Vox Populi The Dumping Ground

-I took the third right. Grange Street.

-'Right.'

Right? There is no right.

'Oh, no. No, I didn't mean... I meant...

'Oh, forget it!

'The second left.

-'There's a street coming up on your right.'

-Oh, yeah.

'Take that and then... No, then the third left.'

-Jodie...

-'Take the...'

-Jodie, you're cutting out!

-Jodie.

-Oh!

Oh, you've got to be kidding!

-I'm so sorry.

-This is a very new and very expensive jacket.

It'll wash out. Look, I really need to get to Five Bridges Radio.

-I'm really sorry again.

-Five Bridges?

Yeah, you know, "Five Bridges News, on the hour, every hour."

I'm doing work experience there as a journalist.

You know, crimes and conspiracies and stuff.

-Follow me.

-But...

I'm going to be late. I want to make a good first impression.

It's too late for that. I'm your boss.

So, let me get this straight -

Tyler is working...for free.

It's called work experience.

It's so he can show how serious he is about being a journalist.

It makes no sense at all.

Mate, are you just stalling over showing me this new kick flick?

You can't rush a master, OK?

Oh, Umbleby. Two o'clock.

-What's he doing?

-Whatever it is, it doesn't look good.

Come on.

-JINGLE:

-# Five Bridges Radio. #

You're back on Talk Time with Tyler Lewis.

Who's our next caller, please?

Ahem.

It'll certainly be a while before we allow you on-air, Mr Lewis.

I was hoping I'd be doing a bit more than sharpening pencils.

What, like investigating crimes and conspiracies?

This is local news.

That stuff, it's few and far between.

I'm sorry about your clothes.

It's just... Can't I get something a bit more exciting?

Oh! If it stops you from getting in my way all day.

Yeah...

Someone called in about an incident by the river.

-Go and investigate.

-Thanks!

What kind of incident?

Apparently there's a foul-mouthed fugitive on the loose.

Umbleby loves a notice.

-What is it?

-We need to go home.

They're closing the skate park.

'Knickers! Are you looking at me?

'Knickers! Are you looking at me?'

-Foul-mouthed fugitive.

-'Knickers! Are you looking at me?

'Knickers! Are you looking at me?'

The bird is just bait.

Meet me at the bench by the bridge.

I've got a story for you.

What is it?

-An alien?

-He's under my bed. Come see.

Not when I have this.

-You've already had four of these this week.

-Oh!

Look the other way, so we're not talking to each other.

-What's your name?

-Tyler Lewis.

How long have you been working at the station?

-Not long.

-Do you want to be a parrot and copy everyone else...?

..or do you want to be a real journalist?

'Go to 10 Bradley Street.'

It's simple, we need to stop this meeting from going ahead.

-Right?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

If we make some noise, they can't make any decisions.

-We could bang pots and pans.

-ALL:

-Yes!

Guys, listen, it says on the notice that anyone can attend, right?

Well, why don't we go to the meeting?

State our case.

Sit with the enemy? That's stupid.

We have to make them listen to us.

That'll never work. Who's going to take us lot seriously?

Sasha's right, we can't even pick a channel to watch without

-getting into a fight.

-One person needs to speak for us -

show them that this is bigger than just a skate park.

You know they got the basketball courts closed the other week.

We need to show them that we're not going to stand for this.

We want to be seen, and we are going to be heard!

Erm...

Yeah, something like that.

-Go, Chloe!

-Yeah, I didn't exactly understand what she said,

but I believe her.

Chloe, you can do this. You can speak for us.

-I didn't exactly mean me but...

-Oh, come on.

You're good at this stuff.

You're smart and you obviously care.

What's the problem?

Aggggh!

There's no problem.

Yes!

That's awesome.

Ahem.

Are you sure this is the right place?

It's a ghost street.

'Well, it's the address you gave Mike.'

'And he wants you call when you're on your way back.'

Yeah, all right. Bye.

I thought you'd never make it.

Ralph Palmer, pleasure to meet you.

Oh, sorry about the parrot.

Your boss, Miss Bloomfield, refuses to send anyone

to listen to me these days.

OK.

So, what's the story?

It's a conspiracy, young man.

20th of March - infestation of rats.

1st of April - electricity failure for three days running.

5th of April - bad smell reported.

Granted, that was possibly a mouldy trout in the fridge.

7th of April...

Wait. Who do you think's doing all this to you?

Those horrible developers, that's who.

The ones who want to knock this whole street to the ground.

Open your eyes. Did you not see the empty houses?

-I'm the last man standing.

-What happened to the others?

All signed up and moved out. Bullied into it.

All this can be explained.

I mean, anyone can get rats.

And we had faulty electricity the same time as you.

Fine.

Want to explain this?

Two of their men came to see me yesterday

to try and convince me to sign.

I shooed them off the premises as usual.

Later I found this...

I don't know, a fox maybe?

No-one will listen to me, Tyler.

I need your help.

Oh, cool zombie thingy?

He's under my bed.

I'm painting it to show Mike.

Oh, you don't have to show him. It's just a hobgoblin.

The what?!

Yeah, every house has a hobgoblin.

They're harmless, as long as you follow the rules.

He doesn't look happy.

That's probably because you looked him in the eye.

That's rule number one - never look him in the eye.

Anyway, see you in a bit.

Looking at this here, they want to build a multi-million pound project.

Luxury apartments, restaurants, the lot.

So Ralph refusing to move is costing them millions.

If this is true, we need to find some proof to stop them.

What are they going to do to him next?

Hit us with it, then, Chloe.

On 22nd of May 2009, the skate park opened.

Erm...

It was a...great thing for the community.

Say fantastic instead of great.

OK.

On 14 January this year the basketball court was closed

at a cost of...

32,000...

Do we really need dates and figures?

And have you thought about if they mention the graffiti on the

-basketball court?

-Guys, let her speak.

So according to research, there's a 56...

What happened to all of the hitting the table stuff?

What? I'm just saying what everyone's thinking.

Do you know what? You can find someone else to do it.

I'm done.

Douglas Properties?

Yeah, can I speak to someone about Ralph Palmer?

-RADIO:

-Looking for a new house? Want to choose from a brand-new selection

of properties from across the region?

They hung up! No, that's proper dodgy.

Listen to this.

'A range of award-winning developments.

'Visit our website to find out more.

'Douglas Properties, proud sponsors of Five Bridges travel.'

They sponsor the station!

So that's why my boss won't look into Ralph's problem.

You'll make him angry!

He's angry because he's hungry. Did Archie not tell you rule two?

-No.

-Bring him treats, especially cupcakes.

Roooarrr!

Yum, yum, yum!

Bleeeughh!

-JINGLE:

-# Five Bridges News. Every hour on the hour. #

You've been talking to that Ralph Palmer.

-Is that a bad thing?

-He's a harmless fool,

but his mind is full of ridiculous theories.

But someone's trashed his garden and is making threats.

Listen, we've looked into his wild claims hundreds of times in the past

and never found a shred of proof.

A company planting rats?

But this is different.

If this is to do with them sponsoring the station,

I'll carry on myself.

Are you suggesting we let our sponsors influence our journalism?

I'm just trying to find the truth.

And I'm telling you to leave this whole thing alone right now.

Fix the photocopier.

Jodie. It's me.

KNOCK AT DOOR

Leave me alone.

-I said...

-We're here to say sorry.

We thought you'd be so good at putting the case

that we wouldn't have to.

We took advantage.

Look...

It's a big thing a kid speaking up against the adults.

But we forgot about you and how scared you'd be.

You don't understand, that's not what I'm scared of.

If I mess up, then... I'd be letting down my friends.

-What? No way.

-We'd be proud of you for trying.

Even if I messed up?

Maybe not trying is letting us down because you're our best chance.

What do you say?

Let's do it.

Hobgoblin.

Tyler, your boss is going to flip.

What's she going to do, sack me?

There he is! With backup, too.

-Have you given it to those bullies yet?

-Erm...

We need to come and look in your garden again -

try and find some real proof. CRASHING

BARKING

-Did you see anything?

-No.

But someone dropped these.

Who'd come back for pieces of garden gnome?

Just these three pieces? Nothing else has even been touched.

Does it matter? Haven't we got enough proof already.

TEXT ALERT

-Mike.

-You're in trouble.

He's left his duties, deliberately gone against my orders.

I'm awfully sorry, Ms Bloomfield.

He's jeopardised the future of the station.

-He's an enthusiastic young man.

-Possibly.

But the first thing he needs to learn about work is to respect

his boss and to take instruction.

Not when I find out the truth is involved.

Isn't that what good journalists should do?

A good journalist is also open-minded!

This is what your evil company are offering Ralph,

not to mention an incredible sum of money.

Now, I know some of you have doubts about the closure,

but I'm sure we all agree that we need to crack down on crime.

What's that got to do with the skate park?

Ah, apologies, it seems our skate park users here

are a little hot-headed.

Only this morning I was putting up a notice

and I found myself the victim of a torrent of abuse.

Well, that's a lie. We were only skating.

Just stay calm, we'll get our chance.

I rest my case.

This house!

It's amazing. Who wouldn't want to move there?

I don't know. It doesn't add up.

-What's this?

-Finn was painting it earlier.

-You've seen this, haven't you?

-It's the hobgoblin.

-He's eating under my bed.

-What?

-What do you know about this?

-Nothing.

I only wanted cupcakes.

-Archie?

-I was only fixing him.

I even went back today to try and get the rest of him.

I saved him because the old man didn't want him.

What do you mean? What did you see?

He was acting all crazy - smashing everything in his garden,

and I saw him painting words on his wall.

And all of that graffiti has to come from somewhere.

We've got to do something.

Could you please be quiet over there? This is a meeting.

No, Mr Umbleby, we thought this was going to be a conversation.

And...

Well, you talked about crime and I have stats here somewhere.

And...

Well, it's not quite...

Let me help you, shall I? You seem to be struggling.

-Give her notes back!

-Where did you get these figures?

In your head?

Or even worse, the internet?

These are the views of an ill-informed girl.

Now, then, let's talk about alternative suggestions

for the space.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the youth of today.

Tyler Lewis. Are we going to give it to those bullies?

I...

I know you did all this.

Look, if you don't want to move, it's fine.

No-one's forcing you.

I just want to get them off my back, OK?

They keep coming around with these amazing offers.

I came this close to signing last night.

Wait, you want to sign?

Ralph, I wanted to help you.

Can you not just tell me what this is really about?

Come with me.

This is where we danced at the turn of the millennium.

Where we held our grandson for the first time.

That was where we had our last meal.

Don't you see?

This house is all I have left of her.

I'm sorry, Ralph.

But these are memories. You can take them with you.

Memories fade.

I won't remember the same.

She's only been gone a year.

And do you know...

..the other morning...

..I woke up...

..and she wasn't the first thing on my mind.

But maybe that's a good thing. You have to keep on living.

What do you know, you're just a little boy?!

But I know what it's like to leave the past behind.

I had to leave my mum and move into this big, scary house on my own.

I used to think about her all the time.

Then I made friends.

And I realised it was the best place for me.

Then one day, I didn't think about her once.

Did you feel bad?

Well, of course, but what else can you do?

Sit around and try and remember everything, or carry on?

Do you remember what you had for tea last Tuesday?

Erm...

Trout, maybe.

See, you have to think. Me, too.

But I remember the last meal I had with my mum in our house.

You see...

..all of this can get knocked down.

But the important stuff, it stays with you forever.

We shall not, we shall not be moved!

We shall not, we shall not be moved!

Sorry about this, everyone.

We'll resume the meeting once we've removed these children.

-We shall not...!

-Quiet!

-We shall not...!

-Quiet!

If anyone hasn't made up your minds up about the skate park

then I guess we've done it for you.

We blew it. You know why?

Because we're kids.

There's no point pretending we're perfect, because we're not.

We can be loud, hot-headed,

but I wonder how many of you were the same.

Guess where we go to do all that?

The skate park.

Take that away, and then what?

We'll take over your shops, your streets.

Or do we turn to crime,

the very thing that Mr Umbleby is so afraid of?

That's enough! OK, get them out.

Get them out.

Before you vote, just think - is he lying to get his own way,

not letting us speak, trying to make us look bad?

We might be kids, Mr Umbleby,

but you're supposed to be the grown-up here.

-Come in.

-I...

I came to apologise. You were right, none of it was true.

It doesn't matter who's right or wrong,

you went after the truth because someone needed your help.

And that is the quality not of a good journalist, but a great one.

Everything else you can learn.

Including when to listen to your superiors!

Maybe I could come back another time and clean those shelves?

Good idea.

But I thought you might like to be a guest

-on the breakfast show tomorrow.

-Me?!

-Mm-hm.

-On the radio?

-Yeah.

You can tell everyone about your work experience.

Make us look good.

And I expect that to be spotless.

You should have seen it, Chloe tore it up.

What do you two have to say?

We're sorry, Finn.

You can have our share of the cupcakes next week.

-It's OK. Want some more pizza?

-Yes, please.

Rooar!

-Oh, nice one, Finn!

-That was good!

THEY CHATTER

It was great. I learned a lot.

I'd like a career on the radio for sure.

I mean, well, I wasn't sure at first

but after my day here at Five Bridges Radio,

I can definitely see a future in the business.

Why don't you introduce the next song, Tyler?

Yeah, sure. This is Radio, Radio by...

Who? Who's he?

Ralph?

He's a surprise guest, all part of your work experience.

-What are you doing here?

-You're the journalist, ask me.

Welcome back, listener. I am joined by Ralph Palmer,

the last resident of Bradley Street that's earmarked for development.

What news, Ralph?

I've decided to sell up.

Erm...

-Why now, Ralph?

-Well, I guess...

I guess it's down to a very special young man.

Made me realise I'm not the only one who's had a rough ride.

And for someone of his age, well,

if he can get through it, then so can I.

He sounds like a very special, intelligent, amazing young man.

Yeah, well, I wouldn't go that far.

I spent so long trying to get people to listen to me.

I guess I needed to listen to someone else.

And...

I want to thank him for that.

Well, we'll be back right after this song.

This is Five Bridges Radio and...

..and I'm Tyler Lewis.