"The night before Joe went back to the front..." "Gotcha!" "Close the shutters, Bert." "Bed now." "I've lost one." "Bert, bed." "John, the cow shed door needs looking at." "It can wait till tomorrow." "And by that time, we'll have our livelihood wandering about the High Peak mooing at the moon." "I can't do it, John." "I can't do everything." "You've not been sleeping." "My grandfather used to have two sleeps." "Him and his brother, both." "A first sleep and then, a second sleep." "To bed when it got dark, then, up in the middle of the night for a cup of tea and a natter." "He used to call it a "natter" when he told me about it because it was a woman's word." "Then, back to bed for the second sleep." "Then, up at first light and out on the hill." "What did they talk about?" "Their dogs." "Like all shepherds, they pretended not to care about them, but it's all they really talked about." "Fed on porridge once a day and shot when their working days were over." "They always had a dog inside on its last night." "And there was a big crack of thunder..." "Go on." "And the dog did nothing more than sit up a little." "And my grandfather put his hand on her head and just rested it there." "Just for a moment." "Guidance really, no more." "The gentlest thing I ever saw." "I'm glad he's not drinking." "Tell him that before you go." "He'd like that." "What are these for?" "Cutters." "What for?" "Barbed wire..." "Before an attack, the bombardment is supposed to..." ""The, the wire will be cleared," they say." "You can count on plum puddings." "But it isn't." "There's normally one hole in the wire and all the men funnel into it." ""Don't bunch!" we're told, "Don't!" "Whatever you do!"" "But you've got to, Mother, there's no choice, you can't run at barbed wire." "The German machine gunners direct all their fire into the funnel." "And everybody dies." "Joe..." "Take this with you." "Night, son." "I'll sit for a while." "I was thinking... we should have another." "Another what?" "Child." "Why do you say that now?" "I don't know." "He's going to live." "Our son is going to survive this war." "I found it." "Mama." "Do what you can." "What do you mean?" "Joe?" "When it's over... it has to be a better world." "Don't watch me go, Bert." "Son?" "She's under control." "Unlikely to embarrass you in public." "Bitterness doesn't suit you." "You mean you don't want a dangerous mother." "Doesn't it exhaust you, Edmund?" ""How am I looking in the eyes of the world?"" "Is there a more vain pursuit than politics?" "Hide one's own mother, if one has to." "Your feelings have got the better of you." "The thing about being humiliated, as I have been, is that it can't get worse - which is a kind of freedom." "I'm with Rousseau, Edmund." "As much truth as possible." "Here we are." "Meet me in the Lamb." "One o'clock." "Who are you?" "NUBSO." "And what do you want with me?" "I'm here to change your life." "Here she is." "The man of the family." "There's hardly any light at the end of the day, so you can't see what you're doing and the eyes are tired anyway after a 12-hour shift." "We've asked for candles and lamps but they've told us to bring our own and we just can't afford to do that." "There's been accidents - a thumb broken and half a finger cut off." "Someday soon something terrible is going to happen." "It doesn't make sense, more light would mean we'd make more boots, wouldn't it?" "Oh, I'm sorry, am I talking too much?" "You've got fire in your belly." "I'm just after a better world, Mr Nubso." "Why are you laughing?" "National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives " "NUBSO." "My name is Chalcraft." "I'd best be getting back." "Your move." "Who you playing?" "Anyone who's passing." "Make a move, union man." "How do you know who I am?" "I was a detective and you like the sound of your own voice." "Where were you wounded?" "Mons." "No, I meant where..." "Knee." "My job is to make sure the work is there when the war's over." "I've seen too many men like you..." "What about the women?" "The day the war ends, I want every man in work." "Which means the women back in the home." "I might be in a position to help." "I need to get up!" "Get up!" "I need to go..." "Get up." "You're all right." "That's it, there we go." "Right up!" "Joe, up, up." "No!" "Ready?" "I can't go out there." "You can..." "What's happened?" "Joe?" "Sit down." "I can't." "You can, your mother's here, you can." "That's it." "Come here..." "What do we do?" "He's a deserter." "Yes." "Is he?" "Yes, of course." "Oh, God." "Erm... has anyone, did, did...?" "They'll know." "As soon as he doesn't report back from leave." "So..." "They'll come for him." "But we've, er, we've got time until then..." "I mean, you, you, you won't tell anyone until we've..." "Thank you." "They shouldn't be disturbed." "What?" "The Middletons." "I have to go there." "He's found God, hasn't he?" "You've handed him on." "The journey's just begun." "It's a long way from sin to salvation." "Do you know what I hate?" "How neat and tidy and all dressed-up you are." "Not your dress." "Your speech." "Martyred Martha - in love with giving and saving..." "In love with herself." "Him not going back is the same as him running away." "That's what they'll say, isn't it?" "Shh." "He'll hear you." "Isn't it, Grace?" "We'll get Doctor." "Let me talk to him." "We can't wait!" "You heard Bairstow." "They're coming for him." "And when they come for him," "I want to be able to say that my son is not well." "Where's me cap, Mother?" "You were a big baby." "Warm and fat." "There's a place between the cheek and the shoulder." "When you haven't had a baby, it doesn't exist... and it does when you have." "Something here." "That's where a baby's head sits." "And it's the smell... and it's the warmth." "And when you're away..." "I can lean my head into it with a tilt... and there you are." "And if I were dead?" "Would it be there?" "My Henry told me he loved me when we first met because of my baking." "He were sat on the edge of my sofa, with his little legs touching the floor." "And his hands in his lap all polite and he looked at me with his little doggy eyes and he said," "I knew he was going to say it," ""More cake, more cake."" "We were married a month later." "Before we were married," "Mr Hankin... he, er, showed himself very keen." "I mean, without actually doing anything improper." "Now we're married..." "Not so keen?" "No." "It's erm... it's more he doesn't..." "Keen, yes." "But erm..." "Does his...?" "Does it...?" "Yes." "Usually." "Then no." "Does it ever go in?" "No." "I don't think so." "You'd know, Norma." "Has it ever?" "No." "Is it me?" "Norma?" "Yes?" "Does he love you?" "Of course." "Do you love him?" "He's me husband." "Love him." "Tell him how much you love him." "Good bath?" "Yes." "Lots of chat?" "Uh-huh." "What's the story this week?" "Something you don't want to tell me." "Now, I am excited." "I love a good story before bed." "Headaches?" "Stomach pain?" "Tremors." "Fatigue?" "Shell shock." "Shell." "Shock." "Physical cause, physical symptoms, physical cure." "Probably some toxins have got into the blood from a shell blast." "So... rest, good food and motherly love." "When does his leave end?" "Was there something that...?" "A shell landing nearby?" "Norma told us about a man who was buried under earth." "Punishment." "What was that?" "There was no shell." "How can that be?" "You heard Doctor." "Why is it called shell shock?" "He just said, he said it was punishment." "Punishment?" "I want you to go and stay with Margaret." "Go now." "Do you understand?" "I want to stay here..." "Go and do as you're told!" "Go on." "Punished for what?" "You're a good soldier." "You've been in France near on two years." "Leave him." "No." "John." "What did you do?" "It was the postcard." "What?" "They found out." "Found out what?" "John..." "No!" "What postcard?" "It was for Bert." "We didn't get it." "Did we, Mother?" "It was coded." "So he'd know what were happening at the front." "They, they must have found out what I were doing." "They confronted me with it." "I didn't feel like taking it from some pimply officer, so I pushed him!" "He fell backwards, he lost his balance." "You can't do that to an officer." "What did they do?" "I might have been shot." "For insub... in... insub... insub..." "What's... what's the word?" "What's the bloody word?" "!" "What's the matter with me?" "!" "What did they do to you?" "They tied me wrists... and me feet to the wheel of a cart." "And left me out all night." "In the open." "Behind the lines, so there's no... but you, you hear everything... and you feel..." "I just, just, I felt so... so... exposed." "Because of a... postcard?" "Let the union in." "Why?" "You don't want to deal with an angry woman when you can deal with patient men." "Let the union in, keep wages low, the union won't fight you." "Until the war is over." "And when will that be?" "Ten years?" "20?" "What?" "You've been taking my advice so far, which means my value to you is higher than it was." "I'll see to it." "I've got something for you on Hankin." "Now..." "What's your news about Mr Hankin?" "Impotentia coeundi." "Mr Bairstow is gambling on my not knowing Latin, Edmund." "Well, then, he's safe." "As long as I don't ask you for a translation." "Er..." "He can't fuck his wife." "Oh, look, here they come." "Hard times, Mrs Hankin." "I'm afraid the luncheon may disappoint." "One just can't get what one wants." "My husband's stock is..." "Low, hmm." "All one asks for is a lick of butter." "Imagine what one could do with a lick of butter, Mrs Hankin." "Good day, Mr Bairstow." "Mr Bairstow knows Latin." "He speaks Latin." "Where do you think he learned to do that?" "Not public school." "More wine, Mother?" "How's your Latin, Mr Hankin?" "Quite good, isn't it, Arnold?" "Oh, shall we test him?" "What do you think?" "What was it that Mr Bairstow said this afternoon?" "I can't remember." "Oh, I'm sure you do, Edmund." "He was speaking about your business partner." "Impotentia coeundi." "Yes?" "Yes, that's it." "Anyone?" "Joe Middleton." "Still here." "Hasn't gone back." "Why not?" "He can't, it seems." "My question is whether I should tell the authorities?" "He's not a malingerer." "Have you met him?" "No." "No need to." "The rural poor are tough, they know what it is to endure cold and wet and they know how to slit a pig's throat, hear it squeal, watch it die and do it all over again." "Well, the pig doesn't fight back." "And the big pigs don't send howitzer shells into the farmyard in support of their fellow creatures." "In confronting danger, a man requires one of two things - courage or stupidity." "Why is it that everything you say, I feel you've rehearsed before?" "Or even heard before." "Why are you attacking me?" "To see what sort of a man is seducing my daughter so soon after the death of her father." "Mother!" "Edmund?" "You must understand, it's been such a short time since..." "My husband blew his brains out." "You were saying..." "Perhaps we should, er..." "No, no, er... courage or stupidity?" "Stupidity is preferable, because it requires no effort and it has nothing... fear, doubt, imagination to overcome." "We won at Waterloo because Wellington's red squares were made up of the idiot poor." "Like the idiot poor from this village who died on the Somme?" "I used to hunt, Doctor Wylie, and the last time I went out, my horse refused to jump a hedge, only he made this decision at the very last moment and he chose not to tell me about it in advance." "I came off." "But, you know, I wasn't in the least hurt." "And something told me to stand up straightaway." "I don't know, perhaps I was trying to prove to myself that I wasn't really injured." "Anyway, it was a mistake, because the rest of the hunt was on me." "20 horses at full gallop, all committed to jumping that hedge, all coming at me." "I stood stock-still and waited to die." "And they all went round me." "If, at Waterloo, one had stood firm in one's square against repeated charges of the French cavalry," "I would like to think that, in generations to come, they might call it something finer than stupidity." "Finish your food." "Perhaps you could see him." "Joe Middleton." "Why does it matter to you?" "Well, we owe the Middleton family something." "John Middleton was incarcerated because of what Father did." "I only ask." "I'll consider it." "You'd cure him, wouldn't you?" "Of course." "If I felt I..." "You cured me." "You could cure him." "You don't fail, do you?" "Arnold?" "In the name of Jesus Christ." "Amen." "Does God see everything?" "Yes." "Does he decide everything?" "Yes." "And the Bible says we are not to question him." "So did God make Joe like this?" "We're asking God to heal him." "So a prayer is to persuade God, who we must never question, to admit he's made a mistake and correct it." "You haven't been coming to chapel, Grace." "I've been looking after the farm," "I've been working at the factory and a thousand other things and now I'm looking after my son who..." "I've no time for chapel." "Don't look at me like that." "You must make time for God." "Tell me what my son's done to deserve this?" "You're right." "He hasn't done anything." "And it's not John." "He's turned around thanks to God..." "Me!" "Thanks to me." "But you have turned too, Grace, away from God." "My son is broken and lost because I haven't been down on my knees at the end of every day?" "What does he want from me?" "He takes every hour my husband is awake for himself." "Isn't that enough?" "You do not support your husband in his religious observance, you have more time for Mr Bairstow than you have for prayer." "What are you saying?" "I have seen you consorting with him." "Consorting?" "You leave me no choice but to be indelicate in my speech - furtive and secret meetings with a man who is vindictive..." "How dare you?" "!" "I saved my husband from the poison that was killing him." "Not you!" "Not God!" "You deny God's work in the world?" "I am tired of God." "This is not you." "This is his poison working in you!" "Get out of my house." "You must let God back in your life." "For your son's sake." "You leave my son alone." "Grace." "Her or me, John." "That's not the right question." "Him... or her, John." "He's not here yet." "It's in his head." "What do you mean?" "That he can't walk across a room?" "In his head." "But his hands shake." "In his head." "How?" "The things he's seen." "The doctors." "Haven't been there." "They don't know, they can't know, they will never know." "Here's your man." "I can't stay long." "Then I'll be quick." "Good news." "Your employer will recognise the union." "It's a great day for the factory." "And for the women that work in it." "Thank you." "I'll sit with you, son." "Her name's Agnes." "She works at the factory." "Working where she works has made her unwell." "She really is very ill, Mr Chalcraft." "It's a terrible thing to see in someone so young." "I'll have another one, please." "Er..." "Chalcraft." "The man from the NUBSO." "I'm in with him." "He trusts me." "Good." "Is that what you came to say?" "No." "You want more money?" "Well, we all need to eat." "I think I might be giving you too much." "That depends what value you place on other people not knowing that I work for you." "Are you blackmailing me?" "The doctor's bills for poor Agnes." "She's too important to lose." "Edmund!" "Come quickly." "George!" "Welcome back, old chap." "Thank you." "Wylie's here?" "Yes." "He..." "Caro?" "He saved me." "And now he's going to stay with me." "I mean, he'll, he'll always look after me." "I didn't come home when father died." "You couldn't get leave." "You'd only just..." "They would have given it to me on compassionate grounds." "I didn't ask." "Your father would have understood." "I didn't ask because I didn't want to leave my men." "Do you see?" "I cannot tell you how much pride I have in a son who makes that kind of a sacrifice." "My brave boy." "Pride?" "Sacrifice?" "It's..." "Is that wrong?" "You are brave, aren't you?" "My wife's done everything the doctor told us to do." "Do you want to go back?" "Yes." "Why isn't the shaking stopping?" "Doctor Ramsey said it would." "Hereditary weakness." "I don't understand." "Weakness of character." "Passed down to him, probably through the male line." "Your grandfather?" "Your father?" "Is there feeble-mindedness in your family, Mr Middleton?" "Will you help me?" "Go and talk to them?" "Stay there." "Doctor Wylie." "You'll be here for Joe Middleton." "We've a warrant." "Are you an army doctor?" "No." "He can't be moved." "I don't think we care too much about whether he can or can't be moved." "Listen, there's a pub in the village with rooms." "Go and rest up there for a couple of nights and I'll give you an easy prisoner to take back to France." "We'll take him now." "Now, look here, there's something you need to know." "His regiment is a Pals regiment." "They're all from round here." "If you send him back to France, they'll be getting a pathetic, moral invalid in amongst them." "Morale matters." "Pathetic moral invalids do nothing for it." "We won't be taking him to put him back in the front line." "That isn't what we do with deserters." "Now, if you'll excuse me, Doctor." "Listen, I'm not an army doctor... but I am close friends with the Provost Marshall." "I don't think you mentioned your names..." "We'll be back tomorrow." "Why are you doing this?" "Professional pride." "24 hours." "To make him better." "Aye, and then they'll see he's not a coward." "It'd do you good." "A hot bath." "What are you doing?" "They've gone." "What have?" "Me cows!" "What?" "Where are they?" "You've lost your cows?" "What kind of a man loses an herd of cows?" "You're pathetic." "Look at you." "Your father and your grandfather before you, they farmed your farm." "You're after my land." "That's all you've ever wanted." "Yeah, of course I do, cos I despise you for letting it go." "I've seen you spend whole days in the Lamb and nothing gets done and now you've stopped drinking, you don't work any harder, cos you're too busy going about with that minister's daughter," "whilst your wife works every hour she's got." "This land is bigger than any one man's weakness." "It deserves better than you!" "It's me, not him." "He can't help it." "It's only in him because I've passed it down to him." "Do you see?" "Joe can't help it." "You, you can't punish him for something that's not his fault." "It's me you should be taking." "What?" "No." "You have to understand!" "It's me you should be taking, not Joe!" "You've got to listen to me!" "Wait, wait, wait, wait." "No, Peter, they don't understand!" "Out, out!" "They don't understand!" "Out!" "Joe?" "Joe?" "Hold on to the book, Joe." "God will rescue you from what's taken hold of you." "Close your eyes." "Dear Lord, in all your mercy, bring to this man peace and comfort." "Drive out all the pain and the anger and the hate that's taken hold of his soul." "In the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of the son, in the name of the holy father and the holy ghost..." "Hold tight, hold the book." "Make this evil go, make this soul clean again." "Pray with me." "Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." "Give us this..." "I don't understand." "Do you want to?" "Yes!" "Go and see Joe Middleton." "That cough?" "Happen that'll be the death of you." "I trusted you." "Oh, that's better." "I could chop between me legs." "Well, imagine if you didn't have to go outside to do your business?" "Sometimes I don't." "How's Bert?" "That's a funny question." "Is it?" "I haven't seen him." "What?" "I kept on half-expecting you to send him over to me." "Has he been back?" "Has he been to see you?" "Joe, listen to me." "Has Bert been back here?" "Bert?" "Bert?" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Where is he?" "He can't have gone." "He can't even walk across this room." "Why don't you believe me?" "John." "Make them believe me." "Help us!" "Please!" "You... help me find my children." "Nothing much wrong with him." "Joe!" "Bert!" "Joe!" "Hey, hey, you stay there!" "Bert!" "Bert!" "Put the boy down!" "No!" "I said, put the boy down." "Leave him alone!" "Give me the boy!" "No!" "Get off him." "Give me the boy!" "No!" "Get off him!" "Get off him!" "Give me the boy!" "Get off him!" "Get off my boy!" "Keep him warm!" "Keep him warm!" "Keep him warm!" "Mother!" "Mother!" "Get off him!" "Get off him!" "Get off him!" "Get off him!" "Get off him!" "Mother!" "Mother!" "Stop!" "Stay there!" "No!" "Stop!" "Stay there!" "Stay!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Mother!" "Mother!" "Where's Joe?"