Unforgotten (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Episode #1.5 - full transcript

Sir Phillip makes a difficult decision in order to protect his family and salvage what is left of his reputation. Father Robert comes clean to his family and the police.

That's a hole. Like something's
been driven through it.

Something like a nail.

Yes, it's me.

If you think I killed
this boy, Ray, just say it.

In June, 1973, Slater was arrested

following a fight outside
a pub in Kentish town.

Dad!

He rang her from the call box. JoJo.

But it was one mistake.

He had sex with a child, for God's sake!

Your Turkish friends, I might
need you to call them for me.



He had his accident so he wouldn't
have been able to hurt anyone any more.

You said "hurt anyone". What do you mean?

Looks like we've got another victim.

♪ All we do is hide away

♪ All we do is, all we do is hide away

♪ All we do is lie in wait

♪ All we do is, all we do is lie in wait

♪ I've been upside down

♪ I don't wanna be the right way round

♪ Can't find paradise on the ground ♪

- You OK?
- Fine.

Scared.

(POP MUSIC AND CHATTER)

(KNOCK ON DOOR)



(THUMPING ON DOOR)

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(THUMPING ON DOOR)

Your taxi.

I'm so sorry, Sheila.

Thank you.

I know you're in there!

Ray!

Ray!

Sir Phillip. Asil.

Your son sent me.

Mr Slater.

No, no, no, no, no. You, you, you
said you were coming tomorrow.

- We need to do it now, I'm afraid.
- It's their anniversary.

- We were having a --
- Sorry.

♪ ABBA: Dancing Queen

♪ Looking out for the place to go... ♪

Everyone listen up, please!

Will you listen to me, please?

Can someone turn the music off, please?

- What on earth is going on?
- We'll talk to you in a second, Mr Slater.

OK, we have a warrant

to search this property, alongside
the gardens and the out buildings.

So, I'm afraid the party is over.

And with the exception of
the immediate Slater family,

we would like you to leave as quickly
and as quietly as possible, please.

- Thank you.
- (WAILS HYSTERICALLY)

Is she all right?

'Hi, this is Lizzie.
Please leave a message.'

- (BLEEP)
- Hello, love.

It's me, again.

Please call. Even if it's
just to say that you're safe.

I love you, babe.

Very much.

OK, Mr Slater. So, earlier tonight --

Am I under arrest?

No, you're not under arrest.
You're free to leave any time.

But, we hope you'll want to
help us with our investigation

and, um, give us your side of things.

- My side of what things?
- I'm going to caution you, though,

and tell you that you do
not have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if
you do not mention when questioned

anything you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may
be given in evidence.

My side of what things?

As I was saying, um, earlier tonight...

your son, um, rang our station

following a conversation
he had this evening.

He rang you from our party?

He did.

And I spoke to both him and your wife..

.. and she confirmed what
she had told your son,

which is that she believes...

you buried a body in Woodland

at the bottom of your garden
sometime in the late part of 1978.

hat's just not true.

I-I mean, y-y-you must know she...
she has no idea what she's saying.

You know, it's... it's not true.

You must know that.

It is not true.

Yes, I pressed her. Of course I
did. Repeatedly for specific detail.

She actually said she saw him
digging a hole in the copse

in the middle of the night,
then he got something...

- stuck it down there.
- Something?

Probably a carpet. Cos
that's what a sane man does

in the middle of the night, isn't it?

- You think she's sane?
- According to you mate, she's fine.

A little forgetful, but,
other than that, fine.

She actually said that
she thought it was a body?

Yes. Yes, she did.

She waits 40 years to tell anyone?

Which is why, when she did, I... I
just felt I had to call the police.

But I swear this, I never meant...

I never meant for this
on their anniversary.

They said they're taking them to Ely.

I think one of us should
go there, be there for them.

Fine, you go. I'll... I'll wait here.

Matt, all I want is for me to be as wrong

as I've ever been about anything.

I don't care if mum and dad
never spoke to me ever again.

I just want to be wrong.

How far's their nick?

- Ten minutes.
- Hm.

Their guvnor asked if we
could give him an ETA.

Is the house clear of guests?

Yeah, clear now.

Tell him...

Oh, tell tell him we
have absolutely no idea.

How many friends you have, man?

You haven't seen him.

- Where is she?
- Ray?

Where have you taken her?

- Where have I...?
- My wife.

What have you done to her?

I don't know where your
nigger-hating wife is, Ray.

Now, piss off!

Before I bust you up proper.

I wanted to say...

.. I want you to know...

.. if I've never said it before...

.. it has tortured me every single day...

.. of my life.

(SOBS) What I did.

Every single day.

And I'm so sorry.

Come on.

Come on. Hup, hup.

Dog's been through the whole house
three times. There's nothing there.

What do we think this is now, guv?

Do you think we could have
multiple bodies out here?

That Jimmy was just one of many.

We think.

We have to take it seriously,
what she said. We have to.

But Claire Slater's a woman
who's losing her mind,

so we think... we hope...

I hope... that she's wrong.

And that there's nothing here.

Nothing at all.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(KNOCKING ON DOOR CONTINUES)

Coming.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR CONTINUES)

Hello?

Oh, it's Sheila from the community centre.

Oh, hi, Sheila. Hang on.

Hi.

I'm so sorry to disturb
you this early, Grace.

It's fine. Are you OK?

Do you want to come in?

Oh, no, no, no. I'll be very quick.

I just thought you had a right to know.

I had to go down to the
police station last night

and tell them it was Robert

who stole the money from
the community hall safe.

He admitted it to me yesterday.

And also that he'd been stealing
from the church for quite some time.

And you.

He told me he'd stolen some of your
jewellery. He wouldn't tell me why.

Oh, he needs help, Grace. He really does.

God bless.

You wait for it all your life.

The knock on the door.

And then one day you wake up...

.. and realise your life
IS the knock on the door.

Police never came. There was
no trial, no prison sentence.

But you were punished.

What you got, Lulu?

Show me, then. Good girl.

(LULU BARKS EXCITEDLY)

What you got? OK, we've got something!

- (LULU BARKS EXCITEDLY)
- Steady, steady.

- How sure?
- If it were me, I'd dig.

We need a tent down here, please.

You need to get here.

Well, thank you for taking
time to speak to me.

Don't be silly, Grace.

I'm just... so sorry.

And I want you to know we're all
thinking of you and praying for you.

- 'All of you.'
- Thank you, Geoff. Bye. Bye bye, now.

They think he might've been
stealing money for years.

Tens of thousands.

Spent on what?

Don't know.

Wasn't on us though, was it?

That was my grandmother's ring.

How can you know someone
your whole life and then...?

How does this happen?

(DOG BARKS)

How do you think people deal with it?

Deal with what?

Well...

.. all these cases where
people pretend to be one thing

for half a century and then
turn out to be something else.

Wonder if they still love him.

Or do you just cut off?

Say, "I'm sorry.

Loved someone else.

Loved the person you SAID you were."

Here!

We found something!

What is it?

Just there.

Oh, no.

- (DOOR OPENS)
- Robert?

Good morning.

Morning, Geoff.

So...

Grace rang me.

Sheila went round there this morning
after she'd been to the police.

OK.

So... how should I do this?

Do you want me to speak
to our mob first or...?

Well, we would, of course, love to know

what you've been spending it all on.

But, I think you owe it to
Grace to tell her first.

I'll drive you around there, if
you like, and then to the police.

Well, for what it's worth,
none of it was for me.

And I'll walk, thanks.

Robert.

Don't try to stop me, Geoff.

Please.

I may look old and doddery, but
I could still snap you in two.

- You thought it'd be female?
- No, no, I just...

I'm looking for theories as to how
a fairly unremarkable bookkeeper

ends up connected to two murders,

and some love-triangle
connection between Eric

and, um, Jimmy and Joanna Bridges
seemed like one possibility, but...

as you might guess, I'm
slightly struggling.

Hiya. Are you one of the Slaters?

Is that a body, then?

(STARTS CAR)

Les, don't go away. Talk to
me. Is there a body there?

Are there any more!?

'Police have confirmed that a
76-year-old man is being interviewed

in connection with the murder of
James Sullivan nearly 40 years ago.

Reports that further remains have
been found near the suspect's house

have not yet been confirmed.

Sullivan, who was only 17
when he disappeared in -- '

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello.

They've arrested someone, Dad.

'For James Sullivan's murder.
It-It's on the news. Switch it on.

They've found another body in
the back of his bloody garden,

so Fenwick can send them the photos,

but I don't think they're
gonna be too interested now.'

You're in the clear, Dad.

TV: 'Where his remains
were found by workers -- '

'Dad, are you there?'

- I couldn't have left your mum
on her own, Belle. - 'Sorry?'

I mean, I couldn't let
Fenwick do that to her.

What have they done? What did
you tell the Turks to do?

I only spoke to them last night.
They haven't done anything yet.

I'll just call them off now.

(HANGS UP)

Ask him what his last hours
were, will you? My boy's.

If it is him, I do want you to
prepare yourself for the fact

that he he might not want to help us.

It sometimes goes like that.

But ask him.

And if he tells you, however bad it is,

I want you to promise me
you'll tell me what he says.

I will. Uh, I promise.

However bad it is.

It can't be as bad as I've
spent a lifetime imagining.

Think, Curtis. Where would she go?

If you were her, what would you do?

Uh, did she ever talk
about, you know, somewhere

or someone she felt safe with?

Ray, I'm not interested.

OK?

I don't give a fuck, mate.

I'd never abandon you.

I won't abandon her.

I hope you won't either.

And so, you have absolutely no
idea how the body got there?

Well, of course, it's all
I've been thinking about.

And?

Well... no.

No idea.

All I can think is,

I got friendly with a lot of the
residents of Arlingham House.

I stayed in touch with some of them.

And a few came to visit us over the years.

But, I took people on
face value, DCI Stuart,

and maybe... maybe I was naive.

A lot of these people had very dark pasts.

So, are you, um, suggesting

that maybe an ex-resident
put the body there?

No, I'm just guessing.

Can you give me names?

Oh, no, I can never remember names.

I mean, maybe it wasn't but, you
know, it's... it's a remote spot.

I just know it wasn't me.

So, like you, I'm...
I'm... I'm struggling.

Are you sure it was your husband, Claire?

Am I sure who was my husband?

You said, you think you saw your husband

putting a body into the ground.

Are you sure it was him?

When did I say that?

Why don't you just tell
me who it is, Eric?

How can I tell you who it is, if
I didn't know he was down there?

I didn't say it was a man.

Oh, please.

It's a figure of speech.

I don't know anything about it.

Do you have any idea
who the body is, Claire?

Is Carol coming?

No...

Carol's not coming. Do you know who it is?

Do you know what, I think we
should leave it there, don't you?

My client --

(SOBS)

Sometimes I have these...

These memories are so clear.

Memories of what?

Memories of what, Claire?

I just want it all to end. (SOBS)

How can he still be out of signal?
I rang him half a fucking hour ago.

Look, I don't care how
you do it. Just do it.

Just get someone to stop him.

(RADIO ON IN CAR)

'Police have now confirmed that a
second body was found in the garden

of the suspect who has been identified

only as a 73-year-old Cambridgeshire man.

James Sullivan, who went missing in
1976, has been the subject of a -- '

So I'll get them both
driven down to town now.

I've informed the sons
about what's happening.

They'll make their own way down.

You and me can get a bit of shut
eye and start fresh this afternoon.

With any luck, we should have more
information on the body by then.

- Great.
- So, you OK to drive?

Yeah, I'm good. Thanks

Can you bell Jake Collier, would you?

Ask him to speak to his witness
Mackie again, about Eric Slater.

I want to know everything
there is to know about him.

(DOORBELL)

Lizzie?

Erm... when she took me to see Hamlet,

there were people down by
the theatre who knew her.

People she gave money to.

Like, homeless people and that.

Um, she knew their names
and some of them knew hers.

We'll need a photo.

Steady.

Brush.

Bye.

He fell asleep smoking, apparently.

Bed caught fire. Whole house went up.

Wouldn't have known a thing.

I'll be back by seven.
We could all go out,

have a curry or something.

And, if you fancy taking your
granddad for a drink before,

he's a bit low at the moment.

He could do with a bit of cheering up.

- Take him down the Feathers?
- Not the Feathers.

- They still have pole dancers?
- They're mainly Bulgarian now.

- Brilliant. - I meant a nice
chat over a pint somewhere quiet.

Not with naked women
showing you their insides.

You don't want a heart attack
on your conscience, do you?

It's a misconception that
plastic doesn't degrade.

It does, but not through
bacteria. Through light.

Luckily for us there isn't a
lot of light six feet under,

which is why this little beauty...

.. could still probably buy your lunch.

Jeez.

So, obviously we can't confirm
anything until we get a DNA match,

but we have good reason to
believe that the remains are those

of Nicholas Howard
Whitmore, known as Nick.

He was born 12th of January,
1954, in Godstone, Surrey.

He was a son and a brother.

So, Nick was, um, last seen
on December 30th, 1978,

at a Clash concert at the
Lyceum in the West End.

At the time of his disappearance
he lived in Hammersmith

and he was training to be a nurse.

But he disappeared about two
and a half years after Jimmy,

but, crucially, at least two years

after the Slaters moved into their house.

Can we assume the body went in the
ground close to the time of death?

We'll assume nothing yet.

- Any obvious connections to Arlingham
House or to Jimmy? - No, not yet.

But we've made preliminary
contact with Nick's family

and I'll be able to speak to
them properly later today.

Murray, the original
investigation determined

that the card was last
used in a pub in Hampstead.

It was called the King George.

And that was the 31st December, 1978,

so in an ideal world,

we'd need to place Eric
Slater in or around that area

on that same evening.
It's a tough one, I know.

- Got it.
- Jack, where are you with Mackkie?

Seeing him at six.

And is there anything else
coming through from the house?

No, no. Nothing more, from the
house, the garden or the copse.

OK, that's good.

That's it for now.

Thank you, everyone.

Guv, surely we've got the wife

saying she saw him put
the body in the ground.

Actually, it's becoming clear
that she has no idea what she saw.

And no jury would ever convict
him on her testimony alone.

So... we need more.

We need much, much more.

The woman...

The girl, Joanna, that I
had a relationship with...

.. she got pregnant...

and she said that it was by me.

So, obviously, I offered
to pay for the termination.

And I thought she'd done what she wanted.

Two years later... she rang me

and told me that actually she hadn't
been able to go through with it.

And she'd had the baby.

I was shocked... and scared.

But I said I would support them, the baby.

And I did so until the
child, Thea, was 18.

Thea's now 38.

And she's made her way in life.

And as her father I've tried
to help out as best I could.

Sometimes with emotional support.

Sometimes with money.

Not fortunes.

A hundred...

occasionally a thousand.

But always with money I didn't have.

So I stole it.

I am now, and always have
been, deeply ashamed by this.

I'm going to the police station now.

I'm not running from anything.

I just wanted to give you the facts,

give you a chance to digest them.

Bastard!

Bastard!

Bastard!

No! Please, please.

You bastard!

(SOBS)

(INDISTINCT)

I'd like to start, Eric, if you
don't mind, by going back to Jimmy.

Of course.

And seeing, um, if you can
help me out with something

- that's been troubling me.
- Well, if I can help, I will.

OK, so, I now think that
the assault on Paul West

was actually nothing to do with football.

That it was, as his sister
said, a homophobic attack.

I...

Well, I must confess,
I couldn't see a link

between West's attack and Jimmy's murder.

I mean, Jimmy was, um...

clearly in a long-term heterosexual
relationship with Joanna Bridges.

- Yes, JoJo.
- Exactly.

Hm.

But, what I didn't know
until earlier today,

when a colleague of mine spoke
to an old friend of Jimmy's

from the hostel, was that when
Jimmy first came to London,

he was homeless and broke with
no obvious way of making money.

That he did what a lot of
young runaways did back then,

which was to work as a male prostitute.

Now, in the months before he was killed,

we know that Jimmy
borrowed £50 from a gang

to pay for an abortion for JoJo,

and that that money was then stolen.

So he desperately needed money.

Another 50 for the abortion and the
original 50 to pay back to the gang.

Mm.

And he tried to sell a
car, but like you said...

- everybody knew it was stolen.
- Mm.

So, in his desperation
to find the money...

.. we think he went back to selling sex.

How awful.

And you found out about that.

No.

And because I think you had a
violent hatred of homosexuals,

at some point in July 1976,

you murdered him and buried his body
in the cellar of Arlingham House.

Absolutely not.

I had absolutely no idea about
any of what you've just told me.

Well, that's interesting.

Because Jimmy's friend says not
only did you pretty much know

everything the residents were up to,

but that you'd told him you'd
seen Jimmy servicing a male client

down an alley behind a
Hampstead "queer pub".

What friend?

A resident of Arlingham
House called Alan Mackay.

Known as Mackkie.

Never... never heard of him.

And, listen, half that
lot were drug addicts.

Th-The rest were alcoholics.

Do you really trust what
any of them have to say?

These are the same people you say
you invited to your house, Eric.

I don't think I've ever
even been to Hampstead.

I had no idea Jimmy was doing that. And
what it has to do with this other lad.

Well, let me tell you. Because today...

I've been talking with Nick
Whitmore's sister and father

and that was his name, by the way.

Here's the thing, Eric.

It turns out that Nick was gay.

That Nick often frequented
gay bars and pubs.

And in particular a pub
called the King George.

In Hampstead.

Like I just said, I don't
think I've ever been there.

Do you know when the cash
dispenser was invented?

No.

1967.

First one ever used in the whole
world was in Enfield, by Reg Varney.

Do you remember him? On The Buses.

Vaguely.

So, by 1978, there were
hundreds all around the country.

And there was one at 364
Haverstock Hill, Hampstead.

About 20 yards from the King George.

You're one for keeping
records, aren't you, Eric?

Must be the uh... book-keeper
in you, I suppose.

This is a copy of a document.

We found this in your house earlier.

Can you tell me the
date of this statement?

December 1978.

And look at the entry dated the 31st
of December. What does it detail?

Er... a cashpoint withdrawal.

£10.

And that number by the entry
corresponds to a specific machine.

Do you know which one it is?

Well, we rang the bank and we asked them.

It's for a cashpoint on Haverstock Hill.

Number 364. Right next to the pub.

So, we can now place you within 20 yards

of the last known whereabouts
of Nicholas Whitmore.

So we now have a connection
between his murder and Jimmy's.

On top of the numerous
connections to you and Jimmy.

And, of course, Nicholas's
body was found in your garden.

The CPS are going to charge you,
Eric, with both their murders.

Which means that, um,
now is the opportunity

for you to think about
the victim's families

and tell us the truth about
what actually happened.

But I didn't do it.

Eric Michael Slater, you are charged

that, on a date between 1st
June, 1976 and 1st January, 1977,

that you did unlawfully
murder James Niall Sullivan

contrary to common law.

You are also charged on
the 31st December, 1978

that you did unlawfully murder
Nicholas Howard Whitmore,

contrary to common law.

- (SECURITY DOOR BUZZER)
- Do you have anything to say?

I just thought he was going
to use them to scare Fenwick.

Josh...

.. we'll be OK.

It's going to be OK.

He's paid for a man to be murdered, Bella.

Our father.

It's not ever gonna be OK.

(BLEEPING)

What is it?

DCI Stuart.

I need to tell her I didn't kill them.

But I know who did.