The Crown (2016) s03e07 Episode Script
Moondust
[MAN.]
You leave shortly for the moon, a journey of 240,000 miles.
Now, if successful, you will be the first men to walk on the surface of another heavenly body.
What exactly do you hope to discover? [NEIL ARMSTRONG.]
I think even more important than the answers that we'll be able to find will be the fact that we get a whole bunch of new questions to ask.
- [REPORTERS SHOUT.]
- [CAMERAS CLICK.]
- [REPORTER 1.]
Mr.
Armstrong.
- [REPORTER 2.]
Uh, Neil.
Neil! Marvin Miles, Los Angeles Times.
Uh, the descent onto the lunar surface appears to be, uh, very challenging.
How far will you burn down, and how low could you stage an abort if necessary? We have made some significant improvements in the flight control system in recent months.
The powered descent will be handled by the computer to a large degree.
[REPORTERS SHOUT.]
[JOURNALIST 2.]
Colonel Aldrin, after you land on the moon, what do you anticipate from those first moments? Any expectations, hopes, anxieties? Well, uh, immediately upon touchdown, our concern is the integrity of the lunar module.
Without that integrity, we cannot safely continue with the lunar surface work - Are those the astronauts? - Hmm.
- [JOURNALIST 1.]
You are humble men - Why are they in a box? So as not to catch any germs.
and encapsulate something deeply human.
Are you going to sit down or just stand there hovering? to, uh, push boundaries.
Without exploration, without asking questions, are we not destined for sort of, uh, stasis as a species? The American State Department asked if I wanted to send a message.
What kind of message? For the astronauts to leave on the moon.
They approached a handful of individuals from around the globe.
A cross-section of human civilization to provide a message of a shared and common humanity.
What did you say? "On behalf of the British people, I salute the skill and courage that have brought man to the moon.
May this endeavor increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind.
" One of your very best.
How will it be, um, communicated? On a disc, apparently.
- What kind of disc? - A silicon disc.
They sent a picture.
A tiny disc, with tiny, microscopic inscriptions in golden lettering.
"From Planet Earth, July 1969.
" Which they intend to leave in a little white pouch.
- With an olive branch.
- An olive branch? Yes, for the little green men to wave about.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
[YAWNS.]
I'm going to bed.
Oh, and church tomorrow is at nine, not ten.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER ON TV.]
[SIGHS.]
[CHURCH BELLS RING.]
[PHILIP.]
Why do we do this? [GROANS.]
Week in, week out.
Like lemmings.
What does it do for you? - Honestly.
- Church? Hmm.
It's a chance to take stock.
Reflect on the past week.
Think ahead to the next.
You can use a diary for that.
And to think of life's bigger questions.
Except one doesn't.
One mainly thinks about what a lot of dreary nonsense the dean is talking and why doesn't he shut up.
He's been with us for nearly 20 years.
That might make him loyal, it does not make him interesting.
- Shh! - Hello there.
[DEAN.]
They have mouths, but they speak not.
Eyes have they, but they see not.
They have ears, but they hear not.
Noses have they, but they Uh Uh Um - You see? - Shh.
It's not a sermon, it's a general anesthetic.
Ah, but they smell not.
They that make them are alike unto them.
So is everyone that trusteth in - That's it.
That's the last time.
- Shh.
And so the Lord From now on, on Sunday while you lot are in here, I'm going to spend this hour doing something useful.
but unto His name give glory, nor to false idols, either.
[EXHALES.]
[PHILIP SIGHS.]
Uh ah.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
- [ELIZABETH.]
Michael.
- [ADEANE.]
Ma'am.
Is it possible, do you think, the dean might have reached How can I put this kindly? The moment of his own obsolescence? I noticed one or two people struggling to stay awake.
We could discreetly start the search for a replacement.
Could we? Someone with a bit of - Oomph.
- I think so.
- Zest.
- That's it.
- Pep.
- Yes, thank - Vim.
- Thank you.
[WHACKING.]
[PANTS.]
[EXHALES DEEPLY.]
[MAN ON TV.]
And so, here at Cape Kennedy, we're all off to the moon this morning.
- [ANDREW.]
Are you watching, Anne? - [EDWARD.]
Anne! Play with us! [MAN ON TV.]
Mighty Saturn V, the big Moon Express, all ready to leave platform 39 here at Cape Kennedy, on time in about 30 minutes.
This enormous event which uniquely unites all the world because all the world can be interested in this journey, and after this journey, we on Earth can never be the same.
[DOG WHINES.]
[DOG BARKS.]
[DOG WHINES.]
- Where is she? - Who, sir? If I say "she," and we're in Buckingham Palace, who do you think I mean? There you are.
I've been looking for you.
Where have you been? On the telephone, interviewing candidates to become the new dean.
- Anyone good? - Yes, I think we've found one.
- How old? - Same age as you, I'd say.
- Really? - And a good fit.
- For what? - For the job I've asked him to do.
[MAN ON TV.]
T minus 15 seconds.
Guidance is internal.
Twelve, eleven, ten, nine Ignition sequence starts.
Six [CHILDREN.]
Five, four, three, two, one.
Liftoff.
We have a liftoff.
Thirty-two minutes past the hour.
Liftoff on Apollo 11.
Extraordinary.
What men, what courage.
- Tower clear.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
We got a roll program.
[MAN.]
Neil Armstrong reporting the rolling pitch program, which puts [CONTROL.]
11, Houston.
Thrust is go, all engines.
- You're looking good.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
[BUZZ ALDRIN.]
Roger, you're loud and clear, Houston.
[CONTROL.]
We got skirt sep.
[ARMSTRONG.]
Roger, we confirm skirt sep.
[RADIO BEEPS.]
- [CONTROL.]
Tower's gone.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Roger.
Tower.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Neil Armstrong confirming both the engine skirt separation and the launch escape tower separation.
[CONTROL.]
Apollo 11, this is Houston.
Slightly less than one minute to ignition and everything is go.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Roger.
Ignition.
We confirm ignition, and the thrust is go.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
- [INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
It's looking good.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Apollo 11 has now completed its trans-lunar injection burn, meaning it is free of Earth's orbit, and traveling at the colossal speed of 24,200 miles an hour towards the moon.
The astronauts have now completed what they call the transposition, docking and extraction maneuver.
This rather risky procedure is when the command service module, Columbia, detaches from the rest of the spacecraft, drifts forward a little, flips over, then reattaches to the lunar module, Eagle.
This new assembly then detaches from the final stage of the Saturn rocket.
As I say, a hair-raising business, but it all seems to have gone off without a hitch.
[MAN.]
Tuesday next week, you will be in Cheshire to visit the works of British Salt Limited.
On Wednesday, it's Norfolk to inaugurate a new gas terminal.
Then on Friday, it's Macclesfield for the open day of the Machine Tool Industry Research Association.
That evening, there will be a dinner given by the British Concrete Society, where you have been asked to present an award.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR.]
- [DOOR OPENS.]
- May I interrupt, Your Royal Highness? - What? The newly appointed Dean of Windsor, Robin Woods, was wondering if you could spare him a moment.
- He has a request.
- Fine.
Just put something in the book.
Another highlight to look forward to, along with the award show for the British Concrete Society.
- Is that a joke? - Afraid not, sir.
Uh, actually, he's here now.
Hello? Your Royal Highness.
- How can I help? - [DOOR CLOSES.]
In the process of moving in, my wife and I, we couldn't help noticing that there were a large number of buildings on the estate of Windsor that appear to be empty and unused.
Specifically the old canons' cloisters, one or two of the buildings on Denton's Commons, all the houses on the North Walls, the old residences of the minor canons.
I-I realize this is quite forward of me, but I was wondering if I could make a request to use one of them.
Wha You don't like the home we've given you? No this wouldn't be as a home.
For a long time now, I've had a dream, an ambition, to start an academy or conservatoire.
Uh What for? Personal and spiritual growth.
Something that has struck me, from my own experience, but also from observing it in well, in others, is that you get to a certain age and you hit a ceiling, a crisis, if you will.
You You lose perspective.
Get into a slump.
It's quite common among businessmen and executives, and it's no different for clergymen.
We see a particularly high level of dissatisfaction - among mid-career clergymen - Yes.
and I thought one of these buildings, in its idyllic setting, would be a great place for priests to come and recharge, reflect, raise their game.
By doing what? Talking, reading, thinking.
May I suggest that your concept is flawed? You don't raise your game by talking or thinking.
You raise your game through action.
Like this.
This is how you get out of a slump.
But if if one of those buildings is free, and you want to fill it with hot air and thought, then be my guest.
Thank you, sir.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
[SCOFFS.]
[COMMENTATOR.]
We don't have to wait long now, 17 minutes and counting.
The landing craft has separated from the command module and has begun its descent to the surface of the moon.
Armstrong and Aldrin will now send the lunar module into a sort of pirouette to allow Collins - Nigel, will you wake the children? - Yes, sir.
- And tell the Queen, please.
Thank you.
- Sir.
Andrew, darling.
It's time.
Edward.
Edward.
Time to wake up.
Come on.
Dressing gown on.
[ANDREW.]
Come on, Edward.
Hurry up.
Hold on.
- Let's go.
- Come on! [ELIZABETH.]
It's a very exciting evening.
It certainly is.
[ELIZABETH.]
Are you able to join us for a drink? [NIGEL.]
That would be very nice.
Thank you.
[ELIZABETH.]
Not at all.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Michael Collins left alone in the orbiter now, meaning when it passes behind the moon, he'll be entirely cut off from the rest of humanity.
- The loneliest man in the universe.
- [DOOR OPENS.]
- Quickly, Andrew.
- Quick.
Quick.
Quick.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
Try to sit still.
Come on, space hopper.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Only a couple of thousand feet above the surface of the moon now.
Gosh.
Their landing site, chosen for its smoothness, but not entirely [ELIZABETH.]
Do take a seat, please.
slightest impact with rock or crater could disable the lunar module - Drink, sir? - [ELIZABETH.]
Robert, can you see? - It's Robert's birthday.
- [ALDRIN.]
Altitude's a little high.
Houston, I'm getting a little fluctuation in the [ANDREW.]
They're about to land.
- What is that? - I don't know.
- Yes, hard to believe.
- John, hurry up, - you're going to miss it.
- Shh! What are they saying? That he's gone to manual control.
Something's wrong.
- [QUEEN MOTHER.]
Doesn't look real.
- [ELIZABETH.]
I know.
[ALDRIN.]
Three hundred and fifty feet.
Down at four.
[ANNE.]
What'll happen if they can't land? No, they'll run out of fuel.
Quiet, please.
Just, shh! - [ALDRIN.]
Down two and a half.
- [PHILIP.]
Shh.
Please.
[ANDREW.]
They're about to land.
What's happening now? [CRACKLING ON TV.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
Houston, uh, Tranquility Base here.
- The Eagle has landed.
- [REPORTER.]
Man on the moon.
[ANDREW.]
They did it! [REPORTER.]
Man has landed on the moon.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
- Did you see? - [EDWARD.]
Yes, Papa.
[REPORTER.]
As we watch these images tonight, we are united across the world in a - Extraordinary.
- uniform sense of wonder.
- Never before has the entire planet - Shall we fly to the moon? No, don't, darling.
Mind his head.
Mind his head.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Meteor.
To each of us, this is historic.
- [PHILIP.]
The Eagle has landed.
- To some of us, this is even divine.
- Can you believe they're on the moon? - And yet all of us, regardless of race, sex, or religious belief, we are united right now in this singular human achievement.
[CONTROL.]
OK, Neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now.
[ARMSTRONG.]
I'm at the foot of the ladder.
The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained as you get close to it.
It's almost like a powder.
Down there, uh, it's very fine.
I'm going to step off the LM now.
That's one small step for man one giant leap for mankind.
It has a stark beauty all its own.
It's, uh, like much of the high desert of the United States.
It's, uh, different, but it's very pretty out here.
[REPORTER.]
This is a powerful reminder of our capacity for greatness as a species.
Not simply the engineering triumph represented here today, but the triumph of human ambition.
The desire to reach quite literally for the stars.
And I think this new perspective, seeing the Earth from space, in all our unity and cohesion, is likely to inspire an unprecedented shift in our thinking.
- [CONTROL.]
Beautiful view.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here.
[CHUCKLES.]
[CONTROL.]
Magnificent desolation.
[THUNDER.]
[MICROPHONE FEEDBACK.]
[THUNDER.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Uh Mr.
Governor, ladies and gentlemen, esteemed members of the Wool Textile Delegation.
I very much appreciate the honor you have bestowed on me by your invitation to the mill of Thomas Burnley & Sons, here in Yorkshire.
The groundbreaking work you are doing here by embracing [WHIRRING.]
[PHILIP.]
There comes a time, a moment in everyone's experience where dentures and other oral prosthetics become an indispensable fact of life.
[CHUCKLING.]
According to last year's adult dental health survey [DIALOGUE FADES OUT.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER ON RADIO.]
May I? [PHILIP CLEARS THROAT.]
[SWITCH CLICKS.]
- You have control? - I have control.
What are you doing, sir? - This isn't on the flight chart.
- There's no other traffic.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Sir.
Sir, the service ceiling for this aircraft is 45,000 feet.
You and I both know it can safely climb way beyond that.
Sir, you [BEEPS.]
- Come on.
Come on.
- [ALARM BEEPS.]
[SIGHS.]
[EXHALES.]
[PHILIP.]
God, isn't it beautiful? I'm sure, but we're currently at the very limit of what this aircraft can do.
Perhaps, but look.
We've also lived.
Just for a minute.
[MAN ON TV.]
The first men on the moon lifted off on the first stage of their journey home an hour and six minutes ago.
A new chapter in human history has opened.
The race for the moon is over.
For the people of this planet, what is the meaning of this stupendous venture? [WOODS.]
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
" Those words by TS Eliot have never rung more true.
We stand at the dawn of a new age of space exploration.
The promise of space has never felt more real [MUSIC PLAYS OVER DIALOGUE.]
[PANTS.]
- Morning, sir.
- Morning, sir.
[CAR DOOR SHUTS.]
- Your Royal Highness.
- Oh, Christ.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[GRUMBLES.]
Morning.
I wonder whether you might have a moment, sir, to meet the new arrivals.
Ah, your concentration camp for spiritual defectives? I prefer center of recovery and renewal.
Well, I'm sure you do.
We have an interesting group of all ages from around the United Kingdom.
- Will you join? - Join what? It's an academy for blocked mid-level priests.
Correct.
Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a priest.
Just to say hello.
- What, now? - Why not? Fine.
Get in.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Do I need to show symptoms of despair? Should I sigh and moan dramatically? One does like to fit in.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[ENGINE STARTS.]
I've brought our landlord, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, to say hello.
- How do you do, Your Royal Highness? - Good morning.
- Your Royal Highness.
- Good morning.
- Morning, sir.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
- Your Royal Highness.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
So What, uh what have you all been up to? Apart from making quite a mess of our house, I see.
[CHUCKLING.]
We started by identifying why each of us had chosen to come here, and stating what we were hoping to achieve.
Uh, perhaps we should recap for His Royal Highness.
Michael.
Well, I'm-I'm here because, uh having recently reached a a particular age [CHUCKLES.]
I won't ask.
[ALL CHUCKLE.]
I-I decided to give myself a score.
And I felt I only merited a fail.
D minus.
- Oh, dear.
- And why was that? Well, when entering the church, I allowed myself to dream that advancing age would bring new revelations.
Insight.
A deepening of my faith.
A growing flock.
But instead I-I find myself in a small rural parish with a dwindling congregation.
- Lowering attendance.
- Right.
[WOODS.]
And this has left you with a sense of disappointment, of underachievement and directionlessness.
Yes.
That sense of directionlessness and redundancy is Well, it's something that chimed with one or two others here.
[PRIEST.]
Because of how the public has turned away from us.
Turned away from the church.
It's clear we are failing to connect with people.
More and more people are finding their spiritual needs being met elsewhere.
Where, for example? The moon.
I - The moon.
Yes, sir.
- [CHUCKLING.]
Five hundred million people watched the lunar landing.
- Yes.
- Five hundred million people getting from televisions what they used to get from the church.
A sense of coming together, a sense of community, of awe, of wonder.
Well, that was part of a wider shift too, we agreed, from religion to science.
[PRIEST.]
The greater the achievements in science, the more mysteries are explained, the more questions are answered, the less need there is for a god to provide answers.
[WOODS.]
I'm remind of Keats.
"What is there in thee, moon, that thou shouldst move my heart so potently?" Now we know what the moon is.
Nothing.
Just dust.
Silence.
Monochromatic void.
We see no God behind those rocks and space dust, simply an unknowable vastness.
"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars that Thou hast ordained what is man that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that Thou visitest him?" [CLEARS THROAT.]
Any thoughts, sir? Me? I'll tell you what I think.
I've never heard such a load of pretentious, self-piteous nonsense.
What you lot need to do is to get off your backsides, get out into the world, and bloody well do something.
That is why you are all so so lost.
[SIGHS.]
I believe that there is an imperative within man, all men, to make a mark.
Action is what defines us.
Action, not suffering.
All this sitting around thinking and talking Let me ask you this.
Do you think those astronauts up there are catatonic like you lot? Of course not.
They are too busy achieving something spectacular.
And as a result, they are at one with the world.
At one with their God.
And happy.
That's my advice.
Model yourselves on men of action, like Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins.
I mean, these men score A triple plus.
They've got the answers.
Not a bunch of navel-gazing underachievers infecting one another with gaseous doom.
If you do opt for action, you can start by cleaning up this bloody floor.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR SLAMS.]
Oh, not again.
Around the same time we were asked by the American State Department It's the second time this week.
if we'd send that message to the moon on a silicon disc, we were also asked another question.
On how many occasions is the British royal family - forced to eat venison each year? - No.
Honestly, I think if I eat any more of this stuff I'm going to start growing antlers.
- Are you listening? - Yes.
I'm all ears.
Little brown furry ones.
Well, provided they make it back to Earth in one piece, and if after all their tests they're still standing - [DOG BARKS.]
- would we like an audience with the astronauts? [CLEARS THROAT.]
What? Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins? - Here at the palace? - Yes.
They're being sent around the world on a victory tour.
Shall I go back with a yes? My God.
Yes, please.
[CHUCKLES.]
I thought that would cheer you up.
It does.
Do I need cheering up? A little.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[CHARTERIS.]
They're scheduled to arrive at Heathrow Airport at 2:00 p.
m.
From there they will be taken directly to the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square for a meeting with the US ambassador.
From there they will come to Buckingham Palace for an audience with Her Majesties the Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
- And what time will that be? - Around four o'clock, ma'am.
Will we give them anything? Tea? Probably not.
We thought it good to keep things moving.
No sitting down.
[ELIZABETH.]
I quite agree.
[ADEANE.]
No more than half an hour from arrival to departure.
[ELIZABETH.]
Right.
I'd like to make a request.
- If I may? - Sir.
Instead of being herded in with everyone else, I was wondering if I might be allowed some time with the astronauts alone in a separate, private meeting.
Uh, airman to airmen.
Pilot to pilots.
[ADEANE.]
I'll speak to the ambassador, but I'm sure it would be possible our end.
Would 15 minutes be enough? Fifteen minutes? They are on a very tight schedule, I believe.
To discuss mankind's greatest achievement? No.
It's nowhere near enough.
I can see it's all I'm going to get.
[MAN ON TV.]
Landing at London Heathrow Airport from Berlin, the Apollo moon men begin a hectic twenty-two-and-a-quarter-hour visit that demands the same sort of precision and timing as their mission in space.
The world-famous "Man on the Moon" team of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, accompanied by their wives, received one of their warmest welcomes yet from the British people.
The astronauts admitted that they are starting to feel the strain of their 22-nation world tour.
[ARMSTRONG.]
Here man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon.
July 1969.
And I can see everything quite clearly.
The light is, uh, sufficiently bright, backlighted into the front of the LM, that everything is very clearly visible.
- [CONTROL.]
Beautiful view.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here.
[RADIO BEEPS.]
[CROWD CHEERS.]
[MAN ON TV.]
The American astronauts are now arriving at Buckingham Palace.
The world-famous team of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins [CROWD CHEERS.]
[CROWD CHEERS.]
[ADEANE.]
Your Majesty, Mr.
Neil Armstrong.
Hello.
Welcome.
- Pleasure to meet you.
- And you.
- Mrs.
Armstrong.
- Hello.
- Colonel Michael Collins.
- Hello.
- Pleasure to meet you.
- Great pleasure to meet you.
Great pleasure to meet you, young man.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR.]
- [DOOR OPENS.]
[EXHALES.]
[MAN.]
Sir.
[CAMERAS CLICK.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
Please don't tell me you want to talk about children.
[CHUCKLING.]
- Have they been waiting long? - No, only a few moments, sir.
Mr.
Neil Armstrong, Colonel Michael Collins and Colonel Edwin Aldrin, Your Royal Highness.
- It is a great, great honor, gentlemen.
- Sir.
- Congratulations one and all.
- Sir.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Please, do, uh do sit down.
Um There's no need to sit so closely.
As you can see, there's plenty of space.
- [CHUCKLING.]
- [CLEARS THROAT.]
I notice you instinctively sat in the same positions - as the, uh, command module.
- [ALL CHUCKLE.]
Anyway, I don't, I don't know if anyone told you, but, uh, I am, uh, actually a pilot myself.
- [SNEEZES.]
- And I was - Are you all right? - Yes, sir.
I just have a cold.
[SNIFFLES.]
- Here.
- I - It's clean, I promise you.
- Thank you.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- [SNEEZES.]
My, you've, uh, you've, you've all got colds.
Yes, we do.
Well, here we are.
Hmm.
I just want to say how much I admire what you've done.
It's just remarkable.
But also to say how much I identify in some way with with who you are.
[SNEEZING.]
- Bless you.
- Sorry.
I, um I wrote down some questions.
And You see, I initially imagined that I wanted to ask questions of you on a technical level.
You know, what is the physical experience of G-forces of that magnitude, and so on, but You see, I I realize now that the questions I actually want answering are You're all too young to understand, I think, but There comes a time in life when one first really starts to evaluate what one has accomplished.
And because of the position that I've ended up in here, who I've become Um Who I'm married to [CHUCKLING.]
[PHILIP.]
Uh I've Well, I've not been able to achieve the things I would have liked to as a man, as a as an adventurer.
And watching you three heroes at work it was like watching a dream.
Which is why I-I leapt at the chance to meet with you, even if it is just for ten minutes, that I might ask [EXHALES.]
what your thoughts were out there.
Neil? Well, uh obviously a sense of relief that we executed the mission successfully.
No, of course.
And we certainly got some amazing views, didn't we? - Yeah, we did.
- Yes, extraordinary.
I think I'm not talking so much about the views in that sense, as perspectives, observations of of our place.
Uh To be honest, there wasn't much time for that.
Um As a pilot, you'll know what they drill into you above all else - is protocol and, uh, procedure.
- Hmm.
- You've got to stick to the rules.
- Yes.
Well, as an astronaut, it's double that.
Hm-hmm.
We pretty much spent our entire time with lists in our hands, ticking things off.
Tick, check, tick, check.
[COLLINS.]
Eyes are glued to the mission protocol to such a degree you never really get to look outside.
- That's how busy they keep you.
- I see.
[ALDRIN.]
Tight leash.
[COLLINS.]
Not to mention most of the time you're so darn tired.
No matter how hard you practice, you never get used to the sleep.
Sleep.
Neil, uh, why don't you tell His Royal Highness about what happened after the moonwalk? - I would love to hear.
- [COLLINS.]
He wants to hear it.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, after I completed the moonwalk I-I watched it all.
Every step.
[CHUCKLING.]
I got back into the module, and knew we only had a few hours to get some rest before we took off again, so I I got my head down, - I closed my eyes - Wait for it.
But all I could hear was this noise.
Bang, bang.
Bang, bang.
- What? - Bang, bang, bang.
What, from outside the module? - I know.
You know what it was? - What? - The water cooler.
- [CHUCKLES.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
It was making this noise.
Bang, bang, bang.
[CHUCKLING.]
The greatest engineers in the world design a rocket that takes us to the moon, but they can't even get us a decent water cooler.
- [CHUCKLING.]
- So you were right.
- It was full of surprises.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Hmm.
I see.
Were there any other questions you had for us? No.
No, it's [COLLINS.]
Well, in that case, would you mind if we asked you a few questions? No, of course.
What is it like? What is what like? Living in a place like this.
Because we heard you had a thousand rooms.
And that if you add the lengths of all the corridors together, - it comes to four miles.
- Uh, well Is it true you have a bagpiper for an alarm clock? And how many staff do you have here anyway? And how many palaces? We heard it's 12.
[COLLINS.]
And do you know all these people in the pictures? Are you related to those people? Do the dogs sleep in the room with you? That's mine.
Thank you.
Race you to the top.
- [ALDRIN.]
Go! - [CHUCKLING.]
[ALDRIN.]
No! - Yes! - [ARMSTRONG.]
It was a close call.
[ALDRIN.]
One, two, three.
[ALL.]
Cheese! [CAMERAS CLICK.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
One more.
[CAMERAS CLICK.]
[PHILIP.]
I don't know what I was thinking.
I expected them to be giants, gods.
In reality, they were just three little men.
Pale-faced, with colds.
[ELIZABETH.]
I have some sympathy.
The very qualities that made them perfect for the job.
But their lack of flair or imagination.
Their sense of duty, and modesty and reliability.
Total absence of originality or spontaneity.
But that's what makes them perfect in a crisis.
And entirely anticlimactic when you meet them in person.
I mean, imagine.
They go all that way to the moon and stay healthy, but one trip to London nearly kills them.
[DOG BARKS.]
It's not their fault.
They never wanted to be public figures, and now, because of one event, they will be forever.
Hmm.
They delivered as astronauts, but they disappointed as human beings.
They'll spend the rest of their lives in goldfish bowls scared to open their mouths, knowing it could reveal who they actually are, and that they will inevitably disappoint.
And for that, they deserve our pity.
Good job there were no little green men.
They could be forgiven for thinking, "If that's all planet Earth has got to offer, let's give the place a miss.
" [SCOFFS.]
Hmm.
[CLOCK CHIMES.]
[CLOCK TICKS.]
[PHILIP.]
There wasn't a specific moment, uh, when it started.
It's been more of a gradual thing.
A drip, drip, drip of of doubt disaffection, disease, dis discomfort.
People around me have noticed my general uh, irritability.
Um Now, of course, that's that's nothing new.
I'm generally a cantankerous sort, but even I would have to admit that there has been more of it lately.
Not to mention, uh, an almost jealous fascination with the achievements of these young astronauts.
Compulsive overexercising.
An inability to find calm or satisfaction or fulfillment.
And when you look at all these symptoms, of course it doesn't take a genius to tell you that they all suggest I'm slap bang in the middle of a [CHUCKLES.]
I can't even say what kind of crisis.
[CHUCKLING.]
That that crisis.
And Of course one's read or heard about other people hitting that crisis, and, you know, just like them, you look in all the usual places, resort to all the usual things to try and make yourself feel better.
Uh Some of which I can admit to in this room, and some of which I probably shouldn't.
My mother died recently.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
She she saw that something was amiss.
It's a good word, that.
A-Amiss.
She saw that something was missing in her youngest child.
Her only son.
Faith.
"How's your faith?" she asked me.
I'm here to admit to you that I've lost it.
And without it, what is there? The The loneliness and emptiness and anticlimax of going all that way to the moon to find nothing, but haunting desolation ghostly silence gloom.
That is what faithlessness is.
As opposed to finding wonder, ecstasy, the miracle of divine creation, God's design and purpose.
What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that the solution to our problems, I think, is not in the in the ingenuity of the rocket, or the science or the technology or even the bravery.
No, the answer is in here.
Or here, or wherever it is that that faith resides.
And so Dean Woods having ridiculed you for what you and these poor, blocked, lost souls [CHUCKLING.]
were were trying to achieve here in St.
George's House I now find myself full of respect and admiration and not a small part of desperation as I come to say help.
Help me.
And to admit [CHUCKLES.]
that while those three astronauts deserve all our praise and respect for their undoubted heroism, I was more scared coming here to see you today than I would have been going up in any bloody rocket! [CHUCKLING.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[BIRDS CHIRP.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
[DOGS BARK.]
You leave shortly for the moon, a journey of 240,000 miles.
Now, if successful, you will be the first men to walk on the surface of another heavenly body.
What exactly do you hope to discover? [NEIL ARMSTRONG.]
I think even more important than the answers that we'll be able to find will be the fact that we get a whole bunch of new questions to ask.
- [REPORTERS SHOUT.]
- [CAMERAS CLICK.]
- [REPORTER 1.]
Mr.
Armstrong.
- [REPORTER 2.]
Uh, Neil.
Neil! Marvin Miles, Los Angeles Times.
Uh, the descent onto the lunar surface appears to be, uh, very challenging.
How far will you burn down, and how low could you stage an abort if necessary? We have made some significant improvements in the flight control system in recent months.
The powered descent will be handled by the computer to a large degree.
[REPORTERS SHOUT.]
[JOURNALIST 2.]
Colonel Aldrin, after you land on the moon, what do you anticipate from those first moments? Any expectations, hopes, anxieties? Well, uh, immediately upon touchdown, our concern is the integrity of the lunar module.
Without that integrity, we cannot safely continue with the lunar surface work - Are those the astronauts? - Hmm.
- [JOURNALIST 1.]
You are humble men - Why are they in a box? So as not to catch any germs.
and encapsulate something deeply human.
Are you going to sit down or just stand there hovering? to, uh, push boundaries.
Without exploration, without asking questions, are we not destined for sort of, uh, stasis as a species? The American State Department asked if I wanted to send a message.
What kind of message? For the astronauts to leave on the moon.
They approached a handful of individuals from around the globe.
A cross-section of human civilization to provide a message of a shared and common humanity.
What did you say? "On behalf of the British people, I salute the skill and courage that have brought man to the moon.
May this endeavor increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind.
" One of your very best.
How will it be, um, communicated? On a disc, apparently.
- What kind of disc? - A silicon disc.
They sent a picture.
A tiny disc, with tiny, microscopic inscriptions in golden lettering.
"From Planet Earth, July 1969.
" Which they intend to leave in a little white pouch.
- With an olive branch.
- An olive branch? Yes, for the little green men to wave about.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- [CHUCKLES.]
[YAWNS.]
I'm going to bed.
Oh, and church tomorrow is at nine, not ten.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER ON TV.]
[SIGHS.]
[CHURCH BELLS RING.]
[PHILIP.]
Why do we do this? [GROANS.]
Week in, week out.
Like lemmings.
What does it do for you? - Honestly.
- Church? Hmm.
It's a chance to take stock.
Reflect on the past week.
Think ahead to the next.
You can use a diary for that.
And to think of life's bigger questions.
Except one doesn't.
One mainly thinks about what a lot of dreary nonsense the dean is talking and why doesn't he shut up.
He's been with us for nearly 20 years.
That might make him loyal, it does not make him interesting.
- Shh! - Hello there.
[DEAN.]
They have mouths, but they speak not.
Eyes have they, but they see not.
They have ears, but they hear not.
Noses have they, but they Uh Uh Um - You see? - Shh.
It's not a sermon, it's a general anesthetic.
Ah, but they smell not.
They that make them are alike unto them.
So is everyone that trusteth in - That's it.
That's the last time.
- Shh.
And so the Lord From now on, on Sunday while you lot are in here, I'm going to spend this hour doing something useful.
but unto His name give glory, nor to false idols, either.
[EXHALES.]
[PHILIP SIGHS.]
Uh ah.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
- [ELIZABETH.]
Michael.
- [ADEANE.]
Ma'am.
Is it possible, do you think, the dean might have reached How can I put this kindly? The moment of his own obsolescence? I noticed one or two people struggling to stay awake.
We could discreetly start the search for a replacement.
Could we? Someone with a bit of - Oomph.
- I think so.
- Zest.
- That's it.
- Pep.
- Yes, thank - Vim.
- Thank you.
[WHACKING.]
[PANTS.]
[EXHALES DEEPLY.]
[MAN ON TV.]
And so, here at Cape Kennedy, we're all off to the moon this morning.
- [ANDREW.]
Are you watching, Anne? - [EDWARD.]
Anne! Play with us! [MAN ON TV.]
Mighty Saturn V, the big Moon Express, all ready to leave platform 39 here at Cape Kennedy, on time in about 30 minutes.
This enormous event which uniquely unites all the world because all the world can be interested in this journey, and after this journey, we on Earth can never be the same.
[DOG WHINES.]
[DOG BARKS.]
[DOG WHINES.]
- Where is she? - Who, sir? If I say "she," and we're in Buckingham Palace, who do you think I mean? There you are.
I've been looking for you.
Where have you been? On the telephone, interviewing candidates to become the new dean.
- Anyone good? - Yes, I think we've found one.
- How old? - Same age as you, I'd say.
- Really? - And a good fit.
- For what? - For the job I've asked him to do.
[MAN ON TV.]
T minus 15 seconds.
Guidance is internal.
Twelve, eleven, ten, nine Ignition sequence starts.
Six [CHILDREN.]
Five, four, three, two, one.
Liftoff.
We have a liftoff.
Thirty-two minutes past the hour.
Liftoff on Apollo 11.
Extraordinary.
What men, what courage.
- Tower clear.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
We got a roll program.
[MAN.]
Neil Armstrong reporting the rolling pitch program, which puts [CONTROL.]
11, Houston.
Thrust is go, all engines.
- You're looking good.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
[BUZZ ALDRIN.]
Roger, you're loud and clear, Houston.
[CONTROL.]
We got skirt sep.
[ARMSTRONG.]
Roger, we confirm skirt sep.
[RADIO BEEPS.]
- [CONTROL.]
Tower's gone.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Roger.
Tower.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Neil Armstrong confirming both the engine skirt separation and the launch escape tower separation.
[CONTROL.]
Apollo 11, this is Houston.
Slightly less than one minute to ignition and everything is go.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Roger.
Ignition.
We confirm ignition, and the thrust is go.
- [RADIO BEEPS.]
- [INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
It's looking good.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Apollo 11 has now completed its trans-lunar injection burn, meaning it is free of Earth's orbit, and traveling at the colossal speed of 24,200 miles an hour towards the moon.
The astronauts have now completed what they call the transposition, docking and extraction maneuver.
This rather risky procedure is when the command service module, Columbia, detaches from the rest of the spacecraft, drifts forward a little, flips over, then reattaches to the lunar module, Eagle.
This new assembly then detaches from the final stage of the Saturn rocket.
As I say, a hair-raising business, but it all seems to have gone off without a hitch.
[MAN.]
Tuesday next week, you will be in Cheshire to visit the works of British Salt Limited.
On Wednesday, it's Norfolk to inaugurate a new gas terminal.
Then on Friday, it's Macclesfield for the open day of the Machine Tool Industry Research Association.
That evening, there will be a dinner given by the British Concrete Society, where you have been asked to present an award.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR.]
- [DOOR OPENS.]
- May I interrupt, Your Royal Highness? - What? The newly appointed Dean of Windsor, Robin Woods, was wondering if you could spare him a moment.
- He has a request.
- Fine.
Just put something in the book.
Another highlight to look forward to, along with the award show for the British Concrete Society.
- Is that a joke? - Afraid not, sir.
Uh, actually, he's here now.
Hello? Your Royal Highness.
- How can I help? - [DOOR CLOSES.]
In the process of moving in, my wife and I, we couldn't help noticing that there were a large number of buildings on the estate of Windsor that appear to be empty and unused.
Specifically the old canons' cloisters, one or two of the buildings on Denton's Commons, all the houses on the North Walls, the old residences of the minor canons.
I-I realize this is quite forward of me, but I was wondering if I could make a request to use one of them.
Wha You don't like the home we've given you? No this wouldn't be as a home.
For a long time now, I've had a dream, an ambition, to start an academy or conservatoire.
Uh What for? Personal and spiritual growth.
Something that has struck me, from my own experience, but also from observing it in well, in others, is that you get to a certain age and you hit a ceiling, a crisis, if you will.
You You lose perspective.
Get into a slump.
It's quite common among businessmen and executives, and it's no different for clergymen.
We see a particularly high level of dissatisfaction - among mid-career clergymen - Yes.
and I thought one of these buildings, in its idyllic setting, would be a great place for priests to come and recharge, reflect, raise their game.
By doing what? Talking, reading, thinking.
May I suggest that your concept is flawed? You don't raise your game by talking or thinking.
You raise your game through action.
Like this.
This is how you get out of a slump.
But if if one of those buildings is free, and you want to fill it with hot air and thought, then be my guest.
Thank you, sir.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
[SCOFFS.]
[COMMENTATOR.]
We don't have to wait long now, 17 minutes and counting.
The landing craft has separated from the command module and has begun its descent to the surface of the moon.
Armstrong and Aldrin will now send the lunar module into a sort of pirouette to allow Collins - Nigel, will you wake the children? - Yes, sir.
- And tell the Queen, please.
Thank you.
- Sir.
Andrew, darling.
It's time.
Edward.
Edward.
Time to wake up.
Come on.
Dressing gown on.
[ANDREW.]
Come on, Edward.
Hurry up.
Hold on.
- Let's go.
- Come on! [ELIZABETH.]
It's a very exciting evening.
It certainly is.
[ELIZABETH.]
Are you able to join us for a drink? [NIGEL.]
That would be very nice.
Thank you.
[ELIZABETH.]
Not at all.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Michael Collins left alone in the orbiter now, meaning when it passes behind the moon, he'll be entirely cut off from the rest of humanity.
- The loneliest man in the universe.
- [DOOR OPENS.]
- Quickly, Andrew.
- Quick.
Quick.
Quick.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
Try to sit still.
Come on, space hopper.
[COMMENTATOR.]
Only a couple of thousand feet above the surface of the moon now.
Gosh.
Their landing site, chosen for its smoothness, but not entirely [ELIZABETH.]
Do take a seat, please.
slightest impact with rock or crater could disable the lunar module - Drink, sir? - [ELIZABETH.]
Robert, can you see? - It's Robert's birthday.
- [ALDRIN.]
Altitude's a little high.
Houston, I'm getting a little fluctuation in the [ANDREW.]
They're about to land.
- What is that? - I don't know.
- Yes, hard to believe.
- John, hurry up, - you're going to miss it.
- Shh! What are they saying? That he's gone to manual control.
Something's wrong.
- [QUEEN MOTHER.]
Doesn't look real.
- [ELIZABETH.]
I know.
[ALDRIN.]
Three hundred and fifty feet.
Down at four.
[ANNE.]
What'll happen if they can't land? No, they'll run out of fuel.
Quiet, please.
Just, shh! - [ALDRIN.]
Down two and a half.
- [PHILIP.]
Shh.
Please.
[ANDREW.]
They're about to land.
What's happening now? [CRACKLING ON TV.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
Houston, uh, Tranquility Base here.
- The Eagle has landed.
- [REPORTER.]
Man on the moon.
[ANDREW.]
They did it! [REPORTER.]
Man has landed on the moon.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
- Did you see? - [EDWARD.]
Yes, Papa.
[REPORTER.]
As we watch these images tonight, we are united across the world in a - Extraordinary.
- uniform sense of wonder.
- Never before has the entire planet - Shall we fly to the moon? No, don't, darling.
Mind his head.
Mind his head.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Meteor.
To each of us, this is historic.
- [PHILIP.]
The Eagle has landed.
- To some of us, this is even divine.
- Can you believe they're on the moon? - And yet all of us, regardless of race, sex, or religious belief, we are united right now in this singular human achievement.
[CONTROL.]
OK, Neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now.
[ARMSTRONG.]
I'm at the foot of the ladder.
The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained as you get close to it.
It's almost like a powder.
Down there, uh, it's very fine.
I'm going to step off the LM now.
That's one small step for man one giant leap for mankind.
It has a stark beauty all its own.
It's, uh, like much of the high desert of the United States.
It's, uh, different, but it's very pretty out here.
[REPORTER.]
This is a powerful reminder of our capacity for greatness as a species.
Not simply the engineering triumph represented here today, but the triumph of human ambition.
The desire to reach quite literally for the stars.
And I think this new perspective, seeing the Earth from space, in all our unity and cohesion, is likely to inspire an unprecedented shift in our thinking.
- [CONTROL.]
Beautiful view.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here.
[CHUCKLES.]
[CONTROL.]
Magnificent desolation.
[THUNDER.]
[MICROPHONE FEEDBACK.]
[THUNDER.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Uh Mr.
Governor, ladies and gentlemen, esteemed members of the Wool Textile Delegation.
I very much appreciate the honor you have bestowed on me by your invitation to the mill of Thomas Burnley & Sons, here in Yorkshire.
The groundbreaking work you are doing here by embracing [WHIRRING.]
[PHILIP.]
There comes a time, a moment in everyone's experience where dentures and other oral prosthetics become an indispensable fact of life.
[CHUCKLING.]
According to last year's adult dental health survey [DIALOGUE FADES OUT.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER ON RADIO.]
May I? [PHILIP CLEARS THROAT.]
[SWITCH CLICKS.]
- You have control? - I have control.
What are you doing, sir? - This isn't on the flight chart.
- There's no other traffic.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Sir.
Sir, the service ceiling for this aircraft is 45,000 feet.
You and I both know it can safely climb way beyond that.
Sir, you [BEEPS.]
- Come on.
Come on.
- [ALARM BEEPS.]
[SIGHS.]
[EXHALES.]
[PHILIP.]
God, isn't it beautiful? I'm sure, but we're currently at the very limit of what this aircraft can do.
Perhaps, but look.
We've also lived.
Just for a minute.
[MAN ON TV.]
The first men on the moon lifted off on the first stage of their journey home an hour and six minutes ago.
A new chapter in human history has opened.
The race for the moon is over.
For the people of this planet, what is the meaning of this stupendous venture? [WOODS.]
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
" Those words by TS Eliot have never rung more true.
We stand at the dawn of a new age of space exploration.
The promise of space has never felt more real [MUSIC PLAYS OVER DIALOGUE.]
[PANTS.]
- Morning, sir.
- Morning, sir.
[CAR DOOR SHUTS.]
- Your Royal Highness.
- Oh, Christ.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[GRUMBLES.]
Morning.
I wonder whether you might have a moment, sir, to meet the new arrivals.
Ah, your concentration camp for spiritual defectives? I prefer center of recovery and renewal.
Well, I'm sure you do.
We have an interesting group of all ages from around the United Kingdom.
- Will you join? - Join what? It's an academy for blocked mid-level priests.
Correct.
Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a priest.
Just to say hello.
- What, now? - Why not? Fine.
Get in.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
Do I need to show symptoms of despair? Should I sigh and moan dramatically? One does like to fit in.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[ENGINE STARTS.]
I've brought our landlord, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, to say hello.
- How do you do, Your Royal Highness? - Good morning.
- Your Royal Highness.
- Good morning.
- Morning, sir.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
- Your Royal Highness.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
So What, uh what have you all been up to? Apart from making quite a mess of our house, I see.
[CHUCKLING.]
We started by identifying why each of us had chosen to come here, and stating what we were hoping to achieve.
Uh, perhaps we should recap for His Royal Highness.
Michael.
Well, I'm-I'm here because, uh having recently reached a a particular age [CHUCKLES.]
I won't ask.
[ALL CHUCKLE.]
I-I decided to give myself a score.
And I felt I only merited a fail.
D minus.
- Oh, dear.
- And why was that? Well, when entering the church, I allowed myself to dream that advancing age would bring new revelations.
Insight.
A deepening of my faith.
A growing flock.
But instead I-I find myself in a small rural parish with a dwindling congregation.
- Lowering attendance.
- Right.
[WOODS.]
And this has left you with a sense of disappointment, of underachievement and directionlessness.
Yes.
That sense of directionlessness and redundancy is Well, it's something that chimed with one or two others here.
[PRIEST.]
Because of how the public has turned away from us.
Turned away from the church.
It's clear we are failing to connect with people.
More and more people are finding their spiritual needs being met elsewhere.
Where, for example? The moon.
I - The moon.
Yes, sir.
- [CHUCKLING.]
Five hundred million people watched the lunar landing.
- Yes.
- Five hundred million people getting from televisions what they used to get from the church.
A sense of coming together, a sense of community, of awe, of wonder.
Well, that was part of a wider shift too, we agreed, from religion to science.
[PRIEST.]
The greater the achievements in science, the more mysteries are explained, the more questions are answered, the less need there is for a god to provide answers.
[WOODS.]
I'm remind of Keats.
"What is there in thee, moon, that thou shouldst move my heart so potently?" Now we know what the moon is.
Nothing.
Just dust.
Silence.
Monochromatic void.
We see no God behind those rocks and space dust, simply an unknowable vastness.
"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars that Thou hast ordained what is man that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that Thou visitest him?" [CLEARS THROAT.]
Any thoughts, sir? Me? I'll tell you what I think.
I've never heard such a load of pretentious, self-piteous nonsense.
What you lot need to do is to get off your backsides, get out into the world, and bloody well do something.
That is why you are all so so lost.
[SIGHS.]
I believe that there is an imperative within man, all men, to make a mark.
Action is what defines us.
Action, not suffering.
All this sitting around thinking and talking Let me ask you this.
Do you think those astronauts up there are catatonic like you lot? Of course not.
They are too busy achieving something spectacular.
And as a result, they are at one with the world.
At one with their God.
And happy.
That's my advice.
Model yourselves on men of action, like Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins.
I mean, these men score A triple plus.
They've got the answers.
Not a bunch of navel-gazing underachievers infecting one another with gaseous doom.
If you do opt for action, you can start by cleaning up this bloody floor.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR SLAMS.]
Oh, not again.
Around the same time we were asked by the American State Department It's the second time this week.
if we'd send that message to the moon on a silicon disc, we were also asked another question.
On how many occasions is the British royal family - forced to eat venison each year? - No.
Honestly, I think if I eat any more of this stuff I'm going to start growing antlers.
- Are you listening? - Yes.
I'm all ears.
Little brown furry ones.
Well, provided they make it back to Earth in one piece, and if after all their tests they're still standing - [DOG BARKS.]
- would we like an audience with the astronauts? [CLEARS THROAT.]
What? Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins? - Here at the palace? - Yes.
They're being sent around the world on a victory tour.
Shall I go back with a yes? My God.
Yes, please.
[CHUCKLES.]
I thought that would cheer you up.
It does.
Do I need cheering up? A little.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[CHARTERIS.]
They're scheduled to arrive at Heathrow Airport at 2:00 p.
m.
From there they will be taken directly to the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square for a meeting with the US ambassador.
From there they will come to Buckingham Palace for an audience with Her Majesties the Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
- And what time will that be? - Around four o'clock, ma'am.
Will we give them anything? Tea? Probably not.
We thought it good to keep things moving.
No sitting down.
[ELIZABETH.]
I quite agree.
[ADEANE.]
No more than half an hour from arrival to departure.
[ELIZABETH.]
Right.
I'd like to make a request.
- If I may? - Sir.
Instead of being herded in with everyone else, I was wondering if I might be allowed some time with the astronauts alone in a separate, private meeting.
Uh, airman to airmen.
Pilot to pilots.
[ADEANE.]
I'll speak to the ambassador, but I'm sure it would be possible our end.
Would 15 minutes be enough? Fifteen minutes? They are on a very tight schedule, I believe.
To discuss mankind's greatest achievement? No.
It's nowhere near enough.
I can see it's all I'm going to get.
[MAN ON TV.]
Landing at London Heathrow Airport from Berlin, the Apollo moon men begin a hectic twenty-two-and-a-quarter-hour visit that demands the same sort of precision and timing as their mission in space.
The world-famous "Man on the Moon" team of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, accompanied by their wives, received one of their warmest welcomes yet from the British people.
The astronauts admitted that they are starting to feel the strain of their 22-nation world tour.
[ARMSTRONG.]
Here man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon.
July 1969.
And I can see everything quite clearly.
The light is, uh, sufficiently bright, backlighted into the front of the LM, that everything is very clearly visible.
- [CONTROL.]
Beautiful view.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here.
[RADIO BEEPS.]
[CROWD CHEERS.]
[MAN ON TV.]
The American astronauts are now arriving at Buckingham Palace.
The world-famous team of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins [CROWD CHEERS.]
[CROWD CHEERS.]
[ADEANE.]
Your Majesty, Mr.
Neil Armstrong.
Hello.
Welcome.
- Pleasure to meet you.
- And you.
- Mrs.
Armstrong.
- Hello.
- Colonel Michael Collins.
- Hello.
- Pleasure to meet you.
- Great pleasure to meet you.
Great pleasure to meet you, young man.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR.]
- [DOOR OPENS.]
[EXHALES.]
[MAN.]
Sir.
[CAMERAS CLICK.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
Please don't tell me you want to talk about children.
[CHUCKLING.]
- Have they been waiting long? - No, only a few moments, sir.
Mr.
Neil Armstrong, Colonel Michael Collins and Colonel Edwin Aldrin, Your Royal Highness.
- It is a great, great honor, gentlemen.
- Sir.
- Congratulations one and all.
- Sir.
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Please, do, uh do sit down.
Um There's no need to sit so closely.
As you can see, there's plenty of space.
- [CHUCKLING.]
- [CLEARS THROAT.]
I notice you instinctively sat in the same positions - as the, uh, command module.
- [ALL CHUCKLE.]
Anyway, I don't, I don't know if anyone told you, but, uh, I am, uh, actually a pilot myself.
- [SNEEZES.]
- And I was - Are you all right? - Yes, sir.
I just have a cold.
[SNIFFLES.]
- Here.
- I - It's clean, I promise you.
- Thank you.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- [SNEEZES.]
My, you've, uh, you've, you've all got colds.
Yes, we do.
Well, here we are.
Hmm.
I just want to say how much I admire what you've done.
It's just remarkable.
But also to say how much I identify in some way with with who you are.
[SNEEZING.]
- Bless you.
- Sorry.
I, um I wrote down some questions.
And You see, I initially imagined that I wanted to ask questions of you on a technical level.
You know, what is the physical experience of G-forces of that magnitude, and so on, but You see, I I realize now that the questions I actually want answering are You're all too young to understand, I think, but There comes a time in life when one first really starts to evaluate what one has accomplished.
And because of the position that I've ended up in here, who I've become Um Who I'm married to [CHUCKLING.]
[PHILIP.]
Uh I've Well, I've not been able to achieve the things I would have liked to as a man, as a as an adventurer.
And watching you three heroes at work it was like watching a dream.
Which is why I-I leapt at the chance to meet with you, even if it is just for ten minutes, that I might ask [EXHALES.]
what your thoughts were out there.
Neil? Well, uh obviously a sense of relief that we executed the mission successfully.
No, of course.
And we certainly got some amazing views, didn't we? - Yeah, we did.
- Yes, extraordinary.
I think I'm not talking so much about the views in that sense, as perspectives, observations of of our place.
Uh To be honest, there wasn't much time for that.
Um As a pilot, you'll know what they drill into you above all else - is protocol and, uh, procedure.
- Hmm.
- You've got to stick to the rules.
- Yes.
Well, as an astronaut, it's double that.
Hm-hmm.
We pretty much spent our entire time with lists in our hands, ticking things off.
Tick, check, tick, check.
[COLLINS.]
Eyes are glued to the mission protocol to such a degree you never really get to look outside.
- That's how busy they keep you.
- I see.
[ALDRIN.]
Tight leash.
[COLLINS.]
Not to mention most of the time you're so darn tired.
No matter how hard you practice, you never get used to the sleep.
Sleep.
Neil, uh, why don't you tell His Royal Highness about what happened after the moonwalk? - I would love to hear.
- [COLLINS.]
He wants to hear it.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, after I completed the moonwalk I-I watched it all.
Every step.
[CHUCKLING.]
I got back into the module, and knew we only had a few hours to get some rest before we took off again, so I I got my head down, - I closed my eyes - Wait for it.
But all I could hear was this noise.
Bang, bang.
Bang, bang.
- What? - Bang, bang, bang.
What, from outside the module? - I know.
You know what it was? - What? - The water cooler.
- [CHUCKLES.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
It was making this noise.
Bang, bang, bang.
[CHUCKLING.]
The greatest engineers in the world design a rocket that takes us to the moon, but they can't even get us a decent water cooler.
- [CHUCKLING.]
- So you were right.
- It was full of surprises.
- [ARMSTRONG.]
Hmm.
I see.
Were there any other questions you had for us? No.
No, it's [COLLINS.]
Well, in that case, would you mind if we asked you a few questions? No, of course.
What is it like? What is what like? Living in a place like this.
Because we heard you had a thousand rooms.
And that if you add the lengths of all the corridors together, - it comes to four miles.
- Uh, well Is it true you have a bagpiper for an alarm clock? And how many staff do you have here anyway? And how many palaces? We heard it's 12.
[COLLINS.]
And do you know all these people in the pictures? Are you related to those people? Do the dogs sleep in the room with you? That's mine.
Thank you.
Race you to the top.
- [ALDRIN.]
Go! - [CHUCKLING.]
[ALDRIN.]
No! - Yes! - [ARMSTRONG.]
It was a close call.
[ALDRIN.]
One, two, three.
[ALL.]
Cheese! [CAMERAS CLICK.]
[ARMSTRONG.]
One more.
[CAMERAS CLICK.]
[PHILIP.]
I don't know what I was thinking.
I expected them to be giants, gods.
In reality, they were just three little men.
Pale-faced, with colds.
[ELIZABETH.]
I have some sympathy.
The very qualities that made them perfect for the job.
But their lack of flair or imagination.
Their sense of duty, and modesty and reliability.
Total absence of originality or spontaneity.
But that's what makes them perfect in a crisis.
And entirely anticlimactic when you meet them in person.
I mean, imagine.
They go all that way to the moon and stay healthy, but one trip to London nearly kills them.
[DOG BARKS.]
It's not their fault.
They never wanted to be public figures, and now, because of one event, they will be forever.
Hmm.
They delivered as astronauts, but they disappointed as human beings.
They'll spend the rest of their lives in goldfish bowls scared to open their mouths, knowing it could reveal who they actually are, and that they will inevitably disappoint.
And for that, they deserve our pity.
Good job there were no little green men.
They could be forgiven for thinking, "If that's all planet Earth has got to offer, let's give the place a miss.
" [SCOFFS.]
Hmm.
[CLOCK CHIMES.]
[CLOCK TICKS.]
[PHILIP.]
There wasn't a specific moment, uh, when it started.
It's been more of a gradual thing.
A drip, drip, drip of of doubt disaffection, disease, dis discomfort.
People around me have noticed my general uh, irritability.
Um Now, of course, that's that's nothing new.
I'm generally a cantankerous sort, but even I would have to admit that there has been more of it lately.
Not to mention, uh, an almost jealous fascination with the achievements of these young astronauts.
Compulsive overexercising.
An inability to find calm or satisfaction or fulfillment.
And when you look at all these symptoms, of course it doesn't take a genius to tell you that they all suggest I'm slap bang in the middle of a [CHUCKLES.]
I can't even say what kind of crisis.
[CHUCKLING.]
That that crisis.
And Of course one's read or heard about other people hitting that crisis, and, you know, just like them, you look in all the usual places, resort to all the usual things to try and make yourself feel better.
Uh Some of which I can admit to in this room, and some of which I probably shouldn't.
My mother died recently.
[CLEARS THROAT.]
She she saw that something was amiss.
It's a good word, that.
A-Amiss.
She saw that something was missing in her youngest child.
Her only son.
Faith.
"How's your faith?" she asked me.
I'm here to admit to you that I've lost it.
And without it, what is there? The The loneliness and emptiness and anticlimax of going all that way to the moon to find nothing, but haunting desolation ghostly silence gloom.
That is what faithlessness is.
As opposed to finding wonder, ecstasy, the miracle of divine creation, God's design and purpose.
What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that the solution to our problems, I think, is not in the in the ingenuity of the rocket, or the science or the technology or even the bravery.
No, the answer is in here.
Or here, or wherever it is that that faith resides.
And so Dean Woods having ridiculed you for what you and these poor, blocked, lost souls [CHUCKLING.]
were were trying to achieve here in St.
George's House I now find myself full of respect and admiration and not a small part of desperation as I come to say help.
Help me.
And to admit [CHUCKLES.]
that while those three astronauts deserve all our praise and respect for their undoubted heroism, I was more scared coming here to see you today than I would have been going up in any bloody rocket! [CHUCKLING.]
[CLEARS THROAT.]
[BIRDS CHIRP.]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
[DOGS BARK.]