- 5/2/2025
In 1930s Britain, three young aristocratic women find love as the world around them slowly descends into war.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00You
00:30Where are they?
00:37Fire!
01:00Fire!
01:26Got you one last!
01:28Hey!
01:58Linda Radlett was my age, my favourite cousin, and for many years, my favourite human being.
02:04Though I lived with Aunt Emily, I spent all my holidays at Orkenwood with my cousins, the Radletts.
02:11I've had a lot of fun.
02:13Yes, Emily.
02:14Father's going to hunt us tomorrow.
02:15Well, enjoy yourselves, children.
02:17Because we've got other things to do.
02:20Wait!
02:21Linda and I were coming out that summer.
02:23What do you think?
02:24That Aunt Sadie was giving us a ball.
02:26Oh, I like this!
02:28Heavenly Mrs Crabbe copied it out of vogue for me.
02:31Look!
02:40Oh!
02:41Do you think he'll come?
02:42Well, you never can tell in the country.
02:45Somebody might bring him.
02:46He might break down in his motor car on the way to Badminton.
02:49We were, of course, both in love with people we had never met.
02:51Who is that beautiful girl in pink?
02:54Glinda with the Prince of Wales.
02:55It's Linda Radlet, Your Highness.
02:57And I with a fat, red-faced farmer I had seen in the village.
03:02These loves were strong and painfully delicious.
03:05They occupied all our thoughts, but we hoped they would be superseded by real people.
03:12We still haven't got enough men.
03:14We've got all the replies in now.
03:15We'll have to get Matt home from Eden.
03:17What about the curate?
03:18Oh, Fanny, why don't we invite Lord Merlin?
03:21Lord Merlin!
03:22While I've been for tea, he dyes his doves pink and dries them in the linen cupboard.
03:29Ha!
03:30And do you remember the whippets with their diamond necklaces?
03:32They have grander jewels than I do.
03:34He could bring a house party.
03:36If you ask that group Merlin to bring his friends, we'll get a lot of esthetes.
03:39Sewers from Oxford.
03:41I wouldn't put it past him to bring some foreigners.
03:44Foreigners?
03:45I hear he sometimes has frogs, even wops, to stay with him.
03:49I will not have my house filled with wops.
03:51But far...
03:52It's all right, darling.
03:53Leave it to me.
03:54What do you think you're doing?
03:55It's palsy practice.
03:56In a few years, when you're really old, you'll probably have palsy.
04:00I'm giving you a little practice now, before you actually get it.
04:04So you won't be dropping things all the time.
04:06Is that from the bolter?
04:07Don't call her that, dear.
04:08That's a fine-looking woman.
04:13Is that from the bolter?
04:14Don't call her that, dear.
04:16That's a fine-looking woman.
04:17She's still married, isn't it?
04:18I'd like to see her from London College.
04:19My mother, who was too beautiful and gay to be burdened with a child, had left when I
04:32was a month old, and had since run away so often and with so many different people that
04:37she became known as the bolter.
04:39She doesn't realise I've grown.
04:41Packs me wear it.
04:42You'll have to pay her.
04:43Sixpence.
04:44A shilling?
04:45Ninepence.
04:46Ninepence, all right.
04:51Fanny?
04:52And remember, you're paying us two shillings each, not to be embarrassing.
04:59Yes, Victoria.
05:01We spent the weeks before the ball in an agony of waiting for our lives to begin.
05:08If this comes out, I'll marry the man I love.
05:23If this comes out, I'll marry at eighteen.
05:32If this comes out...
05:37Linda was soft-hearted and horribly easy to tease.
05:40A little houseless match.
05:44Has no roof, no thatch.
05:47It lies alone, makes no moan.
05:50The little houseless match.
05:54As the only boy, my cousin Matt was the sole radlet allowed to go to school.
06:01All right, all right, all right, I'll tell you how it happens.
06:05The mother's stomach swells up, and then it bursts open like a ripe pumpkin, and the infant shoots out.
06:12Oh, rot!
06:14Don't be such an ass, Matt.
06:16Now listen.
06:17What's that?
06:18Ducks and duck breeding.
06:21The Hans was our secret society.
06:23We met in the linen cupboard.
06:25It was the only warm place at Orkenly.
06:27Anybody we hated was a counter-Han.
06:29We, of course, were Hans.
06:31Ducks can only copulate in running water.
06:34Tell us about sex, Fanny.
06:37You must know.
06:38Oh, you are lucky, Fanny, having a wicked mother.
06:41I know.
06:43She must be copulating all the time.
06:46Oh, I wish I didn't have a mother.
06:48When I'm 19, I'm going to run away, just like yours.
06:52Well, you can't have my money.
06:54How much have you got?
06:55My fare to London, and a month and two days in a bedsitter in Clapham, with basin and breakfast.
07:03I can't wait.
07:09You see, we're still 20 men short.
07:11How many is Lord Merlin bringing?
07:13Huh?
07:14Merlin!
07:18They don't know the way, do you?
07:20Only six.
07:21What are we going to do?
07:23There's only five days left.
07:30It's all right.
07:34Leave it to me.
07:43Fine.
07:44Fine.
07:45Fine.
07:46Carol.
07:47Where did he get them from?
07:50The Lords.
07:55Look at him.
07:58His hair sort of slips off backwards, doesn't it?
08:02Like an eiderdown in the night.
08:06Poor old thing.
08:07I must say, if he was one's dog, one would have him put down.
08:20May I have the honour?
08:22What's that thing hanging over your farm?
08:23That's my entrenching tool.
08:24Used it in 1915.
08:25Threat to death.
08:26Eight Germans, one by one, as they crawled out of a dugout.
08:28Oh, sorry.
08:29Perfectly all right.
08:30I wish we'd been taught to dance.
08:31You're doing splendidly.
08:32I wish we'd been taught anything.
08:37I hope my wife is all right.
08:46I'm sorry I had to leave her in the morning.
08:50Yeah.
08:52I'm sorry I had to leave her at home.
08:55I hope my wife is all right.
08:59I'm sorry I had to leave her at home.
09:02It's the first time we've been separated in 40 years.
09:25So this was it.
09:39This was what we had been waiting for all our lives.
09:50Lord Merlin's arrived!
09:51Lord Merlin.
09:52Lord Merlin.
09:53Lord Merlin.
09:54Lord Merlin.
09:55Lord Merlin.
09:56Lord Merlin.
10:01They won't like you, the friends.
10:04Say, hey, how lovely to do this.
10:07I saw an agent's coming in.
10:09Did you?
10:10He's still desperate.
10:11I don't like my pen on it.
10:12Yeah, I don't like my pen on it.
10:13I don't like my pen on it.
10:14I don't like my pen.
10:17I just couldn't be.
10:18I just couldn't be.
10:22Linda.
10:23Hello.
10:25Fan.
10:26I've heard so much about you.
10:28Have you really got a folly with an angel on top?
10:31Every evening, to celebrate the hour of my birth, it blows its trumpet.
10:36The locals get frankly annoyed because it's at twenty past nine, just too late to remind them to switch on the news.
10:41Oh, yes, please.
10:42Isn't Linda remarkable?
10:43I adore her.
10:44She comes to tea sometimes when she can get away from here.
10:48I suspect, with careful nurturing, she shall become one of the great beauties of the age.
10:49You know Polly Hampton, don't you?
10:50Yes.
10:51Oh, she used to be my best friend in the world, apart from Linda.
10:52Well, she's coming home from India next week.
10:53Oh, wonderful.
10:54Oh, wonderful.
10:55I have missed her.
10:56Oh, I have missed her.
10:57It'll be lovely to see you.
10:58Yes.
10:59Oh, she used to be my best friend in the world, apart from Linda.
11:02Well, she is coming home from India next week.
11:03Oh, wonderful.
11:04Oh, I have missed her.
11:05It'll be lovely to see you again.
11:09Come back to Mary again.
11:16apart from Linda well she's coming home from India next week oh wonderful I have
11:25missed her it'll be lovely to see her again
11:29that England who's that sewer with Linda his name's Tony Crosey his father runs the bank of England
11:50I never expected to harbor a full-blown hun in this house who would have asked him the
11:55Crozics aren't huns Matthew they've been over here for generations they're a highly respectable
11:59family of English foreigners once a hun always a hun master dear go and check the boilers what the
12:09boilers with a hot ball
12:10so
12:14so
12:16so
12:21so
12:24so
12:28so
12:34Who do you hunt with?
12:45Oh, the Heathrow.
12:47Oh, are you coming to the meet tomorrow?
12:51We've got a house full of guests.
12:54They'll never let me.
13:04It's all right.
13:34Oh, that poor hand.
14:04Unfortunately, rescuing a hare was the one romantic gesture
14:34of Tony Krasik's life.
14:48The next month, having come home from ruling India,
14:53the Mondors invited me to a house party.
14:58Life with the Radlitz was tempestuous,
15:01but underneath it I felt loved.
15:05The terror at Hampton, however, was of a different kind,
15:08and I would never have dared go there if it wasn't for Polly.
15:11Then the men would never let me own the house.
15:14Then the women would never let me wear a card for my Holmes.
15:19Don't you go?
15:20No.
15:21Then the women would never let me dress.
15:24Then the men would never let me wear a card.
15:26Miss Frances Logan.
15:45Miss Frances Logan.
15:55You're not by any chance the bolter's daughter.
15:58Yes. Yes, I am.
16:00The bolter's girl.
16:02Don't be funny. How could the bolter have a grown-up daughter?
16:04Oh, Veronica, do come here a minute. It's the bolter's child.
16:07Ah, Fanny. There you are.
16:10Come and have some tea, dear.
16:12But surely the bolter can't be more than 36.
16:14That's right, bird brain. Just do the subs.
16:16What about the nine months?
16:17Not nine, darling.
16:19Don't you remember how bogus it all was
16:21and how shamingly huge her bouquet had to be?
16:23Poor sweet.
16:24Do you know the first person she ever bolted with was Mike Chad?
16:27Lucky me got him next.
16:29But only after she'd bolted from him again.
16:32So, Fanny, how are the rattlet girls?
16:35Do sit down, dear. Go and fetch Polly.
16:38She's in the billiards room with boy.
16:41Linda got engaged yet.
16:43No, not yet.
16:45Sadie's a wonderful woman, of course, and I'm devoted to her,
16:47but she hasn't the very smallest idea of how to bring up girls.
16:50Oh, dear.
16:52Tell me, are you in love?
16:55Yes.
16:56Oh, of course she is.
16:59Poor sweet. Just look at that blush.
17:02Now, we're not going to worm, but what we really want to know to settle a bet is,
17:09have you always fancied somebody, ever since you can remember?
17:14Oh, yes.
17:15Lord Byron.
17:16Rudolf Valentino.
17:17Yeah, but there you are, you see.
17:21From Kirikata Huss, darling. I couldn't know it better.
17:24After all, what would there be to think about when one's alone otherwise?
17:29The Duke de Sauveterre.
17:37He's still not married.
17:39He came to us in India. Such fun.
17:42He was very much taken up with the little Rani of Rawalpur.
17:46In fact, they do say her last baby.
17:49Shush.
17:50Poor creatures, it's one baby after another.
17:52One can't help feeling sorry for them.
17:54Like little birds, you know.
17:56Of course, they simply worshipped me.
17:59It was rarely touching.
18:00Where is boy?
18:02Playing billiards with Polly.
18:04I've sent one once.
18:07Ah, here they are.
18:09Aha!
18:12Here at last, my lady wife.
18:20Polly.
18:21Oh, Fanny, I've missed you.
18:23I'm dying to hear about everything.
18:26Let's go upstairs and talk.
18:32Hello.
18:33That's boy Dugdale, isn't it?
18:34Yes, you remember him.
18:35He's married to my Aunt Patricia.
18:36Why is he called boy?
18:37He's probably old.
18:38He doesn't think he's old one bit.
18:39Charlie.
18:40Polly.
18:41Polly.
18:42Are you pleased to be back in this room?
18:43It's the night.
18:44I'm sorry.
18:45I'm sorry.
18:46I'm sorry.
18:47I'm sorry.
18:48I'm sorry.
18:49I'm sorry.
18:50I'm sorry.
18:51I'm sorry.
18:52I'm sorry.
18:53I'm sorry.
18:54I'm sorry.
18:55Polly.
19:08Are you pleased to be back in this room?
19:10It's the one you used to have.
19:11Do you remember?
19:12Oh, of course I do.
19:14I used to think about us sometimes in India.
19:17Those black velvet dresses with red sashes we had for coming down after tea.
19:22Oh, that seems so long ago now.
19:27I suppose you came out in India.
19:31Yes.
19:32I've been out two years actually.
19:34It was all very dull.
19:36Do you enjoy it?
19:38I like the dressing up.
19:41So do I.
19:43Do you think about dresses and hats all the time, even in church?
19:48I do too.
19:51But what is coming out in England like?
19:55Does everybody talk about love all the time?
19:58Yes.
19:59Yes, I suppose they do.
20:01And all going on like the people downstairs.
20:04Yes.
20:06Yes.
20:07Oh, bother.
20:10I thought it would be different in a cold climate.
20:14Have you fallen in love yet?
20:18Hmm.
20:19I could have.
20:20Lots of times.
20:21Some of the Rajas are awfully attractive.
20:24And honestly, Fanny, I believe Mama would rather I fell in love with an Indian than not at all.
20:29But don't you want to fall in love?
20:32Oh, I do.
20:35Oh, Fanny.
20:38What was the matter with Polly?
20:51There was something I didn't understand, not then, about the atmosphere at Hampton.
21:01I wondered if Lord Mondor felt it.
21:03He never reacted to anything.
21:05He seemed somehow to be made of cardboard.
21:08Is your uncle Lord Orkney?
21:11Isn't he quite barmy?
21:13Doesn't he hunt people with bloodhounds by full moon?
21:16Oh, but we love it.
21:18Oh, you can't imagine what fun it is.
21:21I hear those Redland girls are simply killing rats in their pockets.
21:24God knows what.
21:26But rats are very intelligent, aren't they?
21:29No, no, no, Veronica.
21:30The whole point was he brought the microscope to look at his own family.
21:35How dare you to use that word at dinner?
21:39If you know how to pronounce it, which I doubt.
21:41It's too shame-making.
21:43Not a dinner thing at all.
21:45It's too shame-making.
22:03Dear Fanny.
22:09I remember you when you were little.
22:13My, you have grown.
22:19Have I?
22:21And hasn't Polly turned out to be a beauty?
22:27Dear Sonia.
22:29She's done absolutely everything for that girl.
22:33Some man's going to be very lucky.
22:39Don't you think?
22:41I mean, with her inheriting all of this, she's probably the wealthiest young woman in Britain.
22:53Oh, yes.
22:55We expect a splendid match.
22:59I know people do say he's a daisy, whatever that may be, but half these rumours are put about by anarchists.
23:09I must go and powder my nose.
23:13I go in the morning and that's that.
23:15I don't have to be let out like a dog at intervals, thank goodness.
23:19There's nothing so common to my mind.
23:21I think the worst...
23:22Well, dearly Polly, it's too bad.
23:24Just chatter, can't you?
23:26It's of no consequence what you say.
23:28Better recite out of the ABC then sit there like a deaf mute.
23:32What did they think of you?
23:34Sit here, Fanny, and talk to us.
23:42Dear, what is the matter with my daughter?
23:46She takes no notice of the young men I provide for her and they take no notice of her.
23:51They worship me, of course, but what is the good of that?
23:55She's bound to fall for some nice chap in London, darling.
23:59It's all very well, but she was out for two years in India, you know.
24:03Why, even poor Delia's girl fell in love with a rajah.
24:06I don't blame her. Rajahs must be perfect heaven.
24:09All those diamonds.
24:10Oh, no, my dear.
24:12Any English family has better stones than they do.
24:15I never saw anything to compare with mine when I was there.
24:19Oh, it's such a relief to have you here, Fanny.
24:36She only asked that Frenchman because she thinks no one would resist him.
24:41Even me.
24:42I've been thinking of porridge for hours.
24:58It's funny how a huge dinner makes you even hungrier next morning.
25:13Curious, isn't it?
25:15We can't stay here. It's too sad.
25:32Don't you think Polly is very beautiful?
25:34Yeah.
25:35But she's also a riddle to me.
25:39Perhaps she's not having a properly organised sex life.
25:44Very few English girls of 19 have a properly organised sex life.
25:49They go hunting instead.
25:51She is a beauty, despite those terrible clothes.
25:56When she has had a little love, she may blossom.
25:59Or she may cram a hat on her head and become a Lady Patricia Dugday.
26:03Everything depends on the lover.
26:06I'm so confused in this house.
26:10Who's who's lover?
26:12It doesn't make a pin-up difference.
26:14Sooner or later, everybody becomes the lover of everybody else.
26:18When they change lovers, it's more like a cabinet reshuffle than a new government.
26:22Is it like that in France?
26:24Oh, no.
26:25The ministers stay longer in their posts.
26:27Why?
26:28French women generally keep their lovers if they want to,
26:31because they know there is one infallible method of doing so.
26:35No.
26:36Oh, do tell.
26:37It's very simple.
26:38They give in to them in every respect.
26:41These English femmes du monde, they play their little games out when you telephone.
26:47Oh, that.
26:48No Frenchman would put up with it for a moment.
26:51They're very nasty, aren't they?
26:53Not at all.
26:55Poor things.
26:56I love them.
26:58So easy to get on with.
27:00And I love La Mère Mondor.
27:02How amusing she is with her snobbishness.
27:05I'm very fond of snobs.
27:07They're always so charming to me.
27:09And dear old Mordor, he can't see what's going on under his nose.
27:16What is going on under his nose?
27:18And so, Fenadier, are you going to be a boater, like your mother?
27:30Oh, no.
27:31A tremendous sticker.
27:32Oh, no.
27:33A tremendous sticker.
27:34Hmm.
27:35You've ruffled a few feathers here, Morshell.
27:36Our hostess was hoping you'd pay court to her daughter, rather than bowling over the rabbits.
27:42If this comes out, he'll telephone.
28:07What's the time, darling?
28:21Guess.
28:22A quarter to six.
28:25Better than that?
28:26Six?
28:27Not quite so good.
28:29Five-two.
28:30Yes.
28:31If this comes out, he's thinking about me.
28:36A little houseless match.
28:41Victoria!
28:42Go away!
28:43Hello?
28:44Go away.
28:45Go away.
28:46Go away.
28:47Go away.
28:48Tony!
28:49Hello?
28:50Hello?
28:54Hello?
28:55Go away.
28:56Go away.
28:57Go away.
28:58Tony!
28:59That was Lavender Davis on the telephone.
29:00She wants Fanny and me to lunch there on Thursday.
29:06Oh, Doug, you can't have my car, I'm afraid.
29:07Oh, but Mummy, please.
29:08I do so terribly want to go.
29:09To Lavenders?
29:10Hmm.
29:11Last time you said you never wanted to go there as long as you lived.
29:13Great haunches of cod, you said.
29:15But, um, her brother's got a baby badger.
29:16When you go to London for the season, you'll be far too busy to think about badgers.
29:20Please, Mummy.
29:21Oh, well, perhaps Perkins can take me to the daimler.
29:22Oh, well, perhaps Perkins can take me to the daimler.
29:23Oh, I'm sorry.
29:24I'm sorry.
29:25I'm sorry.
29:26Oh, but Mummy, please, I do so terribly want to go.
29:27To Lavenders?
29:28Hmm.
29:29Last time you said you never wanted to go there as long as you lived.
29:33Great haunches of cod, you said.
29:35But, um, her brother's got a baby badger.
29:39When you go to London for the season, you'll be far too busy to think about badgers.
29:44Please, Mummy.
29:45Oh, well, perhaps Perkins can take me to the daimler.
29:56We must get hold of some rouge.
29:58I think you can use geranium juice.
30:00But geraniums aren't out at this time of year, silly.
30:03We can blow our eyelids out of Jazzy's paint box.
30:06Oh, yes.
30:07I'll get the babina soap from Mummy's bathroom.
30:10We can let it melt in the bath and we shall smell delicious.
30:16Nanny?
30:18Nanny?
30:21Where do you keep that powder that you used to dust our bottoms with?
30:25I thought you'd know, Lavender Davis.
30:27Oh, shut up.
30:28Last time you said she was the dullest girl you ever met
30:31and you'd like to bash her in the face with the Hans Mallets.
30:33I didn't.
30:34Why have you got that red stuff on your cheeks?
30:37Oh, do go away.
30:38Why are you starting already?
30:39You'll be hours too early.
30:40If you don't shut up, I'll put your newt back in the pond.
30:44BEEP!
30:49Why don't you bring Lavender Davis back for a nice long visit?
30:55They're not very Honish, are them.
30:57You don't think they'll tell far?
30:59What?
31:01Well...
31:03Oh!
31:04Mom!
31:06It's so good that you have to feed.
31:07Well, that's not true.
31:10Ahh.
31:12Meanwhile, Bailاه is where a man's walking.
31:14What's the boy's walkingций portraying the fox?
31:16The cat is always right.
31:18Is that a young boy?
31:19Of course, you had to getše.
31:21What are you going to do with him?
31:23I was to have to leave a have come on for a humanoane life.
31:24See a í• ë¨¸ë‹ˆ, since he is there!
31:25Oh.
31:53We look like Dutch dogs.
31:55We look like Dutch dogs.
32:10Cigarette?
32:11No, thank you.
32:14No, thank you.
32:16No, thank you.
32:36Been hunting lately?
32:37Oh, yes.
32:38We were out yesterday.
32:41Good day?
32:42Yes, very.
32:43We found it once and had a five-mile point.
32:45But that's marvellous.
32:47A five-mile point.
32:49Well, I must come out with the Heathrop again.
32:51They're doing awfully well this season, I hear.
32:53We had a good day yesterday, too.
32:57Did you really?
32:58Well, the going was a bit sticky down in Baylis Meadow.
33:01Damn fool farmer never drains it, you know.
33:03But once we got up on the ridge, we had a splendid gallop.
33:13Ah, good.
33:16Here are the others.
33:16This was life, we felt.
33:24And we would have been quite happy just looking on,
33:27had it not been for that ghastly feeling of guilt,
33:30which was starting to give us a pain rather like indigestion.
33:33Linda, Fanny,
33:54Far wants you in the business room now.
33:58Do you realise that if you were married women,
34:00your husbands could divorce you for this?
34:03You're poor Aunt Emily.
34:10All these years she's looked after you, and this is her reward.
34:13It's not Fanny's fault.
34:15You can go straight home.
34:18Oh, you'll go the same way as your mother.
34:20Sure, his eggs is eggs.
34:26That's for you, miss.
34:33I'm lucky not to get a thrashing, do you hear?
34:40There'll be no question of a London season now.
34:43You'll have to be watched every minute of the day.
34:48And I don't want that hun's name ever mentioned in this house again.
34:52I didn't tell, I promise.
35:04Somebody left the scarf in his room.
35:20It's Tony Grossing's room, and he rang up to ask whether it was yours.
35:24It was Uncle Matthew's favourite superstition that if you wrote somebody's name on a piece of paper
35:36and put it in a drawer, that person would die within a year.
35:39The drawers were full of the names of people he hated.
35:55Bernard Shaw, Lloyd George, Gandhi.
35:58Tony Grossing's room, and he rang up to ask whether it was his name on a piece of paper.
36:14Tony Grossing.
36:23As always, Uncle Matthew's bark was worse than his bite.
36:27Relaxation began, the thin end of the wedge, and gradually things returned to normal.
36:35Plans for the London season went ahead, though under conditions of strict vigilance.
36:42However, not strict enough, and what I knew would happen inevitably did.
36:48At five in the morning in a beautiful house on the east side of Barclay Square.
36:57As always, Uncle.
36:58.
37:05.
37:09.
37:15That bloody hon Krosig's just telephoned.
37:37Wanted to speak to you.
37:41I told him to get the hell out of it.
37:45I don't want you mixed up with any Germans.
37:47Do you understand?
37:48Well, I am mixed up.
37:50As it happens, I'm engaged to him.
37:58Sandy!
38:01Sandy!
38:01Sandy!
38:02Sandy!
38:15Sandy!
38:21Sandy!
38:29Jesse!
38:30Jesse!
38:31Darling!
38:32Lend me your running away money.
38:36I've saved and scraped for five years.
38:39I simply can't begin all over again.
38:41But I'll give it to you back.
38:43Tony will, when we're married.
38:46I know men.
38:55Yes?
38:59Linda!
38:59Linda, that Hogg Merlin's on the phone!
39:04I'm in love.
39:05What makes you think so?
39:07Well, one doesn't think.
39:09One knows.
39:11Fiddle stinks.
39:12Well, you evidently don't know about love.
39:14So what's the use of talking to you?
39:16Love is for grown-up people.
39:19As you will one day discover.
39:21You will also discover that it has nothing to do with marriage.
39:26I'm all in favour of you marrying soon in a year or two.
39:30Oh, but for God's sake, for all our sakes, don't go and marry a bore like Tony Crewecy.
39:35Well, if he's such a bore, why did you ask him to stay?
39:40I didn't ask him.
39:41A baby brought him because Cecil had flew and couldn't come.
39:44Besides, I can't guess you'll marry every stopgap I have in my house.
39:47Well, you ought to be more careful.
39:50Anyhow, I can't think why you say Tony's a bore.
39:52He knows about everything.
39:55Exactly.
39:56Exactly.
39:56It was a terrible time.
40:06The Crowsicks were as opposed to the marriage as the Alkenleys.
40:22Aunt Sadie tried to persuade Uncle Matthew that the marriage, though by no means ideal,
40:26was inevitable, and that if he didn't want to alienate forever his favourite child,
40:31he had better put a good face on it.
40:40All...
40:41all...
40:43all...
40:45all...
40:46all...
40:47all...
40:48all...
40:49all...
40:50all...
40:51all...
40:53all...
40:55all...
40:57all...
40:58at least the fellow's not a Roman Catholic.
41:20So, Linda's marrying him, then.
41:41What a silly girl.
41:43Well, she always has been, in my opinion.
41:47He's rich, of course, but it's banker's money.
41:49It comes and it goes.
41:51And however much of it there may be, it's not like marrying all this.
41:57So, that's her accounted for.
41:59Now you must be the next one, Fanny.
42:02Oh, no.
42:04No one will ever marry me.
42:06Mm!
42:07Nonsense.
42:08And don't you go marrying just anybody.
42:10For love.
42:12Remember that love cannot last.
42:14It never, never does.
42:15But if you marry all this, it's for your life.
42:25Aha!
42:27Where are you going?
42:28To see your mother.
42:30She's not dressed yet.
42:31Yeah.
42:54Lady Coseg, this is my mother, Lady Orkinley.
42:57How do you do, Coseg?
42:58My father, Lord Orkinley.
42:59Coseg.
43:00What do you mean?
43:00Coseg, how do you do?
43:02How do you do?
43:03Good evening, Coseg.
43:04Good evening.
43:05Good evening.
43:06Let's go in, shall we?
43:07It's rather nippy out here.
43:13We love the theatre.
43:16Don't we, dear?
43:17Yes.
43:20Have you seen any of the new shows?
43:22Well, we don't go up to London a great deal.
43:24Well, you did see Romeo and Juliet once.
43:27But your father got so upset.
43:28All the fault of that damn padre.
43:32That fellow Romeo might have known a blasted papist would mess up the whole thing.
43:38Damn fool of a nurse, too.
43:40Bet she was an arse.
43:43Dismal old bitch.
43:44I expect they keep you very busy at the bank.
44:04Yeah.
44:05Don't know how you can stand it.
44:07I was saying to the bank manager at Merlinford only yesterday.
44:12Must be the hell of a life.
44:14Fussing about with other fellow's money all day.
44:18Indoors.
44:19And it's been my whole life indoors.
44:21I have my roses.
44:24What a lot you London people always know about gardens.
44:27Well, I'm not really a London person.
44:29I work in London, but my home is in Surrey.
44:34I count that as the same.
44:35They're all so excited in the village, Lady Krozek.
44:37They've already planned the flowers for the church.
44:39But we presumed that you'd have a London wedding, my dear.
44:44But we thought, well, St Margaret's, of course.
44:50Oh, nobody will come down to Gloucestershire.
44:53Aunt Linda will have half the number of wedding presents.
44:57Oh, ma, do let's.
45:01I am not going to lead my daughter through a crowd of gaping strangers.
45:09Of course, Linda married for love.
45:29She was too much of a romantic to marry for anything else.
45:32But the odds were stacked against her from the start.
45:36The families were no longer on speaking terms.
45:40The Krozeks considered her eccentric and extravagant
45:43and her family uncouth.
45:45While the Radlitz considered the Krozeks vulgar
45:48and Tony a first-class war.
45:56Did you ever see anything so ghastly as Lady Krozek's hat?
46:02Bankers don't appear to be much to look at.
46:05So extraordinarily unsuitable having to know them at all,
46:07let alone marry them.
46:09But these sort of people have got megalomania nowadays.
46:11One can't get away from them.
46:13Really, Orkhamley's not fit to have children if this is the best he can do.
46:23You'll never get all this into your coffin.
46:25What do you mean?
46:27Women always buried in their wedding dresses.
46:30Don't be such a ghoul.
46:31Come on, Jessie.
46:32Let's not upset Linda today.
46:34Did you see what mingy little things they gave poor Linda?
46:39A cheque?
46:40I mean, it's all very well, but for how much, I wonder?
46:43No tiara, no necklace.
46:45What will the poor child wear at court?
46:47Hardly worth being called by that nasty German name, I should say.
46:49And a horrible house in one of those squares near Marble Arch.
46:55Oh, Lord Merlin.
46:57Oh, hello, Merlin.
46:58Morning.
46:59Have you seen the Krozek sister?
47:01They'll have a job getting her off.
47:03She's dreaming to be a vet.
47:05First sensible thing I've heard about any of them.
47:08No point in clustering up the ballrooms with girls who look like that.
47:11It's simply not fair on anybody.
47:12How do you know by Dugdale?
47:16Oh, he read a history of my family.
47:19He's an expert on ducal genealogy.
47:22Oh, yes.
47:23He used to give talks at the Women's Institute when I was little.
47:28He did such stupid things to us.
47:32Linda and I called him the lecturer's lecturer.
47:35He's certainly very fond of dukes and duchesses.
47:39Is that why he trails around after Lady Mondor everywhere?
47:42They do say he's her lover.
47:46Her lover?
47:48But I think it's more complicated than that.
47:53What do you mean?
47:55Poor Patricia.
47:57Suffering in silence.
48:02Mayday, I think.
48:04Well, that's good.
48:06It must either be the first or, indeed, the last ball of the season
48:11if people are going to remember it.
48:17Polly!
48:20Honestly.
48:20You'd think she'd be grateful, wouldn't you?
48:23Not at all.
48:25Sulky and disagreeable.
48:26I can hardly get a word out of her.
48:27She never meets anybody.
48:30And if she never meets people, how can she marry them?
48:33Is there so much hurry for her to marry?
48:36Well, you know, she'll be 21 in May.
48:38She can't go on like this forever.
48:40Polly, my dear.
48:43Come over here.
48:44Well, marriage doesn't solve everything, you know.
48:48You don't want her to make an unfortunate choice.
48:56What could be the matter with her?
48:58So beautiful and no B.A. at all.
49:01Oh, no, no, no.
49:01It's S.A., my darling.
49:04Sex appeal.
49:05Or B.O.
49:09When we were young, none of that existed, thank goodness.
49:11One was either a beauty or a jolly lady, and that was that.
49:15All the same.
49:16Now it's been invented, this sex appeal.
49:18I suppose it's better if the girls have it.
49:20Their partners seem to like it.
49:22And Polly hasn't a vestige.
49:24You could see that.
49:26Ever since she was born, I've worried and fussed over that child
49:29and thought of all the awful things that might happen to her.
49:31That Mondor might die before she was settled.
49:33That her looks would go, that she might have a terrible accident
49:36and spend the rest of her days in a spinal chair.
49:39All sorts of things.
49:40But the one thing that never crossed my mind
49:43was that she might end up an old maid.
49:48Oh.
49:49Must be gone.
49:52After the honeymoon, Tony started work in his father's old bank
49:55and prepared to step into a safe, conservative seat.
49:58Come back to bed.
50:00An ambition which was soon realised.
50:01What, dear?
50:03You haven't forgotten about tonight, have you?
50:23No.
50:26I think Linda's marriage was a failure almost from the start.
50:29But being Linda, she maintained, for as long as possible,
50:34a good shop front.
50:35thu haven't embraced the end of mine.
50:40Good, true.
50:41Good.
50:42Good, too.
50:43Good.
50:44Good.
50:45Good.
50:48Good, good.
50:57Good, good.
50:58Good, good.
51:01Good, good.
51:02Good.
Recommended
49:06
|
Up next
52:11
57:36
1:14:41
59:00
58:45
1:58:25
54:28
1:06:54
55:30
49:08
1:16:37
1:16:11