Stella?
- Stella. - No!
Look at them sugar warehouses
blowing up like blasted paper bags.
Young madam.
It's all right, luv.
Come on. That's it.
Don't cry. You be a good girl for your mum.
Shh, shh, shh. Don't worry.
Your father's gone. Oh, no. Shh, shh.
Look. Pretty pearls.
Be a good girl, now.
It's all right. It's all right.
You be a good girl now, and I'll be back soon.
Stella! Stella, don't worry, luv.
You're all right.
Now, take deep breaths, Stella.
Stella, breathe deeply. That's it.
Don't worry. You're all right.
How... now...
brown... cow.
How... now...
brown... cow.
How now, brown cow.
I didn't know it was called Dramatic Art.
Hoo-er.
Oh, yes. It is.
I thought she was just learning to speak properly.
Well, that's it, that's it.
Oh. Well, I hope she's not in for another disappointment.
Well, if she is, I've told her
this time she'll end up behind the counter
in Woolworths, my girl. Or Boots.
And she'll be damn lucky to get that and all.
Damn lucky. Oh, yes.
Hello, Mother?
It's Auntie Lily and Uncle Vernon.
They ask too much of me.
Hello? Hello?
Yes, yes, yes.
It's a trunk call.
She's practicing acting
as if into a telephone
for her interview.
Oh? Oh.
Well, fancy that.
Mrs. Fairfield's out.
Can I take a message? Yes, yes, yes.
It's a trunk call.
Should she walk when on the phone?
Mrs. Fairfield's out. Shall I take a message?
Mrs. Fairfield speaking.
Good Lord!
Sidney, don't say Good Lord.
No, that's not right.
How now, brown cow.
Won't do, young lady. I'm expected.
Rose Lipman is known to me
which is how you've come by this interview.
Audition! Have you settled up with the taxi?
Yes. Here, here.
I'd rather die than tip him!
I think it degrades the giver
every bit as much as the receiver.
Chuck it through the window and hook it, then!
I'll go on the tram.
You'll arrive bedraggled.
She'll be soaked! She'll ruin her hair!
Mrs. Fairfield says...
Sidney, I believe the telephone is going--
Not a play that springs immediately to mind, is it?
Off.
Hello? Hello?
Everybody is always out when you need them most.
There's no need for that, Bunny.
Hello? Hello?
I think it's tea time. Don't you?
Yes, yes, yes. It-- it's a trunk call.
Not my fault.
Hello?
The thing is...
I think she's a genius. Don't you, Bunny?
Your promiscuity is humiliating.
# Even when the darkest clouds #
# Are in the sky #
# You mustn't sigh #
# And you must not cry #
# Just spread a little happiness #
# As you go by #
I must keep my coat on.
Thank you.
But you're drenched. Huh?
That is not important.
Auntie Lily said time enough for a new dress
when I get the job.
Yes.
I think I'm falling in love with him, Mother.
I could've been afraid of him
but for his nicotine-stained fingers.
I know a man who can't close his eyes.
He burned... in a bomb.
How interesting.
He was to be married
but his fiancée was afraid that it would pass on
to the children and threw him over.
It's all right.
But the worst thing, he says,
is people thinking he looks fierce
when most days
he weeps.
Inside.
Oh, hell.
Well, I look forward to meeting you again, Miss Bradshaw.
Congratulations.
Oh?
Bunny here is our stage manager.
I think he ought to take care of--
There's a taxi.
- No, I-- I-- - Taxi!
I have shopping to do, thank you.
Uncle Vernon never travels by cab
'cause he finds tipping degrading.
Isn't that foolish of him?
But you haven't seen me act, Mr. Potter.
Oh, I rather think I have, what?
Stella?
Good evening. My name is Stella Bradshaw.
I don't expect you'll ever want to love me.
What you are is dog's bodies.
Assistant stage managers they have to pay.
You're students.
So they don't have to pay you.
When you've been nine days in an open boat
I expect you look on that sort of thing with contempt.
George was in an open boat.
Oh.
For nine days.
Weren't you, George?
It's not as deep as all that.
Eh? What?
The stage, George. It's not as deep as I expected.
I thought you meant the organ.
Too deep for me to see.
Here. Keep your nice clothes clean.
Thank you.
It's not that I'm bored by what you all did in the war.
But everybody has, like, stories to tell
and bits of them to show
where they were hurt.
Oh, they will have.
Who's that?
That's P.L. O'Hara.
"Richard II" before the war.
I keep that notice because it mentions me.
Not by name. The set.
He sent me that postcard during the war.
Don't know why.
He was on the "Andrew," commanding a corvette.
Best Captain Hook we've had in this theatre, the same.
Set for "Richard II"
on which I solved the problem of the dungeon.
Ladies, gentlemen, and others assorted
please find a seat.
It is rather fine.
But then, I love beautiful things, don't you?
- Yes. - Wait.
Morning, darling.
- Hello! - How old is she, exactly?
Absolutely none of your business.
It's my fault. I was trying to be pleasant.
She drinks.
Have I got time for a cup?
No. You're here to work, young man, sit down.
Get some fags, will you? What's your name?
Her name's Stella.
And she won't, Mr. Fairchild, unless Bunny lets her.
Time hurries.
So, does everybody know everybody?
This side.
Well, if you don't, you will.
And you all know me
or what they say about me.
And all of that is true.
So speak now if you don't
because we do "Dangerous Corner."
Two weeks' rehearsal, play for two weeks
while we rehearse "Caesar and Cleo."
Playing for two weeks, while we rehearse "Peter Pan."
So, the thing is, it's a very heavy season
and you're all going to have to work very, very hard.
But you're all the very best people we could find
the length and breadth of the profession.
Aww!
For the money.
Welcome. I think you're all very good.
I mean...
wonderful.
You wanted to know the truth and here it is!
Some of it.
She's been in love with you for ages.
Wives are always aware of these things, you know.
I'll tell you what I have longed to tell you for some time
that I think you're a fool for not having responded to it.
For not having done something about it before now.
Sorry.
Doesn't matter. Go on, go on!
When somebody loves you like that
for God's sake, make the most of it
before it's too late.
Leave it!
Stop fussing like an old queen, Bunny!
Stella.
Ten minutes.
Darling, I'd like you to take some notes for me.
Care for a snifter, squire?
Do you know where the general post office is?
Of course. I live here.
Of course you do. I think that's charming.
Now, I want you to run all the way
and don't change a word.
There you are.
Ten bob. That's two and six change.
Bunny! Where's Bunny?
Bunny!
Meredith, old boy,
when are we gonna get onto the stage?
The old green, huh?
I'm having a bit of trouble finding my character.
Mmm. So I'd noticed.
A cup of tea, please.
One of those, thanks.
There's a man next to you
whose toes can be seen through his boots.
Oh, my God, I can smell it.
There's no need to be so loud.
People have feelings.
A minute longer and you'd be scratching.
"Darling Hilary stop. In hell stop."
"You must ring stop."
"Reverse charges."
"I love you. Meredith."
Oh!
What's this about Hilary?
I phoned twice this morning, Bunny.
I mean...
not a dicky bird.
Well, perhaps the bill hasn't been paid.
It has. I paid it.
Of course, that girl is in love with you, too
if that's any comfort.
Stella by Starlight?
"Don't bother to telephone stop."
"Will not accept reverse charges stop."
"Yours, Meredith."
Thank you.
If I could, I'd take you away from all this.
I'm sorry.
You're afraid of dirt.
Better than lurking in corridors for Meredith Potter
with a copy of Shakespeare at hand in case he notices you.
What about you, then?
Got a pash on him?
He's not here anyway.
In London with the designer, I'm told.
I know.
Why don't you like George?
I do. He has native intelligence.
- He's not a nigger. - What?
He went straight from St. Aloysius'
to the Royal Court as a stagehand.
If he slopped glue
he was hit on the head with the brush.
If he made a noise, he was fined sixpence.
They all were. Then he came here as a day man.
They were all something.
At sea. Over Germany. In the desert.
Well, Mother, I might as well get it over with
s-so that when the moment comes to be p-penetrated
by Mr. Potter, I shall not put him off
scream... or anything.
I don't like the feel of it.
Thank you very much, Geoffrey.
It's not that I don't like old George.
It's just that he stinks.
I'll put these on the boiler.
Leave it! Leave it!
You'll have us all blown to eternity!
I can do it!
Oh, can you? Can you?
Look at you!
Blow us all to buggery.
At the theatre I have a lot to do with gas.
It's one of my jobs is gas.
Oh, is it?
I hope you know what you're doing there all hours.
All kinds of hours.
What do you know of life?
The way that life can bowl you over?
Bowl you over!
But not here it won't.
You put that on the door.
Unless you want all and sundry catching you in your vest.
Uncle Vernon?
I know you want what's best for me.
A-and...
fear for me, don't you?
But it's all right.
I want it to happen.
And...
Really, I-- I think the world of you.
I've cleaned the tidemark
and put the loofah back under the stairs.
Night-night.
Nighty-night. God bless.
Night-night.
Do I do the right thing?
If the school won't have her back...
Not won't. Not won't.
Well, they don't think she'd benefit.
She's got the brains. Candles. But not...
Oh, yes. Anything else?
...the application. Toilet rolls.
Quantity two dozen.
Afraid I can only manage...
She's burgeoning, you know.
Is she?
- Is your daughter? - What?
Burgeoning, as it were, yet?
I don't know.
I haven't looked.
No, no, no! It's the one on the left!
The left, dear! She's deaf as a post.
Yes, well, it's your right. Thank you.
Now, Geoffrey, move stage left.
Stage left. Thank you very much.
Thank you, no. Number 8?
- No, thank you. - Shall I move stage left?
Geoffrey, is that where I asked you to stand?
I was trying--
Please stand where I asked you to stand!
- Sorry. - Number 10?
Footlights. That takes me back.
No. Number 11.
Now, that's very close. Thank you.
The play's awfully good, isn't it, Mr. Potter?
Why this wasn't sorted out yesterday is beyond me.
I'm coming in!
What do you think it's about, Stella?
Now, there are two ways of doing this...
Love?
Uh, love.
Is it?
People loving people who love other people?
No, no. Thank you.
I, um...
I think it's about time.
I think we're all mourners at a funeral procession
and that some of us have simply dropped behind
to tie a shoelace.
So contact with the beloved is suspended.
But the dead-- the dead are still there.
So, too, those we think we love.
Just around
the dangerous corner, if you like...
waiting to be, um...
Hilary!
Bunny. How long?
Weeks at this rate.
Caught up with-- waiting to be caught up with.
I-- I hadn't thought of it like that.
No.
Stella. Stella!
Call beginners, please.
Don't you think they're good, Stella's notes?
I mean, I wish I could spell like that.
Mourners at a "funral," is my favourite bit.
It's cold now!
I hate cold bacon.
We haven't all got shoes with laces.
All beginners, please!
Beginners, please!
- Fetch Bunny. - What's that noise?
Not a word.
Why can't we start?!
Th-there's a spot of bother.
Huh? Speak up. What is wrong?
I've been forbidden to divulge.
How long?!
Leave her!
He's such a shit!
Cheer up, Stella. It might never happen.
There are priests out there.
Only for rehearsals. It's a sin otherwise.
His Nibs is a convert.
Mr. Potter's Catholic?
Well, they all are. Actors.
Desmond Fairchild, he's not.
What is he?
Hold it under there, like that.
Deep breaths, Miss Allenby.
Remember your training.
Stand by, Mr. Fairchild, please.
House lights.
Going up.
You have just been listening to a play
in eight scenes written for broadcasting
by Mr. Humphrey Stoat, called "The Sleeping Dog."
Hello, Mother.
I'm becoming a Catholic.
You'd like the play.
At the end, they dance to that tune
"My Foolish Heart."
# When I take my sugar to tea #
# All the boys are jealous of me #
# 'Cause I never take her where the gang goes #
# When I take my sugar to tea #
# I'm a rowdy dowdy, that's me #
# She's a high hat baby, that's she #
# So I never take her where the gang goes #
# When I take my sugar to tea #
# Every Sunday afternoon #
# We forget about our cares #
# Rubbing elbows at the Ritz #
Ah, Dotty's over there. Shall we join them?
Oh, let's not.
Oh, poor Dicky.
What a cross he has to bear.
Drunk as a fiddler's bitch she was.
Is. Will be. Ha ha ha!
Some people like being burdened.
Gives them an interest.
Obsession?
Obsession is hell!
It devours.
Oh, I haven't forgotten the misery of it.
Him! P.L. O'Hara.
Though everybody warned me.
I mean, he chased everything in a skirt.
Dicky isn't like that.
No, but Dawn is. Trousers.
Poor Dicky.
Poor Dicky and his trousers.
Oh, P.L., P.L.!
I thought I could help him forget.
About what?
What he did.
Got a local girl in trouble and scarpered.
Is Mr. Potter's friend o-obsessed with him?
Bunny?
Hilary.
Do you know, treasure, I don't know.
Is she pretty? Is she elegant?
She'd have to be special.
Any lady friend of Meredith's
would have to be something special.
How very true.
What about Desmond Fairchild?
What's your estimation of him?
He's a cunt.
Belated afternoon to you girls.
I shall give her a part.
Of course, he is. She shall play...
She shall play Ptolemy, the boy king, hmm?
Save getting an amateur in.
Trouble is, Fairchild is a local councilor's nephew.
Is he?
Maybe you should talk to her, then, Bunny.
Wash her mouth out with soap.
Stella...
Can't stop or it won't stretch, George says.
It's been brought to my notice
that you called a member of the company a...
Is that how you spell it?
This is a theatre,
George told me he was.
Isn't it something to do with betting, like favourite?
Spend less time in the prop room.
Ptolemy. The boy king. Son of the flute-blower.
He's only in Act II.
Geoffrey, don't stand about. You'll turn to stone.
You're a bit lucky.
Luck doesn't come into it.
Mr. Potter wouldn't ask me if he didn't think I could do it.
I'm being interviewed by the "Manchester Daily News."
I'm at the Reparatory Theatre.
I play the boy king.
S'all right for some.
Son of the flute-blower?
Didn't he want his welsh rarebit?
I'm 16 years old.
I've got a diploma from
the Manchester Academy of Dramatic Art.
I can also do American dialects from the Deep South.
I was trained by Mrs. Ackerley.
She plumped out me vowels. I tend to have flat ones.
I'll wait for you after the show.
Take you for a drink.
Oh! Good girl! Ohh!
How do you get V.D.?
All the newspapers. Even Manchester.
There'll be many's the write-up for our Stella
but this'll be the important one, now.
On the doorstep of my digs this morning
with a bloody great bunch of half-dead daffodils.
- Who? - Dawn Allenby, who do you think?
I had to let her in.
She started picking up my socks.
Ohh! She drinks.
- We know. - We know.
Why does Richard St. Ives
put a red dot in the corner of each eye?
To make him look younger.
How dare you?!
How dare he?
All right, Stella?
Good luck.
House lights, Joe.
Ah! By Apis, Persian, thy gods are good to thee.
Try yet again, Captain. Double or quits.
No, I am not in the vein.
Stand! Who goes there?
Good night, old boy!
T-there's this man.
A boy--
Been given my bloody notice.
Not wanted after "Caesar and Cleopatra."
Oh, dear.
Swine. What a swine.
Tells me there's nothing for me.
Looking at me through that bloody monocle.
Bloody swine.
Swine Meredith bloody Potter.
What about bloody Wendy?
Mr. Potter's not to blame!
It was Dicky St. Ives said it was you or him.
Come on, then! Be a good--
No! Stay away!
Ha! I only drink
because our house took a direct hit in Ealing.
I'm not like that! I'm sorry.
For two days, I was buried alive
nursing my mother's vase.
Oh, dear. What are we to do?
When they pulled me out
the vase was without so much as a single crack.
The thing is...
Then the bloody rescue man stumbled.
I have a gulp in my throat won't go away.
As if I'm waiting for something.
What are you doing here, young lady?
N-nothing, Miss Lipman.
These new shoes are killing me.
They're gone, Vernon and Lily.
It's not them. It's a young man.
A reporter.
He pursues me
and awaits me in the shadows.
I've ordered a taxi.
Silly girl.
What'll become of her, Bunny?
What will become of you?
If you're lucky, you'll end up like me.
At least me...
I was as silly as you in a lot of ways. Still am.
A sickness, my girl, being something else.
See you don't get lost while you are something else.
Came to the right place for it, I'll say that.
Listening to every word we say.
Look...
And this stuck in her sock.
I find it comforting.
You're never a Catholic.
Vernon Bradshaw wouldn't let you near--
Uncle Vernon does not rule my life.
Not this nor in the next.
I'm thinking about going over.
To the Romans.
While you think, wear a smaller one round your neck.
Don't tell Uncle Vernon.
All right, but behave yourself.
I do rule your life while you're in this theatre, my girl.
Be what you like.
Don't tell the whole of Liverpool I said you could.
While you're on the cross
there's a boil coming in on your wrist should be lanced.
Anything else?
No.
Right. Left foot forward.
Thank you.
Stella?
Go down to the kitchen
and ask the waiter with a dent in his forehead
to send up a bucket full of ice cubes
and two or three napkins.
And then get lots of black coffee and some aspirin.
Last night he thought he could fly
from a window at The Commercial.
Fortunately at the bar parlour window.
I've got a part in this one.
As I live and breathe, Peter Pan!
- Slightly! - Very same.
Scala Theatre, 1922.
'Course I've-- I've grown somewhat since then.
Oh, yes! Mmm!
Oh, who's Hook this time?
- Dicky St. Ives. - Oh, bugger.
Morning, Dicky. How are you, squire?
Very, very well.
Geoffrey!
Get me 20 Players, will you?
What did your last servant die of?
Do as you're told, Geoffrey.
Hoity-toity this morning, aren't we?
Thank you, Stella.
And there's your torch. Remember what I told you?
I can't.
Not shine a torch and ring a bell at the same time.
Weren't you in the Girl Guides, dear?
No. They wouldn't have me.
And I have an aversion to flickering lights.
Something in me past.
Little candle flames make me shiver.
I cannot go into it here.
Sufficient to say, it is the stuff of nightmares.
You-- None of you know--
I don't know.
I'm not qualified to say whether the grief
his mother felt in the death of his elder brother had an
adverse effect on Mr. Barrie's emotional development
because...
I have pains of my own.
Me. Not you.
Or you or you or anyone.
I-- Me!
I... I... have them.
"Peter Pan" is pure make-believe.
I don't want any truck with anything else
so, children, and poor people
if you can't see the truth, give me make-believe.
I prefer it.
So don't give me any symbolic...
Ohh!
Shambolic more like, what?
What are you miserable about?
Nothing.
Is it because I've got a part
and you've only a torch and a bell?
Tinkerbell's very important.
In this precarious profession
it doesn't do to get too big for one's boots.
So, what were you doing the other night swearing at Meredith
and running down the stairs like a looney?
What were you doing spying?
I was coping with Dawn.
Poor woman.
She was two days under rubble.
They all were.
It-- It's Mr. Potter.
He hardly knows I'm there.
He can't feel anything of me...
here.
He should be able to.
He's got other things to think about.
Thank you, Jimmy.
Oh, dear, dear.
The last thing we need.
"Dearest Swine,
"no money, no job, no friends.
"Hope you and that ghastly Liverpool girl are satisfied.
"Use this in memory of me. Yours, Dawn Allenby."
"Manchester Daily News, November 9th."
Up and out, please!
That means you, too, Miss Bradshaw.
A marvellous man this Caesar.
When think you he will come?
He was settling the Jewish problem when I left.
"In other roles, a promising debut was made
"by young local actress Stella Bradshaw.
"In the part of Ptolemy, she was always convincing..."
See, my ship is waiting.
The time for Caesar's farewell to Egypt has arrived.
Caesar comes!
Attention there! Here comes Caesar!
What the--
Aah! Oh, no!
All right, squire?
That bloody woman! Ohh!
Thank you.
This has never happened before, not even for miscarriages.
What's wrong with Desmond Fairchild?
Why could he not go on?
Says he hasn't the legs for Caesar.
He would be a laughing-stock.
So what about Captain Hook?
Says he's suited with the part of Smee...
Thank you very much.
Oh, for God's sake, are you sure Dicky can't stand up?
Meredith, the poor man has broken his leg in two places.
Yes, that's £1,10 shillings.
Enjoy the-- Oh, what am I saying?
What about that actor always sending me photographs?
His wife phoned to ask for them back. He's dead.
- What about Cyril? - Who's Cyril?
Oh, yes, Cyril What's-his-name I did know at Derby.
And he later lost both his legs at the first Battle of Alamein.
I mean, try, Bunny!
O'Hara.
- No. - Why not?
The thing is, Rose, I don't-- I don't--
If he's free, he'll come for me.
The thing is, I don't think he's right for it.
Do you, Bunny?
Fiddlesticks!
He is the best Captain Hook there has ever been.
Haven't changed.
Still hankering after the past, I see.
Bloody motorbike at your age.
What is it, next week "Lawrence of Arabia"?
Mind you don't fall off.
Six-week run. Two matinees a week from Tuesday.
All right with Potter after last time?
Funny bugger. Spent too much money
on two big productions, one after the other
and now we won't break even. Well, we might.
With "Peter Pan." With you.
I don't do that with everyone, so mind.
Welcome home.
I know this is your old dressing room.
George told me.
I'm Stella. A student.
Should be A.S.M. as George says
but they won't pay us.
You have to kick the pipes to get the water out of the taps.
I expect you didn't know.
Do you know Mary Deare, Peter Pan?
I think she's very good, don't you?
How strange it is.
You and me. Together. I mean, here.
After all these years.
Did you ever get my Christmas cards?
I never forgot.
But then you never were one to dwell on the past, were you?
I'm not called.
I just came in to see you.
They're all very nice.
Miss Bird is very nice.
So's Miss Blundell. Very nice, too.
Uh, Sibyl, a brew?
Mr. Fairchild is...
Hmm?
I do know other words
but nobody usually likes the sound of them.
I know her.
Stella? Oh, hardly, darling.
First job. Never been further than Blackpool.
I know him.
Now is the hour
when children in their homes are abed.
Their lips bright-browned with the good-night chocolate.
And their tongues drowsily searching for belated crumbs
housed insecurely on their shining cheeks.
Compare with them
the children on this boat about to walk the plank.
Split my infinitives
but 'tis my hour of triumph!
Yo-ho, yo-ho,
The frisky captain walks along and so...
And yet
some disky spirit compels me now
to make my dying speech.
Lest when dying
there may be...
"No time for it."
Should one pause there?
Yes.
No, no, I mean should we pause there?
Good time to break. Mary?
I-- I thought...
Mr. O'Hara, can I get you a cup of tea?
Yes. Thanks.
Bunny?
Mr. Potter doesn't ask me to do notes anymore.
Have I upset him, Bunny?
I shouldn't think so, dear. Not you.
Did you come back for me, P.L., or something else?
You. I owe you a great deal.
What you been looking for?
You can't do anything I don't hear about
on that motorbike.
You won't find her. Not now.
I might.
Or I might find him.
How will you know?
I'll know.
A little chap that stands like me.
How's that?
Heroical. Twice nightly.
Leave it.
Disley?
Disley!
Do you want the nursery set stage left or stage right?
- Stella! - Are you sure?
Because it's got to be even numbers.
Cup of tea, dear.
- George? - Uh-huh?
I want the nursery set in next, please.
Hey!
Good of you to join us, Geoffrey.
Right! Let's hang the cloths!
Careful.
Let's take it up.
Easy! Right!
Fly it! Stella, I'll do it.
Gently! Steady, steady, steady!
That's it, that's it.
That's it. Yes, good!
Oh, Disley, it's beautiful.
Do you like it? Wait till it's lit.
Yes, well done, Disley. It's beautiful.
Wait till it's lit.
No, thanks.
I've had more than enough for one morning.
Well... Ahem!
It's, um...
Not far enough upstage... by two foot.
Well, it can't go any further back.
It's already on the last set of lines.
Well, it's too far downstage.
What do you propose I do about it?
I don't know.
Hang it from below the bridge and tumble it.
You do know how to tumble a cloth, don't you, Bunny?
Oh, dear, Bunny doesn't know how to tumble a cloth.
George, can you help?
Now we'll have to re-hang everything!
Well, you should've got it right the first time.
I need depth. Every inch you can give me.
Eh, George?
Well, you have the wish to come with me, Geoff-wey
or do you want to stay here with Mr. Potter?
Oh? Oh? Geoff-wey!
Well, Geoffrey?
Sorry. What does he call you? Your new friend?
Geoff-wey? Go on, Geoff-wey!
Get up them stairs. You might learn something.
"Bring me out that doodle-doo!"
Morning.
Launched me pirate ship yet?
Not quite, no.
Perhaps you ought to show us how
being a jolly jack tar, and all, hmm?
Or a matelot, and all.
Tiddly drop of thickers, George.
I think he makes a very good Captain Hook
don't you, Stella? Hmm?
How still the night is.
Nothing sounds alive.
Now is the hour
when children in their homes are abed
their lips bright-browned
with the good-night chocolate.
And their tongues drowsily searching
for belated crumbs
housed insecurely on their shining cheeks.
Compare with them
the children on this boat about to walk the plank.
Split my infinitives
but 'tis my hour of triumph!
And yet...
some disky spirit compels me now
to make my dying speech
lest when dying...
there may be no time for it.
As usual, a child being sick during my quiet scene.
Well done, Shirley. Oh, thank you.
There's a Christmas party.
You were very good with the torch.
Un triomphe!
Over there.
You sit down there.
All right.
John!
I can't go on like this. We have to talk.
Oh, I think everyone ought to talk.
I think you ought to dance, as well.
He's thinking about leaving the theatre.
We've saved you a seat here, darling.
Come on.
Look at her hair. What a colour.
I know! Isn't it tedious?
Thank you, darling.
Everybody looked at someone else
even while they were talking to somebody.
It's not easy to do.
I thought you understood.
Don't let it get you down, Geoff-wey.
What's going on there?
Meredith.
He's up to his usual nonsense.
You're ruining my life.
You can't force him to give you better parts.
You mind your own business. You know nothing about it.
Would you like to dance?
I-- I'm no good at it.
Keep the hands up.
Yes.
Huh?
Where's Meredith?
Went to midnight mass.
With Bunny. They've just gone.
Shall I give you a lift home?
Y-yes.
Stop! Stop, please!
Here'll do.
I want to phone me mother.
Would you like a cup of tea?
Damp.
Turpentine.
I had a friend who painted.
You look at me as if I might fly up the chimney.
It shouldn't be quite like that, you know?
There are things come first.
Lots of things.
For instance, you have to take your knickers off.
Or shall I?
If you like.
Stella...
Stella Maris...
Who's Stella Maris?
I knew someone called that.
"Star of the sea."
Stella Maris.
That's nice.
It's not a real name. It's something she made up.
Dotty bought me this.
'Cause she was worried about me growth.
If you need some water, there's only the sink.
No, thank you. I had a bath last night.
I expect there's a knack to it.
It's very intimate, isn't it?
Hello, Mother?
I've got something--
It's Stella.
I've got something to tell you.
Uncle Vernon?
I'm in.
I'm looking for Mr. Potter from the-- the theatre.
Sorry to intrude, but I'm impelled to speak.
Oh. My name is Bradshaw.
Oh, my God.
You're Uncle Vernon.
Delighted!
Someone was splashing out at Woolworths.
Quiet, please!
Stella's very young and very impressionable.
Well under the age of carnal consent.
I-- I can't be everywhere.
It'd look very odd, that-- that.
The thing is, she gets very upset.
Do you get very upset?
Ohh. I served in North Africa.
I didn't. I was in the catering corps.
Were you very brave?
Stella!
Coming back?
No.
Why not?
I just don't want to.
Uncle Vernon wouldn't like it.
It strikes me clear as day, she's gone, Lily.
What have I--
What have we led her in for, eh?
No tea for me.
It'll warm you up.
No, it doesn't.
You ought to get a proper coat.
Auntie Lily bought me a coat.
I'd rather die.
It's too big and it's got a fur collar.
It sounds glamorous.
You have to paint your face if you wear fur.
Cheap goods should be wrapped in plain brown paper.
Who gave you the pearls?
My mother.
I'm sorry.
I can see they weren't bought in Woolworths.
They probably were.
Which is why she left them on me pillow...
twined around a single red rose.
What a lovely thing to do.
I'm in love with someone else!
Do you do this with him?
What's that got to do with it?
Put your legs closer together.
That feels different.
Put them-- There's--
Meredith.
She won't wear the vest wardrobe has made for her.
I bleed for her.
Bunny's watching.
Here, put those--
The crocodile!
Stella, this is very dangerous.
I told you. No real flowers on the stage.
This has nothing to do with me.
And you, Mr. O'Hara, should know better.
They're made for each other.
Wendy, you are wrong about mothers!
I thought like you about the window
so I stayed away for moons and moons...
Is Stella bronchial, by any chance?
Are you crying?
It's-- it's to do with the low notes in the male voice.
I noticed it first in the army when music was compulsory.
Oh, I know.
No. She's got such a nasty cough.
Bunny's had to put cough drops in the prompt corner.
We've had her X-rayed. She's sound as a bell.
I shall let you have the 3 ha'pence for the sweets.
- Oh, no, no, no. - Was it more?
No, no. No, the reason I'm here is
we're playing football against the "Treasure Island" cast
on New Year's Day.
My footy days are over. Heh. I haven't the wind.
No, no, Uncle Vernon.
I wanted you both to come and watch.
You know, support us,
meet some of Stella's new friends.
I'm beginning to get the hang of fucking.
Yes.
It's no different from learning to play the ukulele.
You just need practice.
Don't you love me just a bit?
No.
I love another.
# Oh, I do like to be beside the sea #
# Oh, I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom #
# Where the brass bands play #
Oh! Sorry.
That's perfectly all right.
# Beside the seaside #
Is he one of our pirates or one of theirs?
One of theirs.
I mean, I think their pirates are much better
than our pirates, don't you, Bunny?
Can't you find anywhere to sit?
Bunch up, Bunny. Geoff-wey can sit between us.
Oh, no, he can't. He's too chubby.
We need someone slimmer. John! John Harbour!
You come and sit between us and Geoff-wey can have your seat.
I'll stand, thank you, Meredith.
I am the wefewee, Geoff-wey, so just you be careful.
# Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside #
Where's that pirate?
# Oh, I do like to be beside the sea #
# Oh, I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom #
# Where the brass bands play #
# Tiddley-om-pom-pom #
# So just let me be beside the seaside #
# I'll be beside myself with glee #
Got it!
Come on, The Playhouse! Come on, The Rep!
- Hey, you're not trying. - I'm trying very hard.
No, you're not.
- Yay! - Go, Rep!
Yeah! Good one!
Thank you. I'll let you get away with that.
What?
Come on, Geoffrey!
- Yeah! - That's it! Go on!
- Yay! - You've done it!
Good goal, son!
Offside. Surely that was offside.
Offside. Offside. Back here.
- What?! - Offside?!
How could that have been offside?!
The first thing an actor must learn
is humility, Geoffrey. Remember?
Thank you, John. I might have missed it.
- Boo! Boo! - Get some spectacles, Potter!
- Leave it! - Get off me!
Geoffrey, leave it!
Yes?
Oh, my God!
Geoffrey!
Come on.
Breathe. You'll feel better. Just breathe deeply.
My bloody scarf!
He was wearing my bloody scarf
and he wouldn't even look at me!
You all right?
- I fainted, I think. - Oh, good God.
I fainted because the pain was
very excruciating, so I did the best thing
I could think of and I fainted.
Get me my coat, Bunny.
Geoffrey's got to go.
Get me my coat, Bunny!
- Mr. Potter. - Uncle Vernon.
There, there. Shh.
Poor boy.
Desmond!
All right, all right.
Now, look here, we were wondering--
we were all wondering
if you might not have a word with Potter.
Geoffrey shouldn't have hit him
but it does seem a cry for help.
That's right! We all think it's a cry for help.
Cry for help, squire-- skipper.
Ah, yes, I see.
I'll tell the bugger!
No, Babs. He'll be awful to you.
Cry for help, old boy. Yes, yes.
Leave it with you, then. You were in the navy.
Meredith, you all right, squire?
No, I don't think one should be too hard on the lad.
Geoffrey-- he has been working very hard.
you are one of nature's gentlemen.
That's very nice of you, Uncle Vernon.
I like these days.
Hint of frost. Touch of sunlight.
Mmm! Invigorating, isn't it?
I always think on a day like this
a man can stand up and face the--
Oh, Christ!
...world.
- Oh, God, I-- - Pirates!
Where's our Stella? I'm all right.
Where's Stella?
Aah! God!
Good of you to bother.
Could have waited.
It's to do with that boy Geoffrey...
You know...
he is a boy.
Hardly more than a child, really.
Have you seduced him?
Does he think he loves you?
Are you playing games with him? I think you are.
I think you're doing what you did in Windsor.
A much older man, I grant you.
A much sadder man.
Don't need to remind you that he later hanged himself
in a police cell, do I?
Ohh...
Nothing to do with you.
Perhaps.
Look, just drop it. Leave the boy alone.
The play's about innocence.
Not seduction or exploitation.
I mean, look at the play, man.
This is awkward for me.
Yes. Isn't it?
I'm not a narrow man
and, God knows, I'm no saint, but you...
you...
Aren't you going to be off if you don't hurry?
Here.
Just before you go down to the nursery, Mr. Darling
don't you think you ought to remember
that it's also a criminal offense
to consort with a minor?
You know...
assault a child?
- Mr. O'Hara! - You wouldn't.
God, I'm off!
Aah!
"Potter, my concern is for a young man
"whose life may well be ruined by your attentions.
"If the situ--"
He's boasting about it in the prop room!
Stagehand --that one with the glass eye-- egging him on!
- Who? - Geoffrey!
Why hasn't he been given the sack?
- Geoffrey has his reasons. - He's unbalanced!
Don't talk rot.
Mr. Potter's a wronged man!
Mr. Potter has spent his life harming people like Geoffrey
and causing pain to people like Bunny who really love him.
Hilary Melville was only 18
when Potter picked him up at the BBC.
Hilary is a him?
Believe it or not. Doesn't much matter--
him or her, old or young, to Meredith.
What he wants is hearts.
You're jealous of him!
Oh.
I'm going and I'm not coming back.
Not ever.
Oh, for God's sake. Look, please--
Kind of you to come.
I am ashamed.
I'm at a disadvantage.
It's not broken!
Sprained.
It was me own fault.
I went down not watching where I was--
It's Mr. Potter I feel sorry for.
I hear he's from a good family, the lad who butted him.
So I believe. Is Stella here?
He's not gonna sack the boy?
He too was bothered about me injury.
You just missed him.
What did Potter have to say?
He's helping us with Stella, keeping an eye on her.
She, of course, tells us nothing.
She keeps things locked in, you know, Stella.
That's why I got her on the stage
to help get them out.
We're all she's got.
What about her mother?
She talks to her mother on the phone.
Did you hear that, Lily?
The little madam.
She can't ring her mother.
She doesn't know where her mother is.
None of us do.
America, we think.
What I am about to tell you may put us in a bad light.
We threw her out, Stella's mother.
Our Renée.
Not at first
when she came back from London. Not then.
Going out...
staying out all night on more than one occasion-- occasion.
She was young, Vernon. She wanted a bit of life.
It was-- it was before the war, of course.
She came back when the baby was born-- our Stella.
But she went off again.
Got herself a room in a house
around the corner in Percy Street.
Artists and suchlike.
She got herself a job.
A telephonist at the GPO. Quite successful.
Successful.
But she-- she couldn't stop it.
Dollin' herself up and going out.
The neighbours told us. They told us.
There she was, little Stella...
left alone in that basement...
in a cot...
with a row of nightlights along the floor.
A baby.
And our Renée? Not sure.
She left a rose on her pillow.
Withered, of course.
Place stank of turps.
Could have been a conflagration.
There have been times...
there were times
I was close to death.
I knew it. Felt it.
And what I thought was...
I have a son...
and it will not be the end of me.
But it is.
I may not face it as well as I did death.
Stella!
Stella Maris!
Aah!
Now is the hour
when children in their homes are abed.
Their lips bright-browned
with the good-night chocolate
and their tongues drowsily searching
for belated crumbs housed insecurely
on their shining cheeks.
Compare with them the children
on this boat about to walk the plank!
Split my infinitives
but 'tis my hour of triumph!
All right.
Right.
"Potter, it may be that you think
"my association with a certain person
"will prevent me from doing anything about Geoffrey,
"but if this is so, you are mistaken.
"My concern is for a young man
"whose life may well be ruined by your..."
Excuse me, sir.
Are you the stage manager?
Yes. I am.
Our Stella's been a brick.
She cradled me head, you know.
But she's been telling her fibs again.
Like mother, like daughter.
Renée wasn't all bad.
She won that competition to be the speaking clock
out of the whole of England.
"The girl with the golden voice."
No, I'm out of 'em.
Will you take a substitute?
There is no substitute for the real thing.
Tink! Dear Tink!
Are you dying?!
Captain Hook's drowned himself.
What do you mean?
Her light grows faint
and if that goes out, it means she is dead!
Her voice is so low
I can scarcely hear what she is saying!
He's dead. Drowned himself, yes.
She says...
She says she thinks she could get well again
if children believe in fairies!
Do you believe in fairies?
Say it quick! That you believe!
If you believe in fairies, clap your hands!
Oh, children, clap your hands and Tinkerbell will live!
If you believe in fairies, children, clap your hands!
Louder! Louder!
Oh, clap your hands and Tinkerbell will live!
Be a good girl, now.
It's all right. It's all right.
You be a good girl and I'll be back soon.
I'll be just a minute. Don't worry.
The thing is...
I don't suppose
we can keep it out of the papers, Rose.
I could, but I won't.
God forgive me, but it'll be good for business.
It's been awful.
I haven't dared phone you.
There was this man who seduced me.
It wasn't my fault.
"At the third stroke...
"the time will be 10:47 and 20 seconds."
I'm learning, Mother. I'm just...
bending down to tie a shoe lace.
"...10:47 and 30 seconds."
And everyone is waiting round the corner.
"...the time will be 10:47 and 40 seconds."
"At the third stroke...
"the time will be 10:47 and 50 seconds."