Episode 1 The Moonstone

In the last year of the 18th century,

Colonel John Herncastle plundered from India

a priceless and most sacred yellow diamond.

Vishnu, the Preserver, laid his curse on the thief,

commanding three priests to search forever for his moonstone.

But the wicked colonel smuggled the stone to England,

and kept it jealously.

In his will, he bequeathed the diamond

to his beautiful young niece, Miss Rachel Verinder.

Rachel's gallant cousin, Mr Franklin Blake,

was charged with the gem's delivery.

But was it a gift...

..or a curse?

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Surely it is finished now?

FLY BUZZES

Insisto, after all, I am the subject.

Not till it's complete.

Excuse me, senior.

What is it?

My father.

Forgive me.

I'm sorry, Mr Blake.

Who is that?

DISTANT CHURCH BELL RINGS

She did not come.

I'm sorry.

-My sincere condolences.

-Thank you.

Do you know why not?

Or are you just not permitted to tell me?

What I can and must talk to you about

is your father's estate, your duties.

Mr Franklin...

..I'm afraid you're no longer a care-free young man.

I've not been care-free since last I was in England.

But we do have business to discuss.

Very well.

But I have more pressing business first.

DOORBELL RINGS

Mr Franklin!

-Mr Bruff.

-Good day, Penelope.

Would you tell Rachel I'm come to see her?

I'm sorry, sir.

Miss Rachel's...

out.

Ah, well. Perhaps, when she returns, you would kindly give her this?

Miss Verinder left these for you,

should you ever call.

She begs to decline entering into

any correspondence with Mr Franklin Blake.

Rachel!

During all my long absences,

Rachel so much as asked if I was living or dead?

There is only one possible explanation for her behaviour.

Which is?

It is the moonstone yet.

Where are you going?

To Euston, and then to Yorkshire by the next train.

Hello?

NOTE PLAYS

DOG BARKS

-Who's here?

-Caesar, good boy!

Better not hurry.

Mr Franklin?

Betteredge.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, don't tell me. Robinson Crusoe

has already informed you you might expect to see me tonight?

Or here's the bit I was reading the moment before you came in.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

"I stood like one thunderstruck,

"or as if I had seen...

"..an apparition."

If that isn't as much as to say,

"Expect the sudden appearance of Mr Franklin Blake..."

..it has no meaning in the English language.

It's good to see you, Betteredge.

It's a miracle to see you, sir!

I'm afraid...

..you find us, sadly, changed.

Much has happened since I saw you last.

I know it, Betteredge.

But I'm burning to know what's brought you here in this sodden way.

What brought me here before?

The moonstone, Mr Franklin.

And it is the moonstone that brings me again.

Is that a joke, sir?

I'm afraid I'm getting a little dull in my old age!

-I don't take it.

-The theft has never been settled.

It hangs over her still.

Whatever happened that night, it ruined two lives, mine one of them.

I see you are in want of a cigar.

Come down with me.

Take my advice, Mr Franklin,

and let the diamond be.

How can I? I've travelled nigh on a year,

I can run from Rachel, but I cannot forget her.

I believe you still love her, sir.

I know she cannot forget me, either,

or she would not hide from me as she does.

What do you propose to do, sir?

I have come here to take up

the enquiry which was dropped when I left England.

I have come to do what nobody has done yet,

and find out who took the diamond.

How can you hope to succeed, saving your presence,

when Sergeant Cuff himself could not solve it?

The greatest policeman in England.

I am no professional, but that may be my strength.

I've nothing now to focus on but this.

I hope to have information that Cuff was not privy to.

I hope to have testimony of

minds closed to the police this time last year.

-What testimony?

-Why, yours, Betteredge.

You, and others more closely associated to Rachel

and her diamond.

Give me your account of this family

and the moonstone from the very beginning.

Those were dark times, sir.

I cannot revisit them.

The dark times will not be over until I have done

what I have sworn to do, and found Rachel's stolen moonstone.

Please, Betteredge.

Well, sir...

..if you insist.

We must commence with the lead-up to Miss Rachel's 18th birthday,

in this house, this time last year.

SHE PLAYS PIANO

Please, have the yellow room readied.

Mr Franklin Blake arrives with us tomorrow.

I did not know Mr Franklin's foreign education had come to an end.

His plan is to stay with us for a month,

to keep Rachel's birthday.

He is probably in want of a decent dinner.

I hear his mother's 700 a year runs through him as through a sieve.

Such is the way of a young man abroad.

I shall be delighted to see Mr Franklin -

the nicest boy who ever spun a top...or broke a window.

The most atrocious tyrant that ever tortured a doll.

You worshipped him ten years ago.

And then he left.

I burn with indignation and I ache with fatigue

when I think of Franklin Blake.

SHE PLAYS "Piano Sonata No.16" by Mozart

Excuse me, my lady.

DRUMMING

May I help you, gentlemen?

I was just looking for the kitchen door.

May I present myself and my compatriot?

We are travelling entertainers,

and we beg permission to display our skills

in the presence of the lady of the house.

I'm sorry to inform you, the lady of the house is out.

I must ask you to come back another time.

Penelope, where are you going?

Rosanna is late to dinner, I'm sent to fetch her in.

-She walks alone again?

-For her health, she says.

Though I would not go, for my health, where she's gone.

-To the sands.

-As ever,

to the Shivering Sands.

The tide is on the turn. Go back inside.

I'll get her in.

And ask Samuel to lock the doors behind me.

'So, Mr Franklin, I hurried to that forlorn and treacherous place,

'which the very birds of the air give a wide berth.

'not so, Rosanna Spearman.

'This was our poor housemaid's favourite walk.'

You're late for dinner, Rosanna.

Come, come, now, girl.

You have been given a miraculous opportunity in this house.

You must try to use it.

I do my work.

Your past is all sponged out.

Why can't you forget it?

Would that we could just wash away the past, sir.

I cleaned this lapel for you just yesterday,

with a new composition warranted to remove any spot.

The stain is taken off,

but the play shows, Mr Betteredge, the play shows.

It's sitting everlastingly in this

miserable place that's the problem, not my outfit.

What makes you like being here?

I try to keep away, but I can't.

Have you seen what the sand will do?

Have you thrown a stone out there

and watched the quicksand suck it down?

That's unwholesome talk.

Sometimes, Mr Betteredge...

..I think my grave waits for me here.

What awaits you

is roast mutton and suet pudding!

This is what comes of thinking on an empty stomach!

Betteredge?

Betteredge, is that you?

Well, you may not remember the boy I was,

but I'll wager you remember the debt I still owe you.

Seven and sixpence, Mr Franklin Blake,

and ten years' interest!

But who charges interest amongst friends?

THEY LAUGH

What have you got there?

His buttonhole...

sir.

-Keep it.

-Now, run along.

Your dinner will be cold!

Welcome back to the old place, Mr Franklin.

And all the more welcome that you're here, even before we expected you!

I have reason for that.

I travelled by today's, instead of tomorrow's train,

because I believed I was being followed.

By who?

By an Indian fellow, and I'd hoped to give him the slip.

Who would follow you, and why?

The why is easier than the who.

I'm come with my cousin Rachel's legacy from our uncle Herncastle,

to be given her on her 18th birthday.

Colonel Herncastle.

-What has he left Miss Rachel?

-This.

'That day on the beach last year,'

there is something I regret, sir.

There are many things I regret.

I did not tell you what I knew of Colonel Herncastle.

I did not wish to pass on idle talk, and he was not of your generation,

so you would not have known what he was.

-Which was?

-A hard man.

A cold man.

He and my lady were on poor terms.

She barred him from her house, her own brother.

But he forgave her.

He repented on his deathbed and left her daughter

a £20,000 diamond to prove it.

A diamond that he killed for.

That caused him to live out his days in fear of his life.

-A stone stained with blood and beset with a curse.

-What are you saying?

The reconciliation was a lie?

Looking back, I now believe the wicked colonel fully intended

to visit the curse on his sister,

by means of her only child.

And the Lord knows he succeeded.

Someone has learned of your charge, and its value.

You say your pursuer was Indian?

Mayhap he's linked to those entertainers

I've just sent away from our door.

There were Indians at the house?

-Mayhap it is but chance coincidence.

-Still...

..to the bank, Mr Franklin.

-Post haste!

-No, you are right.

Your receipt, sir.

Cousin Franklin!

Cousin Rachel.

We thought you had got lost. I was on my way to rescue you.

# Trees where you sit

# Shall crowd into a shaa...

# Aaaa-aaade

# Trees where you sit

# Shall crowd into

# A shade. #

APPLAUSE

The next is a duet.

Ah.

You do not sing?

Or play?

I can accompany you on the harmonica, nothing more.

You will find me sadly lacking in gentlemanly pursuits.

I do not shoot...

or fence...or fish.

I can barely swim.

But what of culture? You practise no art at all?

Had I the benefit of a continental education,

I would've profited more than that.

I practise art.

Oh?

Will that smell like this forever?

It will dry to be perfectly odourless, I assure you.

At least for now it overwhelms the tobacco.

My smoking offends you?

-Then I will stop.

-I would not make you.

You do not like it, I cast it out.

I'm finished with the surface preparations.

How very good.

Er, now, when we paint, this vehicle will fix the colour and then

we will decorate your door fit for the Sistine Chapel itself.

So what images will we paint?

Er...

..roses...

for a rose.

Not just flowers, surely?

I've brought a book of old prints with me from the Continent.

Old masters' moderns.

Take your pick.

-I'll do the side door, William, you get your rest.

-Yes, sir.

DOG BARKS

-Betteredge, wait.

-Oh.

Mr Franklin, I thought we had intruders.

What keeps you up so late?

I find I regret giving up tobacco, I pace half the night.

The things we do for love, hmm? Come, let's go inside, Mr Franklin.

-Penelope?

-Miss Rachel.

-Out there.

What is it?

PIANO PLAYS

-You are missing the primo part.

-You have other pastimes these days.

We will have time enough to play when Franklin goes.

Try not to rest all your hopes with Franklin, Rachel.

-What in him do you object to?

-He is not settled. He is not established.

-He is a better man for his travels.

-My lady. The post.

Better maybe, certainly poorer.

As you yourself said, "Franklin Blake is careless with money."

He assures me that his debts are paid.

Your cousin Godfrey writes to accept your invitation for him

to keep your birthday with us.

You liked Godfrey well enough when you invited him.

I like him still.

Shall I help you with that?

I am perfectly capable of wielding my own paintbrush.

I know it, I...I merely thought since I'm more familiar

with the male form...

I'm more than conversant with the masculine torso.

The day of your arrival is etched on my mind.

Oh, I did not realise I'd made such an impression.

CUPS CLATTER OUTSIDE DOOR

Begging your pardon, sir, the tea you asked for?

Ah, thank you.

You may go.

Let me help you clean that smudge off your face.

GONG RINGS

Happy birthday, Rachel.

The sun is smiling on you today.

I know, I've been out picking you a buttonhole.

I should be giving you presents, not the other way about.

You mean you have none?

Now no matter what happens, I will be close to your heart.

You do not need a locket for that.

Thank you, Franklin.

Tired still!

Go back to bed, we need you fresh for the party.

I cannot sleep now, and we have more painting to do.

Take some water.

The door is done, then?

Thank heavens.

In time for the guests to admire the decoration tonight.

Though, I pray not touch it.

It takes an age to dry as well as smelling.

Gentle folks have a very awkward rock in life.

The rock of their own idleness.

Their lives being passed in looking above them for something to do,

it is curious to see how often they take to torturing

something or to spoiling something.

Well, Mr Franklin and Miss Rachel torture nothing.

No, they simply confine themselves to making a mess and all they have

spoilt, to do them justice, is your dinner and the panelling of a door.

Well, Mr Franklin must away to Frizinghall

or the bank will be closed.

Samuel has sent me to tell you a visitor's here for Mr Blake.

FRANKLIN SPEAKS FRENCH

Mr Franklin! Are you going to fetch the diamond?

Hold off till we can get a guard.

If I wait another minute, the bank will have closed.

Then go by Dr Candy's at Frizinghall,

he's coming for the party.

Ask him to keep you company on the way home.

But may hap there's still men out there who await your opportunity.

I have no need of a nursemaid. We have seen neither hide or hair

-of anyone in weeks. Trust me, I will keep it safe.

-Mr Franklin...

SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

Er...

On the contrary I...I thought you had more integrity than

to eavesdrop on my private business.

You lied to me, Franklin. I told my mother your debts were settled.

I have the money. I have but to hand it over.

Which is the part that counts.

I cannot stomach a lie, Franklin.

-I have been nothing but honest with you.

-I do not intend to mislead you.

-I have to go.

-Would you ride away from me? Franklin.

-Cousin Godfrey!

-Cousin Rachel.

Felicitations on your natal day.

Cousin Franklin, I thought you still in France.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

Please, open it.

Oh, it's lovely.

Excuse me.

You're not leaving already, cousin? We have ten years to catch up on.

Er, Rachel, I do not want to leave in the middle of a quarrel.

Then don't go.

I'm delighted to have had you call for me, Mr Blake.

It's a lonely road without company.

-You're on edge, Mr Blake.

-Just tired.

Do you sleep poorly? A young man like you?

-I've recently given up smoking.

-Ah.

It will pass.

Come, Dr Candy, we can make better time than this.

Rosanna?

I couldn't finish my work this morning, I came back to complete it.

Well, you can leave it now.

Oh, wait.

Have you seen Miss Rachel?

I believe she's in the rose garden, sir, with Mr Godfrey.

I've been waiting for this moment for many a month.

-Godfrey...

-No, no, don't speak, not until you've heard me out.

If you only knew how happy it makes me to be here with you.

Dare I dream that your heart also sings when we meet?

-Cousin...

-Rachel...

-Will you honour me, will you bless me by being my wife?

-Cousins!

Forgive the interruption but, er, Rachel, I've been sent to tell you

your birthday guests have begun to arrive.

An explorer, how fascinating... Ah.

I, too, am an explorer, Mr Murthwaite, of the human body,

a man of science, not of geography.

Where or what do you explore?

I have spent much of my adult life travelling through India.

I'm fortunate indeed to be here to keep my goddaughter's 18th,

I've missed so many of the rest.

-You must find it very lonely.

-On the contrary, I find it most restful.

Oh, my dear Mr Godfrey, I was so hoping to see you here tonight.

Mm, Miss Clack.

You hardly seem yourself.

I have great news of the Mothers' Small Clothes Conversion Society

and the Sunday Sweethearts Supervision Society.

-Well, I cannot wait.

-Mm-hm.

-Another gift?

-Are you asking for this one back?

-No. Why? Do you wish to return it?

Mama, Franklin's being most mysterious.

-He says he has something to give me but you must be present.

-Very well.

-What here?

-Where else?

Well, I am but the courier of this present.

-It is left to you by our uncle, Colonel John Herncastle.

-Oh.

GONG RINGS

£20,000.

Well, think of the Christians that could profit

by small clothes for the price of this bauble.

Well, it's carbon, Miss Clack. Mere carbon, my good friend, after all.

-May I?

-Oh, of course.

Miss Rachel, in the interests of science,

-please donate me your diamond.

-To do what with?

-To burn it of course.

We will first heat it to a high degree then expose it to

a current of air, and, then, little by little, puff!

We evaporate the diamond and save you a world of anxiety

about the safekeeping of a valuable stone.

-I rather wish you were in earnest, Dr Candy.

-Oh, but I am.

I've had my fill of the diamond.

Let somebody who has not tried its magnetism feel the pull.

-Oh, Mr Franklin, I mustn't.

-Please, you must.

Oh. It's like the light of the harvest moon.

Resisting the draw of the tobacco, Mr Franklin?

Without its soothing influence, I'm astounded you sleep at all.

It is indeed exquisite.

If ever you accompany me to India, my dear, I think we'll leave

your uncle's gift at home.

With this in hand, I know a certain temple in a certain city

where your life would not be worth five minutes purchase.

Oh.

Well, I think Rachel can

rely on me to protect her in the future, Mr Murthwaite.

-Let me help you, sir.

-Help me with what?

You are out of sorts, sir. Your nerves are all out of order.

-What business is it of yours?

-Why, my daily business as a doctor.

You need to go through a course of medicine immediately.

A course of medicine and a course of groping in the dark

mean in my estimation one and the same thing.

Constitutionally speaking, Mr Franklin,

you yourself are groping in the dark for sleep

and nothing but medicine will help you to find it!

It is you, sir, making me tense, not smoking or otherwise.

Out of my way, man.

Ladies, gentlemen, if I may, would you all be upstanding

for the beautiful, fascinating Miss Rachel Verinder.

On this, the occasion of her 18th birthday.

Now, I know Rachel well. She and I have grown up together,

and I hope in due course to know her better which is to say...

..I very much hope Rachel will do me the honour of, er...

GASPING AND LAUGHTER

ALL: # For she's a jolly good fellow

# For she's a jolly good fellow

# For she's a jolly good fellow... #

Let us forget what has passed, Godfrey,

and let us be cousins still.

# For she's a jolly good fellow

# That nobody can deny! #

Thank you.

CHATTER

What do you see in there, Mr Murthwaite? Rachel's future?

I'm no clairvoyant, Mr Blake. I can see nothing,

but your future will be short, my dear, if you hold on to this gem.

What do you mean?

The moonstone is of inestimable value in India,

not financial, of course, but spiritual.

Its appointed guardians would move heaven and earth to reclaim it.

But this is England, Mr Murthwaite.

If a thousand lives stood between them

and the diamond and they thought

they could do it without discovery, the guardians would take them all.

INDIAN MUSIC STARTS OUTSIDE

What is that?

Rachel, no.

Oh, what devil is this?

Oh, dear Mr Godfrey, your Christian presence is of great relief to me.

Rachel, please.

-Miss Rachel.

-Leave me be.

Rachel.

MURTHWAITE SPEAKS IN URDU

What did you say to them? Why did they stop?

Rachel, perhaps you could play something for our guests?

Dr Candy, might I ask you a favour?

That cannot be chance.

The very same entertainers I saw three weeks ago.

Mr Betteredge, those three fellows are no more entertainers than you

or I. Unless after long experience I am utterly mistaken, those men are

high caste Brahmins, and from what you've told me about the moonstone

tonight, Mr Blake, I judge that you have had more narrow escapes of

your life than I've had of mine, and that is saying a very great deal.

They have seen the moonstone in Miss Verinder's hand, what is to be done?

They are its rightful owners - give it back to them.

I see, you think I've lost my mind?

The alternative -

send the diamond tomorrow to be cut up at Amsterdam,

make half a dozen diamonds of it, there is an end of the sacred

identity of the moonstone and there is an end of the conspiracy.

Then there is no hope for it,

we must speak to Lady Verinder first thing tomorrow.

What about tonight? Suppose those murderous devils come back?

Now they are found out?

No, they will not risk it.

But if you need reassurance, let the dogs loose.

Our canine friends have one great merit, Mr Betteredge.

They are not likely to be troubled with the same scruples

you have about the sanctity of human life.

Can I help you, doctor?

Lady Verinder has an attack of the migraines.

She seems unusually burdened this evening.

Hosting a party's a taxing business, Dr Candy.

Hopefully this will give her some relief.

-Thank you, Dr Candy.

-Are you quite well, Aunt?

That heathen parade outside gives me palpitations still.

I'm in perfect health, Drusilla, I assure you.

Well, perhaps it is time to take our leave.

A stirrup cup before you go, sirs?

Come, sir, we quarrelled earlier, let us not part in bad humour,

-I apologise if I gave offence.

-None taken.

Rachel, where shall we put your diamond tonight?

In my Indian cabinet, of course, so it may feel at home.

My dear, your cabinet has no lock to it.

Good heavens, Mama, is this an hotel?

Are there thieves in the house?

Your mother is right, it is of fantastic value,

it should be under lock and key. Let me look after it tonight

until we can take it for safekeeping tomorrow.

Who in this house is not our friend?

I will not insult our guests or staff by making them feel suspected.

It will stay with me.

Rachel, come to my room first thing tomorrow morning.

I shall have something to say to you.

Goodnight to you all.

I, er...

We are friends and cousins still, are we not, Godfrey?

Of course.

I would want nothing less.

You painted this?

We did.

Goodnight.

Our quarrel this morning...

I'm sorry, I just...

I didn't want you to think badly of me.

I'm sorry I misled you and I promise on my life I never will again.

Am I forgiven?

It is late.

Let us speak in the morning.

James is outside with the carriage.

Safe journeys, sirs.

-It is not we who are in danger, Betteredge.

-Er...

Fear not, the guardians will not return tonight,

I'd wager my reputation on it.

I sincerely hope you're right, Mr Murthwaite.

BETTEREDGE GASPS

I'll go around once again just for good measure.

And, Samuel, set the dogs loose.

'Fear of danger is 10,000 times

'more terrifying then danger itself when apparent to the eyes and

'we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the evil

'which we are anxious about.'

And did you find that to be the case

when you realised what had gone on that night?

Maybe not, sir.

Maybe not.

Help!

Penelope! Help! The moonstone, it's gone!

Out in the rose garden now is the very man whose help we need -

the great Cuff himself.

I have one remark on handing this case to you.

Rachel Verinder lost the moonstone, what did YOU lose?