 32 years you've
kept this secret?
I had to.
But first you told me you
joined the missionary service
because you couldn't get
a job at Thomas Cook's,
and now you tell me that
for 32 years you've felt
the same way for me as
a man feels for a woman?
No, Angela.
I love you as a
woman loves a woman.
It's quite different.
Were you glad when I
didn't marry Johnny?
[both laughing]
Handlebar Johnny.
The man and his moustache?
Do you remember when he came
to college and you and I were
ready to spend the
day together working
or off on our bicycles,
and he used to say,
"Move over, Gwen.
Let the dog see the rabbit."
[both laughing]
He didn't have a way
with words, did he?
What did he have?
A moustache.
[both laughing]
Well, at least you
gave him up for Jesus.
Not quite.
I gave him up for you.
[Angela laughs]
What?
i preferred your company.
We were closer friends.
We were better partners.
You used to put your arm
around me, and I liked that.
I didn't make the leap
into thinking that
you and I could be,
should be-
Lovers.
Lovers.
I didn't have the courage, Gwen.
I,
you have to have courage
not to do the obvious thing,
but to do the right thing.
I was no better.
Look, Angela, you've always said
it's a measure of God's grace
that people get given
a second chance.
Now, look.
This is our second chance.
God or not.
Don't buy that little
bungalow by yourself.
Let's buy a big
farmhouse together.
[light orchestral music]
And keep hens.
I've always wanted to keep hens.
And have cats.
And a dog, called Rover.
And plenty of rooms
where people can stay.
We don't know anyone.
We will.
Look, help me down with
these mattresses, will you?
We'll put them side by side.
Side by side?
[light orchestral music]
On the floor.
What about my back?
what about your heart?
[light orchestral music]
[both laughing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
Alistair Birch.
Pleased to meet you.
I've come for my painting.
I've come for my life.
I wasn't aware that you had one.
For the past nine years I've
been a dead man, Professor.
A man without hope.
I came on this boat looking
for the only other
dead man that I know,
and I found Gabriel Angel,
a woman with a life so bright
in her she made me
see myself as I am.
A forger, adulterer and liar!
And as I might be.
Once before, I put an
obsession in the way of love.
I kept the obsession.
I lost the love.
I won't let that happen again.
Here.
Take your painting.
You fool.
You destroy the most
precious thing in the world.
[Duncan] I never even
raised my voice to her.
You killed her.
Your knife killed her.
Rex?
We both killed her.
My knife, your hand.
The hand that was meant for me.
But that's what
happened, isn't it?
We fought.
A woman got killed.
I go back to that
place again and again.
The water, the boat,
the painting, the knife.
My best love can't change
it, not even for a day.
But love can change now.
This water, this
boat, this journey.
[swing music]
[tambourine rattling]
[party favour blowing]
[all chattering]
Whoo-hoo!
[Man] Ladies, come!
[party favour blowing]
[party favour blows]
There's something
I want to tell you.
I thought you had no secrets.
Secrets?
Oh, don't we all have a skeleton
in the cupboard somewhere,
Mr. Stewart?
Oh, I like to think of
them as family pets.
Ladies, I wanted to
apologise to you.
I was very-
As a medical lady, Mr. Stewart,
I can tell you that guilt
will do you no good at all.
And as a woman, I can tell you
that the best remedy for guilt
is love.
Oh!
I'm very jealous.
There's something
I have to tell you.
And there's something
I want to show you.
[all chattering]
All this was my life.
If you can call living
in the past a life.
[Gabriel] It's about Michael.
I've only got two hands.
I'm gonna need them both
if I'm gonna hold onto you.
Please, listen.
You're gonna stay
with him, aren't you?
There is no Michael.
He's on his way back to Grenada.
I thought I was the
one with the secrets.
He wrote to me every
week for two years.
He wrote to me in between
scrubbing other people's floors
and cleanin' other
people's toilets.
He washed away their vomit.
He wiped up their mess.
All he saved from England,
from the promised land, was,
was enough money to
take him back home.
Do you see?
Yes.
No.
No.
Why are you going to
a place without hope?
The hope's not in the place.
It's in me.
I have left my family.
I have left my home.
I have taken everything
that is Gabriel
and put her on this boat.
We are dreaming
people, my people.
Thomas' dream got
him off the ground,
and he chased it across the sky
until the sky took him.
You've got to risk the
best of what you've got
if you want a
little bit of life.
And I want my life,
not Thomas', not Vesuvia's,
not Michael's,
not my ancestors'.
All I can do is walk my own road
and maybe fly a
little bit of the way.
Can I come?
If I bring my own wings?
[light orchestral music]
[waves crashing]
-[group chattering]
-[laughing]
"Dear Vesuvia, you
ask me how I am.
No sun, but plenty of rain.
[all laughing]
Remember what uncle Silas said?
'I touch you with a roof
and four square walls.'
Well, I have needed
every tile on that roof
and every brick in that wall
and still the rain gets in."
[Gabriel] Duncan laughs at me.
[Vesuvia] "Duncan laughs at me."
[Gabriel] He says he
was born in a puddle.
I dream of the
sky, blue and gold.
Remember what
cousin Simone said?
"I touch you with laughter
for all your woes."
I have needed her laughter.
For me and for Duncan.
All the time people
stare at us, and I know
that they only see
what's black and white
and never the
colour of our love.
Did I tell you that
his eyes are green?
Remember what Errol said?
"I touch you with children
for your old age."
Give him love from my heart
and from my belly too.
[all laughing]
Give my love to all of
them, and I will keep
what they have given me.
I keep thinking of those days,
washin' floors, washin' doors,
washin' rich men's cars, washin'
poor men's bars on my knees
and not to pray.
But every now and then,
I'd raise my head and
hear their voices.
"I touch you, Gabriel."
And when I turn back
to the dirty floor,
it was the sky I saw
and me in it.
I got the pilot licence.
[all clapping]
Earned it and flew it and
kept it, and it is mine.
Mine.
What you have given me:
My grandmother's courage
and my granddaddy's dreams.
[Man] Yes!
[aeroplane approaching]
[vocalising]
Gabriel!
[laughing]
[all cheering]
[All] Gabriel!
[Gabriel] This is
where the story starts,
stretched out in front of me,
road like a runway,
heading for the blue sky.
But the road bends,
and the sky is still
dark over there.
I can't tell if I'm going
into it or against it.
What matters is that I go.
* Angel Gabriel *
[light orchestral music]
[light orchestral music]