A Fatal Inversion By Ruth Rendell

Oldtuberadio

A Fatal Inversion It’s 1976, the year of the long, hot summer. Adam and some friends spent it in idyllic circumstances. But when the weather finally breaks, their lives have changed forever. Adam Verne Smith …. Andrew Wincott Rufus Fletcher …. Matthew Morgan Zosie …. Siriol Jenkins Shiva …. Tariq Alibai Vivien …. Mia Soteriou Mary Gage …. Alison Reid Anne …. Mary Chater Lili …. Rita Wolf Marigold …. Theresa Streatfield Alec Chipstead …. Terence Edmond Meg Chipstead/Mrs Beecham …. Joanna Wake WPC/Supermarket PA/Nurse/Radio Announcer …. Emma Fielding Inspector Winder …. Jonathan Adams Sgt Fuller …. Neil Roberts Lewis …. Tim Seely Beryl …. Ann Windsor Gardner/Porter/Antique Dealer …. Ronald Herdman Tatian/Pearson …. Steve Hodson Dramatised by Michael Bakewell Director Jane Morgan First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1991  Do you enjoy the variety on Oldtuberadio? Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows #radio #crime #thriller #drama To Support this channel please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oldtuberadio https://ko-fi.com/oldtuberadio98 https://www.patreon.com/oldtuberadio https://locals.com/Oldtuberadio

Transcript

00:00:00I Calpimos.

00:00:14What do you think that is?

00:00:16A Greek island.

00:00:17Not an island.

00:00:19More like a volcano.

00:00:20Or a resort on the Costa Brava.

00:00:22You just made it up.

00:00:23It does sound rather like a community though.

00:00:26Onida, Walden, I Calpimos...

00:00:28I know what it is.

00:00:30It's like Erewhon.

00:00:31That's nowhere backwards.

00:00:33You don't know the difference between an anagram and an inversion, do you?

00:00:36I talk about it if you don't know.

00:00:37Hey, hey, I'm the one that quarrels with her, remember?

00:00:39Erewhon is an anagram of nowhere.

00:00:42Ecalpimos is someplace inverted.

00:00:44You don't think someplace sounds a bit American?

00:00:46It's not going to be called someplace.

00:00:48It's going to be Ecalpimos.

00:00:52A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine.

00:00:56Dramatized by Michael Bakewell.

00:00:58With Andrew Wincott as Adam, Matthew Morgan as Rufus, and Tariq Alibai as Shiva.

00:01:06Where are we going to bury him?

00:01:08On the other side of the lake, I thought.

00:01:11By the little wood.

00:01:13Did it go all right?

00:01:14He didn't know a thing.

00:01:16I held him on my lap, and Travis gave him the injection, and he died.

00:01:24We couldn't have kept him any longer.

00:01:26Not with that career.

00:01:28It was too painful to watch.

00:01:30And it must have been hell for him.

00:01:33Some people go through all this with kids.

00:01:35Can you imagine?

00:01:37I've yet to hear of parents calling in the doctor to put their sick children down.

00:01:42We'd better get on with it.

00:01:44I'll wrap him up in my raincoat.

00:01:47Wait a minute.

00:01:47I've just remembered.

00:01:49What about the old Bieland graveyard?

00:01:52Why bury him in the little wood, when the house already has an animal cemetery?

00:01:57Why not?

00:01:59It must have been the traditional place for burying pets from Wyber's Hall.

00:02:04I'd sort of like to think of him with those others.

00:02:06With Alexander and Pinto and Blaze.

00:02:08They do not sweat and whine about their condition.

00:02:17They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their souls.

00:02:24Of course.

00:02:24Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

00:02:31Quite a literary lot they must have been.

00:02:34By what eternal streams Pinto.

00:02:38Gone from us in three short years.

00:02:41Do you think Pinto was a water spaniel?

00:02:43Well, a pet otter.

00:02:44Where shall we put him?

00:02:47Here, I should think.

00:02:49Next to Blaze.

00:02:51Here goes.

00:02:55I can remember doing this sort of thing when I was a kid.

00:02:59Pet, rabbits and guinea pigs.

00:03:02I'll give you a hand.

00:03:06It had to be the back of a flower bed.

00:03:08Easy does it, Meg.

00:03:10It's Fred we're burying, not a coffin six feet under.

00:03:13There's no need to...

00:03:15What is it already?

00:03:18Something with a very big ribcage.

00:03:22They didn't put crosses over all of them.

00:03:25Just look at this.

00:03:27It looks like it must have been a monkey or something.

00:03:34We'd better put them in a box or something and rebury them.

00:03:36I don't think we can do that, Meg.

00:03:38Well, why not?

00:03:40What is the matter?

00:03:41Look at this.

00:03:43That's not a dog's skull, is it?

00:03:46Or a monkey's.

00:03:48Stop!

00:03:49Stop!

00:03:50Stop!

00:03:50It's for me to forgive anything, is it?

00:04:05I mean...

00:04:06Heine is supposed to have said on his deathbed,

00:04:10Dieu me pardonnera.

00:04:12C'est son métier.

00:04:13You know how bad my French is.

00:04:15God will forgive me.

00:04:17It's his job.

00:04:18I should hope it is.

00:04:20Let's not talk about it anymore, right?

00:04:24There's nothing I wouldn't forgive you.

00:04:27Not molesting kids.

00:04:29Not kidnap.

00:04:32Not murder.

00:04:33I'm likely to have done, aren't we?

00:04:37A passenger on Alitalia flight to Omos.

00:04:43Who was that, Shiva?

00:04:44The man you were looking at.

00:04:47The chap I used to know years ago.

00:04:48Why don't you go and say hello to him?

00:04:50Alas and alack, he doesn't want to know a poor Indian.

00:04:53He's not the kind of bloke who wished to know his colored brethren.

00:04:55Don't talk like that.

00:04:57I hate it when you talk like that.

00:04:59How did you come to know him?

00:05:01Alpalmus.

00:05:03He's one of the group of us there in the summer of 76.

00:05:06Adam Verne Smith.

00:05:10He was the one.

00:05:11It was his place.

00:05:18Get some currency before we left.

00:05:21Abigail thought you'd been kidnapped.

00:05:23Don't put your words into her mouth.

00:05:26What's she supposed to say at six months?

00:05:28Have you been eating a Danish pastry?

00:05:30A very modest indulgence, I'd have thought.

00:05:32Having a baby doesn't just make you eat more.

00:05:34It alters the metabolism.

00:05:36You need a whole lot less food to put on weight.

00:05:39What on earth's got into you, Hale?

00:05:43Come on.

00:05:44If we go now, we'll have time to get you some perfume in the duty-free

00:05:47before they call our flight.

00:05:51The doors!

00:05:53It wasn't your fault.

00:05:55What happened at that place?

00:05:56It wasn't your fault.

00:05:57It's true they never consulted me.

00:05:59If I had given my advice, I would have been ignored.

00:06:02You should try to forget it all.

00:06:03I suppose I feel that would be wrong.

00:06:06I would never forget about that kitty.

00:06:08It's funny.

00:06:09What's funny?

00:06:10That it was after our baby died that you saw the other man.

00:06:14What other man?

00:06:15Don't you remember?

00:06:16I always thought it was kind of retribution that our baby died.

00:06:21You said you...

00:06:22I forgot that I told you.

00:06:24But there's nothing funny about his being at the hospital.

00:06:26He's a gynecologist.

00:06:27A Suffolk landowner, Mr. Alec Chipstead, who lives near Hadley, unearthed a human skeleton.

00:06:39Police declined to comment further at this stage.

00:06:41There's something in the paper.

00:06:44What could there possibly be in the paper?

00:06:48Something's worrying you.

00:06:50That's an enormous vodka.

00:06:53Bad day.

00:06:54Not particularly.

00:06:55The stupid woman couldn't remember whether her IUD was still there or not.

00:06:59Oh!

00:07:01Why don't we go out to dinner tonight?

00:07:03Somewhere in Hampstead.

00:07:04Drink a lot of wine.

00:07:05I have no objection.

00:07:07Go and put on something splendid.

00:07:09It's rather a taut order.

00:07:11I'll see what I've got.

00:07:12A Suffolk landowner, Mr. Alec Chipstead, living near Hadley.

00:07:27It doesn't have to be why this hall.

00:07:40Directory Inquiries, which town, please?

00:07:42Colchester.

00:07:43What name?

00:07:43Chipstead.

00:07:44And the address?

00:07:45Wyvis Hall, Noons.

00:07:47One moment, please.

00:07:50The number you require is 6262013.

00:07:57Sir, no one will think of looking there.

00:08:01Where better to hide a body than a cemetery?

00:08:05A Suffolk landowner discovered the bodies of a woman and a baby in a pet's graveyard,

00:08:10in the grounds of a house at Noons near Colchester.

00:08:13The police say that foul play has not been ruled out.

00:08:16Good God, that's why this hall, as I live and breathe.

00:08:18A time-side shipyard has been awarded a contract to build five gunships for Saudi Arabia.

00:08:22It must have been getting up for 11 years.

00:08:23I suppose the company said that the contract could not have come...

00:08:25Let's turn this off.

00:08:26I wanted to watch Mastermind.

00:08:28Oh, that's hours yet.

00:08:30I shall have to get in touch with the police.

00:08:32There's no two ways about it.

00:08:34Shouldn't you wait till Adam gets back from Tenerife?

00:08:36Why?

00:08:37What would that be in aid of?

00:08:39There's no one living knows the place better than I do.

00:08:41That's true.

00:08:43I shan't wait till Adam gets back.

00:08:44I shall go down to the police station tomorrow and make a statement.

00:08:50Wyvis Hall, Noon, Suffolk, and the 20 acres of land surrounding it

00:08:54were the property, through his marriage, of my uncle, Hilbert Verne Smith.

00:08:58You've got the spelling of that correctly.

00:08:59Verne with an E.

00:09:01Verne with an E.

00:09:04I came into the possession of my son, Hilbert John Adam Verne Smith,

00:09:10under my uncle's will, bypassing myself,

00:09:12though my son was no more than 19 at the time of my uncle's death.

00:09:16Being an undergraduate at the time,

00:09:18my son never considered actually residing in the house.

00:09:21He was in agreement with my suggestion that the property be sold,

00:09:24and before he returned to college in the autumn of 1976,

00:09:28he took my advice and placed house and lands in the hands of an estate agent.

00:09:31I can't quite recall the agent's name at the present.

00:09:34But I shall let you have it in due course.

00:09:38Country properties were not selling well at that time,

00:09:40and Wyvis Hall was not finally sold until the end of 1977,

00:09:44when it was bought by Mr and Mrs Langan.

00:09:47As far as I know, my son's personal acquaintance with Wyvis Hall

00:09:51was confined to my uncle's lifetime,

00:09:53when I, my wife and son, frequently stayed with him.

00:09:57After my uncle's death in April 1976...

00:09:59I'm sorry, March.

00:10:01Stupid of me.

00:10:02March.

00:10:03March 1976.

00:10:08My son visited Wyvis Hall on two, or at the most, three separate occasions,

00:10:13simply for the purpose of looking it over

00:10:14and reaching a decision about the disposal of furniture and effects.

00:10:19I suppose it is possible that squatters or other vagrants

00:10:22took possession of the house between the time of my uncle's death

00:10:24and the sale of the property.

00:10:26Certainly my son never let it, or allowed anyone to occupy it,

00:10:30either on a temporary or permanent basis.

00:10:34Now, do you have a holiday address for your son?

00:10:37No.

00:10:37He's somewhere in Tenerife with his wife and daughter.

00:10:41He'll be returning in about a week's time.

00:10:43There's a train to Markstay in a quarter of an hour.

00:10:48You pick up the London train now.

00:10:51So this is it?

00:10:52This is it, Adam.

00:10:54From here on, we all go our separate ways.

00:10:57Forever and forever farewell, Ruthless.

00:11:00Take care.

00:11:01I can't tell you the weight you've taken off my mind, Dr. Fletcher.

00:11:06An ovarian cyst.

00:11:08And there I got the dreaded scene.

00:11:10Just leave it all to me, Mrs. Beecham.

00:11:13I'll make all the necessary arrangements.

00:11:15You're so considerate, Doctor.

00:11:16Thank you so much.

00:11:18Goodbye, Mrs. Beecham.

00:11:19Goodbye.

00:11:20Goodbye.

00:11:25That house with Adam and the others in 76.

00:11:27It'll be all up with me.

00:11:29I'm a gynaecologist, and it's the bones of a young mother and a baby they've dug up at Wyvis Hall.

00:11:35What worried woman would come to me?

00:11:38What GP would send her to me?

00:11:48This is our last warning.

00:11:53At least it's not as bad as the patella in Alaclava Street.

00:11:56What happened to them?

00:11:57A packet of dog dirt.

00:11:58That's what they got.

00:11:59What kind of minds have they got, these people?

00:12:01Shiva, do you think you ought to go to the police?

00:12:04What we saw on TV about the place in Suffolk.

00:12:06Why go looking for trouble?

00:12:07It's not my concern.

00:12:08It's Verne Smith's.

00:12:09Let it well alone.

00:12:12Adam's flight from Tenerife gets in at half past one.

00:12:15I thought you didn't know when he was coming back.

00:12:17I rang that friend of his who runs the travel agency.

00:12:20Collingwood.

00:12:20I think we should drive out and meet him at the airport.

00:12:25Break the news gently.

00:12:27Aren't you getting things out of proportion?

00:12:29I don't understand you.

00:12:30Well, I'll play yet.

00:12:31And that's all you know.

00:12:33Well, I bought the standard.

00:12:35The police are treating this case as murder.

00:12:38I remember you said at the time that only trouble would come from inheriting a place like Wyby's Hall at his age.

00:12:43It should have come to me.

00:12:45Uncle Hilbert always said that Wyby's Hall would come to me.

00:12:49I can't think what possessed him.

00:12:51And what I shall never forgive is that Adam never really appreciated what he'd inherited.

00:12:56Yes, dear.

00:12:56I loved that place more than anything in my life.

00:13:00The house, the gallery, the library, the lake.

00:13:04And all he could think of was how to get rid of it.

00:13:07It's quite simple.

00:13:08I need the money.

00:13:09But couldn't you just sell the land?

00:13:11I don't want to sell the land.

00:13:12It wouldn't fetch much anyway.

00:13:14And who's going to want to buy it?

00:13:16Why don't you try living there for a while?

00:13:18Get the feel of the place.

00:13:19There's no time.

00:13:21The term starts on October the 17th, and I'm going to Greece with Rufus Fletcher and his girlfriend.

00:13:24You're never going to Greece for four months.

00:13:26I don't know I might be.

00:13:27Greece is quite big.

00:13:29And what's going to happen to Wyby's Hall in the meantime?

00:13:32You can't just let it go to rack and ruin.

00:13:34It's not in ruins.

00:13:36And I don't know what rack means.

00:13:38I'll get somebody to keep an eye on the place and see that it's all right.

00:13:41There's a lot of squatting going on, you know.

00:13:45Perhaps it was squatters who did it.

00:13:47The murder?

00:13:48He said he'd got somebody to keep an eye out for squatters.

00:13:51That wasn't what worried him.

00:13:52He was more concerned that I might try to take possession of the place while he was away.

00:13:56Well, there they are.

00:13:58Abigail's fast asleep on Anne's shoulder, bless her.

00:14:00I didn't expect a reception committee.

00:14:03To what do I owe this on?

00:14:05How did you know we'd be on this flight?

00:14:07Something's happened.

00:14:08Something I thought you should know about straight away.

00:14:11They've dug up a lot of bones at my uncle's house.

00:14:14At Wyvis Hall.

00:14:22Nobody ever comes here anyway.

00:14:24How are we going to cover it all up?

00:14:25I cut the turf into squares.

00:14:27We ought to be able to put them back on top without it chewing.

00:14:29If it goes on raining like this, no one's ever going to notice the difference.

00:14:33I never knew anything about the place.

00:14:36It must have come as a terrific shock, discovering you'd inherited all that.

00:14:40Did it come as a complete surprise?

00:14:42I thought my father would come in for it.

00:14:44Everyone did.

00:14:46Why do you think he left it to you like that?

00:14:48Not because he liked me.

00:14:50I think it happened this way.

00:14:52He saw through all my father's toadying.

00:14:54He thought to himself,

00:14:56Right, you've called the boy Hilbert to please me, to make me like him,

00:14:59so I damn well will like him.

00:15:00I'll like him more than you, and leave him Wyvis Hall over your head.

00:15:04So I suppose you whizzed straight down there and had a look at your property?

00:15:08No, I didn't, as a matter of fact.

00:15:09I didn't have the time.

00:15:11I had to go back to university.

00:15:13Anyway, I was going to sell it.

00:15:15I wasn't starry-eyed about my lovely house, you know.

00:15:18When was all this?

00:15:19It was in 1976.

00:15:21You remember.

00:15:22The first of the long, hot, dry summers.

00:15:25The longest hot summer any of us had ever known.

00:15:27Want me to drive you down, then?

00:15:28I thought I should go down and take a look at my inheritance.

00:15:31And seeing as my father's so eaten up with jealousy,

00:15:33he won't let me have the car.

00:15:34You naturally thought of me?

00:15:36Not too grand now to travel in a Morris Minor van?

00:15:38I can cope with it this once.

00:15:40Right.

00:15:41Whereabouts is this place?

00:15:42It's near a place called Noons in Suffolk.

00:15:44You take the A12 up to Chelmsford,

00:15:45and then go across country through Halstead and Sudbury.

00:15:47At least, that's the way my father always used to take us.

00:15:54Ta-da!

00:15:57He's right.

00:15:59Well, we're still on the Hadley Road.

00:16:00I know it's somewhere off here.

00:16:02There's a drift that leads down to Wyvis Hall.

00:16:05Everything's grown so high, I don't recognise it.

00:16:07Why do you call it a drift?

00:16:08I don't know.

00:16:09I'll look it up.

00:16:13This place we're coming to?

00:16:14The mill in the Pytel.

00:16:16We've come too far.

00:16:18Turn around.

00:16:20What's a Pytel?

00:16:21No idea.

00:16:22You can look it up when you look up drift.

00:16:34That's it there.

00:16:35The gap in the hedge.

00:16:36It's a pretty bumpy road.

00:16:41Hope the axle's up to it.

00:16:45Through the trees.

00:16:47My, my.

00:16:48It's much bigger than I remembered.

00:16:50That's because it's yours now.

00:16:51Hey, you didn't tell me about all these other buildings.

00:16:54What's the place with the little tower?

00:16:56Those are the stables.

00:16:58They haven't been used for years.

00:16:59Yes.

00:17:06All mine.

00:17:14Let's go inside.

00:17:15Oh, I've been shut up for nearly three months.

00:17:20It's not surprising.

00:17:21I'll open a window.

00:17:23And I suppose all the furniture and knick-knacks are yours too.

00:17:26Yeah.

00:17:26Ancestors in oils, mirrors, cabinets stuffed with fine china.

00:17:31Hey, there's even a chandelier.

00:17:32Oh, this used to be Hilbert's study.

00:17:39Ah, here we are.

00:17:43Suffolk words and phrases.

00:17:45The books must be worth a bit too.

00:17:47All these leather bindings.

00:17:49Nothing for drift.

00:17:54Let's get back into the fresh air.

00:17:56I'm choking.

00:18:00Only Picocious Swan.

00:18:02In fact, a row of decidedly uninhibited statues.

00:18:06What are they all?

00:18:07They're supposed to be the loves of Jupiter.

00:18:10They were brought here from Florence long before my uncle's time.

00:18:13They used to fascinate me when I was a little child.

00:18:15I can imagine.

00:18:16I asked my father what the bull was doing to the pretty lady.

00:18:20But I never got a straight answer.

00:18:22Poor Louis.

00:18:25They're huge.

00:18:27Take a handful.

00:18:29Someone's obviously been looking after them.

00:18:31They're marvellous.

00:18:33That's because the sun has soaked into them.

00:18:36And there'll be raspberries and nectarines and currants and gooseberries.

00:18:40This is going to be a wonderful summer for fruit.

00:18:43It's so amazingly hot.

00:18:45It's like being in the tropics.

00:18:47Let's go down to the lake.

00:18:48It'll be cooler, though.

00:18:49The lake?

00:18:50You mean to say you own a lake as well?

00:18:53You're not seriously thinking of selling all this.

00:18:55What else can I do?

00:18:58The Garden of Eden.

00:19:00That's what I call it.

00:19:01A paradise to be expelled from.

00:19:04On the day we left, the weather broke.

00:19:07Do you know that?

00:19:07And a baby.

00:19:13Cause of death has not been established.

00:19:16The Home Office pathologist, Dr. Aubrey Hellyer, said that at this stage it was impossible to give an opinion.

00:19:22The police are treating the case as murder.

00:19:25But they don't say why.

00:19:27There's no mention of shot being found among the remains.

00:19:29Don't point it at me, for God's sake!

00:19:31It's not loaded.

00:19:32Never mind.

00:19:33You don't point guns at people.

00:19:35Give it to me.

00:19:35All right.

00:19:36Keep your hair on.

00:19:38It belongs to my uncle.

00:19:40It's a pump-action shotgun.

00:19:42What's that mean?

00:19:43We don't have to keep reloading.

00:19:44It's got a repeating action.

00:19:46You don't have to pull a cartridge in each time before you fire.

00:19:49I thought all guns worked like that.

00:19:51And the cabinet's full of cartridges.

00:19:53We might even get some shooting.

00:19:54Not in June, Squire.

00:19:56Even I know that.

00:19:57I didn't mean now.

00:19:59I thought you were going to sell this place.

00:20:11Matter?

00:20:12Nothing.

00:20:13That clicking noise you make in your throat when you're asleep.

00:20:16Keep me awake.

00:20:17Would they be able to identify us?

00:20:31Old Mr. Verne Smith paid me up to the end of April.

00:20:35I never received no notification to quit, so I carried on.

00:20:39Well, I'm telling you to stop now.

00:20:41You're not needed here.

00:20:42The gardens can't keep going by themselves.

00:20:45I've been coming on here watering most nights.

00:20:48That's not my problem.

00:20:49The people who buy the hall will have to handle that.

00:20:51Oh, it do seem a wicked shame.

00:20:54But it's not my place to argue.

00:20:56Well, that's several weeks you owe me then.

00:20:59I never asked you to come.

00:21:00Oh, true.

00:21:01But I come, didn't I?

00:21:02I done the work, and I want paying.

00:21:05Fair's fair.

00:21:07Oh, look at the place.

00:21:09You can't deny I done the work.

00:21:11How much does it come to?

00:21:12Well, I come twice a week at a pound a time, so that's 13, see?

00:21:18And then there's all the times I've come over to do the watering.

00:21:2215 quid, I reckon, would cover it.

00:21:24Just a minute.

00:21:27Rufus!

00:21:28Rufus!

00:21:29What time's my next appointment?

00:21:31Uh, half past three, Mrs. Waynefleet.

00:21:34But you were going to give me a report on Mrs. Elmsted.

00:21:36Uh, that can wait for a while.

00:21:37Thank you, nurse.

00:21:38The problem.

00:21:45If we'd had any money, we'd have gone off to Greece and probably forgotten all about the place.

00:21:50But we were broke and decided to spend a week at Wyvis Hall while we sorted things out.

00:21:54We ought to give the rooms names.

00:21:57In my uncle's time, there was the blue room and the rose room and the garden room and so on.

00:22:02But we can surely do better than that.

00:22:04Well, there's old Hilbert's room for a start, with that dreadful Victorian picture of the baby dying.

00:22:09The deathbed room, then.

00:22:10There's a very peculiar picture in my room, too.

00:22:13The centaur at the forge.

00:22:15It's by a chap called Birklin.

00:22:16It's pretty dreadful.

00:22:18Is it valuable?

00:22:19Don't know.

00:22:21So we'll call your room the centaur room.

00:22:23Where I slept with Mary Gage.

00:22:25And where is she now?

00:22:28I must have been mad to invite her down there.

00:22:30But she was just about the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.

00:22:34You'd never have got anywhere near Greece in this thing.

00:22:38It would have given up the ghost halfway across France.

00:22:41The Goblinder.

00:22:42The what?

00:22:43I'm calling it the Goblinder.

00:22:44Goblinder.

00:22:45I know.

00:22:46It's an anagram.

00:22:47Old banger.

00:22:49Goblinder.

00:22:49It's not just an anagram.

00:22:51It's the way it gobbles up petrol.

00:22:53And it certainly wouldn't have got to Greece.

00:22:55Anyway, I don't much see the point of going to Greece now.

00:22:58This could be the best summer in England ever.

00:23:00And we'd miss it.

00:23:01It's always like this in Greece.

00:23:02It'll keep.

00:23:03The problem is, what are we going to live on?

00:23:05We'll manage.

00:23:06We can't live on strawberries and nectarines.

00:23:08And we shall need some wine.

00:23:11You'll just have to sell something.

00:23:12We've passed at least half a dozen antique shops in the last twenty minutes.

00:23:15Offer them the family silver.

00:23:17But you can't do that.

00:23:18It would be a desecration.

00:23:21Desecration?

00:23:22Don't be your great uncle in trust.

00:23:24He's not coming back to see how I've discharged my duties.

00:23:27He'll turn in his grave.

00:23:28No, there'll just be a small upheaval in his ashes.

00:23:33He's in that crowned Arby sweets jar.

00:23:36What are?

00:23:37Uncle Hilbert's ashes.

00:23:39I thought he'd like it there.

00:23:40I never know when you're being serious.

00:23:43You're not really going to sell those sherry glasses.

00:23:46What else can we do?

00:23:47I'll take them down to Sudbury in the morning.

00:23:49That antique dealer from Hadley.

00:23:51He might remember us.

00:23:53One hundred and fifty pounds.

00:23:56That's the best I could do on those.

00:23:58He came out and had a look round the place.

00:24:00I showed him round the house.

00:24:02He'd be in his seventies now.

00:24:04But he'd recognise me all right.

00:24:07What?

00:24:08Mrs. Waynefleet's here.

00:24:09About the result of her cervical smear.

00:24:11Show her in.

00:24:12I kelpimos.

00:24:12It's a better name than Wyvis Hall, anyway.

00:24:15If anyone asks where we spent the summer, we'll tell them a kelpimos.

00:24:19Sounds like a Greek island commune.

00:24:21We might just as well be on a Greek island.

00:24:24Cloudless skies, day after day.

00:24:26It would really come as a shock to the system now if we were to have a shower of rain.

00:24:29I think we should start a commune here.

00:24:32If we could find the right sort of people, of course.

00:24:35There might be some people at college.

00:24:37You want at least one person who's been in a commune before.

00:24:41There's a girl I know called Bella something.

00:24:44She used to be one of the Rajnees lot.

00:24:46She always lives in communes.

00:24:48I could find out a bit more about her and give her a ring.

00:24:52And it was through Bella that Vivian and Shiva got to know about a kelpimos.

00:24:57Mary, what was her name?

00:25:00Mary Gage.

00:25:02Her father was a labour peer or something of the sort.

00:25:05She looked like Elizabeth Taylor did when she was young.

00:25:08Dark blue eyes and a wonderful figure.

00:25:12Perfect.

00:25:15We're not going to Greece, are we?

00:25:17I shouldn't think so for a moment.

00:25:19Why on earth should we do that?

00:25:21I still want to go to Greece.

00:25:23No, you don't, dear lovely.

00:25:27You want to stay here?

00:25:30I'll do it.

00:25:31No.

00:25:32Let her do it.

00:25:33Roll over.

00:25:39Poor old Adam.

00:25:41Leading the life of a monk and watching us at it all the time.

00:25:44It can't be good for him.

00:25:46We should give him a piece of the action.

00:25:49Let's just slip your halter top off.

00:25:51Get your hands off.

00:25:52No.

00:25:53I don't want it.

00:25:54What's the matter with you, woman?

00:25:56I'm not doing tribadism.

00:25:58That's what's the matter.

00:25:59Troyalism, not tribadism.

00:26:02A tribat is a lesbian, whereas a Troyalist is someone...

00:26:04You bastard, you perverted sob.

00:26:07The confusion arises from the tri, which isn't Latin, but it's actually...

00:26:10Look, it was only a game, a Midsummer Night's game.

00:26:13It actually derives from the Greek verb to rub.

00:26:16It isn't Midsummer Night.

00:26:17It's the 22nd.

00:26:20I've had enough!

00:26:24A nice little threesome.

00:26:26And the minute it rocks a bit, nothing a bit of persuasion wouldn't put right.

00:26:30You start giving an address on the verb to rub.

00:26:33Well, I shall remember that to my dying day.

00:26:36You won't.

00:26:37I bet you won't.

00:26:40And then there was the Koi Poo man.

00:26:42Well, he certainly met Adam.

00:26:44And I doubt whether he would have forgot Mary in a hurry.

00:26:46Adam, I'm leaving.

00:26:47What?

00:26:48I'm getting the next train from Colchester.

00:26:50And I think you should know there's some awful peasant trespassing down by the lake.

00:26:55He looks as if he's poaching.

00:26:58Just giving your lake the once-over.

00:27:01Koi Poo Control.

00:27:02What control?

00:27:04Koi Poo.

00:27:05Is that an acronym?

00:27:06I don't know.

00:27:08I use a sort of big rat to come from South America.

00:27:11Well, look all you want.

00:27:12Oh, right.

00:27:13Why take a shuft around the wood while I'm at it?

00:27:15Feed next to you, stone to sugar beet this year.

00:27:18The Koi Poo is crazy for sugar beet.

00:27:20If you ever want me, you can always find me in noons.

00:27:23Pearson, Wormstroy.

00:27:27What does he want?

00:27:28He isn't trespassing.

00:27:29He's the Koi Poo exterminator.

00:27:31And you let him go ahead?

00:27:33Well, why not?

00:27:34Because he's destroying the local ecology.

00:27:36That's why.

00:27:37There can't be anything ecological about preserving South American rodents in Suffolk.

00:27:42Well, I'm going to sort him out.

00:27:44I'll teach him to respect wildlife.

00:27:48Zosie.

00:27:53Zosie.

00:27:58Adam.

00:28:00Adam.

00:28:01Hi!

00:28:01Hi, stop!

00:28:07Where are you going?

00:28:08Anywhere.

00:28:09Anywhere?

00:28:10I don't know where I am, so how can I say where I want to go?

00:28:13Did you come on the train?

00:28:14Came out of there.

00:28:16The building with the big chimney.

00:28:17What is it?

00:28:18It's a bin.

00:28:19Funny farm.

00:28:20What my gran calls a lunatic asylum.

00:28:24What is it?

00:28:25What's the matter with you?

00:28:29Was I having a dream?

00:28:32I'll take a look at her just the same.

00:28:34Bed.

00:28:39Bed.

00:28:39The doctor turning to the father, with the mother clinging to his side.

00:28:44Dead, dead, and never called me mother.

00:28:48How could we have laughed at it?

00:28:50Why didn't you let me come in there?

00:28:53Why didn't you want her?

00:28:55Why didn't you tell me?

00:28:57Again?

00:28:59But my dream was all wrong.

00:29:01It wasn't me who found her on the road.

00:29:04It was Rufus.

00:29:04Where do you want to go?

00:29:06Anywhere.

00:29:07Come on, you can do better than that.

00:29:09Nones.

00:29:10By an amazing coincidence, I'm going there myself.

00:29:13Could I have a cigarette?

00:29:14I've only got six.

00:29:15You could buy some at a pub.

00:29:17I could if I had any money.

00:29:18I just bought a gallon of petrol.

00:29:20Have you any money?

00:29:21Of course I haven't.

00:29:22What's your name?

00:29:24Zosie.

00:29:24Zoe.

00:29:25Not Zoe.

00:29:26Not Sophie.

00:29:28Zosie.

00:29:29What's yours?

00:29:31Rufus.

00:29:33To my friend's place.

00:29:35Why this hall?

00:29:35Maybe you know it.

00:29:37I've never been to Nones.

00:29:39It's a friend of yours.

00:29:41Is it his parents' place?

00:29:42No, it's his place.

00:29:43He owns it.

00:29:44We live there.

00:29:45Just the two of us.

00:29:46Can I go there with you?

00:29:48Just for a little while.

00:29:50Just for the night.

00:29:51Why not?

00:29:52You don't have to tell me.

00:29:53I was just hoping somebody would turn up.

00:29:56Probably have gone home.

00:29:57Oh, we're coming to Nones now.

00:29:59What's the matter?

00:30:00Are you feeling all right?

00:30:01I'm tired.

00:30:03Don't you worry.

00:30:04We'll soon have you tucked up in bed.

00:30:06Yours?

00:30:07I wouldn't be at all surprised.

00:30:17What is it?

00:30:18Detective Inspector Weiner.

00:30:19I'd like to call around and see you if I may, sir.

00:30:22Just to clear a few matters up.

00:30:24What matters?

00:30:25I'd explain that when we meet, Mr. Vern Smith.

00:30:27When do you want to come?

00:30:28Well, shall we say half an hour?

00:30:30No time like the present, is there?

00:30:31Oh, God.

00:30:37I came into the house and heard the phone ringing and Abigail crying and went to the phone first.

00:30:43What sort of father does that make me?

00:30:44Yeah, take her if you're so concerned.

00:30:47There wasn't anything wrong with her.

00:30:48She'd thrown her teddy out and couldn't reach it.

00:30:52Anne, would you get me a whiskey and water?

00:30:54A lot of water.

00:30:55I can't get it without putting her down.

00:30:56Sure.

00:30:58Is something the matter?

00:30:59No, not really.

00:31:00The police want to come and see me.

00:31:02Something about Wyvis Hall.

00:31:03When?

00:31:04What do you mean, when?

00:31:06When do they want to come and see you?

00:31:07They'll be round in about 20 minutes or so.

00:31:09Here.

00:31:10Thanks.

00:31:11What's it all about?

00:31:13I can't tell them very much.

00:31:14It isn't as if I ever lived there.

00:31:16But you had someone come to look after it, didn't you?

00:31:19Actually, no.

00:31:20I told my father that at the time to stop him saying I was letting the place go to ruin.

00:31:24How could I have afforded anyone?

00:31:25I was broke.

00:31:27I had to sell off some of Hilbert's furniture to get to Greece.

00:31:30It was the bones of a girl they found.

00:31:33And a baby.

00:31:34How old are you, Zosie?

00:31:35I'm 17.

00:31:37And why are you called Zosie?

00:31:38What's it short for?

00:31:39I don't know much about it.

00:31:41My mother said that it was after Zosiema.

00:31:44It was in some Russian book.

00:31:45Do you mean Dostoevsky?

00:31:47Father Zosiema's a man.

00:31:48My mother's very ignorant.

00:31:50She wouldn't know.

00:31:51She'd just have liked the sound.

00:31:53What about your father?

00:31:54Where does he live?

00:31:55He's dead.

00:31:56My mother married again.

00:31:57And where does she live?

00:31:58For goodness sake, Adam.

00:31:59Stop persecuting the poor girl.

00:32:01You're treating her like a criminal.

00:32:03Did you know there was an area of your property where family pets were buried?

00:32:06Eric, I used to go there when I was a child.

00:32:09You know, I think I must have been shown it then.

00:32:11You think, Mr. Vern Smith?

00:32:14I don't remember.

00:32:15I knew there was an animal cemetery there somewhere, but I don't remember when I first saw it.

00:32:20You didn't, for instance, go to look at it when you stayed at Wyvis Hall in June 1976?

00:32:25I don't think so.

00:32:26Not that I can recall.

00:32:27You are aware, of course, of what was found buried in the animal cemetery a couple of weeks ago?

00:32:31I think so.

00:32:32Skeletons of a young woman and a baby.

00:32:35Death occurred between nine and twelve years ago, which really means most probably ten or eleven years ago.

00:32:41I suppose so.

00:32:43Young woman met a violent death.

00:32:45Child two, possibly.

00:32:46Suicide is a possibility in the woman's case, but she didn't kill herself and dig her own grave.

00:32:52It wouldn't seem likely.

00:32:55When would it have been exactly the time you spent down there in the summer of 1976?

00:33:00From June the 18th, for about a week.

00:33:02You have no recollection of seeing a young woman about, pushing a pram, for example?

00:33:08Not that I can remember.

00:33:09You never saw a girl in the vicinity while you were there?

00:33:12No.

00:33:13You won't mind my asking.

00:33:16I'm sure it was a long time ago.

00:33:18You never had a girl staying with you there?

00:33:20Absolutely not.

00:33:23I believe people might have used the house in my absence.

00:33:26When I went back in 1977, there were, well, signs that people might have been in, camping there.

00:33:32What sort of signs, Mr. Vern Smith?

00:33:34Well, nothing very major or remarkable.

00:33:37Difficult to remember now in any detail.

00:33:39A broken window in the wash house, an empty bottle of whiskey, scraps of food packets.

00:33:46The remains of a fire by the walled garden.

00:33:49Some missing ornaments.

00:33:51Can you be more specific?

00:33:52I'm afraid I can't.

00:33:54Well, I didn't think that much about it at the time.

00:33:56No, no, no.

00:33:57I understand.

00:33:58Is there anything else you would like to tell me?

00:34:01I don't think so.

00:34:03Well, then, I'll leave you in peace.

00:34:06Oh, there's just one other thing.

00:34:08I wonder if you would mind going into the local station sometime in the next few days.

00:34:12I'm Suffolk Police, but it would be best if you were to make a statement here.

00:34:16A statement?

00:34:17Yeah, simply tell them what you told me.

00:34:18Ask for Sergeant Fuller, CID.

00:34:20Any time will do, but let's say before the weekend, shall we?

00:34:24What the hell's that?

00:34:26My God, it's the police.

00:34:28It's just the post lady.

00:34:29What's the matter with you?

00:34:30I thought it was the fuss.

00:34:31And what were you going to do if it was?

00:34:33I think you should put that gun down.

00:34:35Just what is all this?

00:34:36It's nothing to do with me.

00:34:38They think squatters got into Wyvis Hall and lived there without my knowing.

00:34:41Why do they want you to make a statement?

00:34:43It's nothing, just a formality.

00:34:45Isn't that Abigail?

00:34:46I didn't hear anything.

00:34:47I'll just go upstairs and check.

00:34:48I'm sure it's nothing.

00:34:52Abigail?

00:34:53Abigail?

00:34:54This is Adam Verne-Smith.

00:35:17I arrived.

00:35:18Not now.

00:35:19The police have been here.

00:35:20Christ.

00:35:21I didn't mention you or anyone.

00:35:24I said I'd never stayed there.

00:35:25Where do you work or whatever you do?

00:35:28Sort of Victoria, Pimlico.

00:35:29Call me tomorrow in Wimpolk Street.

00:35:31We might have a drink.

00:35:35Abigail?

00:35:37She's not breathing.

00:35:39Abigail!

00:35:40Oh, thank God.

00:35:43What the hell are you doing to me?

00:35:44I thought she was dead.

00:35:46I thought she was dead.

00:35:46You're mad.

00:35:47You're sick.

00:35:48You ought to see someone.

00:35:49Give her to me.

00:35:53Stay on here a bit.

00:35:55I suppose so.

00:35:56But I really meant for people to sort of pay their way.

00:35:59I want to get a commune going with people contributing.

00:36:01Well, I haven't got any money.

00:36:03I expect I could sign on.

00:36:04Sign on?

00:36:05I could sign on and get the dough and give you some.

00:36:08I see.

00:36:09There are other ways of getting money.

00:36:11I can always get money.

00:36:13I wouldn't want you doing that.

00:36:16Doing what?

00:36:18I didn't mean that.

00:36:21I suppose I would do that, though.

00:36:22It wouldn't bother me.

00:36:24I expect you'd call it that when I let Woof Woof have me to get a bed for the night.

00:36:29What did you mean, then?

00:36:31Never actually picked food and eaten it like this.

00:36:33Should have always been bought in the shops.

00:36:36What did you mean about getting money?

00:36:38Don't think I want to say.

00:36:39You'll see.

00:36:40Isn't it a bad time we were getting back to...

00:36:42What the hell are you wearing?

00:36:44It's a pillowcase.

00:36:46I just unpicked a few stitches.

00:36:48I had to have something to put on while I washed my shorts and T-shirt.

00:36:50I think she looks great.

00:36:51And you're coming into Sudbury like that?

00:36:53Why shouldn't she?

00:36:54I just don't think they're prepared for this kind of thing in Sudbury.

00:37:00Selling it.

00:37:00It's probably been in the family for generations.

00:37:02If it has been, they haven't taken much care of it.

00:37:04It's all discoloured.

00:37:06Anyway, it's all yours now and we need the money.

00:37:09If we can't have booze and a few fags when we want, there's no point in being here.

00:37:12What on earth are you doing?

00:37:14I don't want anyone in news to see me.

00:37:17In my house.

00:37:18Bin.

00:37:19I'm staying down here until we're out in the Sudbury road.

00:37:21We'll try the place in Friar Street, right?

00:37:23Well, he won't give us much.

00:37:24But he doesn't ask any questions.

00:37:26Then we'll blow some of it at the off-license.

00:37:33I'm ten quid short.

00:37:35He gave me 65 pounds for the silver, didn't he?

00:37:37Yeah, I watched him count it out.

00:37:39But I only had 55 when I paid for the wine.

00:37:41You must have got it wrong.

00:37:42Well, the booze and the fags came to 34.72 when I've got 20.28.

00:37:47It ought to be 30.28.

00:37:49Here's Zosie.

00:37:49She might not.

00:37:51Hi.

00:37:52And she's wearing a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

00:37:55She must have picked my pocket.

00:37:56I had to have some clothes.

00:37:58I felt funny in that pillowcase.

00:38:00The old guy in the antique shop kept staring at me.

00:38:02Zosie, did you take the...

00:38:04Here, take this.

00:38:05Forty quid?

00:38:07Where did this come from?

00:38:08It doesn't matter.

00:38:09It's for us.

00:38:11You said everyone had to contribute.

00:38:13But how did you manage to get...

00:38:14Let's go home now, shall we?

00:38:16I think perhaps we ought to steer clear of this place for a bit.

00:38:19It is all right now, isn't it?

00:38:21I can stay on.

00:38:25Adam.

00:38:26Without the beard, but unmistakably Adam.

00:38:29I didn't see you at first.

00:38:30I got myself a drink.

00:38:31Can I freshen yours up?

00:38:32No, thanks. I'm fine.

00:38:35Well, well.

00:38:36After all this time...

00:38:38I'd like to dispense with all that

00:38:40how are you and what have you been doing all this time stuff.

00:38:43It's a mere matter of form.

00:38:44We can't really want to know.

00:38:46As you wish.

00:38:47No one's contacted me.

00:38:49I rather expected they would.

00:38:51I thought they might be anxious about what I'd tell the police.

00:38:54About them, I mean.

00:38:55And have you mentioned their names to the police?

00:38:57No, I haven't.

00:38:57But they've been to you. They've questioned you.

00:38:59Yes, but I haven't mentioned you or any of them.

00:39:01I see.

00:39:02They asked me if I'd ever lived at Whitehurst Hall.

00:39:04And I said no, only stayed there for a week or two.

00:39:06At the beginning of the time, we were actually there.

00:39:08Did they ask you if you were there by yourself?

00:39:10They asked if I had a girl with me.

00:39:12And I just said no, certainly not.

00:39:14Well, that's...

00:39:15No, it's not funny.

00:39:17It's not funny.

00:39:19Everything is funny in a sort of way.

00:39:23What do you mean?

00:39:24It's all mine if I want it.

00:39:26Zosie was just a brief aberration.

00:39:29A two-night stand.

00:39:30And she's a woman of mystery.

00:39:33You'll have noticed I've been sleeping on the terrace this past couple of nights.

00:39:37Why don't you take her into Pincushion with you?

00:39:40You are the lord of the manor, after all.

00:39:42Droida senior and all that.

00:39:43I suppose you're married.

00:39:45Yes.

00:39:46And you?

00:39:47Yes.

00:39:48I've got a daughter.

00:39:49Have you?

00:39:50I can't imagine you with kids.

00:39:54Zosie.

00:39:55Like the feathers of a little bird.

00:39:58I hate them.

00:39:59They're ugly.

00:40:00Oh, they're beautiful, Zosie.

00:40:03Everything about you is beautiful.

00:40:07I don't see what you're worrying about.

00:40:08It's one thing talking to a bloke in your own living room,

00:40:11and another thing signing sworn statements in a police station.

00:40:15I've managed to keep you out of it so far.

00:40:17It wouldn't help you to mention us.

00:40:19Come on.

00:40:19If you stick to what you've already said, they'll accept it.

00:40:22Why shouldn't they?

00:40:23They've only come because you're one of the past owners of the place.

00:40:26Whoever you sold the place to is coming in for the same.

00:40:29I hope you're bloody right.

00:40:30Do you think I ought to get in touch with Shiva What's-His-Name?

00:40:35What was his name?

00:40:36I've been trying to remember.

00:40:38It was the way they just arrived there out of the blue that was so strange.

00:40:42We were lying out there on the terrace watching the sun go down,

00:40:45half stupid with wine and hashish.

00:40:48It was July the 15th, St. Swithin's Day.

00:40:51St. Swithin's Day.

00:40:53If thou dost rain,

00:40:56for forty days it shall remain.

00:40:59Who is St. Swithin?

00:41:01Bishop of Winchester or something of the sort.

00:41:05It always rained on St. Swithin's Day,

00:41:08for as long as I can remember.

00:41:10Well, if it's going to rain this evening,

00:41:13it's leaving it a bit late.

00:41:15What happens if it doesn't rain?

00:41:18St. Swithin's Day,

00:41:20if thou be fair,

00:41:22for forty days shall rain no more.

00:41:26Forty more days of perpetual sunshine.

00:41:31The Mediterranean come to suffer.

00:41:34Hello?

00:41:36Hello?

00:41:37Is anybody here?

00:41:38Who the devil's that?

00:41:39Over here!

00:41:41Good evening.

00:41:43My name is Shiva Manjustri.

00:41:45What can we do for you?

00:41:46This is the right place?

00:41:50This is Ecalpimos?

00:41:51Yes, this is Ecalpimos.

00:41:53Have a glass of wine.

00:41:57My name is Vivian Goldman.

00:42:00We heard about your commune from Bella.

00:42:02Bella?

00:42:03She was a friend of Mary's.

00:42:07Welcome to Ecalpimos, Vivian and Shiva.

00:42:12We had quite a lot of trouble finding the place.

00:42:15None of the taxi drivers at Colchester had heard of it.

00:42:18We had to walk from noons.

00:42:21And even then we weren't sure.

00:42:22I mean, there isn't a sign or anything.

00:42:23It is the first time I've been in the English countryside.

00:42:26It is quite remarkably beautiful.

00:42:30We'd better put them in Hilbert's room.

00:42:32The deathbed room.

00:42:34Most appropriate.

00:42:35I haven't heard from anyone else.

00:42:39Nothing.

00:42:40The trouble about women is that they marry and change their names.

00:42:43I've been thinking about all the people who knew we were living there who might remember us.

00:42:46Like the gardener.

00:42:47And the coipu man.

00:42:48And the antique dealers.

00:42:49What about Mary Gage?

00:42:50She got married and went off to Brazil.

00:42:52No trouble there.

00:42:54I expect in the eyes of the law we'd all be guilty, you know.

00:42:58I mean, we were all there.

00:42:59Not to be guilty, one of us would have had to go rushing off to the police.

00:43:02When you've made that statement, give me a ring at Wimpole Street, would you?

00:43:07Your wife doesn't know about any of this.

00:43:09Lord, no.

00:43:10Yours?

00:43:10No.

00:43:12I'd better be off.

00:43:13Soldier on.

00:43:14Bye.

00:43:14I think I'll stay here for a while.

00:43:19I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine.

00:43:25I am I, and you are you.

00:43:27And if we find each other, that's beautiful.

00:43:30If not, it can't be helped.

00:43:32It's called the Gestalt Prayer.

00:43:33Don't you think it's beautiful?

00:43:35I don't know about that.

00:43:36Do we really have to have it on the kitchen wall?

00:43:38I like it.

00:43:40It's the way people ought to live.

00:43:42Love is about allowing.

00:43:44Love is about letting people be free.

00:43:47Look, you leave the cage door open, and if you're really loved, the bird flies back to be with you.

00:43:52That's the only kind of love worth having.

00:43:54You weren't very allowing when I wanted to go off shooting birds this morning.

00:43:57Look, that's different.

00:43:58It's practical.

00:43:59Meat's expensive.

00:44:00We should make use of the resources of this place.

00:44:03Pick the fruit and sell it, not just leave it for when we want it.

00:44:07We should coppice the wood to get timber for fires in the winter, and grow potatoes and greens, learn to weave, keep a goat.

00:44:15My dear Vivian, what we have here is a little paradise.

00:44:19We lie on our backs in the sun, and the fruit drops into our mouths.

00:44:24The last thing we want to do is pick it and sell it.

00:44:27We're not here to work.

00:44:28Look, we're here to lie in the sun and drink and smoke and swim in the lake and make love if we feel so inclined.

00:44:35This isn't a Boy Scout camp.

00:44:37And when the money runs out?

00:44:39Well, then we flog the rest of Hilbert Silver.

00:44:41Well, I can't live like that.

00:44:44I shall cook and bake the bread and clean the rooms.

00:44:46But what do you have to do that for?

00:44:48Well, it's to earn my keep.

00:44:49I can't contribute any cash.

00:44:52I could never understand why it was so important to her.

00:44:55It was obvious from the start it was nothing like her idea of a commune.

00:44:58And she had no intention of staying there.

00:44:59And did you want to stay?

00:45:01I was happy there.

00:45:03Well, there was no possibility of that.

00:45:05I had to get on with my pharmacy course.

00:45:07Vivian had already applied for a job in London anyway.

00:45:09As a nanny.

00:45:11For an architect named Robin Tation.

00:45:13He lives in Highgate.

00:45:14Adam and I were at...

00:45:15He's on curly hair.

00:45:16He's about 35.

00:45:18Sounds yummy.

00:45:19Well, I didn't actually see him.

00:45:21But the woman showed me a photograph of him and the baby.

00:45:24So, what time do you have to be there?

00:45:25Three o'clock.

00:45:27Are you sure it won't be too much trouble?

00:45:29Can I come?

00:45:33Get the job.

00:45:35I shall save up all my salary and go to India.

00:45:37Should be possible.

00:45:38I'm living in.

00:45:39What do you want to go to India for?

00:45:40There's this mystic.

00:45:41He's...

00:45:42Well, he's a sadhu.

00:45:43I've read about him.

00:45:44People go to him and learn.

00:45:46I'd go and live there.

00:45:48Is there some sort of ashram there for you to stay in?

00:45:50I mean, would you wear yellow robes and ring a little glass bell?

00:45:53I shall take a room in the village.

00:45:55You'll make yourself ill.

00:45:56The food will be unwholesome, the water infected, and you'll very likely get amoebic dysentery.

00:46:00I don't think so.

00:46:02I shall be careful.

00:46:04Wish I could go with you.

00:46:05Come.

00:46:06What's the address of this place in Highgate?

00:46:08View Road.

00:46:09It's called Cranmer Lodge.

00:46:11Ah, I think I know the place.

00:46:15Do you have to have references to be a nanny?

00:46:18I've looked after someone's baby before.

00:46:20She'd give me a reference.

00:46:21Do you like babies?

00:46:22Yes, of course.

00:46:24I'm a woman.

00:46:26Isn't funny.

00:46:27Women naturally like babies.

00:46:29Why doesn't his wife look after the baby?

00:46:31Oh, I suppose she's too busy.

00:46:34The baby's got a nanny now, but she's leaving soon.

00:46:37Oh, and there's another child, a bit older.

00:46:38She's called Naomi.

00:46:40Not the kind of job that would appeal to you, Zosie.

00:46:42You wouldn't have anything to do with babies, would you?

00:46:44I would.

00:46:47I'd like to have six.

00:46:49I'd like twelve.

00:46:51You shouldn't laugh.

00:46:53What is there to laugh at?

00:46:54Now, this must be it.

00:46:59It's very worth a bob or two.

00:47:01I love that house.

00:47:03Isn't it lovely?

00:47:04Can you pick me up in an hour and a half?

00:47:09I'll be at the top of the road.

00:47:10Right you are.

00:47:11We'll find somewhere to kill time.

00:47:12I want to go to one of those big supermarkets.

00:47:17I've never seen one.

00:47:18Marigold?

00:47:21Yes?

00:47:22When did Brent Cross open?

00:47:26I was still at school.

00:47:34You're rather strange this evening.

00:47:36I'm just letting you watch your programme, that's all.

00:47:38I thought it was a particular favourite of yours.

00:47:41It is.

00:47:43What pretty little pointy things have fallen apart.

00:47:46I'm sure it was Brent Cross.

00:47:48If we lose one another, I'll see you at the car, okay?

00:47:52I knew that Zosie would steal something.

00:47:55And I wanted to see her do it.

00:47:57Excuse me, sir.

00:47:58I must ask you to kindly extinguish your cigarette.

00:48:01The smoking is not permitted.

00:48:03If you say so.

00:48:05This is a customer announcement.

00:48:06What about Barrick Place?

00:48:07For the parental person in charge of a small boy, aged about three,

00:48:10dressed in a white shirt, blue shorts and blue sandals,

00:48:14please come to the customer information desk.

00:48:16I couldn't see Zosie anywhere.

00:48:19Or rather, I could see her everywhere.

00:48:22There were thousands of girls in jeans and T-shirts and no make-up.

00:48:25But none of them was Zosie.

00:48:29Open the door and first quick!

00:48:31A bad time, too.

00:48:32I was going...

00:48:32What are you doing with that kid?

00:48:34He can come in the back with me.

00:48:36Let's get away now.

00:48:37Are you out of your mind?

00:48:38Please, somebody will see us.

00:48:40You've got to take him back.

00:48:41How did you get hold of him?

00:48:42There was this announcement.

00:48:44He said...

00:48:44No, never mind.

00:48:45I don't care.

00:48:46Just take him back.

00:48:47Put him down inside the doors and leave him.

00:48:48Anything.

00:48:49He's called Andrew.

00:48:51He was saying, Andrew wants mummy.

00:48:53So I walked in and I said, here's mummy.

00:48:55Andrew, what's ever happened to you?

00:48:56Come on, let's go.

00:48:58They didn't stop me.

00:48:59They didn't ask anything and he just came.

00:49:01For God's sake!

00:49:02Look, he likes me.

00:49:03We can take him back to a cowpermoss and he can live with us.

00:49:06You're mad.

00:49:06Give him to me.

00:49:07No!

00:49:08He's coming with me.

00:49:09Come on, Andrew.

00:49:09We're going to find your mummy.

00:49:11No!

00:49:16You haven't been waiting too long.

00:49:17No, it's quite all right.

00:49:23How did you get on?

00:49:25Quite well, I think.

00:49:26It was his sister I saw.

00:49:28His wife's dead.

00:49:29She died when the baby was born.

00:49:30She had an embolism or something.

00:49:32What's an embolism?

00:49:34It's a bubble of air in a vein.

00:49:36And if it touches the heart or the brain, you die.

00:49:39Is that right, Rufus?

00:49:41More or less.

00:49:42Did you get the job or don't you know?

00:49:43Well, they're going to let me know.

00:49:45Her sister was interviewing people before she goes back to America.

00:49:48Sounds a peculiar set-up.

00:49:49No, she lives in America.

00:49:50She just wanted to see her brother settle with a new nanny while she was here.

00:49:54How old's the little baby?

00:49:56Oh, she's nine months old.

00:49:58What's she like?

00:49:59Is she lovely?

00:50:00Yes, of course.

00:50:01Beautiful.

00:50:02Oh, Rufus, I think I've done something silly.

00:50:05She said she'd write to me, and I told her my address was the Calpamos Noon Suffolk, but it isn't really called that, is it?

00:50:11I think it would baffle the post lady.

00:50:13It's why this hall.

00:50:14You'll have to phone them and set them right.

00:50:16Yeah, I'll phone in a couple of weeks' time.

00:50:18She said she'd let me know then.

00:50:20I hope you get the job.

00:50:22We could come and visit you.

00:50:23I'd love to see the baby.

00:50:26She was sick in her mind.

00:50:28You always said she was sick in her mind.

00:50:30She was mad with unhappiness.

00:50:33Rufus knew.

00:50:34He should have done something, got her to a doctor.

00:50:37But they encouraged her.

00:50:38Rufus and Adam.

00:50:40They encouraged her to steal.

00:50:41It amused them.

00:50:42It was love she was stealing, as psychiatrists would say.

00:50:46Who's the man in that picture?

00:50:49Saint Sebastian.

00:50:50That's why we call the room Pincushion.

00:50:53He was shot full of arrows by his own archers.

00:50:55I was shot full of arrows.

00:50:58What do you mean?

00:50:59My skin was stretched and stretched, and when the stretching stopped, it could never go back to what it used to be.

00:51:05That's what those marks are.

00:51:08I think they're lovely, Zosie.

00:51:09My skin was stretched.

00:51:12Shall I tell you?

00:51:13Shall I tell you now?

00:51:15She had a baby.

00:51:16It was born before she had her 17th birthday.

00:51:19That was very sad, Shiva.

00:51:21Well, it was not sad for the baby.

00:51:23The baby was adopted.

00:51:26My goodness.

00:51:27It must be ten now.

00:51:29More than ten.

00:51:32She was a tremendous liar, you know.

00:51:34One day she told Vivian her stepfather was the baby's father.

00:51:38Another time it was a boy at her school.

00:51:40Who knows what the truth was.

00:51:43But it was clear she left school because she was going to have a baby.

00:51:46And after she was born, she went to live in this place where young girls who were not married lived with their babies until they were adopted.

00:51:52She didn't go back to live with her mother, though, of course, she meant to later.

00:51:56My mother doesn't know where I am.

00:51:58She doesn't care, does she?

00:52:00Well...

00:52:00She hasn't tried to find me.

00:52:03She hasn't looked for me.

00:52:03She hasn't told the police.

00:52:06Don't you see how terrible it is?

00:52:08I'm missing from home and my mother isn't worried.

00:52:11I might have been murdered.

00:52:13For Christ's sake, I'm only 17.

00:52:16Zosie told Vivian her mother was embarrassed when she got pregnant.

00:52:19Not angry or upset, mark you, but embarrassed.

00:52:23She was afraid of what people would say.

00:52:26Why didn't Zosie have an abortion?

00:52:28Vivian said she wouldn't face up to things.

00:52:30She pretended it wasn't happening.

00:52:33By the time she told her mother it was too late to do anything,

00:52:35the only thing her mother could think of was having the baby adopted.

00:52:39It was a piece of luck for her that she and her husband were moving house just about the time Zosie was supposed to give birth.

00:52:44So, with luck, the old neighbours wouldn't know and the new ones would never find out.

00:52:49That was why Zosie was supposed to go to the hostel place.

00:52:52She gave up the baby two weeks after it was born.

00:52:55Was it a boy or a girl?

00:52:57I don't know.

00:52:58I didn't ask her.

00:53:02Zosie couldn't stay at the hostel when the baby was gone.

00:53:05She couldn't go back to school.

00:53:07She had nowhere to go and no money.

00:53:09If only I'd known you lived here, and you'd want me to live here with you,

00:53:15I needn't have given up my baby.

00:53:18I could have kept my baby.

00:53:21Why don't things happen in the right order, Adam?

00:53:24What would we do with a baby here, Zosie?

00:53:26It would be a terrible nuisance.

00:53:29We wouldn't be able to go out.

00:53:31You weren't to blame.

00:53:33It was nothing to do with you.

00:53:36It was only that you happened to be there.

00:53:39No.

00:53:41It was more than that.

00:53:43I should have left.

00:53:45But instead I actually persuaded Vivian to stay on.

00:53:48When she heard she got the job with Robin Tation,

00:53:51she thought of going back to London,

00:53:53back to the squat, until the time came for her to move in.

00:53:56Things hadn't worked out at Ecalpomus the way she'd expected them to.

00:54:00You can stay on, she said.

00:54:02It doesn't mean you have to go because I do.

00:54:03We slept in the same bed together, but never touched her.

00:54:11I believe Vivian was coming to believe there wasn't room in her life for the distractions of sex.

00:54:15I don't like this lily.

00:54:21I don't much like it, Shiva.

00:54:25Stay on.

00:54:27The others were very distant from me.

00:54:31I'll be frank.

00:54:34I was in awe of them, even a bit afraid.

00:54:37I felt that Vivian was a protection, a sort of shield between me and them.

00:54:41I asked her not to desert me, and she said she wouldn't to.

00:54:45She sounds more like your mother than your lover.

00:54:48She was.

00:54:49She said she thanked me for being Indian.

00:54:52We never talked about Hinduism.

00:54:54I don't know anything about it anyway.

00:54:55But she said that for her purposes it was enough for my just being Indian.

00:54:59It pointed the way for her.

00:55:01I've never really known what she meant.

00:55:05What was that?

00:55:06Aren't your kids outside?

00:55:08They've broken a car windscreen.

00:55:09Why don't you phone the police?

00:55:11You say?

00:55:14They wouldn't pay me any attention.

00:55:19The statement through carefully.

00:55:21Yes, I have.

00:55:22In point of fact, just for the record,

00:55:25where were you for the rest of the summer holidays?

00:55:27At home with your people, were you?

00:55:29Or did you go off somewhere?

00:55:31I went to Greece.

00:55:33On your own, were you?

00:55:34I don't see what this has to do with Wyvis Hall.

00:55:36I wasn't there, and I should have thought that was all that mattered.

00:55:38All that mattered?

00:55:40That would be a very tall order, don't you think?

00:55:43Funny the way people think things are of no importance.

00:55:46Just because they happened ten years ago.

00:55:48If you finish with me, I do happen to be rather busy.

00:55:51You have to sign your statement, Mr. Vern Smith.

00:55:53I went with a friend of mine called Rufus Fletcher.

00:56:01He's Dr. Fletcher now.

00:56:03Perhaps you give me his address.

00:56:04He's in the phone book.

00:56:12Rufus Fletcher.

00:56:13Rufus.

00:56:13This is Mary Passant.

00:56:15I found a children's graveyard.

00:56:18None of them seems to have lived beyond 15.

00:56:21Do you want me to show you?

00:56:26They're dogs and cats.

00:56:28I suppose there may be a goat or parrot here as well, but it's mostly dogs and cats.

00:56:31How can you know?

00:56:32Well, I just know people like the Beerlands.

00:56:34They were my great-aunt's family.

00:56:36They were the sort to have animal cemeteries.

00:56:38Do you think anyone else would ever be buried here?

00:56:40I don't remember any animal cemetery.

00:56:43We never knew it existed.

00:56:44Who is it?

00:56:45Mary Passant.

00:56:46Who are you talking to?

00:56:47My wife.

00:56:49So you don't know anything about it?

00:56:51Well, how could you?

00:56:52How indeed.

00:56:54Adam and I didn't stay long after you left.

00:56:56So that girl Bella never found anyone to set up a commune with you?

00:56:59Bella?

00:57:01I only remember because someone told me yesterday that she'd died.

00:57:05She was only 30.

00:57:07Poor soul.

00:57:07No, she never sent anyone to us.

00:57:11When exactly do you go back to Brazil?

00:57:13Five days' time.

00:57:14Well, four really.

00:57:16Not really time for us to meet.

00:57:17Not really.

00:57:18Funny how it brought it all back, reading about Wyver's Hall in the papers.

00:57:22Yes.

00:57:24I've been remembering it too.

00:57:27We need more wine.

00:57:29It's not going to last a week.

00:57:31And we're down to our last fiver, and that certainly isn't going to last a week.

00:57:34Well, time for another little trip around the antique shops.

00:57:36And where do you suppose we're going to go?

00:57:38After Zosie's last little escapade, we don't try anywhere in Sudbury.

00:57:42And you know what antique dealers are like?

00:57:44They've probably circulated our description around Lavanham and Long Melford and Colchester.

00:57:48Oh, I could sell my ring.

00:57:50It's gold.

00:57:50What, that pathetic little object.

00:57:52And you'd scarcely get it on a child.

00:57:54It was made for me when I was little.

00:57:56I wore to one of my big fingers then.

00:57:58It's got a Zed engraved inside.

00:58:00It might fit an Indian girl.

00:58:02But I don't think you'll get much money for it.

00:58:04Well, I don't want Zosie to sell it.

00:58:06What else have we got?

00:58:08They're the Georgian spoons and the salvers, and the liqueur glasses.

00:58:11We'll have to go to London.

00:58:12There's a place in the Archway Road where I might get a good price for the salvers.

00:58:16So long as I don't run into my parents.

00:58:17I thought they lived in Edgware.

00:58:19It's not exactly close to Highgate.

00:58:21Can I come?

00:58:31I'm sorry, but I had to tell the police I went to Greece with you.

00:58:33They wanted to know who I was with if I wasn't at Wybus Hall.

00:58:36I had to say.

00:58:37I couldn't invent someone.

00:58:38Thanks very much.

00:58:39Thanks very much for getting me involved.

00:58:41Why shouldn't you be involved?

00:58:43I don't see why I should carry the whole burden by myself.

00:58:46Because you shot her, that's why.

00:58:47You fired the bloody gun.

00:58:50I could steal food.

00:58:52I could steal a bottle of wine.

00:58:53No, Zosie.

00:58:54There's to be no more stealing.

00:58:56We've got to find something to live on.

00:58:59Vivian and Shiva will be leaving soon, and so will Rufus.

00:59:02We shall both have to work.

00:59:03I can't do anything.

00:59:05What could I do?

00:59:06You could work in a shop.

00:59:08I'm bad at counting up.

00:59:09I get it wrong.

00:59:11I'm best at stealing things.

00:59:13I told you I should have to marry a rich man.

00:59:16My mother called me Lady Muck, because I'm eidling like nice things.

00:59:21Why doesn't my mother come and look for me, Adam?

00:59:24Why doesn't she love me?

00:59:25I love you.

00:59:27You love screwing me.

00:59:28Yes, I do, but I do love you, Zosie.

00:59:32I adore you.

00:59:34Don't you believe me?

00:59:36I don't know.

00:59:37It's too soon.

00:59:39When are we going to London?

00:59:40You never told me how they came to take the baby, but I suppose that's something you don't really know.

00:59:46I know, all right.

00:59:48But I didn't at first, not on the first day.

00:59:51You see, when they came back, we thought the baby was Zosie's baby.

00:59:56We knew Zosie had a baby, and we knew she wished she kept it.

00:59:59And when they came back with the baby, we just took it for granted.

01:00:01It was hers.

01:00:02At least, Vivian and I did.

01:00:06Rufus wasn't there.

01:00:07He was with some woman in Colchester, an army wife.

01:00:09Her husband was away somewhere.

01:00:10Did Zosie go to London deliberately to kidnap the baby?

01:00:14What's this place called?

01:00:16Highgate Wood.

01:00:17If I can find a space, I'll park somewhere along here.

01:00:21Ah, this'll do.

01:00:23There's a police station on the corner.

01:00:25You're not going to leave it outside a police station.

01:00:27Why not?

01:00:28We're not doing anything illegal.

01:00:30Drive a bit farther up.

01:00:31Please.

01:00:31I've been here before.

01:00:37Stay in the car while I try the antique shops around the corner.

01:00:40Why can't I come?

01:00:42He didn't want her going in those shops.

01:00:43He thought she'd take things.

01:00:45He left her sitting in the van.

01:00:47She said she might walk around a bit.

01:00:49She was mad, you know.

01:00:50She had a sort of post-natal insanity.

01:00:52How did she come to take it in the first place?

01:00:55Her.

01:00:56It was a girl.

01:00:56She walked along to the house where she knew Vivian was going to work.

01:01:01I don't think she'd had any particular intention of stealing Cetacean's baby, but she knew there was a baby there.

01:01:07She saw a woman come out of the house with one of those things you transport babies in.

01:01:11What do you call them?

01:01:12A carrying cot.

01:01:13That's right.

01:01:14The woman put the carrying cot on the back seat of the car, and she left the car door open because it was so hot.

01:01:19Then she went back into the house.

01:01:21It was as if she had forgotten something.

01:01:22Zosie said she couldn't help herself.

01:01:26She pulled the carrying cot out of the car and walked off down the street with it.

01:01:30She put it on the back seat of the van.

01:01:32Adam came back a minute later.

01:01:34He'd had no luck at the antique shop.

01:01:36He started the car and drove off.

01:01:37You mean he didn't know the baby was there?

01:01:39He didn't know until they'd stopped at some traffic lights near Enfield.

01:01:45What the hell's that?

01:01:47Please don't be angry.

01:01:49Pull into the lay-by.

01:01:51I'll get her.

01:01:53There's a bottle in the cot with her.

01:01:55Lucky, wasn't it?

01:01:56Come on, Nicola.

01:01:58There you are.

01:01:59What do you mean, lucky?

01:02:01What do you mean, in the cot with her?

01:02:03I took the cot as well.

01:02:04She was in it.

01:02:05In the back of Mr. Tation's car.

01:02:07Zosie, we have to take it back.

01:02:10We have to turn round and take it back where you found it.

01:02:13Her?

01:02:14She's called Nicola.

01:02:15Vivian said her name was Nicola.

01:02:17Her parents will be doing their nuts.

01:02:18We've got to take her back.

01:02:20Oh, please don't cry, Zosie.

01:02:23You can have a baby of your own.

01:02:25You and I will have a baby.

01:02:27I won't give her up.

01:02:29If you turn back, I'll jump out the van.

01:02:31I'll go myself on the truck.

01:02:32I want her.

01:02:34I love her.

01:02:35You're lovely.

01:02:37I'll be first with her.

01:02:39Don't you know what it means to want to be first with someone?

01:02:43So they brought the baby back to Wyvis Hall.

01:02:47Vivian and I were out on the terrace.

01:02:49We heard the van draw up and the sound of a baby crying.

01:02:52Then Zosie appeared.

01:02:53She was absolutely alight with happiness and excitement.

01:02:57That's why we thought it was her baby.

01:02:59How long was it before you discovered the truth?

01:03:02The following morning.

01:03:03Is it really your baby, Zosie?

01:03:05Of course it isn't.

01:03:06She's mine.

01:03:07Only in the sense that she's presently in your possession.

01:03:10I don't understand what you mean.

01:03:11She's a baby Zosie took out of a car when we were in London.

01:03:14She kidnapped her, if you like.

01:03:16Did anyone see her do this?

01:03:18Well, obviously not.

01:03:19Look, we've been through all this.

01:03:21I'm sick of it.

01:03:23I know it was wrong and terrible and all that.

01:03:25I'm not feeble-minded.

01:03:26I know the baby's got to go back, and the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.

01:03:29Yes, well, it was a wicked thing to do, an evil thing.

01:03:32And I think you are feeble-minded, both of you.

01:03:35That baby has to go back to her parents now, immediately.

01:03:38I quite agree.

01:03:40Do you know who her parents are?

01:03:42Oh, I suppose you don't.

01:03:44Well, Rufus will have to know about this.

01:03:47Rufus?

01:03:48Rufus, will you come here, please?

01:03:50It's time for her feed.

01:03:51Give me the bottle, will you?

01:03:52Look, she's a human being you've taken.

01:03:54She's a person, not an animal or a toy.

01:03:57Do you realise that?

01:03:58What's going on?

01:03:59Zosie's stolen a baby out of someone's car.

01:04:01What?

01:04:02Well, we all thought it was hers, but it's not.

01:04:04It's someone else's.

01:04:05And they don't even know whose baby it is.

01:04:07Oh, yes, we do.

01:04:08It's Tatian's.

01:04:08It's that man's you're going to work for.

01:04:11What Tatian's baby?

01:04:14Are you saying this baby is Nicola's...

01:04:16Look, Nicola is nine months old.

01:04:18She's big.

01:04:19She can crawl about.

01:04:20God knows who this is.

01:04:23How many do you think it was Robin Tatian's child?

01:04:25It was in a car outside his house.

01:04:26Zosie thought it was his.

01:04:29You're useless, aren't you?

01:04:31I mean, you'd think anything was funny.

01:04:33You'd think murder was funny.

01:04:35Maybe I would.

01:04:37Maybe I would.

01:04:39Well, put the radio on.

01:04:41There's bound to be something on the news.

01:04:47Adam Vernsmith.

01:04:48Inspector Wyandre here.

01:04:50Just a few small inquiries.

01:04:52That's all right.

01:04:53I wonder if you can remember.

01:04:54It's a long time ago.

01:04:56Summer of 1976.

01:04:57I told you I never lived there.

01:04:59I stayed there a week.

01:05:00Just a manner of speaking, Mr. Vernsmith.

01:05:03Can you recall ever being called on by some pest control people called Wermstroy?

01:05:09No.

01:05:10I don't remember.

01:05:11Biggish dark man with a moustache.

01:05:14Wermstroy used to destroy vermin for your grandfather, was it?

01:05:17Great uncle.

01:05:18Yeah, that's right.

01:05:19Rats and those peculiar things.

01:05:21What are they called?

01:05:22Never mind.

01:05:23Doesn't matter.

01:05:24Well, if you can't help us, you can't.

01:05:26And that's all it amounts to.

01:05:28You'll be glad to hear that in any case our inquiries are almost complete.

01:05:32Sorry to have disturbed you.

01:05:33Aren't you going to say goodnight?

01:05:41For God's sake!

01:05:43Leave me in peace!

01:05:45He said there was still no information as to the whereabouts of the Highgate baby.

01:05:50And now for the weather.

01:05:52It looks as if the long hot summer is finally coming to an end.

01:05:56I'd like to go to Sudbury, please.

01:05:58And buy us some clothes.

01:06:00She needs best some things.

01:06:01You're not going to Sudbury.

01:06:02You're going to London to take that baby back.

01:06:05There's a little local difficulty.

01:06:07We don't yet know who it belongs to.

01:06:08It'll be in this morning's paper.

01:06:10I'll drive Zocene to Sudbury, buy a paper and find out whose it is.

01:06:13I don't see why, seeing as I'm not taking her back.

01:06:16Do you realise it's fortunate it wasn't Miss Atation's baby you took?

01:06:20The police would soon have gone on to us because of Vivian.

01:06:22My guardian angel was looking after me.

01:06:24How about this baby's guardian angel?

01:06:26He was on leave, was he?

01:06:27I thought you were on my side, Rufus.

01:06:28How did you now?

01:06:30I'll tell you whose side I'm on.

01:06:31Rufus's.

01:06:32And that goes for always.

01:06:34Look, Rufus, we've got...

01:06:35Not we!

01:06:36This is no place for me.

01:06:37Not any more.

01:06:38What?

01:06:38It's time for me to quit.

01:06:40I'll be on my bike in the morning.

01:06:42Good riddance to bad rubbish.

01:06:44Are we going to Sudbury or not?

01:06:45It says they've identified the bones found at Wyvis Hall.

01:06:58A girl from Noons and her infant daughter.

01:07:01The identification was made by a Mrs. Rita Pearson of Felixstown.

01:07:06It says her name's Catherine Rymark.

01:07:08I know.

01:07:08I've read it.

01:07:09It says they're launching a nationwide search.

01:07:11I'm going to drive the baby back tonight.

01:07:15I'll take Rufus with me, seeing as he wants to go.

01:07:17I don't think you should do that.

01:07:18Not yet.

01:07:20Not till you've heard my idea.

01:07:22Would he have taken her back?

01:07:23Oh, yes.

01:07:24He was going back in the van that night.

01:07:27But I stopped him.

01:07:29What do you mean?

01:07:29But that would make us real kidnappers.

01:07:31We couldn't do that.

01:07:32Why not?

01:07:33You have the name, the address, everything.

01:07:35It wouldn't make things any worse.

01:07:37It would take a load off their minds.

01:07:39What did Adam say?

01:07:40When I suggested the ransom, he put the cot on the floor and sat down at the table.

01:07:46I told him we should send a letter, cut words out of newspaper and stick them on paper.

01:07:51We mustn't ask too much.

01:07:52Nothing that will take too long.

01:07:55Ten thousand pounds would be about right.

01:07:57Any ordinary middle class family can raise ten thousand pounds if they have to.

01:08:00I don't suppose we're an ordinary middle class family, then?

01:08:05Adam took the kitty upstairs again.

01:08:07We cut the newspapers up in the deathbed room.

01:08:10The one with a picture of the dead child.

01:08:13We decided to give the letter to Rufus to post in the morning.

01:08:16When Vivian came in, I let her think that Adam and Rufus had already gone off to London with the baby.

01:08:22Where was Rufus?

01:08:24Some pub that was open late.

01:08:25I didn't care.

01:08:26I just wanted to get to sleep.

01:08:27I thought it would all sort itself out in the morning.

01:08:30Well, it did.

01:08:32And now you blame yourself.

01:08:35Because if you hadn't suggested asking for a ransom, they really would have taken the baby back to London.

01:08:40Yes.

01:08:43It's in this letter there.

01:08:46Adam is asking the Rymarks for ten thousand pounds.

01:08:49The mother is to bring it to Liverpool Street Station, one hundred yards along Platform 12.

01:08:52I don't believe it!

01:08:53No one will get hurt, Rufus.

01:08:55Adam won't harm the baby.

01:08:56You're out of your minds!

01:08:57Rufus!

01:09:00Rufus!

01:09:04What's that?

01:09:04Cot death.

01:09:06About a thousand babies die of it every year.

01:09:08Nobody seems to know what causes it.

01:09:11There is a theory that cot death can be due to fear.

01:09:14The tranquility of routine has been disturbed.

01:09:16The child doesn't see his mother's face when it awakes.

01:09:18Cot.

01:09:19I've got a sedative I can give, Zosie.

01:09:22You won't go, will you, Rufus?

01:09:24For God's sake.

01:09:25Don't go and leave me with this lot.

01:09:27They didn't tell me anything.

01:09:28It was as though I wasn't there.

01:09:31I wanted to tell Vivian what had happened, but I couldn't.

01:09:34We just sat in the kitchen, cutting up plums for stewing.

01:09:37And I wanted to run away.

01:09:39Oh, they're full of worms.

01:09:44And the apples have all been eaten by wasps.

01:09:48And all the flowers have dried up.

01:09:50It hasn't rained for so long.

01:09:51The place is like a desert.

01:09:53It was a dreadful thing, being in the kitchen with Vivian.

01:09:57Listening to her talking on and on so totally innocent of what had happened.

01:10:01I don't see how I can go to Mr. Tatian's now.

01:10:04After all, the Rymarks are his friends.

01:10:06Would be wrong.

01:10:07Did you try to get Vivian to go?

01:10:10Where could I take her?

01:10:11But I was in trouble with all of us.

01:10:13We had nowhere to go.

01:10:15She tried to throw a Tation from the village, but there was no reply.

01:10:19There was nothing for her but to try again the next day.

01:10:22And you know what happened the next day.

01:10:25I know what happened.

01:10:28Can you forgive me?

01:10:29That is for me to forgive you things you didn't do to me.

01:10:32All right, then.

01:10:34Can you forget?

01:10:35I don't know.

01:10:37I haven't forgotten.

01:10:40Put something through the letterbox.

01:10:42I'd better go down.

01:10:43Don't go.

01:10:44I have to see what it is.

01:10:46Filthy, disgusting mess, I expect.

01:10:48There's a strange smell.

01:10:50It's petrol.

01:10:51What have they done?

01:10:54Go hold, hold and fire!

01:10:55Quickly!

01:10:56Lily!

01:10:58Lily!

01:10:59Lily!

01:11:00Lily!

01:11:01Lily!

01:11:02Lily!

01:11:03Lily!

01:11:04Lily!

01:11:05Lily!

01:11:07Lily!

01:11:08Shop assistant dies trying to save Wife.

01:11:11Poor bugger.

01:11:13To think I half hoped the house would catch fire that last night at Wiver's Hall.

01:11:18I didn't want another day to come.

01:11:22I didn't want Zosie to wake up.

01:11:24You've got to stay.

01:11:28You've got to get yourself together.

01:11:30Where's Catherine?

01:11:31She's in the other room.

01:11:33You've got to leave her there.

01:11:36We have to take her away and hide her somewhere.

01:11:38No!

01:11:39No!

01:11:39Zosie!

01:11:40She's dead!

01:11:42It wasn't our fault, but we have to look after ourselves.

01:11:46You don't want to get put in prison, do you?

01:11:48Why have you got the gun?

01:11:50I thought I heard someone downstairs when it was light.

01:11:54But there was no way.

01:11:57Come on, Zosie.

01:11:59Let's go down.

01:12:00We'll have breakfast.

01:12:02A cup of tea will do you good.

01:12:03But don't tell Vivian what's happened.

01:12:05Remember.

01:12:05What's the matter with Zosie?

01:12:12She's tired.

01:12:13Had a bad night.

01:12:16I shall want one of you to drive me down to the village.

01:12:19I should like to phone Mr. Tation.

01:12:20Why are you still insisting on this?

01:12:22You realise how you're letting the poor man down.

01:12:24I can't go there.

01:12:27Anything is better than my going there.

01:12:29I'll take you back to London with me if you like.

01:12:31Do you want to go down to the village now?

01:12:32Well, the sooner the better, I suppose.

01:12:35I'll just go up and get a shawl.

01:12:37It's got quite cold suddenly.

01:12:39I'll let her go her own way.

01:12:40I have my future to think of, even if she hasn't.

01:12:43What the hell's that?

01:12:44Oh, my God.

01:12:46It's the police.

01:12:47It's the post lady, for goodness sake.

01:12:48Put that gun down.

01:12:50I thought it was the police.

01:12:51And what were you going to do if it was?

01:12:52Kill them?

01:12:54I don't know.

01:12:55Go!

01:12:57Vivian must have found the baby.

01:12:58Shut up, or I'll kill you!

01:13:04What are you doing with that gun?

01:13:07Haven't you done enough?

01:13:08It was caught death, Vivian.

01:13:09It was no one's fault.

01:13:10I don't believe you.

01:13:11Why should I tell lies about it?

01:13:12Do you think Zosie would have hurt the baby?

01:13:14She loved her.

01:13:15Shut up!

01:13:17Shut up!

01:13:18Put the gun down, Adam!

01:13:19You've got to be brave, Zosie.

01:13:21We're going to the police to tell them about this.

01:13:24And look, we'll all know how good you were to the baby

01:13:26and how you looked after her, but she just died just the same.

01:13:31Rufus will tell them it was caught death she died on.

01:13:33You have to be joking.

01:13:35The thing we've done something to her.

01:13:37We could go to jail for life.

01:13:39We'll go on as planned.

01:13:40I'll drive Shiva and Vivian to Coltrista station.

01:13:42No, I'm not having anything to do with this.

01:13:45If the rest of you won't go to the police, I'll go alone.

01:13:47No, you won't.

01:13:48There are four of us to one of you.

01:13:50We can keep you here by force if we have to.

01:13:51Take your hands off!

01:13:52Then I'm going to let you put me in prison.

01:13:54Let me go!

01:13:55No, you're not going to stop me!

01:14:01Stop!

01:14:03Don't be a fool!

01:14:08Madam, for God's sake!

01:14:14You've killed Vivian.

01:14:20He's more than the people in the grave did.

01:14:23You're right.

01:14:23I don't suppose we've heard the end of it.

01:14:26And I don't suppose that little cemetery will ever be restored.

01:14:30Oh, how pretty you look, Anne.

01:14:32Abigail's asleep.

01:14:33I don't suppose she'll wake.

01:14:35It's so good of you.

01:14:35Pleasure.

01:14:36Come on, then.

01:14:37We might as well go.

01:14:41It's hot together like this.

01:14:42We're celebrating your birthday by quarreling in a restaurant instead of at home.

01:14:47I hate you.

01:14:49We could put them up among the animals.

01:14:52No one will ever think of looking there.

01:14:53Let's get it over as quickly as possible.

01:14:55And then we shall all go our separate ways.

01:14:57There's just one problem we haven't thought of.

01:14:59And what's that?

01:15:01Robin Tation's expecting Vivian to turn up for work as his nanny.

01:15:04When she doesn't appear, he'll be bound to ask questions.

01:15:07And she gave him our address here.

01:15:09You've got a point, though.

01:15:11We shall just have to...

01:15:12I'll ask Catherine to have my little ring.

01:15:15I want to put it on her finger.

01:15:16What on earth have you got on?

01:15:17Why are you wearing one of Vivian's dresses?

01:15:19It's no use to her now, is it?

01:15:21Just a minute.

01:15:23Robin Tation doesn't know what Vivian looks like, does he?

01:15:25No.

01:15:26Vivian only met his sister.

01:15:27And she's gone back to America.

01:15:29So Zosie could go to Tation's and pretend to be Vivian.

01:15:32No one would be any the wiser.

01:15:34You'd like that, wouldn't you, Zosie?

01:15:36A baby to look after?

01:15:38Nicola?

01:15:40Yes, I'd like that.

01:15:42Come on.

01:15:43Let's get it over with.

01:15:48A real drink.

01:15:49I mean, I can drink them both if you don't want one.

01:15:51I don't mind having a drink.

01:15:53Well, that's all right, then.

01:15:56Abs.

01:15:57Thanks for sending me the cutting.

01:15:59I recognised your writing on the envelope.

01:16:02Gave me quite a turn.

01:16:04So, it was the Koi Poo man they've decided.

01:16:06Most of that panic was made up by us.

01:16:09I suppose the police never really suspected us at all.

01:16:12They knew all along that it was the Koi Poo man.

01:16:14But it wasn't.

01:16:15I don't mean that.

01:16:16I mean, all that questioning wasn't to find out about me, but about the Koi Poo man.

01:16:22Only I saw it back to front.

01:16:24My guilt made me see it back to front.

01:16:26Not that the paper tells us much.

01:16:28The bodies have been identified as those of Zoe Jane Seagrove and her infant daughter.

01:16:34But surely they must have found out that the baby was adopted.

01:16:38Things have a way of getting muddled after ten years.

01:16:40I'm not complaining.

01:16:42And her stepfather, Clifford William Pearson.

01:16:45The Koi Poo man.

01:16:47I never knew that's who her stepfather was.

01:16:49No.

01:16:50He committed suicide in November 1976.

01:16:54A police spokesman said that the Wyvis Hall case is closed and no further inquiries will be made.

01:16:59What do you think made her mother so sure it was Zosie in that grave?

01:17:04The ring, surely.

01:17:05She put the ring on the baby's hand.

01:17:07Yes.

01:17:08So reading between the lines, they think Pearson shot her.

01:17:12She said to me once,

01:17:13He kills little things.

01:17:15He has no mercy.

01:17:18She must have been afraid he would come back and find her.

01:17:20Which was why she hid whenever we drove through news.

01:17:23Had he been a lover?

01:17:24Was he the father of her child?

01:17:26Who knows?

01:17:27Another drink?

01:17:28Oh, no thanks.

01:17:30I should have expected you to be, well, euphoric to say the least.

01:17:34Aren't you relieved to be off the hook?

01:17:36This is the end of it.

01:17:37It's over.

01:17:38No punishment.

01:17:39This time society fails to take its revenge.

01:17:41Oh, I've got away with it.

01:17:44At least I suppose so.

01:17:47I've lost Abigail.

01:17:49Abigail?

01:17:49My daughter.

01:17:51My wife's asked me to leave.

01:17:54She wants a divorce.

01:17:55I've been pretty well out of my mind during these past few weeks.

01:17:59All the time I was frightened of losing Abigail.

01:18:02And now she's gone.

01:18:04The only people I ever loved were Abigail and Zosie.

01:18:07I wonder what ever became of Zosie.

01:18:10She was a disaster person.

01:18:12She's probably on drugs or in jail.

01:18:15I don't imagine she made much of a goal of being the Tation's nanny.

01:18:18She wasn't a survivor.

01:18:21I suppose I forget that it wasn't her in that grave, but Vivian.

01:18:24I forget it wasn't Zosie who died.

01:18:30I think I will have that drink.

01:18:39How do you mean?

01:18:40It all looks so beautiful now.

01:18:42But you said you couldn't bear to stay in the place any longer.

01:18:45You were the one who wanted to put the house on the market.

01:18:48Despoiled was how you described it.

01:18:50No, I'm not so sure.

01:18:51Well, they're here.

01:18:55Perhaps they won't like it.

01:18:56They're all getting out of a Range Rover.

01:18:59There are an awful lot of them.

01:19:01A bit like the old woman who lived in a shoe.

01:19:04Five children?

01:19:05She isn't very old.

01:19:06And another on the way, by the look of it.

01:19:08Well, they can't all be hers.

01:19:10The eldest girl must be nearly 15.

01:19:12Better not keep them waiting.

01:19:13What did you say their name was?

01:19:15I didn't.

01:19:16Latham or something.

01:19:20We're going outside.

01:19:22It was such a lovely day.

01:19:23They could have a look round the garden.

01:19:25If Mr. and Mrs. Chip said wouldn't mind.

01:19:27Of course.

01:19:28Only they must be careful of the lake.

01:19:30Oh, Naomi will keep an eye on them.

01:19:31Won't you be dear?

01:19:32Yes, Daddy.

01:19:33Good girl.

01:19:33They could go into the wood and pick bluebells.

01:19:36That's lovely.

01:19:36Nicola would love that.

01:19:38But I'll bring the baby in with me.

01:19:40That's all right.

01:19:41I don't like leaving him just yet.

01:19:43Come on, then.

01:19:44I'll show you around.

01:19:44Yes.

01:19:47And this is the master bedroom.

01:19:48It's friendly.

01:19:49We call it the lilac room.

01:19:50It's lovely.

01:19:51Are you planning to live in the country permanently?

01:19:54Oh, no.

01:19:54We'd keep on our London house.

01:19:56Rob's got his company in London.

01:19:58I shouldn't fancy three hours commuting a day.

01:20:00I know some people do it.

01:20:02If you'd care to come through here.

01:20:04Right.

01:20:04This is the turquoise room.

01:20:10We've made it very nice.

01:20:12There's a staircase in that cupboard that goes up to the loft.

01:20:15Absolutely true.

01:20:17There is.

01:20:18How did you know?

01:20:19My wife spent some time in this part of the world before we married.

01:20:22You've never been in this house before, have you, Viv?

01:20:25Not this house, no.

01:20:26No.

01:20:27Would you like some tea?

01:20:28Ah, thank you very much.

01:20:30We must be getting back.

01:20:31Our nanny returns from holidays today.

01:20:34Thank God.

01:20:36I must tell you, we like the house very much.

01:20:39We love it.

01:20:41And so I shall be getting on to the agent tomorrow.

01:20:43Oh, that's very good news.

01:20:44Yes.

01:20:45You must forgive me, but I never quite caught your name from the chap on the phone.

01:20:49Ah, Tatian.

01:20:51Robin and Vivian Tatian.

01:20:53And we ought to tell you, we do know about all those grisly things up in the wood.

01:20:58And we don't mind a bit.

01:21:08By Cyril Jenkins.

01:21:11Adam, Andrew Wincott.

01:21:13Rufus, Matthew Morgan.

01:21:15Shiva, Tariq Alibai.

01:21:17Vivian, Mia Sotiriu.

01:21:19Lily, Rita Wang.

01:21:20Mary Gage, Alison Reed.

01:21:23Anne, Mary Chater.

01:21:26Marigold, Teresa Stretfield.

01:21:29Lewis, Vern Smith.

01:21:31Tim Seeley.

01:21:32Beryl, Anne Windsor.

01:21:34Alec Chipstead, Terence Edmund.

01:21:36Meg Chipstead, Joanna Wake.

01:21:39Inspector Winder, Jonathan Adams.

01:21:41Robin Tatian, Steve Hodson.

01:21:44With Emma Fielding, Ronald Herdman and Neil Roberts.

01:21:47Technical presentation by Carol McShane, Rosamund Mason and Ian Pratt.

01:21:54A Fatal Inversion was dramatized by Michael Bakewell and directed by Jane Morgan.

01:22:01drowned in the

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