Educating Rita Page #3

the Bierkeller.

What for?

D'you know, they've got

eight different kinds of beer.

Who'd have thought they'd have built

paradise at the end of our street?

"Suggest ways in which... "

"Suggest ways... "

You know what's wrong

with you, don't you, Susan?

Well? What is wrong with me?

You need a baby.

Oh, do I?

How long is it

since you stopped taking the pill?

Susan! When was it

you stopped taking the pill?

Erm...

December!

I mean, that's nearly six months ago

and you're still not pregnant.

I think we'd better get you to a doctor.

It can't be anything wrong with me.

I mean, fellas in our family only have to

look at a woman and she's pregnant.

Oh, must be

because you're all cockeyed.

Ha, ha.

Come on, get ready.

I thought we were going to the Bierkeller.

I thought you were studying.

How can I do me essay

with you demolishing the house?

All right, all right. I'll just finish this

and I'll get changed.

Go on, hit it.

Hit it!

You can't just bloody belt it, you know.

- Why not?

- It has to be taken down carefully.

Ah, go 'way. Go on, hit it.

Get out. What would you know about it?

It needs the small hammer.

Oh, God!

Oh!

You're a mad b*tch, you are!

You're still my girl, aren't ya?

I could be, if you play your cards right.

- Hello, Frank.

- Hello, George.

- Brian.

- I'm going to leave Elaine.

- Brian, I don't think...

- You must leave Frank.

No. No, he needs me.

Needs you? Most of the time

he can't even see you!

He does need me. He responds to me.

Is that why he's always

four parts pissed?

Recently he's hardly been drinking.

I know it's taking a long time

but he's starting to respond

to the security I can offer him.

- Oh, Brian.

- Oh, Julia.

Lesley, you promised me

an essay by tomorrow.

Don't be so bloody crass, Morgan.

- Julia?

- Yes, yes, I know that but...

Have you got the text of Peer Gynt?

I think so.

No, I'm not presenting you with

an ultimatum, Morgan. I realise...

- What's it for?

- My Open University student.

Oh, yes. What's her name?

- Rita.

- That's right, Rita.

- When are we going to meet this Rita?

- Sometime, I suppose.

Look, Morgan, our association now

has lasted eight years.

- You must invite her to supper.

- Er, well...

- She sounds fun.

- Yeah. Thank you for the text.

- Unless I hear from you...

- Doesn't he have a phone?

Goodbye.

Frank.

- Yeah?

- I think you ought to know that I, er...

intend to leave my...

...publisher.

Well, that would help with

my phone bill considerably.

- Bye. Bye-bye, darling.

- Bye.

Frank!

Hello.

Forster!

Friggin' Forster.

I'll tell you what Forster does,

it gets on my tits.

- Show me the evidence.

- Dirty sod.

I can't understand what he's on about.

It's no good, Frank - when it comes

to Forster, I just can't understand.

You will, Rita, you will.

Well, it's all right for you.

I just can't figure it.

Yes. Well, do you think we might forget

about Forster for the moment?

With pleasure.

I would like to talk about

this that you sent me.

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, yes.

Yes, well, now... In reply to the question,

"Suggest how you would resolve

the staging difficulties

"inherent in a production

of Ibsen's Peer Gynt"

you have written, quote,

"Do it on the radio. "

Unquote.

Yeah.

- Well?

- Well what?

Well, I know it's probably

quite naive of me

but I did think you might let me have

a considered essay.

Yeah, well, that's all I could do

in the time.

We've been dead busy in the shop.

- You write your essays at work?

- Yes.

Denny doesn't like me doing this.

He gets narked if I work at home

and I can't be bothered arguing with him.

Rita, you can't go on producing work

as thin as this,

not if you want to pass an exam.

I thought that was the right answer.

I sort of encapsulated all me ideas

into one line.

It's the basis for an argument

but a single line is not an essay.

You know that as well as I do.

- What?

- I've done it.

You've done what?

Me essay.

"In attempting to resolve

the staging difficulties

"in a production of Peer Gynt

"I would present it on the radio

because, as Ibsen says,

"he wrote it as a play for voices,

"never intending it to go on in a theatre.

"If they had had the radio in his day,

"that is where he would have done it. "

Denny?

Denny!

Denny?

I just shouted you.

Denny...

I don't want to have a baby,

not until I've discovered meself.

Give 'em!

- Denny!

- Get off!

No, for Christ's sake...

Hello?

What's wrong?

This is getting to be a bit wearisome.

Whenever you come here, Mrs White,

you'll do anything

except start work immediately.

Come on.

- Where's your essay?

- I haven't got it.

- You haven't done it?

- I haven't got it.

Don't tell me - it's been stolen.

Whilst you were sleeping,

a group of Cambridge dons broke in

and stole your essay on Chekhov.

- Rita?

- It's burnt.

What?

So are the Chekhov books you lent me.

Denny found out I was on the pill,

he's burnt all me books.

Oh, Christ.

I'm sorry, I'll get you some more books.

Oh, sod the books.

I wasn't referring to the books.

Why can't he just let me

get on with me learning?

You'd think I was having an affair,

the way he behaves.

- Perhaps you are having an affair.

- Go 'way, I'm not!

What time have I got for an affair?

Jesus, I'm busy enough finding meself,

let alone finding anyone else.

I'm beginning to find me.

It's great. It is, you know, Frank.

It might sound selfish but all I want

for now is what I'm finding inside me.

Certainly don't wanna go

rushing off with some fella.

Perhaps he thinks we're having an affair.

Oh, go 'way. You're me teacher.

I told him that.

- You told him about me?

- Yeah.

- What?

- Oh, well, I've tried to explain to him

how you give me room to breathe.

You, like, feed me

without expecting anything in return.

- What did he say?

- He didn't.

I said to him, "You soft git,

even if I was having an affair

"there's no point in burning me books.

"I'm not having it off

with Anton Chekhov. "

He said, "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past you

to shack up with a foreigner. "

What are you gonna do, Rita?

I told him, I'd only have a baby

when I've got choice.

But he doesn't understand.

Do you love him?

I see him looking at me sometimes and...

I know what he's thinking.

I do, you know. He's wondering

where the girl he married has gone to.

He even brings me presents sometimes,

hoping that the presents

will make her come back

but she can't, she's gone.

And I've taken her place.

'Good evening. Professor Bodkin

continues his lectures on... '

- Are you coming to bed?

- In a minute.

'... as you have already recognised,

it's a play remarkably rich in texture,

'somewhat confusingly so in my case.

'The interior life of the characters

is rarely evident... '

Therefore, the tragic hero

will fall from grace

because of this flaw in his character.

There you have it.

One is an outer emphasis...

Er, excuse me a moment.

Frank, Frank, I'm sorry,

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