Hope and Glory Page #10

TEACHER:

Harper, what fraction of the

earth's surface is British?

HARPER:

Don't know, Miss.

TEACHER:

Anyone?

A girl shoots up her hand. JENNIFER BAKER.

JENNIFER:

Two-fifths, Miss.

TEACHER:

Yes. Two-fifths. Ours. And that's

what the war is all about. Men

are fighting and dying to save

the pink bits for you ungrateful

little twerps.

The pinched little faces find this notion difficult to

absorb. They stare back blankly at the British Empire. A

SIREN SOUNDS an air raid warning.

TEACHER:

Books away! Scramble!

They grab their gasmasks and run from the class, cheering.

EXT. SCHOOLYARD - DAY

The children swarm to the shelters, which are long narrow

concrete structures in sandbags to absorb blast.

INT. SHELTERS - DAY

The children file in mostly, laughing and chatting. There

are clattering duckboards on the ground affording cover

from an inch or two of water. Along each side of the

shelters are narrow benches. The children sit facing each

other. The HEADMASTER'S steel-studded boots hammer noisily

down the steps. He raises his arm high.

HEADMASTER:

Gasmasks on!

They open up their cases and pull on their masks. The

HEADMASTER conducts their breathing,. Moving his arms up

and down to indicate a rhythm.

HEADMASTER:

Slowly... in... out...don't

panic... in... out...

There is a HISSING SOUND as they inhale, then a RASPING

comic RASPBERRY as the air is pushed out of the sides of

the rubber masks.

HEADMASTER:

In... out... These masks are

given to us to filter away

abominations of the enemy.

He marches up and down in the narrow gap between the scabby

knees of children.

HEADMASTER:

Now, nine times table. One times

nine is nine...

The children's muffled voices chant the multiplication

table rubbery GURGLING SOUNDS merge from the gasmasks.

Hidden behind his mask, BILL finally gives was to angry

tears. He sticks out his tongue as the HEADMASTER passes

by.

HEADMASTER:

Two times nine is eighteen...

(And so on)

EXT. ROSEHILL AVENUE - DAY

BILL and SUE turn into their street on their way home from

school, looking lifeless and dull, but their faces lights

up with excitement as the fifty-foot length of a BARRAGE

BALLOON suddenly rises from behind the houses to the

distant SOUND of CHILDREN CHEERING. They sprint into their

house.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - DAY

BILL and SUE run through the hallway and into the living

room, scattering satchels, hats, gasmasks in their wake.

Their excitement is far too intense to explain to the

startled GRACE. They burst out through the French Windows

into the Garden.

EXT. ROHAN HOUSE - GARDEN - DAY

They run to the back fence. In the waste ground beyond the

garden, where a further row of house was to be built when

war intervened, BILL and SUE witness a TEAM of mostly

AIRWOMEN, (WRAFS) intent on launching the BALLOON Some

twenty WOMEN, each holding a tether, are paying out their

lines under the rhythmic commands of their LEADER. There is

a c able attached to the winch mounted on a TRUCK, and this

is wound out as the balloon rises. The balloon has a

comforting, humorous aspect, and the children laugh and

giggle as they watch.

NEWSREEL:

BLACK AND WHITE:

Like a school of basking whales, barrage balloons fill the

sky. It Is a newsreel of the Battle of Britain. A dramatic

scene follows:
A DOG FIGHT between SPITFIRES and GERMAN

BOMBERS. A patriotic, punning commentary, pulsating music.

INT. CINEMA - DAY

COLOUR:

GRACE and her three children are glimpsed in their seats,

watching. BILL is totally engrossed, enthralled. Out of

habit, he simulates the engine noise of the planes and the

clutter of cannon fire.

Suddenly a caption is superimposed on the screen:

AIR RAID IN PROGRESS - YOU ARE ADVISED TO TAKE SHELTER.

GRACE leads them out. They shuffle up the aisle, dragging

their feet, watching over their shoulders as they go.

BILL:

Can't we just see the end?

DAWN:

They've got the real thing

outside.

BILL:

It's not the same.

EXT. ROSEHILL AVENUE - DAY

A number of PEOPLE have come out of their suburban gardens

and look up at the pale-blue-winter sky. GRACE, SUE and

BILL are among them.

A SQUADRON OF SPITFIRES is attacking a formation of GERMAN

BOMBERS. They are distant black dots high above the barrage

balloons. The planes WHEEL and DIVE and give a splendid

display of AEROBATICS. Being so high, there is almost no

sound of engines or cannon and the feeling of unreality is

heightened.

EXT. ROHAN HOUSE - FRONT GARDEN - DAY

One of the GERMAN PLANES is HIT as the PILOT leaps from his

burning plane and a PARACHUTE blossoms and checks his fall.

GRACE draws the children back into the corner of the house

as the PLANE CRASHES. They creep out again. The dog fight

continues but the German planes have lost formation and

dispersed. The battle has become straggly and is rapidly

disappearing from view. Meanwhile, the PILOT'S PARACHUTE

drifts ever CLOSER as he descends, causing great

excitement.

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