Episode 5 The Living and the Dead

In all your years of dealing with the dead and dying,

-have you ever seen anything that you could not explain?

-Never.

NATHAN: Are you there? Are you with me?

NATHAN: Gabriel drew a picture of a woman with a book and so did Harriet.

If you're suggesting that my pursuit

of the truth is in relation to Gabriel...

Only you can answer that.

God help me, I see the dead

and I have to understand why this is happening!

-DENNING:

-You are transgressing against God and nature.

-Another one of us gone.

-Where does it all end, Gideon?

What do they say about me?

They say you're raising the dead.

-CHILD'S VOICE ON RECORD:

-Daddy!

Where are you, Daddy?

-WOMAN:

-Nathan? Nathan?

Are you there?

NATHAN: I will protect you.

But can you protect our child?

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

TAPPING

TAPPING INTENSIFIES DOOR OPENS

SUDDEN THUD

THUDDING

THUDDING

BANGING

-This was supposed to be a surprise.

-I am surprised!

-I wasn't expecting this!

-I'm beginning to suspect that

whoever constructed this crate

did so with the intention of it withstanding theft

and fire and acts of God.

See, that's what first attracted me to you.

Beautiful and so adept with a chisel!

SHE LAUGHS

-CHARLOTTE:

-A crib!

I love it!

And things like this are what first attracted me to you,

my wonderful Mr Appleby.

SHE LAUGHS

Thank you.

PANTING

RHYTHMICAL PANTING

GROANING

WOMAN GASPS MAN GRUNTS

-SMITH:

-What, you're leaving?!

Unless you've got something else I

haven't seen, don't see much cause for staying.

I've never had any complaints from the lasses.

Reckon I'm more particular than the usual rubbish you've been having.

Rubbish?!

I'll give you rubbish!

LAUGHTER

SMITH SCREAMS

GASPS

SCREAMS

CLATTERING HOOVES

Who's there? HORSE WHINNIES

Show yourself now!

DISTANT BANGING FAINT SCREAMING

SCREAMING CONTINUES

SWORD IS UNSHEATHED HOOVES CLATTER

CLATTERING INTENSIFIES SCREAMING

# This one night

# This one night

# Every night and all

# Fire and sleet and candlelight

# And Christ receive thy soul. #

MAUD: You know the stories of the Allhallows Massacre, we all do,

about how the Roundhead army rode on Shepzoy

with their muskets and swords, slaughtering all before them,

killed every man, woman and child, they did.

And those that tried to flee were given the worst death of all,

hunted down and strung up in the trees by their necks,

gutted like pigs. And there were that many hanging in the woods

that the ground was sodden with blood

and it was Allhallows time when it happened, just like now.

CAWING

PIG GRUNTS

PIG SQUEALS

Gwen didn't see it! He was just sitting on the floor in the woods,

he was that terrified,

just going on about what he'd seen.

A woman, strung up in the tree by her neck,

she was, her guts hanging out.

That's what the engineer saw.

It's an omen, that they're coming for us.

-All the railway boys are saying so.

-Well, of course they are!

Them railway lads townies, every last one of them.

You put them in the woods at night

and they'll tell you they seen Lucifer himself.

Thought you'd got more sense, Maud Hare,

taking heed of stories like that!

Just telling you what I heard, that's all.

Well, some nonsense is best kept to yourself.

Mr Smith.

Can't you at least tell me what she

looked like, this woman you saw hanging?

-No, Mr Appleby, I can not.

-Mr Smith.

Mr Smith!

It is of the utmost importance that I know what occurred.

-Where did you see this event?

-In the copse.

By the old swing.

Yes?

Sorry, Mr Appleby, I...

I have not the stomach to revisit

what I saw last night, now or ever again.

-Mr Smith...

-I have travelled the length

of our great empire with the railway, but this place...

There is something wrong here.

Something very, very wrong.

-CHARLOTTE:

-They can't just suspend work.

They can, they have.

-For how long?

-Until they can find new workers willing to come here,

which Smith reckons won't be easy, not when word spread about the

-things that have been occurring here.

-What if they can't find new workers?

The railway will chart an alternative route, bypassing our land.

SHE SIGHS

Well, damn them! Damn the railway!

We can survive without their money. The harvest fetched a good price,

-we don't need them.

-It feels like every time

we make any progress, something intervenes to thwart us.

It's to be expected, all this -

the farm, the fields, it's unfamiliar territory.

I'm not talking about that,

I'm talking about something more sinister.

Whatever Smith saw last night was so

terrible he would not stay another night.

What he imagined he saw.

It was late and dark and the copse is... unsettling even in daylight.

But being wilfully blind to what's

occurring around us is not a solution.

These events will continue without our intervention.

I am not being wilfully blind.

I accept what I see, that is all.

You're concerned, I see that,

but I cannot believe that every ill

that befalls us is the work of a ghost.

We must focus on the farm, on the future...

...for us and our child.

CONVERSATION OUTSIDE

-GIDEON:

-Ma'am, would you... would you like a smile?

I think that would detract from the sense of Allhallows, Gideon!

Well, what about a scowl?

-Arghh!

-LAUGHTER

No, as you are is fine.

-Is everyone ready?

-ALL: Yeah.

Three...two...one.

Toby!

LAUGHTER

Toby!

ROPE CREAKS

HOOVES CLATTER

HORSE WHINNIES

BREATHES HARD

NATHAN PANTS

Nathan!

You're just in time.

One photograph, that's all I'm asking.

All right.

Everybody ready?

-Yes.

-Ready.

GIDEON GROWLS GIGGLING

EERIE LAUGHING THEATRICAL HISSING

Three...two...one.

Perfect.

-SCATTERED CHEERING GIDEON:

-Is that it, ma'am?

Yes, you're all done.

I'll take this off, then.

MURMURED CONVERSATION

BABY CRIES

BABY CRIES

CRYING INTENSIFIES

I'm coming, Mummy's coming.

CRYING CONTINUES

BABY CRIES

SILENCE

SHE GASPS

ROPE CREAKS

HORSE WHINNIES

HOOVES CLATTER

-Harriet.

-Mr Appleby.

I need your assistance in an important matter.

Of course.

But...I am expected home.

-Perhaps it could hold until tomorrow?

-No,

this is very important, Harriet,

it requires your attention this evening.

I'm sure your parents will forgive your tardiness

when they hear you've been helping me.

You remember how we did this before?

Yes.

Good.

I want you to concentrate on the watch, Harriet.

WATCH TICKS

Look steadily at the watch.

Let everything else fade away.

BANGING

DISTANT SCREAMING SWORD IS UNSHEATHED

HOOVES CLATTER

SCREAMING

HORSE WHINNIES

NATHAN: Invite her to come forward and make her presence felt.

Tell her I know she's been causing all these hauntings.

Tell her that.

Tell her I've seen her.

In the woods, in the house.

You know who I'm talking about.

You know who this woman is, you saw her.

You...you drew her...

..in this very room.

Ask her what she wants.

Ask her, Harriet.

Ask her.

Ask her.

I'm going to wake you up now, Harriet.

-When I get to the number...

-They're coming for you.

Nathan, they're coming for you.

Who?

Who is coming?

Harriet!

What do they want? Harriet!

If what the engineer saw last night

is nonsense, then why are they leaving?

Railway's not just going to pack up and go without cause, is they?

SIMON: The bottle on the left, Lizzie.

PUB CONVERSATION UPSTAIRS

THUD

RATTLING

HINGE CREAKS

HINGE CREAKS

CREAKING CONTINUES

SUDDEN THUD

CREAKING

RAT SQUEALS LIZZIE GASPS

SWORD IS UNSHEATHED SCREAMING

BLOOD TRICKLES

ROPE CREAKS SCREAMING

Appleby letting the railway go is bad for the whole village.

Mr Nathan knows what he's doing.

The Applebys have always wanted

the best for this community at heart.

I reckon the railway boys got more sense than we have,

leaving here while they still can.

A dose of the wanderlust, Maud?

No.

But I've got two eyes in my head

and I can see what's going on around here. We all can.

None of it's any good.

Anyway, I'd rather leave now than end up like your Jack,

buried up in Cain's Field with

not so much as a cross above his head.

But if I had a mind to, where would we go? This is our home.

You'd find somewhere new.

Somewhere where you're not living side by side with evil.

MUFFLED CONVERSATION

Gwen?

-Ma'am.

-Who did this?

Er, Mr Appleby, ma'am.

He was here with Miss Harriet.

It's the pig's blood, ma'am.

What were they doing?

I don't know, ma'am.

But nothing good comes from inviting the dead back in your life.

DOOR OPENS

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

Where were you?

I met Mr Appleby in the village and was delayed.

He escorted me all the way home, I wasn't alone.

Harriet, did something happen?

You look perished. Are you all right?

What happened, Harriet?

Tell me!

You should never have involved her! After all that time you spent curing

-her, to drag her back into this business again.

-But it was not in vain!

Harriet told me they're coming for me.

Who is coming?

I believe it's this woman, it's this ghost that I've been seeing.

Clarity Winlove.

No, it's another woman.

LAUGHS DERISIVELY

I understand.

-You're sceptical.

-Just stop now.

But she's real, I saw her again today.

If I could show you the things I've seen, then you'd believe me!

Amazing things!

Impossible things.

The woman carries a book with photographs of this house,

but they are moving as if the photographs have come to life

and then there is a voice in the photograph, a woman's voice,

and she is calling out Charlie's name and Peter Hare and all the others.

I'm worried about you, Nathan.

This obsession isn't healthy.

Why don't we get away to London for a few days, just us?

No, we can't leave.

-Not now.

-Why not?

The harvest is sold, we can see

friends and visit the theatre and galleries,

it'd be like a tonic. Just a few days, that's all I'm asking,

and then we can return rested and clear-headed.

Please, please.

For me.

Very well.

KNOCK AT DOOR

That you'd use my daughter to commune with the dead!

My 16-year-old daughter!

It was a grave error of judgment

-and we accept that.

-No, it was an unforgivable betrayal of our friendship.

I meant no harm,

I was merely trying to put an end to these hauntings.

I don't care. You do not now involve my daughter in your misadventures!

You're right, it was unforgivable. Nathan's sorry, aren't you?

DISTANT BOOM

Why would anyone set fire to a tree?

I don't know, but I intend to find out.

If it burns out now, you won't find it in the dark.

Please don't go now, Nathan.

-Please?

-Very well.

First thing in the morning, you and I will investigate, Denning.

You came.

Only to satisfy my own curiosity.

Well, there's nothing here, there's

no scorch marks, there's no charred wood,

there's no evidence of any kind that there was a fire here last night.

-Then we must be searching the wrong field.

-No, it was here!

We saw it, Charlotte saw it.

If there are no remains, it can't have been here, it's impossible.

Well, of late, I've witnessed many things I'd once have called impossible.

Please tell me we are not discussing the supernormal again!

-If that's what you care to call it.

-I believe in God and man

and very little in between!

Then explain how there is not a trace of this tree

we saw blazing so brightly last night.

We just haven't found the remains yet.

And we will.

You'll see.

-KNOCK AT DOOR

-Yes?

-GWEN:

-Ma'am, the food is hot and ready to be taken into the fields.

I thought it best we take them out while they're still piping, ma'am.

Of course, you're right. We should.

-I'll be down presently.

-Yes, ma'am.

NATHAN: You'll find nothing

because what we saw was not an actual tree on fire,

it was just another of these events that have been haunting this village.

-Listen to me, Denning...

-Take your hand off me!

I know you're angry with me for involving Harriet in this,

but don't let your anger blind you to what's happening!

I believe I know what's behind all this.

There's a woman.

The ghost, I have mentioned it to you.

She has been present from the very

beginning, throughout all these hauntings.

Listen. I've even heard her

reciting the names of Charlie Thatcher, Peter Hare and Harriet.

Are you suggesting this ghost

is orchestrating all these other supernormal events?

Yes, she is the thread that is tying everything together.

-I'm certain of it.

-That is insane.

Well, so is a tree that burns but leaves no trace behind!

These events will continue and

escalate unless we intervene to stop her.

-Intervene how?

-An exorcism,

to banish her and all the evil spirits from Shepzoy.

Our Church forbids exorcisms,

except in the most extraordinary circumstances.

Without one, there will be no respite from these disturbances.

My answer is no!

Then she will continue to orchestrate these hauntings.

She will not cease.

Not unless we stop her!

Gwen?

Do you believe in ghosts?

Not sure "ghosts" is the word I'd use, but...

I do believe this world is inhabited by more than just man and beast.

Is it the dead, do you think, their spirits lingering?

Yes, ma'am. I do.

GUNFIRE SHOUTING

GUNFIRE SCREAMING

SWORD IS UNSHEATHED HORSE WHINNIES

GIDEON: Ma'am!

-Ma'am! Ma'am!

-What is it?

In the fields!

Horses, soldiers, spirits!

HUBBUB

Be gone, be gone!

-Hurry!

-Look, ma'am!

GASPING AND CRYING

WOMAN WHIMPERS

HOOVES CLATTERING

HOOVES APPROACH

Aaargh!

HORSE WHINNIES

SCREAMING

SWORD IS UNSHEATHED SCREAMING

WHIMPERS

Maud, where are you going?

-Away from here!

-No, Maud!

You know what this is!

Allhallows Eve, when the Roundheads rode on Shepzoy.

They slayed every man, woman and child.

They strung them up from the trees by their necks.

Look!

Look at me!

That's what Smith the engineer saw, the woman in the woods.

She was strung up and cut open!

It won't stop until they've shed blood.

My advice is to get away from here.

Get as far away from here as you can!

What is it you want?

Tell me.

Tell me.

HE LAUGHS

DOOR OPENS

No, Nathan! Stop!

BELL TOLLS

-DENNING:

-I searched the whole hillside.

Nothing, not a single scrap to prove the fire ever existed.

Perhaps the wind scattered the ashes?

-HARRIET:

-You forgot these, Father.

Er, thank you, Harriet. Put them in the sacristy.

A tree that size does not burn itself out without leaving a trace.

There must be an explanation for it.

Well, that is my belief too.

Everything can be explained...

..if not by faith, then by science and reason.

I'm a sceptic when it comes

to matters of the occult, but...this...

You don't think that's what it is?

I don't know what to think.

-KNOCK AT DOOR

-Help us! Let us in!

MAN: Please! KNOCKING CONTINUES

Wait here.

-WOMAN:

-Please! Please!

HORSE WHINNIES IN DISTANCE

SHE GASPS

SHE CHOKES

ROPE CREAKS

SHE GASPS

-It's all right.

-Really?

-There's no-one there.

-SHE LAUGHS

HARRIET GASPS

-Harriet?

-Harriet!

ROPE CREAKS Help me!

Help me!

Harriet!

-Oh, my God!

-Harriet!

Oh, God! God!

What's happening?

Please!

Do something!

She's choking!

Harriet!

Hurry, Matthew! Please hurry!

Harriet!

She's choking, Matthew, quick!

In the name of the Father and of the Son...

..and of the Holy Ghost...

HARRIET PANTS

It's fine. You're going to be fine.

Take Harriet home.

Lock the doors and don't open them until I return.

Where will you be?

There is something I must attend to...alone.

-DENNING:

-The circumstances we face require extreme measures.

You will perform the exorcism?

I warn you, I have no experience of such matters.

You are doing the right thing.

This will defeat this woman and whatever evil she's brought here.

Nathan!

There are apparitions in the woods, unexplainable visions and noises.

The workers are frightened, as am I.

You've seen them?

You've seen them.

Yes. I'm sorry.

I will go and reassure the workers and I will tell them

-that we are putting an end to these disturbances.

-How?

Denning will perform an exorcism.

This will be an end to it all.

All of you!

Go home!

Lock your doors!

Reverend Denning is about to perform a ceremony

that will lift this darkness that has been hanging over Shepzoy.

Do you believe all this is the work of ghosts and the dead?

I know only this that I have seen terrible, unexplainable things

and whatever hand is behind them must be stopped.

When you awake in the morning, peace and calm will be restored.

Do you only banish the evil spirits and not the benign?

I have no room for such distinctions.

All that is present must be cast out.

Hurry, now! Go!

It is imperative if Shepzoy is to have any peace.

-Are we ready to begin?

-Almost.

Come on! Quick!

HUBBUB

Lock it, Simon, lock it!

Use the cellar.

-Quick!

-Get going!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,

I cast you out!

Unclean spirit!

With every Satanic power of the enemy,

every spectre from hell.

In the name of Jesus Christ, be gone!

And stay far from these creatures of God...

..for it is he who created the Earth and said, "Let there be light,"

for it is he who commands you,

he who cast the serpent from the garden,

he who formed man from the dust of the ground

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life...

..and the man became a living being.

He who flung you from the heights of heaven, into the depths of hell.

GUNSHOT DISTANT SCREAMING

GUNSHOT GASPS

He who rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah...

..and inflicted ten plagues on the house of Egypt.

He who is all-powerful

and whose might is indestructible,

who will smite the forces of evil without mercy.

DOORS SLAM

Do you hear that?

The gunfire's stopped.

It's working.

For it is he who commands you,

he who once stilled a sea and the wind and the storm.

RECORD CRACKLES

-CHILD:

-Daddy!

RECORD CRACKLES

Daddy.

Daddy!

Ignore it, Nathan. It's a trick!

That is not your son. The Devil takes on many forms.

-Daddy, where are you, Daddy?

-I'm...

-Daddy!

-I'm here.

-Daddy!

Where are you, Daddy?

I want you to play with me.

Play with me, Daddy.

Why won't you ever play with me?

Harken and tremble in fear, Satan, you enemy of faith.

-I'm going to sail my boat.

-You foe

of the human race, corrupter of men.

I need to show you something now, something very important.

Nathan!

You corrupter of justice, you...you root of all evil.

DENNING CONTINUES IN OTHER ROOM

That's Gabriel, that's...

..his boat.

How is it possible that he's in this photograph?

When I developed it yesterday, he wasn't, but this morning...

You've known since this morning?

You said nothing.

I was going to tell you.

When exactly?

You... You had this and you deliberately kept it from me,

-an unforgivable lie!

-No.

Then why didn't you show this to me immediately?

I don't...know.

You don't know what - how important this may be to me?!

Proof that Gabriel is present,

his...his...his spirit is still here.

Present!

Stop!

You must stop this now!

Stop this ceremony!

My... My son is here! Gabriel is here!

I have proof, look! Look!

Look!

Your son's soul has been entrusted to God.

No, he's here, Denning! And I will

not risk banishing him with this ceremony.

-Consider what you are doing!

-My mind is set!

This community has paid a terrible price because of these hauntings

and it will pay an even greater one

-if we do not stop them now!

-I cannot allow it!

We must crucify this man.

He has slain!

You get out of my house!

Nathan!

-You are not welcome here, Denning!

-Appleby,

-consider what you're doing!

-Go!

I am warning you, if you do not

leave here now, I will take my gun to you.

WIND WHISTLES

SHE GASPS

HORSE SNORTS

GUNSHOT

DISTANT GUNFIRE

Do you hear that?

Because of what you have done, it has returned!

I have to think of Gabriel.

-He is dead!

-DISTANT GUNSHOT

He's still my son.

DISTANT GUNFIRE

FOOTSTEPS RETREAT

DISTANT GUNFIRE

GASPS FEARFULLY

GUNSHOT SCREAMS

HORSE WHINNIES GASPS FEARFULLY

FOOTSTEPS OVERHEAD SWORD IS UNSHEATHED

Forgive me my trespassers, as I

forgive him for trespassing against me,

for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever...

-MAUD SCREAMS

-Hello?

-Help!

-Is anybody there?!

DISTANT SCREAMING SWORD IS UNSHEATHED

SOBS HORSE WHINNIES

HOOVES CLATTER

MAN ROARS HOOVES THUNDER

MAN ROARS MAUD SCREAMS

Hello?!

MAN'S SCREAM ECHOES

Hello?!

DISTANT SCREAMING

SCREAMING

MAN GROANS ROPE CREAKS

SWORD IS UNSHEATHED SHE SCREAMS

ROPE CREAKS

HE SCREAMS

SHE CHOKES

SHE GASPS FOR BREATH

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

SILENCE

They have gone.

HE SOBS

SOBBING INTENSIFIES

-Maud!

-Maud!

Maud!

Here!

Maud!

This way. There she is!

Maud! Maud!

Maud?

Maud!

(I feel him...)

(..all around me.)

-CHARLOTTE:

-Nathan!

What happened?

They found Maud's body in the forest.

It must have happened last night.

What I don't understand is,

I thought Mr Denning was going to put an end to this business.

Yes...

I... I decided not to proceed with the...

ceremony.

MURMURING

Why, sir?

I had good reasons, very good reasons.

Very important ones and...

CHILD: # Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop... #

Did you hear that?

What's he talking about?

# ...When the wind blows the cradle will rock... #

-MAN:

-Gabriel!

Gabriel!

MURMURING

Give me my son!

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

None of them will work for us again, you do realise that?!

Answer me!

You must have heard him!

He's here.

Gabriel is here, right now.

I know he is.

You can see him in the photograph. Look, you can't deny it.

-I just want him to leave us alone!

-No! No!

No!

Have you seen him?

No, ma'am.

You should leave Shepzoy now, ma'am. It would be best,

for you and the baby, to get far, far away from here.

It's not good for you here.

I can't leave, Gwen.

I'd go with you, you wouldn't have to be alone.

I can't abandon my husband, not now.

You can leave if you want.

No. I'm not going to abandon you.

You took me for a ghost of my former self.

Them that's gone got fainter hearts than some.

Thank you.

There is something wrong with your mind and your heart and your soul.

-DENNING:

-It's you pulling others into your unhappiness!

Me? A lost soul?

I must find a way out.

Gabriel!

I am not here to be punished!

# Voices from the wheat field

# Run, boy, run

# Voices from the wheat field

# 'Neath the blood-red sun

# Whispers in the moonlight

# You will come to me soon

# Whispers in the moonlight

# Sinks a blood-red moon. #