"Have a good day." "You be careful." "ANNOUNCER:" "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." "I would like to welcome all passengers to the 7.;59 service to Manchester Piccadilly." "I'd like to inform you that this service is now running approximately 1 7, one-seven, minutes late." "We do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause." "Thank you." "MAN 1 : (ON RADIO) Reports are coming in of a train crash on the Manchester Piccadilly to Preston line." "The details are as yet unclear, but we will keep you updated as more news arrives." "And in other news, the government today announced a fall-off of capital bonds." "The latest Footsie figures have shown a rise of 30 points bringing the index up to a level of 5,046...." "MAN 2: (ON RADIO) ...of another major rail crash, the 7.;59 from Preston to Manchester in which reports tell us a commuter train has been cut in half by the impact of an express train which left the rails." "The police as yet have given out no information about casualty numbers, but for those anxious about loved ones...." "WOMAN: (ON RADIO) ...services have been called to the scene on the main line between Preston and Manchester Piccadilly where early reports say that a derailed express train has been hit by a freight train travelling in the opposite direction." "(PHONE RINGING)" "ESTATE AGENT:" "It was bought as an investment originally." "Now the vendor's just decided he wants to sell." "I've had a quiet word though and if you only want the use of a room, nonresidential, he's prepared to rent it to you for a monthly minimum before the builders get stuck in." "Coming totally clean, some people got in a used it as a squat." "Not that I'm against that in principle, you know what I mean." "On the other hand, some people like to live like animals." "That's where they burnt the furniture when the gas was cut off." "Who knows what else went on." "Obviously, not a lot of hygiene." "I'm not doing a very good job of selling this to you, am I?" "Should have got my dad to show you around." "There's another place we've got up at Yate." "It's a little further out, but a lot more salubrious." "Sorry, I was just delivering something and I needed to get my breath back." "Feel free." "I've had the chairs reinforced." "That always drove me mad about you." "Trying to decide the contents of a letter instead of just opening it." "Thanks." "I really fancied an evening with a load of architects." "A whole sea of shaved barnets and collarless shirts." "Some of our old friends will be there, too." "Janet's doing the catering." "Really, I thought our wedding bash had put her off puff pastry for life." "Jude!" "How are you?" "Glowing." "So everybody says." "Glowing?" "She's practically Sellafield." "I'm trying to get him out to enjoy himself." ""Mission Impossible."" "Sociophobe." "Hey, I haven't said no, have I?" "No, but we know what you're like." "Go, you miserable fart." "I will." "I will." "(FUNKY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)" "(PHONE RINGING)" "(SLOW JAZZ PIANO PLAYING)" "Hi, this is Robert." "Leave a message after the beep." "Thanks." "Robert?" "It's Alison." "Please will you get in touch?" "You've got my number." "Will you please give me a call?" "Thank you." "I thought that I could cope, but I need to talk to you." "I can't." "Will you help me?" "Will you call me?" "Please?" "Help me." "Excuse me." "But unhappiness can make some people happy." "Suffering can self-justify." "Why haven't you returned my calls?" "Am I some kind of a joke to you?" "Whoa!" "Alison, calm down." "You can't just come barging into...." "Oh, I can, I have." "Look at me, I'm here." "I exist, at least I think I do." "Maybe you can put me straight on that since you obviously know better." "No." "No, stay." "No way, sit." "She's the one that has to go." "No, I'm not going." "I'm not going anywhere, actually." "I'm going to sit right here." "This is totally unacceptable." "You have no business invading a tutorial like this." "What choice do I have when you ignore me?" "Our project together is over." "I'm entitled to ignore you." "Why shouldn't I?" "Because I'm going out of my mind!" "Well, hallelujah!" "A breakthrough!" "I'm sorry." "(ALISON SIGHING)" "Screw you, Robert." "Alison, wait." "Screw you." "Alison?" "Alison?" "Are you all right?" "Are you in pain?" "I can get an ambulance." "I'll get an ambulance." "No, don't call an ambulance." "An ambulance is no good." "They won't find anything." "There's nothing there." "In the crash, in the...." "In the train crash, there was this big thing, this metal spike and it went in there and it came out here." "And it tore through my womb, and, erm.... (SOBBING)" "(ALISON GASPING)" "Oh, God." "Alison, don't be afraid." "We're your friends." "All we want to do is talk to you." "We've been looking for you for some time, you know." "You've made yourself very hard to find, naughty girl." "Your family up north weren't very forthcoming." "We found someone else though, who told us the area of Bristol you'd moved to." "They just didn't know the exact address." "What do you want with me?" "Help." "The kind of help, we've come to the conclusion, only you can give." "Do you mind if Abel joins us?" "He's not as fearsome as he seems." "He suffered more than most of us, physically and mentally." "His larynx was burnt away." "He can't speak." "When you were recommended to us as a practising medium we recognised your name immediately from the passenger list." "We couldn't believe it." "It was fate." "We realised this had to be the person who could help us at last." "That's why we've come all this way." "We have a lot in common." "Because you've been waiting for us too in a way, haven't you?" "Alison?" "Alison." "They want to hold a seance tomorrow night." "It's ironic isn't it?" "They'd give anything to be able to contact the dead and I'd give anything not to be able to." "Alison, I seriously think this is a very bad idea." "You're being asked to return to the most traumatic event of your life." "You're so great, Robert." "I phone you up and you don't return my calls, I turn up to see you and you send me away and now you come here just to tell me that what I'm doing is wrong." "I know what I'm doing." "Do you?" "You almost died for God's sake." "You don't have to help these people." "It's not just for them." "It's for me as well." "You see, I've worked it all out." "Maybe if I go back to that day, maybe they'll set me free." "What do you mean?" "(ALISON SIGHING)" "Maybe the spirits will have done with me." "(ROBERT SIGHING)" "Alison, if you're gonna choose to do this, I'll come with you." "I can do it by myself." "Well, I know you can but I want to." "One knock for yes, two for no." "Alison?" "Mark Garrelly." "Apologies, the electrics here are appalling." "Jean Fast." "Welcome." "I'm Eddie." "Eddie Balfour." "We're down here." "Erm..." "Irene Moser, Robert Bridge." "How do you do?" "Robert's a doctor of psychology at the University and I'd like him to be a sitter tomorrow night." "Really?" "Traditionally, it's an extremely bad idea to have a sceptic present." "Well, I'm sorry, Irene." "It's non-negotiable." "I want Robert to be there as a friend." "Abel you've met." "And this is Louise." "I remember you from television." "Probably." "I was part of a survivor group lobbying for a public enquiry." "Not that it did any good." "Two years later nobody admitted sod all." "Same old boys' network, just a lot of hot air and buck-passing." "Faced with what you'd all been through, naturally you must have thought, "Where is God in this"?" "You do, when the police take you into this marquee and you look at 1 6, 1 7 bodies, not even bodies... until you get to your son." "(EXPRESS TRAIN SPEEDING PAST)" "I'm a stonemason." "So was he." "He'd always slag off my letter carving but I wanted to do just one thing where he'd say," ""Dad, that's not bad, that."" "Alison is the one who needs to get to know us better." "It was a signalling fault." "Wasn't it?" "No." "It was human error." "The driver didn't react correctly." "He was supposed to slow down, but in fact he speeded up." "He walked away with cuts and bruises but 35 people didn't walk away at all." "Who's for a peshwari naan?" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Oh, no, not for me." "Blimey, Jean." "That's one hell of an onion bhaji." "My mum was mad about Wimbledon." "I held her hand while she slipped away." "I could feel her gone, but I didn't want to let go." "That's why I'm here." "I'd like to feel that she's watching over me and that she's proud of me, that's all." "I just need her to tell me that I'm doing okay." "We've all brought things that mean something to us, for tomorrow." "Laurence had thousands of books." "I gave them all away to charity shops." "My son and daughter thought I'd lost my marbles." "They sent a rabbi round to talk sense into me." "But spiritualism had the answers I wanted, and he didn't, and I told him so." "I know... that when the day comes, Laurence and I will meet face to face in the next life." "But before then, there's something I have to tell him." "Something he needs to know." "Abel has brought some favourite toys his children used to play with." "Knowing Alison was coming he's written a poem he wants me to read out." "It's called Fading Light." ""Under my skin I boil with rage" ""Under my skin is the silence before knowing" ""Under my skin is human error" ""Under my skin is the value of lives" ""But I have no skin" ""I have no skin, so who can touch me?" ""Who can feel if not I?"" "Excuse me..." "I need some air." "Alison, these people need proper counselling, not table-tilting." "They're united in grief." "It isn't a crime." "But is it doing them any good?" "I don't think so." "Irene, please." "This seance tomorrow." "Can you delay it?" "I don't think Alison...." "No." "It has to be tomorrow." "You haven't told him." "Tomorrow's March 25th." "The anniversary of the rail crash." "Six years ago to the day." "(SIGHING)" "(PHONE RINGING)" "Yeah." "ALISON:" "I couldn't sleep a wink." "How are you?" "Look." "If you can't be there, I understand." "I'll be fine." "No, I'll be there." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure." "I've got to go." "Good." "What else would you be doing except going home to a saddo ready meal for one?" "Bit of social intercourse, do you the world of good." "Oh, yeah." "You're right." "I've got a meeting at 7:00, so I'll see you there, 9:30, 10:00?" "You will, absolutely." "ROBERT: (VOICEOVER) To be within a hair's-breadth of death, to feel you had died... and afterwards, that feeling of worthlessness that you had survived." "You think, but why?" "Why me?" "Add to that, the trauma of learning that you can never have children, it had to be for a purpose." "Alison Mundy had to validate her life." "Make it worth something, mean something." "And the meaning is, the spirits." "(UPBEAT POP MUSIC PLAYING)" "Hi." "Hi." "Thanks." "That's a new dress." "You never used to notice if I was in a bin bag." "That's untrue." "I know." "Come in." "Guess who's here?" "Archbishop Desmond Tutu?" "Thanks." "Darling." "Robert." "How the hell are you?" "Fine." "Hi." "Lovely to see you." "We haven't seen you since...." "Blimey, how long is it since the old London crowd last met up?" "It must've been a wedding, or a...." "So, how are you these days?" "Fine, fine." "I always liked that watch." "I bet you picked it, really." "No." "He picked it all by himself." "He said, "I want Dad to look cool."" "Please." "Happy Birthday, Daddy." "Thanks." "Thank you." "Welshback, near Radcliffe Bridge." "Thanks." "Who touched my arm?" "Someone touched my arm." "IRENE:" "Don't worry." "No harm will come here tonight." "They're all our friends, remember?" "(ALISON RETCHING)" "Nerves." "Understandable." "Sorry, mate." "Change of plan." "Take me to Filton." "Okay." "Thanks." "Thought you weren't coming." "You're just in time." "We're about to begin." "Medium dies." ""...death still remain mysterious." ""The sitters were named as Eddie Balfour," ""Louise Gill," ""Abel Ngowi, Mark Garrelly, Jean Fast and Irene Moser."" "Hi, this is Robert." "Leave a message after the beep." "Thanks." "Home movies?" "We record weddings, births." "Why not this?" "Irene?" "I'm sorry." "Mark and I have decided...." "We've thought about this long and hard, Irene, and we can't go through with it." "I know, but, the good thing that's come out of this for us is not making contact with someone in the next world it's finding someone here, now, in this one." "We have all worked so hard towards tonight, how can you throw that away?" "I'm sorry." "We've come to realise that our partners have moved on and we need to move on, too." "I'm sorry." "People get obsessed with whether we survive death." "But that's not the real question, is it?" "The real question is how we survive life." "But we do." "Now... on no account must anyone switch on the lights or break the circle when the medium's in a trance." "Is that understood?" "Ectoplasm is a very volatile, light-sensitive substance that the spirits extract from the medium's nervous system in order to manifest themselves." "If it recoils too quickly it can do irreparable damage to the medium's brain." "Do you have a spirit guide, Alison?" "The only guides I know of wear berets and sit around with Brown Owl." "Robert, your hand please?" "Abel?" "IRENE:" "Let's all breathe deeply and relax." "In... and out." "(EXHALING DEEPLY)" "And in... and out." "In... and out." "By the power of light by the gift of karma and of love grace us with your presence." "(SCOTTISH ACCENT) What you doing in my house?" "Don't be afraid." "We welcome you." "We welcome you." "ALL:" "We welcome you." "We welcome you." "We welcome you." "If there is a spirit in this room... make yourself known to us." "(SCOTTISH ACCENT) # Polly, put the kettle on Polly, put the kettle on" "# Polly, put the kettle on" "# We'll all have smack #" "Hello, Polly." "This is my house." "I died here." "This is a good trick." "Watch this." "(GASPING)" "(ALISON GROANING SOFTLY)" "IRENE:" "Don't break the circle!" "Don't break the circle." "She's cold." "Jean's gone cold and Alison is burning up." "Who wants to see another trick?" "Polly?" "Polly?" "You can go now." "(WAILING)" "(ALISON GROANING)" "(GRUFF VOICE) Where is she?" "Where are you?" "Laurence?" "There you are." "I...." "I've wanted to tell you something." "Hush." "Did you really think I didn't know?" "Rose." "Rose." "You blushed every time her name was mentioned." "You loved her." "I know." "You worried that you never showed me enough love." "Well, you did." "I was blessed... blessed... blessed." "(WHIMPERING AND GROANING)" "By the power of the Holy Spirit... are there any other messages for anyone here present?" "(SPEAKING AFRICAN LANGUAGE)" "Something's gone wrong, I think." "I think something's gone through me." "I don't know, I can feel something very strange...." "Please don't pick me up... please don't pick me up, it hurts." "It hurts!" "(SOBBING)" "Alison, listen to me." "You're safe." "Look, nothing can harm you or hurt you here." "Listen to me." "Alison, this is Robert, you're safe here." "Nothing can harm you." "Okay, that's it." "It's over, it's finished." "That's enough." "I said that's enough!" "Someone passed behind me." "I can feel someone looking over my shoulder." "The feeling's really strong now." "(GROANING)" "Alison?" "(ALISON MOANING)" "(CHILDLIKE VOICE) Daddy?" "Peter?" "Son." "You're not my daddy." "You're not my daddy." "You're my daddy." "Alison, stop it." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I didn't mean to." "No." "No." "Joshie?" "It was just for a second." "I just bent down to pick up my stegosaurus." "And you said, "Seat belt."" "I just...." "It wasn't your fault, Joshie." "But it was." "'Cause you looked back." "'Cause you turned around and if...." "Don't." "Don't, please don't." "I made you sad, Daddy." "I made you sad and I don't like to." "You don't make me sad, Joshie." "I make myself sad." "Why?" "Because you're not here with me any more." "But I am." "I am here now." "If you're sad, Daddy... is it because you don't love me any more?" "I love you." "I love you more than anything." "Then can I go now, Daddy?" "Yes." "It's a bit scary." "I want the nice lady to take me." "She's holding my hand and she's going to come with me and stay with me." "No!" "No, don't go there!" "Alison!" "(ALISON WAILING)" "MARK:" "Oh, no." "JEAN:" "Don't touch her!" "Switch on the lights." "No, you mustn't." "ROBERT:" "Switch on the lights!" "MARK:" "Get back!" "Get off!" "Take her outside." "She needs some air." "Yes, ambulance." "Yes, emergency." "2 Sapphire Lane, Filton." "Quickly." "Please." "Yes, I think so." "I don't know, I...." "Robert Bridge." "Robert Bridge." "Yes!" "Yes." "MARK:" "Help!" "Somebody help!" "Just please...." "How quickly is that?" "How quickly is that?" "How quickly?" "Just get here now." "Just get here, please!" "Oh, no." "Jesus Christ!"