Hope and Glory Page #3

DAWN:

You're the biggest fibber.

BILL:

It's dinner time. It really is.

Cross my heart.

She snakes out an arm and pulls him into bed. She rolls on

top of him, tickling him and smothering him with kisses.

DAWN:

If there's no solider, I'll have

you instead.

He giggles and struggles, gets into a panic, but she is

merciless, won't stop. Finally he starts to cry. She leaps

out of bed, disgusted with him.

DAWN:

Cry baby Bunting.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - GRACE'S BEDROOM - DAY

CLIVE rummages in the wardrobe, chuckling to himself. He

finds his Sam Browne belt and Army cap from the First Wold

War.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY

MOLLY and GRACE and GRANDMA have 'gin and its', the men

brown ale. They are in high spirits. SUE is doing a puzzle

on the floor. MOLLY shouts into GRANDMA'S ear.

MOLLY:

Few bombs might wake up this

country.

GRACE fills MAC'S glass in a tender gesture. A look passes

between them. MOLLY is a friend and wife, they love and

suffer in common. DAWN appears, wearing a defiant slash of

lipstick.

GRACE:

I doubt if a few bombs would wake

up Dawn on a Sunday morning.

DAWN:

This phoney war get's on my

nerves. If we're going to have a

war, I wish they'd get it

started.

GRACE:

Just ignore her, Mac.

CLIVE appears having stripped to the waist but wearing his

Sam Browne from the First Wold War. They all shriek with

laughter. CLIVE, encouraged by this response, does drill

movements and then demonstrates how to salute.

CLIVE:

There are many ways of saluting..

(He demonstrates.)

..An old soldier insulting a

young subaltern.

His hand flies to his forehead, gouging the air, the salute

transformed into an obscene gesture. More laughter.

CLIVE:

As an officer, you counter that

with one of these.

He raises his arm slowly and languidly until his limp hand

just brushes his temple. A faraway look in his eyes

disdains any acknowledgement of the insulting salute. A

tiny skirmish in the class war.

BILL and SUE swing on the leather straps of the Sam Browne.

They want him to stop. They sense something dangerous,

alien, their father in an unfamiliar role, another person.

The wireless has been on all this time, playing music and

now come the chimes of Big Ben. It is news time. The adults

are suddenly stock-still and serious, leaving the children

stranded in an excited state..

NEWSREADER (V.O.)

Here is the news and this is

Alvar Lidell reading it.

The children are told to be quiet. The room becomes a

frieze of portentous concentration.

EXT. ROHAN HOUSE - GARDEN - DAY

BILL slips into the garden, looks up at the leaden sky

imploringly.

BILL:

Come on. Come on.

The news bulletin filters out into the garden. Norway has

fallen, perhaps, or Churchill become Prime Minister.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - DINING ROOM - DAY

The meal has been eaten. They are animated again, but more

reflective, DAWN is winding wool with GRANDMA. BILL and SUE

have also left the table. BILL is looking at the Sam

Browne, now slung over the armchair, with its tangy smell

of deep polish like shiny milk chocolate, a mysterious icon

of war. The conversation at the table drifts over to him.

MAC:

...It was a toss-up. His company

went to India, mine went to

France. Flip of a coin.

CLIVE:

...two Indians to fan me all

night. The heat.

MAC:

....buried In a shell-hole for

thee days, while he's out there

playing polo and sticking pigs.

GRACE:

It was the best time of his life.

MAC:

How many of our class left? You

and me out of twenty-eight.

CLIVE:

And Jim.

MAC:

What's left of him. He'll never

see outside of the Star and

Garter.

BILL sinks his teeth into Same Browne. He bites hard and is

pleased to see that his teeth marks go quite deep into the

leather.

CLIVE:

I rode into battle...

DAWN, winding wool, knows this speech by heart and mimes it

silently with her father.

CLIVE:

...On horseback, with a drawn

sword, leading a battalion of

Gurkhas against the Turks.

GRANDMA watches DAWN'S moving lips and strains to hear.

GRANDMA:

I can't hear you.

MOLLY:

And where were the Turks?

She also knows the story.

GRACE:

No Turks.

CLIVE:

We didn't know that. It was a

suicide mission. Machetes against

artillery. Volunteers only.

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