The Sea of Trees White Heat

After the drugs charge, he lost his candidacy.

-What do you want us to do?

-Help us detox him.

It's like a light's gone out. The only pregnancy I'll ever have.

I told myself hit-and-run sex is where it's at.

No ties or trauma. Maybe it's just another place to hide.

Some kind of fire safe, look. I can't find a key for it.

-Do we know what's in it?

-Must be important. Else why have a safe?

-Jack! Stop it!

-I just want out!

I'm pregnant.

Our mercy mission with Jack.

Oh no, not Jack. Does Victor know?

-If I tell Victor, I'll lose him.

-Tell him it's someone else's.

-Someone you work with?

-It could still be yours.

-There's no way of knowing until...

-Until we see what colour it is?

-Is this it for us, Victor?

-Tell me, does it make it easier?

Punishing me rather of yourself?

If so, knock yourself out.

This programme contains some strong language

Skip or...?

Charity.

I've dibs on that.

We can scan it - make copies.

Good plan.

What do you want done with these?

Sally Army, I guess.

Lilly said...

..that your marriage didn't work out.

I'm really sorry to hear that.

My heart wasn't in it.

She knew it.

'So much for quitting.'

'January first, I said.'

'Yeah.'

Put that to music, I'll hum it.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Alan Harper.

Hello, pet. How are you?

Orla.

Right, well, I'll square it with Lil and get back to you.

No, I will today, don't worry.

OK. All right, then. Ta-ra.

The get-together before the flat's sold is this weekend.

Will Charlotte be there?

Yeah.

And Victor.

You're up for it, aren't you?

Seeing everyone?

Why not? Oi.

Oi!

One scratch on that,

I'll hunt you down! Go on.

Something's different.

Mmm.

The scar from the bomb, I had it seen to.

Plastic surgery?

And you used to blather how your looks were a curse, not a blessing.

We need to talk about something, Mum.

Dad?

A word?

You know they brought in that thing about buying council houses?

How you said you'd be six foot under before that day ever dawned for you?

That day is here.

I rang a local estate agent, got a few valuations out of them.

It's too much. We can't.

No, no, look. We made a packet selling our own place

and Lilly's business has taken off like a bloody Exocet.

I've got a few irons in the fire, as it were, so...

you know, "bosh bosh," as Mr Enfield would say.

It's not like we've got children to share it with, is it?

Appreciated. Thank you.

-Hey, come here.

-Thank you.

It's bollocks what they say, isn't it?

"Money can't buy you happiness."

Woo!

'Here west was meeting east in one huge whoop of joy.'

CHEERING, APPLAUSE

More narration here.

"Few commentators predicted such seismic change

"would spread through Europe." And dig out the Thatcher piece

-on how a single Germany will distort the power balance.

-PHONE RINGS

Charlotte Pugh?

'Hello, Miss Pugh.'

Hello.

Listen. Orla called. The farewell do for the flat is this weekend.

We'll need to sort childcare for Emma.

'Why don't we take her with us?'

'We haven't seen anyone since the move up north.'

She can finally meet everyone.

'She'll be bored silly.'

She can stay with a friend. I'll make some calls. See you later.

GENERAL CHATTER

I'll get back to you.

Any joy?

Oh, I'm the man of the moment. They're bloody queuing up.

What have we got?

A no from Denis Healey.

And Roy Hattersley says he has no vacancies for an SDP refugee.

Unforgiving bloody bunch.

You want me to try Gordon Brown? See if he's an opening?

I'd as soon have root canal.

You've got a visitor.

She said you were expecting her.

Copies of the bills you were after.

Rates, utilities, and the tenancy agreement.

You are coming this weekend, Jack? It's important we're all there.

Do the others know yet?

-I said it's a get-together to say goodbye to the flat.

-And Jay?

The same.

If he won't listen to you, why would he to us?

Because we're the closest thing to a family he's got.

If enough of us say the same thing, he has to listen.

He won't thank you for ambushing him.

I'll not sit by and do nothing

while he does a kamikaze on his entire life!

Jack!

I'll let you get on.

Will you and he look for somewhere together or...?

If he's still speaking to me after the weekend.

Things as they are now...

I had no choice but to sell, Orla.

I have to move on.

'I no longer believe it possible

'to resolve that conflict from within this Government.

'That is why I have resigned.'

KNOCK AT THE DOOR

'In doing so...'

Do you have any washing that needs doing?

Oh, yeah.

One second.

Off out tonight?

-Yeah.

-..'the conflict of loyalties with which I have myself wrestled

-'for perhaps too long.'

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks.

Not too late, Jay.

They're getting here before lunch tomorrow, remember.

Oi.

Sleeping beauty.

LAUGHTER

Stop it!

LAUGHTER CONTINUES

Oh, God!

It's heavy.

PHONE RINGS

Hello?

Ah.

We're all here,

except for you. See you then.

Stuck in traffic.

'What's with the facial hair, Alan?'

'He's going through a Tom Selleck phase.'

'Who says it was a phase?'

Cheers, everyone!

ALL: Cheers!

Is Victor not joining us, Charlie?

He's dropping Emma off at her cousins in Clapham.

Pity. I was looking forward to meeting her finally.

Seven years now, Charlie?

Eight, surely.

Orla told me about your mother.

How it was you who found her.

So,

now the SDP's folded, what's next? Throw your lot in with Labour again?

There'll be snowploughs in Hell

before Kinnock lets us lot back in the fold.

He blames us for his humiliation at the polls. By splitting the vote

we let Thatcher back in.

What exactly does a Special Adviser do?

They're the ghosts in the political machine, Jay.

The power behind the throne.

Or the fall guy when things go down the pan.

Charlotte, how's life in the North?

Still keeping coal in t'bath, are they?

They have to keep it somewhere.

We're still waiting on our invite.

Join the club.

Oh, give the poor bitch a break.

Oh, I caught your credit on the box again the other night.

Felt absurdly...

proud of you, actually.

And motherhood?

How's that been?

Best thing that's ever happened to me.

Bar none.

And you?

What's with you on the home front?

-Well, as it happens...

-What's with Heseltine's leadership bid, Jack?

Think Maggie will survive it?

If she can survive the debacle of the Poll Tax,

she can survive Tarzan doing his worst, I'm sure.

-No, I think she'll manage.

-Oh, here he is!

Come on. Good girl.

Sorry, sorry we're late.

Why did you not take her to Clapham?

-Their youngest had chicken pox.

-ORLA: This must be Emma.

Yes, and this is Lilly, Alan's wife.

-This is Jay the doctor.

-Hello, Emma.

And this is Jack, he used to share a house with Mummy and Daddy too.

-Jesus, Jay!

-I'm on it, I'm on it.

I'm fine, I'm fine.

It's all right, darling, it's only a nose bleed.

Shall we get you some crisps?

Just this once though. What would you like?

Rrrr!

Rrryeow!

EMMA GIGGLES

He's really bought into it. Fatherhood.

She made us complete.

Is that why you didn't have any more?

Victor says it's like his colour is invisible to her.

If we had our own, she'd always be reminded she's not his.

I tell myself deceiving him is a necessary lie.

For the greater good.

So you didn't move to Manchester to hide her from everyone?

Your so-called best friend cuts you out of her life for years.

What did you expect, a red carpet?

I had no choice.

If I'd stayed in London, stayed in touch,

I would have made you complicit in the lie.

Or reminded you of it.

JACK: When do we do the deed?

When we get back to the flat.

Make it sooner rather than later.

My father's had another turn.

I have to pop up and see him tonight.

Had enough.

-Orla.

-Oh, my go?

A stitch.

Karl Marx came here when he was cranking up his theory of Communism.

Must be turning in his bloody grave,

seeing the whole edifice come crashing down.

Still, he got summat right.

If Communism is about owning the means of production,

the Information Super Highway is where it's at.

-(ECHOES, FADING)

-You can forget your industrial revolution, Jack.

This is the electronic revolution. A global game changer.

I'm talking about entire nations electronically connected.

Very exciting. I've come up with this consortium with some others.

We're looking for venture capital. A chance to come in at ground level.

Jack?

Jack?

Ah, sorry...

The Information, what is it?

On Saturday morning

I had ballet class and Mummy and I went shopping.

Two "p"s in shopping.

'The contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party

'has become increasingly bitter as we edge closer to tomorrow's vote.

-'Mrs Thatcher said Mr Heseltine has jeopardised...'

-Dig in, guys.

Bloody hell, Orla. Have you made enough?

She still cooks for an army, though it's only two of us here.

You get through it, don't you? Cheers, everyone.

-Cheers.

-Chin-chin.

-You've still got a gin on the go.

-I'm multi-tasking.

Truth be told, I've got you all here under false pretences.

You want to tell them what's been going on with you, Jay?

You say I'm overreacting, fine.

Let's see what people think when they find out what you're doing.

I...I'm afraid you've had a wasted trip, guys.

Tonight's floor show is cancelled. Indefinitely.

JACK: He's HIV.

He was diagnosed six months ago.

You're in on this as well, are you, Jack?

It's under control.

I'm on AZT. I'm doing fine.

Except for the side effects.

-Is that what the nosebleed was about?

-And there's more.

He hasn't said anything to anyone at work about it.

Are you allowed to do that?

Operate when you've got AIDS?

HIV is not AIDS.

-But it's the virus that leads to it.

-Not in every case it's not.

You can't catch it from a handshake! Even Princess Di gets that.

-What if you have a nosebleed while operating?

-Or cut yourself?

-I've never cut myself in an operation! Not once!

-Before you operate on a child

you make sure the parents have the relevant information

so they can make an informed decision?

Don't they have the right to know?

A surgeon can go home, hit the bottle, do a line of coke.

That affects his performance.

Patients don't know about that, do they?

There is not one recorded case of HIV being transmitted by a doctor.

How about off the record?

You can still practice medicine. There's radiography, research...

I'm a surgeon!

It's what I do.

It's what I am!

Jesus, why do none of you bloody get that?

Someone should go and talk to him.

Let him cool off awhile.

Someone has to tell him what it would do to him,

living with a lie like that year after year.

LILLY LAUGHS

I'm sorry, that's just so rich coming from you.

Oh, come on.

Glass houses and stones.

I mean, I am to blame too.

I said to her, when she told me about Jack and the baby,

I said she should tell you it was someone else's,

a one-night stand.

She said... What was it you said, Charlotte?

"What kind of a person would that make me?"

Someone who wants it all ways, apparently.

Lilly!

Hey,

I was in the dark too.

Finally.

For Pete's bloody sake! Jack, how are you?

There he is! Tardy bugger.

Lilly.

Bit of a grisly job, eh?

You could say that.

And she was alone when it happened.

Two weeks before they found her.

Maybe...

Jack should take a look at the safe.

She had a fire safe and we can't find the keys.

I'll be there.

I'll make a start on the bathroom.

We could take it to a locksmith, let them have a go at it?

Best not let it out of our sight until we know what's in it.

I'll get a locksmith to come here.

We need to talk about her ashes,

what to do with them.

Nothing in the will?

No.

I'll sort it.

IT WHIRRS

HE SOBS

It was while we were doing the detox for him.

He was hurting.

A pity shag.

Before she was born,

-when we were waiting to see...

-What colour she was?

I'd made up my mind...

..if it turned out she was his, I'd tell you the truth.

Even if it meant losing you.

But then you held her...

And it wasn't just about what I'd lose any more.

So you did it for her.

Well, then you're in the clear, Charlie.

I won't pretend that the thought never crossed my mind.

I dismissed it, on the grounds you were incapable of such deception.

You know when a witness lies in court, they're held in contempt.

I never understood what that meant until just now.

I can't actually look at you right now.

I beg you, I'm begging you, Victor. Forgive me, please try.

Please.

I must be off, Orla.

Tell Charlie I'll...

I'll be in touch.

Sure.

You go, Jack.

Leave someone else to pick up the pieces after you as usual.

A trick I never quite mastered.

MARGARET THATCHER: 'Good evening, good evening, gentleman.'

'I'm naturally pleased I got more than half the parliamentary party,

'and disappointed it's not quite enough to win on the first ballot

'so I confirm that it is my intention

'to let my name go forward for the second ballot.'

Did he come back yet?

Victor?

How anyone comes back from something like that, God only knows.

I thought you'd given up on all things godly.

Oh,

I've occasion to call on Him now and then.

Say one for me while you're at it.

I always do.

OK.

You win.

I'll tell them.

It's the right thing, Jay.

-One day you'll...

-You've struck oil, Orla.

No need to keep drilling.

So on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you at me?

Off the bloody scale.

"This too shall pass."

Is he here?

Mystery solved.

The move up north,

dropping out of sight all this time?

I get it now.

What exactly do you want me to do about this, Charlie?

Step up,

do the father thing?

Or step back?

I mean, she already has a father, I get that too.

-I don't want to complicate things any...

-Jack?

The car's round the corner. I couldn't find the damn house.

This is Alicia.

And James.

-Charlotte.

-Hi.

Ready?

Go to Daddy.

Good boy.

God knows, we wouldn't want to complicate anything.

Come on, Alan.

If you were in Victor's place, you'd want to know the truth.

Bloody hellfire, Lilly!

Have you have any idea of the damage you've done?

What possessed you to say such a thing?

Alan, just take me home.

Oh, no, you're staying,

you face the music.

Something made you say that, Lilly.

It wasn't just the booze talking.

All yours.

The day after we met that time in the pub,

I rang, remember?

I told you I couldn't bring myself to tell him.

If you felt it was so reprehensible,

why not say something then?

Or were you just biding your time?

For fuck's sake, say something!

I'm not the only one with a secret, am I?

Alan doesn't know about Jack and the abortion, does he?

That's the reason you can't have children.

As you reap, love.

Are you all right?

Victor will come round.

There's no way he'd want to lose you. Either of you.

In his place, could you come round?

I'd like to think so.

Alan?

She doesn't deserve you.

Can we go home now, please?

Come on.

I'm looking for a minister who is dull, totally loyal,

and above all, someone who'll stand by me...

Owen's apparatchiks claim it was their relentless piss-take of him

which put us on the scrap heap.

Thatcher seemed to ride the same beast without too much trouble.

She's bullet proof, isn't she?

Bed-time reading?

Did you do all this?

Your mother.

She was...boring the doctor with it just now.

Anyone who sets foot inside the house gets it.

Your handwriting, Dad.

Well, I helped round the edges.

"Vote for us and break the mould of British politics."

"Challenge the tribal factions in Westminster."

Came quite close there for a while.

It's the First Past the Post thing which did for you.

And the timing.

Which in my case sucked. As ever.

It's not too late to follow the others, join the Liberal Alliance.

It was a revolution I wanted to be part of,

not some hybrid coalition born out of political necessity.

When the Gang of Four started,

they toyed with the name "The New Labour Party," did you know that?

They should have gone with it,

if only to show the red card to Labour. "Modernise or die."

Maybe Labour will have its own velvet revolution.

That's a sort of legacy.

Perhaps it's a generation thing.

There's just no causes worth fighting for now.

Your lot did all that for us, didn't you?

That's a convenient excuse.

Oh, Jack...

I think I've worked out what it was all about.

All those years of your sacrificing yourself on the altar of rebellion.

It wasn't about fighting me, was it?

It was about fighting all of this, waiting for you.

And you were right.

Success isn't the same as succession.

BIRDS FLUTTER AND CHIRP

Mum?

Mum!

FLUTTERING GETS LOUDER

Sweetheart.

Time to go.

Come on.

Can I watch a video?

Mm-hmm.

Victor?

Whose property is it?

She's deceased.

Someone's been messing with this.

That's why we called in the services of a professional.

I need authorisation before I can touch it.

I'm the executor of her will. That's all the authorisation you need.

ID?

Cup of tea wouldn't go amiss.

Lapsang if you have it.

Don't let me keep you.

DRILL WHIRRS, MUFFLED

What are we going to do with the computer?

That's down to Charlotte.

It's OK, I can manage.

No, no. Well, many hands, etc, etc.

So how does one address a viscount?

Well, in a letter, it's "Dear Lord."

Paradoxically, on the envelope, it's "Viscount".

On official documents I'm "The Right Honourable Viscount"

but verbally I'm just plain "My Lord."

You'd have a more appropriate mode of address,

"hypocrite" being in pole position, I'd imagine.

How's Emma?

She's in New York.

Research project, Columbia.

She and I did meet. I assume she told you that?

Summer of '05. She'd have been...

23.

Yeah.

I mean...

Her initiative. She made it very clear from the start.

Coffee, not lunch or dinner.

Just the one meeting, not looking for anything ongoing.

She asked me a load of questions about my family,

my sons, her half-brothers,

about how Charlie and I had, um...

Yeah, well...

That was it.

She thanked me for my time, shook my hand and left.

No recriminations. No reproaches about how I'd failed as a father.

In fact, a triumph...

..of nurture over nature.

Perhaps we both failed her.

-JAY:

-Safe's open, guys!

She was carrying your picture in her wallet.

Which is a damn sight more than my kids do with mine.

So,

premium bonds,

bank stuff.

Oh, title deeds to the flat - copy of.

When was it she bought the flat. '93 was it?

No, end of '90. I made a deal with when my first buyer dropped out.

Oh, my God.

She had a brother called Conor, didn't she?

Christ.

"Dear Orla... " Oh.

From her mum. Dated 1973.

"In the circumstances, your father and I do not think it appropriate

"that you come to your brother's funeral".

"Conor told us that he came to you for..."

something... "Sanctuary in London.

"That you sent him away.

"That you chose your friends over your flesh and blood."

Oh, my God.

Let me see.

"I just hope they never turn their backs on you when you need them

"as you did on Conor.

"As far as your father and I are concerned,

"they're your family now, Orla.

"We want no part of you".

I didn't know he'd ever been to the flat, did you?

Someone did.

I can't remember if it was him.

She was always on the phone to her family, wasn't she? Remember?

Then those phone calls and the visits home just...stopped.

And we never thought to ask why, did we?

We never gave it a second thought.

We're not mind-readers.

She didn't confide in us, did she?

If the IRA were after him, she'd have thought that put us at risk.

-Given what happened to him, she was right.

-She made the right choice.

For us or her?

There's no booze in the place, is there?

What's next?

Hang on.

"To Orla...

"..From the gang on your retirement,

"with love and...

.."respect."

"November 2010."

Is there anything to play this on?

APPLAUSE

'So, glasses charged, guys?'

'And this is just a little something from everyone.'

Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

'That's beautiful. I don't know what to say.'

-'Speech!

-Come on!'

Um...

There's a...

There's a forest in Japan.

So vast, it's the size of a small ocean.

And it's so dense

no compass can work there.

They call it the Sea of Trees...

..and for generations people in trouble have gone there

in...well, in despair

to end their lives.

Only...

sometimes they're uncertain about what they intend doing

so they leave markers on trees

in case they change their mind

and want to find their way home.

And I think our job as therapists is like that.

We're like compasses.

People come to us in despair, and...

we try and help them find their way through it,

make peace with the past.

And so if I succeeded even just once

in doing that, then, well...

I really think our job is...

a job well done.

So, thank you.

-To Orla.

-To Orla.

To Orla.

-Orla.

-Orla.

To Orla.

She did it for me, you know,

buying this flat.

So if I ever got sick...

..I'd always have a roof over my head.

Two years later, I met someone.

Upped sticks to Edinburgh with him...

..without a backward glance.

What was it she said?

"Hindsight is knowing where you've been.

"Foresight is knowing where you're going".

"Insight is knowing you've gone too far."

Maybe that should come under hindsight too.

Have you had any thoughts about scattering the ashes?

Just a minute.

Where's that going?

It's going in the games room.

-Oh, yeah?

-See if I can improve my aim.

Let's not leave it so long next time.

Seconded.

Soon, yes?

Charlie?

I go to Washington tomorrow,

human rights case.

I'll be back in a fortnight.

Maybe we could have lunch sometime?

My cup runneth over.

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