Primitive London Page #5

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LOUIS:
Congratulations(!)

HARRY:
Remember the hat-fitting bit?

LOUIS:
The pins and all that jazz?

HARRY:
Sure.

Well, suppose we worked on a machine with

a pin system to help the fitting of jeans.

You know, a girl-shaped machine.

- Hey, where you going, Louis?

- LOUIS:
To get a cup of coffee.

Call me when you get through, Harry.

I'd appreciate that.

HARRY:
Sure, Louis. Okay.

Now while Louis is out of the way...

(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)

Great! Great!

LOUIS:
Hey, what's this?

HARRY:
Hi, Louis. Just running some music.

(DRUMS BEATING)

(UPBEAT MUSIC PAYING)

# Can't help but thinking

of something about you

# Somehow, this feeling

I just can't explain

# I don't know

But sugar, there's something about you

# And I wonder

Do you feel much the same?

# There's something when you walk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, something when you talk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, there's something when you smile

# There's something about you

# And I really don't know what

# It's strange

But baby, there's something about you

# Something in my heart

that I just can't deny

# I think I'm gradually

falling in love with you

# And I'm certain when I look in your eye

# There's something when you walk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, there's something when you talk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, there's something when you smile

# There's something about you

# And I really don't know what

# I think I'm gradually

falling in love with you

# Yeah, I'm certain when I look in your eye

# There's something when you walk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, there's something when you talk

# There's something about you

# Yeah, there's something when you smile

# There's something about you

# And I really don't know what #

NARRATOR:
In the two distinct groupings

within the teenage population,

the mods go for groups

like The Zephyrs we've just heard.

And the rockers go for

less sophisticated surroundings.

They prefer motorcycles to motor scooters.

Their chief instrument is noise,

in their music and their machines.

# Can't buy me love

# Love #

NARRATOR:
Group identity is established

by bizarre motifs on machines and clothes.

Admission to this group is via a 'ton-up'.

That is, achieving 100 miles an hour

on their motorcycles.

Their boast about this matches

their overemphasis on masculinity.

The atmosphere they wish to create

is reminiscent of the behaviour of a

gangster in a cheap waterfront flophouse.

In their innocence, they've not yet

realised that such overemphasis

calls the basis into question.

Their attitude is assertive, but aimless.

Their philosophy, negative.

- MAN:
How old are you?

- About 18.

- MAN:
About 18?

- Yeah, about 18.

MAN:
Where do you work?

Well, I used to work

with a builder's merchant,

but I'm looking for another job now.

MAN:
Have you had any trouble with mods?

Not with mods, no. They try cut you up now

and again, you know, but they don't manage.

MAN:
Why do you wear all that clobber?

Well, I just like it, and...

You know, you...

You come off the bike

and you don't bounce, you just slide.

I mean, you slide along the road.

Know what I mean?

MAN:
If you could pass a new law, Colin,

one new law, what would it be?

Ban all the scooters off the road.

MAN:
If you were, say, Prime Minister,

what would you do?

Get out of it quick.

MAN:
What is it about this

mods and rockers business?

They don't like us, do they?

No, no. Remember that time

at the Ealing Club? Eh?

Same as The Palais.

I mean, they just won't let you in.

Also, some of them try and cause trouble,

but... I don't know.

If you screw one of their girls

or something, I think, you know,

because you're all in leather and that,

you know...

They're not worth...

They're not worth looking at.

- MAN:
Do you read a lot?

- No.

- MAN:
No books at all?

- No.

MAN:
If you could pass a law,

what law would you like to pass?

Well...

Better roads, I suppose.

'Cause I can't go fast enough.

These roads are bad now.

- MAN:
You've had an accident?

- Once.

- MAN:
Bad?

- Yeah, pretty bad.

- MAN:
You get hurt?

- Yeah.

- MAN:
But it hasn't scared you?

- No, no.

- MAN:
What do you like most of all?

- (CHUCKLING) Women.

NARRATOR:
In Great Britain alone

a killer strikes every 75 minutes,

24 hours of every day.

That killer is the automobile.

On the 17th of August, 1896,

a young woman was knocked down

and killed by an automobile

on the demonstration track of the

Crystal Palace Exhibition in South London.

She was the first of an army

of 10 million Britons

over whom the automobile has rolled since.

More people have been killed on the

roads of Britain in the last 10 years

than the total number of civilians by all

the air raids on Britain in World War II.

A killer that strikes 20 times a day,

every day, in Great Britain alone.

Yet, the reaction to these figures

is one of almost complete indifference.

They're part of our way of life.

Or death.

The measure of the public's indifference is

seen when set against their shocked reaction

to another far rarer sort of death.

Murder.

On the 6th of August, 1888,

Martha Turner, a prostitute,

was hurrying through the streets

of White chapel in the East End of London.

She was the first victim

of a murderer who was never unmasked,

although his name lives on in infamy.

Jack the Ripper.

(PANTING)

(SCREAMING)

(MOANING)

(SCREAMING)

(GROANING)

There is a modern Jack the Ripper

at work in London today.

WOMAN:
You might call it

an occupational hazard, I suppose.

Any one of the men we pick up

could be a Jack the Ripper.

I mean, going off with

strange men like we do.

I suppose they're all strange in some way.

Not surprising, really, when you think about it,

that you find some real bad lots among them.

NARRATOR:
Gwyneth Rees, age 22,

found strangled here, November 1963.

Hannah Tailford, age 30,

found strangled here, February 2nd, 1964.

In 12 months, six women have been murdered.

All six girls were strangled.

All were prostitutes.

All were found on or near the Thames

within the same five-mile stretch of river.

Helen Barthelmy, age 26,

found strangled here, April 24, 1964.

Irene Lockwood, age 26,

found strangled here, April 8th, 1964.

Mary Fleming, age 31,

found strangled here, July 14, 1964.

The girls in the shadows wait,

and so, perhaps, does he.

# In the good old happy days of Tony Pastor

# And Lady Astor, and Dapper Dan

# There was someone

who could make a heart beat faster

# She was disaster to every man

# At the barber's shop

the gentlemen would gather

# And in a lather they'd start to foam

# 'Cause her fabled fascination

# Was the road to ruination

# She would make a faithful husband

# Leave his home

ALL:
# His home, sweet home

# Oh, those lips, oh, those hips

# They could launch a thousand ships

# All those curls when she swirls

# They could ruin a fella's nerves

# While her eyes, settling down

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