The Rainbow (1988) s01e02 Episode Script

(Ursula) My mother's been married to the same man all her life.
My father proposed to her in a cornfield.
She led and he followed.
I don't know where my mother and father got their certainly from.
My grandfather was coming down Cossethay Hill one day when he first saw my grandmother, Lydia Lensky.
He passed her on the road.
And he said, "That's her.
" I don't know how he knew.
Last time I fell in love, it was like standing in sunlight.
When he went away, I was devastated.
But I didn't know, I couldn't have said, "That's him.
" I couldn't be sure.
- Were you lovers? - With Anton? (Sighs) Anton.
I haven't said his name for so long.
I came in very close, but he went away again without ever getting to know me.
I dream about him sometimes.
But he never looks happy.
Seems dissatisfied with me And I'm glad to wake up.
- Where is he now? - South Africa.
When the war was declared, his regiment was among the first to go.
- Have you heard from him? - Mm-hm.
Well, a postcard once or twice.
I never felt encouraged to write back.
I know he's all right, cos he writes to Uncle Tom.
(Thunder rumbling) We should go back.
You see? Nature isn't on anybody's side.
You mean God isn't.
What has nature got to do with God? Well, everything! Somebody made all this.
Didn't they? (Laughs) Sit down.
I've wanted to do this since the day I watched you at the swimming pool.
Do you remember? Yes.
(Rain falling) (Thunder rumbling) (Ursula) Only in his private moments, with his carpentry and his great masters, was my father roused to himself.
That, and his music in the church.
But his daily work in the world was a long sleep.
I think my mother was jealous of this passion of his.
(Door opens) Look.
I've made a frame for the Pietà.
Do you like it? - The picture or the frame? - Well, the whole thing.
I was going to put it in our bedroom if you liked it.
I can't go to sleep with that picture in me room.
- Why not? - Because it's ugly.
It's not ugly.
- It's beautiful.
- It's obscene.
I hate it.
I don't admire it! Your love of all those bloody wounds is obscene.
- Mummy and Daddy are fighting again.
- It's not obscene! - It's love! - It's not what I call love! - Where are you going? - Out.
I won't be back to tea.
- Well, where will I hang it? - I don't care where you put it, - but it's not going in my bedroom! - I told you before, no shouting.
Just a minute.
- I said, where are you going? - Miss Inger has invited me to tea.
Every time Miss Inger calls, you come running.
- Mother! - There's a good crop of stockings there.
- It's the holiday time.
- To whom? Who's having a holiday? - I'm having a baby.
- Ursula.
You could try to help your mother more.
For heaven's sake, get out of here.
Go.
Go on.
- That girl's worse than useless.
- (Door slams) I think you're being a bit hard on her.
I had a friend who died in childbirth.
After the birth.
She began to tremble, and got colder and colder.
The shock was too great for her heart, or something.
And her mother said it was all part of some great plan.
But I don't believe in their grand plans, every time some catastrophe occurs.
I want to batter at the doors of churches and say, "Show me, you liars and you hypocrites.
"Show me the evidence.
" I felt like that when my grandfather was drowned.
It made me rebellious.
Aaaaah! (Ursula) My Uncle Tom was broken by it.
I never saw a man cry before.
I wonder if he'd cry for a woman like that.
- It's strange.
- What? (Laughs) Love.
I don't see how anyone with a shred of dignity could accept the Christian view of love, with its stupid lambs and doves.
All victims! My idea of love and God amount to the same thing.
I want the fearless, powerful love of the lion and the eagle.
And I want my God to be like that as well.
You'll suffer for a passionate love.
You'll suffer, oh, yes, you will.
Oh, yes I will.
But at least I shall still have a lion's heart when I rise from the ashes of my suffering.
At least I shall be proud and strong.
And alone.
Well, of course.
You don't believe you can find happiness with men.
Oh, it's stifling here.
(Laughing) - It'll thunder.
- Probably.
I think I shall go and bathe.
At night? Well, it's best at night.
Will you come? Yes, I should love to.
Are you ready? (Ursula) I can't see the path.
It's here.
I shall put you in.
(Sighing) (Giggling) (Baby wailing) Oh, we shall have to move, Will, when this baby comes.
- We just don't have room.
- Shhh.
Shhhh.
There, there.
Oh, what's wrong? (Child coughing and crying) Ursula.
Your father loves you.
(Ursula) Some part of me is dead tonight.
The light has gone from my parents' door.
I half wish that I was a child again and my father loved me as he used to do.
But it seems that there is some love now that he cannot deliver.
(# Church organ playing) Hey, come to help me? Well, you weren't much help.
(Slams door) Hello.
How long have you been standing there? Can't can't I go out to work? Go out to work? What for? Father, I want some other life than this.
Some other life? Why? What other life do you want? Something besides housework and hanging about.
I want to earn something.
And how do you think you're going to earn anything? I can become a teacher.
I'm qualified by my matric.
And how much are you qualified to earn by your matric? £50 a year.
I wish your matric in hell! And what sort of teacher do you think you'd make? You haven't the patience of a Jack-gnat with your own brothers and sisters, let alone a class of children.
I thought you didn't like dirty, board-school brats.
(Scoffs) They're not all dirty.
You'll find they're not all clean.
Can't I try? So much of me is going to waste here! Is it? Oh, you can do what the deuce you like, and go where you like.
I'm finished with you.
(# Loud discordant notes) (Door closes) Do you think I should apply for it? Yes, I do.
(Laughs) I'm counting my freckles.
You have beautiful limbs! Young and strong.
Kingston-on-Thames looks more interesting.
Why'd you say that? (Laughing) Do you want me to go away? No, I don't want you to go away, my dear.
But you'll go away anyway.
Because you have to.
It's in your nature.
What's in my nature? To travel.
No, Win, I don't ever want to go away.
I don't ever want to be alone again.
I don't ever want to leave this room.
And you.
(Ursula) He's my favourite uncle.
Such a romantic figure when I was young.
He went to Italy and America.
And Germany.
And he always brought wonderful presents.
Gave me a hairbrush.
And a mother-of-pearl mirror.
And a necklace, once, of opals and turquoise.
Seemed such an outsider.
I never thought he'd settle anywhere, which was why I admired him.
Have you been to Wiggiston before? No, this'll be the first time I've ever been there.
- You will like him.
- If he's like you, I'll love him.
Mm! (Sighs) I wish I were a man, Winifred.
Oh, I've often felt that.
The world is a much more dangerous place for a woman than it is for men.
Dangerous? I know there are things I can use as a woman.
My femaleness, I can use that.
But I don't think I'll ever be happy as a woman.
Are you happy, Win? One day, I looked across my room, and saw the bent heads of all my scholars, and I realised I was happy.
Because there was a girl there, and she'd been there all the time, and I hadn't even noticed.
And that was you.
(Horse's hooves drumming) Listen.
I can hear the earth's heartbeat.
It's a horse, it's a horse crossing the downs.
No! It's the earth's heart, beating against mine.
The earth is my mother.
She hates me.
(Breathing heavily) Oh, she hates her own mother! Anna.
Why does she hate me, Will? Come down.
Don't get yourself into a state.
(# Church bells ringing) What's wrong? Are you ill? I feel as if I had ice in my throat.
What is it? I wish I were old, Gudrun, and my hair was grey.
Then I think my heart should be quiet.
You mean tame.
That's a pretence.
Tame people are spiteful and vengeful and wild.
But they cultivate the untrustworthy habit of tameness.
I was so fond of him.
(Sighs) You mustn't.
You mustn't go around pouring yourself into everyone and everything you meet.
People will hurt you.
I will also hurt people.
Well, that's inevitable.
- Is it? - Oh, yes.
(Church bell rings) - But we'd better go in, unless - Oh, no.
There'll only be an enquiry if we don't.
(Sighs) (Train whistle blows) I must take my freedom where I can.
Oh, but I'd rather be teaching anywhere than Ilkeston.
- Africa, perhaps? - Oh, Winnie, don't.
I keep remembering that at the beginning, you told me many things about yourself, and one of them was about a man you were in love with.
But since that time, I spend a good deal of every day thinking about you.
When I'm next going to see you.
And I didn't think that was possible.
To dislodge him.
And there have been times when I've felt that I should walk away from this woman, that I should never see her again.
Oh, but every time I'm with you, all that gets blown away.
What do you want me to do? I don't know why you asked me to come with you.
- Shall I go away? - No, don't be silly.
I just want you to be around for a while.
I will be everything you want.
What a grand entrance.
Is this your library? I had a wall removed, to make room for the books.
- And my laboratory.
- Are you a scientist? Well, once, I may have decided that I was.
And when did you decide you weren't? When I had done everything that I wanted to, when I wanted to.
And if I had half of Ursula's energy, I could probably do a great deal more.
Will you give me some? - Some what? - Energy.
I don't think there's anything I could give you, Uncle Tom.
Oh! You know, Miss Inger, if I've learnt anything about my niece, she never says anything she doesn't mean.
But you probably know that already.
(Machinery clanking) My room's at the end of the corridor.
The light's so poor.
How can people live here? - I'd just die.
- (Clattering and rumbling) Are you going to sleep with me while we're here? Oh, I think, erm, probably better not.
It's like being an angel in hell.
The whole place is like some strange disease, spreading all over t'countryside.
It's just what it looks.
Hides nothing.
I'll show you the winding shaft.
Why are the men so sad? Are they sad? They seem utterly, utterly sad.
Perhaps it's you that's sad.
They just take it for granted.
What do they take for granted? This.
The pit and the place together.
Well, why don't they alter it? They believe they must alter themselves to suit the pit and the place, rather than the pit and the place to suit themselves.
- It's easier.
- And you agree with them.
You think like they do.
That living human beings must be taken and adapted to all kinds of horrors.
Perhaps their lives aren't really that bad.
Oh, yes they are.
They're pretty bad.
The pits are very deep and hot.
In some places, wet.
The men die of consumption fairly often.
But they earn good wages.
How gruesome.
Why was she so hostile? She didn't like your pity.
(Ursula) Who was that woman? - (Tom) Mrs, er Smith.
- Is she married and working here? Ah, she's a widow.
Her husband died of consumption.
Like her father, and, er, two of his brothers.
They say they get used to it.
What a horrible thing to get used to.
Hm.
Well, that's the way they are.
She'll get married again, directly.
One man or another.
- Doesn't make any difference.
- Are they very strict here? No, they're not very particular.
Mrs Smith, for example, has two sisters who've just changed husbands.
They're not interested enough to be immoral.
The pit's what matters.
(Ursula) I think I've always known that Winifred was afraid and would never be a lion in the world.
And I know Tom.
He's like a man who reviles his mistress, but who's in love with her.
They're like ghouls together.
And what is he at home, a man? He's a meaningless lump.
A machine out of work.
Yes.
They are sold to their jobs, so the woman takes what she can catch.
If I could smash the machine, if I could destroy the colliery and make all the men of Wiggiston out of work, I'd do it.
Let them starve, let them grub in the earth for roots, rather than serve such a Moloch as this.
(Chuckles) (Whip cracks) (Sighs) (Rattling) Dear.
My dear.
Shall I marry Mr Brangwen? Shall I? Has he asked you? He's asked me.
Do you want me to marry him? Ursula? Yes.
I knew you did, my dear.
And I will marry him.
You're fond of him, aren't you? I've been awfully fond of him ever since I was a child.
I know, I know.
I can see what you like in him.
He is a man by himself.
He has something apart from the rest.
Oh, yes.
But he's not like you, my dear.
He's not as good as you are.
There is something objectionable in him, even.
His thick thighs! But I will marry him.
It will be best.
Now, say you love me.
I love you.
Kiss me.
Ah.
We're ready.
I asked Uncle Tom to come to the station with us.
- Oh.
That's all right.
- Ah.
I had hoped to travel with you to the station alone, for the last time.
- Oh.
- Well, say goodbye now.
I have to say that I came to your bed last night because that was where I wanted to be.
And that's where I want to be.
Because my desire for you and your company is greater than my desire for any living thing on this planet.
But I know these things are limited.
As you say, we have to take our freedom where we can.
Goodbye, Ursula.
Goodbye, Winifred.
(Ursula) I wanted to belong to the day again.
To the outside world of men and work.
My new existence has begun.
But I feel an unknown and terrible fear.
(Coughing) - Hello, Urtler.
How you going on? - Hello, Clem.
Don't usually see you at this time.
- No, I'm on my way to work.
- Oh, aye? What do you work at? I'm a schoolteacher now.
- Schoolteacher.
- Mm-hm.
- Hm.
- It's St Philip's School in Brinsley Street.
I never took you for a schoolteacher.
Oh, well, I'm not a schoolteacher yet.
It's my first morning.
What are you working at? I'm at t'pit at Ilkeston.
Oh.
(Ursula) My grandmother, the person I loved more than anyone in the world, was dead now.
The past, my childhood and family, is behind me.
I shall look to the future.
I give myself two years.
First teaching, and then perhaps college.
Hey, our Billy's doing well for himself.
- In the Lifeguards now.
- Oh.
Missed your chance, there, he's getting himself married.
That's nice.
Wait till I tells him I've seen you, all dressed up, going for a schoolteacher.
Hey, you mind he used to pull your hair? No, it weren't my hair, it were Theresa's.
I never liked schoolteachers.
They don't have a nice way of going on.
(Ursula) I will not be like other teachers.
I will make the mean, ugly children happy.
- (Children chanting) Four nines are 36.
- I will bring them light and joy.
Five nines are 45 (Ursula) Seven hats at tuppence ha'penny each.
- Six nines are 54.
- (Male teacher talking) - Seven hats at tuppence ha'penny each.
- Seven nines are 63 (Male teacher) Mills? - You.
- (Male teacher) Ellie Johnson? - Ford? - I'm sorry, I don't know all your names yet.
- (Male teacher) Ansen? Ruth Atkinson? - Nine nines are 83 One and fivepence ha'penny, Miss Brangwen.
(All laughing) - (Male teacher) Wright? Clarkson? - Good.
- (Male teacher) Dorrie? - Four pinafores at fourpence ha'penny.
- (Male teacher) Rowse? - Four? - (Male teacher) Mitcham? - I'm sorry.
- Four pinafores at sevenpence ha'penny.
- (Male teacher) Spencer.
- Sevenpence ha'penny for a pinafore? - (Male teacher) Dickinson.
- Seven pinafores at fourpence ha'penny.
- How many times have I told you? - This kind of work is not acceptable.
- Ten nines are 90.
Dirty, slovenly and careless.
- Now, you leave your sloppy ways at home.
- (Bell rings) Don't bring them into school! Oh.
You.
Please, Miss, it's dinner time.
Oh, is it? Oh, I'm sorry.
Well, you may go.
You can't do anything.
Mr Harby is against you on one side, and the children are against you on the other.
The children are absolutely awful.
They only admire brutality.
Everything, everything has got to come out of you.
Whatever they learn, you've got to force it into them.
And that's how it is.
But, Maggie, if you find it difficult, I don't know what chance I have.
You seem so contained and strong.
It's a mistake to believe so entirely in your own personality here.
Well, what else is there? You can't offer these children a personal relationship.
You must not let your personal self into your work.
You must not let love in.
So what must I do? You must set yourself a task every day and get the class to achieve it.
- That is all.
- I thought that's what I was doing.
You come in here looking for love, you won't find it.
- No, I don't.
- Then why are you offering it? So there's nothing to be done? Not alone.
But together.
- You and me? - Not just you and me.
Women as a group can be very powerful.
We have equality with the likes of Mr Harby.
Why don't you come to one of our meetings? I shall like that.
It's my payday, Mother.
Oh, aye? Here's 50 shillings for my board.
That leaves me 30 shillings of my own.
Aye.
When one realises that all this is being done at a time when a woman reigns in this country, then the picture of unreason and scarcely disguised injustice is complete.
Let us hope that, before the lapse of another generation, the accident of sex, like that of colour or religion, will not be deemed sufficient justification for depriving its possessors of the equal protection and just privileges of the citizen.
And I hope we will all agree with that statement.
(Ursula) I so want to be like her.
But I do not think that this struggle with men will change my nature or free it.
I think only the struggle is with myself.
Father a proper teacher, I can't believe it.
I feel sorry for him.
He always wanted to be an artist.
He wants to make broad sweeps.
Instead of that, he has to make tiny patterns for a machine.
Well, at least he'll be a somebody now.
I hated having to say he worked in a lace factory.
(Boys yelling) (Boys laughing) What did they say? Nothing.
Who are they? - I don't know.
- They're from that school, aren't they? Oh, Ursula, how awful.
(Jeering and yelling) (Mr Harby) You shall not be allowed to slide in this way.
I shall come in here every Monday morning to examine your work.
So don't think that nobody is watching you.
Because I am.
Go to my desk, Hill.
Miss Brangwen, kindly continue whatever it was you thought you were doing.
(Ursula) Go on with your essays, please.
(Thwack) (Birdsong) (Ursula) Oh, God, it all seems so unnecessary.
Why should the shape of their handwriting matter? (Sighs) So long as they dash down what they think and feel? No, I don't see how I can force them.
Coleridge says knowledge can't be given, it must be awakened.
I don't think Coleridge ever met a Williams or a Wright, Ursula.
- Shall I go on? - Oh, yes, please.
The lovely lady, Christabel Whom her father loves so well What makes her in the wood so late A furlong from the castle gate? She had dreams all yesternight Of her own betrothed knight (Ursula) That's him! And she in the midnight wood will pray Who's that? - My brother, David.
- Oh, sorry.
For the weal of her lover that's far away Hello.
You look like a bird up there.
She stole along, she nothing spoke (Ursula) The Schofields lived in a large gardener's cottage behind Belcote Hall.
They earned their living from the land they leased.
In this way, they were free.
David was so humble.
His world seemed so within his own control.
It corresponded to his nature.
It was this harmony and quietness that drew me to him.
(Child crying) I want to go to Mummy's bed! (Anna screaming) Listen.
Did I ever tell you about the night when Uncle Tom was born? And Mummy was a little girl like you? She wouldn't get into bed.
And do you know what Grandfather did? Now, you get into bed and I'll tell you.
(Anna groaning) Well, it was a time when Mummy, and Granny and Grandfather and Tilly and the animals all lived at Marsh Farm together.
(Anna groans) You remember Tilly, don't you? "Hey, your mother's poorly tonight, my love.
"She's poorly tonight, but she'll be better by morning.
" - She didn't know Grandpa very well.
- (Grandmother screaming) Her read daddy was dead.
She didn't know if anybody loved her.
- (Anna screams) - Well, Mummy was crying and Grandpa was sad too.
So he decided they should give the cows their supper.
Mummy'd never been in the barn at night.
He opened the doors of a high, dry barn, that smelt warm, even when it was not warm.
He hung the lantern on a nail and shut the door.
They were in another world now.
There was the noise of chains running, as the cows lifted their heads.
And then the contented snuffling as the beasts ate in silence.
- (Anna screams) - From then on, Mummy knew that he always loved her.
And in the morning, she had a little brother.
And that's our Uncle Tom.
(Baby crying) Mr Brangwen? It's a boy! (Baby continues crying) (David) You see, it's important to remember that in the woods, the flowers, like bluebells and daffodils, come early in the spring, because the leaves haven't come on the trees.
So the sun gets through.
The wild flowers strive all winter to be ready when the frost has gone.
They only have that one moment.
A brief smell of flowering, and they must flower while the canopy is open.
What do you mean by the canopy being open? When the trees are clear of leaves.
Later, when the leaves come, the canopy closes, and the flowers die over summer.
Do cultivated flowers recognise their moment of flowering, like wild ones? We train them to.
If you got married, Ursula, we wouldn't have to move.
Out.
Get out.
Why don't you get married? That would be a great relief for everyone.
How many brothers does Maggie Schofield have? Theresa! (Chuckles) Mother likes the house.
A colliery manager's widow owns it.
- Mm.
- It's big and substantial.
And it's in Beldover.
Oh, how wonderful! To be a princess in Beldover instead of a vulgar nobody in the country! The Nile is the longest river in Africa.
(Laughter) - Williams, what are you doing? - Nothing.
- What are you doing? - Nothing.
If I have to speak to you again, you'll go to Mr Harby.
(Thump) Now, I want you to pay attention, all of you.
The Nile runs from the south to the north and enters the sea here at Please, Miss, Wright's ripped me collar.
Get in front, Wright.
Wright! (Laughter) Now, I want you to mark down on your maps the names of all the major cities, - beginning with Khartoum - Please, Miss, Williams bit me.
Come in front, Williams.
- Come in front.
- I shan't.
- Do as I tell you! - No! Right! Come here.
Get off! - What's going on? - (Gasping) I thrashed him.
You seem to have matters in hand.
Sit down! Get up.
(Sniffling) (Children playing outside) If I may say so, Miss Brangwen, you did very well.
If you tackle Letts and Clark the same way, you'll be all right.
(Ursula) Elaine the fair Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat High in her chamber up a tower to the east Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot I find that people who describe themselves as simple are often the most complicated human beings.
Oh, no, Ursula.
This is the extent of my horizon.
I know the world through plants and trees and flowers.
It's a physical world.
I don't even talk really much, except when you're around.
David, I'm only teasing you.
What more could one want than to be in a beautiful place like this, to make things grow in your garden? - It's like the Garden of Eden.
- Is it? Yes.
Well, it's not so bad.
- Would you like to stay with me here? - Oh, how? You're not alone.
We could marry.
(Ursula) Belcote was my refuge from the intolerable burden of my daily existence.
Could I give it up? Could I? Could I? (Sighs) I couldn't.
(Bell rings) Today, I watched the wind move through the green corn, like a lover caressing the down on his mistress's face.
And I thought of Anton.
Would you like some sweets? What kind would you like? I should like some peppermint drops.
(Maggie) I wouldn't make David love you if you don't want him.
But, Maggie I never made him love me.
When are you going to stop? Stop what? Requiring everyone you meet to fall in love with you.
- I don't.
- Oh, yes you do.
Everyone has to be in love with Ursula Brangwen.
If it's not David, it's me or the children.
You're very dangerous.
Why are you like that? (Mr Harby) We must say goodbye to Miss Brangwen, and wish her all good fortune in the future.
I suppose we shall see her again some time, and hear how she's getting on.
Miss Schofield suggested the book of poems.
We hope you like the choice.
(Ursula) So much of my life has been fought and won and lost here.
Something of this school would always belong to me, and of me to it.
I felt like a young horse that had been broken in the shafts and had lost its freedom.
The agony and the ignominy wore into my soul.
But I knew to shafts like these, I would never submit for long.
I would know them.
I would serve them, that I might destroy them.
The Nativity's downstairs, will I get it? No, I have it here.
- What? - I thought we would live here all our lives.
(Sighs) They're coming, Father! (Ursula) My mother had woken from the sleep of motherhood.
She'd waited 20 years.
This would not do for me, though I was tempted by David.
Winifred said there were two paths, and I choose the one straight ahead.
I would go to college.
Anton was dead to me now.
I had killed him.
For I knew, if I was to be strong, I had to remake myself, in my mind, as well.
Because it was a lion's heart and a lion's share of life that I wanted after all.