"MELANIE:" "Ready!" "Go!" "DAVE:" "Come on, Alan." "You haven't got long." "Come on, Alan!" "Go on!" "Quickly." "You can do it!" "Go on, Alan!" "Come on, Alan!" "Go on, don't stop!" "Go on, Alan!" "Come on, Alan." "Faster!" "How's it going, Mel?" "Oh, God!" "Now!" "Stop it, Alan." "Please!" "Now!" "I said now, Pete!" "Go on, Alan." "Get up there." "Go on." "Quickly!" "Come on." "You can do it." "Go on, Alan." "Faster." "Go on, faster." "Come on." "I'm coming." "I'm coming." "Hurry up, Mel." "I can't hold him any longer." "Hold it, come on." "Come on, Alan." "Come on." "Stupid, daft, crazy rotten game that was!" "Well, you weren't in any danger, were you?" "Oh, get lost!" "No one's got killed yet, Dave." "Have they?" "It'll blow up, that." "It seemed to stop giving off gas about two days ago." "Seems to take about 12 days." "Eh?" "It seems to take about 12 days to give off all the gas it can." "Now, it's got 18 cubic feet of manure in there, Hubert." "So, what's 12s into 18?" "Uh, 12s into 18..." "That's right, one and a half." "Oh, one and a half." "We gotta put one and a half cubic feet of manure in there everyday, okay?" "And that's all." "Do pigs give off that much?" "Well, if they don't, we have to use cow dung or vegetable compost mixed up with water." "Oh, I see." "Oi, look out." "It's all spilling out this end." "Yeah." "Well, the same amount comes out there as I put in here." "Well, what's the point, then?" "All that stuff's given off all the gas." "What, in there?" "Yeah." "That's what takes about 12 days to fill it up." "Then what?" "Well, I just have to find some way of drawing it off." "Then build a gas holder." "Just so long as I'm nowhere near when it blows up." "How will you make a gas holder?" "Well, it shouldn't prove too difficult." "Basically it's only one container inverted inside another." "Just feed in the gas underneath, and the inner one rises as it fills." "Why don't you just pipe it through to where you need, the workshop?" "Well, all Jack needs in there is just some bellows and a charcoal fire." "I don't wanna use that for heat or light." "What, power?" "GREG:" "You can drive a car with methane gas." "JENNY:" "Very straight." "Okay?" "CHARLES:" "First find your car." "Well, I've already started experiments with an old motorbike engine." "The conversion valve isn't difficult." "The problem is the amount of gas you gotta carry to make the whole thing worthwhile." "You don't seriously intend to run a car?" "No, of course not." "The only form of transport anyone's gonna know around here is the horse." "So why do we need an engine?" "Use the water wheel down at the mill." "Yeah, if the kids'll let you in there." "What?" "Well, they've turned it into a sort of club for themselves." "You should go down there sometime." "We could still use it as a mill." "Mmm-hmm." "Yeah, but you can't drive a tractor with a water wheel." "Tractor?" "Yeah." "Must be dozens of them rotting away in deserted farmyards." "That you can run on methane gas?" "It'll take a bit of experimentation, but I reckon I can do it." "Wait a minute." "I thought we agreed we'd never become dependent on anything we can't replace ourselves." "Well, I can keep a tractor in working order." "Replace a carburettor, gearbox, clutch without a factory or machine tools?" "If you had the same amount of faith in me as an engineer as I have in you as a farmer, you'd realise that by the time I needed a new clutch, I'd be able to make one." "What's more, I would have trained someone like Alan to make one, too." "Well, I still think we can do without." "Well, of course we can." "Just think how liberating a tractor would be." "You can dig ditches, cut hedges, spread muck." "A man with a tractor can plough a five-acre field in a day." "If we don't show some positive progress before the winter sets in..." "You know, you really should go down to the mill." "The mill, why?" "Well, those two, Alan and Melanie." "They've been down there most of the afternoon." "Well, at least we've achieved some leisure, Greg." "It's Sunday afternoon, why shouldn't they?" "I thought you were hot?" "Oh, aren't you?" "Let's go for a swim, then." "We could go down by the weir." "It's great down there." "Oh, I don't fancy rivers." "Where shall we go, then?" "South of France, spot of water skiing?" "Oh, very good." "It was your scene, not mine." "Furthest I ever got was Southend." "We used to take a couple of mates and the bikes and burn it up all the way to Southend." "I can imagine." "Oh, come on." "Let's swim, Mel." "We needn't go down by the weir." "We could go up by the meadow, we'd be on our own there." "Melanie!" "Melanie!" "I said I'd help Pet with the cheese." "But it's Sunday, they don't make us work on Sundays now." "You can't want to go back to the camp, surely?" "Camp?" "Don't you think..." "Now where are you going?" "I'm going for a swim." "Alan must be 22 at least." "Climbing a rope to see how strong he is?" "Seems incredibly childish to me." "Oh, it's not just climbing it." "You see, the others hold the other end, and as he climbs up, well, every 10 seconds or so..." "Yes?" "Oh, it's like you say, childish." "Pass me the rennet, will you?" "Pet..." "Hmm?" "I don't know how to put this, but, well, we live a funny sort of life here and are you regular?" "What?" "Your monthlies?" "Too regular." "Mine's seven weeks late now." "Doesn't necessarily mean anything, does it?" "Not necessarily." "Any other symptoms?" "Yeah." "So you're having a baby?" "It doesn't follow." "I'd see Ruth." "And don't look so alarmed." "I didn't mean to have one." "That's not the sort of thing that we can help nowadays." "Well, we should be able to." "Sally." "Well, it beats me." "I just don't want to, that's all." "You were wanting me this afternoon when I climbed up that rope in the mill." "I suppose you only did it because you thought it would turn me on." "Coming up the hill just now, you wanted me then as well." "Come on, Mel." "We've made love before, lots of times." "It was great for both of us." "Not at this time of the month." "Oh, not that again." "It's all right for you." "Melanie!" "I'm not risking it." "But it wouldn't be so bad even if you..." "Charles will be knocked out." "Are you sure?" "I told her to see Ruth." "But I don't think there is very much doubt." "Well, I must say that makes me very happy." "Someone pregnant at last." "I don't think Sally's all that happy about it." "Oh, she's bound to be a bit apprehensive." "But Ruth will soon reassure her." "Sally's the kind of girl whose father would've turned her out of the house if that had happened in the old days." "Well, it's not the old days." "I'll have a talk to her." "I'd leave it to Ruth." "I just want to make her see that if she's having a baby," "it's something to be proud of." "I'd still leave it to Ruth." "Oh." "Oh, well..." "Maybe you're right." "Did he go back to the farm?" "I don't know." "He left with Mel." "How long have they been gone?" "About an hour." "You might find them down by the river." "He wanted her to go for a swim." "That far away, huh?" "That's what Mel said." "He really fancies her, doesn't he?" "I wouldn't say that." "He'd probably live with her if he could." "No, Alan wouldn't live with anyone." "He might." "He doesn't need to, does he?" "You should be glad, really." "Glad?" "Ugh." "Four girls and three blokes." "If we ever started pairing off, that would leave one of you out in the cold for good." "With no sign of life anywhere else, at least not since the last place, it wouldn't be fair on the ones left out, would it?" "I love Alan." "Here, have some knockout." "No, thank you." "It's better than the mint tea." "It makes me sick." "So does that mint tea, come to that." "Unless it's something else." "What's bothering you, Sal?" "My mother was 18 hours in labour having me." "My dad often told me as if it was my fault." "And she was in hospital." "(ALAN WHISTLING)" "Hello." "Hey, you wanna watch it, Sal." "That stuff of Melanie's can put you out, you know." "At least there's something that can." "Where is Melanie anyway?" "Gone back, why?" "Did you have an enjoyable swim together?" "(ALAN SCOFFS)" "No escape from this place, is there?" "You just can't move without everybody knowing where you are and what you're doing!" "Give over, Dave!" "You're a right one, aren't you?" "What?" "You know what you've done to Sal, don't you, Dad?" "(DAVE PLAYING DRUMS)" "Dave seems to think you're having a baby." "Is that right?" "Looks like it." "That's a turn-up, innit?" "Was that last time, when we played the game, afterwards?" "You mean is it yours?" "Of course." "There isn't anyone else." "Cheer up, Sal." "Think what a fuss they'll all make of you." "Nobody has had a baby at Whitecross since Jenny had hers." "Jenny's married." "Never." "Anyway, what's that got to do with it?" "Hey, you don't think they're going to chuck you out because you're having a baby, do you?" "I love you, Alan." "Well, I'm not gonna run away, Sal." "If it's my baby, I'm not gonna deny it." "We could live together." "But we all live together, that's the point." "You won't be having it on your own." "Everybody here will look after you." "I don't wanna be married to everyone." "A marriage." "She actually wants that?" "To Alan." "Catch him!" "Yeah, but no one here is actually married." "Oh, well, I don't mean she necessarily wants a wedding." "Though I wouldn't put it past her." ""I plight thee my troth for this day forever."" "She'd have a white satin dress and bridesmaids if she could." "Oh, don't send up marriage too much." "It wasn't a bad idea in its day." "Oh, I wouldn't have got married even then." "Al least that's one thing we got shut of for good." "Yeah." "Well, I'd marry Jenny." "Well, you might." "Yes." "Yeah." "And Charles would marry Pet, with ceremony and all." "If it didn't create a moral precedent which we can't afford just at the present time." "Well, don't talk to me, tell Sally." "PET:" "If one had to be married to be allowed to have a baby, Sally..." "I don't mean literally married, just living together properly like you and Charles." "Even so..." "If babies are limited only for the people who have decided to live together permanently, well, the way things are here at present, that puts the entire future of this place onto Jenny and me." "And I don't seem to be able to help very much." "Lucky you." "What are you so afraid of?" "I just hoped that Alan might have wanted to live me, that's all." "I know it's hopeless, really." "Has Alan even said he loves you?" "Alan doesn't need to love anyone." "Why should she expect me to live with her just because she's having my baby?" "Even in the old world they didn't force you to marry." "CHARLES:" "In the old world, she'd have been on the pill." "(CHUCKLES) Not our Sally." "You know what surprises me?" "That more of the girls aren't pregnant." "Well, it's not our fault." "It's not." "It's Melanie, she makes the rules." "Honestly, I think she keeps a chart on them all." "And Sally broke the rules?" "No, she didn't." "More of a stickler for the safe period than the rest of them." "She was just born unlucky, that's all." "Unlucky?" "Sally's pregnancy is the best thing that's happened here." "You make her see that." "Who'd want a baby in this dump?" "GREG:" "Oh, there are other dumps?" "Hmm." "Start having kids, you'll never have the chance to find out." "And you're going to find out, are you?" "Well, how?" "Once you've got that motorbike going..." "No, no, no." "The only thing I'm gonna get going is the tractor." "Oh, if you can make a tractor, one day you'll be able to make a car." "Yeah, and someone can go off and clear all the roads." "Phil and Judy got away." "And I wonder what happened to them." "Oh, probably in Paris by now, sipping Pernod on the Boul' Mich." "Paris is just a compost heap." "You can't be sure of that." "Of course I'm sure of it." "When we were in London..." "Oh, you found 500 people you didn't even know existed." "Yeah." "And there was a chap with a radio who said he'd been in contact with the rest of the world." "Three or four places, that's all." "Rest of the world?" "There were only 12 people left alive in Cairo." "Who'd ever want to go to Cairo?" "Does she seriously think that there are still some bright lights burning in the world?" "Yeah." "Well, there might be." "Not a chance." "You can't be sure." "There must be some city somewhere." "South America, Australia, Japan." "There must be somewhere the plague didn't reach." "GREG:" "Never." "You can't really expect us to accept the idea we're gonna have to spend the rest of our lives here." "Good God!" "Does she think if one of them gets pregnant, she'll be turned out of doors in disgrace?" "Is that why Sally wants to marry Alan, 'cause she's afraid of being branded as an unmarried mother?" "She just wants someone to look after her." "Someone to depend on and keep her safe." "Safe!" "We'll keep her safe, did you tell her that?" "We are more to be relied on than young Alan." "Perhaps we should have a party." "A what?" "To celebrate." "The whole community." "Pet, that is a very good idea." "Make her see that the baby is something to rejoice in." "A new generation." "Faith in the future." "Ruth!" "We're gonna have a party." "Whatever brought that on?" "Sally's pregnancy." "Oh, we're not sure she is pregnant yet." "I'd say she's due in six months' time." "She's seen you at last?" "I asked her to help me give the calf an injection." "It wasn't too difficult to bring the subject up then." "She'd never have come to me about it cold." "You told her there was nothing to worry about?" "Yes, I did." "But I don't think she believed me." "She told me that her mother was in labour with her 18 hours in a hospital." "So she's just afraid of the birth, then." "With no anaesthetics to speak of, no surgery if anything goes wrong, it's understandable." "Oh, is that all?" "All?" "Well, you told her that women were having babies thousands of years before anaesthetics were even invented?" "Natural childbirth." "Like the cow dropping her calf." "How lovely to be a man!" "Well, there's no reason to expect any complication," "she's a normal, healthy girl." "Well, Charlie..." "It's your duty as a doctor to reassure her, Ruth." "And I did." "Why should she believe me?" "I've never had a baby." "Get Jenny to talk to her." "At least Jenny's been through it." "I'll talk to her and we'll have that party." "We need to establish a completely new set of mores if we're to have any future." "There is more in this than Charles understands." "And there's more in Charles than you understand." "It's not Sally's baby he's so anxious to see born." "It's his own." "It's good news, Sally." "I've been waiting for this for months." "Can't you see how important it is?" "Can see it's important to me." "No, no, no, no." "For all of us." "Here we are, we're what, 28 people, scratching out a living on this hillside." "Your baby will give everyone the sense of commitment we seem to lack at the moment." "Not even Pet's conceived yet." "I'm sure she will soon." "No." "Now, there's nothing to fear, Sally." "I know Ruth may not have a fully equipped obstetrics ward, but she did go to medical school." "And she learnt more there about natural childbirth than ever they taught in your mother's day." "(SIGHS) I suppose so." "I know you want to marry Alan, but..." "I know if I did, it would be very unfair on the other girls." "Well, yes." "I'm afraid it would." "You see, amongst 28 people who've come together by chance, well, we'll never get enough to be able to pair off together like we used to." "Don't be such a rag-bag!" "I mean, look, there's Maggie and Elsie, everybody's very fond of them, but no man really fancies them." "Hubert does." "(CHUCKLING) But they don't fancy Hubert." "Poor Hubert." "There's always Jack." "If he's got eyes for anyone, it's for Melanie." "Oh, they've all got their eyes for Melanie." "She won't have any of them, at least not for keeps." "Melanie wants to go to Paris." "Still dreaming of the gay life she used to have." "Well, there you are, you see." "How many girls are there under 25?" "More than there are boys." "And we can't deny them children just because there's no one to live with them permanently." "So that's why we're giving you a party, Sally." "Party?" "Yes." "With you as guest of honour." "Oh, no, Charlie..." "No, no, no..." "I'm gonna see Daniella about it now." "Well, it's a good an excuse as any for a party, isn't it?" "The best." "Ah!" "You've been a naughty girl, eh?" "What?" "Got yourself into trouble, I hear." "A party, with music and dancing, too?" "Yeah." "Well, Greg can play his guitar." "And if we have it outside..." "On mid-summer night!" "Why not?" "It's only a week away." "Oh, is it so soon?" "There's not much time for all to be ready." "The sooner the better, Daniella." "Si, Si, there's plenty to help." "And if I can bake some of the food, and we do extra baking..." "A wedding feast." "Ah!" "Well, it's hardly that." "Bride and groom at the head of the table." "And lanterns in the trees, when dark it grows." "Will Jack and the others be back?" "Yes, I hope so." "Look, Daniella, you do realise they're not getting married." "Si, married!" "And, you know, I was thinking when I went past that house in the tree." "It's not for illness you need it now." "No, it's falling to bits, Daniella." "Oh, yes." "But Jack and Alan will mend it." "That house in the tree is just the place for Alan and Sally, and the baby when it comes." "Daniella, they're not going to live together." "We're having this party to show how much we all rejoice in the birth of the baby." "Now, we need babies, don't we?" "Babies." "Yes." "Well, we want to show that every girl living here has the right to have a baby whether she lives with the father or not." "With the father!" "Saw that little hussy go by just now." "Got one in the oven, hasn't she?" "Alan that is, I bet." "That lad ought to be gelded." "Ain't got enough to do, those kids, have they?" "Little slut." "I really don't think it's necessary, Sally." "I only examined you the day before yesterday." "I don't want you to examine me, Ruth." "I want you to get rid of it for me." "About six months, Ruth says." "So, December?" "Hmm." "Round about Christmas." "Well, we can see that she gets all the vitamins she needs." "At least living this sort of life mother and child should be healthy." "It's the psychological side that worries me." "Yeah, social side, too." "Hubert plays the outraged citizen every time he sees her." "She takes no notice of that, I hope." "This party you're giving," "Daniella seems to see it as some kind of a wedding breakfast." "Well, it's bound to take a bit of time for people like Hubert to adjust." "It's the attitude of the young that worries me." "Well, they don't expect her to get married, do they?" "No, no, no." "Well, thanks to Melanie, they seem to think getting pregnant is somehow letting the side down." "And that's where you can help, Jenny." "You make them see what a good thing it is to have a baby." "They'll believe it from you." "You're the only one here that's had one." "Well, see you." "Uh, I'm not so sure." "Jenny?" "Yes." "You all right?" "An abortion!" "She asked for that?" "RUTH:" "Yes." "What did you tell her?" "That I didn't recommend it." "On medical grounds." "On other grounds, too, I should imagine." "She told me it was time I invented an efficient contraceptive." "Well, I have tried." "Melanie's always on at me, so are the other women." "I didn't know this." "It's nothing to do with you." "What, that you're putting your mind to thinking of ways to stop women from having babies?" "Have you forgotten there are hardly any people in the world?" "It took women thousands of years to achieve the opportunity not to conceive against their will." "And now when they finally get that freedom..." "Freedom to let the world die out?" "One of the worst effects of the plague, to my mind, is that women are just going to be childbearers again." "Not just." "You'll see how it turns out." "Well, I don't intend to help put women back into the dark ages again just because the world needs people." "Not even for love, not even for Paul, would I risk it." "A child is not a threat." "Look, if Sally doesn't want to bring up her baby, then nobody's going to force her to." "Her freedom is not in jeopardy." "The community will rear her child if she wants it to." "In care, as they used to call it." "Don't be ridiculous." "There's nothing of charity in the idea of a kibbutz." "Look, can't you see that women will be more liberated than they ever were before they were on the pill?" "You can't sublimate a natural instinct, Ruth." "Don't worry about me." "You can still be a mother and a doctor." "I am not frustrated, I am fulfilled." "(SCOFFS)" "Well, don't look so surprised." "The only known doctor?" "Of course I'm fulfilled, so are you." "I am hardly relevant to this argument." "Before the plague, your ideas of self sufficiency made you a crank in the eyes of the supermarket society." "But now you've come into your own." "The death of the world has given you a much happier life than you ever had before." "Here, you're king." "But what about Melanie?" "Living with her film director boyfriend in Saint Germain des Prés." "The Lamborghini down the autoroute to Cannes for the weekend." "Movies and parties, shops and clothes." "A world you despised, but she revelled in." "No wonder she's digging her heels in." "The most you've got to offer is a harvest supper once a year and motherhood." "She's even younger than I am." "Two or three good years to look back on." "You had nearly half your life." "All right for some, wasn't it?" "What on earth was all that about?" "She means to live as a nun." "What?" "An attractive young woman like Ruth, repressing all her natural instincts for her work, it's absurd!" "She can lead a full life here as a woman and still be a damn good doctor." "There must a man for her, Pet." "Perhaps you." "What?" "You might be more fortunate with her." "(RAIN PATTERING)" "(THUNDER RUMBLING)" "(BABY CRYING)" "All right, Paul, I'm coming." "Lizzie's still asleep." "That's good." "It's only thunder, isn't it?" "Mmm-hmm." "Lizzie might be frightened if she wakes." "Well, she won't be if you tell her that it's just thunder, will she?" "Now, go on, hop it." "Get back to bed." "All right, I'll tell her." "Just thunder." "Just thunder." "That was a tree coming down just now." "GREG:" "Mmm-hmm." "It could have come down on the house." "I hate being so close to the woods." "It's not being struck by lightning or felled by trees that's so worrying as what the rain's going to do to the hay." "Yeah." "Suppose we have rain like this in August." "Suppose the harvest is..." "Well, just suppose that you stop supposing, hmm?" "Hmm." "When I think of all that's growing out there." "All that we've planted and worked on." "And to know it'd only take two weeks heavy rain at harvest time." "Well, we'd just have to start all over again, hmm?" "Yes." "(THUNDER RUMBLING)" "And Charles expects me to tell Sally it's a good thing to have a baby." "CHARLES:" "Ah!" "Well, we needed rain." "Not all at once." "What's it like in the valley?" "Ah, the river broke its banks." "Oh, it flooded the barley." "Yeah, well, it's drying up." "Well, at least our hay will dry out." "Yeah, if we turn it enough and it doesn't rain any more." "Well, it could have been worse, Greg." "Charles." "Yeah?" "I wouldn't rely on Jenny to help Sally over her hang-ups." "She was wishing last night that she didn't have a child of her own." "Children are our only real hope." "Proof that we mean to go on." "Give us the roots we need." "Yeah, but if you're going to put down roots, you got to be sure of your ground first." "Well, unless we do put them down, we never shall be." "Unless we commit ourselves here, we'll always be just squatters, whatever we grow." "Alan and Melanie seem to think there's always something better to be had on the other side of the hill." "Grass always greener." "They'll never settle here." "Move on like gypsies?" "Yeah." "Like Mark Carter." "Well, we're giving that party tonight for Sally's baby." "Let's hope that gives us a sense of commitment." "(GREG PLAYING THE GUITAR)" "(TAPPING ON GLASS)" "To Sally." "ALL:" "To Sally!" "GREG:" "And the baby." "Come on, Sal, speech." "Come on!" "All right, then, all right." "If she doesn't want to say anything, then I will." "Oh, I knew he would!" "He likes to hear himself talk." "(LAUGHING)" "You know..." "We've lost half the hay, and the barley is underwater." "Now Ruth tells me that the horse is going lame." "And Jack and the others are still not yet back from getting the salt that we so desperately need." "But Sally, Sally is going to have a baby." "And that more than makes up for the rest of it." "A brother or a sister for baby Paul." "HUBERT:" "Aye." "Yes, and for John, Lizzie, Norma, Yarra." "HUBERT:" "She's not their mother, too, is she?" "You're the father, Hubert." "I am not the father!" "Yes, you are, Hubert." "You see, we're all of us mothers and fathers." "It doesn't matter a hoot about the hay or the barley, they're simply setbacks." "Look, this is our land." "It's fertile for us to sow and to harvest." "It's capable of infinite prosperity, as long as we ensure that there are enough of us to work it." "We have a stake in the future." "And Sally's baby remember, like Jenny's Paul, will have no bitter memories of the old world to mar the excitement of the new one." "And so for them, and for these, and for the others yet to be born, we have to make the world good for them to make it better." "So, Greg, give us a song." "We've got something to celebrate." "The future." "ALL:" "The future!" "Well, and who would like some more pie?" "I kept one back in the kitchen for the greedy." "Hubert?" "Wouldn't say no." "No, do not." "JOHN:" "I'd like some more pie, please." "Lots more pie!" "Where you put it all, young man, I don't know." "Thank you very much." "Sally, will you be having some more pie?" "No, thank you." "You must be eating for two now, remember." "What I really would like is an orange." "I got this crazy feeling for oranges." "You will not see those again." "Oh, I don't know, there must be some somewhere." "In Spain, wild ones." "And that's not so far away." "We could fetch them together when Greg's fixed the motorbike." "Well, we can hardly go by tractor." "# Loving and living" "# Like birds in the trees and bees in the honey hives #" "You're feverish." "Feel her, Ruth, she's running a temperature." "Oh, it's nothing serious." "Well, it could be." "Well, I'd put her to bed if I were you." "Come on, Lizzie, let's tuck you in." "You too, John, bedtime." "Sorry." "I'm having some more pie." "Yeah, you'll make yourself sick, come on." "Not yet." "Norma and Yarra aren't going to bed yet." "See, I told you it'd be all right, didn't I, Sal?" "Eh?" "He should have stood by what he done, that's what I say." "Make an honest woman of you." "Sally, come on down here." "Yeah, come on, Sal." "# Like birds in the trees and bees in the honey hives" "# If you keep your love alive, you'll survive" "# But you gotta keep going" "# Reaping and sowing" "# Keep on living" "# Loving and living" "# Like birds in the trees and bees in the honey hives #" "Exciting, is it, our new world?" "Oh, it can be." "It will be if you go at it all out." "I suppose you'd like me to be pregnant, too." "Find that unreasonable?" "As a matter of fact, I do." "Aren't you being a little selfish?" "Selfish?" "Who's going to look after you when you're Elsie's age?" "Frankly, I don't expect to be Elsie's age." "And that's not being selfish?" "If you want to know, Charles, I think you're obsessed." "If you want to know," "I think you're old enough to be a little more responsible." "Whether you like it or not, you are an influence here." "So make it a good one, hmm?" "How about you, Charles?" "Would you like to be influenced?" "Please be serious." "I'm very serious." "After all, if we're going to have a baby farm here, the least you can do is let the women chose the fathers." "# ...you'll survive #" "Oh, I feel terrible." "What did you put in that wine, Pet, hemlock?" "I can hardly get up." "Just not used to the hard stuff, Greg, that's all." "Elderflower wine?" "That's Melanie's gin." "GREG:" "That is gin?" "SALLY:" "What did you think it was, water?" "Come on, I'll take you home." "Jenny won't want to see me looking like this." "Yes, well, come to the bungalow." "I'm sure Ruth's got something to make you feel better." "Where would we all be without Dr Ruth?" "She's asleep." "It's really nothing, Jenny." "Couple of days and she'll be as right as rain." "Mmm." "The slightest sign of fever terrifies me." "Well, that's only natural." "Come on, let's get back to the party." "No, I'd rather not." "Well, the kids will be all right on their own." "Yes, yes, I know." "It's just that I want to be asleep when Greg comes back." "Or at least pretend to be." "Don't let Charles hear you say that." "Oh, Charles." "He's become such a romantic lately." "As if a baby or two can give anyone any sense of permanence." "So you keep your distance, too?" "I don't want another." "I thought you said that Ruth would be here." "Probably seeing how Lizzie is." "You feeling any better?" "Yeah, thanks." "It really knocked me out for a minute." "What does the girl make it with?" "I shudder to think." "Ah, I must get home." "Jenny'll miss you?" "Hmm." "She's probably asleep." "Usually is these days." "What do you mean?" "She's not very happy." "We're both restless, Pet." "Charlie depends on you." "I wonder." "He feels so responsible." "For choosing this place?" "Perhaps." "Well, it's good land." "He's right from his point of view." "But not from yours." "I really must get home." "Don't go." "Please." "Well, Charlie will be back soon." "With Melanie." "He's not interested in her." "She might be interested in him." "The way things are with us at the moment..." "He loves you, Pet." "But I haven't given him the child he wants." "Well, I doubt if she fancies him myself." "Pity." "I really must get home." "Charles so wants a child." "He'd be glad." "Jenny's the only woman I want, Pet." "Sorry." "I'm sorry." "I suppose I had too much to drink myself." "Only, why me?" "Well, at least you fathered a child." "So has Charles." "At least two." "Hey, I thought we were having a party." "Come on, let's go." "MAN:" "Good idea!" "(ALL SHOUTING)" "Hang on!" "Don't drop it!" "MAN:" "Bring your..." "CHARLES:" "Greg was here?" "I made him some acorn coffee." "Oh, poor Greg." "He was sick." "He felt a lot better." "When did he go home?" "You only just missed him." "So he was here for some time, then." "Yes." "Why didn't you tell me about Ayla and the others?" "Did Greg?" "He thought I knew." "Oh, it seems like a century ago now." "Before I met you, it seems like another country." "A child by each of them?" "Only one was born." "So it is me." "How did you make out with Melanie?" "What?" "You were as long with her as I was with Greg." "If she had a baby, it would be a big breakthrough, wouldn't it?" "All the others would want to do the same thing." "You'd be assured of your new generation then." "Pet," "I love you." "You should have told me about the other women." "Well, it's..." "It's not the sort of thing you do tell your wife." "(SCOFFS) Wife." "That's for sure, isn't it?" "Even though..." "Even though anything." "You still haven't answered my question about Melanie." "Pet." "I love you even though anything, too." "And so I'd understand, Charlie." "I mean..." "I know how much it means to you and..." "And if I can't..." "Well, Melanie doesn't even fancy me, Pet." "She was just playing me along tonight." "You know, she's taken all the others off." ""Time we had a party," she said." "We were having a party." "Mmm." "Not their sort." "Poor Charlie." "(PLAYING ROCK MUSIC)" "(MUSIC STOPS)" "Oh, come on, Pete!" "(ALL SHOUTING AT ONCE)" "MAN:" "Please?" "Hey, let's play the game." "DANIELLA:" "Sally!" "Where are you?" "Melanie!" "Have you seen the girls?" "There are none of them in their rooms." "Down at the mill, most like, having an orgy." "Lord knows what wickedness they're up to." "But it's Sally's turn to do the breakfast." "You'll be lucky." "Hello, John, you're up early." "Can I go down to the mill?" "What, at 6:00 in the morning?" "Whatever for?" "That's where they all are." ""Having an orgy", Hubert says." "I heard him telling Daniella just now." "Can I go?" "No, you certainly cannot." "What's an orgy?" "Well, if they're still living it up at this hour, they're not going to be much use turning hay this morning, are they?" "Nor are you by the looks of you." "I'd like to see them play the game." "What's the game?" "Climbing up the rope." "It goes all the way up to the roof." "One of them climbs up and the others hold on." "And every few seconds or so, one of them lets go." "What do you mean, lets go?" "Until there's only one left." "And if you don't reach the top before he's too worn out to hold on any longer..." "Whatever are you talking about, John?" "Come on, Dave." "ALAN:" "Oh, a bit further." "You're nearly there, go on." "Come on." "That's it, go on." "Come on." "Well done." "SALLY:" "It's my turn!" "No!" "Hold on to the rope." "No, Sally!" "SALLY:" "It's easy." "Don't be daft!" "If she wants to." "Everyone has the right to play." "I won't let her, Mel." "Let's hope the girls can carry her weight, then." "She's started!" "Right, on the end, Dave." "Not both of you." "She's half your weight, Alan." "Makes it much too easy." "Come on, Sal." "You're doing fine." "Just a bit further." "MELANIE:" "Now!" "I said "Now", Alan." "Let go." "Tighter." "MELANIE:" "Now!" "Barbara can't hold her on her own." "Let go, Ann." "Come on, fast!" "GIRL:" "Come on, Sally, you can do it." "ALL:" "Come on!" "GIRL:" "You're nearly there." "Come on, give us a hand." "You've nearly done it!" "Get on the rope!" "GIRL:" "Oh, come on." "Alan, you cheated." "DAVE:" "That was terrific, Sal." "You cheated." "Do you think I would've minded if I'd fallen?" "(SALLY SCREAMING IN PAIN)" "She's lost it?" "I'm afraid so." "I suppose you say she was entitled to?" "I'm sorry she had to find such a drastic method." "And I think it was stupid, cruel and unnecessary." "But, yes, she was entitled to." "A baby murdered so that..." "Don't talk that way." "You've got to meet them on their terms, Charles." "It's going to be more our world from now on than yours." "If you don't believe in having children, there won't be a world." "(ENGINE REVVING)" "You've got it going!" "Yeah, using our own methane." "Whoo!" "What would she do if she were on the road?" "On a bike?" "About five knots, I should say." "That's not much" "It's a start, Mel." "It shows it's possible." "We can soon build up the power." "Yeah, but for a tractor." "That's all I'm interested in." "Yeah, you might be, not me." "We'll get moving one day, Mel." "Just leave it to me." "We've got an engine!" "Jenny says I can't go to the mill any more." "The mill?" "Who wants the mill?" "We've got an engine." "For a motorbike?" "Like you had?" "Yeah, here, hang on." "Right?" "Right." "(IMITATING MOTORCYCLE)" "We must have a meeting to talk about the mill, Melanie." "No more climbing?" "That would be my opinion." "What's yours?" "That we've other things to interest us now." "How long before you've made a Lamborghini, Greg?" "(LAUGHS) You're hopeful." "Yes, in a way, I think I am now." "That's the best thing that's ever happened here." "A machine." "Well, some of them rather like the old world, Charles." "What they saw of it." "Yes, in the workshop." "Hey, Hubert, we've got an engine!" "HUBERT:" "Oi." "Look out, you clumsy..." "Well, come on, then." "Wake up or you'll get left behind."