Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975): Season 1, Episode 3 - Board Wages - full transcript
Matters get out of hand when the servants mock their employers while the family are away on a summer holiday.
[ While the Bellamys are in Scotland,
Downstairs receives two visitors ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Idle chatter ]
[ All ] Hello, Sarah.
[ Sarah ] I worked on that chandelier.
[ Rose ] I'll be up later and have a look.
I hope you haven't cracked anything.
[ Mixed conversation ]
[ Alfred ]
We'll have a go with this one.
Venetian glass.
It was Mr. Hudson
what stopped Peggy's wages.
Not Lady Marjorie.
Mr. Hudson's very
queer about breakages.
(So if he was there for my girl.)
[ Enid ] I heard Mr. Becker
couldn't get loose, could he?
[ Henry ] Ha, ha, he'd done
most of the breaking, himself.
- Up to his (emportees).
[ R ] He can't leave it alone.
You know what some butlers are.
[ S ] Lady Marjorie wouldn't
stand for it, would she, Rose?
[ En ] Well, be that as it may.
We're quite happy.
- Glass of gin, Sarah?
- Aye?
- It's all right.
Enid brings it with her.
- Ohhh.
- Here, don't be (optimistic).
Captain Graham's too busy
turning the blind eye.
To everything mostly.
Particularly Mrs. Graham.
[ R ] Oh, Mr. Bellamy's ever so strict
unless he don't miss a thing.
[ H ] Oh, it's a pity.
[ En ] You're not very fashionable,
you people.
[ R ] Oh, yes, but Lady Marjorie
is hardly Mrs. Graham, is she?
- I mean, Lady Marjorie don't
need to be fashionable.
[ En ] Maybe not, Rose.
But, then it wasn't Mrs. Graham
got made the laughing stock
'o London, was it?
- Meaning exactly?
- You know, my dear Rose.
Our friend the society painter
made a right monkey out 'o your
- Lady Marjorie.
- Oh, it would take a great
- deal more than something so...
trivial to upset Lady Marjorie.
- Huh.
This is a respectable household.
How frightfully dull for you,
my poor girls. [ Laughter ]
Aw, we forgot, Enid, this is the
household that keeps their old bones
and sends the bottles back.
A rag and bone man
don't call here, Henry.
- Well, what do you do, Enid?
What do we do?
- I have to think
how I come by this.
- Where'd we go?
- Whether thy sins nor thy evil doings
be made known to the children
- of God in their innocence.
- All right, Alfred. You know
nothing like that goes on
in this household
Thank you very much.
I'd thank you put thine
own house in order.
Our Mrs. Bridges isn't
above losing the odd bit
of larder or a chicken
now and then is she, Sarah?
[ R ] That'll be quite enough,
thank you, Alfred.
[ R to En ] Well, go on.
Happy days.
[ H ] Our job of gin, Enid?
[ En ] This is a respectable
household, Henry.
- Oh, yeah.
- They've got (worriges to be got).
- By the way, once, we did hear
that Lady Marjorie's appearance
-at a certain ball wasn't
all that it should have been.
- What are you talking about?
[ En ] At the house.
- Where that dress
had been seen before.
[ R ] Never.
She never wears
a ball gown twice.
It was a new dress.
I saw it arrive.
From Paris.
That's right. Paris.
[ S ] In France.
- Patrick's?
- Mrs. Graham's came from Patrick's.
- [R ] Oh, where's that?
- [ H ] Toulouse.
- Where's that.
- Just a French designer.
That's where that is.
You know, Rose, Bequin.
- Oh, yes, it all comes
back to me now.
[ En ] Well, so.
[ S ] It was a beautiful dress,
and has a lovely train.
- It wasn't so long as
Mrs. Graham's.
- Now, that was a train.
It was the ever so long.
We all saw it.
It was the most beautiful dress
wasn't it, Emily?
[ Emily ] I've never seen
a dress like it.
[ H ] Well, I don't suppose
you saw a pair of shoes
- till you come over here.
- Or a pair of galoshes.
[ All laugh at Emily's expense ]
[ En ] Mrs. Graham's
train was so long
- as she came down the stairs,
it just covered all the stairs,
- didn't it Henry?
- Yeah, was really long.
Oh, yes, well Lady Marjorie,
as she just stood in the hall,
Roberts, her personal maid,
was still picking it up in the boudoir.
[ En ] Oh, yes, I'm sure.
[ R ] I can show it to you,
if you don't believe me.
If you've eyes big enough
to take it in.
- Lead on!
- Well, then.
All right.
[ All ] Ho, ho, hooo.
- I'll go in the lead.
[ H to Em ] Ah, she wants to stay here
and tell her beads.
[ En ] Aw, come on.
[ S ] I shall lead the way.
[ H ] Hey, where's the lavatory?
[ R ] It's in the area.
[ H ] ...an older man.
Don't you know that?
[ H ] We can't have that
in the boudoir, can I?
[ Door opens
and closes ]
[ Hesitant entrance
into the Upstairs ]
[ Alfred growls ]
- Shhh.
I don't know what we're
standing around for.
It's not going to bite us.
- Empty houses.
Whoo.
- Yes, but it's not gonna bite.
- Our hall is twice
the size of this one.
- I thought it might be.
[ S ] Ladies and gentlemen:
This is poor little me. [ Laughter ]
Aye, didn't we meet at one
of Mrs. Keppel's bridge evenings?
- Certainly, didn't you know,
I was the one getting pickled
- in the smoking room.
- Oh, what a grand slam
I had that night.
- Oh, that's what His Majesty's
calling it these days. [ Laughter ]
- Do not stand there, girl.
Go downstairs and tell Hudson
- to bring up the champagne.
- Oh, (High Haute Course)
serving the food, (pre-kept).
- It's all arranged.
- (You get the shatter ball,
now didn't you know!)
- (He's on fire!)
[ Laughing, then
loud knocking ]
[ S ] Blimey.
[ En ] What we gonna' do?
[ S ] Quick.
- What?
- I don't know, but quick.
- But, he can't hear
through walls, you know.
- Everybody get belowstairs.
- And, Alfred, the door.
Get me the...
[ Opens door ]
- Good evening to you.
[ Alfred squelches laugh ]
Good evening, uh,
police constable Halp, sir.
- Blimey, it's the law.
- Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
[ Outside ] Now, then...
[ Alfred squelches laugh ]
- And what can I do for you,
Constable?
Well, I've had certain funny reports
of servants doing what they should
not ought to have been doing.
Oh, not here, Constable, surely.
Well, I'm afraid so, sir.
- Servants have been seen,
when they should not ought to have.
- Perhaps you'd better
come inside, Constable,
- and we can discuss
the matter further.
[ Henry sniggers;
Rose squelches a laugh ]
[ Everybody laughs
and scolds]
- Tell me more about this
famous gown, Rose. Or have you
- had second thoughts?
- Of course I haven't.
Come on.
[ H ] Were you really scared?
[ S ] No, it takes more
than that to scare me.
[ A ] Ah, but it's early days,
isn't it Henry?
- Oh, that's right, Alfred.
Who knows what we might
- get up to.
I mean...
- We could get up to
all sorts of things.
- Come here, Millie!
[ Laughter ]
- Rose says, if they knew
we're coming on...
- Ah, you mind your own
business, Miss High and Mighty.
- Off we go.
Play a little (gull) game.
- You guys want to play.
We need four or (nimay).
- We gentlemen have more
important matters to attend to.
- Isn't that right, your grace?
- Ah, well, absolutely, my dear chap.
That'll be all, thank you.
- A little game of cricket, my lad?
- Ah, cricket...
- Alfred, watch it.
Remember what happened last time.
- Well, what did happen last time?
- Nothing, but,
just be careful, that's all.
[ Laughter ]
- One wicket.
- I'll bring it
- Over here.
- Where's the balls?
- Over there.
- Right.
We have it.
- One ball.
One bat.
- And all that middle
and leg (offing).
- [ Cricket game jargon ]
- Right!
[ R ] Hope the blind's drawn.
[ R ] Don't want that
opera site spying on us.
[ S ] Of course it's drawn.
[ S ] I'll light the lights.
[ R ] Right.
[ R ] I think I'll lock the door.
[ S ] Don't go on.
[ S ] It's the way we're sure
of having enough. [ Door slams shut ]
[ S ] Who do you think's
gonna come in here?
[ R ] Mr. Hudson, all the way from
(the Isle of Lewis), he might
[ R ] to find out if you is doing.
[ R ] Oh, see there, Enid, at what I find.
[ En ] Oh, yes, now that...
that's not bad.
[ En ] That, no, it's not bad at all.
[ S ] Lady Marjorie has exquisite taste.
[ En ] Exquisite taste.
What do you know about it?
[ En ] You're never gonna wear
dresses like this, my girl.
[ S ] If you'll wish hard enough.
[ R ] D'you know that
kind of really suits you,
[ R ] Sarah.
[ S ] Oh, thank you Rose.
[ S ] I shall have lots of
dresses in this color...
[ En ] And this material, all so right
and for this famous dress.
[ R ] Give us a hand, Sarah.
[ S ] Like mine.
[ R ] See the train.
[ S ] All that hand-stitched clothes?
[ R ] There.
[ S ] Are you loving it?
No.
No, I don't think much of that.
[ En ] No, there's not a patch...
[ R ] Not a patch!
Now, Mrs. Graham's
was really was something.
Yes, I can well imagine.
But you see, Enid, what you
don't understand is
the beauty of a ball gown
lies in the subtlety of its cut in.
- Isn't that so, Sarah?
- Yes, that's right, Rose.
- It is in the subtlety of the cut in.
- Oh, yes.
- You see, Enid, a dress like this
has to be seen on to be appreciated.
- It's the only way to judge.
[ En ] Well, put it on, then.
- Are you mad?
- I've heard it fits very clutching.
- Yeah, but it wouldn't
fit me, would it?
- Anyway, I couldn't do it justice.
Not with my hair like this.
- Now, well, it'll be nice
if I can tell the others
- I've, uh, seen it and everything.
[ S ] All right.
[ En ] Ooh laa. [ S ] Come on in.
[ En ] [ Clapping ] Good job.
[ En ] Sarah! [ Laughing ]
- All right, I'll get a (hoop)
around the clothes.
- Oh, don't you think we should, Rose?
- Yeah, In for a penny, [ in for a pound ].
- [ Clap ] I like it now,
Do you?
- Here, you take that.
- When I was little we used to go
to see me uncle in the country.
- And he had this great big box
full of old clothes and everything.
- Lovely.
- Oh, that's pretty.
I like that.
- [ Claps shoes; claps hands ]
[ S ] Ohhhh. Dress me!
[ Both bowing ]
- With pleasure, lady.
- Yes, ma'am.
Agh!
[ Click; snap ]
And it's (called for a
sikrah into the bouveier).
And there's a century
for (Ranjitsenji).
- (Cawvender.)
[ Click, click ]
- And England did clear
for 542 phenom wickets.
- Uh, hm.
- (Be that)?
- Tea in the mall.
- Gin in the mall?
- Back to the pavilion.
- (Glad to....) - Where the gin is.
- After you, Dr. Grace.
- Oh.
- Um.
- [ Enid laughs ]
- [ Emily drinks gin ]
- [ Commotion in the hall ]
[ Noisy entrance ]
- Ah, ah, ah, ahhh.
- Aw, she took the hard stuff
it seems.
- [ Laughing ]
Well, it's not for little girls.
- Especially not little (tabbies).
- What I do was only a drop left
- Oh, well.
- Gawd, give it to her, Andy.
- Put a bit of a spark
into her.
- [ Henry laughs ]
- I never touched it before.
- Doesn't it make you
feel all funny?
[ H ] Ah, at's right,
a little bit (dairy) now?
- What's going on upstairs?
- Well, me and Alfred, here,
was having a game of cricket
- in the front hall.
D'you want to come
up and play with us?
Oh, I know the angle
of playing cards.
Oh, well, then we'll have
to play down here, won't we?
Oh, what sort of game?
Uh, guess your weight.
You know, like they
play in the fair grounds?
How much you weigh?
Um, not much.
I'm very frail.
We'll soon see.
[ Laughing ]
[ Henry laughs;
Emily screams ]
Oh, You're frightening me.
I'm afraid.
[ Teasing continues ]
- Stop it.
- Oh, you're nice when you're heavy.
- He doesn't want to
if you want to stop.
- Now, let me go, will ya?
Go away and leave me alone!
- Stop touching me!
- Player. Turn bat.
- Australia for the four.
Seven stone.
- Oh, never you mind!
[ Henry laughs ]
[ Rowdies depart noisily;
Emily gulps gin ]
Cough.
[ Giggles ]
[ Giggles ]
- Hm, hm.
Don't just stand there, girl.
Fetch me my fan, and tell Hudson
I'm ready to receive.
[ Giggles and laughs ]
- Here you are, sir.
- Oh, yeah.
- And your coat.
- A general.
- My dear Mrs. Graham,
cross your arm, uh,
- we'll have carriages for our
post tour, please. - Yeah, certainly.
[ Laughs and growls ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Howls of laughter
behind the door ]
- There you are.
- At the coronation I'll have you know.
- That is so, my dear friend.
Don't get too excited with unions,
- the marchioness was heard
to call out for pair of four-snaps.
- Four-snaps.
- For that comb?
[ Indistinct ]
It least transpired that the
poor old dear had dropped
her tiaras on the path.
[ Howls of laughter ]
- Oh, tiaras dressed in droves and droves.
- This the very last time you
can ask of me, Mr. Bellamy.
- She's at slump. She had 'em
all over the parish and rock.
- We'll have the pleasure of
seeing you at the races...next week.
- I'm afraid not.
- I'm going up to Scotland
to shoot pheasants.
- They go to Scotland
to shoot grouse.
- Well, I'm going to Scotland
to shoot peasants.
[ Kiss ]
- It is the latest thing,
don't you know.
- Ah, ha, haa.
- Some tingets.
- Mr. Bellamy,
- Yeouw.
tell Hudson
we're clean out of gin.
- Play ice in it.
- Put ice in it.
- Aw, no.
- Ring the bell.
- Ding-dong!
[ Laughter ]
- Hey! The boister on
the Thursday keeps...
[ Upstairs bell rings
Downstairs ]
[ Emily ignores it;
door closes ]
- Oh, I thought you'd heard,
Mrs. Graham's cook iron's died.
- Oh, my dear, at Ascot this year,
don't you know, the thing come off
- and then he said, "Phew off," and
couldn't do a blooming thing else.
[ Henry laughs ]
- ...he's gone.
- Well, I don't.
- Where there's a Graham.
- ...all the servants
can have whatever you want.
- We can put him again, Mr. ...
- I'm sorry.
[ Random shouting ]
[ Boisterous partying ]
[ Drunken revelry ]
[ Door opens;
James Bellamy enters ]
- You rang, my lady?
You rang, my lady?
Perhaps, you'll be requiring
something more to drink.
[ Door closes ]
- Who was that?
- Mr. James.
- Of Lt. James Rupert Bellamy
of the Life Guards.
- Bleeding son and heir,
that's all.
- Come on.
- Come on.
- He's locked it!
- Ruddy 'nuff.
- Alfie, try it again.
- He's got the keys, I expect.
What we gonna do?
- What we doin' back here?
What are we gonna do?
- I've said that being in.
- We're all gonna sack!
- I've said that being in!
- Sarah, what we gonna do?
What are we going to do?
Wait.
We shall just have
to wait, that's all.
[ James unlocks
and opens the door ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Alfred squelches giggle ]
Something amusing you, sir?
No, sir, I just got this cough.
Hudson, if you please.
After all, you rang for Hudson.
- Champagne, my lady?
- No.
No, thank you, Hudson.
- Very good, my lady.
- Nothing like Champagne to make
the party go, we always say.
I'm, uh... not altogether sure of the
names of all of your ladyship's guests.
- My guests?
- These are your guests.
- Ah,... that is Lady Alderton.
- That's Mrs. Graham.
- Behind me is Captain Albelow,
Mrs. Graham's friend.
- And Alfred's Mr. Bellamy.
- [ Meekly ] How d'you.
Lady Alderton.
Oh, uh, no thank you,
I don't.
[ Firmly ] Lady Alderton.
- Mrs. Graham. - Ah, goodness me,
just look at the time.
- We really must be going, Henry.
Must you, madame?
I was just thinking what a nice,
select little party this is.
Lucky that more people
don't know about it.
- More people?
If word got out about
what's been...No.
- Champagne.
- Captain Albelow?
- Sir?
[ Snap ]
- Madame.
I should greatly prefer
to be offered champagne
before my husband, Hudson.
Begging you ladyship's pardon.
How very remiss of me.
I shall speak to you later.
Very good, my lady.
- Music.
[ Music starts ]
Gulp.
- Lady Alderton.
Uh, no thank you, sir.
- No, thank you, Hudson.
No, thank you, Hudson.
Yes, please, Hudson.
- It's a party, and we drink
at parties, don't we?
[ Rose gulps ]
- So glad to see you're
enjoying yourselves.
[ Loud ] I shall tell you
when I require more, Hudson.
- Mr. Bellamy won't say "no."
- Mr. Bellamy enjoys his champagne.
- On top of gin.
- On top of everything?
- Everything is...tops.
[ Music plays on ]
There!
What a charming party.
And there are plenty
of bottles to go.
[ Time passes;
music is playing ]
[ Quiet, drunken remarks ]
[ Door opens,
closes ]
- Get up, Rose.
- Too, late for that.
Henry, we've got Enid up enough
so we can take her home,
now, come on, quick.
- I feel sick.
- Never mind, you're gonna
be sicker here now get up.
- Come on, you all.
- Red wine...
- What are you talking about?
I'm finished.
- Rose, take another quick tour
up and down the area.
- Come on, after you.
- Hurry up, Rose.
Not now.
- Come on now, Alfie.
- Aw, free or not we'll use...
- Alf, please don't stay here.
- No, no.
- Now, come on we each gonna...
- I'll take her.
- No, you're not gather...
- Shhh.
- Are we gonna make it?
- Take 'em out the front door,
and take 'em down the steps, Rose.
- Shhh.
- I'm not gonna make it.
- Come on. You're all so slow.
- Rise up.
- On the steps!
[ Door slams ]
[ Sounds of drunken
voices outside ]
[ Door opens;
James enters ]
Oh, oh, you can't
come in here.
The par--The party's over, Hudson.
Ah,...not Hudson anymore.
Mr. Bellamy's here.
[ Laughs ] Your friends are gonna feel
a bit rough in the morning, aren't they?
Make a nice story for your
friends, won't it, sir?
Ah, serve you all
damn well right.
Gallivanting all over the house.
There...a perfect end
to a perfect evening.
I don't think.
[ Gulps and sighs ]
[ Sighs ] A stupid girl!
Yes, sir.
Not you.
Ohhh, someone let you down, sir?
Yes, someone let me down.
What a shame, sir.
Damn it all.
It was all arranged.
Had arranged it all.
What happened then, sir?
Go off with another chap, did she?
[ Nodded ] That cad Brenner.
One of my best friends.
Hm, last time I tell him anything.
And she was a absolute corker, Sarah..
- Are you an absolute corker?
- Would you have liked
to be taken to the Savoy, Sarah?
To have danced all night?
To have been given
expensive perfume?
Hmm.
What a delightful little waist.
[ Sarah signs ]
Would you have liked to wear?
Take those clothes off.
- All of them.
- And put your own clothes on.
[ Door opens;
door closes ]
Ha, ha.
Is that what you wear?
[ Laughs ]
Go on.
Can I have my dress, please?
Please.
Please.
Uah!
[ Jerks and tears ]
[ Sobbing ] Ohh, youuu!
- Terribly sorry.
- Oh.
I really am...sorry.
I didn't know what I was doing.
How can I make it up to you?
You can't make it up.
[ Sobbing ]
People like you can't
make it up to people like me.
I'm terribly sorry,
I...just didn't think.
No, of course you didn't THINK.
You don't have to think
with us, do you?
We don't feel.
- Sorry.
- Not thinking again.
Here.
- Put this on.
It's not mine.
- You can't sit there like that.
It's what you wanted, isn't it?
[ Loud ] It's not mine!
For God's sake, it doesn't matter!
Take it.
Keep it.
- Sure that is...
- Thank you very much.
I'll wear it the next time
the king calls on me.
Huh, huh.
I don't know what to say.
No.
Nothing I can do?
[ Softly ] No.
You could say nothing
about our galivantings.
Galivantings?
About what you thought
when you came in.
Hmm.
You see we're gonna
lose our jobs.
And you know what
getting jobs is like.
- Bad, is it?
- It is bad.
Then I won't say a word.
Oh...
Thank you, sir.
I wasn't going to, anyway.
You weren't?
No.
I was just avenging myself
on all of you for my rotten evening.
Taking it out on you.
- Yes.
Not being much of an evening
all around, is it Sarah?
I don't suppose it has really, sir.
It was a lovely dress.
You'd like a lovely dress?
Yes.
Then you shall have one.
No.
- Why not?
- No.
- No favors asked.
- No, thank you sir!
I'll get one my own way.
Why won't you let me
make it up to you?
You have, now, if you'll
pardon me, sir.
Listen, why won't you
let me buy you a dress?
A dress and clothes
and...nice things.
What am I gonna
do with nice things?
But I will have them
one day.
Huh.
You're not happy with your lot.
No.
Are you?
- What do you want?
- Huh, huh.
What should I want?
I want for nothing.
Then you ought to
have been a soldier.
Begging your pardon, sir.
I'm happy doing what
is expected of me.
Then you are happy.
I don't see what any
damn business it is of yours.
Nobody ever asked what I wanted.
No.
They never do, do they?
You get shoved into things.
Just so long as I can fob
you off with any old thing.
- That's right.
- It's not right.
Hmm, you shouldn't
think so much.
It's wrong for people like us
to question things.
People like us.
Must remember what
we've been taught.
Everything has it's place.
It depends on where your place is.
Yes.
You know,...sometimes
I think we might muck it all up.
A thinking officer is cannon fodder.
- I shouldn't have come home
this evening, you know.
- That's what Hudson says.
- Huh?
- About thinking.
- Damn houses.
- To hell with the regiment.
To hell with everything.
Vive la r?publique!
- [ Sarah ] Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Come on.
My room.
[ Sound of glass breaking ]
[ Sigh ]
[ Opens door ]
What the hell was that?
[ Closes door ]
[ Sound of sweeping glass ]
- I cut meself.
- Ah, I just thought I'd
get the place cleaned up a lit...
Damn fool. Should have
waited 'till you're sober.
- Just trying to get it cleaned up...
- You're bloody useless.
Get to you bed, man.
- Just trying...
- Go on. Get out!
[ Alfred leaves ]
[ Kicks dust pan ]
[ Door closes ]
Go and get a dust pan and brush...
and a mop
and clear up that mess.
[ Door closes ]
Ugh, no...No, it's hard to scotch
the spots on it.
- No, tsk.
Picking up the pieces?
[ Alfred drinks noisily ]
You're balmy.
You don't know what you're doing.
Maybe.
Here.
- I'm not staying here.
Not after last night.
- Ha. He won't say anything.
- I couldn't care if he did.
- Well, you must be balmy.
- Maybe.
- But there won't be need to know.
Not where I'm going.
- Oh, where might that be?
- Where can you go?
Why don't you want your shoes?
- My cousin's.
- I'm gonna stay with
my cousin in Ilford.
- Oh, I didn't know you
had a cousin in Ilford.
- Why should you?
You don't own me.
- D'you want your shoes
back or not, Rose?
- You'll be needing them
in your next job.
Rose, whatever happens.
I'm not gonna get a job
like this again ever.
I don't care how hard I have to work,
I'm not going to spend my whole,
ruddy life
rotting away in an attic,
- wearing stupid second-hand clothes.
- Well, you don't have
to go now, do you?
- I do, Rose.
Oh, how much money
have you got, for instance
and where are you gonna go?
I've got 31 shillings, exactly,
and I am going to stay
with my cousin in Ilford.
[ Loud ] I've told you!
You don't know what
it's like out there.
This is the only way to
security you've ever known.
- You can't expect to waltz
out of here with no money,
- no references,
no proper ones anyway,
- and expect to get another
situation, just like that.
- We'll see.
- Oh, we'll see, all right.
- I mean, look at Kate.
- She used to go with
guardsman in the park.
- Caught the scarlet fever
and out she went.
- She used to say to me,
"Don't worry about me, Rose.
- "I'll look out for myself.
I'll be all right."
- The baby died, and now
she's on the streets,
- looking after herself.
- I'm not expecting, Rose.
- Ruddy days.
- Besides there aren't many jobs
outside for people like us.
- That's all you know.
I could learn to type.
- I could work in an office.
- There's no future in that.
- There's no security
in jobs like that.
- Rose, how can I make
you understand?
- I'm not interested in jobs.
- I'm interested in
something happening.
- Like this.
- Well, like what?
- This story in the magazine.
- I read it all my myself
except for a couple of
- difficult parts I couldn't manage.
- There's this girl, and she
works in a tea shop.
- She's no one special.
And everyday this man
comes in and sits all by himself
reading, and he never
says a word to her.
But, one day, she gets this
parcel through the post,
and it's this beautiful
necklace, no bracelet,
and an invitation
to have tea with him.
Well, they have the tea
right there where she works,
and the lady who owns
the shop was very angry,
and she gives her
the sack there and then.
But, it doesn't matter, you see,
because he has already asked
her to marry him.
Now they get married,
and they go away,
and they live in
this beautiful house
with lots of beautiful
horses and great big dogs.
And it all happened, Rose.
It's in there!
It didn't happen, Sarah.
That's fiction, not facts,
don't you know the difference?
Things like that don't happen.
I was painted by
a famous artist.
That happened.
That's not fiction.
These magazines, these stories,
they were invented for people like us!
And the men inside them,
you'd never meet men like that.
The kind of man you'd meet
would only be after one thing.
He wouldn't want
to take care of you.
Love you properly.
You've got some very odd
ideas about men, Rose.
Anyway.
But, you've got too much imagination.
[ Loud ] I can imagine the
kind of life we're living here.
Living everything through them,
like we was vegetables, had no feelings.
Helping them put on their clothes.
Admiring their finery. Wearing their...
stupid second-hand clothes.
[ Loud ] Well, I don't want a
second-hand life, Rose!
I want a life of my own.
And I don't want a life
like he had, either.
- Oh, what sort of life?
My father.
He won this for me at the fair.
There's only two things
I remember about my father.
That day at the fair,...and the
days we used to go down
to the hospital with him.
What was the matter with him?
Nothing was the matter with him,
except we were starving.
There was no work
so we starved.
So all the men used to go down
and hang around outside the hospital,
waiting for the bits
left over from the patients food.
I used to go with me dad, sometimes.
Sometimes all the kids did.
Then, this orderly would come out
with a great big plate
all piled high with a great
mess of scraps.
All left over from those...
patients...meals.
We'd all rush forward and
dig about for the best bits.
All them leftovers, Rose, from what
all them diseased people had been eating.
And you want to take
your chance against that?
In the hope of meeting
some nobleman in a tea shop.
He won that for me
at the shooting gallery.
Five bullseyes.
And coming home on the tram,
he turned to me right out of the blue
and he said, "There's a way
'round most things, Darling,
"and there's a lot more
to life than they let on."
That's what my father said.
And I believe him.
Look, 'cause Mr. James Bellamy
made love to you don't mean
that the doors of society are
bloody-well going to be flung open to you,
I mean who would look at you twice.
Look at yourself.
James Bellamy thinks a lot of me.
James Bellamy looked at me.
Oh, enough to make a fool of you.
He thinks a lot of me.
Oh?
Then why are you leaving?
Because he suggested I should.
Oh, I don't believe it.
You can believe what you like.
I just don't believe it.
He's going to set me up
in a little place of my own, Rose.
I'm not really going
to my cousin's.
He's gonna leave the army,
and he's gonna become a writer.
And then we gonna get married,
and for our honeymoon
we're gonna go to...
Beau de Guerre.
Then we're gonna come
back here and live.
And you can be my lady's maid, Rose.
So you can still
look after me.
And you believe all that?
No.
But you do.
I wouldn't look twice at him.
He doesn't know what he wants.
I don't know anything.
Put that back in
Lady Marjorie's wardrobe, will you?
Did he make love to you?
- That's all fiction.
Did he make love to you?
(There's not a bone in any, Rose.)
I mean, that's got
nothing to do with it.
- Can I have my magazine, please?
- What did you do that for, Rose?
- You know how much
they meant to me.
- Can you piece them
together again?
- I should think so.
Look, don't go.
- Stay and have a cup of tea.
- No...
But I'll make it,
and then we can have a talk.
No, I've got to go, Rose.
Please stay, Sarah.
See, I donno what I'd do if you go.
You're all I've got.
All I've got anywhere.
- [ Whining ] Rose!
- I've got to go.
- So you'll just have to get on.
[ Rose sighs ]
[ Door opens and closes ]
[ Sobbing ]
Sarah!
- Where are you going, Sarah.
- Out!
Through the front door.
The way I almost came in.
Mr. Bellamy.
[ Shouting ] Mr. Bellamy!
(Leave lana too bleak.)
[ Door opens and closes ]
Downstairs receives two visitors ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Idle chatter ]
[ All ] Hello, Sarah.
[ Sarah ] I worked on that chandelier.
[ Rose ] I'll be up later and have a look.
I hope you haven't cracked anything.
[ Mixed conversation ]
[ Alfred ]
We'll have a go with this one.
Venetian glass.
It was Mr. Hudson
what stopped Peggy's wages.
Not Lady Marjorie.
Mr. Hudson's very
queer about breakages.
(So if he was there for my girl.)
[ Enid ] I heard Mr. Becker
couldn't get loose, could he?
[ Henry ] Ha, ha, he'd done
most of the breaking, himself.
- Up to his (emportees).
[ R ] He can't leave it alone.
You know what some butlers are.
[ S ] Lady Marjorie wouldn't
stand for it, would she, Rose?
[ En ] Well, be that as it may.
We're quite happy.
- Glass of gin, Sarah?
- Aye?
- It's all right.
Enid brings it with her.
- Ohhh.
- Here, don't be (optimistic).
Captain Graham's too busy
turning the blind eye.
To everything mostly.
Particularly Mrs. Graham.
[ R ] Oh, Mr. Bellamy's ever so strict
unless he don't miss a thing.
[ H ] Oh, it's a pity.
[ En ] You're not very fashionable,
you people.
[ R ] Oh, yes, but Lady Marjorie
is hardly Mrs. Graham, is she?
- I mean, Lady Marjorie don't
need to be fashionable.
[ En ] Maybe not, Rose.
But, then it wasn't Mrs. Graham
got made the laughing stock
'o London, was it?
- Meaning exactly?
- You know, my dear Rose.
Our friend the society painter
made a right monkey out 'o your
- Lady Marjorie.
- Oh, it would take a great
- deal more than something so...
trivial to upset Lady Marjorie.
- Huh.
This is a respectable household.
How frightfully dull for you,
my poor girls. [ Laughter ]
Aw, we forgot, Enid, this is the
household that keeps their old bones
and sends the bottles back.
A rag and bone man
don't call here, Henry.
- Well, what do you do, Enid?
What do we do?
- I have to think
how I come by this.
- Where'd we go?
- Whether thy sins nor thy evil doings
be made known to the children
- of God in their innocence.
- All right, Alfred. You know
nothing like that goes on
in this household
Thank you very much.
I'd thank you put thine
own house in order.
Our Mrs. Bridges isn't
above losing the odd bit
of larder or a chicken
now and then is she, Sarah?
[ R ] That'll be quite enough,
thank you, Alfred.
[ R to En ] Well, go on.
Happy days.
[ H ] Our job of gin, Enid?
[ En ] This is a respectable
household, Henry.
- Oh, yeah.
- They've got (worriges to be got).
- By the way, once, we did hear
that Lady Marjorie's appearance
-at a certain ball wasn't
all that it should have been.
- What are you talking about?
[ En ] At the house.
- Where that dress
had been seen before.
[ R ] Never.
She never wears
a ball gown twice.
It was a new dress.
I saw it arrive.
From Paris.
That's right. Paris.
[ S ] In France.
- Patrick's?
- Mrs. Graham's came from Patrick's.
- [R ] Oh, where's that?
- [ H ] Toulouse.
- Where's that.
- Just a French designer.
That's where that is.
You know, Rose, Bequin.
- Oh, yes, it all comes
back to me now.
[ En ] Well, so.
[ S ] It was a beautiful dress,
and has a lovely train.
- It wasn't so long as
Mrs. Graham's.
- Now, that was a train.
It was the ever so long.
We all saw it.
It was the most beautiful dress
wasn't it, Emily?
[ Emily ] I've never seen
a dress like it.
[ H ] Well, I don't suppose
you saw a pair of shoes
- till you come over here.
- Or a pair of galoshes.
[ All laugh at Emily's expense ]
[ En ] Mrs. Graham's
train was so long
- as she came down the stairs,
it just covered all the stairs,
- didn't it Henry?
- Yeah, was really long.
Oh, yes, well Lady Marjorie,
as she just stood in the hall,
Roberts, her personal maid,
was still picking it up in the boudoir.
[ En ] Oh, yes, I'm sure.
[ R ] I can show it to you,
if you don't believe me.
If you've eyes big enough
to take it in.
- Lead on!
- Well, then.
All right.
[ All ] Ho, ho, hooo.
- I'll go in the lead.
[ H to Em ] Ah, she wants to stay here
and tell her beads.
[ En ] Aw, come on.
[ S ] I shall lead the way.
[ H ] Hey, where's the lavatory?
[ R ] It's in the area.
[ H ] ...an older man.
Don't you know that?
[ H ] We can't have that
in the boudoir, can I?
[ Door opens
and closes ]
[ Hesitant entrance
into the Upstairs ]
[ Alfred growls ]
- Shhh.
I don't know what we're
standing around for.
It's not going to bite us.
- Empty houses.
Whoo.
- Yes, but it's not gonna bite.
- Our hall is twice
the size of this one.
- I thought it might be.
[ S ] Ladies and gentlemen:
This is poor little me. [ Laughter ]
Aye, didn't we meet at one
of Mrs. Keppel's bridge evenings?
- Certainly, didn't you know,
I was the one getting pickled
- in the smoking room.
- Oh, what a grand slam
I had that night.
- Oh, that's what His Majesty's
calling it these days. [ Laughter ]
- Do not stand there, girl.
Go downstairs and tell Hudson
- to bring up the champagne.
- Oh, (High Haute Course)
serving the food, (pre-kept).
- It's all arranged.
- (You get the shatter ball,
now didn't you know!)
- (He's on fire!)
[ Laughing, then
loud knocking ]
[ S ] Blimey.
[ En ] What we gonna' do?
[ S ] Quick.
- What?
- I don't know, but quick.
- But, he can't hear
through walls, you know.
- Everybody get belowstairs.
- And, Alfred, the door.
Get me the...
[ Opens door ]
- Good evening to you.
[ Alfred squelches laugh ]
Good evening, uh,
police constable Halp, sir.
- Blimey, it's the law.
- Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
[ Outside ] Now, then...
[ Alfred squelches laugh ]
- And what can I do for you,
Constable?
Well, I've had certain funny reports
of servants doing what they should
not ought to have been doing.
Oh, not here, Constable, surely.
Well, I'm afraid so, sir.
- Servants have been seen,
when they should not ought to have.
- Perhaps you'd better
come inside, Constable,
- and we can discuss
the matter further.
[ Henry sniggers;
Rose squelches a laugh ]
[ Everybody laughs
and scolds]
- Tell me more about this
famous gown, Rose. Or have you
- had second thoughts?
- Of course I haven't.
Come on.
[ H ] Were you really scared?
[ S ] No, it takes more
than that to scare me.
[ A ] Ah, but it's early days,
isn't it Henry?
- Oh, that's right, Alfred.
Who knows what we might
- get up to.
I mean...
- We could get up to
all sorts of things.
- Come here, Millie!
[ Laughter ]
- Rose says, if they knew
we're coming on...
- Ah, you mind your own
business, Miss High and Mighty.
- Off we go.
Play a little (gull) game.
- You guys want to play.
We need four or (nimay).
- We gentlemen have more
important matters to attend to.
- Isn't that right, your grace?
- Ah, well, absolutely, my dear chap.
That'll be all, thank you.
- A little game of cricket, my lad?
- Ah, cricket...
- Alfred, watch it.
Remember what happened last time.
- Well, what did happen last time?
- Nothing, but,
just be careful, that's all.
[ Laughter ]
- One wicket.
- I'll bring it
- Over here.
- Where's the balls?
- Over there.
- Right.
We have it.
- One ball.
One bat.
- And all that middle
and leg (offing).
- [ Cricket game jargon ]
- Right!
[ R ] Hope the blind's drawn.
[ R ] Don't want that
opera site spying on us.
[ S ] Of course it's drawn.
[ S ] I'll light the lights.
[ R ] Right.
[ R ] I think I'll lock the door.
[ S ] Don't go on.
[ S ] It's the way we're sure
of having enough. [ Door slams shut ]
[ S ] Who do you think's
gonna come in here?
[ R ] Mr. Hudson, all the way from
(the Isle of Lewis), he might
[ R ] to find out if you is doing.
[ R ] Oh, see there, Enid, at what I find.
[ En ] Oh, yes, now that...
that's not bad.
[ En ] That, no, it's not bad at all.
[ S ] Lady Marjorie has exquisite taste.
[ En ] Exquisite taste.
What do you know about it?
[ En ] You're never gonna wear
dresses like this, my girl.
[ S ] If you'll wish hard enough.
[ R ] D'you know that
kind of really suits you,
[ R ] Sarah.
[ S ] Oh, thank you Rose.
[ S ] I shall have lots of
dresses in this color...
[ En ] And this material, all so right
and for this famous dress.
[ R ] Give us a hand, Sarah.
[ S ] Like mine.
[ R ] See the train.
[ S ] All that hand-stitched clothes?
[ R ] There.
[ S ] Are you loving it?
No.
No, I don't think much of that.
[ En ] No, there's not a patch...
[ R ] Not a patch!
Now, Mrs. Graham's
was really was something.
Yes, I can well imagine.
But you see, Enid, what you
don't understand is
the beauty of a ball gown
lies in the subtlety of its cut in.
- Isn't that so, Sarah?
- Yes, that's right, Rose.
- It is in the subtlety of the cut in.
- Oh, yes.
- You see, Enid, a dress like this
has to be seen on to be appreciated.
- It's the only way to judge.
[ En ] Well, put it on, then.
- Are you mad?
- I've heard it fits very clutching.
- Yeah, but it wouldn't
fit me, would it?
- Anyway, I couldn't do it justice.
Not with my hair like this.
- Now, well, it'll be nice
if I can tell the others
- I've, uh, seen it and everything.
[ S ] All right.
[ En ] Ooh laa. [ S ] Come on in.
[ En ] [ Clapping ] Good job.
[ En ] Sarah! [ Laughing ]
- All right, I'll get a (hoop)
around the clothes.
- Oh, don't you think we should, Rose?
- Yeah, In for a penny, [ in for a pound ].
- [ Clap ] I like it now,
Do you?
- Here, you take that.
- When I was little we used to go
to see me uncle in the country.
- And he had this great big box
full of old clothes and everything.
- Lovely.
- Oh, that's pretty.
I like that.
- [ Claps shoes; claps hands ]
[ S ] Ohhhh. Dress me!
[ Both bowing ]
- With pleasure, lady.
- Yes, ma'am.
Agh!
[ Click; snap ]
And it's (called for a
sikrah into the bouveier).
And there's a century
for (Ranjitsenji).
- (Cawvender.)
[ Click, click ]
- And England did clear
for 542 phenom wickets.
- Uh, hm.
- (Be that)?
- Tea in the mall.
- Gin in the mall?
- Back to the pavilion.
- (Glad to....) - Where the gin is.
- After you, Dr. Grace.
- Oh.
- Um.
- [ Enid laughs ]
- [ Emily drinks gin ]
- [ Commotion in the hall ]
[ Noisy entrance ]
- Ah, ah, ah, ahhh.
- Aw, she took the hard stuff
it seems.
- [ Laughing ]
Well, it's not for little girls.
- Especially not little (tabbies).
- What I do was only a drop left
- Oh, well.
- Gawd, give it to her, Andy.
- Put a bit of a spark
into her.
- [ Henry laughs ]
- I never touched it before.
- Doesn't it make you
feel all funny?
[ H ] Ah, at's right,
a little bit (dairy) now?
- What's going on upstairs?
- Well, me and Alfred, here,
was having a game of cricket
- in the front hall.
D'you want to come
up and play with us?
Oh, I know the angle
of playing cards.
Oh, well, then we'll have
to play down here, won't we?
Oh, what sort of game?
Uh, guess your weight.
You know, like they
play in the fair grounds?
How much you weigh?
Um, not much.
I'm very frail.
We'll soon see.
[ Laughing ]
[ Henry laughs;
Emily screams ]
Oh, You're frightening me.
I'm afraid.
[ Teasing continues ]
- Stop it.
- Oh, you're nice when you're heavy.
- He doesn't want to
if you want to stop.
- Now, let me go, will ya?
Go away and leave me alone!
- Stop touching me!
- Player. Turn bat.
- Australia for the four.
Seven stone.
- Oh, never you mind!
[ Henry laughs ]
[ Rowdies depart noisily;
Emily gulps gin ]
Cough.
[ Giggles ]
[ Giggles ]
- Hm, hm.
Don't just stand there, girl.
Fetch me my fan, and tell Hudson
I'm ready to receive.
[ Giggles and laughs ]
- Here you are, sir.
- Oh, yeah.
- And your coat.
- A general.
- My dear Mrs. Graham,
cross your arm, uh,
- we'll have carriages for our
post tour, please. - Yeah, certainly.
[ Laughs and growls ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Howls of laughter
behind the door ]
- There you are.
- At the coronation I'll have you know.
- That is so, my dear friend.
Don't get too excited with unions,
- the marchioness was heard
to call out for pair of four-snaps.
- Four-snaps.
- For that comb?
[ Indistinct ]
It least transpired that the
poor old dear had dropped
her tiaras on the path.
[ Howls of laughter ]
- Oh, tiaras dressed in droves and droves.
- This the very last time you
can ask of me, Mr. Bellamy.
- She's at slump. She had 'em
all over the parish and rock.
- We'll have the pleasure of
seeing you at the races...next week.
- I'm afraid not.
- I'm going up to Scotland
to shoot pheasants.
- They go to Scotland
to shoot grouse.
- Well, I'm going to Scotland
to shoot peasants.
[ Kiss ]
- It is the latest thing,
don't you know.
- Ah, ha, haa.
- Some tingets.
- Mr. Bellamy,
- Yeouw.
tell Hudson
we're clean out of gin.
- Play ice in it.
- Put ice in it.
- Aw, no.
- Ring the bell.
- Ding-dong!
[ Laughter ]
- Hey! The boister on
the Thursday keeps...
[ Upstairs bell rings
Downstairs ]
[ Emily ignores it;
door closes ]
- Oh, I thought you'd heard,
Mrs. Graham's cook iron's died.
- Oh, my dear, at Ascot this year,
don't you know, the thing come off
- and then he said, "Phew off," and
couldn't do a blooming thing else.
[ Henry laughs ]
- ...he's gone.
- Well, I don't.
- Where there's a Graham.
- ...all the servants
can have whatever you want.
- We can put him again, Mr. ...
- I'm sorry.
[ Random shouting ]
[ Boisterous partying ]
[ Drunken revelry ]
[ Door opens;
James Bellamy enters ]
- You rang, my lady?
You rang, my lady?
Perhaps, you'll be requiring
something more to drink.
[ Door closes ]
- Who was that?
- Mr. James.
- Of Lt. James Rupert Bellamy
of the Life Guards.
- Bleeding son and heir,
that's all.
- Come on.
- Come on.
- He's locked it!
- Ruddy 'nuff.
- Alfie, try it again.
- He's got the keys, I expect.
What we gonna do?
- What we doin' back here?
What are we gonna do?
- I've said that being in.
- We're all gonna sack!
- I've said that being in!
- Sarah, what we gonna do?
What are we going to do?
Wait.
We shall just have
to wait, that's all.
[ James unlocks
and opens the door ]
[ Door closes ]
[ Alfred squelches giggle ]
Something amusing you, sir?
No, sir, I just got this cough.
Hudson, if you please.
After all, you rang for Hudson.
- Champagne, my lady?
- No.
No, thank you, Hudson.
- Very good, my lady.
- Nothing like Champagne to make
the party go, we always say.
I'm, uh... not altogether sure of the
names of all of your ladyship's guests.
- My guests?
- These are your guests.
- Ah,... that is Lady Alderton.
- That's Mrs. Graham.
- Behind me is Captain Albelow,
Mrs. Graham's friend.
- And Alfred's Mr. Bellamy.
- [ Meekly ] How d'you.
Lady Alderton.
Oh, uh, no thank you,
I don't.
[ Firmly ] Lady Alderton.
- Mrs. Graham. - Ah, goodness me,
just look at the time.
- We really must be going, Henry.
Must you, madame?
I was just thinking what a nice,
select little party this is.
Lucky that more people
don't know about it.
- More people?
If word got out about
what's been...No.
- Champagne.
- Captain Albelow?
- Sir?
[ Snap ]
- Madame.
I should greatly prefer
to be offered champagne
before my husband, Hudson.
Begging you ladyship's pardon.
How very remiss of me.
I shall speak to you later.
Very good, my lady.
- Music.
[ Music starts ]
Gulp.
- Lady Alderton.
Uh, no thank you, sir.
- No, thank you, Hudson.
No, thank you, Hudson.
Yes, please, Hudson.
- It's a party, and we drink
at parties, don't we?
[ Rose gulps ]
- So glad to see you're
enjoying yourselves.
[ Loud ] I shall tell you
when I require more, Hudson.
- Mr. Bellamy won't say "no."
- Mr. Bellamy enjoys his champagne.
- On top of gin.
- On top of everything?
- Everything is...tops.
[ Music plays on ]
There!
What a charming party.
And there are plenty
of bottles to go.
[ Time passes;
music is playing ]
[ Quiet, drunken remarks ]
[ Door opens,
closes ]
- Get up, Rose.
- Too, late for that.
Henry, we've got Enid up enough
so we can take her home,
now, come on, quick.
- I feel sick.
- Never mind, you're gonna
be sicker here now get up.
- Come on, you all.
- Red wine...
- What are you talking about?
I'm finished.
- Rose, take another quick tour
up and down the area.
- Come on, after you.
- Hurry up, Rose.
Not now.
- Come on now, Alfie.
- Aw, free or not we'll use...
- Alf, please don't stay here.
- No, no.
- Now, come on we each gonna...
- I'll take her.
- No, you're not gather...
- Shhh.
- Are we gonna make it?
- Take 'em out the front door,
and take 'em down the steps, Rose.
- Shhh.
- I'm not gonna make it.
- Come on. You're all so slow.
- Rise up.
- On the steps!
[ Door slams ]
[ Sounds of drunken
voices outside ]
[ Door opens;
James enters ]
Oh, oh, you can't
come in here.
The par--The party's over, Hudson.
Ah,...not Hudson anymore.
Mr. Bellamy's here.
[ Laughs ] Your friends are gonna feel
a bit rough in the morning, aren't they?
Make a nice story for your
friends, won't it, sir?
Ah, serve you all
damn well right.
Gallivanting all over the house.
There...a perfect end
to a perfect evening.
I don't think.
[ Gulps and sighs ]
[ Sighs ] A stupid girl!
Yes, sir.
Not you.
Ohhh, someone let you down, sir?
Yes, someone let me down.
What a shame, sir.
Damn it all.
It was all arranged.
Had arranged it all.
What happened then, sir?
Go off with another chap, did she?
[ Nodded ] That cad Brenner.
One of my best friends.
Hm, last time I tell him anything.
And she was a absolute corker, Sarah..
- Are you an absolute corker?
- Would you have liked
to be taken to the Savoy, Sarah?
To have danced all night?
To have been given
expensive perfume?
Hmm.
What a delightful little waist.
[ Sarah signs ]
Would you have liked to wear?
Take those clothes off.
- All of them.
- And put your own clothes on.
[ Door opens;
door closes ]
Ha, ha.
Is that what you wear?
[ Laughs ]
Go on.
Can I have my dress, please?
Please.
Please.
Uah!
[ Jerks and tears ]
[ Sobbing ] Ohh, youuu!
- Terribly sorry.
- Oh.
I really am...sorry.
I didn't know what I was doing.
How can I make it up to you?
You can't make it up.
[ Sobbing ]
People like you can't
make it up to people like me.
I'm terribly sorry,
I...just didn't think.
No, of course you didn't THINK.
You don't have to think
with us, do you?
We don't feel.
- Sorry.
- Not thinking again.
Here.
- Put this on.
It's not mine.
- You can't sit there like that.
It's what you wanted, isn't it?
[ Loud ] It's not mine!
For God's sake, it doesn't matter!
Take it.
Keep it.
- Sure that is...
- Thank you very much.
I'll wear it the next time
the king calls on me.
Huh, huh.
I don't know what to say.
No.
Nothing I can do?
[ Softly ] No.
You could say nothing
about our galivantings.
Galivantings?
About what you thought
when you came in.
Hmm.
You see we're gonna
lose our jobs.
And you know what
getting jobs is like.
- Bad, is it?
- It is bad.
Then I won't say a word.
Oh...
Thank you, sir.
I wasn't going to, anyway.
You weren't?
No.
I was just avenging myself
on all of you for my rotten evening.
Taking it out on you.
- Yes.
Not being much of an evening
all around, is it Sarah?
I don't suppose it has really, sir.
It was a lovely dress.
You'd like a lovely dress?
Yes.
Then you shall have one.
No.
- Why not?
- No.
- No favors asked.
- No, thank you sir!
I'll get one my own way.
Why won't you let me
make it up to you?
You have, now, if you'll
pardon me, sir.
Listen, why won't you
let me buy you a dress?
A dress and clothes
and...nice things.
What am I gonna
do with nice things?
But I will have them
one day.
Huh.
You're not happy with your lot.
No.
Are you?
- What do you want?
- Huh, huh.
What should I want?
I want for nothing.
Then you ought to
have been a soldier.
Begging your pardon, sir.
I'm happy doing what
is expected of me.
Then you are happy.
I don't see what any
damn business it is of yours.
Nobody ever asked what I wanted.
No.
They never do, do they?
You get shoved into things.
Just so long as I can fob
you off with any old thing.
- That's right.
- It's not right.
Hmm, you shouldn't
think so much.
It's wrong for people like us
to question things.
People like us.
Must remember what
we've been taught.
Everything has it's place.
It depends on where your place is.
Yes.
You know,...sometimes
I think we might muck it all up.
A thinking officer is cannon fodder.
- I shouldn't have come home
this evening, you know.
- That's what Hudson says.
- Huh?
- About thinking.
- Damn houses.
- To hell with the regiment.
To hell with everything.
Vive la r?publique!
- [ Sarah ] Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Come on.
My room.
[ Sound of glass breaking ]
[ Sigh ]
[ Opens door ]
What the hell was that?
[ Closes door ]
[ Sound of sweeping glass ]
- I cut meself.
- Ah, I just thought I'd
get the place cleaned up a lit...
Damn fool. Should have
waited 'till you're sober.
- Just trying to get it cleaned up...
- You're bloody useless.
Get to you bed, man.
- Just trying...
- Go on. Get out!
[ Alfred leaves ]
[ Kicks dust pan ]
[ Door closes ]
Go and get a dust pan and brush...
and a mop
and clear up that mess.
[ Door closes ]
Ugh, no...No, it's hard to scotch
the spots on it.
- No, tsk.
Picking up the pieces?
[ Alfred drinks noisily ]
You're balmy.
You don't know what you're doing.
Maybe.
Here.
- I'm not staying here.
Not after last night.
- Ha. He won't say anything.
- I couldn't care if he did.
- Well, you must be balmy.
- Maybe.
- But there won't be need to know.
Not where I'm going.
- Oh, where might that be?
- Where can you go?
Why don't you want your shoes?
- My cousin's.
- I'm gonna stay with
my cousin in Ilford.
- Oh, I didn't know you
had a cousin in Ilford.
- Why should you?
You don't own me.
- D'you want your shoes
back or not, Rose?
- You'll be needing them
in your next job.
Rose, whatever happens.
I'm not gonna get a job
like this again ever.
I don't care how hard I have to work,
I'm not going to spend my whole,
ruddy life
rotting away in an attic,
- wearing stupid second-hand clothes.
- Well, you don't have
to go now, do you?
- I do, Rose.
Oh, how much money
have you got, for instance
and where are you gonna go?
I've got 31 shillings, exactly,
and I am going to stay
with my cousin in Ilford.
[ Loud ] I've told you!
You don't know what
it's like out there.
This is the only way to
security you've ever known.
- You can't expect to waltz
out of here with no money,
- no references,
no proper ones anyway,
- and expect to get another
situation, just like that.
- We'll see.
- Oh, we'll see, all right.
- I mean, look at Kate.
- She used to go with
guardsman in the park.
- Caught the scarlet fever
and out she went.
- She used to say to me,
"Don't worry about me, Rose.
- "I'll look out for myself.
I'll be all right."
- The baby died, and now
she's on the streets,
- looking after herself.
- I'm not expecting, Rose.
- Ruddy days.
- Besides there aren't many jobs
outside for people like us.
- That's all you know.
I could learn to type.
- I could work in an office.
- There's no future in that.
- There's no security
in jobs like that.
- Rose, how can I make
you understand?
- I'm not interested in jobs.
- I'm interested in
something happening.
- Like this.
- Well, like what?
- This story in the magazine.
- I read it all my myself
except for a couple of
- difficult parts I couldn't manage.
- There's this girl, and she
works in a tea shop.
- She's no one special.
And everyday this man
comes in and sits all by himself
reading, and he never
says a word to her.
But, one day, she gets this
parcel through the post,
and it's this beautiful
necklace, no bracelet,
and an invitation
to have tea with him.
Well, they have the tea
right there where she works,
and the lady who owns
the shop was very angry,
and she gives her
the sack there and then.
But, it doesn't matter, you see,
because he has already asked
her to marry him.
Now they get married,
and they go away,
and they live in
this beautiful house
with lots of beautiful
horses and great big dogs.
And it all happened, Rose.
It's in there!
It didn't happen, Sarah.
That's fiction, not facts,
don't you know the difference?
Things like that don't happen.
I was painted by
a famous artist.
That happened.
That's not fiction.
These magazines, these stories,
they were invented for people like us!
And the men inside them,
you'd never meet men like that.
The kind of man you'd meet
would only be after one thing.
He wouldn't want
to take care of you.
Love you properly.
You've got some very odd
ideas about men, Rose.
Anyway.
But, you've got too much imagination.
[ Loud ] I can imagine the
kind of life we're living here.
Living everything through them,
like we was vegetables, had no feelings.
Helping them put on their clothes.
Admiring their finery. Wearing their...
stupid second-hand clothes.
[ Loud ] Well, I don't want a
second-hand life, Rose!
I want a life of my own.
And I don't want a life
like he had, either.
- Oh, what sort of life?
My father.
He won this for me at the fair.
There's only two things
I remember about my father.
That day at the fair,...and the
days we used to go down
to the hospital with him.
What was the matter with him?
Nothing was the matter with him,
except we were starving.
There was no work
so we starved.
So all the men used to go down
and hang around outside the hospital,
waiting for the bits
left over from the patients food.
I used to go with me dad, sometimes.
Sometimes all the kids did.
Then, this orderly would come out
with a great big plate
all piled high with a great
mess of scraps.
All left over from those...
patients...meals.
We'd all rush forward and
dig about for the best bits.
All them leftovers, Rose, from what
all them diseased people had been eating.
And you want to take
your chance against that?
In the hope of meeting
some nobleman in a tea shop.
He won that for me
at the shooting gallery.
Five bullseyes.
And coming home on the tram,
he turned to me right out of the blue
and he said, "There's a way
'round most things, Darling,
"and there's a lot more
to life than they let on."
That's what my father said.
And I believe him.
Look, 'cause Mr. James Bellamy
made love to you don't mean
that the doors of society are
bloody-well going to be flung open to you,
I mean who would look at you twice.
Look at yourself.
James Bellamy thinks a lot of me.
James Bellamy looked at me.
Oh, enough to make a fool of you.
He thinks a lot of me.
Oh?
Then why are you leaving?
Because he suggested I should.
Oh, I don't believe it.
You can believe what you like.
I just don't believe it.
He's going to set me up
in a little place of my own, Rose.
I'm not really going
to my cousin's.
He's gonna leave the army,
and he's gonna become a writer.
And then we gonna get married,
and for our honeymoon
we're gonna go to...
Beau de Guerre.
Then we're gonna come
back here and live.
And you can be my lady's maid, Rose.
So you can still
look after me.
And you believe all that?
No.
But you do.
I wouldn't look twice at him.
He doesn't know what he wants.
I don't know anything.
Put that back in
Lady Marjorie's wardrobe, will you?
Did he make love to you?
- That's all fiction.
Did he make love to you?
(There's not a bone in any, Rose.)
I mean, that's got
nothing to do with it.
- Can I have my magazine, please?
- What did you do that for, Rose?
- You know how much
they meant to me.
- Can you piece them
together again?
- I should think so.
Look, don't go.
- Stay and have a cup of tea.
- No...
But I'll make it,
and then we can have a talk.
No, I've got to go, Rose.
Please stay, Sarah.
See, I donno what I'd do if you go.
You're all I've got.
All I've got anywhere.
- [ Whining ] Rose!
- I've got to go.
- So you'll just have to get on.
[ Rose sighs ]
[ Door opens and closes ]
[ Sobbing ]
Sarah!
- Where are you going, Sarah.
- Out!
Through the front door.
The way I almost came in.
Mr. Bellamy.
[ Shouting ] Mr. Bellamy!
(Leave lana too bleak.)
[ Door opens and closes ]