Castles in the Sky Page #2

I take it you had a good day?

Excellent day, Mag,

a thoroughly excellent day.

I just need to finish this.

I've been struggling with

this for quite some time.

Could you hold this

while I fasten the clip?

Can you hold this piece here?

Got it. OK.

You genius! Well, here's hoping.

So...tell me all about your

excellent day.

You've barely uttered

a word about your work lately.

I'm sorry, I can't.

It's a secret.

A secret?

You're a weatherman!

Not just a weatherman.

Oh, no, no, no.

You fix broach clips too.

And bicycle chains.

The list is endless.

So pray do tell, what's so secret?

Are we going to have a hot summer?

Should we panic-buy

sun hats and the like?

I'm working for the Air Ministry.

No, I am.

No, I'm not joking, stop.

There's a threat.

I've been asked to help.

The Government have asked YOU?

Really?

You're serious? Quite serious.

What exactly is this threat?

I'm not allowed to say.

Sorry, Mag.

I'm sorry.

Morning.

Morning, Professor.

You seem...jolly?

Perhaps I too should

whistle a happy tune?

After all,

we have nothing to worry about,

aside from Hitler announcing

conscription,

secretly practising war manoeuvres

and building aeroplanes.

Or perhaps the lightness of your mood

is related to some success

by your little committee?

We're making progress.

With the death ray?

The system we're developing may

help us build a defence that...

Hitler will crush.

Yes, you're right.

You're absolutely right.

Good day, Professor.

Certainly not, Professor.

Ooh, well, in that case,

it's a direct order.

Tell me who Tizard's committee

have met. That's classified.

I'm sorry.

I apologise for my manner.

We're all working in very

difficult circumstances.

I feel... May I trouble

you for a glass of water?

Won't be a moment.

I'm afraid our hands are tied.

How so?

The secret nature of the project

does prevent us

from taking out an advertisement

in the Times.

Well, you better tell Mr Tizard

that we're going to need more time.

There's only two of us here.

Close the door.

You detected a plane a few

hundred yards away in a field -

that won't protect Britain.

We need to think bigger.

I'm going to make some calls

to Oxford and Cambridge,

see who we can drum up.

No, I'd like to use men

from the weather lab.

My dear man,

if we want this to work,

we require the very best physicists

and mathematicians and we find those

gentlemen not at the weather lab

but at our oldest universities.

You don't think

weathermen are good enough

because they don't wear

the right tie and all that?

Some of your lot don't wear

ties at all, do they?

Look, your little weathermen

friends are all well and good,

and I'm sure they're perfectly

harmless, but they simply

do not have the expertise with

this particular technology.

Our best professors do.

They'll also do what they're told.

Really?

Cavendish. Shall we?

Yes, er, Cambridge 2443, please.

Cavendish Laboratory,

Cambridge University.

They'll do what they're told?

Is that Sir James Thomson?

Yes, sorry to bother you, sir.

I'm calling from the Post Office.

Just a wee check on the line.

Do you happen to have a container

of water near your telephone?

A sink perhaps or maybe a bucket?

A fish-tank!

Yes, that will suffice. Could you

please pop your telephone into it?

Yes, into the fish tank.

It's the only way we can fully

ensure that your equipment

is compatible with the new system.

That's excellent, sir.

But most folk call me Taffy.

I don't know why,

Swansea's miles away

from the River Taff.

I was born in Cockett, you see.

Perhaps as well they call me

Taffy, eh?

I graduated from Swansea University,

First Class Honours,

Msc the year after that

and completed my doctorate

at King's College,

and I've been at the station

in Slough ever since.

So you're an untried PhD student?

Can I ask you, will I be working

for you or for him?

Oh, him.

In that case, thanks for the tie,

Rob, and, er, I will take the post.

Thanks. Welcome to the team.

Are you sure these men are the right

ones for the job? I'm positive.

We need free-thinkers,

rule-breakers, men without ties.

These men will strive

to make this thing work

Higgy, very pleased

you're going to join us.

Sorry, I knocked but...

It's all right, come on in.

I'll pop back later

if you still want me?

Mr Tizard is on his way over.

Since you won't listen to me,

perhaps you could discuss

your team with him?

Sorry, sir. Sorry.

I don't want to be fobbed off

with a bunch of Oxford academics

I've never even met.

These are all people I've worked

with before. I trust them.

It's your team. I'm very happy

for you to choose who you want.

Thank you.

Our intelligence says

that Hitler has built 3,000 planes.

Passenger planes?

Two-seaters.

By the time the world wakes

up to the noise that's building

in Germany it will be too late.

Your theories, experiments, tests,

are all well and good, Robert,

but you need to understand

that very soon German planes

may well be dropping bombs

onto our homes.

There are others at the Ministry

who want to channel all our efforts

into striking Germany hard and fast.

There's opposition

to what we're doing?

I've managed to get you

a little funding,

a base to test and experiment,

and I'm backing you

every step of the way,

but we don't yet know

if this thing will work.

It will.

It has to, Robert.

It HAS to.

Are you all right, Uncle Robert?

What? Er, yes, sorry.

I just fell asleep with my eyes open.

It's time I took you home.

I'll get my stuff.

You look tired.

I've got to go away for a while.

Work.

The secret thing?

You'll be away from home.

For how long? I don't know.

As long as it takes for me to

mess it up and get fired, I expect.

I'm sure that won't happen.

I'm not.

Is there anything I can do to help?

I don't think so.

You could visit.

Not at work, of course, but we could

sneak away to a wee hotel?

We can be together

every other weekend or so?

I'm your wife.

This is our home.

You finish work at the same time,

every day, you come home,

we have dinner, we listen to

the wireless, we go to bed.

That's what we do.

That's who we are.

You are not a secret

Government employee

and I am not some girl

who visits hotels.

We'll be together here

when you've finish your work.

OK.

Professor?

You're in my office.

Tell me what Tizard

and this weatherman are up to?

Tell me.

They're researching a project.

That much I know.

These are my private papers!

What exactly is the project?

Rowe! What is the project?

It's weather related hocus-pocus,

all very dull.

Are your loyalties with me

or with Henry Tizard?

Are we not all

on the same side, Professor?

Beside the sea

Oh, I do like to walk along

the prom prom prom

Where the brass band plays

tiddly-om-pom-pom

Oh, I do like to be

beside the seaside

I'll be beside myself with glee

And there's lots of girls beside

that I'd like to be beside

Beside the seaside,

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