Co-owner of a Lonely Heart Class

This programme contains some violent scenes

You both now share April's heart.

"The governors." Now, who might you be?

Throw me out.

He likes you.

No, no-one likes me.

What if that's forever?

Then it's forever.

SCREAMING

Do you know the feeling of dread?

The anchor is prepared, Your Majesty.

Once I attach it,

it will hold the heart in your body and you will be whole again.

HEART BEATS

The results should be immediate.

YELLING

And there, the anchor is set.

It's failing, failing!

HE ROARS

The heart still leaves my body.

The anchor has not worked.

The connection is even stronger.

Do you believe this to be an acceptable state of affairs

for a king of the Shadow Kin?

He who leads the War of the Underneath?

No, Majesty.

Ah!

Name your failure.

-We were unable...

-We?

I believed an anchor of her lifeblood

would hold the heart in our world.

It did not.

I deserve death.

HE ROARS

I can hear her thoughts.

I can feel her stronger than ever.

HE PANTS

Oh, my.

# What have I been waiting for?

# Been wasting all my time

# Watching my youth slip away

# Surely is a crime

# We go on and on and on and on and on

# Never knowing where, never knowing where

# We gonna, we gonna, we gonna end up in the morning

# We go on and on and on and on and on

# Never knowing where, never knowing where

# We gonna, we gonna, we gonna end up in the morning. #

VIOLIN PLAYS

Break a string?

That was emphatic.

-Something you want to tell me, April?

-What?

No, nothing.

Why?

He's out.

-I know.

-He contacted you?

He's even got the same number.

What did he say?

I didn't answer.

I'm OK, Mum, really.

OK.

You seem like you've been feeling a bit better.

I'm doing OK, Dad. Better.

I made some new friends.

You haven't told Mum about my leg, have you?

-You asked me not to.

-I just don't want her worrying, Dad.

I don't like the thought of you facing anything alone.

We'll always fight for you, and with you, if you let us.

Still, as long as this business is all finished

and there are no more actual aliens still hanging about.

-You lied.

-I did.

Because sometimes princes have to lie?

Because these are the souls of every Rhodian who's ever lived,

everyone I've ever known - my family, people I love.

I'm in charge of protecting them.

And because it is not empty.

It is also a weapon.

It's also a weapon.

April.

Oh, hey.

So I guess I'll see you later, then.

Yeah, bye.

Oh, no, wait, Ram!

BELL RINGS

I never found out what they all stood for.

Frances. Miss Quill, I believe.

-Yes?

-I've been wanting to meet you.

Dorothea Ames, new headteacher.

Right. That was quick.

True, but people who go missing from Coal Hill

have a distressing tendency to stay that way, don't you find?

I don't know, I've only been here a few months.

Don't listen to an old gossip like me,

but I particularly wanted to meet you, Miss Quill.

-Me?

-The governors speak highly of you.

-The governors?

-My dear, if you're going to answer everything

I say with a question, well, then we'll be fine friends

because I do like being the one with the answers.

But I've never met the governors.

They think you're a frightfully useful member of staff.

Must get on.

So you've never had a parents' evening?

Princes tend not to.

My parents always come, but this time...

Well, maybe Quill can have a meeting with herself about the both of you

-and be done with it.

-We do have other classes.

I'd like to know my progress, how I can improve.

Don't we want to be better students with the help of our parents?

What?

You know, I don't think Quill's going to go for that.

Ah, I'll just order her to.

I mean, my future improvement is a kind of personal protection.

It's not hard to forget he's an alien, is it?

Yeah, it's true.

Is he...

all human?

You know, like...

..down there?

No? OK, well, I'll see you later then, bye.

So I just know that you'll all have done your reading.

Context for discussion of today's topic is

the mind-set of a soldier.

338,000 men evacuated,

100,000 of them straight from the beach, and you are one of them.

What are you thinking as the boats arrive?

"Am I going to get bombed?"

Well, the Wehrmacht cut them off,

and they very well could have been bombed at any time.

So, rescue is on the horizon, but are you going to make it?

Yeah, but that's what war is, though, isn't it?

You're always waiting to die.

(You have no idea what war is.)

Sorry, what was that, April?

We sit here and talk about war like we have the first clue.

"The mind-set of a soldier."

How can anyone here even guess?

Well, imagination is an act of empathy.

Of course we don't know what it was actually like...

No, you don't!

..but we can try to put ourselves in their shoes.

And why would anyone want to have empathy for that bunch of cowards?

Well, it's true the evacuation was not without its controversies,

but we're going to talk about that later on...

If you sign up for war, you sign up to die.

-That's harsh.

-Yeah, that is a bit.

My dad's in the Army. He didn't sign up to die,

he signed up so other people wouldn't die.

Don't you think that the other soldiers signed up

for the same thing? Somebody always dies in war.

Well, yes, and that's what we're after, April,

we're trying to get inside the fear that those soldiers...

Fear?

What use is a soldier with fear?

Cowards should be weeded out of every single army.

The soldiers at Dunkirk should've stayed and fought and died!

Cos who would want to live as a coward anyway?

Most human beings. What is your problem?

I don't... Um...

What was I saying?

PHONE RINGS

Ram?

-What's wrong?

-Something weird's happening.

Want to skip class?

VIDEO: All the matter in its core is crushed

into an infinite void of blackness.

You want me to what?

Parents' evening. It's apparently quite common.

I'm not going to your other teachers hat in hand

-to ask after your wellbeing.

-Your job is to protect me.

This protects my future prospects.

Hello! They're not even supposed to know we live together.

You'll figure something out.

You're always going on about how clever you are.

If we had ever met on the battlefield...

We didn't and we won't.

Do this. I command it.

-I don't want to die, Ram.

-You're not going to die.

I'll tell the others.

I'll tell Quill, she's the one who had the gun.

There'll be a way to fix this.

You're not going to die.

But it's just what happens now, isn't it?

We killed the coach, we killed that Lan Kin thing.

Anyone who wants to kill you is going to have to come through me.

Oh, Ram, they probably will.

FOOTSTEPS

-What? Who is that?

-Oh, no.

That's your dad.

Stay here.

How dare you?

How dare you just show up?

You won't answer any of my phone calls,

you won't respond to any of my letters.

You're breaking the law.

You know you're not supposed to contact me except by letter,

-and even then...

-April...

I just, I just want...

Maybe you should leave!

Maybe you should leave right now.

I can handle this, Ram.

Because that's what you don't know.

You expect me to be afraid of you...

No! I don't.

I'm not.

You have no idea of the things that I've seen.

I just, I... I wanted...

I needed...to apologise.

For trying to kill us?!

For paralysing Mum?!

I miss my daughter.

I miss my family...

Ow!

Maybe you should run.

Ram?

It's OK.

I'm fairly certain this isn't school grounds.

I believe you both should be

in Miss Quill's physics lesson right now, correct?

I'm sorry, who are you?

-Your new headteacher.

-Oh.

-We were just...

-Helping out a student who's under the weather.

Good citizenship, Mr Singh.

Please, take Miss MacLean home.

Hope you feel better soon,

and we'll see you tomorrow.

How does she know what classes we're in on, like, her first day?

Alien.

Can you take me home?

Yeah, absolutely.

SHE GASPS

How does it work?

It only responds to the Rhodian leader.

I activate it.

And each soul finds one of the people you wish to eliminate.

Do not use that word.

It's a word very bad governments use.

Fine, it's to kill.

And each Rhodian soul burns that other soul out of existence.

And there are billions in the Cabinet?

So you could kill billions more.

Yes, but only once. They burn themselves out while doing it.

The whole idea is it's a single-use weapon you never have to use.

And you never would destroy a planet,

all those lives.

My planet was destroyed.

Move!

Out of the way.

So it's different than a vision?

Yeah.

It's like he's taking me over and I can't stop it.

That's not true.

You didn't attack your dad.

But I wanted to.

I wanted to kill him.

And I could have.

The Shadow Kin wants your heart.

And that's one battleground

where I can guarantee you he is going to lose.

That was so cheesy.

I know I should be laughing, but I'm touched.

I mean it.

-Majesty?

-How many worlds have I made submit?

How much life have I extinguished with shadow?

-Never enough.

-Never enough.

We are a trick, we are an accident.

We should never have been born into a universe of light.

But we were.

Yes, Majesty.

This war cannot be paused

because its leader is sharing his heart with a little girl.

Your Majesty is in need of you, Kharrus.

And I will fulfil His Majesty's needs.

I have a different way to cure your heart.

We need to tell the others.

We can help you, April, I'm sure we can.

I know.

I'm frightened.

I've been frightened nonstop for the last month.

I actually found a grey hair yesterday.

-Hey, Ram?

-Mm.

You know that war I told you I was fighting every day?

Against the world breaking.

I'm losing.

How far to the girl's world?

Space travel will take 9,000 years,

which is why we are searching for the cracks that lead to it instead.

Still. You found the system.

How?

The frequency and wavelength at which

Your Majesty's heart disappears,

it suggests a specific distance.

There were 27 systems that fit the criteria,

but this one is the only one

that plausibly matches our experiences there.

Kharrus, you fought with us.

Yes, Majesty.

I am a warrior in His Majesty's horde.

Somewhere there this heart beats.

And Rannus did one thing right.

His anchor is going to lead us right to it.

But the difference now is you're not fighting this alone.

Is that a line?

Is that a what?

Oh, April.

The heart itself must slip through a tear in space and time

in order to beat.

It's only a matter of tracking it properly.

Your work impresses, Kharrus.

Ugh... I...

-Majesty?

-HEART BEATS

Are you unwell, Majesty?

I can feel her.

April, is this really OK?

I'm afraid all the time.

You are one of the only things that makes me feel safe,

because you've seen everything that I have.

You make me feel safe, too.

Shall I...?

Majesty.

You are showing the colours of the mate.

I'm not hurting you, am I?

No. Am I hurting you?

The opposite, I think.

Ugh...

Are you not into it?

No, it's just...

You're regretting it.

As is the King's prerogative.

No. It's not that.

It's the girl.

I trust Your Majesty is satisfied.

I don't suppose we could have a moment of cuddling.

You're shaking again.

It's been a weird month.

SHE GASPS

She's influencing me somehow.

Rannus's anchor is making the connection stronger.

I will not have it!

Now it is not injured.

Ah!

But it's not the heart of a Shadow Kin.

I may have a solution, Majesty.

I think it's passed.

I think it's passed.

OK.

But that's it, I'm calling the others right now.

DOOR CLICKS

APRIL GASPS

Isn't this the wrong season for blooming?

I don't know. I've yet to see the seasons here.

I don't think I like how you order Miss Quill around.

-What?

-It's a punishment, isn't it?

She's meant to protect you, not be your servant.

-Or your slave.

-I know, I don't know how many times I've had this exact

conversation with her myself.

My dad used to say people don't set out to be monsters,

they start by getting a little taste for it and then they like it,

so they taste some more.

-And then before you know it...

-I'm not being monstrous.

I'm being just.

Please don't question the morality of my culture.

He doesn't like it when you do that.

If the morality of your culture keeps on looking like slavery,

you're not really going to stop me from asking questions.

You don't know what she did. You don't know what we suffered.

And my control of the creature inside her head may be

-the only thing keeping us all alive.

-But she's helping us here.

And the world which you both may have done things on is gone.

Miss Quill is my business and I'll thank you to stay out of it.

Oh, I really don't think you want to go talking to me like royalty,

-Prince.

-There is something weird here.

With flower petals.

-What do you want?

-There's something urgent I need to sort at home.

I assume you'll be performing the parent and teacher duties

at parents' evening for Charlie.

Charlie Smith, is it?

I don't see so many Smiths these days.

It's rather like John.

Have you noticed no-one under the age of 35 is called John any more?

Please sit, I won't bite.

It is interesting, though.

The work I had to do to track down your story.

Does he at least have a name?

It's Ram.

-I wasn't asking you.

-Mum, it's OK.

Really?

You should still be on your way home from school.

Did they give you a note for this?

We didn't...

plan it.

Do I even need to ask if you used protection?

It's OK. I had some condoms.

Ram...

I didn't want her to think bad of you.

-She saw her dad.

-Ram!

He just showed up at the school where he wasn't supposed to.

She was upset. I took her home.

That's all I've got to say.

Don't let this chair fool you.

If you hurt my daughter...

..I will kill you.

April is my friend.

If you need me...

What did your dad say?

-I'm calling the police.

-Mum, no, just leave it.

Leave it?! What is going on today?

You've never even mentioned that boy's name to me, April.

We've got stuff in common.

I bet that's what he says.

Mum, he's not Dad.

Sweetie...

Neither was your dad at first.

Tanya. April is in trouble.

All this fascinating information and the only thing I keep thinking

to myself is, you don't really seem like an Andrea.

Yeah, well, everyone calls me Quill.

Look, is this about the parents' evening? Because...

This isn't the 1950s,

trust me when I say I've seen more unusual housing arrangements

than yours and Charlie's. Guardianship is quite common.

-Yeah.

-Slightly tricky with Matteusz,

but he's 17 and that's borderline on his own wishes

versus those of his parents. And if they threw him out...

How do you know all this?

The governors like a well-run school.

Ah, yes, well, I've seen some of the resources of the governors.

Yes, robots are rather expensive.

Not going to be easy to replace.

Tell me, Miss Quill, have you seen any squirrels today?

-Pardon?

-Or birds.

Heard any birdsong this morning?

Are you quite insane?

Are there more of them than a moment ago?

Why are you giving me such a hard time about this?

It's the duty of a prince to save his people.

Duty is another word of bad government.

And how is this saving?

They're souls, they've already lived their lives.

What?

What else are you not telling me?

The children's story.

In the hands of the right person, the Cabinet isn't just a weapon.

It's a way of bringing them all back.

What?

In the hands of a hero,

the souls take over the bodies instead of just burning them.

So all of Rhodia is reborn in a different shape.

An entire race is still killed.

-I know.

-And you think you are this hero?

No, no, I told you, it's a children's story,

-a way of believing in heaven.

-So you DON'T believe it?

It's hope.

I know it's stupid and childish,

and no adult Rhodian ever believes it, but it's hope.

Of course I'm not this hero,

but if I can keep the Cabinet safe, maybe, one day...

Ram said April's body has been taken over by the Shadow Kin.

His voice sounded kind of funny - I think they had sex.

Ram and the Shadow Kin?

SHE SIGHS

Inert.

No apparent intelligence, nothing we can argue with.

Just a plant with an appetite.

SHE GASPS

Watch.

I fed one of these an hour ago,

and from that single drop of blood,

it's doubled, doubled, doubled again...

And it's eating squirrels.

Probably all it can manage at this point, but not for long.

We think a single petal slipped in through a crack in space-time,

just last night, and look how it's proliferated.

And it's not stopping. Doubled, doubled, doubled again.

So those of us that it doesn't eat...

Will be swamped, suffocated.

We are quite doomed.

Unless you help us.

Oh, there's a way, trust me.

And I have been authorised to say that if you help us solve our little

problem here, we may well be able to help you solve yours.

Mine?

How would you like to get that little creature out of your head

once and for all?

How would you like your own free will back,

to do with whatever you please?

Rannus hoped the anchor on the heart alone

would be enough to keep it in this world.

I know this, Kharrus.

But he was too cowardly to go the extra step -

to attach the body of Your Majesty to the anchor as well.

So if the heart goes, I go with it?

Or it brings her here.

Or you may both die

as your shared heart is torn in two.

That was why he hesitated.

That was why he failed.

You are here to make sure that does not happen.

I understand, Your Majesty.

We are not finished speaking, young lady.

I can't leave it that way with Ram.

Jackie, I'm...I'm...

You're not welcome here.

You know the rules of the court order.

I'm here because there's something wrong with our daughter.

There will be constant injuries to you

when I link the anchor to your body

and the heart beats in and out of it.

I will be constantly healing you, but the pain will be great.

Are you ready?

I am.

You will not speak to me of my daughter.

-Our daughter!

-And that is exactly how you will not speak of her.

She threatened me today!

With these swords!

Swords?

They're more like scimitars.

Should you succeed, there is room on the throne by my side.

You honour me, Majesty.

Yes, I do.

Now!

Still waiting for an answer.

-Argh!

-April! April!

April!

No! No!

No!

I can feel it.

I can feel her.

No!

He's trying to take it.

Who's trying to take what?

-Your father?

-No!

Baby, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

She's fighting it.

She is a girl, you are one of the Shadow Kin!

-You will beat her.

-Yes, Majesty.

HE ROARS

No!

No, you can't have it.

We don't want you.

April, what's happening?

Jackie, call the police. Call an ambulance.

JACKIE SCREAMS

It isn't working.

She's imposing her will.

You took everything from us.

I...I... I can never apologise enough.

You should still be in prison.

April, please!

You put her in that chair.

-I know, but, love...

-Don't treat me like your daughter!

HE KNOCKS

You did teach me one thing, though, Dad.

Stop moving!

You made me strong because I had to be.

You are not my father any more.

You are not a part of this family.

All right, I deserve that.

And I will go away if you want me to.

-I'll never come back.

-It's too late for that.

-You have failed.

-You have failed.

April. What the hell is going on?

The science has failed. You have made things worse.

Your Majesty, I have not yet finished.

Yes, you have. Her heart is strong.

-My heart is strong.

-It fights back like mine used to.

It fights back, it always has.

-April, don't!

-Why not?

He tried to take his life and ours with it.

Why shouldn't I finish the job?

Because that's not what April would do.

Majesty, please!

If you would only let me...

You have no idea what I would do.

You have no idea what I'm capable of.

I know exactly what you're capable of.

But you are April because you choose not to do it.

You told me you wouldn't let him break you.

And I won't.

I'll break him instead.

-JACKIE:

-April! April, no, please.

Don't do this.

You, you will be merciful.

April, don't!

THEY ROAR

You took from us.

You took so much.

You made me hate you.

-I'm so sorry.

-No!

-So sorry!

-No.

April!

April, what's going on?

I don't think that you can save me.

April...

Forgive me.

JACKIE SCREAMS

April, what are you doing?!

April!

JACKIE SCREAMS

What have you done?

My God! April, what have you done?

What HAVE you done?

I...

He knows.

He's found me.

I know where she is.

And I know the cracks to get to her.

What do you know?

You succeeded.

He's followed the trail, he's coming here.

He's going to kill us all.

I can't let him do that.

Prepare for war.

We are going to her planet

and we are going to kill everyone on it!

He knows where I am.

But I know where you are and how to find you.

April...

That's their home. That's the realm of the Shadow Kin.

April, what are you doing?!

I'm going to go get my heart back.

-TANYA:

-April, no!

Tell my dad.

Ram?

-Ram, what are you doing?

-Following!

April's gone. I need you to get her back.

Priorities have changed, Charles. We're under attack.

They'll bury us by tomorrow morning.

YELLING