Episode 5 The Village

This programme contains some scenes

which some viewers may find upsetting.

John...

John, can you hear me?

John...

John.

Mother.

His legs, keep them still.

Keep them still.

John...

John, sh, sh, sh.

JOHN MOANS

DOOR OPENS

Is he breathing?

Yes, I think so.

Let me see.

He needs to be more comfortable.

Let's get him upstairs.

What was he hit with?

Did you see?

It was a gun. It was the butt of a gun.

SHE SOBS

Grace, Mary.

Warm water, please.

What's the hot water for?

To get the women downstairs.

She's strong - my mother.

I'll set him up with a drip.

There are 100 reasons why he needs to be in a hospital.

But?

The journey would kill him.

Let's hope he'll still be with us tomorrow.

JOHN FITS

It's all right, John.

Sh, sh, sh.

John. I'm here, it's all right.

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

I can't...can't remember.

Hmm?

I can't get it in my head what happened.

I'll help you.

Lovely boy.

I'm sorry.

Is Daddy going to die?

Don't worry, he's fighting. He's a fighter.

You were there - the reporter on the scene.

I'm not a reporter, I'm a diarist.

-What's the name you write under?

-Countryman.

No, you're right.

What?

The diarist with his love of Cabbage Whites and English hedgerow,

suddenly in amongst a gang of professional agitators with

violent intent.

It's the newspaperman's job to tell both sides of the story.

Oh, yes. Journalistic objectivity.

Two men went to mow a meadow.

When they came back, the first man told the journalist

the meadow had been beautifully mown,

but the second man said not a blade of grass had been cut.

But the journalist reported both sides of the story.

I don't understand what that means, it's...

Go and look at the sodding meadow.

-I won't do this!

-Won't do what?

I won't be pushed into doing what you want.

This was found. By one of the gamekeepers.

What is it?

This wasn't a ramble, George. This wasn't about the right to picnic.

These were men looking for a fight.

Why? Because they want to overturn everything we believe in.

Karl Marx had a donkey. Did you know?

A man with a beard who rode his humble donkey

all over Hampstead Heath.

Who did he think he was?!

The next Messiah?!

George has an article to write.

If you swear like that once more in my presence I'll send you

back to Bradford where you belong without so much as a...

by your leave.

Bradford(!)

We need a backup plan.

Hey!

Were you in The Lamb the night before the trespass?

Um, yes.

Who with?

-Gilbert.

-Hankin?

-Why are you asking me this?

-And that teacher fella?

What are you doing about the gamekeepers...

Was the teacher in The Lamb?

What's his name?

-You know his name.

-I want it from you.

My father is upstairs with his head busted open

from the gamekeepers at the Big House.

What are you doing about that?

Let me show you something.

His blood!

-His piss!

-Steady.

Steady? Steady?!

With your bloody language, son.

Get out.

What did you say?

You heard me.

Name?

My name is Grace Middleton and you will leave my house now!

You want to wash this table, Mrs Middleton.

You did this.

You and the bastards you look after at the Big House

did this to my father.

This isn't over.

When I was a boy,

our neighbour...

Jack Laidlaw, his name was,

he went blind. And, er...

..he gave me the only book that he had.

It was about Stanley, the explorer.

Doctor Livingstone, I presume?

I was so worried about you.

Hats off, hats off.

What have I told you? Come on, seats, sit down.

Were you in The Lamb on the Friday before the trespass?

We have people saying you were.

-Who?

-Bert Middleton.

They didn't even ask me if I'd seen who did it.

Well, did you? See it?

He came in from the side.

It was fast but... Father should have seen him coming.

He didn't even...

He was just staring.

What were he staring at?

Margaret.

My Henry's here.

What, under your skirt?

No, he's in the field with three of his pals, milking the cows.

They'll keep doing it for as long as you need them to.

-Margaret...

-I'll show 'em job.

-Straight upstairs?

-Yes.

He's still in The Lamb, you know? Bill Gibby.

He's hasn't run off like most politicians would.

And have the police been to see him?

I don't know. Why?

Oh, they'll have him marked out as the leader, won't they?

Him or you, Grace, from what I hear.

John will set it all straight when he wakes up.

We've just got to hope and pray his memory's still there.

THUMPING

MOANING

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

These fits are dangerous.

He's having too many of them and we have to stop them.

What if he dies without Bert and Mary being here to say goodbye?

If we're going to do this, we're going to have to be quick about it.

I want you to hold his head...

very, very still.

-Will he feel anything?

-We don't think so.

-But you don't know?

-This has to happen, Grace.

-Are you all right?

-Hmm-mm.

-Very still.

-Hmm.

SHE COUGHS

SHE WINCES

The pressure on the brain's making him have the fits.

This will relieve the pressure.

SHE RETCHES

Very still, Grace.

Can you hear me?

John...

John, can you hear me?

It was... an almost impossible journey.

Tsetse fly,

malaria, cholera, the heat, the water.

I have marked on the map the route that he took.

Bagamoyo, Kingaru,

Kikoka,

Kisemo...

..er, Mahata...

HE COUGHS

..Usagaro, Ugogoya.

I'd go anywhere and do anything to be with you.

I'm going to talk to George.

-Martha...

-This will be hard - very, very hard.

But...

..when it's over, we can begin a straightforward life.

I've tried to be good when I should have been honest.

I'll be here.

Be gentle.

What does he say?

He says he'll be a witness if the police prosecute Bert.

So he saw, then?

That's good, Grace.

Is that all, in the letter?

What's that?

Oh, a letter, from Bill Gibby, pledging his support.

He'll be hoping Father dies.

Then he'll have a martyr to make history out of.

John Middleton and the Allingham Trespass,

Gibby, the champion of the martyred poor...

He's not like that.

How do you know?

What is he like?

He's passionate.

And he's happiest when he's communicating that passion.

And I've had the benefit of that...

..and I'll always be grateful to him for...

for lifting my gaze, Margaret.

"Take a look at the world," he said.

"You don't have to look downwards just because you're poor

"or because you're a woman."

We should change his dressing.

"Communists and firebrands bussed in from Sheffield

"and Manchester to lead a violent and unlawful..."

I'm doing what the family requires of me.

HE EXHALES

Mary.

I know how to make yourself feel better.

-I used to do it a lot.

-How?

SHE SCREAMS

Your turn.

SHE SCREAMS

One more - together. Ready?

THEY SCREAM

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

The man with the map!

I taught his son. We've become friends, actually.

Bert is...

Were you in The Lamb the Friday before the trespass?

Um... Yes.

Have you been up to the farm?

How is he?

Have you got a map of Allingham land?

No.

What's this?

This one of yours, map man?

Yes.

Did you mark these public footpaths?

Yes.

Not many, are there?

No.

Can I be honest with you?

It's a scandal.

Makes your blood boil.

"It's a scandal, to be, honest, that there

"are so few paths for public use on Allingham land.

"It makes my blood boil."

Your mother died, didn't she?

Yes, she did, when I was your age.

Is my father going to die?

Probably.

He might survive, because he's strong and cussed.

But... it's more likely that he'll die.

Is it always better to tell the truth?

It can be painful, but, yes.

I saw Mr Eyre and Mrs Allingham.

Mary?

I didn't like it.

Wh... What were they doing?

It was like they were kissing without actually kissing.

What shall I do?

Give it to me to worry about.

I'll have it. You've enough on your plate.

SHE KISSES HER

Back to your witness statement.

The Lamb, the Friday before the trespass?

"Three men spoke to the minister with the map.

"I know the three men to be..."

Bert Middleton, Gerard Eyre, Gilbert Hankin.

What did the map show?

Allingham land.

So I'd be wrong to think that that's what they were talking about?

"They were talking about Allingham land

"whilst looking at the map."

I want to try and tell you about what I saw.

And I mean the fighting. Our gamekeepers...

My job has always been very clear to me - get the truth.

That's it. Which is why I want the best evidence.

Right.

You're a bloody hero! And you've suffered for it!

You witnessed four years of horror and you witnessed yesterday

when those people fought your gamekeepers.

You were there in the woods, but your mind - in no man's land.

You'd lost control. Am I right?

You can't help me with the truth about who fought who.

The truth is too precious to risk obscuring with doubtful evidence.

I won't have it. But in The Lamb?

You with a drink, hearing what those other men were saying?

That's solid ground. That's proper truth.

Sign here.

No.

You take your time. I'll leave it with you.

HE WHIMPERS

Go on, Mary.

You were on your way to Liverpool.

Were you running towards something or away from something?

Would you have stopped in Liverpool?

America?

So, running away, then.

From what, Bert?

How were you going to afford it?

He... He gave me money.

He's like a brother to me.

Mr Eyre.

You can be happy here, Bert.

This farm can be everything you're after.

SHE SCREAMS

SHE SOBS

You've spoken to all the individuals involved?

We're not in a position to look at specific violence.

-We'll come down hard elsewhere.

-Elsewhere?

Thought.

I beg your pardon?

Three or more people with a common purpose or an intent to help

one another by force

if necessary against any person who may oppose them.

And what's that?

It's what these thugs thought. Also known as a riot.

What about John Middleton?

Drunk, wife beater, embittered, defeated...

All your gamekeepers are saying that he looked like a man possessed.

There's a history of moral hysteria in his family.

-God knows what he would have done...

-Thank you, Sergeant.

You two know each other?

It's been a few years, but, yes.

You know this could define my political life?

What are you frightened of?

The left love a victim, and when they get one

they make one hell of a story out of it.

Which is why I've taken control of the story.

Ours will be out first, the first story usually wins.

-And Hankin?

-Oh, he'll be fine.

Look, this goes to the Assizes, we'll get a jury.

You can't influence a jury.

But a magistrate, there's room for manoeuvre.

And what will they get?

They'll go to prison.

How was George?

He didn't sign his witness statement. But he will.

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

Where have you been?

The village.

George is a man of real integrity - he takes the world

and his place in it very seriously.

And now he's being tested. One would have thought that the

one person to see that and to be alongside him would be his wife.

How's your dad?

The police have been asking me questions.

What, you too?

Beer?

Beer.

Margaret, your Henry can't be here forever.

-And you've got...

-Sh, you'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?

There you are, then.

What did Bill Gibby say?

I haven't spoken to him.

Well, why not? He can help.

He offered, didn't he?

Mary, you come home with us, love.

Phoebe, you sit with John so that Grace can go and see our Gibby.

Well, come on, then, what you waiting for?

I looked into it. Rout and Riot.

That's what it'll be if we're put on trial.

And?

Prison, if we're found guilty.

What's it like? Prison?

It'd be the end of the farm.

Agnes and Sophie, I don't know what they'd do.

Your whole class would get a long holiday.

Or months and months of Martha Allingham.

DOOR OPENS

You're still here.

Yes.

Why?

-I wanted to see you.

-Why?

I feel responsible for what happened.

So do I.

How is he?

Is he speaking?

Will he speak?

We don't know.

-So when there's a trial...

-They've spun it around.

They're now calling it a riot and saying that my son's a rioter.

But there'll be no trial for the gamekeeper who tried to

murder my husband.

-Did John...?

-Yes. He saw.

He looked at me...

and he looked at you...

and he knew.

I don't want you hurt.

Whatever happens, I can't have that.

You mean it'd be bad for your political career.

I'm in love with you.

I won't let anyone hurt you.

You?

-I just want...

-Grace. You've come to see me.

You've come this far.

Answer my question.

I came for your help. I need your help.

You don't love me?

Don't make me say it.

HEAVY BREATHING

SHE WINCES

Margaret!

It's John, he's got worse, where's Grace?

In The Lamb!

Got to go.

How can I help you?

I would like a packet of crisps

and a word with our distinguished Magistrate.

Oh, let me help you, Mr Bairstow.

We're hoping the trespass case will go to trial.

I can't preside over any hearing if my son is in the dock.

Obviously.

Obviously.

I'm meeting Sergeant Westlake this afternoon.

He's making his mind up who to arrest, who to charge.

I'll let him know your position.

Now, what are we to make of that?

I know exactly what to make of that!

What do we do? Phoebe?

FRANTIC FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

SHE PANTS

Paul told me when he was home on leave that last time that...

when they bought the wounded in that had been out in no man's land

for a time... it was always the ones that had

maggots in their wounds that survived.

I'm so sorry, George.

Martha?

I'm so sorry.

It will not happen.

SHE PANTS

I've just married one son off.

I'm not having the other one un-marry!

Divorce is...

Don't say it, Edmund. Do not say that word.

Leaving my son for the village teacher!

Where is she?

Perhaps it's best if Harry spoke to Martha.

She's good on bad behaviour.

Let me make one thing very clear.

George will not agree to this. She will not have what she wants.

Mother.

We're finding out we're made of, Edmund.

Mother says that the world will end if you don't save us.

Divorce!

Eyre will be tried, he'll be convicted

and he'll be in Strangeways Prison before he can say "right to roam".

Martha will have a good long stretch to get over him

and return to the fold.

Hold our collective nerve?

And all will be well.

DOOR OPENS

Oh, here he is.

Hello, darling.

The key to it all -

a prosecution witness who just so happens to be a war hero

and a gentleman.

You left it in the desk drawer.

Sorry?

Your witness statement - for signing.

Mother?

I think that we should thank Mr Bairstow for everything

he's doing for our family.

And...

there were women.

Mary Heys, trampled to death by cavalry,

Sarah Jones, of repeated truncheon blows to the head

by Special Constables.

Will you excuse me, children? I have to go now.

I am going to leave you in very good hands.

All lessons will continue as usual.

You have...nothing to worry about.

The fourth victim, Margaret Downes,

died from a stab wound to the chest.

Sir.

Madam.

I've come to inform you that you're no longer

a suspect in our enquiries,

so please, feel free to carry on as normal.

The question I ask myself is, what's wrong wi' me?

Spit it out.

That's what your mother were doing, last time I saw her in The Lamb.

We all know what a useless man your father is.

That's why I offered her a piece of my pie.

What are you doing?!

Stop it now! Stop it now! Get off!

Both of you, stop! Stop!

What are you doing?!

What were you doing, more like?

No!

GIRL SCREAMS

Oh, no.

No...

I'm glad it's you.

If it had to be someone in here with me, I'm ...

..I'm glad it's you.

You knew Bert was going to Liverpool

and you didn't try to stop him from leaving?

No.

You?

No.

I love him.

And you'd let him go?

Yes.

For love?

When John and I were first married,

he wanted everything to be right for me.

There was a gate that used to swing shut on you and it hit me

once and I had a bruise for a day or two.

John found a round stone and he...

he worked it with another stone like a pestle and mortar so the first

stone had a hole in it. It was to stand the gate in when he opened it.

He made me come and look at it when it he'd finished.

He wanted me to try the gate in the hole that he'd made.

It was his way of telling me that he loved me.

But it was cold and it was raining, so I went inside.

I should have listened better.

I should have had the patience to hear what he was saying.

You still can.

You've an old head on young shoulders, Phoebe Rundle.

Is there nothing goes by you?

How do maggots help an infected wound get better?

They eat dead tissue, and the wound, we hope...

..heals.

The innocent party

has to want the divorce. And I'm not sure he does.

And then there's evidence of adultery. That's the only grounds.

Isn't it enough that...

Sex is the only thing the divorce courts are interested in.

Even if George was in favour, there has to be actual evidence.

So the question is -

are you prepared to be caught at it,

in a desperate hotel room by a desperate detective?

Is that a price worth paying?

This was a riot.

These men were intent on manufacturing public disorder

of the most terrifying and violent character.

With subtle malice, they conspired to enter your minds that day,

they sought to undermine your decency

and they visited the hysteria of discord upon this village.

Now, this trial is not about who got injured,

who struck which blow when and why.

It is about bad men with evil intentions.

What is riot?

It requires three or more men - there were dozens that day.

A common purpose - the trespass on Allingham land.

Intent to help one another by force against any person

who may oppose them in pursuit of the common purpose.

And there's the key.

Did Bert Middleton and Gerard Eyre plan to use force

when gamekeepers employed by the Allingham estate did their duty

and stood in the way of an unlawful trespass?

We will rely on the evidence of a decorated war hero

and a gentleman of the highest order

to establish that the answer to that question...

..has to be "yes".

Were you in The Lamb the Friday before the trespass?

Yes, I was.

There are those who'd be surprised to hear that a man of your status

frequented such an establishment.

I spent three years in the trenches.

And The Lamb serves good beer.

MUTED LAUGHTER

Who did you see in The Lamb that night?

Robin Lane.

The minister...

..my father-in-law.

And, er, the defendants.

They were looking at a map of Allingham land.

Did you hear what they said?

My father-in-law wanted to talk about how best

to get onto Allingham land without being seen doing it.

The defendants, they were arguing for a more direct approach.

They wanted a confrontation, you see.

Thank you so much.

Mr Eyre?

You're a "war hero".

I fought.

I was there.

And you suffered for it.

I have bad dreams, yes.

It's, er...

it has an effect on your life.

On the way that you see things,

on the way that you judge what you see...

Get to the point, Mr Eyre.

There were shots fired, weren't there?

On the day.

How did that make you feel?

I-I can't...

..loud noises make me...

You can't be relied on to give an accurate account

of who was doing what, because you were terrified.

Completely irrelevant.

The defendant hasn't listened.

Mr Rose?

This court doesn't have to decide

who was the aggressor and who wasn't.

The law says you are guilty of riot if you intend to use force.

The witness has told us about the defendants' intentions.

That is the end of it.

-That isn't fair.

-It's the law.

MURMURING

Any other questions, either of you?

Thank you, Mr Allingham. You may go.

Yes.

A coward.

A conchy.

Are you asking me a question?

Because I don't recognise either of those terms.

You're a man of principle, Mr Eyre? Is that better?

-Yes.

-Someone who puts the wellbeing of others before himself?

I try to, yes.

But you're also a liar.

The map, Mr Eyre.

You lied about it to Sergeant Westlake.

Yes...

Twice.

You said there was no map - first lie.

Then when the constable found it in your classroom,

you said it was yours.

It wasn't, was it?

No. The map belonged to the minister.

Do you lie to the children you teach?

-No.

-So...

..why does a man of principle suddenly tell so many lies

in such a short space of time to the policemen?

No?

I think I know.

Because the map is evidence of criminal intent,

because it shows planning and forethought,

because it establishes common purpose

and because it makes you guilty of riot.

Then why would I want to claim it as my own?

Because your first instinct is to protect others.

You knew it would incriminate Robin Lane.

Now, if the map were not something to hide,

you'd have told the constable whose it was,

who made the markings on it.

Martha?

DOOR SLAMS

You're a man of violence.

No.

Do you want to think about that answer?

Only when there's good reason.

What was the reason for fighting Alf Rutter?

Who threw the first punch?

-I did.

-Why?

In the absence of an explanation,

we'll have to see it as unprovoked violence.

And the attack on Sergeant Westlake?

-That was provoked.

-By?

-Him!

Bastard just wanted to see everything his way,

which is the same as theirs.

-Er, whose way?

-The Big House.

They're all in it together.

Allinghams, gamekeepers, police, you.

I'm sorry, is this what one might call a rant?

I just see things as I see them.

The uncomplicated farm boy.

-Did you meet any political activists before the trespass?

-No.

Did anyone in your family

meet with political activists before the trespass?

-Yes.

-Who?

-My mother.

-Who did she meet?

-Bill Gibby.

-How often?

I don't know what you're trying to say.

Nor do I.

Now you, you tell me what you think I'm "trying to say".

Did they meet more than once?

-Yes.

-Where?

-I don't know.

Why not? Were they secret meetings?

What about the last time they met?

Let's, let's just concentrate on that.

Might be worth remembering you're on oath.

Upstairs at The Lamb.

Just the two of them?

-Did you talk to her about it?

-No.

Let me ask you again.

-Why were you fighting Alf Rutter?

-I don't know!

As I was saying...

..you're a man of violence, Bert Middleton.

MURMURING

DOOR CLOSES

KNOCK AT DOOR Sir?

I'm going to set you up for life, Polly.

I don't understand.

In exchange, I need you to do something for me.

Thank you, darling. I'm proud of you.

The whole family is very proud of you.

Hear, hear.

An exemplary performance. Hand tremors particularly moving.

Just Bill Gibby to deal with next, and then we're home and dry.

Mm, but he is very impressive.

Yes, but very cross-examinable.

What Norma Hankin gossips about won't stand up in court.

It's not gossip.

What?

Gibby stays upstairs in The Lamb when he's in the village

and Grace Middleton goes to visit him.

Alone, at night.

How do you know?

Alf Rutter, Peter the landlord.

Me.

He's arriving this evening.

Ready for his big moment in court tomorrow,

he'll be having a big moment with the defendant's mother first.

-Tonight?

-Mmm.

An adulterer, Mr Hankin.

Can I confirm with you

your magistrate's understanding of such a man?

Dishonest, depraved, and, of course,

completely unreliable as a witness in a court of law.

LAUGHTER FROM WITHIN

Good evening, Mr Gibby.

The "gentleman of the highest order"

upon whom the prosecution rely

for all the evidence they bring in this case...

..is not a gentleman and cannot be relied on.

I know this to be true.

I've seen it for myself.

His evidence therefore cannot be taken as credible.

It is my duty, therefore,

to tell you both

that you are innocent.

GASPS AND APPLAUSE

And that you will leave here free men,

unstained by criminal conviction or by any slurs on your character.

George. I don't understand.

You're free.

I'm the guilty party.

You can divorce me.

And Mr Eyre, he's free too.

I hope you make him as happy as I know that you've tried to make me.

DOOR OPENS

I want you to know that I love you.

Before I t...

..before I tell you...

..that you've killed me.

SHE SOBS

DOOR SLAMS

SHE SOBS

Oh, George!

George...