The Great Fire (2014) s01e01 Episode Script

1 (DOG BARKS) Go and get a sharper one.
David? ~ David! ~ I've finished! You're supposed to clear up with the girls.
They didn't ask.
You are going to earn yourself such a thrashing! Give him a chance.
He's a 10-year-old boy.
That's no excuse.
I'd better go.
~ You won't stay for dinner? ~ No, the Duke is back tomorrow, so I've got to finish getting the house ready.
I'll walk you home.
It's only just down the hill.
I need some air.
What's she done? Come here.
That's better.
It'll get better.
I'm just seeing Auntie Sarah home and then I'm off to the Navy Yards.
Whoa.
I have to go to Islington on Sunday to pick up some more firewood if you fancy a day out.
Thomas Farriner, you certainly know how to show a girl a good time! Oi! Come here! Leave it, Tom.
Someone's got to fight his corner.
That's not going to help him.
They've been teasing him, saying his father's been killed in the war.
He'll be back.
My brother is as strong as an ox.
You know that.
~ If anyone survived, it's Will.
~ Mm.
See you, Tom.
It's all there, I promise you.
All right, Farriner.
Mr Sheridan? Yes.
~ It was all in order? ~ Yes, as I've said.
I require payment, sir.
For this and for other orders.
It's overdue.
So is the Second Coming of Christ, Mr Farriner.
There's nothing we can do about that.
~ It is long overdue.
~ Feel free to take it up with the King.
I don't work for the King, I supply his navy, which is to say you.
~ If I cannot buy the flour to ~ That is your problem, Mr Farriner.
Good day.
Don't walk away from me, sir.
~ Excuse me? ~ We're not finished.
Aren't we? What exactly is there left to say? I need that payment.
You will regret this.
Your Majesty.
I don't like it when you address me that way.
It puts distance between us.
That might prove useful.
It's killing me, Frances.
I don't think it is killing you, sir.
You're not a man.
Yes.
Thank heavens for that.
You have a voice, Hyde.
Tell the King yourself.
This war with the Dutch is bankrupting us.
We can't keep spending like this.
~ It will imperil our chance ~ Then tell him that.
That is your job.
You are his councillors, I am merely his brother.
Perhaps the King should know how depleted the royal finances are.
No-one ever advanced their prospects by bringing bad news to the King.
I thought my sister sent you here to entertain me.
She sent me here to support the Queen, which is perhaps not quite the same thing.
(APPLAUSE) Do offer the Queen my warmest wishes.
You look like a rain cloud.
Sometimes appearances do not deceive.
Why don't you come up to my chamber tonight? It might cheer you up.
I doubt it.
Your specials aren't what they used to be.
For one half of the human population, being pregnant isn't a choice, you know.
Well, the Queen seems to manage it.
Make a sound or move a muscle and I'll put this blade right between your shoulders.
(APPLAUSE) How did you get in here? Let me guess.
You're a Catholic and you are here to return our great Kingdom to the path of the true religion? I am proud of my faith.
I am sure you are.
Where did you get this? I am justice! And I am Lord Denton, His Majesty's intelligence officer.
He claims to have been acting alone.
Don't they always? He was a fanatic.
A lunatic, nothing more.
And the city's full of them.
I assumed I'd at least be safe in my own palace.
It's been taken care of.
Now, Denton says he used to work for the Duke of Hanford.
Hanford employs just about every Catholic down on his luck.
But he is not a rebel, let alone an assassin.
What makes you so sure? Instinct.
(APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS) (KNOCK AT THE DOOR) ~ Mr Wickes.
~ Oh, Edward by now, surely.
I wasn't expecting you.
Forgive the intrusion.
I brought this for David.
For you to borrow, Mr Wickes means, and to look after carefully.
For as long as you like.
What do you say? Thank you.
A young boy hungry for knowledge.
Perhaps provision could be made for him to go to school.
And as a boy can't eat books, I thought you'd appreciate some mutton.
Mr Wickes, that is very kind, sir.
Thank you.
But I cannot accept that.
There's no shame in accepting a little help.
What harm can it do? Besides, he looks as if he could do with feeding up.
Thank you.
So your employer is about to return? Yes.
Lord Hanford returns tomorrow.
Mm.
Well, enjoy your dinner.
I bid you good night, mistress.
Thomas! Who's that? He's just someone from church.
Will the miller give you flour against next week's order? I doubt it.
Think the navy will be buying bread from me next week? I knocked the man's bloody wig off.
Hannah'll be furious with me.
We're down to the bone anyway.
Without the navy contract It's fine, Tom.
We'll work it out.
I don't know how your gentleman friend expects you to cook this without an oven.
Perhaps he knows I have a brother-in-law who's a baker.
Well, watch him.
I'll bring it back in the morning.
Whoa! Whoa! Thank you, Carter.
Good morning, Sarah.
My lord Hanford.
How was your journey? Long and tiresome, but for the company.
Hanford calls him Romero.
He's a Spaniard, and from the way he carries himself, I'd say he's a soldier.
~ Who did they meet? ~ No-one.
They travelled alone, dined alone, very careful not to be overheard discussing anything of substance.
We stayed half a day behind them all the way.
They don't suspect a thing.
We've caught an assassin.
He left Hanford's employ three years ago.
Maybe he brought the Spaniard to make sure he finishes the job.
They always say Catholic wenches make the best whores.
I'll see what the footman has to say.
What time is it? I'm not sure.
Half past seven? God's blood, woman, didn't I tell you to wake me at seven? I'm going to be late! It's a game of Pall Mall, Samuel.
I'm sure it can wait.
The King waits for no man, as well you know.
Are these sufficient for sport, do you think? The brocade is smarter, but rather stiff.
Please tell me you do not wish to carry on this argument.
My terms have started.
Oh, Lizzie.
Seven weeks.
I really thought I was with child.
You are young and healthy.
There is no reason for your failure to continue.
(BELLS CHIMES THE HOUR) Eight o'clock! You have made me late! Do you have to go? Tell Ruth to prepare you a poultice.
It would be courteous to let me win, Pepys.
Particularly in this heat.
I was told you like competition.
Whoever told you that is a brazen liar.
My God, it's hot.
WOMAN: Here we are again.
Is she not the most lovely thing you've ever seen? I have always admired my Lady Castlemaine.
~ She has the benefit of a ready wit ~ Not Castlemaine.
I mean Frances.
Yes, she's comely, my lord.
Comely? Really, Pepys, is that the best you can do? I hear you once said the poor folk who used to toast my health on their knees outside the gates ~ were "a little too much"? ~ Yes.
Why? You don't need sycophancy.
I wouldn't be so sure.
The alternative to sycophancy is contempt, which, if you are a king, can lead to very unhappy consequences.
Forgive me, but the alternative to sycophancy is respect.
Which is a sounder basis for government.
But the people do respect me.
Do they not? That is what my courtiers always tell me.
I think that would be true if the people saw a little more of you.
Explain.
An increasingly common view is you are consumed by the pursuit of pleasure and surrounded by sycophants who will not dare tell you you are bankrupting the country.
If the people wanted austerity, they would have stuck with Cromwell's bastard sons.
We are here to provide something to aspire to, a canvas onto which they can project their dreams.
Yes, Majesty.
But even the purveyors of dreams must control their outgoings.
The people removed my father's head and lived with the consequences.
~ They will not wish to repeat the experience.
~ The people are fickle.
I doubt they fear a new republic as much as your advisers claim.
WOMAN: Oh.
(POLITE APPLAUSE) A King can have many things he wants, Samuel.
But someone who is prepared to beat him at his favourite game, perhaps that is what he needs.
I ~ Don't worry, John.
Give it to me next week.
~ Thank you, Tom.
I appreciate that.
Father, we're not a charity.
~ He's a good customer.
~ Not if he doesn't pay.
What are we going to do about flour? That was the last sack.
The rest of it went on that bloody order for the navy.
First, no cursing.
Second, trust me.
It'll be all right.
How? I'm 13, Father, not five.
And you're my daughter, not my wife.
So leave it to me.
See you later.
(SIGHS) David will be happy.
Good.
And there'll be plenty for you and the girls.
Could I ask a favour, Sarah? Would you write to the Navy Board for me? One look at the shape of my letters, he'll dismiss my case.
But you know how to put things.
~ Of course, Tom.
~ Thank you.
To To Mr Pepys himself I have to get the navy contract back or I'm in trouble.
How should I address him? His full title, which is Surveyor General of Victualling .
.
and Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board.
Do you think your title gets longer the less effective you are? If you do manage to speak to him, you'll ask about Will? I've got nowhere with the clerks.
I can't stand another 16 months of this, Tom.
I know.
I know.
I'll ask him.
Hey ~ I do not really have time for this, Mr ~ Farriner, sir.
Farriner, but you are lucky to catch me in excellent humour.
Well? I cannot buy the flour to bake for the King's navy if the King's navy will not pay its bills, sir.
It's regrettable but shouldn't you share the pain with your suppliers like everyone else? I've tried.
But if I have no flour, I have nothing to bake with and if I cannot bake, then ~ Then I've nothing to feed my family on, sir.
~ We are at war.
It's an expensive business and I cannot pay you with money I do not have.
The King's finances are stretched.
Have you received your pay this month, Mr Pepys? You are, by all accounts, a good man, Farriner.
You work hard.
I have no intention of taking the navy contract away from you.
Thank you, sir.
But there is nothing I can do on the question of payment.
You will have to find a way to hold on.
For King and country.
Is there something else? Well, I seek news of my brother, William Farriner, sir.
He was on His Majesty's ship the Charity at the battle of Lowestoft and we heard these reports that men were picked from the water.
If so, wouldn't he have returned by now? Sir, he has a wife and a son and they're waiting for news of him.
She needs to know, sir.
~ Robins.
~ Sir? I want to check the records for the Charity.
I shall write your sister-in-law a letter.
Unfortunately I do not have good news.
How did it go? Oh.
They're not going to take the navy contract away.
~ Well, will they pay what's owed? ~ No.
What is it? I need to go and talk to Auntie Sarah.
~ Do you want me to rake out the ovens? ~ No, no.
It's early yet.
~ I'll do it later.
~ I can do it before I go to sleep.
Hannah! Hannah! Yes, mouse, what is it? When people die, and you see them again in heaven, do they look exactly the same? Yes, I reckon so.
I don't think I'd recognise Mother.
Course you wouldn't.
She died when you were born.
How would she recognise me, then? In heaven.
She just would.
Stay, just for a little while.
Jockey was a Piper's Son And fell in love when he was young But all the tunes that he could play Was over the Hills and Far Away Over the Hills and Far Away Far away, far away Over the Hills and Far Away Was all that he could play David! Oh, my God.
Mr Wickes.
~ Where's David? ~ That's everywhere, my lord.
Nothing.
"My lord"? What's going on? What is your business here? The King's business, Sarah.
What have you done with David? A penny for the pie shop.
I thought it better to work uninterrupted.
Forgive me, I have deceived you.
"Edward Wickes" is an invention.
My name is Lord Denton and I'm a servant of the King.
Now, I know that you work for the Duke of Hanford.
It's no secret that he employs every papist waif and stray in London.
I am no Catholic.
The Duke gave me work with no thought of my faith when we'd been thrown out on the streets.
He's a good man.
Your employer is a seditious sectarian bigot who's in league with our foreign enemies.
He has shown me nothing but kindness.
I'll bet.
Sarah, if you will agree to help me, it would make it easier to believe you've not been drawn into Hanford's treacherous web.
You see, he arrived back this morning with a Spanish soldier called Romero and there's every chance he intends to make an attempt on the King's life.
How am I to know you speak the truth? Your person, the interest you showed in David, that was all lies.
It was a necessity.
Now I need to know where this man Romero goes and who he speaks to.
I wish to be informed of everything that happens inside that house.
The Duke trusts me.
I can see you need time to compose your thoughts.
Now, you may present yourself to me at the Star Inn on Fish Street before midnight - hmm? - and I will give you your full instructions.
You will not wish to be acquainted with the consequences of refusal.
(DOG BARKS) Fire! Fire! Hannah! Hannah! Mary! Mary! Hannah! Wake up! Mary! Mary! Hannah, Mary, wake up! Wake up! Fire! Fire! ~ Daddy! ~ We've got to go! ~ Check the ovens? ~ Now! ~ Well, did you? ~ Quickly! Quickly! (COUGHING) Father, no! It's no good.
Up to the attic.
Quick, come on! Here we go, here we go.
Here we go.
~ Cover your eyes.
~ Be careful.
What are you doing? Father! Right, we go over to the next roof.
~ Use the ledge.
~ Be careful.
~ Don't go.
Please! ~ Father, don't leave us.
Stay there.
~ Hannah, help Mary onto my back.
~ I'm scared.
Help her, Hannah.
That's it, that's it, that's it.
Now, I've got you.
Hold on.
Try to be brave.
That's it.
Now, wrap your legs around me.
All right.
It's all right.
I've got you.
Now, we can do this.
~ All right? Now hold on.
~ Father! There, see, see? Going to be fine.
Hold tight.
~ I'm slipping.
~ No, you're not.
No, you're not.
Just hold tight.
Just hold on.
I'm going to jump, Mary.
Hold on.
Father, no! (SCREAMS) Sit on the ledge.
Sit on the ledge.
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
Now, stay there, stay there.
Hannah! Hannah! I can't come back.
You're going to have to do it yourself.
Just climb out! Now come to me.
Come to me, Hannah.
Hannah, that's it, use the ledge.
Use the ledge.
That's it.
I can see you.
I can see you.
I can see you, Hannah.
Now just keep coming.
Come to me, Hannah.
Hannah.
Hannah, come on.
Come on! That's it, that's it.
Don't look down, don't look down.
Just focus on me.
Now you're going to have to jump! Now, reach for my hand.
Reach.
Hannah, reach.
I can't.
You're too far.
Reach for my hand, Hannah.
Reach, Hannah, please.
~ (SHRIEKS) ~ Reach Quick.
Reach for my hand! That's it! Reach.
Reach! You can do it.
Hannah, please.
Jump.
Jump, Hannah! ~ (SCREAMS) ~ No.
Don't let me go.
~ Hold on.
~ Please! That's it.
Pull yourself.
(That's it.
That's it.
) (That's it.
) Take Mary to Auntie Sarah's.
I'll be there as soon as I can.
~ Please, come with us.
~ I have to make sure the fire doesn't spread.
Tom! We have to dig down, find the water pipes.
Hannah, go, go, go.
Lizzie.
The day has quite simply been a stunning success.
The King's favour (LIZZIE LAUGHS) Signor Alfredo is here, sir.
Madam's dance lesson.
(LIZZIE LAUGHS) (HUMS TUNE) (BELL RINGS OUT) Where are you going? Go back to sleep.
Go back to sleep.
Lie down, go on.
You warm enough? Go back to sleep.
Send word for Mayor Bludworth.
The street's on fire.
Hurry, man, if you want to save your premises! (KNOCK AT DOOR) Hannah.
There was a fire.
We've lost everything.
Where's your father? ~ Is he all right? ~ He's trying to stop it spreading.
You're safe now.
That's all that matters.
Hannah, Hannah, you're safe.
Tom! Tom, the mayor's here.
Shall we pull down the houses either side, my lord? To stop it spreading.
Are you out of your mind? An old woman could piss it out! (MEN LAUGH) An hour.
You seem to have found some stamina about you, Mr Pepys.
I asked for carriage, not entertainment.
(RAPPING AT DOOR) Make sure you lift him if he starts to cough.
I don't suppose there was any luck, sir, down the yards? I have asked.
I can turn my hand to anything.
I'll see what I can do.
(PANTING) (PANTING INTENSIFIES) I thought you weren't going to visit again.
Would you rather I didn't? That's not what I said.
This way.
Over here! That's it.
(SHOUTING) Water! We need water! ~ Get some water! ~ Out of the way! They says there's a fire in Pudding Lane.
Not a good omen in this heat and wind.
Who cares if the poor burn, eh, Pepys? I care.
It is my city.
Without London, there's no commerce, country or King.
Without London, we are nothing but a nation of sheep farmers.
Well, maybe it'll flush out some of the papist vermin.
If it wasn't them who started this fire.
Wilson, you well know the King demands tolerance of our Catholic brethren.
The King should enforce the law.
The King only cares for his pleasure.
I hear things down here on my river, Mr Pepys.
You hear the sound of the wind whistling through the space where your brain should be.
(SNIFFS) (BELL RINGS) Mr Ambassador.
We thank you for your hospitality.
Our guest awaits.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.
Welcome.
How did you acquire so many knots? Ow! Take pity.
It is important to look beautiful for the King.
He seems to require no special effort.
You are wrong.
And it's your duty under God, no less.
We will not harm you, my child.
No.
No, I do not want this.
Frances.
Frances.
Now, come on.
No harm was intended.
Now don't be cross, you're too beautiful.
Am I really so deficient, so ugly? The whole world knows you are handsome.
Then what can I do to persuade you to change your mind? Sir, since you can have everything, you know the value of nothing.
(NEIGHING) (SHOUTING) Tom! (SHOUTING) Tom! (PROTESTS MUFFLED) Go on, get in there.
~ Get her in.
~ Get in there, go on.
Tom! Tom! Tom! Mama! Sarah! Mama! Sarah! You are in serious trouble, Sarah.
Where is the rescue effort? A fire in the poorest quarter of the city, on the hottest night of the year.
Chaos, panic, confusion.
What better time to strike against the King?