Episode 2 The Living and the Dead

This programme contains some scenes

which some viewers may find upsetting

-This day was always going to come. Now the world will change, you'll see.

-We can make it work, can't we?

Well, if we could convince the railway

to bring a branch line across our land...

Then that is what we shall do.

Just don't expect everyone to welcome these changes with open arms.

Do you believe in ghosts?

HE SCOFFS

We've been down here five minutes

and you've gone back to being a psychologist.

-'Daddy!'

-Gabriel.

'Daddy, where are you, Daddy?'

-GWEN:

-I used to hear a little boy's laughter in the house.

Then one day, no more laughter.

Do you remember you drew something on the wall in my house?

Like a figure with a book in her hand.

Um... Something like this.

I don't think so.

Could you have seen an image like this before? In my house?

On my desk?

I'm sorry, Mr Appleby, it doesn't mean anything to me.

-It's all right.

-Let me show you out.

Thank you, Harriet.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Sorry, Mrs Appleby, I didn't know you were here.

Thank you, Gwen.

SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

BOY SHOUTS PLAYFULLY

Charlie!

Mr Appleby.

-Shouldn't you be working in the fields?

-Yes, sir, just on my way now.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Or...would you rather come and watch the surveyors blow things up?

-Now, I'm no expert, Gideon...

-That's right, ma'am.

These look to me like stones.

Yes, ma'am. Because the field hasn't been cleared yet.

Well, why hasn't it been cleared?

That was John's job, to tell us what to do and when to do it.

EXPLOSION

It's just the surveyors at Brockley Combe. Pay it no mind.

Why do they have to blow great holes in the valley, ma'am?

They're surveying the land

to see whether it's capable of taking a viaduct over the valley.

A viaduct?!

They're here because Mr Appleby petitioned for them to be here,

so we will make them welcome.

If we could get a railway port near here,

we could churn our butter in the afternoon,

and it would be on the breakfast tables of Bristol and London by the next morning.

-Imagine that!

-THEY GIGGLE

EXPLOSION

'It's looking quite promising.'

Definitely Keuper marls. We just need it to be of significant depth.

Appleby. Look at these!

Neolithic flints.

Hmm?

The last human to touch these has been dead for 7,000 years.

THEY CHUCKLE

Mr Appleby?

Charlie, you can do the honours. Go on.

Push it down, lad, nice and firm.

HE GASPS

MEN LAUGH

-GHOSTLY CHILDREN'S VOICES:

-David...

Benjamin...

Henry...

Abraham...

Harrington...

Ebenezer...

# This one night...

# This one night

# Every night and all

# Fire and sleet and candlelight

# And Christ receive thy soul. #

LAUGHTER

I remember when old Mrs Appleby

grubbed out the Tremlett Bitter orchards

and replaced 'em with Dabinett.

You were in here every night,

moaning your head off about the evils of progress.

There's nothing wrong with Tremletts.

Who wants a train, anyways?

Nasty, noisy buggers, they is. I expect...

Shhh, the engineers will hear you.

You know what, the engineers...

No good will come of this, you mark my words.

It's like talking to a wall.

I was just saying, like my dear old granfer used to say to me...

..what lies beneath should be left beneath.

SHE HUMS QUIETLY TO HERSELF

I failed to conceive again.

We will get there, I promise you.

I thought coming down here, away from London,

all the peace and quiet...

We know there's no medical reason. We just have to be patient.

I know.

It's just...

I want your baby, Nathan Appleby.

I want your baby.

Bed, girls.

Do we have to?

Goodnight, Charlie. We all will be safe under your protection.

Charlie, bed!

All safe, Mother.

DOG WHINES

Shhh, boy, it's just the wind.

DOG WHINES

What is it?

CHILDREN LAUGH

It's just children playing.

At this time of night?

-GHOSTLY VOICES:

-David...

Harrington...

Abraham...

Henry...

Benjamin...

Ebenezer...

-David...

-Harrington...

-Abraham...

-Henry...

Benjamin... Ebenezer...

VOICES CONTINUE WHISPERING

Charlie? What are you doing?

Considering your experience as a farm manager,

where do you stand on the new-model traction engines, Mr Woolford?

-I'd never buy one, I know that.

-Why would that be?

I'd let some other fool take all the risk and rent one when I needed it.

But the "other fool" may become a very rich man

and you will be forever under obligation to him.

I saw your shiny new traction on the way in, ma'am.

Broken, is it?

You do seem to move around a lot. Why would that be?

I've come a long way, ma'am.

I think it only fair I get to speak to the master.

Except he's not here, is he?

But I am here, Mr Woolford, and I appear to be a sentient being.

How's that weather looking, Gideon?

Set fair, sir, set fair.

It doesn't bother me

that they'd rather speak to an insect than a woman,

but what does bother me is that their views on agriculture

haven't changed since the Romans moved on.

THEY LAUGH

We'll find someone.

Charlie? What's the matter?

Nothing.

Don't you dare speak to Mr Appleby like that! He asked you a question.

It's all right, Agnes. Was there somebody there?

No, sir.

-'Twas the Red Boys.

-Shut up! You shut up!

Charlie?

Tell me about these boys.

Are they like imaginary friends?

Only children have friends like that.

They came for me.

In the night.

What did they want?

For me to go with them.

Go where?

Don't know.

-Do you know what a nightmare is, Charlie?

-A dream that goes bad?

Mm-hm.

They were real, sir.

No matter how real they seem, Charlie,

they are just pictures in your head.

Pictures cannot harm you.

-What do I do if they come again?

-Let them come.

We are men and they are pictures. Let them come.

GENTLE HUMMING

Gwen, it's you.

What are you doing?

-Just a little something, ma'am.

-A little something of what?

For you and Mr Appleby, to help you get with child.

I have been pushed and prodded

by some of the most expensive doctors in London.

I don't think some boiled grass is going to make much difference.

This works, ma'am.

What's in it?

Some cabbage leaves, mandrake, marjoram,

er...thyme, parsley,

the root of worm fern and the, er... Oh...

What?

It's the tail of a slowworm.

-What's that for?

-Added potency.

And the raspberries, what are they for?

To take away the taste of the slowworm.

THEY LAUGH

I believe an early night is called for, Mr Appleby.

What's that? Wine?

It's...like wine, yes.

Come on.

Nathan!

-David...

-Harrington...

-Abraham...

-Henry...

Benjamin... Ebenezer...

Pictures in me head.

-David...

-Harrington...

-Abraham...

-Henry...

Benjamin... Ebenezer...

Charlie... Charlie...

Come and play, Charlie.

Come with us.

We could do it.

We could actually do it.

-"Why are you so excited, beloved wife?"

-Sorry.

Strawberries.

Arable crops are susceptible

to the vicissitudes of the weather, yes?

And turning this place into a dairy farm would decimate the community.

-That will never happen, Charlotte...

-But...strawberries.

If we got our branch line,

we could access markets we've never even dreamed of,

build huge glasshouses, be in control of the growing process.

If it comes.

It will come.

I know it will.

DOG WHINES

Where are you going?

To take the dog out.

Go to sleep.

Come on, Toby.

SHE SHUDDERS

Toby...

APPROACHING ENGINE ROARS

BRAKES SQUEAL

ENGINE ROARS

SUDDEN SILENCE

Mr Appleby, thank God! Is Charlie with you?

-No. No, of course not.

-He's gone missing, sir!

Charlie?

CHILDREN LAUGH

Charlie! Is that you?

CHILDREN LAUGH AND CHATTER

Charlie?

CHILDREN LAUGHING AND PLAYING

Charlie!

CHARLIE LAUGHS

-HAPPILY:

-No! No, you didn't get me!

-Charlie!

-GHOSTLY VOICE:

-Stay with us, Charlie.

Agnes!

Charlie!

Thank you.

What the hell you been playing at, boy?

-Take this, Charlie. It'll help you sleep.

-Charlie!

Out. Come on.

That's it. Good.

That's it.

Now, what was happening in the woods?

None of your business.

I thought we were friends.

I'm not to talk to you no more.

-Now, why's that?

-Cos you're a bastard.

-That is enough!

-You're all bastards and liars!

You must forgive him, Mr Appleby. He's not a bad boy.

Has he spoken to you about anything recently? Anything unusual?

Agnes.

-He's been worried, sir, I won't lie to you.

-What about?

The changes. Your mother dying, and traction engines, and John...

He's worried what will come of us. We all are.

-What are you doing?

-Just looking for something for Charlie.

-I have had the most brilliant idea.

-I know, you've told me. Strawberries.

No, even more brilliant than that.

I know they're here somewhere.

I am talking about the future of Shepzoy

and you're rummaging through a cupboard.

Yes.

-Yes, what?

-Yes, I think it's a brilliant idea.

What is?

You being our new farm manager.

Do you really think I could do it?

I think you'd be the best thing

that's ever happened to this old place.

Harrington...

Abraham...

David...

Henry...

Benjamin...

FLOORBOARDS CREAK

How are you feeling?

Not so good, your mother says.

Am I still a bastard and a liar?

You said they were pictures in my head.

-Yes, I did.

-That was a lie.

I've brought you something.

I was clearing out the cupboard and I found these.

We must have fought the Battle of Balaclava at least a hundred times.

Gabriel and I.

And these little soldiers never once let us down.

Last night in the woods, were you playing with the boys?

How many boys were there?

So here's you, standing in the clearing.

Where are the other boys?

Did they surround you, like this?

David.

Abraham.

Harrington.

Benjamin.

Your mother says you're afraid of leaving this farm.

I give you my word, Charlie.

For as long as I'm here, that will never happen.

-I don't belong here.

-Who said you don't belong here?

I wanted to gather you together this morning

with some exciting news.

Well, I'm excited, and I very much hope you will be.

Oh, they will be, ma'am, don't you worry about that.

From this moment on...

..I am going to be the farm manager.

Well, that is marvellous news, ma'am.

Now, I am not that experienced,

as many of you know and have kindly pointed out.

But I am willing to learn.

And I will learn, I give you my word on that.

I will be the first one at work in the morning

and the last one here at night.

Well, that's all I wanted to say, I think.

There's a lot of preparation to do before the harvest.

That went well, ma'am.

ANIMATED CHATTER

What did I say, friends? We're all off to hell in a handcart.

Is there any reason why Charlie would feel like an outsider here?

Outsider?

Yes, in the village or in your family.

No, sir. Why would you even say such a thing?

Agnes. Agnes...

If you want me to help Charlie, we can have no secrets.

Charlie?

I had a sister, sir.

Ruth. Yes, I remember Ruth.

Life was not kind to her and she became...

She fell into low company and died, worn out with disease.

A lock of her hair, sir, given to me the day before she died.

You see the different hair threaded through?

A baby's hair.

Charlie's?

He were not a year old when his mother died.

I took him as my own.

-Does he know?

-I'm to give him this letter when I do see fit.

It tells him everything.

I have loved him as my own.

Fiercer than my own, if anything, cos I did know where he came from.

What good would it do him to know that he was not mine,

me, who loves him more than life itself?

You have done a fine job, Agnes.

You'll know when the time is right.

SCREAMING

CHATTER

What's he up to?

-OLD MAN:

-Abraham...

David...

Henry...

Benjamin...

CLUNK

HOLLOW POUNDING

Over here, lads!

There's some kind of entrance.

Align the gun with your face.

Up.

Back it into your shoulder. Bend that front knee.

Back straight.

And...

You're getting closer. You're definitely getting closer.

I always thought it would be my own son I'd teach to shoot.

I liked Gabriel.

We used to play together.

I know you did.

So you'll have to be a bit of a son to me

and I'll do my best to be a bit of a father to you.

How does that sound?

I said I don't belong here.

You do belong here, Charlie.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

What are you doing?

Put the gun down.

Put it down.

HE FIRES TWICE

Why did you do that?

Why did you do that, Charlie?

They've seen him.

-What are you talking about?

-Gabriel. They've seen him.

Where have they seen him?

Standing by the lake.

Right where he drowned.

Charlie!

David...

Harrington...

Abraham...

Henry...

Benjamin...

I suppose the sun is over the yardarm somewhere in the world.

THEY CHUCKLE

-Your very good health.

-And yours.

Do you believe in ghosts, Denning?

-Ghosts?

-Charlie said something about seeing my son.

Charlie wants to get your attention,

so he says the one thing that is guaranteed to do just that.

One night, in Shepzoy, I saw...

a woman.

-What sort of woman?

-She had a book of light in her hand.

-Well, who was she?

-I have no idea.

But Gabriel drew a picture of a woman with a book,

and so did Harriet.

Are you seriously telling me you all saw a ghost? The same ghost?

When I was looking for Charlie, I saw lights

rushing towards me down the lane.

What are you telling me? You... You saw...a-a vision?

-Angels?

-No. I don't know.

In all your years of dealing with the dead and the dying and the bereaved...

have you ever seen anything that you could not explain?

Never.

Now, that was a good day's work.

Time for a touch of the good stuff at the Wheatsheaf, I reckon.

When was the last time you didn't end your day at the Wheatsheaf?

-Sunday, ma'am.

-Cos they're not open on Sundays!

-LAUGHING: He don't like that!

-Not strong enough!

Ma'am...

-MAN:

-Where's Mr Appleby?

I'm his wife. Can I help you?

SCREAM

How would you explain... the woman in my house?

A trick of the light.

The brain...

is an amazing and mischievous organ.

-Mm-hm!

-Er, who keeps telling me that?

I know, I know.

Anyway, I thought you were supposed to be a scientist.

So did I.

Mrs Appleby, sir!

MUFFLED DISTRESSED NOISES

NOISES CONTINUE

HE MAKES DISTRESSED NOISES

Charlie?

What can be so bad, my brave man?

Hmm?

Are you my mother?

What?

Course I am. What a thing to say!

They said I don't belong to you...or the village.

Who said that? These...wretched boys?

Then they are liars!

I am your mother and this is where you belong.

-Where is she?

-In here, sir.

Are you hurt?

-I'm fine.

-You promise me?

-He didn't hurt me, Nathan.

-Where is he?

-He's a very old, very confused man.

-Where is he? Charlotte!

Please, Nathan. For me.

My name is Nathan Appleby. I'm the master of Shepzoy House.

What are you doing here?

They've started again.

After all...these...years.

What has started again?

The voices. Pulling me back here.

When I was a boy I worked in the Appleby mine.

There's no Appleby mine.

They used us boys from the workhouse in Taunton.

Never the village lads.

Don't risk the village lads.

It was a terrible place.

Hot as hell and black as the devil.

Every hour, on the hour...

we called out to each other,

to let us know we were all safe.

David...

Harrington...

Abraham...

-BOTH:

-Henry...

Benjamin...

-BOY'S VOICE:

-Come and play.

-SECOND BOY'S VOICE:

-Come on, Charlie.

Not tonight.

I don't want to play tonight.

Come and play, Charlie.

Come with us.

Come on, Charlie.

You don't belong with them.

You belong with us.

We're coming for you, Charlie.

WHISPERED BOYS' VOICES MINGLE

-Come on, Charlie.

-Get in, Charlie.

BOYS SING

I was the last one to join the gang...

so they was always the pushers

and I was always the trapper.

The trapper?

The worst job in the mine.

The trapper's job was to open and close the flap

so that air did get into the tunnels.

12 hours...

..in a hole...

..no bigger than a child's coffin.

HE WHIMPERS

LATCH CLUNKS, CREAKING

SEVERAL BOYS' VOICES: Come on, Charlie. Come with us.

BOYS HUM

Charlie's coming.

-Charlie's coming.

-Shhh!

Charlie's coming.

FLOORBOARDS CREAK

HE SNIFFS

Mother...

You don't belong with them.

That last day, I couldn't stand it any longer.

The darkness.

The terrible weight of it on my eyes.

I was nine years old, sir.

No mother or father of my own.

I was climbing up to the surface,

to the sunlight...

..even though I knew I would be beaten.

Then I heard... the whole valley rumble.

The mine was caving in.

When there is a landslip, the men on the surface

shout down to the trapper, who sounds the alarm, but...

I-I wasn't in the coffin.

S-S-So the boys... never got their warning.

I ran over to the office to alert the overseers.

Old man Appleby was there.

My great-grandfather?

I-I was screaming and screaming at him, "Help the boys!

"Help the boys!"

But he said... it was too difficult...

..too...expensive to dig 'em out.

They died, sir.

Every...one.

I could hear them...

..screaming...

..and crying...

..for days.

And then...

..it stopped.

They were only workhouse boys. What did it matter?

And now...I hear them again.

My God.

M...

My...

..poor, poor...angry boys.

HE SOBS

Charlie's missing.

The tunnel opens into a system of other tunnels,

unstable at the best of times.

You're not even sure he's down there.

He is down there.

The tunnels were built for small children.

In places, they'll be barely three feet wide.

If you do get through, there'll be little or no oxygen. It's madness.

What are you doing?

Coming with you. Charlie is my responsibility as much as yours.

If you're not back soon, I'm coming in after you.

You'll find him, sir.

You'll find my boy. I know you will.

"And the earth opened her mouth...

"and swallowed 'em up."

Mr Smith, I want you to shore this entrance up.

-Gideon, take some men and help them.

-Ma'am.

Gwen, go up to the house and get food and drink.

-Yes, ma'am.

-Lamps.

All the lamps we have.

-The air's so thin.

-HE COUGHS

Shh-shh.

Did you hear that?

I can just hear the sound of my own blood pounding in my ears.

Charlie!

-We have to push on. Can you do it?

-Lead the way.

It opens up.

Thank God.

Wait! Appleby, wait!

Charlie.

What was he like, ma'am, when you first met Mr Appleby?

He was a dashing young man,

running around London, devoted to his patients,

full of new and radical ideas.

Lectures and parties.

And then when I finally got him to stop for a moment,

I saw something else.

A sadness.

Gabriel?

I promised myself I would love that sadness out of him.

Not to forget Gabriel - never that.

To surround him with our own...children...

..bring him that joy again.

And so you shall, ma'am. I'm sure of it.

Charlie!

Charlie!

We can't stop. We can't stop here.

-HE PANTS

-Just...one moment. Please.

It's no... It's no use, man. If the boy came down here...

Charlie!

METALLIC CLINK

So this God of yours, Denning -

absent or merely cruel?

Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,

"Why hast thou made me thus?"?

Then, "Don't ask questions," is that what you're saying?

I will ask questions. I will never stop.

Hold the lamp high.

There's more oxygen near the roof.

Abraham...

Oh, they're all children.

Oh, dear God.

Oh...

-OLD MAN:

-Harrington...

-HE WHEEZES

-Benjamin...

Henry...

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead,

yet shall he live.

Charlie?!

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

I know that my Redeemer liveth...

..and that he shall stand at the latter day...

-Charlie?!

-..upon the earth.

And though after my skin...

..worms destroy this body...

..yet in my flesh...

shall I see God.

Charlie?

The poor boy.

CREAKING AND RUMBLING

We have to get out! Now!

-CREAKING

-What was that?

Just the ground settling, Mrs Appleby, nothing more.

I'll be the judge of that.

Nathan...

if we don't get out now...

..we are going to die.

Please.

PLANKS CLATTER

Landslip! Get out! Now! Mrs Appleby...

Nathan?

Nathan!

-GHOSTLY VOICE:

-Daddy.

Daddy.

Daddy.

Gabriel.

DENNING COUGHS

SHE WAILS

Charlie...

HAMMERING

HAMMERING

I heard Gabriel's voice.

-He trusted me and I let him down.

-It was an accident.

Every sleeping moment of my life...

..I've dreamt of him.

Waiting for me by the lake... launching his boat...

-Nathan.

-Then terrified.

Shouting out for me.

-It was the water in his lungs.

-Do not torture yourself.

And now I've failed Charlie, too.

You have nothing to reproach yourself for.

I refused to believe what he was telling me.

That there are ghosts?

I...

I heard Gabriel's voice.

I am...sure of it.

You said yourself you were short of oxygen.

Yes.

You were seeing things, hearing things.

There are no ghosts.

There's just you and me.

And we're alive, Nathan Appleby.

We are alive.

There's something here.

Something bad.

-This place is damned.

-Ever since you returned.

I heard her. I saw her.

-CHARLOTTE:

-I wonder,

when you're helping people, what else you're looking for.

Gabriel.

# I am stretched upon your grave

# And I will lie here forever

# If your hands were in mine

# I'd be sure they would not sever... #