"Former flatmates." "We lost touch." "Happy New Year!" "You've no idea how long I've wanted to do that." "We're getting divorced." "It's an adventure, a new chapter." "We don't need men to make us happy." "Those days are over." "Are they?" "Doesn't it ever get to you, the way he goes with other girls?" "What we share isn't about some outdated, bourgeois concept of romantic love." "It's about personal choice." "Is that why you don't go with other people too?" "Show your abhorrence for American aggression in Vietnam!" "They can't stop all of us, not if we can stick together." "I hoped, after all this time, she'd have stopped blaming me for what happened between you." "Victor?" "It's me I can't forgive." "Bloody hell." "How long is it, for God's sake?" "Too long." "Too damn long." "Hello, Alan." "Still doing the tache thing then?" "It's starting to grow on me." "The others?" "Oh." "En route." "Coffee?" "Cheers." "He's done all right, hasn't he?" "Honorary degrees, CBE." "He invited me to a celebratory party after the Palace." "I was out of the country." "He remarried." "Orla wrote me." "Right." "And you?" "Has there been anyone one since...?" "Oh." "I've rather lost the knack of all that." "I'll just, err, get back to my cleaning." "Right." "She just keeps picking at the same scab." "Do you blame her?" "What was it?" "Do they know?" "Heart failure." "It was a fortnight before they found the body." "Oh." "God." "Alan's back from America, Lilly." "He just phoned." "I'm doing a big, welcome back dinner." "All the gang, under the same roof." "Have you not got classes tonight?" "No, but I've got a staff meeting" "Can you not skip it this once?" "Go on, then." "Great." "Can you pick up some beers on the way back?" "I'll do Victor, you call Jay." "How about I call Victor, you do Jay?" "OK." "I take it Jack will be there?" "All of us will." "It's been too long since we've seen you, Victor." "Way too long." "I'll see what I can do." "Hey, it's me." "Alan's back from America." "I'm going to do a dinner for us all." "When?" "Tonight." "I'm on-call tonight, Orla." "Please, Jay." "For Alan, if not for me." "Come on." "I'll see if I can swap shifts." "Thank you." "See you later." "Right, bye." "You like to live dangerously, don't you?" "And you don't?" "Because the political levy funds our lobby campaigns in Whitehall." "If half your shop stewards cop out of paying it, great example to members, isn't it?" "Yep." "Economic and Social Affairs, Jack Walsh?" "Listen to me, Jack." "Your grandfather has had a stroke." "Or a series of strokes, to be more accurate." "Assuming you can find time in your busy schedule, a visit might be in order." "And sooner rather than later, please." "'It was the Miners' Movement president...' I need your help, Charlie!" "'Who referred the General Council's plan back' Say again!" "You said you'd help with dinner, Charlie." "They're not shrunk yet." "Five more minutes, OK?" "'Last year saw the highest number of strikes since 1926." "'Fears of further industrial unrest escalated today, 'when Arthur Scargill announced that the NUM and other major unions 'have voted for a national strike on May 1st, 'in defiance of the government's pay restraint policy.'" "The first year, I was with Texas Instruments, working on a computer device for cash registers." "And then, in the last two years, I was with the R and D, working with electronic microprocessing units." "Memory chips." "Oh." "It's a bit Sci-Fi for me, mate." "Well, one day, the future will rise up and bite you in your Luddite arse, Jack." "I just pray I'm there to see it." "So, is this you back for good or...?" "Well, General Electrics are recruiting system engineers here, so..." "You know." "Is Lilly not joining us?" "Oh, Lilly'll get here when she gets here." "Her head's a bit off in the clouds sometimes." "Or she had a better offer." "Cheers." "Cheers." "Cheers." "Nice to see you all." "Welcome home, Alan." "So, what news?" "Orla landed that internship at the Tavistock." "Family therapy, working with kids mainly." "Good for you." "And how's academia?" "Has its moments, if and when anyone can be bothered to show up to any of my lectures." "Students today, eh?" "And, er, Lilly?" "Still on her quest for the Holy Grail of Enlightenment, as are we all." "Most weekends she treks around galleries with her painting portfolio." "No-one's taken her on yet." "She just gets work when she can take it." "Then there's Doctor Kildare, over there, getting us drunk as skunks on his birthday to make his grand announcement." "Oh, aye?" "Tell me." "The queer thing." "Yeah, well, I suppose somebody had to be the last to know." "His family haven't a clue." "Or at work." "You had no inkling?" "He covered his tracks well." "Oh, there is more news." "Charlotte only got herself arrested." "30 million viewers watched her and her Women's Libbers getting chucked in Black Marias at the Miss World thing." ""We are not beautiful!" ""We are not ugly!" "We are angry!"" "Yeah, you see, Jack's thing about direct action only applies to the class system, isn't that right?" "Equal rights ranks a poor second." "It was worth a night in Holloway to get people talking about discrimination for once." "It's not all hair-shirt with her, mate." "She still shaves under her arms." "I can personally vouch for that." "Excuse me." "When was it he moved out?" "Just after finals, when you left for the States." "Said he needed his own space." "I moved down to Victor's room, to give Lilly a bit of space for her art." "Alan." "Hey." "Hey." "I'm so sorry." "So good to see you." "Ah, erm." "There was another bomb, took me ages to get back." "A bomb?" "Hmm." "Tubes, buses, they all grind to a halt when it happens." "Hey!" "What's going on?" "More bombs." "'Four car bombs placed around London, one outside the Old Bailey, 'a second in Whitehall exploded." "'Killing one and wounding more than 150.'" "How do you live with all this?" "No choice." "The old Blitz spirit is alive and well in Blighty." "'Security forces warn that the IRA 'is becoming increasingly sophisticated...' Glad you came back, eh?" "'In their campaign of violence on the mainland.'" "'And warned the public to be vigilant.'" "Bed down in my room, if you want." "I'm due back at the hospital, only got cover for a few hours." "I'm fine." "I was going to write to tell you." "I just thought..." "I just thought it better you hear it in person." "The others don't have a problem with it." "Well, they didn't share a room with you for three years, did they?" "If you weren't so ashamed of it, why'd you keep it a secret for so long?" "Hmm?" "We used to lie in bed and talk about girls, for Christ's sake." "You talked, I listened." "I heard you, you know, at night." "Wanking." "Ah." "I thought it was natural." "I hope to God it wasn't about me." "Don't flatter yourself." "For fuck's sake." "Is this it for us?" "A quick screw after lights out, now and again." "We don't always do it with the lights out." "We made a deal from the start, this wouldn't be exclusive or..." "No-one can accuse of you of welching on the deal, Jack." "You've followed it to the letter." "All I get in return is the edited version of you." "It's not enough." "Not anymore." "And I don't want to hang around to see someone else get the real thing." "What if there is no real thing?" "You know, the cupboard's bare." "What you see is all there is." "That's your get-out-of-jail card, is it?" "I can handle being the butt of a few jokes." "But I'll be damned if I let you turn me into one." "Charlie." "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie." "You are the only thing that makes life bearable." "Don't you know that yet?" "The only thing." "What was that?" "You do this every time." "Ha-ha." "Don't be angry with me, when you have no reason to be angry with me." "Be it ever so humble." "Jack?" "We've never had much to say to each other, have we?" "Bit late to start now." "Remember that falling out I had with Dad over rejecting the place at Balliol?" "You kept saying, "Give him time"." "I was never sure if that meant give him time to become the person he's destined to be." "Or give him enough time and he'll hang himself." "Then again, maybe the two are synonymous." "Sorry we never got to know each other better." "Bye, Grandad." "So, how is life at the TUC?" "Still fighting the unequal fight?" "I need to ask you something." "Though, I can pretty much predict the answer." "I need another sub this month." "If you're in debt, Jack, it's because you've developed expensive habits." "You can hardly expect me to subsidise them." "Yup, pretty much as predicted." "Jack, wait." "Erm." "There is maybe something." "These meetings that Wilson's been having with the TUC and Jack Jones..." "I assume you have the inside track on all of that?" "You see, there's a problem with Heath." "He's a technocrat." "He thinks that if he runs the country like a corporation, he can pull us out of the mess we're in." "The endless strikes, flying pickets, sewage in the street, power cuts." "And, of course, all this has wounded him, perhaps even fatally." "So, now, he's crammed his cabinet full of other grammar school acolytes like Walker, Thatcher." "They're the reason why I was squeezed out of the cabinet." "They're the New Order now, the Barbarians at the gate." "You see, the one thing that Ted absolutely abhors is a surprise." "So, a word in his ear about what the unions are cooking up next could be my, err, entry card into Downing Street." "You're serious." "You want me to be your mole." "Wow." "Oh, that's good." "That's the best yet." "Man." "This is bloody classic!" "Sorry, sorry." "Here's a thought for you." "When the old man up there pops his clogs, you'll have to resign as an MP, won't you?" "Then, it's goodbye Westminster, let alone Downing Street." "Not if I renounce the viscountcy." "You seem to think that my political commitment is opportunistic, don't you?" "That it's somehow inferior to yours because, of course, you have the monopoly on all things moral, don't you?" "We only exist as your punch bag." "We're only here to make you feel better about yourself." "Let me tell you something." "Delusions of adequacy are a far cry from the real thing, Jack." "Jack?" "Jack!" "Heath out!" "Heath out!" "Heath out!" "We have shown that, as a Government, we are ready to be bold in a good cause." "I hope the same will be true of both sides..." "'We've already shown in practice 'that the main aim of our economic policy is when...'" "Knock, knock." "You all right?" "Just clearing out my room." "Ah." "Oh." "The job at General Electrics, it looks like I've swung it." "Eh?" "Cool." "So, I was wondering if I could stay for a few more days, until I find some place to live?" "Ah." "Yeah, yeah." "No problem." "Good, thank you." "Erm." "Why not rent this room?" "Eh?" "I can bunk with Jay." "He's at the hospital half the time, anyway." "So much for travel broadening the mind, eh." "It's Jay, man." "He's the same guy as ever he was." "Right." "What shall we say?" "Seven quid a week?" "Best room in the gaff, fully furnished." "Yeah, all right." "Yeah." "Why not?" "I need, you know, a couple of weeks advance." "Cash." "Oh, right." "OK." "Just got a few debts to clear." "I came back for you, I did, but you'd already left for the sta..." "Charlie?" "Charlie?" "You know how I get, when the old man winds me up." "Piss off, Jack." "We're better than this, aren't we?" "If I needed further proof of my total irrelevance to you, today was it." "Whatever this pitiful excuse for a relationship is, it's over." "Well, sometimes things happen that open your eyes up about a person, Charlie." "You know, I've read about men like Jack." "How selfish, careless men, like him, make the best breeders." "It's not even a conscious thing, it's genetics." "Apparently, they give off some kind of chemical that women associate with danger." "It's why they go for a man in uniform." "They see him as a protector, a fighter." "You're like an addict." "Even though you know your addiction will destroy you, you just can't say no." "He's your fatal flaw." "Not just because he doesn't value you or cherish you, which he doesn't." "But because you sacrifice the best part of yourself, your integrity, your passion, just to be with him." "And as much as you despise yourself for it," "I despise him more, for making you feel it." "Never heard you talk so much." "Well, maybe, you never listened before." "Are you listening now?" "It's over this time, Victor." "Truly." "Then, you must move out of the flat." "We can find somewhere together." "I mean, I can help you to find a place." "I'll start looking next week." "When he drove away and left me there," "I had this... out-of-body thing." "Like I was looking down on myself." "Everything you say about me." "I saw it." "Not just my hypocrisy, but my pathetic weakness and..." "Trust me, despising myself barely scratches the surface." "You can't choose who you love, Charlie." "Only who not to." "OK, OK." "All right." "Connor!" "Somebody downstairs let me in." "Was beginning to think I had the wrong damn house." "I don't believe it." "My brother Connor." "Jack." "Go through." "Does Mum know you're here?" "What's going on with you, Connor?" "The Provos have got Declan." "Declan Quinn from school?" "They think he's an informer." "He joined them after Bloody Sunday." "We both did." "You weren't there on that day." "You didn't need to be there to know it was cold-blooded murder!" "An obscenity!" "They shot them as they crawled away, Orla!" "Lads younger than me!" "They shot them in the back like dogs in the gutter!" "So you take revenge by killing more innocent people?" "Bombing and maiming them?" "This isn't about revenge, it's about justice!" "Anyway, we don't do any front-line stuff." "We run errands, shift weapons about." "Oh, well, then your hands are clean." "Do the family know?" "They think I'm doing that motorbike courier job." "Which in a manner of speaking..." "Did he do it?" "Declan?" "Is he a tout?" "The UDR are hand in glove with the British Army now." "Last week a bunch of their vigilantes waited outside his house for him." "They held him for six days, tied and hooded to a chair." "No light, no food, just enough water to keep him alive while they tried to beat names out of him." "He swears he gave them none!" "But the IRA see his release as a reward for collaborating." "We were in a cafe on The Derby Road yesterday when they came for him." "It was just a reflex." "I stepped in." "There was a scuffle." "I lost it." "I lashed out at them and..." "They said I was next." "If Declan's done nothing, they'll let him go, won't they?" "And if he did name names?" "That doesn't make you guilty." "By association, it does." "I need somewhere to stay, until the heat is off." "Wait, let me..." "So, say you're right and the Provos are after you..." "What about the family?" "Won't they turn the heat on them to find out where you are?" "And if they trace you back here..." "This house is full of people, Connor!" "Sure, they're your family now." "That's not fair." "Remember when you were little?" "All those rituals you had to stop the night gremlins from getting you?" "You've always seen shadows where there are none." "You were just trying to protect a friend." "They'll get that." "You were loyal." "Loyalty is the one thing they do get." "I'm sorry I bothered you." "Connor..." "Connor!" "Connor!" "If you want to stay, of course you..." "'Do you really believe the miners would'ha won...'" "Breakfast!" "'The dispute last year...'" "It's getting cold now!" "'If we'd ha been involved in a series of one-day strikes." "'It was only when we were determined to go the whole 'og, 'we were all on a we had an overtime ban and for seven weeks." "'And what did we gain?" "We gained sweet nothing." "'Not only were we facing the option of petrol rationing, 'courtesy of OPEC, quadrupling the price of oil, 'now, we have the miners and power workers threatening an overtime ban, 'which means a return to the three-day week and yet more power cuts.'" "Mum?" "Mum!" "I saw the car, Mum!" "I know you're there!" "Is it today you were coming?" "I had in mind it was Saturday." "It is Saturday, Mum." "What is all this stuff?" "My emergency store." "But it collects so much dust in here." "Your father used to repair everything." "The vacuum cleaner or toaster broke, he knew how to fix them." "But to buy so many, Mum." "If one goes wrong, I won't be caught short, will I?" "Oh, that cupboard needs sorting, if you want to help." "I must get down the shops before they close." "I've a whole list of..." "Spit spot." "Quicker we are, the quicker we'll be done." "She has to go back on the medication, Dad." "On the Lithium." "She won't listen to me." "She wants to have ECT again." "She knows the risks." "It's her choice." "It's barbaric." "If it snaps her out of her depression..." "Until the next time." "What do your brothers say?" "They've conveniently absented themselves." "Adam is in Leeds." "Peter is on the road half the time with his stupid job." "If I walk back into her life, it'll just raise false hopes which... which it's just not appropriate." "You must see that." "Maybe she'll turn the corner this time." "Either way, she's not my responsibility any more." "It's how it is." "I'm sorry." "Come on Harry, shall we go for a walk?" "Hold my hand." "You don't have to do this." "We can talk to a doctor or care worker again, get them to change your medication." "This worked last time, didn't it?" "A few months." "When I'm on the medication, it's like I'm... trapped inside my own brain." "I see people in the street, in the park..." "Laughing." "Happy." "I can't remember what that feels like." "What feeling anything is like." "We are ready for her now." "Open." "Bite hard." "Jack Walsh." "'He's gone.'" "When?" "This morning." "I had a..." "I had a meeting in town..." "I wasn't with him." "'Jack, I wasn't with him.'" "I really thought you'd want to know." "Dad, I..." "It's called The Social Contract." "It's to be the plank of Wilson's manifesto." "In return for the TUC agreeing to wage restraint, he'll repeal Heath's Industrial Relations Act, increase welfare spending and expand state control over key industries." "It's all in there." "So, in effect, he's allowing the unions to dictate Government policy?" "Perhaps now Ted will see where his tactic of beer and sandwiches with them ends!" "Appeasement is just another word for surrender." "Thanks, Son." "I'll pop a cheque in the post!" "Knock-knock." "A nice cup of tea." "Picasso died today." "Oh..." "Wasn't he... ancient?" "He said, "Art is a lie which makes us see the truth."" "All these years, I've just avoided facing it." "This." "Painting!" "I'm ditching it." "Ah, no, no." "After all that you went through to do it?" "It's about talent." "Or lack of." "You've got talent, Lilly!" "You've got bucket loads of talent." "No!" "I have a facility, a skill." "It's not the bloody same!" "Talent is about... insight, vision." "This?" "It's sub Francis Bacon!" "This?" "Warhol!" "Bridget Riley!" "Hockney." "Other people's vision!" "Other people's insight!" "You know, I asked a tutor at art college how he would define a great painter, and he said, "If you could remove them from the history of art" ""and it go on... unimpeded," ""then they weren't, by definition, great." ""They were irrelevant."" "Do you remember last year when I went to India?" "I went to find inspiration!" "All I found was poverty." "Mine, not theirs!" "Thinking if I was a Maharishi Groupie, the floodgates of creativity would suddenly magically open!" "You can still do it." "All right, it might not be full time, but you can still do it." "It was my ticket to ride." "It's served its purpose now." "So what will you do?" "You know what they say?" ""If you can't do it, teach it."" "There's nothing wrong with that." "Just not how I saw it." "Can I keep this one?" "And for the record, Lilly, you're not a failure." "Do we know what's in it?" "Must be something important." "Else, why have a safe?" "None of these is any good Any tools about?" "Oh, hang on." "Good enough?" "Worth a try." "There's a tool for every job." "And that, my friend, is not it." "Oh!" "Bugger!" "You all right?" "Oh, shit!" "Let me see." "Here." "Run it under here for a minute." "You'll live." "Do you want a... er... painkiller?" "No, no." "I'm good." "Thanks." "My god!" "I wondered where this had got to." "Your Blue Period." "I remember it well." "I'll put it in the study, above my desk." "Or better yet, in the dining room." "Must we?" "We should have kept in touch." "How hard would that have been?" "Life gets in the way." "Handy excuse." "Don't you think I've enough to beat myself up about without that too?" "I mean..." "Victor got passed it, why can't she?" "He started again, found somebody else." "Charlie's still stuck in that place." "Maybe we all are." "Evacuate the area!" "Evacuate the area!" "Sorry!" "Oh, I forgot, they gave me this..." "Oh, no, I'll see to it." "I'll just go..." "Oh..." "No, no, it's..." "In the meantime, I prescribe rest." "Lilly?" "I know this isn't the time but..." "You're the reason I came back from the States." "You're all I could think of there." "And..." "I know I'm, I'm not creative like you, but... it's a scientific fact that opposites attract!" "The north end of one magnet is attracted to the south end of another and, and..." "Conversely like repels, like!" "And it's the same with lightning." "The..." "The earth and the clouds... they, they carry negative and positive charges and when they get too close, they... they discharge an electric energy and..." "That's..." "That's what it was when, when we first met." "It, it felt like... like being struck by lightning." "And..." "I know..." "I know you don't feel that too or..." "At least I assume you don't." "But..." "Maybe, you know, given time..." "Forget the lightning crap!" "What I mean to say, what... what I mean to say is..." "I'll be a safe harbour." "I'll never let anything or anyone ever hurt you again." "Ever." "Alan, I'm..." "I'm damaged goods." "No, don't say that." "Don't even think it!" "'If he turns around, 'it's a sign." "'I'll say yes.'" "'Don't look back, she'll think you're weak!" "'Do not look back!" "'" "Some damn reporter got wind of it before I could call you and the Chief Whip waded in." "Come on." "What was it, Dad?" "Heath not deliver the goods?" "No plum job on offer in the cabinet after all?" "So you just picked up your ball and left the park." "It's really not that complicated." "I merely saw where my responsibility lay, that's all." "I imagine a stately home and a retinue of servants would tip the balance." "Do you think it was an easy decision?" "After all the hard work I've put into the Party." "For 15 years!" "There are other people to consider, Jack." "Think of the sacrifices your mother has made for my career." "Not to mention the duty I owe to my father." "What about the duty you owe me?" "I thought we were all square on that?" "Still, if you're running short, I..." "I did it for you!" "For you!" "I think we both know why you did it, Jack." "And loyalty has nothing to do with it." "Victor." "Drink?" "Please." "So I've marked up a couple of likely ones for you." "Flats in your price range." "Oh, great." "You mentioned it to any of the others yet?" "Best wait till I've found somewhere." "How could we miss that?" "Sometimes, we don't see what's right in front of us, do we?" "Oi, Alan!" "Get us a drink." "Monsieur." "Blimey." "Come back, Leonard Cohen, all is forgiven." "How many has he had?" "What's he had more, like." "Right, here we go." "That's for you, there." "That's his." "Just a little change of pace." "Er..." "Feel free to join in." "OK." "♪ Now I'm a union man!" "♪ Amazed at what I am!" "♪ I say what I think but the company stinks" "♪ Cos I'm a union man!" "♪ Oh, you don't get me I'm part of the union!" "♪ You don't get me I'm part of the union!" "♪ You don't get me I'm part of the union" "♪ Till the day I die!" "♪ Till the day I die" "♪ Before the union did appear" "♪ I'd thought my life was half as clear" "♪ But I've got the power" "♪ Every hour" "♪ And every other day of the year. ♪" "Ooh!" "♪ Oh, you don't get me I'm part of the union!" "♪ You don't get me I'm part of the union!" "♪ You don't get me I'm part of the union" "♪ Till the day I die!" "♪ Till the day I die. ♪" "'And misdemeanours in office." "'Now to Northern Ireland, where another IRA execution killing 'has taken place in Belfast." "'The body was found off the Shanklin Road this morning." "'He'd been shot in the head." "'The victim, who is believed to be an IRA informer, 'has been identified as Connor O'Donnell, aged 24, from Belfast." "'The IRA claimed responsibility for the killing, 'stating only that O'Donnell was shot as a British Army informer." "'It is one of several IRA executions... '" "We're getting hitched." "Congratulations." "You're coming with me." "No, don't bother with..." "Oh, oh..." "OK." "We know nothing about him." "We know he needs help." "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" "When Margaret Thatcher walks into Downing Street, just remember it's your beloved left who held the door open for her." "I've applied for selection as the Labour candidate in the by-election." "I have to make this work." "The police pulled Victor up on a stop and search." "You have to go there, Jack." "Put it right." "If I do, I'm screwed." "Tell him it was a mistake, he'd do it for you."