The Largest Theatre in the World: Heart to Heart Page #7

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All that side of it was always

perfectly aboveboard.

She always registered under her own name

and they always took separate rooms.

Usually with a sitting room in between.

What were her name?

Clay! Miss Enid Clay.

Rabbity girl.

Teeth sticking out like this.

-She couldn't act either.

-And where is she now?

Oh, when the trouble blew up,

he got rid of her.

I believe she went to Australia

and got married.

Yes, well, that's very convenient

for you, isn't it, Miss Knott?

All the material witnesses

seem to have disappeared.

-Lopez, Clay.

-Well!

I'm still here, aren't I?

But I don't happen to think you're

a very reliable witness, Miss Knott.

Your testimony wouldn't

stand up in a court of law.

Oh, I know it wouldn't.

Dismissed secretary turning

against her ex-boss.

Says nothing for three years,

then turns up with a photostat

copy of a bill that isn't her property.

Almost certainly jealous.

-Probably was in love with him.

-And were you?

-Yes, I suppose so.

-Yes.

And jealous of this Enid Clay,

if she existed.

She existed, all right.

But I wasn't jealous of her.

You couldn't be.

She was such a harmless little thing.

No, I was just awfully sorry for her,

tied up to that dreadful man.

You say he was a dreadful man,

and yet you admitted to me that

you were in love with him.

Now, how do these two statements fit?

Like a glove, I should have thought.

Really, what a stupid question.

What on earth is what you think your man

got to do with what you feel for him?

Very well, Miss Knott.

Why come to me and not the police?

I don't want him to

go to jail or anything.

I just want him shown up for what he is.

A crook, a liar and a cheat.

You see, Mr Mann,

I'm really quite a patriotic woman.

When I left him, it didn't look

as if he was going to get anywhere.

Now he's in the Cabinet.

And people are even saying he's

the next but one Prime Minister.

Well, we can't have that,

can we, Mr Mann?

You've got ideals, too, haven't you?

I still want to know why

you had this photostatted,

if it wasn't for blackmail?

Oh, but it was for blackmail.

I sent it to him through the post,

registered mail with a letter.

Thank you, there's no more to discuss.

But the blackmail wasn't

for money, Mr Mann.

What was it for, then? Love?

How unkind.

No.

For something very simple

and quite easy for him to have done.

-Funny you haven't guess it.

-What?

Not to accept his post in the Cabinet.

Well, why should that be so hard

to believe, Mr Mann?

Wouldn't you have done exactly

the same thing in my place?

If I'd been in your place,

I wouldn't have lied to the commission.

Oh, I expect you would, you know.

We all know you're a man of conscience.

But we all have to compromise

a little bit from time to time.

The only question is,

how much do we compromise?

With Sir Stanley as a Right Honourable,

I personally have reached my limit.

I shall be looking in tonight.

Big sister will be watching you,

Mr Mann.

Don't let me down, please.

Not just me. Us.

The whole country.

Wham! Bam!

The Right Honourable

out for the count.

That's what I expect to see.

And that's what I'm sure I will see.

Miss Knott,

you've forgotten this.

(LAUGHING) Oh, no.

Keep it. I've got plenty more.

Oh, there's my bus. I must run.

Would you give this thruppence

to the waitress, please?

-Hello, Dave.

-Hello, John. How are you?

-Fine, And you?

-Fine, Thanks.

-You ready?

-Yes, when you like.

Right, let's go.

Okay, roll it.

Hmm. Keep themselves pretty well,

don't they?

Yeah, don't they just.

-That's him.

-Yes, at the back.

My Lord Mayor,

Your Grace, Your Excellencies,

my lord, ladies and gentleman,

pray silence for the Right Honourable

Sir Stanley Johnson,

member of Parliament,

the Minister of Labour.

My Lord Mayor, your Grace,

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentleman,

it's fallen to my lot this year

to respond to the toast

of her Majesty's government.

That's a silly phrase, isn't it?

"Fallen to my lot. " (CHUCKLING)

In politics, we all know

what that means.

And none better, I daresay,

than the leader of

Her Majesty's Opposition down there.

(GUESTS LAUGHING)

It means that someone higher up

has said, "You do it this year, Stan. "

-(LAUGHTER)

-You're the new boy.

We know you'll do it splendidly.

Absolutely spiffing, we're sure.

If you make the muck-up of it

we all expect you to,

then we'll ruddy well murder you.

How long is the speech? Forty minutes.

-Is there a lot more funny stuff?

-There's one coming, a real brute.

-Shall I cut?

-No.

My limited attainments...

Humble bit, but he's good at that.

...speaking for Her Majesty's government

to an assemblage

as distinguished as this.

And I would like, if I may,

to strike a very serious note at once.

My Lord Mayor,

I must confess I'm seriously

despaired to observe

that, despite the economic crisis,

you've seen fit to serve

an even richer sauce

on your sole bonne femme than last year.

This is naked inflation.

-Shall we try a bit in the middle?

-Somewhere he talks sense.

(FAST FORWARDING)

(LAUGHING)

On an occasion quite like this,

party politics are quite out of order.

And I know that my

Right Honourable friend opposite,

sitting, for once I notice,

without his feet on the table...

Oh, no, he's going to be funny again.

But he's good, you know.

This homemade chaps together-style

worked a fair treat, I can tell you.

He's got the highest rating of all yet.

I tell you, he's got my money for PM.

(SLOW MOTION)

Here, tonight.

I would like...

-(NORMAL SPEED)

-But this is a tremendous challenge.

Let there be no mistake about it.

And when has this great country,

I don't hesitate to use

that unfashionable epithet,

when has this great country of ours

failed to respond to a challenge?

When?

We may be divided in our politics

but in our ideals and in

our ethics we remain...

Not much more. A bit about God, I think.

He usually ends on God.

(APPLAUDING)

Well, My Lord Mayor,

the challenge as I see it, is this.

And perhaps because I've not

the educational advantages

of so many of you

that are listening to me.

Humble Stan again.

Because I'm a very simple...

My foot!

Ordinary and, I hope I may say,

honest man,

I can see more clearly to the heart of

this challenge

than the experts

and the intellectuals...

Intellectuals always get it from Stan.

Their commissions and reports.

Well, my Lord Mayor,

the heart of the challenge

for me is this.

And I hope that you won't laugh

at me for my over-simplification.

Is this age so irretrievably corrupt

and materialistic?

And there are many that tell us

that it is.

That men and women will

no longer work for anything but

their own gainful good.

Or can they be lead to return to

some of the standards

and ideals of their fathers?

And for the eternal question,

"What's in it for me?"

can they substitute the more

honourable plural,

"What's in it for us?"

For me, and for my fellow men

and for my country.

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