Episode 3 The Secret Agent

England is in need of a jolly good scare.

Blow up the observatory?

I give you a month.

Can you supply a bomb?

I can supply a bomb. Will you explode it?

Tell Heat it's The Strand next.

'The Professor's on an omnibus.'

Get a message sent he's not to be approached!

Do you know what a secret is, Stevie?

Not even Winnie must know.

Despite what you said, we are a true family.

Could be father and son.

'Mr Michaelis is going to my cottage in Kent to write a book.'

Stevie!

We've got a job to do. This is a serious business we're doing here.

This new thing between them, I'm so hopeful about it.

Tell yourself that lie, but imagine more than just a day with me.

Who have you supplied?

Who have you supplied?!

-I'll go for you!

-Stevie!

-No!

-I'm a good boy.

-Stevie!

He's having the time of his life, Winnie. He's climbing trees.

What do we do about this Verloc?

In my opinion, offer him immunity from prosecution in exchange for

everything he can tell us.

Is there a body here?

It's not a body. It's just a mess.

You've no idea what's happened, have you?

'He said he was climbing trees, getting his trousers dirty.'

He said he was having fun.

Not all of it was blown to bits.

She knows.

She's waiting for you.

'EXPLOSION'

BELL TINKLES

I saw Heat leave.

I spoke to him, actually.

At least you know now.

About Stevie.

I'm sorry I kept it from you.

I didn't know how to...

You do see that, don't you?

But if...

..you let me explain...

Look...

Yes, I got Stevie involved, but I had to, Winnie.

I've had no choice in any of this.

I take payments from the Russian embassy.

I suppose I'm a spy, and...

They wanted an explosion, and if I didn't give it to them...

The way he was using me, Winnie.

Threatening me.

If I hadn't agreed to do it, what would have become of us all?

So...

I showed Stevie what I was doing, it's true.

He was never meant to be the one who actually planted it.

I meant the boy no harm.

And how could he just...

..come in here and blurt it out to you like that?

I've been sat in the pub for hours, just...

thinking of a way to tell you, and he just waltzes in.

You know what his problem is?

He thinks it's just information.

It's the policeman in him.

It's unforgivable.

No empathy at all.

'We have to go for Verloc.

'Not bargain with him, but detain him.'

Prosecution?

I put it to the Attorney General about making use of him.

Wasn't keen at all. Had had a word with the Foreign Secretary, if you ask me.

And their thinking?

Foreign spies on our soil immune from the rule of law?

We turn a blind eye, we just look blind. Or feeble.

So, we need to make an example of Verloc?

Yes. But, ultimately,

the only way is to make the employment of these spies

unpleasant to their employers.

Very well, Home Secretary, I shall...

..approach his employer.

If I'm taken away...

..you'll need your wits about you.

You need to start thinking about tomorrow.

So, you need to...

You can't sit here like this.

You could look at me, Winnie.

I knew you'd take it hard.

But you've got to see the whole picture.

And... there's still the two of us.

And...being like this...

well, it...it won't bring him back, will it?

What will?

-What?

-What will bring him back?

Nothing.

Did he scream?

He felt no pain.

I'm sure of it.

How do you know?

I'm not screaming.

I feel so trapped with it.

I thought it'd be an end to all our troubles, and it's ended up being nothing of the sort.

But this...

Well, they'll take me away, but...

..if you were to wait for me...

..and...and then shop to keep going while...

while I'm detained, we could pick up again.

I've been to prison before, it won't affect me.

It's safer in there than running away.

Please, Winnie.

Don't be a fool.

I kept calling Stevie back.

But he wouldn't listen to me.

He took it upon himself to carry the bomb.

Why did he have to be...

wilful like that?

-We are rather surprised that you've insisted on so immediate an appointment.

-We?

I don't think this appointment involves you being in the room, Privy Councillor.

I meant that you had more pressing engagements.

This bomb outrage, the safety of London.

That's exactly why I'm here.

Greenwich being a symptom, the cause perhaps here in Kensington.

We know that Verloc planted the bomb.

-Verloc?

-You know him.

You employ him.

What makes you say that?

I say nothing of the sort, my inspector says it.

He also makes use of him,

and uses your little secret as leverage against him.

Do you remember when you accused me of complacency,

accused every Government agency?

Well, you could say we've taken your advice.

An end to tolerance.

-And what do you intend to do with this Verloc, deport him?

-No.

We rather thought a prosecution would best demonstrate to the public

both the danger and the indecency.

You really think you'd induce a man like this to admit anything?

Absolutely, if he thought his punishment to be mitigated.

And, if not, we have a wealth of detail in any case.

We have a joint enemy. The anarchists, not each other.

We're well aware of the genuine article.

That's why we can't be distracted by shams like this.

And so you will prosecute Verloc?

I wonder how efficient the prosecution of the Professor

will make you look.

The public will be happy to know that we've foiled an outrage.

That a man with a bomb strapped to him was roaming the streets of London?

That bomb didn't go off.

Yours did.

Our arrangement...

..was always that you took no interest in my affairs.

That's how it's worked.

You always said things didn't bear much looking into.

In fact, Winnie...

..you looked the other way.

I made it easy.

-I made it easy for you to...

-You mustn't spend too long blaming yourself, Winnie.

What matters now is...

..how we go along together.

You've no idea what a bastard I've been dealing with.

What a jeering,

pitiless, dangerous bastard!

VERLOC: 'There isn't an anarchist plot in the last 11 years I haven't thwarted.

'The scores of revolutionaries that I've dispatched...'

I could be stabbed in the back at any time, he wouldn't give a damn.

If you want someone to blame, blame him.

I don't understand a word you're saying.

What's done can't be undone.

You know what you need?

Good cry.

Because you haven't.

It's not natural.

These things...

They have to come out.

Emotion, I mean.

Going for a rest?

Bit of peace and quiet, yeah, that...

That'll do you the world of good.

FOOTSTEPS AND DOOR CLOSING UPSTAIRS

'Calm me down, Winnie.'

STAIRCASE CREAKS

Flying off to your mother's?

No sense going now.

She'll have gone to bed by the time you get there.

This is the sort of news that can wait.

Tonight, your place is here with me, Winnie.

Just take off your hat and sit down.

I can't just let you go... wandering about outside.

I just can't have it.

And this veil...

I barely know who I'm talking to.

That's better.

Not that you're saying anything back to me, anyway.

Perhaps because you know it was you who kept shoving the boy in my direction.

What made you do it?

Look, this...this deaf-and-dumb act, it's gone too far.

At least his troubles are over now, whereas ours are just beginning.

We ought to start thinking about what we're going to do.

I can't have you galloping off to your mother

with some crazy tale or other about me. I won't have it.

I wish I'd never seen Greenwich Park.

"A nice walk."

Winnie...

"Imagine how good a few days in Kent would be for him."

-"Me and him in the countryside..."

-Let it lie now, Winnie.

No more trouble.

"Could be father and son."

No more.

Winnie...

Yes.

Come here.

(Murderess.)

You're here.

Only because I thought you would be.

Sit down with me.

I was on my way to you.

I thought so much about you,

since I read about the bombing.

I'm very sorry.

Will you help me?

No-one is more ready to help you in your trouble.

Do you know what my trouble is?

I couldn't be absolutely sure from the newspaper report,

but now you appear like this, I...

I understand exactly what happened.

What will I do?

Winnie, you...you are free now.

Truly.

I can't be.

No.

Unless...

people understand perhaps what happened.

Verloc brought about his own death when he...

He was a bastard to me.

Yes.

But not me, Winnie.

You'll take me away?

You will let me escape with you?

You have done so before?

-Run away?

-Yes.

We can run away together.

We can go anywhere.

Tom, there's some money.

-If we go...

-Verloc's money?

He kept it hidden away, you see.

The money's...at the shop, Tom.

All of it.

You deserve it. And we can make a life with it?

Yes.

You forgot to shut the door.

BELL TINKLES

Show me.

I've left the light on in the parlour.

The money's in there, on the shelf.

How can this be?

HE INHALES SHARPLY

Haven't you guessed what I was driven to do?

You will save me, Tom?

Please, don't let them hang me.

You did this thing all by yourself?

Yes.

Where's Stevie?

Blown to bits in Greenwich Park.

Verloc took him away and murdered him.

And then came back, like any other man would come back to his wife.

So, you just...stabbed him to death?

He was resting on the sofa after his supper.

Resting easy.

"Come here," he said to me...

..after he's killed my Stevie...my baby.

So I came all right.

What did he expect?

He took the heart out of me.

Please, Tom.

The money's in the box over there.

Don't throw me off now, Tom.

It's been years since I made an arrest.

-Good to get my feet out from under the desk.

-Sure.

This has to look conspicuous, Heat.

Show them how serious we are about it.

You had other plans for Verloc yesterday.

That was yesterday.

RAUCOUS VOICES BEHIND WALL

You will save me from the hangman?

If they find us, they'll say it's a conspiracy.

That I am your accomplice.

So you're wedded to me, whether you like it or not.

I'm very happy that our fates are to be bound together.

That we will be together.

Are you cold?

Not here.

Are you?

No.

This is...

A revenge attack? One of his own, perhaps?

I was thinking more in the way of a husband killed and a... missing wife.

Are we in the presence of a domestic drama?

And I'm supposed to go to the Home Secretary and...tell him, what,

that our foreign policy has been thwarted by...

a bloody carving knife?

Find her.

Do you suppose Verloc volunteered the part

he played in her brother's death?

Never.

Then, who did?

Find her.

Alert every constable on the beat. Get men at every train terminal.

I'll pay a visit to the mother.

Between us all, we should find her.

We did wish them more vigilant.

-Yes, not so much that they'd...

-Start a diplomatic incident?

If they get Verloc in that dock and make him talk,

the embarrassment that will cause our government. I will be recalled,

for God's sake!

Rather more than recalled, I fear.

Wurmt.

Wurmt!

-Verloc!

-First Secretary?

-Bring him here.

Bring him here, before the police take hold of him.

-I can summon him.

-No, no, we need to act now.

We need to get him smuggled out of the country as soon as possible.

Well, go! Take somebody with you.

I am merely a privy counsellor, First Secretary. Clerical.

The boat leaves Southampton at midnight.

-Will we be safe?

-Let's get to Paris first,

the best way we can.

Paris?

And then?

Wherever we can be left in peace.

BELL RINGS

I'll buy the tickets to Saint-Malo. Let's go separately.

We mustn't be seen together.

Stay out of sight.

Some trouble here?

What business would you have here, sir?

Oh, nothing but curiosity.

Someone killed?

The, er, shop owner?

Were you acquainted with him, sir?

Well, merely as a customer.

But if you asked me were I, erm...

He's dead? Murdered?

Well...this is some news, is it not?

As for myself, I shall thank God to be safely in my bed tonight.

I should never have left them.

SHE SOBS

I promise you, madam...

your son felt no pain.

But you cannot say the same for Winnie.

Two returns to Southampton, please.

Thank you.

Sir?

Your change, sir.

LONG WHISTLE

-Stevie!

-BOY CHUCKLES

SHE GASPS

Sir.

Poor woman could hardly speak.

But she feels if there was a man she may have formed

an association with, it would be Ossipon.

He was kind to Stevie.

Any clue from her mother as to where they may have run to?

Well, Winnie only knows London.

Ossipon's European.

Then France, sir?

Madam.

Ticket, please.

Thank you, madam.

SHE GASPS

Relatives in Southampton, ma'am?

Er, no.

So, what takes you there?

I'm going to get the... midnight boat from there.

-The midnight boat to Saint-Malo.

-Saint-Malo?

And unaccompanied?

That's quite an adventure, ma'am.

Yes. I'm joining my husband there.

What is your husband's business there?

He's an importer.

Wine and other things.

No luggage, ma'am?

-I intend to come back soon.

-Soon?

WHISTLE

Tomorrow, in fact.

My husband rents a cottage in Saint-Malo.

I have belongings there.

The Southampton-Malo train leaves at 10:30.

Portsmouth, ten minutes after that.

I'll board one train and you the other.

I have a return ticket to Southampton.

Have a good passage, ma'am.

Thank you.

All aboard! Last call for Southampton!

All aboard, please!

-Right, you check the Portsmouth train.

-Sir.

-Any couples boarding the Southampton train?

-Several.

-Anything about any of them in particular?

-Just one woman travelling without luggage, sir.

-Why didn't you detain her?

-She said she was joining her husband in Saint-Malo.

Best we sit in different compartments, until Southampton.

Yeah.

What's Saint-Malo like, Tom?

Intra-Muros.

A citadel - a walled city.

-And everyone's safe within?

-That was always the plan.

Good.

TRAIN WHISTLE SOUNDS

'Look, Winnie, the circles!

'Look at the circles, Winnie! Ah, they're wonderful.

'That was wonderful!'

What's wrong?

We're getting off at the next stop.

Tell him, Winnie.

Tell him!

It was me.

It was all me.

-I put a knife in him and then I went to seek Tom.

-I wasn't even there.

And you think you can escape this? You harboured her.

And here you are now, engineering her escape.

And what's your role in this offence, Inspector?

You provoked her.

-I had to tell her.

-She killed Verloc soon after your visit!

-Yes, SHE killed Verloc!

-You delivered him! You...

..gave her the motivation.

Sit down!

-I'm a policeman.

-And Verloc had made a fool of you.

I wanted Verloc hung, not murdered.

And now you will organise our deaths, too.

Will that be justice for you?

You saw Stevie's body.

You went through what was left of him.

Please, let me go.

The law can't punish me any more.

Have pity, for God's sake.

I had his...supper ready...

..as I always did.

I had the knife...laid out for him, as it always was.

TRAIN COMES TO A HALT

Be careful.

-DISTANT SHOUT:

-All aboard! Southampton train!

He's...

He's let us go.

He's going to overlook the crime.

He doesn't wish our punishment for it.

Does this mean they'll stop looking for us altogether?

It means Heat has compromised himself.

It means that they can't...

My God...

Could you imagine how it would look if they tried to prosecute us in the future?

The embarrassment his merciful judgment would cause them?

They'd have to think twice.

We wouldn't even have to defend ourselves.

But we can't go back.

No, of course not.

Anyway, it doesn't matter, does it?

Because we don't need to go back.

We're going to cross that channel and never look back.

Never.

You can show us where to run.

You know how to keep the world at bay.

On neither train?

No, sir.

We had such a case within our grasp.

Verloc.

A foreign conspiracy to undermine our morale, our law.

A political cause celebre taken away.

Now, the only way to be political about it is to say it wasn't political at all -

to say we don't have that kind of violence here.

There's still the Professor, sir.

Just put it out that we're still looking for her.

The berserk wife of the man

who ran the questionable little shop on Brett Street.

As for the Professor, I've got a different plan.

And Ossipon?

A domestic drama, Chief Inspector.

Did you let them go?

Your sense of natural justice getting the better of the law?

Pragmatism taking over?

I don't think I'm that kind of policeman, sir.

HE CHUCKLES

Am I such a scourge as that?

Well, I will not be alone!

Others will see what I have done, and they will follow suit!

-MAN:

-Packet to Saint-Malo! Packet to Saint-Malo!

I'll go and buy the tickets for the crossing then meet you by the ferry.

Winnie, we have to be on our guard.

We have to know exactly what we're doing.

And to know exactly what you want.

I know what I want.

One ticket for Saint-Malo, please.

Thanks.

You're appearing in court first thing tomorrow.

The man who had to be stopped from performing a catastrophic act.

And how our brave policemen managed that.

No.

The state prefers to pretend that you were no threat at all.

Instead of conspiracy to endanger life, you'll face a lesser charge -

possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.

What?!

What are you talking about?!

You, and the whole Verloc affair, are to be completely smothered.

Get off!

-Get in.

-Hey!

You're not playing the game, Inspector!

-Heat!

-DOOR SLAMS

You call me a pest?

YOU'RE the pest!

I'll not be insignificant!

I will not be nothing!

SEA BIRDS CRY

Thank you.

Tom!

Tom!

TOM!

Tom!

Excuse me. Please, will you... Tom!

Please, don't leave me!

Tom!

Tom, I'm begging you!

I'm begging you, Tom!

Tom!

Are you going by the boat, ma'am?

This way, ma'am.

Take me to Soho!

Take me to a bar.

In this time of turmoil...

..I wish to introduce a young man who, since his own troubled past,

has learned to be at peace with himself.

He will give a reading tonight

of what he has been putting his mind to.

The future.

Are the hopeful...

always to be crushed...

by those who do not have the courage of that virtue?

Do the strong simply entrench their strength in society

at the expense of the weak?

Are the imprisoned always to wait for their release

and their forgiveness?

Is society simply a version...

..of that brutal prison I spent my last 15 years in?

Do those in chains simply await the end of their sentence -

their far-from-glorious deliverance?

(Circles...)

(Circles...)

Or is there a better institution that we can be founded on?

Where justice will open up its loving arms to the innocent.

Where the strong will help the weak.

None abandoned or forgotten.

Pity and compassion prevailing.

A world of welfare, improvement,

and rehabilitation for all.

Good health...

..true happiness...

..and a good life.

CHATTER

(Ossipon.)

GATE SLAMS

You think you can do this, the art of pretence?

IN RUSSIAN:

All went well?

He believes me.

Well, you're a very believable fella.

The Home Secretary told the Milan Conference

that the British were fully in control of any anarchist threat,

and no draconian clamp-down was necessary.

"British values," he stated,

"must be protected from foreign interference."

Very good, sir.

And how are things at your end?

Very good, sir.

This belonged to Winnie.

What happened?