National Theatre Live: Nye (2024) Movie Script

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'Knife, please.'
'Scissors, please.'
Arianwen!
Help!
Forget your troubles,
come on, get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout "hallelujah",
come on, get happy...
Yes...
He's coming out of theatre.
Nurse, straighten that apron, please.
Chaps, patient incoming.
- OK, uh... Are you OK?
- I'm OK.
It's gonna be OK.
We'll do this together.
- OK.
- Mm-hmm.
He's coming round.
He's coming round.
Oh! Here he is! Hello!
Oh, Jennie!
Here I am. I'm here.
- Archie...
- All right, butt?
How are you feeling?
- Oh, God! Awful!
- Try to keep still.
You've just had an operation.
- Where am I?
- The recovery ward.
You had an operation - the ulcer.
- You're in the hospital.
- Remember?
The nurses have been wonderful.
They've been asking after you.
Making sure everything's OK.
- It hurts.
- You're a patient in a hospital.
You've had an operation.
The hospital you built. Look...
I'll, uh... see if the doctor's free.
So nice... seeing it.
Without everyone, you know,
standing to attention.
Isn't it?
Look at what we did.
- Nye, I... There's something we need to...
- And there's more to do yet.
- Darling...
- I'm fine!
I'm not going anywhere.
Except maybe Number Ten.
Mr Bevan! Good to see you're awake.
How are you feeling?
Oh... Bit rough.
It'll take some time for the effects
of the anaesthetic to wear off.
Are you comfortable?
Would you like me to come back later?
- Oh, yes. Maybe later.
- No, no, it's fine. Go ahead.
- You sure?
- Yes, yes.
OK.
Mind if I examine you?
No, go ahead.
Deep breath for me.
And again please.
Good.
Now, just...
All right, all right...
Good.
Mr Bevan, I need to talk through some things
with the operation.
It was meant to be
a two-hour procedure,
but in the end, we kept you under
for six hours continuous.
Why so long?
Wait, you got the ulcer,
didn't you?
- So...
- Yes!
Yes, they go it.
All went fine.
It was fine. Wasn't it?
You just need to be careful
and get plenty of rest.
Doctor, you can you tell him,
can't you?
Everything went fine.
Didn't it?
Yes, yes.
I performed a laparotomy.
We found a large duodenal ulcer,
about an inch and a quarter by an inch.
Then we used an omental patch,
some fatty tissue to patch over the top.
There were no complications
beyond finding such a big ulcer,
which is why it took so long.
So, bed rest for three weeks.
- When can I leave?
- Let's focus on getting better, shall we?
I want to get back to... work.
Oh, you'll be back to work soon.
Won't he, Doctor?
I can't see why you won't be
back at work soon.
You hear that?
You'll be causing trouble in no time.
We tell people,
"No lifting for three months."
Can I... Argh!
What is it, Doctor?
What's wrong?
Try not to move too much.
It will subside.
What's happening, Doctor?
Matron, a fifth of a grain
of morphine, please.
- Oh, God!
- What's going on?
- Is this the operation, or...
- Deep breaths if you can, Mr Bevan.
Can we move Mr Bevan?
Bay 7, thank you.
- Where are you taking him?
- Somewhere with a little more privacy.
- Jesus Christ!
- Mr Dain, some pentobarbital.
Yes, Matron, two grains, please.
This will make things
more comfortable, Mr Bevan.
He's in a lot of pain.
- Please do something.
- This will take care of it, Mr Bevan.
Just a few minutes,
and you'll start to feel the difference.
Is this normal, or...?
Could I speak to you...
outside, please?
Uh, uh... of course! Uh...
- Can I have a drink?
- Some water?
A drink drink!
Whisky!
You can't get whisky
on the NHS, Mr Bevan.
Well, that's a bloody oversight!
This shouldn't take too long
before you start to feel more comfortable.
Ugh, God! Uh... talk to me!
Uh, distract me.
I can't tell you the number of girls
I've had offering to swap shifts with me.
- What for?
- Everybody wants to look after you.
Does everybody know I'm here?
Not officially, no, but we're nurses.
Oh, God!
Everybody knows, then!
Be in the bloody "Daily Mail"
tomorrow.
No, they just want to know
what you're like. Um...
One girl wanted to know
what you're reading,
or what colour your pyjamas are.
I hope you told her I'm the best-dressed
patient you've ever had.
Absolutely!
Can't lie about that.
Feeling anything now?
Oh, not sure, still a bit, um...
Can you try counting back
from ten for me?
Oh, right, uh...
Ten.
- Nine.
- That's right.
- Eight.
- It's funny being this close to you.
- Seven.
- I went to see you speak once.
- Six.
- My sister and I came down from Nottingham.
- Uh... keep counting.
- Five.
I was already signed up for nursing,
and she was doing
a secretarial course...
- Four.
- ...but after seeing you speak,
she switched to nursing like me.
- Three.
- She's at Bart's now.
We could barely see you.
Now look, I'm tucking you in.
Making sure you're comfy.
I'm gonna look after you.
I promise.
And then I'm going to tell my sister.
Sister...
- You're late.
- I, uh...
- You're late, Nye.
- I'm just...
How come you're so late?
What happened?
I don't know.
Archie was there.
Going over the cases for tomorrow?
Uh, yeah, I think so.
Did they give you a room in the club?
- I can't remember.
- Have you eaten?
Um... No, I'll be OK.
- You need to eat. There's soup.
- It's fine.
- I'm fine!
- No, you need to eat!
You probably haven't eaten all day.
You can't be a miner's agent
if you're fainting at tribunals.
How'd you get home?
- I walked.
- Why didn't you get the bus?
I fancied a... a walk.
- With all your papers?
- I fancied a walk.
Up the hill with all your papers?
Were the buses running?
Yeah, but... but it's fine.
Mrs Richards Garw Nant
paid for her curtains in advance.
I don't mind walking.
I don't want you coming home exhausted
and falling asleep in a chair.
I'll pay you back.
That was tasty, thank you.
- Get a bus tomorrow.
- Yeah, I'll try.
- No, get a bus!
- I've got a lot on with all the cases!
- I've got three hearings this week.
- I'm not saying you're not busy, just get home!
If I can't get men back to work,
they'll be destitute, Arianwen.
- I know.
- I've got whole families relying on me.
So, this family can't rely on you?
What do you want from me?
You've been on pins since I got in.
I want you to come home on time.
Fine. I'll come home on time.
And then when you come home on time,
I want you to sit with Dad.
Someone needs to sit with him
all the time now,
and if you start doing your bit,
then it means Mum and I can have a rest.
Do you have any idea
how much reading I've got to do?
Do you have any idea
what I've got on?
I've got my sewing work.
I'm caring for Dad.
I'm doing housework for Mum.
- I'm getting medicine, your shopping...
- OK!
- ...cooking your tea...
- OK!
...and it seems all you do
is your union work,
which doesn't pay enough
even for the bus fare.
I'm sorry... but it's Dad!
You've always put him on a pedestal -
why don't you care?
I... I do care! I care!
Then show it!
You're better at looking after him
than me.
I'm better than you at everything.
- Doesn't mean I should do everything.
- Right! I'm done here.
- He asked after you.
- What?
- What did he say?
- "Where's Nye?"
- That's all?
- Well, that nearly killed him,
and if he has to ask again,
it might kill him.
- That's all he said?
- That's all he could say.
- Has the doctor been?
- He's been.
- What did he say?
- What he always says.
Steam and tonic. Steam and tonic.
Up and down the valley.
This is why we gotta try
and get compensation.
- Dad doesn't want compensation.
- Well, he bloody should!
- Dad doesn't want money.
- It's not about money!
It's about natural justice. It's about
someone seeing what he's going through.
Dad doesn't want anyone to see
what he's going through.
No one's thinking about us
and looking at our lives and thinking,
"It's not fair that men are dying
in their fifties
"or children have rickets
or women are dying of childbed fever."
No one's thinking about us!
So, we're gonna fight
for every grain of justice...
or fairness, and...
and this is not fair!
And if no one will speak for us,
then I will.
The thing you're not hearing
is no one's asking you to.
- But I... I can, I... I can get justice.
- No one's asking you to.
- I can fix things! I can make things right!
- I don't want you to fix things!
No one expects you to fix things.
Dad doesn't want you to fix things.
He just wants to see you
before he dies!
I hear thy welcome voice
That calls me, Lord, to thee
For cleansing in thy precious blood
that flowed on Calvary
I am coming, Lord
Coming unto thee
- Wash me, cleanse me in the...
- Bevan!
Where do you think you're going?
Trying to escape?
Stand up, don't slouch!
Straight, I said!
Your sister Arianwen is a star pupil,
yet you seem to want
to get out of every class.
S-Sorry, s-sir.
Seats!
Page one. Together.
"I wandered lonely as a cloud
"that floats on high
over vales and hills."
Jones, Neil, take over.
Loud and clear.
Enunciate every word, please.
"When all at once I saw a crowd."
Jones, William, take over.
"A host, of golden daffodils."
- Prichard!
- "Beside the lake, beneath the trees."
Bevan!
"Uh-fff...
"Uh-fff... Uh-fluttering and d..."
"Dancing!"
Everyone is waiting, Bevan.
"Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
Next line.
Uh... Uh...
- "C-C..."
- Enunciate!
- "C-C..."
- "Continuous!"
Spit, it, out, boy!
"Continuous!"
Enunciate!
- "C-C..."
- "Continuous!"
Don't look down!
What are you looking
at your shoes for?
"Continuous as the stars that shine."
Don't shake your head at me.
You will say "continuous"...
...or I will cane you.
- Uh... "C-C..."
- "Continuous."
- "C-C..."
- "Continuous."
"Continuous! Continuous!
Continuous!"
- I can't!
- He's got a stutter, sir!
Why don't you ask one of us to read?
Because, Lush,
you all need to learn self-reliance!
No one's going to look after you
when you leave school.
Bevan, give me your hand.
Hand, Bevan!
- I... I...
- Hand, Bevan! Now!
Say, "Continuous."
Uh, C-C...
Ow!
"Continuous!"
"C-C... C-C..."
Ow!
"Continuous."
"C-C..."
- "Continuous."
- "Continuous."
Stay out of this, Lush!
"Continuous as the stars that shine."
"As the s-s...
- ..."stars that shine."
- "Stars that shine."
One more word out of you, Lush,
and I swear I will cane you, too!
"Continuous as the stars that shine."
- "C-C..."
- "Continuous."
Lush, step forward.
No, no, no, sir, no,
h-h-he was just h-h-helping, sir.
- Hand!
- No, no, no, Archie, don't!
- It's all right, butt.
- Hand out, Lush!
Move!
Move your hand, Bevan,
or you will get ten strokes for disobedience.
- N-No, sir.
- Fine!
Then I will cane you
until you will move your hand.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Sit down!
- No, sir.
- We're not sitting down, sir.
- Nor us, sir.
- It's not fair, sir, and you know it.
We're not sitting down
until you stop caning them, sir.
Sit down now, the lot of you!
N-N-Not until you stop!
I'll try and do it... everyone, sir.
- Put me down immediately!
- Sir, get under control!
I'll show you control!
I have never seen so much insolence
in all of my days!
- Stop it, sir!
- Leave it out, sir!
In your seat, Prichard!
No, sir!
- You can't do this, sir!
- You're gonna get sacked, sir!
I will make sure that
every single one of you is expelled.
I'd like it to be known
I had nothing to do with it!
I'll tell Mr Hopkins, sir.
He's gonna sack you.
Don't threaten me, Jones!
I'm gonna need you to calm down, sir!
You, Bevan!
You started this insurrection!
I will make sure that Mr Hopkins
holds you down himself.
Grab him! Lift him!
You must show him some respect!
Shut your mouth, Smith!
No, you... you shut up, sir!
You're a f-f... a f-fucking bully,
and everyone knows it!
You're gonna get sacked, sir!
I always said he's a bully!
All of you will receive fifty canes each!
- We are dead now, sir!
- I'm the one you want!
Stop blaming Nye!
You're just picking on him
because you're a prick, sir!
If you will not learn through instruction,
then you will learn through pain.
Oh, here you are.
Can't find the doctor anywhere.
Shh! He's just been.
Did I miss him?
Nye was in a lot of pain,
so they sedated him.
- Is he...?
- He's sleeping.
Bloody hell!
I wanted to be here.
I wanted to be here.
Is he...?
Was he...
How was he with the news?
Oh... We didn't...
Oh?
Oh, OK.
- Wasn't really the time.
- OK.
- But the doctor saw him, Dr Dain saw him?
- Yes.
- Didn't he say anything, or...?
- Well, he'd just woken up.
- Right, of course.
- It wasn't the right time.
- What did Dain say, then?
- He just said that... you know...
He told Nye that everything went fine
and that he would speak to him later.
- And Nye didn't cotton on to anything?
- No.
Right.
When he wakes up, he'll be more rested.
The pain will be under control.
It makes more sense.
He'll be able to absorb it.
- Yes, I suppose.
- He will, he'll be fine.
- Well, we'll see.
- He will.
I...
I just don't want to worry him
unnecessarily.
Wait... He's gonna be worried.
- We're all gonna be worried.
- I know.
That's why I thought maybe...
Actually, it's best we don't tell him.
But, um... what about...?
Sorry, what?
That way, whatever time he has,
he doesn't spend it worrying
or sad or upset or... or scared.
He would want to know.
- Think what's best for him.
- I am, and he should know.
What's best for him
is that with the time he's got,
his quality of life will be better
if he doesn't know.
That was never the plan.
Well, plans change.
Why?
- He woke up.
- So?
- He woke up, and...
- And what?
And he saw the ward.
He saw the ward,
and he had a twinkle in his eye,
- and I know what that means.
- What does it mean?
It means...
You wouldn't understand.
It means... he's dreaming.
He's planning, and I don't want
to take that away from him.
That's who he is,
so we are not going to tell him.
I... I don't think it's a good idea.
Well, this is next of kin stuff, Archie.
Shouldn't we find consensus on this?
This isn't a party conference.
- You know, if you're scared...
- I am not scared.
- I am not scared!
- It may not be as scary as you think it is.
I do a lot of difficult stuff, hard stuff.
That's my job.
I deal with people every day.
Housing, debt, benefits,
relationship breakdowns,
employment disputes.
There was this elderly old lady,
and she was renting a house,
and the landlord wanted her out.
She'd lived there with her husband,
and he'd done so much work on the place,
his fingerprints were everywhere.
So, the idea of leaving there
was like losing him all over again.
This place was the only thing
keeping her going.
And like an idiot,
I did something I never do.
I promised her I'd fix it.
I tried everything.
Nye could tell you.
I worked day and night for weeks.
Even asked the NUM to buy it.
I could not get it resolved.
The landlord had all the rights,
and he was determined to sell.
So, I called her in for a meeting,
I told her everything I'd done,
and there was nothing else I could do,
and she was gonna have to move out.
And she said, "That's OK.
Thank you for trying so hard."
Sometimes you make things bigger
in your head than they actually are.
Well done, Archie! She lost her home,
and you didn't get told off!
- What?
- What happened to the old lady?
- Uh, well, I don't know...
- The poor woman!
She gets kicked out of her home -
was she out in the streets?
She came to you for help
and got nowhere.
Forget about it! Forget about it!
Forget about the elderly old lady!
Forget about it! The point is,
this doesn't feel right!
Well, I don't know what to say -
that's your feelings.
You are making a mistake.
I don't think you understand.
It has been my main calling in life
to protect him from things.
It's been my main purpose in life.
If you'd told me in my twenties
that I would spend a large part of my life
in domestic servitude to a bloody man,
I would have laughed!
And then I would've slapped you.
It's just bloody typical
that I end up with the one man
who's been the best chance
socialism has ever had in this country.
And it is some deeply cruel joke
that my role on the road to socialism
has been keeping the leader well fed
and in clean underwear.
I thought I was going to be Prime Minister!
But we all make sacrifices
for the greater good.
And mine has been my career.
So, I have been his dinner party host,
his wife, his lover, his maid,
his confidante and principal advisor.
The one person he relies on above all.
I carry a lot for him.
Well, maybe this is too much for you.
Fully participating in one's own life,
is a bourgeois luxury for most.
This is just another of those
banal life details I will keep to myself,
so that he can be happy for how...
...however long he's got.
We'll be fine.
- You don't have to stay.
- I know.
That was a polite way
of asking you to leave.
That was a polite way of me saying
I'm not going anywhere.
Well, I'm done talking.
- Fine.
- Fine.
- Where am I?
- Shh!
Look at this.
Look at this.
This is my favourite place
in the whole of Tredegar.
I've never brought no one else here,
and you can't bring no one else here either.
- Right? Promise?
- Promise.
- I'm serious, Nye! D'you promise?
- I promise, on my life.
- Swear on your mum and dad's life.
- I sw...
I swear on my m-mum and dad's life.
I won't bring no one else.
So, what do you think, then?
Yeah, it's nice.
It's not nice, Nye.
- It's fucking brilliant!
- Fucking brilliant!
That's right. It's fucking brilliant.
Look at it, man.
My dad brought me here once,
and now I come
and read the comics and stuff,
and you just sit here and read 'em all,
and no one tells you you can't.
It's called a library.
You just gotta put the books back
tidy, like, after.
And you can just read 'em
for free, like?
Yeah. The miners paid for 'em all.
And we can read 'em.
You just gotta put 'em back tidy, like.
And then someone else can borrow 'em after.
That's how it works.
And the best thing is,
they get new ones in every week.
I've seen 'em bringing them in
in the boxes.
- There must be thousands 'ere.
- Yeah. Get one down. Choose one.
- No, I can't.
- Yeah, you can. Look. Watch me.
- And no one says nothing?
- No. No one says nothing.
Look.
Go on.
Get one down, man.
And I just...
I can just read it?
You can just read it.
- Is it good?
- Yeah. No.
- Do I have to read it all now, like?
- No.
If you don't like it,
you just put it back.
- Well, how many goes do you get?
- You have as many goes as you like.
You can just keep trying them all.
Get another one.
I can have another one?
No one's gonna say nothing.
Look.
So, it's not like a... a shop
or school.
No. And if you can't finish it,
you can borrow it and take it home
and read it there and bring it back
when youve finished.
For free.
Woo-hoo!
I can't believe this, Arch!
- Look at all these books for free!
- I know!
I can't believe...
I'm gonna come here every day,
and I'm gonna read this whole pile!
And then when I've finished this pile,
I'm gonna make another one
and I'll read that one...
You know, when it's just you and me,
you don't stutter.
Yeah, I-I-I... I don't really like,
uh... uh... talking about it.
Sorry.
It's just sometimes it totally goes.
Like you just don't have one.
So, you can do it, you can talk.
Why d'you think that is, though?
- I don't know.
- What do you think, though?
I don't know, Arch.
Fuck off, will you?
- You fuck off!
- No, you fuck off!
I said I don't wanna talk about it,
and you're still going on about it.
You can tell me to fuck off all right,
that comes out no problem!
Yeah, well,
t-that h-hasn't got an "s" in it.
Anything with an "s" in it
is a fucking nightmare.
It mad, though, some words are fine
and others aren't.
Yeah, w-welcome
to my fucking life, Arch!
I can... I see 'em...
uh, coming like roadblocks in my...
in m-my sentence,
all these roadblocks up ahead,
I can see 'em, uh, coming,
and I can't... uh, get 'round them.
And then I... I w-worry about it,
I think, "Oh, shit! I s-see it's got an 's'
at the start - I'm gonna s-stutter on that."
And then, when... when I get to it,
it's even worse
cos I've been worrying about it.
Is that why you do that weird thing
with your neck?
Yeah, sometimes I pull a muscle,
and I can't turn my head.
And then I have to lie to my mum
and tell her I've got a bad tummy,
so I-I don't...
don't have to go to, uh, school.
And then I just lie in bed, not, uh, moving
or, uh, talking, and that's when I think...
- You need help?
- ...I shouldn't exist.
No!
You just need to stop saying "see"!
How the fuck am I gonna do that, Arch?
I know. You know it's coming.
You can dodge it if you see it coming.
I do, but it's hard to think of a word
to switch it with.
That's how I get by most of the time -
tricks and switching words,
but it's hard to think of 'em.
Arianwen knows loads of words.
Yeah, cos she's always got her head
in a bloody... uh, book.
S-See if you can find another word
for "s-see".
"Visualise"? "Visualise..."
"Visualise." You could say that
instead of "see".
"Visualise."
"I can't visualise that happening."
"Visualise..." "Visualise!"
I can visualise the words coming.
I can visualise them coming.
I can visualise them coming.
I can s-s...
Oh! Find another word
for "s-say".
Oh, it's hard to find one.
"Enunciate"?
"Enunciate"!
I can s-say that.
I can't s-say "s-say".
But I can enunciate "enunciate".
- Enunciate!
- You can enunciate.
I can visualise the words coming,
and I can enunciate them.
- What... What just happened?
- I can visualise the words coming.
And I can enunciate them.
- You can talk.
- I can talk.
You can bloody talk, Nye!
You're not stuttering.
I can visualise and enunciate!
And you sound posh as well, like.
Clever!
Oh!
I can't wait t-to...
I can't wait to t-t...
Oh, bloody hell!
No. No.
Hang on.
Yeah. I can't wait to inform my dad
I've been here.
- It's working!
- Now that I can...
Now that I can now articulate my words.
These books!
They can't hurt you now, butt...
If I can't say a word,
I'm just gonna come here,
and I'm gonna find another one.
Oh, I'm gonna find a way around
every single roadblock.
I'm just gonna come here,
and I'm gonna read 'em all.
I'm gonna read poetry...
...philosophy, the classics.
I'm gonna learn about science,
history, economics,
politics, Marx, Engels,
dialectical materialism, socialism,
class struggle, ideological control,
freedom of association,
collective bargaining, blacklisting.
Read this.
We're all on it.
They denied it,
but we've got proof.
They are running a blacklist.
- We'll never get work in South Wales again.
- Is that true?
Look who else is on it.
They're all out of work.
Nye...
You got us into this mess,
you gotta get us out of it.
- How long you been out of work, Arch?
- Hey, it's not Nye's fault.
- This is the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company.
- How long?
- Nine months.
- Right. How long has Dai been out?
Fifteen months.
- Neil?
- Eight months, three weeks, two days.
- How long you've been out?
- Three years.
Three years! Your sister and her sewing
has kept a roof over your head
and food in your stomach.
- Well, it's time. It's over!
- All right, Jack.
Shall we start talking
about this week's book?
Oh, fuck that book,
and fuck this reading club!
And fuck Marx's syncretisms,
wherever the fuck we're supposed to be!
Stop blaming Nye for what happened.
- Why not? It's his fault!
- Because we all wanted better conditions.
We all took issues
to the foreman ourselves.
Yeah, look where it's got us.
Out of work
and on a fucking blacklist!
Look, it's hard.
We need a wholesale b-breakdown in
industrial relations before things can change.
It's too late!
It does feel like we're sitting around
reading books waiting for the revolution,
and the revolution is not happening.
Speaking of revolutions,
this week's book...
Oh, shut up, Neil!
Look, look, we need
a collective action before...
- A strike is not gonna happen!
- When the conditions are right...
- A strike is not gonna happen.
- Not a strike!
Not a strike!
The working class will c...
unite around an event.
- A strike.
- An industrial... confrontation.
- Like a strike.
- An event that disrupts relations.
- A strike. Just say a strike.
- OK, a strike!
- A strike is not gonna happen.
- No, it's not gonna happen.
- And after this... my God, we need a plan!
- You know who had a plan?
- The French! After the Civil War...
- Stop! Stop! Stop! Nye! Nye!
When my mother taught me
how to sew, right,
first, she explained it all.
Different threads, different materials,
different stitches.
She explained it all,
but I didn't learn how to sew until I did it.
Hmm? God, we need to stop
reading all these books.
- We need to try something new.
- You're all mad.
OK. How do people get power
without confrontation or without violence?
I mean, how do the coal owners
hold on to power?
- Well, after the French Civil War...
- Neil!
All right, Neil, you've read
this week's book, well done!
- We're talking about some stuff here.
- It's the first book I've actually read.
I finally bloody read a book,
and no one wants to talk about it.
I put tabs on the good bits and everything.
- Hang on! Hang on! Gwen's right!
- I am! I am! I am!
How do the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company
hold on to power?
They own all seven pits,
and I can't get work in none of 'em.
They've bought up all the land, so
the other companies haven't got a sinking pit.
- They own all the houses we rent.
- Yeah, most of the shops, too.
Yeah, but what of the checks and balances
on that power?
Until we talk about this week's book,
I'm not joining in.
- Uh, County Council.
- County Council! What else?
- Chamber of Trade.
- Chamber of Trade.
- Medical Aid.
- Medical Aid Society.
Working Men's Institutes,
Justices of the Peace,
hospital committees, I mean...
The Tredegar Iron and Coal Company
have a man on every single board
and committee.
And they make sure none of those institutions
are gonna challenge the company's interests,
but protect the c...
That's how they get away
with all they're doing!
Longer hours, less rescue teams,
blacklisting...
So...
Right, if we can't take 'em on
with a strike,
maybe we take 'em on
in the boardroom.
Huh? Get those institutions to protect us,
not them.
It's too late for us, Nye.
Well, if they've got a man
on every single committee,
we need at least a man...
- Or a woman!
- ...or woman on every single committee.
- What's the point if we can't get any work?
- Well...
Hey!
If I don't get a job soon...
...my dad says I've gotta go to Australia.
He can't keep me no more.
- Did he say that to you?
- Yeah.
I got till the end of the month.
Well...
You know, some of these committees
are paid jobs.
They're not gonna take workers
- on these committees.
- They might!
We are miners, coal loaders, timbermen.
- They are not gonna elect us.
- Why not?
We got no experience in running things.
We're workers. They're managers.
We don't actually know
how to run anything.
We got no right
on their boards or councils.
We don't know what we're doing.
I'm sorry, Nye.
It's not gonna work, and I'm sorry, everyone,
I can't do this no more.
OK, OK, I'm just gonna say this,
and then I've said it.
But there were a lot of committees
in the Paris Commune.
Hear me out! Hear me out!
The whole place was run by committees,
loads of 'em.
They were run by other workers.
No bosses or managers anywhere,
and they ran Paris.
- Why can't we run Tredegar?
- Neil's right.
I'm telling you! It's a good book.
Why can't we run Tredegar?
Miners, timbermen, why can't we...
Right! Hear me out, Jack, OK?
Here's the plan, right -
we are gonna read constitutions,
articles of association.
And once we know
every single one of them works...
...we are gonna get ourselves elected.
Because what's the one thing
we've got that they haven't?
Black lung.
- Debt.
- Books.
- Time.
- Time!
We got more time.
We are gonna be more knowledgeable,
better prepared, more capable
than anyone else on those boards.
And once we're on, ha-ha,
we are gonna slog 'em down
with pedantry and... and... and scrutiny.
And then we'll just keep getting working people
elected until we have the majority.
And then...
Then we'll run this town.
Good morning, everybody,
please take a place in front!
We need no dillying or dallying
this morning!
Right, come on, now!
You know where you're going!
New councillors, down to my left, please.
Thank you.
Right, then!
Welcome to our new town councillors,
councillors Bevan, Davies, Jones,
Lush and Stockton.
Welcome to Tredegar Town Council!
I'm the town clerk,
and, if you're not familiar with proceedings,
Mr Williams will carry on in the post
of chairman on grounds of seniority,
and as long as there's no objections,
he'll go first.
Thank you.
Councillor Bevan!
- You pressed your buzzer by accident?
- No, no, no!
No, I'm just... trying to figure out
how this all, uh... uh, works.
- Right! OK, let's move on.
- No, no, no, hang on. Um...
So... I suppose...
Uh, well...
I'm going to have to push you.
Councillor Davies.
How long has the principle of rotation
been in operation?
- Well...
- And for how long has it been shelved?
Um...
Well, this is something
we don't usually discuss.
We need a formal motion.
I don't really know.
We don't need a formal motion
because we all agree
with the principle of seniority.
Who agrees
that the election of the role of chairman
is not the c-concern of c-councillors?
- Well, we all agree...
- I don't.
Me neither.
Nor me.
So, how long has the role of chairman
been decided
by the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company
and not the c-councillors?
Well, every member here
has been elected by their wards,
- and to suggest otherwise is...
- Unparliamentary!
...unparliamentary language!
Well, that's fine. We're not in Parliament.
And which part of my question
was a suggestion?
No part.
Excellent!
So, as per the constitution
of the council,
we will go through a nomination
and election process
for the role of chair.
- I nominate Councillor Bevan.
- Second it!
Uh, if we can all please
stick to the agenda
and submit nominations
for chairman's role...
All those in favour of Mr Williams
continuing as chair say, "Aye!"
- Aye!
- Aye! - Aye!
All those in favour of me taking over
the post of chair say, "Aye!"
- Aye!
- Motion carried.
I will assume the role of chair
for the rest of the term.
Oh, no, no, no, this is not on the agenda
for today's meeting.
It is vital that council meetings
are conducted in a professional manner.
Is this even in the constitution?
Article 14.3 on the selection
and appointment of chairs.
In the middle of a meeting!
Article 33.5, emergency submission
to an agenda.
Even so, you can't change chairs
in the middle of a meeting.
Article 9, assuming the role of chair.
It's all in there.
I recommend you read it.
Very well!
Chairman Bevan...
Right!
Well, as, uh... chair,
I...
I, uh... propose
that we scrap today's agenda.
Oh, no, no, no, no!
You can't do that.
How can we consult anyone
if we don't know what the agenda is?
Article 33.6,
re-submitting agendas.
I open the floor to raise, uh,
any matters of any councillor's concerns.
Uh, all those in favour say, "Aye!"
- Aye!
- Motion carried.
Right, Councillor Davies.
Why have the Tredegar guardians not lobbied
for special measures for the valleys?
Councillor Hopkins,
this is your area of expertise
as one of the Tredegar guardians.
Um...
Well, now, then,
the Tredegar guardians...
Maybe we need fresh blood
on the Tredegar Guardians Board.
- Do I have a volunteer councillor?
- Me!
Excellent! So, Councillor Davies,
you can join Councillor Hopkins
on the Tredegar Guardians Board.
Councillor Stockton.
Why is the Medical Aid Society
not provided relief from premiums
for those suffering unemployment?
Councillor Williams.
The board of the Medical Aid Society
decided that it cannot offer relief
for those suffering unemployment.
How many trustees made that decision?
- The board!
- The board!
The minutes say six were in attendance,
but in the articles of association
you need eight to be a quorum...
Do I have a volunteer to join Councillor
Williams as council representative
on the board of the Medical Aid Society?
Excellent! Councillor Stockton will join
the board of the Medical Aid Society.
No, no, no, this is infiltration!
This is a Trojan Horse!
Why has the Working Men's Institute
not ringfenced the budget
for the purchasing of books?
The Working Men's Institute
has a limited budget!
Councillor Jones will be joining the board
of the Working Men's Institute
with special oversight over the library.
Uh... oh!
- Mrs Prichard!
- Uh, yeah!
Why do I have to go begging
to the Tredegar guardians,
writing letters from my sick bed?
How can I get better? If I'm worried
my children will be starving
or in the workhouse
just because I got sick.
She's not even a councillor!
What's going on here?
It's our responsibility as councillors
to take representations from the community.
I invite anyone into the chamber
to question our representatives.
Oh, Mr Llewellyn.
Why can't we have more nurses
on the wards?
Mr Leslie?
Why are overnight stays
so expensive?
Mrs Jones?
Why have the Tredegar guardians
not rejected the government's cuts...?
Mr Dury.
Why are you only passing the parcel?
- Mr Hywels?
- Why are the rates going up?
- Mrs Lewis?
- Why can't we build a new hospital?
Mr Francis.
Why do the drains get blocked
every time it rains?
Why can't we get buses
to the top of the valley?
Councillor Lush?
Why haven't I been picked
for any committees?
Silence!
Councillor Bevan!
You have now been elected chairman
of the Justices of the Peace,
the Miners' Combined Lodge,
the Labour Party, the Town Guardians,
the Medical Aid Society, the Hospital Trust,
and the Working Men's Institute,
as well as Member of Parliament
for Ebbw Vale!
Pack up your troubles,
come on, get happy
You gotta chase
all your cares away
Sing "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
The sun is shining,
come on, get happy
The Lord is waiting
to take your hand
Shout "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
We're going to the Promised Land
We're heading 'cross the river
Wash your sins away in the tide
It's all so peaceful on the other side
Forget your troubles,
come on, get happy
You better
chase all your cares away
Say "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
Come on, get happy
You gotta chase
all your cares away
Sing "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
The sun is shining,
come on, get happy
The Lord is waiting
to take your hand
Shout "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
We're going
to the Promised Land
We're crossing the river
Wash your sins away in the tide
It's all so peaceful
On the other side
Forget your troubles, get happy
All your cares fly away
Forget your troubles, get happy
Get ready for the judgement day
Get happy
You gotta chase
all your cares away
Sing "hallelujah",
come on, get happy
Get ready
Get ready
For the judgement day
'How is he?'
'No sign of discomfort.'
'His breathing seems erratic.'
'That will stabilise.
'Morphine will do its work.'
'Thank you, Doctor.
Thank you.'
Yeah, thank you
to the Honourable Member for Worcester
for his supportive contribution.
Next we have the maiden speech
from the Member of Parliament
for North Lanarkshire.
I must confess that this dying House
is not exactly a place of inspiration,
and I look upon myself
more as a chip of the next Parliament,
which has made
rather a precipitate arrival,
than as one really belonging
to the present House.
And I say to Honourable Members
opposite
that there is only one explanation
for this Budget,
and that explanation is this:
that in the eyes
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the people of this country
are made up in this way -
that the great majority of them
are fools,
and the remaining minority knaves.
That is the only possible explanation
of such a Budget,
and I can only describe it as a mixture
of cant, corruption and incompetence.
Hear, hear! Hear, hear!
I thank the Honourable Member
for North Lanarkshire
for her full-throated scrutiny
of the Budget.
One of the functions of government
is to try to keep the House and the country
from getting into hot water.
And sometimes it has to put cold in
for the purpose.
So, the question
of balancing the Budget
is one which seems to offer
numerous illustrations of the old saying,
"A little learning is a dangerous thing."
I've been astonished
since I took my present office
at the extraordinary number
of correspondents who've written to me,
with some infallible plan for solving
all the problems of the economy.
These ideas...
Yes, they generally embody their ideas
in a pamphlet or some such thing,
and when I pass them round
to my experienced staff,
they are always received
with a weary sigh,
because, really,
the only practical solution
is a significant reduction
in unemployment benefits.
Does the Honourable, uh... Member know
that, uh, winter is approaching?
I thank the Right Honourable Gentleman
for his interjection,
and I can assure him
that I am fully au fait
with the concept of seasons.
But is... Is he... Is he familiar with the concept
that half my constituents are unemployed?
And a further three million in this country
are without work.
I'm afraid I cannot offer any hope
that the government have discovered a plan
by which they can avoid or postpone
the approach of winter.
You see, human nature
being what it is,
to tell people that they can be maintained
by someone else in idleness
at the same standard of living as those
who are doing an honest full week's work
is something which might undermine and
weaken the fibre and character of the people.
- Hear, hear!
- How many of these workers are wasterels?
And you know, Mr...
You know, Mr Chamberlain,
the worst thing I can f...
observe about democracy
is that it has tolerated you
for four and a half years.
That is downright offensive.
I demand the Honourable Gentleman withdraw.
Yes! Withdraw!
N-No! No!
I shan't withdraw a word.
Order! Order!
I urge the Honourable Member
to return to his bench
and to reflect on his shameful remarks!
No, no! No! No!
The shame is on you
for presiding over this!
No, no! No! When the...
When the banks were in, uh, difficulties
or... or loans were voted
for their salvation...
...yeah, we bailed them out
in a matter of hours.
The whole resources of the state
are put behind the shareholders,
and the rich,
when they get into difficulties...
...nationalising debt for the privileged.
Christ drove the moneychangers
out of the temple -
you inscribe the title deeds
on the altar cloth.
I look around,
I look around here,
and I... uh, can see men
raised by nannies,
and sent away to board,
educated in Oxford and Cambridge,
cocooned in privilege from birth.
Have any of you been
means-tested? Have you?
Hands up,
who's been means-tested, huh?
Who here has been means-tested?
I was without work for three years.
Am I a wastrel?
Am I?
Well, you want to cut my benefits,
for people just like me.
How... How can you...
uh, comprehend the devastation reducing
benefits will have for people like me
if you have never lived on them yourself?
The burden cannot fall entirely
on the state.
Neither can it fall entirely on families!
Goddammit!
A fluc... A fluctuation
in the price of coal, right,
means that thousands of men
are laid off across South Wales.
Nothing... Nothing to do
with the quality of their work,
or their a-ability to work,
but precisely to do with the capricious
nature of capital and financial markets.
Oh, you worry...
you worry about weakening the fibre
of the character of the people
by helping them.
I say the state weakens the fibre
of society by not helping them.
I don't wish to threaten the noble lord,
but if we weren't in this place,
I would wipe that grin off your face!
You and your family have thrived
on the proceeds banditry
and slavery for centuries!
You're a collection of political gangsters!
You... You use the sacred emblems
of patriotism
to further the racket of protecting profits.
You come in here with the intention
of rescuing this country
from the evils which afflict it,
but you...
...you are the authors of our...
uh, troubles.
Er... we haven't met, but, uh...
...I-I just... I wanted to say
how much I enjoyed
your maiden speech, Jennie Lee.
Thank you, Aneurin Bevan.
- You know who I am?
- Oh, everyone knows who you are.
Charging about the place like...
like a rutting stag.
Can I, uh... buy you a drink?
No. Thank you.
I'm waiting for a friend.
Would that be the Honourable Member
for Leicester East?
It was really nice to meet you.
What's a guy like Frank Wise got
that I haven't?
A decent suit.
What's... What's wrong with this?
My Mam helped me choose this.
Your Mam needs to find a better tailor.
Lost all my confidence now.
Can I have a gin and tonic, please?
Uh, double?
Uh...
- Fine. Gin and tonic.
- Two gin and tonics, please. Doubles.
Can I ask you a question?
When you look around a room like this,
and you see the kind of men
this place attracts...
...do you feel like an imposter?
I think they're the imposters.
Well, I know that, but how many
women MPs are there? Four, five?
- There's five of us.
- I feel like an imposter, and I'm a... a man.
We're both imposters,
that's why this place needs us.
- A word of advice.
- Oh, please.
You're quite charming, you don't need
to steamroll over everyone all the time.
I am quite charming, aren't I?
- What's your office like?
- Cold, damp and miles away.
Sounds like North Lanarkshire.
- Mine hasn't got a window.
- Count yourself lucky.
The draught through mine
is horrendous.
If I could just work out who's in charge
of stamps and stationery, I'd write a letter.
Yeah, nobody knows.
The whole place is a mystery.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the tailors
and put a pound down on a suit
that would impress a pacifist
Independent Labour Party Scot.
- Don't take your mother.
- Ha-ha! No, I won't.
- I'll take you instead.
- No chance!
I'm serious. I'm serious!
Come on, help me choose a suit.
- I am not going suit shopping with you.
- Why not? What else are you doing?
- What are you doing tomorrow?
- I... I've made plans.
No, you haven't!
Come into town with me.
Hey, we'll make a day of it.
Lunch, gin and tonics, cartwheels in the park,
and then some overpriced suits.
- How about it?
- I'm washing my hair.
- No, you're not!
- Yes, I am!
Why are you ILPers so stubborn?
Oh, maybe because we have principles?
Join the Labour Party!
I am a socialist.
Join the ILP.
- I am a pragmatist.
- Ha!
That's just another word
for a collaborator.
Anyway, it was nice meeting you,
Aneurin Bevan.
Er... Nye.
- It was nice meeting you, Nye.
- You're going?
- Yes.
- What, Frank stood you up?
I don't ask you about your private life.
Don't you ask me about mine.
- I'm sorry.
- I know what gossip is like in this place,
- and I won't stand for it...
- I'm sorry.
- ...not from you, not from anyone!
- I'm sorry. OK! OK, I'm lowering my antlers.
I'm lowering my antlers!
- Low! Look, down to the ground.
- What are you doing?
In a public display
of submission and humility.
- Get up!
- Now I'm sniffing around on the ground.
My shame is so powerful,
my antlers are drooping now, look!
Oh, no, look at me.
Pathetic and subservient.
Now I'm delicately, quietly,
trotting my hooves around the room,
like a downy fawn,
so as not to, er... offend
the supremely dominant Alpha,
but also hoping to catch
the Alpha's eye...
...to ask if I may be granted
the honour of walking her home.
You really are an idiot.
Nevertheless,
can I walk you home?
- Come on, then.
- Oh!
Having said that,
we've already done gin and tonics.
- I think it'd be naive not to do dinner.
- No.
- Followed by cocktails.
- No!
- Then we can dance late into the night.
- No!
- Carouse each other into the small hours.
- No!
Until we realise we're not drunk,
but actually intoxicated with each other.
- No, thank you!
- And the only cure is to wrap our bodies
around each other.
- Dear God!
- Until there are no secrets between us.
- No chance!
- And it'll be so good.
We'll simply have to get married.
I am never getting married!
We don't have a normal marriage.
- OK.
- We're not like everyone else.
- OK.
- I've had affairs.
He's had affairs.
- You know he has, Archie.
- I... Oh!
Really, you don't have to cover for him.
I hope he's had a lovely time.
- I know I've tried to.
- I... I don't know what to say.
You don't have to say anything.
It's fine.
I'm sure he's put you in a number
of uncomfortable situations,
having to cover for his dalliances.
It's fine, Archie, I'm not angry.
I never approved of any of that stuff,
and I told him.
It's fine.
We don't have a normal marriage.
We don't do those chats.
Politics, yes.
The messy, complicated affairs
of the heart, no.
We have, and we've always had,
private lives.
When we first got together,
we were seeing other people,
and we never really stopped.
We were never ones
for bourgeois convention.
I know that Tredegar has a special place
in damnation for me,
but Nye was a full-blooded participant,
as I'm sure you know.
Look, I turned a blind eye to anything...
Why are you telling me this?
Because keeping things from each other
hasn't harmed our marriage.
It strengthens it.
We've been through some
very hard times together,
and we've got through them.
We lost a baby.
Nye had always wanted children.
I wasn't so sure at first, but...
He wanted a whole litter.
And I couldn't, and he was fine.
We never spoke of it, and he understood
when I couldn't try again.
Now, I couldn't give him a family,
so I promised myself
I would give him everything else he needed,
and we never talked about it.
It was just sort of the understanding
we came to.
And you know, his career was our baby.
Nye used to say
our love was like a garden.
He planted, and I tended.
And he was right.
It was our secret place we could
retreat to, to rest and heal and...
...and feel safe, I suppose.
It's the only place
either of us ever felt safe.
He told me about losing the baby.
He told you?
- When?
- At the time.
What did he say?
Just that it had happened,
and that you were sad.
You both were sad.
I remember him crying quite a bit.
- He... He didn't cry in front of me.
- Didn't want to upset you, I'm sure.
I didn't think he wanted to talk about it.
I... I didn't think...
What did he say to you?
- I can't remember.
- Was he angry with me?
- No, no.
- Well, what did he say?
He said that he didn't understand.
He said...
He said it wasn't fair.
Did he blame me?
Archie?
What... What's going on? Nurse!
What does this mean?
- Well, what's happening?
- What's going on?
I think his oxygen levels are low.
Uh, he's struggling to breathe deeply.
His blood pressure could be dropping,
his heartrate has increased.
- Why is this happening?
- It could be from the operation.
- Is he going to be OK?
- We'll give him all the support he needs.
Hello, I'm Mr Franckel.
Nurse, what were his observations?
Observations were normal,
Mr Franckel.
Blood pressure: 120 over 80.
98.4.
Blood pressure dropped 75 systolic,
55 diastolic.
- Quarter urine output.
- Maintained.
- Any signs of bleeding?
- None noted.
Bring the oxygen cylinder,
increase the rate of fluids.
We're going to move Mr Bevan
to the high-dependency ward
for further support.
My good friends,
for the second time in our history,
a British Prime Minister
has returned from Germany
bringing peace with honour.
I believe it is peace for our time.
Now, go home and get a nice, quiet sleep!
What the hell are you waiting for?
Dont undermine the government
when were at war!
- Support our troops!
- Show some loyalty for your country!
We're at war, you need
to support our government!
Steel production
for the first quarter of the year
has been increased to the figure of...
What the hell are you doing?
We're... We're at war!
Observe the parliamentary truce!
We have men fighting, no one wants
to hear the government is failing them.
We need to do something!
You can't criticise the government
during a war.
This is Parliament. This is
where their voices should be heard!
How many thousands of lives have to be lost
before you Tories can be moved?
Is that what you're waiting for,
a national tragedy?
Oh!
As I was saying...
Steel production has been increased...
Tonight,
there are empty benches in there.
Is it necessary to have a terrible calamity
to get these benches filled,
and Honourable Members doing their jobs?
I'm sorry, I cannot defend
the Honourable Gentleman's position...
The job has to be done, I tell you!
We need leadership.
What the hell are you doing?
This can't continue, we need leadership!
What is your policy on leadership?
You ask, what is our policy?
I can say, it is to wage war,
by sea, land and air,
with all our might and with all the strength
that God can give us,
to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny,
never surpassed in the dark, lamentable
catalogue of human crime.
You ask, what is our aim?
I can answer in one word...
It is victory,
victory at all costs,
victory in spite of all terror,
victory, however long and hard
the road may be,
for without victory,
there is no survival.
You are worse than Chamberlain!
We're losing every battle.
Men are dying
because of your incompetence!
We're gonna lose this whole war
if nothing is done about it.
And no one dares say anything.
Everyone worships you like a god.
I beg to remind the Honourable Gentleman
that in the national interest,
we need to support the Prime Minister,
not criticise him.
I propose the motion
that this House has no confidence
in the general direction of the war.
Nye!
This motion undermines the morale
of British troops fighting for our liberty.
It's not speeches in Parliament
that undermine their morale,
- it's what they are experiencing in battle.
- Nye!
Criticising the government
in the midst of a battle...
We're at war! There's always going
to be a battle somewhere!
Nye, stop!
Criticising the government
in this House breaks the parliamentary truce...
Events are criticising the government!
- Events!
- Nye!
- You win every debate and lose every battle.
- Stop it!
- You plan nothing and improvise everything.
- Nye!
You are little more than
a synthetic military glamour boy,
- and this country deserves more!
- Stop!
- Stop what? What now?
- All of this, just stop it.
- I'm... I'm trying to help.
- Mum and I have tried everything.
- Bath salts. Have you tried bath salts?
- We've tried bath salts.
- Lemon juice in water?
- We've tried lemon juice in water.
- Mullein leaf extract?
- Oh, my God, we've tried everything!
- Everything!
- Well, maybe we need a new doctor.
- Nothing's gonna work.
- Have you tried a new doctor?
Have you asked Dad
if he wants another doctor?
- You're making no...
- You shouldn't be asking him anything!
- But... I'm trying to get us more time!
- You can't get him more time!
Well, make him bloody comfortable, then!
He's not fucking comfortable, Arianwen!
- He's not... I'm not judging.
- If you want to give him a bed bath...
- Don't be pathetic, Arianwen.
- You're pathetic!
You avoid any kind of care,
and when I ask you to go and see him,
all you can manage is to look at him
like he's a specimen.
I need you to be with him.
Spend time with him, reassure him.
I'm not gonna just sit there,
doing nothing, when I could be reading...
- That's what nursing him is.
- It's not! There's more important things...
- There's nothing more important!
- I might find something that can help!
A cure? Don't worry, everyone,
Nye's worked out how to fix black lung!
Oh, piss off, Arianwen! I can't talk to you
when you're like this, honestly.
You're not going anywhere, you're not!
You're not, you're staying put!
I'm not lying anymore!
When he asked for you,
I told him you were busy.
I told him you're out early
and back late.
And that you sleep in the chair
sometimes,
and sometimes
you don't have time to eat.
I lied for you. And I lied for Will.
And sometimes even Blod.
I cover for everyone.
He's worrying about us.
He can't breathe,
and he's still worrying about everyone,
so I cover.
Cos that's my job, innit?
Protecting you, protecting him.
Making sure
everyone feels loved
- but never accountable.
- OK, OK.
Everyone gets your time
and attention except us.
You see a gap in this town,
and you shove yourself into it,
without thinking about the gap
in this family.
- It's not that...
- You've made me a tool to avoid this!
You turn a blind eye
to every inconvenient truth.
Look, I'm... I'm scared!
OK?
I'm scared.
But you exploit me.
You're no better than every mine owner
in this town, Aneurin Bevan!
Oh, God.
No! No, no, no! Arianwen!
Arianwen, help!
It's OK, Dad. It's OK.
Oh, God.
Oh, God!
Arianwen! Please!
Dad, I think I need help.
I think I need help!
OK... I won't...
I'm not going anywhere.
Come here. I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not... I'm not going anywhere.
They... They'll be back soon,
Mam and Arianwen.
And maybe...
maybe Myfi will come with them, too.
And-and-and Blod.
Blod will come and see you as well.
And Will.
Will will come round.
Yeah, we...
We'll all be together.
Mam'll cook something, and...
...and we'll all take turns
round the table.
No, no. Shh!
No, no, Dad! Dad, don't!
It's OK, it's OK.
Look at me, look at me.
Look at me, look at me!
Try not to fight it, Dad.
Don't fight anymore.
Don't worry.
I'm gonna look after you.
I'm gonna look after you.
I'm gonna look
after everyone for you.
I'm gonna look after everyone!
'Will he wake up?
What if he never wakes up?'
Jennie?
Jennie?
Where am I?
What's happening to me?
Dad?
Dad?
I want to show you something.
Come this way.
Where are you taking me?
It's so dark down here.
I-I-I don't wanna go down here.
- This way.
- It's so dark.
- Follow me.
- It's too dark.
Here.
Hold my hand.
Only in the dark can you see
what your life is really about.
How much further?
- Little bit further.
- How much further?
- Little bit further.
- I'm scared.
- Don't be scared.
- Well, how much further?
This is what I've been wanting
to show you.
Touch it.
Go on, touch it.
It's... It's so cold.
It's so pure.
Here.
Give me your hand.
See?
Feel the seam.
See?
Feel the seam.
Cuts the earth like a tree root.
See how it moves?
Full of power.
Like a horse.
You ever felt a horse's neck?
The power.
Feel it.
Go on, feel it.
Come on!
Feel it.
How can you mine it
if you don't feel it?
Now.
See how it twists... and turns?
This is all we have to look at.
So, look.
Other jobs,
you can look out the window,
read the paper,
make a phone call,
watch the world go by.
All we've got is the seam.
Show it... respect.
Tell the truth, and the seam
will give you everything.
But... if you get it wrong,
you're scratching around
on your hands and knees for days
wondering what you've done wrong.
Now...
Feel this.
Go on.
Feel it.
Now... the bad miner just hacks away
at this all day,
and it's splitting and you have to climb up
in there on your hands and knees.
But the true miner,
the learned miner,
gets to know it...
...and finds the point where one true blow
will bring it tumbling.
Take your time.
Study.
Study what you are up against.
Ah, don't fear it.
Don't flinch.
Don't doubt yourself.
Because one true blow...
...can last a lifetime.
And here he is,
the noisy member for Ebbw Vale.
Prime Minister!
Why are we...
Why are we in the tearooms?
- You never come in the tearooms.
- I visit the tearooms.
You never visit the tearooms.
I visit the tearooms.
I like tea.
Also, I like to give them something
to gossip about seeing us together.
Biscuit?
No, thank you.
So, Aneurin, you've been
my chief critic throughout the war.
I've been your only critic
throughout the war.
And it has cost you dearly.
Ostracised by your parliamentary party,
your constituency party is furious.
You're entirely isolated.
My criticism has been entirely justified.
I'm perfectly sure of that.
You are a merchant of discourtesy.
And you are wholesaler of disaster.
Well, let's see if the rest of the country agrees
with what you have to say, shall we?
Mm... "Bevan the traitor."
"Bevan the squalid nuisance."
I like that picture of you,
it's very nice.
"Treasonous Bevan strikes again."
Oh, dear.
"Welsh windbag strikes again."
You printed your own newspaper
during the general strike,
you might as well
be doing the same thing now.
Whatever reputation you had before the war
as a principled agitator,
you've destroyed it.
Now, you're the most hated man
in Britain.
Aren't you?
Excrement in the mail.
Death threats.
You're assaulted in the streets,
the security services tell me, I know.
You are universally despised.
After Hitler, the next person
the country hates is you.
Everyone else is too scared
to say anything.
You have the whole House
eating out of the palm of your hand.
We are at war.
I am protecting the principles
of the House.
If I don't win, there is no House.
I won't defeat one dictator
by creating another!
I am the best chance we have
of defeating Fascism.
A vote for you is a vote for the very conditions
that led to the rise of Fascism!
You conscript men
to mine coal underground,
then you allow the coal owners
to sell that coal to our navy for a profit!
A navy trying to defend the realm!
This crisis is a privateering racket
with your friends lining their pockets.
I am the only chance we have.
It is a privateering racket!
I am the only chance we have!
And I am the only chance
the working people have.
The Labour Party has never been able
to unite the working class.
Oh, we've spent decades trying to educate
through speeches, libraries, colleges,
all trying to raise the consciousness
of our class, and we've failed.
Yeah. The working class
has never been united in my lifetime.
Until you came along.
With your statesmanship and your cigars
and your "our finest hour".
And you did it in a matter of weeks.
Because the moment
the ruling class is under threat,
oh, you need
a united, uh, working class.
You need a united country
to defend your privilege.
So, you declare a ceasefire on us.
No more blaming minorities
or, uh... benefit claimants
or the Irish or the poor...
or the workless
for the harm your class
is inflicting on us.
Oh, no, no, it's all Blitz spirit
and "White Cliffs of Dover"
because now
you're under siege as well!
So, you use all your tricks,
all your apparatus,
your newspapers
and your emergency powers,
and you've united the working class at last!
Thank you!
You've done my job for me.
Once Hitler has been defeated,
the next enemy is you.
Biscuit?
I asked you here
because I have a request.
I've called for a vote of confidence
in my leadership.
And I want your support.
You want me to vote for you
in a vote of confidence?
Yes.
I'm an opposition backbencher.
Yes.
- I broke the Parliamentary truce.
- Yes.
I literally tabled a motion of no confidence
in your leadership.
- Yes, I remember.
- I have no confidence in you.
Still, I'd like your vote.
Ah, we're gonna do this, are we?
We're going to do this.
OK.
You have lost Norway, Malaya, Crete,
thousands of men have died,
we've had ships sunk in the Pacific,
you've lost more battles
than you've won.
You've got no plan.
You've got no industrial strategy.
I could go on.
You're a great speaker, Wins...
Prime Minister,
but you are a terrible military leader.
Fuck off!
You fuck off!
I can't support someone
who can't canvas opinion.
- Can't what?
- Canvas opinion.
Or seek advice. Or evaluate.
Or re-evaluate.
Oh, like you, you mean?
Have you ever compromised your position
on anything, ever?
I have certainly...
Here lies Aneurin Bevan
who never learned anything
because he was born
with divine intuition.
- Giving him sole right...
- I have learned...
...to be my chief critic throughout.
I have learned everything
I need to learn about you!
You've learned nothing
because you're a petulant child.
Well, this has been lovely.
We should do this more often.
I can't defeat Hitler...
...without American help.
Really?
I need to convince our American friends
it is in their interests to defeat Fascism,
and that time is now.
Agreed?
Universal approval at home
would make my dealings
with our American friends more presentable.
I make you look bad?
No!
But you could make me look better.
So, it falls on you to do your bit
for the war effort...
...and vote for me!
And the stakes couldn't be higher.
You seek power,
but you're afraid of it.
You demand to govern,
yet insist on being ungovernable.
You demand solidarity,
but you don't vote with your own whips.
You are a born contrarian.
The educated miner,
the stuttering orator,
the bed-hopping husband,
the leader with no mandate,
the brave... coward.
The thing you need to learn about power,
Aneurin, is this:
Compromise everything to get it,
because once you have it,
you no longer have to compromise.
That is the privilege of power.
Compromise.
And vote for me.
Leave the activist behind.
Become a politician.
Thank you, dear boy.
Good news about the Americans.
Very good news, Mr Bevan.
Not long now, Mr Bevan.
Victory in Europe, Mr Bevan.
Tide turning, Mr Bevan.
Victory in Japan, Mr Bevan.
The troops are coming home,
Mr Bevan.
- Churchill defeated, Mr Bevan.
- What?
Landslide Labour victory, Mr Bevan.
We'll take that, Mr Bevan.
Mr Bevan!
Oh, just this way.
Ah, Nye. Good to see you.
Clem?
Prime Minister, actually.
I suppose you're wondering
what you're doing here.
Shall I put you out of your misery?
I, uh...
I brought you here today
to invite you to join the Cabinet.
I'd like to offer you the job
of Minister for Health and Housing.
- Health?
- And Housing.
Thought it might be a good fit.
This is some sort of a joke?
No.
You want me in the Cabinet?
I've never been a minister before.
Never even been a shadow minister.
- Well, I thought...
- Never even chaired a select committee.
Maybe with some support...
You kicked me out of the party once!
We don't really speak.
Why would you possibly want me
in your Cabinet, Clem?
Prime Minister.
I sensed...
...a maturing in your approach.
- Health and Housing.
- What's your game?
There is no game.
- Health and Housing?
- It's a big brief.
You know I have a thing for Health.
- You know it.
- Indeed.
And you are exploiting that to...
to what?
- Nothing.
- To overpromote me, is that it?
So I fail?
Is that what you're doing?
So I expend my political capital
with the left of the party.
Factional paranoia!
I brought you here today
with the expressed...
Addison's reputation was ruined
when he couldn't deliver on Health,
and that was the end of him.
This isn't a brief, it's a trap!
You've got your feet under the desk
at Number Ten, with a massive majority,
and you've calculated the only person
who can derail everything now is me.
I'm the one who can split the party.
You know... I can consolidate the left
and hold you to ransom,
so you want to muzzle me with either failure
or collective responsibility or both.
You say factional paranoia,
I say political chicanery, Clem.
Prime Minister.
There's some merit in your analysis.
Having you in Cabinet
mitigates the risk of a split.
- Thank you.
- But have you considered...
...that I may want to unite the party
rather than merely avoid a split?
- How?
- By delivering for the left
rather than humiliating it.
A united Labour Party, left and right,
in Cabinet together.
Bevan and Bevin
putting their names to the same policies.
United,
for the good of the party.
The good of the country.
For the good of the people.
The right aren't the enemy, Nye.
They're just politicians
you haven't worked with yet.
And maybe you should try
working with them.
As Minister for Health?
And Housing.
If I deliver, you win.
If I fail, you win.
Welcome to Number Ten.
Do you think I can do this?
I don't think anyone else can.
That's not what I asked.
I need to know that...
that you think I can do this.
I think...
What do I think?
I think if anyone can do this...
it's you.
Thank you...
...Prime Minister.
Minister?
Yes. How can I help?
You have to help.
St Hilda's won't take my son
because he's got polio,
and they only do acute medicine.
Your nearest council hospital
will deal with infectious... uh, disease.
But he's got kidney failure as well,
so St Hilda's say
he has to go to St James's,
and St James's say
he has to go to St Hilda's.
No hospital will admit him.
He...
He's going to die.
Well, um...
There's a diphtheria outbreak
in the schools.
People are dying waiting to be tested.
Can't the doctors prescribe the antitoxin
without, uh, a positive, uh, r-result?
No, they're rationing the medicine.
They won't prescribe it
without a positive test, you have to help.
My wife is being strangled to death
by this disease.
Let me, um... Let me see if I can get
another centrifuge to your town to help.
Help, First Minister,
my baby has TB,
and they forget to put the legs of the cot
in tins of oil
to stop the cockroaches climbing up.
One of them roaches get into her cot,
and now my baby is deaf.
Cockroaches? What hospital is it?
I don't trust them
to look after her no more,
and then they'll let me
take her to another hospital.
Uh, tell me the name of the doctor
in charge of your baby...
Minister,
my daughter has bronchitis,
and we've been waiting for a month
to get her admitted to St Mark's.
- Wait.
- She needs to get away from the dust.
She needs fresh air.
Please, Minister,
I don't know who else to turn to.
I broke my wrist,
and the doctor can repair it,
but I can't afford the anaesthetic
for the operation.
No, no! No! No! No, you can't have surgery
without anaesthetic.
Well, I have to work,
but I can't because of the pain.
We need more ambulances
in our town.
Uh... which town?
My husband broke his leg in t' pit.
- He had to walk three miles home on it.
- Which pit is this?
They judge me
because of what I do for a living.
But don't I deserve medicine,
don't I deserve care?
- Everyone deserves...
- Where do people like me go
when we're sick?
I work on the street,
and I'll die on the street
unless you do something about it.
- Please, Aneurin Bevan.
- Yes?
- They say you're a good man.
- Ah, good.
- They say you care.
- I do.
There's no beds in King Edward's.
Minister, the maternity ward
was overcrowded,
and there was a rubella outbreak.
All the babies were born
either deaf or blind.
I had to put my eldest in the coal shed
to keep her away from the babies
because she's got measles.
- If I can just, er...
- 'My father has black lung.'
- What?
- You're the only one who can help.
Please, help me.
There's no cancer specialist
in my town.
We have to travel five hours
for an appointment.
- Please, help me.
- I can't afford to travel anymore.
Don't know what to do.
Please help me.
- 'My father has black lung.'
- Who is that?
There are no ambulances,
so the doctor had to reset his leg
on the kitchen table.
The children had to hold him down.
- 'My father has black lung.'
- Arianwen?
I want justice or compensation.
Or someone to acknowledge
what happened to me wasn't right.
'Nye, can you hear me?'
Jennie?
The consultant let six different
medical students examine me.
I started bleeding,
and I lost my baby.
'There's something
I have to tell you.'
- Where are you?
- They won't take any responsibility...
'...a majority in the House.'
- Who's meant to help me?
- '...six hours continuous.'
Please, Minister.
The almoner says I must pay two shillings
for my radium.
I don't have that money.
If I don't pay, she's gonna stop
my treatment.
- 'Please, wake up.'
- Jennie?
My wife's mother can get penicillin
up in Newcastle,
- but we can't get it down here!
- 'Unfinished business.'
- Can you help get supplies to Worthing?
- Please.
- 'Nye.'
- I don't know who else to turn to.
- Please!
- Our GP looks after 18,000 patients.
How am I supposed
to get an appointment?
'There were no complications.'
'Nye, love? It's Jennie.'
'Fifth of a grain
of morphine, please.'
- Help me!
- 'Come on, love.'
- Please, help me.
- Minister.
- I need help.
- Please.
- Please!
- Help!
'Nye, wake up.
'Come on, you can do it.'
Nye.
I made a mistake not telling you, and I...
I need you to wake up.
Please!
Wake up, Nye!
- Ple...!
- What are you doing?
Nothing.
- What are you doing? He's sleeping.
- Well, I just thought he should...
- You know, he should wake up now.
- Leave him be.
- Nye!
- Leave him.
Can you get the doctor, please?
- What for?
- Just get the doctor.
- What am I asking him to come for? He's fine.
- Just get the bloody doctor, Archie.
- What... What for?
- Get a doctor!
He's drugged up to the eyeballs.
Just do as you're told,
and don't question everything.
- I'm not calling the doctor.
- Wh... Please!
- No, I'm not.
- What is your problem?
I don't trust you.
You're trying to wake him up
against the doctors and nurses' advice.
You wanna wake him up,
but you don't wanna tell him what's going on.
- You're being selfish, and I'm not having it.
- I'm not being selfish.
That's enough. This is madness.
You're not putting him first,
- you're putting yourself first.
- If I want to speak to my husband, I will!
- This is none of your business!
- No!
No! No!
I've been picking up the pieces
of your meddling for years,
and this time I'm saying no, you're not
doing it, you're not. You've done enough!
What are you talking about?
- You know exactly what I'm saying.
- I've no idea what you're talking about.
- Oh, of course you don't.
- No, I don't.
I'm talking about you
pouring poison in his ear for years.
- You never forgave him.
- For what?
For being more successful than you.
And every stupid self-sabotaging decision
he's made, you're behind it,
rubbing your hands with glee
at the carnage he's created for himself.
Oh, what completely rubbish!
He burns bridges,
and it's you who's handing him the matches.
You've ruined his career.
The more chaos he causes,
with the party or the cabinet
or the shadow cabinet or with his family,
the more isolated he gets,
the more important you become.
Because you want him all to yourself.
You really are a pathetic piece of work.
Just a jealous excuse of a man.
You are not fit to polish Nye's shoes.
You are nothing but a bloody leech, Archie,
sucking him dry for any ounce of status,
clinging to his coattails.
"Nye's man in the valley",
you are a bloody social climber, Archie.
You know, seeing your stupid nose
in the air and your tail wagging
any time there's a Lord, or a President
or... or some dignitary in the room.
You're an embarrassment!
Nye finds you embarrassing.
And Nye thinks you're a snob.
Champagne with Nehru,
oysters with Khrushchev.
And then he'd bring you to the valley,
and we'd spend all of our time
trying co-ordinate you -
who you were gonna speak to,
who you were gonna meet,
who was least likely to notice
your disdain and embarrass him.
He was ashamed of you.
Well, he thought
you were an intellectual pygmy.
- He thought you were a political failure.
- He dreaded you and Ada visiting.
- That's not true.
- It is.
- It's not.
- It is.
I've always hated you.
How's everybody doing?
It's not my ward, but I promised Mr Bevan
I'd take care of him.
Matron said it was fine.
Is everything OK?
Could you... Could you ask him
to leave, please?
- I'm not going anywhere.
- I would like him to leave.
- I'm not going anywhere.
- I want him to leave now!
You know, this is a very hard thing
for anybody to go through.
Emotions run high.
I'd encourage everybody
just to take a breath.
You are the only ones here.
And that can cause
tremendous problems,
but you are the only ones here.
And that says something.
He looks peaceful now.
The morphine's doing its trick,
he's peaceful.
- Take some comfort from that.
- Uh...
He... he will wake up, won't he?
I'm not sure.
You must have seen this before -
do people ever wake up?
There's things I... I need to say to him.
You have time to say them.
That's what we can give you.
More time with the people you love.
Minister!
Herbert.
Deputy Prime Minister...
actually!
I thought we could have a little chat
before things get underway.
- About what?
- Your health bill.
To get it past the House,
you have to get it past the Cabinet.
To get it past the Cabinet,
you have to get it past me.
You've been very secretive,
so before Cabinet arrives,
tell me what the plan is.
- I'm not gonna do that, Herbert.
- I really think you ought to.
Everyone needs to hear it
at the same time...
No, you see, I need to hear it
before anyone else.
But no one will share it with me.
It's almost as if... you don't trust me.
You do trust me, don't you, Nye?
Well... everything's relative.
Indeed.
So, here we are.
In the Cabinet Office
waiting to build consensus.
Come on,
the noisy member for Ebbw Vale.
I've never heard you so quiet.
If I run my bill past you,
you'll make a counterproposal,
and then they'll try and find
a compromise between us.
- Yes.
- And it'll water down my vision, fudge it.
- Your "vision"?
- Yes, my vision.
- You mean your bill.
- No, my vision.
- You've only been here a few months.
- I'm the minister for Health and Housing.
Yes, so everybody keeps telling me,
but still... I find it hard to believe.
I'm a minister. Clem appointed.
When I think about it,
it gives me two feelings at the same time.
I feel excited slash alarmed.
Two feelings at the same time.
It's uncomfortable.
So, how about you put me
out of my discomfort
and you share your vision with me?
I'm giving you a chance.
Do you want to get your nose bloody here
with me now,
or in front of everyone else?
Ugh! OK.
Well, the health service is...
...a complex mess.
It's impossible to navigate...
and grossly unfair.
The voluntary hospitals serve the rich,
the council hospitals serve the poor.
The rich cities have all the facilities,
all the specialists,
and the... the poor regions are stuck
with Victorian hospitals falling apart.
so... so we're left with an uneven service
across the country,
where poverty is a disability,
and wealth is advantage.
You know, in Sunderland,
one GP has to cover 18,000 people,
but in Chelsea, oh...
one doctor has 200 patients.
People are dying
from preventable illness and disease
because they can't get seen.
Or they have to travel too far or...
or the cost of treatment is too much.
So...?
So...
Back home in Tredegar...
...we have a Medical Aid Society.
All the miners pay into it every week,
and it covers the cost
of six doctors and six nurses
who take care of the whole town.
There are friendly medical societies
all over the country.
This is what's different about ours.
The Tredegar Medical Aid Society
covers not only those who put in,
but also those who don't.
Women, children, the elderly,
in Tredegar, everyone gets
the same health care as the working men.
And it works.
So, I want to...
Well...
I want to Tredegarise the whole country.
You know, a uniform service,
so no matter where you are,
you can get the same healthcare
as everyone else... free...
...at the point of need.
That's your vision?
- Do what you did back home?
- Exactly.
You want to take a model
that worked on a town of 10,000
and apply it to a country
of 50 million.
Well...
It would mean nationalising the hospitals.
Go on.
Well, uh...
uh, nationalise the hospitals, um...
doctors on a salary,
and funded by central government.
I see. Very simple, isn't it?
Yes, it is, yeah.
Very simple.
I suppose the challenges are,
the doctors won't agree to make any changes,
and they can make a handsome living
charging patients privately.
- Yes...
- Then, the Labour-run councils...
They take a great deal of pride
in the hospitals they run,
- won't give them up without a fight.
- No doubt.
On top of that,
you've got the voluntary hospitals.
They won't give up their endowments,
their prestige in teaching,
and they'll be backed by the Tories,
because all Tories love to donate
to the voluntary hospitals
to assuage their midnight guilt.
So, when I think about it,
you're sort of picking three fights at once.
It seems a bit much.
We need control of the voluntary hospitals
cos that's where the consultants are.
Yes, and we can give them
to the local councils to run.
One less battle.
Health service run by local government,
not central government.
But local taxation means that the rich cities
get all the best doctors and the best hospitals
and the... the poor have to make do.
People are already having surgery without
anaesthetic because they can't afford it.
No, no. No, a universal service
needs to be funded by central government.
But local government has
a far more nuanced understanding
of each area's healthcare needs.
- What's the biggest obstacle?
- The doctors.
So, how do we get them onside?
I don't know.
No Health minister has ever persuaded
the British Medical Association
to agree to anything.
Their union is enormous.
Exactly!
So, we need to break their union.
I'm sorry, did you just say that?
They're middle class, it's fine.
How do you intend to break the union?
Pressure, and I can only get pressure
by nationalising all the hospitals
at the same time. A blitzkrieg.
If it's a gradual approach,
the Tories will just unpick everything
when they're next in power.
It has to be a shock of change
to show the country what's possible.
You know, the only way this is gonna last
is if it's short, sharp, and deep.
A health service free at the point of use
based on clinical need,
not the ability to pay.
It's simple to understand
and difficult to undermine.
I mean, the execution of it
won't be perfect, Herbert,
but... it will be the closest we'll get.
It's all a bit dramatic for my taste.
Thank you for sharing with me,
but I'm not convinced.
I'll be opposing in Cabinet.
What? Why?
Because it's what a responsible
Labour government should do.
What's that supposed to mean?
It means we're not going to undermine
our friends in local government.
Why not?
Because we look after our own.
Why?
You haven't the faintest idea
how this works.
You have the audacity to ask me...
...the Deputy Prime Minister... why?
You're not actually Deputy Prime Minister,
you're Lord's President of the Council.
You just like to call yourself
Deputy Prime Minister.
- Why won't you work with me on this?
- Because it is beneath me!
Why?
Clem stuck you in here
to shore up his position,
and now I'm meant to take you seriously.
You have no ministerial acuity,
no talent for governance. It's ridiculous.
I am here running committees,
writing policies, maintaining discipline,
working every damned hour God sends
to make this thing finally electable,
and when we get in,
we give you a seat at the table.
And what's more,
you actually think you deserve it!
Your sense of entitlement -
you swan around
like some film star dazzling the membership
with your wit and your charm,
and your stupid fucking hair!
Shagging your way through conference,
promising them the world,
when you don't have the faintest idea
how to deliver it.
The thing about applying pressure,
you only apply
what you can withstand yourself.
They will do as I say
because I am the Labour Party, not you!
Oh... we're all here, are we?
Yes, the Minister for Health and I,
we were just discussing...
...how Herbert is actually in charge,
and how he'd rather help
his friends in local government
- than the rest of the country.
- I see.
- That's not quite right...
- I think we've heard enough.
All those in favour of Nye's bill,
raise a hand.
Congratulations, Nye.
It seems you now have
Cabinet backing.
- You can't be serious...
- Chaps!
He's twisted what I've said.
I should have my own desk.
I am the Deputy Prime Minister!
Now... the doctors.
The doctors have destroyed the careers
of every single health minister
for the past 15 years.
No one has ever come close
to defeating them.
Your task is to persuade the most
conservative profession in the country
to accept and operate
our most socialist programme.
Hit them for six!
Hello?
I'm...
I'm the new health minister.
Aneurin... uh, Bevan.
Who am I negotiating with?
'You are negotiating
with the whole council.'
And who is your leader?
'We're spokesmen, not leaders.'
Well, it's quite hard to negotiate
with an organisation without a leader.
Well, uh... let's try and find
some common ground.
Right? Um... what are our differences?
Can you be specific?
'One: no full-time salaried service
for general practitioners.
'Two: doctors will be free to practise
without state interference.
'Three: doctors will practise
anywhere they choose.
'Four: the whole service will be run
on voluntary hospitals.'
'Five: Adequate medical representation
on all boards.'
And which of those is your priority
in these negotiations?
- 'Two.'
- 'Five.' - 'Three.'
Who am I meant to listen to?
You all want different things.
Or is that why it's easier
just to keep things the way they are, huh?
So you don't have to find consensus?
I-I don't think your members actually have
as big an issue with my bill as you say.
So, if it's not really the bill,
what specifically are you opposed to?
'You!'
I see.
Then I should make my... uh, position clear
on those points you raised.
I will concede this:
Absolutely nothing!
"Bevan treated an unworthy profession
with the contemptuous derision
- "of which he is a master."
- Well, yes, I...
"Bevan to bully the BMA
and failed."
It's not bullying, it's negotiating.
What am I going to do with you?
Nothing, I... I just need time.
Worst first innings
we could have asked for.
I just need more time.
I need you to hold your nerve.
We cannot have our landmark bill
undermined by an entire profession.
I think I need to ask for a special debate
in Parliament.
What for?
We got the bill through, it's law.
I need to put them under pressure.
Another debate gives Churchill
one more chance to rile up the BMA.
Another debate allows me
to speak directly to members.
They'll hear what I'm saying
in the press.
No, go back out there
and find a way through.
But if we can just have the debate,
then my plan will...
Your plan is, "persuade the doctors
to change their minds".
Or I'll get someone else to do it.
Maybe we got off on the wrong foot.
Maybe if we, uh...
get to know each other a little better,
things can be more collegiate.
Uh, you, sir, what's your speciality?
'I'm the president of the Royal College
of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
'I'm responsible for every pregnant woman
in the country.'
Well, that's just boasting.
And look... look, I've heard
some of what you've been saying...
uh... on the radio and in the press.
I'm not the power-mad monster
you think I am.
If there is to be
a National Health Service, well...
the power to administer it
has to reside somewhere.
'You are answerable to no one
but yourself.'
I'm answerable to Parliament.
'The state's control of medicine
will destroy the doctors' clinical freedom.
'The state will come between
the doctor and patient.'
'It jeopardises our Hippocratic Oath
to serve and only serve our patient.'
The doctor-patient relationship
is sacred to you.
'Yes.'
There can be no interference
in that relationship.
'No.'
So, is it not an interference
when the patient can't afford the doctor?
When the patient can't afford
the medicine or the surgery?
When, uh... when a family has to prioritise
the health of the husband,
leave the health of the wife and children
to castor oil and whisky?
I consider the biggest interference
to the integrity of doctor-patient relations
to be personal profit.
'These negotiations are over.'
'Hear!'
I call to the floor for this special debate
on the health bill the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister?
Clem?
Clem?
The Prime Minister is indisposed.
Uh... the, uh... uh, doctors...
well, they have disagreed
with every minister for health
that has ever been appointed.
I am a Welshman.
A socialist.
And they find me
even m-more impossible.
So, if we can... dismiss that
the d-disagreements are about my personality,
then maybe we can look this challenge
in the eye.
We are no longer dealing
with the legitimate interests
of the members
of the medical profession.
We are dealing
with wholesale resistance
to the implementation
of an Act of Parliament.
We desire to know
if the opposition supports that,
because if they do,
oh, I would warn them
the end of that road
would be exceedingly unpleasant.
Is that a threat?
You support the sabotage
of an Act of Parliament.
We will not leave the doctors
to fight alone!
Hear, hear!
No, there is nothing noble
about your support of the doctors.
You have personally voted against
the National Health Service 21 times.
And you want doctors
to be servants of the state.
Hear, hear!
I want doctors to be servants
of the people.
This is the first step
towards National Socialism.
Well, the nurses support the bill.
Are they Nazis?
Hitler put the medial services
under the control of one medical Fhrer.
This bill will establish you
in that capacity.
Now that we've won the war,
you wanna tear us apart again.
Doctors of this country, do you support
a National Health Service?
'Following the debate in Parliament,
we have held a vote.
'The results are in.
'The number of doctors
in favour of the bill.'
- '4,734.'
- Ah?
'The number of doctors
against the bill.'
'40,814.'
Yes!
'The doctors of this country will not be
working for the National Health Service.'
Resign!
Finished! The noisy member
for Ebbw Vale is finished.
Resign!
Mr Bevan's proposals were deadlocked,
now they are dead.
- His breathing?
- It's really fast.
- I'm sorry, Nye.
- Where were you?
Resign!
- What does it mean?
- Is that normal?
- It's what happens.
- I need more time.
Resign!
I need more time!
This failure must mark the end
of Bevan's brief time in office.
How much time does he have?
Please, give me more time!
My staff will draft
your resignation letter.
One true...
Blow!
I will launch
my new National Health Service...
...in three months' time...
...on July 5th 1948,
with or without the doctors!
- What?
- Nye?
No, no, no. Don't say that in public,
Nye. You can't.
You would launch a National Health Service
without a single doctor?
Let's regroup and think this through.
You'll create the greatest healthcare crisis
in the history of this country.
I will launch my new National Health Service
in two months' time,
on July 5th,
with or without the doctors.
Fantasy! You are a fantasist!
'If the Health Service goes ahead,
every doctor will go on strike.'
Doctors, resist this authoritarianism
for the sake of the country.
You can't cause a strike, Nye,
it goes against everything we stand for.
- Don't listen to them.
- You have to move the date.
A strike for the very soul of the nation.
I will launch my new National Health Service
in one month's time,
on July 5th,
with or without the doctors.
But...
...every negotiation
needs compromise,
so in the interest
of finding an agreement,
I will grant the doctors
the power to choose their own
representatives on every health board.
- What?
- The doctors will choose
who they are answerable to.
You are trying to destroy
the solidarity of the doctors' union
with last minute desperate concessions.
Concessions, Winston, or compromise?
'The doctors will go on strike
if the bill goes ahead.'
You're creating a crisis
for the whole country.
- Huh!
- And...
if you sign up
to my National Health Service,
I will allow consultants to work privately
outside their NHS contracts.
Civil servants,
that's what they'll become.
'The doctors will go on strike
if the bill goes ahead.'
Move the date!
You'll bring down the government!
- Hold firm!
- Also, I will compromise with GPs
and allow them to buy and sell GP surgeries
within the healthcare system.
- Bloody hell, Nye, it's working.
- It's working, you've got them.
You shit!
He's manipulated you from the start.
I will launch my new National Health Service
in ten days' time,
on July 5th,
with or without the doctors.
And finally, I understand
becoming salaried workers is a concern,
so I make this commitment to you:
I will make doctors
the highest-paid profession in this country.
- Splendid work, Minister.
- He's lying.
Join me and take the most civilised step
any country has ever taken.
And together, we will build the greatest
health service the world has ever seen.
'The BMA recommends
all doctors sign NHS contract.'
People of this country...
...we will build hospitals...
...bigger hospitals...
...with more beds,
so you can stay
until you are recovered...
...so you can return home,
ready for family life.
Every hospital shall have
their own specialists,
and the right equipment,
so you won't be sent around the country
looking for what you need.
Dentistry, glasses, mental health,
all the things we need to live
with serenity,
starting with universal healthcare for all.
We shall never have all we need.
Expectation will always exceed capacity.
The service must always be changing,
growing and improving.
It must always appear imperfect.
I don't wanna give you relief.
I don't wanna help you survive.
I... I don't wanna give you medical care.
I want to give you... your dignity.
- Oh! Hello...
- Doctor.
How long have I been asleep?
- Ah... about 14 hours.
- Oh, God!
You needed it.
How's the pain relief?
Well, I could do with some more.
I'll put you down
for some more morphine.
No other side-effects,
anything of concern?
Nausea? Itching?
Hallucinations?
No.
Well, actually...
...crazy dreams.
- Does that sort of count?
- Mind if I check your stitches?
Excuse the cold hands.
Sort of nothing made sense,
and everything did.
Mm-hmm.
My life was all jumbled up.
I was running away from something.
I remember feeling... really anxious.
Scared.
And then...
...my father was there.
He's been dead thirty years.
I was with him at the end.
He died in my arms.
- Horrible death.
- Was he a miner?
Yes.
Black lung.
It's a cruel way to go.
No dignity.
And in this dream...
...my sister...
...was trying to get me
to go and see him.
Sounds like unfinished business.
So, everything went fine?
Oh, thank God.
I think I've been worried
something went wrong.
Thank you.
Thank you, Doctor.
You've been marvellous, really.
Anything the matter?
No, but something's bothering me.
- No, no, it's fine.
- Is it?
Yes, it's fine.
Well...
Let's see, shall we?
Hold on, calm down.
Nearly there. Nearly... got it!
What is that?
What the hell is that?
It's... It's a piece of coal.
- A piece of coal.
- Coal? Yes, it is.
What the hell is coal doing in there?
- How long were you underground?
- Eight years.
Could that be dust coagulating?
Let's see if there's more...
No, wait, wait!
Yes, it's definitely something.
- There's more.
- No... no!
What does...
I-I don't understand.
What does this mean?
Surely...
Why...?
No!
No! No...
I'm... I'm dying.
Aren't I?
You opened me up...
...and you could see that I was dying.
Why c...
Why couldn't you tell me?
Why couldn't Jennie tell me?
Jennie!
Jennie! Where are they?
What's happening to me?
Arianwen...
His breathing is really, uh...
...you know, slow.
It's going.
- Is that normal?
- It's what happens.
How long?
It's time. He's peaceful,
he's not suffering.
It's hard enough. Don't do this alone.
Do it together.
I just don't think he knows I'm here.
Of course he know you're here.
Of course he does.
He knows you would never
leave his side.
Tell him.
All right, butt?
It's Archie here, OK?
And I'll, uh...
I'll be here the whole...
be here the whole time.
And, uh...
Well...
You've been a wonderful friend to me.
And I hope you know, uh...
...even though I never said it...
...I hope you know I love you.
I've always loved you, my friend.
I... I can't take it.
- It's OK.
- I can't...
It's OK. Come.
Nye.
Jennie's here.
She's got you safe,
like she always has.
And you haven't got to worry
about a thing...
...cos Jennie Lee's right by your side.
Nye...
My boy.
I hope I did the right thing.
He's... He's squeezing my hand!
Oh, Nye!
My love, it's OK.
You can go.
It's OK.
And don't you worry about me.
I will see you in the garden.
Is this it?
Has it happened?
I-I don't think it's happened yet.
I can still feel.
I feel scared.
But I feel safe.
I can feel people.
There are people nearby.
I still feel...
I still feel...
...held.
I'm ready.
I'm not scared.
Hold my hand.
Dad?
Did I...
Did I look after everyone?