- 2 weeks ago
Classy, intelligent, witty political drama series about the fascinating, ruthless businessman/politician sir John Wilder who becomes Special Envoy (the original name of the series was "Special Envoy'') - ambassador for special situations and trade - and has to deal with the equally ruthless competition. His wife is the witness, trying to support him without interfering much, while his handsome secretary is too ambitious for his own good. The sequel to "The Plane Makers". Starring Patrick Wymark, Barbara Murray, Jack Watling, Michael Jayston, Clifford Evans, Peter Barkworth, George Sewell, Ian Holm, Richard Hurndall, Barrie Ingham, Donald Burton, Norma Ronald, Robin Bailey, James Maxwell, Rachel Herbert, William Devlin, Philip Madoc, Norman Tyrrell, John Brooking, Peter Hughes, Peggy Sinclair, Ralph Michael. Written by Peter Draper, Wilfred Greatorex, Edmund Ward, John Bowen, Raymond Bowers.
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02:21Mail bills.
02:25Tell the musician you can go.
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02:44Reasonable.
02:48Let's call it a 180 with the tip.
02:54I'll give you a check for...
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03:01You'll give me a check for a hundred and fifteen.
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03:06The home comforts.
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03:15I didn't see her making herself up at the table.
03:17How...
03:18How does she come to leave her lipstick?
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03:40Future reference.
03:48For little loosies.
03:52Standard practice.
03:57Got a clip.
04:00Have you no clips of your own, Henderson?
04:02No, darling.
04:04I have no intention of filling in four civil service forms to get any.
04:08Takes but a moment.
04:10And subservience.
04:11It would also take but a moment for you to go to Sir John's room via your passage door and
04:15his,
04:15instead of to and froing through my room.
04:18Yes, but think of the secretarial time you'd waste patrolling the passage,
04:22so you'd know when to plug your ear to Sir John's keyhole.
04:25What would it be to hear, Henderson, of professional interest?
04:28You have no official duty in this department.
04:30Our official duties seem neither here nor there in this department.
04:33Oh, is that what yours are?
04:35Here is Sir John's private secretary one moment and there.
04:39Informing on him to Lord Bly the next.
04:41Lord Bly, as it happens, has asked me to inform, as you put it.
04:44But not on Sir John.
04:45You.
04:46What, he wants to know, are you doing in this department?
04:50Patience, pussy.
04:51Patience.
05:01He's in Madrid for another day then.
05:03Sir John?
05:03Yes.
05:04How did you hear?
05:06Well, you putting letters on his desk and then sitting on it.
05:09Which is a nicer sight than other usual indication of his absence.
05:12Dowling sitting in his chair.
05:14Is that immediate attention stuff?
05:15Mm-hmm.
05:16Put this on top, will you?
05:18No, no, no, on top.
05:19It is on top.
05:19Until you plonk something else on it.
05:22I've finished plonking.
05:23I wasn't leaving them on his desk, knowing how he feels about clutter.
05:27Um, Jill.
05:29Look, er...
05:30I'll be out of town tomorrow, so see if he puts that through. Fastish.
05:34Expenses?
05:36Not having seen it, how did you know?
05:37You opened the door for me.
05:56The supplies, please.
05:57Out of Clips, too.
05:59This is Sir John Wilder's private secretary.
06:01Could you send up a key for the door between rooms 617 and 619, please?
06:07I shouldn't ask for one if one were in the lock, should I?
06:10The forms will be here when the key comes.
06:18How many forms for a plug of dynamite?
06:36Oh, Jill, would you get me the file on Catalonia irrigation, please?
06:40It's in front of you, towards the bottom.
06:43Er, Lord Bly would like it.
06:44Did you get it for him or for Sir John?
06:46Sir John?
06:47Well, tell him it's upstairs with Lord Bly.
06:50Oh, Lord Bly would like this at the trot.
06:53Why can't he send his own personal assistant down for them?
06:56He might outgrade Sir John, but I outgrade her.
06:59He prefers the look of you.
07:00I do believe the old gentleman would let you sit on his desk.
07:07In a sense, I should ask you something.
07:09Should it be, er, what is the matter?
07:11Too many people are opening doors for me.
07:14Just follow your nose.
07:15You won't come to any harm.
07:28Where?
07:29I left it on top.
07:31No?
07:31Yes.
07:32Mr Darling also left a thing or two.
07:34It'll be a bit down now, I suppose.
07:35I think you'll find it to be a bit up now, Jill.
07:39How much was it for?
07:40I didn't look, but as he's in a hurry to collect...
07:42What was it spent on?
07:43I didn't look, Sir John.
07:45You know all his appointments.
07:46Only as much as I know yours, which is not all of them.
07:48And he didn't say where he'd be out of town today.
07:51No.
07:52Nor when he'd be back.
07:53Shall I ring round on the off chunks?
07:55He'll be in tomorrow if he's waiting on heavy expenses.
07:59Good morning, Sir John.
08:00I didn't know you were here.
08:02You come straight from the airport.
08:04Good morning.
08:05You've lost something, Jill.
08:06Yes, something left...
08:07Don't worry.
08:08It will turn up very soon.
08:11I was going to leave this for you.
08:13Lord Bly didn't know you were in either.
08:15He asked me to memo you he'd like to see you the moment you were.
08:20As I said, very soon.
08:26Go to hell!
08:27That's what I suggest.
08:28You send Henderson.
08:30I'm not dismissing him and I'm not letting you.
08:33The Prime Minister wants his head.
08:36Has he heard of Henderson?
08:38Heard what?
08:38Of his existence.
08:41Is that what you tattle about on your stately visit to Downing Street?
08:46Henderson?
08:47Oh, you concede that where affairs...
08:49Where affairs of state are concerned, Henderson is a person of insignificance.
08:53He won't be missed.
08:54I concede that he is unlikely to engage the Prime Minister's interest.
08:59Whatever does.
09:01On that score, none of the staff would be missed.
09:04Not even your...
09:06Oh, I'm sorry.
09:07My private secretary.
09:10Downing Street requires Whitehall to show willing, John.
09:14The civil service must cut expenditure.
09:18Ah, the Prime Minister have given me one month to do my bit.
09:21I'm giving you one week.
09:23I didn't know a general election was so close.
09:26Your usual whiskey.
09:28No, save your tibble for your foreign salesman.
09:31That's the only tax concession which is allowed on entertainments nowadays.
09:36Then I hope Henderson's dinner guests last Tuesday were foreign.
09:41Very foreign.
09:43Two hundred and thirty pounds worth foreign.
09:46That's the expense claim.
09:48That's the expense claim.
09:48His expense claims come to me and so they should.
09:51Well, you were away.
09:52He must have been impatient.
09:53You know, I always thought that you were too lenient with him, John.
09:56And today's little sample is rarely disturbing.
10:00Today's is pennies.
10:01Pennies for what?
10:02For whatever it says.
10:04Well, it says for entertaining.
10:07Nothing more.
10:08Only the bill itself tells me the number of people entertained.
10:11Ten.
10:12Ten into two hundred and thirty goes twenty-three times.
10:15I have spent more and you have tried.
10:18I'm a minister.
10:19You're an ambassador.
10:20Henderson is neither.
10:22Indeed, according to our permanent civil servants, it's difficult to say what he is here.
10:25That's why he's so often able to do things for me that they can't here.
10:30Oh, so he entertained these people for you.
10:35Who the hell else?
10:35Now you can tell me who they were and why they were.
10:38And as usual, the result in my monthly report.
10:42I'm your minister.
10:43Then stop behaving like a topny-hapenny accountant.
10:48You're ignorant of this claim, John.
10:51So incompetently ignorant that you don't even know that Henderson is only claiming a half.
10:56And obviously he didn't have the guts to grow the whole hog, so he's claiming only a hundred and fifteen
11:00pounds.
11:01And then, to explain the incomprehensible fact that the bill is more, much more, he adds, and I quote,
11:05balance met by private source.
11:13What are you complaining about?
11:16The department's quits in.
11:20Um...
11:20I'm complaining, John, about a man who, um, who adds, uh, fifty pounds onto an expense claim and, um, you
11:37know, I quote, added expenses fifty pounds.
11:41Uh, and here, in a place where, you know, you have to fill in five or six forms to get
11:49a, a ninepenny ballpoint.
11:52This is a ninepenny one.
11:54What do you want, Caswell, really?
11:57His head, mine, or both?
12:01Or do you want advance warning of what I've asked him to do for me?
12:04So, if the results look like being good, you can tell the Prime Minister you've told me to do it
12:09for you.
12:12This claim, John, what are you going to do about this claim?
12:16I'm going to frank it for payment.
12:20As a birthday present?
12:23Oh, last Tuesday was his birthday.
12:26Wednesday was mine.
12:30On happier days, I agreed with him.
12:32It was the one thing that he'd always be ahead of me.
12:38Don't go, John.
12:41I don't like sick rooms.
12:46This has become one.
12:49I'm instructing accounts to refuse all claims made by Henderson unless endorsed by me.
12:55And, uh, as for that claim, I'll endorse it only when I know the identity of the private source.
13:02And I'm satisfied that Henderson shared the expense on official duty.
13:09Yes?
13:10Mr. Kenneth Bly is here, Lord Bly.
13:13Who?
13:13Your son, Lord Bly.
13:18My son?
13:21Why is he here?
13:23Shall I say you are engaged at present?
13:28Um...
13:29Please ask him to wait.
13:36Oh, I...
13:38...don't hear from him for two years, and then he presents himself like the...
13:44...prodigal son.
13:48For nerve, he and your Henderson will be hard to tell apart.
13:51They already are.
13:54Hmm?
13:56Anybody you go for, as you are going for Henderson, is today's substitute for Kenneth.
14:01Because, at the green age of 36, he got off his bended knees, kicked you in the parental pants, and
14:08went his own way.
14:11Stay out of my domestic affairs, John.
14:14You haven't had any for two years.
14:17That's your trouble.
14:18No son to boot around the nursery, and in search of one you've wandered into second childhood.
14:24Much good did it to Ken to go. Much good.
14:29So you hope.
14:31You have to.
14:32To see him standing on his own two feet would knock you off your own.
14:42John!
14:45John.
14:52Yes, Lord Bly?
14:55Er...
14:56...send my son in.
14:57He's gone, Lord Bly.
15:07Can you see this person, Sir John? He hasn't an appointment.
15:10He's outside.
15:12He wouldn't say his business, only that he was here as a private source.
15:33I have one telephone call to my Kenneth.
15:37I'll give you two minutes, John.
15:40That's one more than I just gave father.
15:50He's outside.
16:00Yeah!
16:05Yeah!
16:07Come on.
16:10All right.
16:11...
16:14Hello?
16:16Good morning. I believe you specialize in Balkan dishes.
16:19Yes, but only at night.
16:22In the day we sleep, particularly in the morning.
16:26I may want to entertain a Yugoslav diplomat.
16:30A Yugoslav diplomat would not be entertained here, merely politically insulted.
16:37Why, are you Bulgarian?
16:39Worse, Albanian.
16:42At least the dishes are.
17:01Come along.
17:04Well, well, well.
17:07Very nice.
17:13Uh, no, no, no, thank you. I stopped morning drinking, oh, six months ago.
17:20I didn't.
17:22And you looked remarkably undeteriorated after all these years.
17:25Was your concern health, morality or economy?
17:30Is that the impression that father spread, that I'm on my office?
17:33Do you see a lot of your father still?
17:36Nothing of him still.
17:37How could he get an impression to spread, then?
17:40Well, he wouldn't receive me just now, so he must be sure I need help.
17:45He'd help you like a shot, Kenneth. He always did.
17:48Oh, provided I ask for it while licking his boots.
17:50I always find it difficult to articulate in that posture.
17:55Then articulate about the Albanians.
17:59Hmm?
18:02Tuesdays, Albanians.
18:03Henderson's told you.
18:04Should he not have done?
18:07No, well, I mean...
18:08He's out of town today, and you were yesterday.
18:10He habitually leaves reports.
18:12Not if they'd excite your private secretary.
18:15However, this time he risks leaving an expense claim. He had to.
18:17You put it through.
18:18I would have just got back.
18:20Oh, cos we were relying on you to have made it a fait accompli.
18:24Oh, do speak English.
18:26Not that I don't understand French, but I'm not sure that you do.
18:28Besides, the subject is Albanian.
18:32And they want to buy British.
18:33And the British won't sell to them.
18:35I'm sorry?
18:37We have no trade, no relations with Albania.
18:40Nor will we have till an important debt is settled.
18:44Four and a half million pounds awarded by the International Court of The Hague
18:48about the sinking of a British destroyer.
18:51In the Corfu Channel in 1946.
18:53I've heard there were signs of a thaw.
18:56Ah, the ice is as thick as ever.
19:02Even on a British-built motorway in Albania?
19:05Where did you hear that?
19:06I'm still in business, John, making roads.
19:08Yeah.
19:10As I see, you're off the wagon again.
19:12And hardly perceptible on the stock exchange.
19:15My company's shares have held steady since July.
19:18At one and two, power is two and six.
19:21Well, they'll look up when you pass Henderson's claim.
19:25When will things look up for me?
19:30Um, when the Prime Minister notices that acting upon your own initiative and not Father's,
19:36you've enabled Britain and Albania to get over their sulks and talk to each other.
19:41Departmentally, the initiative was Henderson's, wasn't it?
19:43And externally mine.
19:46But, as Father used to say, in business, whenever he took the boardroom applause for what you'd done,
19:52to endorse the initiative of a subordinate is to exceed it.
19:56Because it's to act from a larger responsibility.
20:00So, endorse Henderson's claim and you'll get more out of it than he will.
20:05Shadow, what you'd get if your father, my minister, sniffed a fiddle?
20:11Nothing from the government, should your road reach a dead end, granted that it ever started.
20:17What?
20:17You have a small, broken-down company, which could handle maybe the verges on a footpath from a backyard door
20:27to an outside loo.
20:29The Albanians want roads.
20:32So, you have to swing in bigger men, a consortium.
20:35Now, what big British company is going to risk money in Albania?
20:40What government is going to allow them, till that four and a half million is paid?
20:45What's more, while Albania follows the red Chinese line,
20:50they are out, not only with us, but both sides of European communism.
20:54Any day, Russia may decide to squash them.
20:58And what better excuse than that the West were building military roads out there?
21:04So, if you want a British company to join you in your desperation flutter,
21:08you've got to get me to get the government to underwrite you against financial loss.
21:14Then can't you?
21:14No.
21:16From this nook in Whitehall, only your father can.
21:21Of course, I could go straight to the Foreign Secretary and tell you about this piddling highway.
21:26Piddling?
21:26Piddling!
21:27Population of Albania is one and a half million.
21:31Scratching a living at subsistence level.
21:34And do you think your father would risk a business gamble in Albania?
21:39Not to say with you.
21:41I thought you'd gathered that it suits us both to keep him right out of it.
21:45And I thought you'd gathered that he can't be kept out of it if you want government backing.
21:51You've expressed necessity admirably.
21:53What you've not done is fine.
21:55Is this it?
21:56Put that bloody thing down.
21:57No, no, no. Put it through, John, and then you can say this to the government.
22:01My father cannot express a ministerial opinion on an enterprise in which his own son is privately engaged.
22:09So, he's left the matter entirely to you.
22:11Your father would say, having exercised his renowned impartiality of judgment, that he decided that his own and only son's
22:20company was too small, too unsuccessful, too badly managed to take part in so difficult an enterprise.
22:29So, he'd persuaded the consortium to drop him.
22:32And so he would do if you wouldn't lick his boots as you were brought up to do.
22:37Would you lick his boots again, Kenneth?
22:40I prefer to stuff this down his throat.
22:43See, I'm the private source. I spent money. Henderson would testify.
22:46The external initiative was mine.
22:50It's a hundred and fifteen pounds, Kenneth. He'd see that you were restituted with one flick of a knife and
22:55a ball point.
22:56It is three months of travel, negotiation, risk.
23:01And, and, with the encouragement of this department, because a member of it, Henderson, spent state money while I spent
23:08private.
23:09Henderson spent his own money, unless I put this through.
23:12But that's the point, John!
23:15We both thought you'd have signed it by now.
23:18Signed in ignorance?
23:19You were in Spain.
23:19That's ignorance.
23:24You don't trust Henderson?
23:26You caught father's mania. Nothing will work unless you start it.
23:29Don't you believe I did?
23:31What?
23:32Start it.
23:34I trust Don.
23:35Have you gone so far away from your dad that you're no longer his son?
23:39Trusting him never paid. Why should trusting you?
23:41Because I thought you'd put that through already. I called on him this morning. Do you believe that?
23:44Yes.
23:44It was to tell him that I'd done him in the eye and there was nothing he could do about
23:47it.
23:48I trust you were mixing business with pleasure?
23:52Well, as it happened, I was able to mix nothing with anything. He wouldn't see me.
23:58Don't worry, Kenneth.
23:59Henderson will get his expenses.
24:10When will you see the Board of Trade about my guarantees?
24:13Hardly today. I haven't met the Albanians yet. Indeed. If they exist, when can you arrange that for me?
24:22Henderson's fixed you up an appointment tomorrow.
24:25Before you go, arranging things for me, before I request them, young Kenneth, understand this.
24:32I don't want you going up to your father and knocking him about.
24:37Do you still share the same, Doctor?
24:39Why?
24:42When a man of Caswell's age starts to fade in a position of power, he begins to expose a very
24:48quick flashpoint.
24:50I should find out how quick that flashpoint is before you provoke him.
24:54I think it's so quick that it might go up before he stops to think.
24:59I don't believe you. You fail to sound delighted.
25:03It doesn't suit me to have a fading minister liable to blow up at any minute and blowing me up
25:08with him.
25:10Just because his son is being cheeky.
25:29Give that to my personal assistant on your way out.
25:33Good.
25:35Cheers.
25:42The ball can start tomorrow, then. Lunch.
25:44Who's the negotiator?
25:46His name's Migulik.
25:48How did he get here?
25:49Watching the way most people do.
25:52Immigration won't allow Albanians in, especially Albanian envoys.
25:56No, it's news to me. Better ask him yourself.
26:00I do have a dossier on him.
26:02Lincoln.
26:03Yes, Sir John?
26:03What do you know about a man called Migulik?
26:07He's the Albanian commercial attaché in Paris.
26:11How did he get into Britain, then?
26:14I can only think the name on his passport suggests someone else.
26:17Would you want him chucked out?
26:19I don't know. No, anything but, Lincoln.
26:23I've heard a lot about it, darling.
26:26And if he mentions this to father and you don't, father'll know what it's about.
26:29And he could, as you said, find it too much for his flashpoint.
26:33Because despite what you said about the piddling population,
26:38you know what's in this politically for whoever brings it off.
26:42You do, darling, an injustice.
26:46He is, in some ways, my most valuable instrument here.
26:53Good morning.
26:56Good morning.
26:57Good morning.
27:02Good morning.
27:06Good morning.
27:07Good morning.
27:08Good morning.
27:08Good morning.
27:09Good morning.
27:10Good morning.
27:10Good morning.
27:10Good morning.
27:10Good morning.
27:10Good morning.
27:11Good morning.
27:11Good morning.
27:11Good morning.
27:17Good morning.
27:20Get me Foster, Cortland and Rebold.
27:24Yes, they're stockbrokers.
27:26I want a Mr. Keith Hollins, and only Mr. Hollins.
27:31If he's engaged, hang on for him.
27:36Mr. Kenneth Blythe said you wanted this.
27:47Yes?
27:48Mr. Henderson's claims, Sir John.
27:50I've had a formal memo from accounts.
27:52His claims are to go to Lord Blythe.
27:55Well, you'd better tear that one up, Jill.
27:59No, I'll tear it up for you.
28:05Well, this will be personal, Jill.
28:07Yes, Sir John.
28:13Hello, Keith.
28:15I want you to buy until I tell you to stop.
28:19Buy Development Limited Ordinaries at best.
28:25No, no, no.
28:26Not in my name.
28:28Buy them in the name of Don Henderson.
28:31Hmm.
28:34Well, you can tip off who you like once you've got that lot at bottom.
28:38Hmm.
28:40Bye.
28:48Lincoln.
28:49Yes, Sir John.
28:50Will you dig out all the figures on our trade dealings with Albania before the Corfu Channel incident?
28:58I'm going out to lunch.
29:00Will you see that they're on my desk by the time I get back?
29:03When I take that off today.
29:06After all, I'll take that off.
29:06I'll take that off.
29:06Let me take that off.
29:11We'll take that off.
29:15I'll take that off.
29:16And stop right now.
29:27And then you're not going to take off of me.
29:37Dieting or snacking?
29:40I'm leaving room for tonight.
29:42I always do, John, now, when I dine in Downing Street.
29:45Is it a state occasion, or are the two of you charting our road to ruin?
29:51Apposite you should mention a road.
29:53What do you know about Albania, John?
29:56I have a dossier about it on my desk at the moment.
29:58Hmm, obviously, we're on to the same whisper, then.
30:01I don't know. You get whispered to so much more often than I do.
30:05Of course, my hearing is better.
30:06I take it that you have had access to a dossier, too.
30:10Well, mine, Candles, is the possibility of a consortium,
30:13led by Beaudley & Sons, the Millington Combine, and Feesby Enterprises.
30:18So does my dossier, I suppose.
30:20Hmm. Tell me, John, which of them do you think is the initiator?
30:24Feesby? No.
30:25And Combine? No.
30:26Then, um, Beaudley & Sons, we agree.
30:29I don't know if you should admire more,
30:31your social round or your deductive powers.
30:34Hmm.
30:35Well, they can't risk going into Albania without government support,
30:38and that's not forthcoming unless, um,
30:41unless there's a settlement of Albania's death to the United Kingdom.
30:46John, why are you so interested in this, um, little road, Lee?
30:51Yes, you kept it very much to yourself.
30:53It is the inducement monetary, a little rake-off from Beaudley & Sons.
30:55Little rake-offs have never interested me.
30:59Oh, no, indeed.
30:59Well, perhaps you expect a grateful government to give you a peerage like mine.
31:03Ha, ha, ha.
31:04Your peerage is a life peerage,
31:06a thing dead on delivery to be taken to the grave and buried with you.
31:11John, give me your overdue opinion of this Albanian project.
31:15Oh, but you?
31:17I only got my dossier just before lunch.
31:21Yes, well, it's urgent, you know.
31:22If British companies can't be found to build this motorway,
31:25the Albanians could go elsewhere.
31:27What matters is who pays.
31:31If we support a British consortium in red Chinese Albania,
31:37in the end it will be the British taxpayer who pays.
31:41You forget your memorandum to the Foreign Secretary
31:44the day after the Russians marched into Czechoslovakia.
31:47From his silence I'd concluded that the Foreign Secretary had forgotten it too.
31:51Oh, he didn't read it.
31:53You forgot civil service procedure, John.
31:55The memorandum was automatically transferred to me.
31:58That explains the air of incomprehension which has hung over it ever since.
32:03I comprehended it, John.
32:05The Russians don't want a British road in Albania
32:08that Yugoslavia might use military the next time the Kremlin went crazy.
32:13The Americans do, but in the end the road would not go through.
32:16And in return the Russians would be forced to make some concession to Western strategy.
32:25I mean, is that a fair summary of the memorandum?
32:27No, it also indicated the lack of any available Albanian negotiator,
32:33a British consortium,
32:35and a government guarantee against financial loss,
32:39not to mention a forgive-and-forget gesture by Britain
32:41about the Albanian four and a half million.
32:45Well, the Albanian negotiator is now available, John.
32:48His name is Majulik.
32:50By the way, the Home Office would be interested in his passport.
32:54The British consortium we know about.
32:58And as for the government guarantee,
33:03I have already requested it.
33:06I'm sure the Prime Minister will be the first to compliment you.
33:10Before the fish, I'd say.
33:11There's no Minister he likes more than one who takes personal action.
33:14Oh, no.
33:15No Prime Minister he likes more either.
33:18Well, now you can bend your mind to other things, John.
33:22I'll find something in a day or two.
33:30Would you like me to cancel my appointment with Majulik, then?
33:35Do you have one?
33:36Yes. Tomorrow, luncheon, at the Balkan Star.
33:40Let it stand.
33:42I'll apologise to him for your absence.
33:45Should he notice it?
33:47Have you met him?
33:49Have you?
33:49No.
33:51But as they've let him out of Albania to represent them as an attaché in a western capital, Paris,
33:57you know, he may turn out to be a primitive, hard-line Marxist.
34:03They're the easiest.
34:04Pamper their prejudices, that's all.
34:08I'll deal with him, John.
34:25Yes?
34:26Is that you, darling?
34:27Yes, Lord Bly.
34:30What's the matter? Have you got a cold?
34:31No, Lord Bly.
34:33Would you like to have lunch with me today?
34:35I'm free.
34:37Good.
34:37And come up for a drink first.
34:41Well, neither of us know where.
34:45But I'll tell you what, grey roast beef and a bucket of brandy with just the two of you.
34:49He didn't say whether it was just the two of us, nor shall I.
34:54John in?
34:55He asked for you at ten and he asked for you at noon.
34:57The last time he asked for someone twice, the someone was exiled to the Treasury.
35:01Oh.
35:01Then I mustn't keep the ambassador waiting.
35:03Nor I, the minister.
35:08Ah.
35:10I, uh, spent yesterday at Coventry with old Beaudley.
35:13And Birmingham.
35:14With the Combine and then Salford with Enterprises.
35:17Next time things go so well, boast before, not after.
35:20You were in Madrid.
35:22The last fool who said that had heard of the telephone, too.
35:26Yes.
35:27And, uh, the last time I drew a blank on your Prague memorandum, you told me not to take up
35:32your time until I got results.
35:36Oh.
35:38You know, I wouldn't like to push a funicular through those mountains, let alone a motorway.
35:43Oh.
35:43Oh, Russians would cough up before it reaches the foothills.
35:47Forgotten your own strategy.
35:49I don't recall it including Kenneth Bly.
35:52Oh, come on, John.
35:53You warned me that none of the big boys would be so uninformed as to let themselves be used
35:56as bait in Albania.
35:58That's an awful lot of letters to spell Kenneth.
36:00Or to hide a helping hand.
36:03They worry off as a helping hand needs one.
36:06But Beaudle and the others, they'll come in now.
36:09You wrote them in when you signed my expenses.
36:12Are you in a hurry for those expenses, Don?
36:15No.
36:16But as they're waiting, why should I let them depreciate?
36:19Well, they're planted.
36:20Just let them grow.
36:21They're what?
36:23Are you so short of a hundred quid that you can't drag your mind off the subject?
36:28My mind wasn't on the subject.
36:30But if it comes to that, John, yes, I am likely to be a little short.
36:33I mean, I've been entertaining all over England, and there's today's little frolic with
36:37Mount Julik to come.
36:39Kenneth told you.
36:41I'm host, again.
36:42Your guest.
36:43Kenneth Shearing, of course.
36:46A julik's guest.
36:47I'm not.
36:49But you go along.
36:50Play host.
36:53And telephone me immediately that Caswell louses up the whole deal.
36:58Caswell?
36:59Yes, Caswell.
37:02How did he get onto it?
37:04How good.
37:06How indeed.
37:32Hello, Bly.
37:34Hello, Beautly.
37:37Ah, hello, Jim. May I introduce Sir James Beaudley, Lincoln Dowling?
37:42How do you know? Is Sir John not coming?
37:44I've been asked to sit in for him.
37:47By you.
37:49Uh, will you, uh...
37:52A drink?
37:53A whiskey.
37:54And a large one for me, too, please.
37:57Uh, now look, Jim, I'll come straight to the point.
38:01Uh, you know, I can't give you or Feesby or anyone a firm promise of government support,
38:08but I can guarantee that it's out of the question if you want to carry sprats.
38:12Gentlemen, may I present our guest of honour?
38:16Ah, Mr. Mayulik.
38:20You're not him, he's the interpreter.
38:23Would you say that, um, I am Lord Bly?
38:26I am Lord Bly.
38:31And what, what did all that mean?
38:32I tell the negotiator you are very happy to meet him.
38:35Oh, yes, of course.
38:40He says he does not know you.
38:47Mr. Mayulik is unaccustomed to your system.
38:53He asks if you are Sir Lord Bly.
38:55Just Lord Bly.
39:00You see the joke.
39:02Who asked Sir John Wilder?
39:04He asks where Sir John Wilder.
39:06Perhaps you'd better say you're here a second stream.
39:09Will you say that I'm the relevant minister and that I'd like him to meet Sir James Beaudley?
39:13I asked Minister Percatus.
39:15Sir James, this is, uh, this is Mr. Mayulik.
39:19Sir James Beaudley.
39:20How do you do?
39:23I asked, I, uh, Sir James Beaudley.
39:26Beaudley's son in Coventry?
39:27It is asked if Sir James Beaudley is of Beaudley and sons of Coventry.
39:31Tell him he's Beaudley and there are no sons present here today.
39:35They're all in Coventry.
39:37Ha, ha, ha, ha!
39:40Ha, ha, ha, ha!
39:43We have been to the country!
39:47There can be no discussion in front of representatives of private capital!
39:51But Budely's is a public company.
39:55Would you say that that's quite understood?
39:58What?
39:59Don't worry, don't worry, Jim. You go out.
40:01Wait.
40:04No, I'm staying.
40:06We did anticipate this, Sir James.
40:07It's merely protocol.
40:08When the representatives of states have agreed, you'll be called back in
40:11as an instrument of state.
40:13That went out even in Russia 15 years ago.
40:15Well, you're only asked to go out for about 10 minutes, sir.
40:19Thank you very much.
40:20Oh, will you have an aperitif?
40:23No, just sit him in front of a bottle of Schlivovitz
40:24and take it as natural that he drinks without invitation.
40:27You've never been to Albania.
40:28Have the brains to leave it to people who have.
40:32Get out!
40:34Get stuffed!
40:35Gentlemen, may I suggest that we all sit down and discuss...
40:41...negotiated to make it clear he could return to Paris immediately.
40:44Whether he goes or stays depends on what you propose.
41:10Is it an agreement between governments or are contracts to be made with private companies?
41:15Uh...
41:16Between governments, naturally.
41:18You bloody old fool!
41:20At least or not?
41:21Que veriva?
41:22Hmm?
41:23C'est tout naturaliste.
41:24Negotiator asks why you say naturally.
41:26When in Rome...
41:30...
41:32...
41:33...
41:34...
41:36...
41:38...
41:39...
41:39...
41:40...
41:40...
41:40...
41:40...
41:41...
41:42...
41:42The negotiator indicates that we're in London and that he had great inconvenience getting here.
41:49Assure him that I know where we are in an area of compromise between ideologies.
41:56He's not permitted to compromise, but I am.
42:01There will be no agent's fees and no form of commission to any individuals.
42:22The negotiator says that you have accurately reflected St. Marx's theory.
42:25The negotiator says that you have accurately reflected St. Marx's theory.
42:43Hang on, I'll come with you.
42:44Yes, I would too, Kenneth, but I have a call to make.
42:54May I conclude the negotiator's remarks?
42:56Yes.
42:56They are that he did not expect to encounter Marx's theory from the representative of a capitalist government.
43:03He thanks you for the extension of your hospitality, but elects to eat elsewhere.
43:09I'm afraid he regards our talks as concluded, Lord Bly.
43:12May I.
43:12May I.
43:25Is the purchaser's name on all these Mr. Henderson's?
43:30Yes.
43:31Have your nominee foreign, buy them from Mr. Henderson within the account.
43:36In fact, this afternoon.
43:37The price won't move before tomorrow morning.
43:40Your nominee then can take his certificates to Switzerland.
43:46As soon as the price has risen probably by six shillings and he feels that they are at the top,
43:52he should dispose of a fractional proportion and remit the proceeds in cash to Mr. Henderson.
43:58Yes.
43:59That would obviate capital gains tax.
44:03The remainder of the holding is to be transferred to a numbered account in Geneva
44:08and only realised on the principle of a numbered account.
44:12In your name, of course.
44:13Not in my name, of course.
44:16For a Swiss banker, you ask a British amount of questions.
44:21Who shall I advise as to the number?
44:25I shall advise the beneficiary as to the number.
44:29What is it?
44:34Yes?
44:35John, will you come up, please?
44:38Is it about Albania?
44:41Yes.
44:42Then you come down here, Caswell.
44:45This is the number.
44:51Dinner on Wednesday then.
44:53And good afternoon now.
44:54Good afternoon.
45:02He won't come down.
45:04He went too far on that one. I know him.
45:06No, Kenneth. You merely hate him.
45:10And you don't?
45:12Not enough to finish him off in front of you.
45:15Dinner on Tuesday?
45:17You want me out too?
45:18Yes.
45:19Well, just one thing, John. If, as you say, I bought all those shares yesterday,
45:22do you want a cheque from me for your broker?
45:26Haven't you been with me long enough, Don, to realise
45:28that to buy and sell within the account will cover all your expenses
45:33and Kenneth's ten times over?
45:38Well, the banker gets dinner. Kenneth gets dinner, don't I?
45:41How about tomorrow?
45:43No, I shall be dining with Dowling tomorrow.
45:46Who?
45:47He wants to make his peace, too.
45:55Hell.
46:06Well, what are you going to tell the Prime Minister?
46:09It isn't often he gets the chance
46:12to have dined two times in a row with the same Minister.
46:15He must have had his appetite thoroughly whetted last night.
46:20You even have spies in Downing Street?
46:23No.
46:24No, only here.
46:26You're on your own, Caswell.
46:28Except for me.
46:30So, will you tell the Prime Minister Knight
46:33that you find the negotiations unexpectedly complicated
46:36because of standard practice
46:39and have handed them back to the initiator?
46:42You?
46:43No.
46:44Henderson.
46:48Standard practice.
46:50Hmm?
46:52Standard practice.
46:52You said standard practice.
46:54What standard practice?
46:57Ask yourself why the Albanians have tacked themselves onto Peking.
47:03Because it's ludicrous.
47:05Because they're five and a half thousand miles away from Peking.
47:09And only a few yards away from Moscow's nearest puppets.
47:14Which means that their communism is no different from any other of their systems of government.
47:21It's just something to make the peasants suffer.
47:25And the rake-off is, was and always was something for the rulers.
47:33Nothing has changed.
47:35A king has gone.
47:37But it's only a few more people than usual are enjoying his throne.
47:42And the reward for people in positions of state hasn't changed either.
47:49Majulik wanted a bribe.
47:52An honourable, unexceptionable bribe.
47:56Not Marxist practice.
47:59Standard practice.
48:01As if you forget, John, that all your plotting with Albania will be so much hot air
48:06until they pay back the four and a half million.
48:10Taken care of, Caswell.
48:11But how? They haven't any money.
48:13Their friends have.
48:14Well, they haven't any friends except the Chinese.
48:16And they're hardly likely to pay back four and a half million.
48:19Even in yen.
48:20Don't be so sure.
48:22No, no. It's unthinkable.
48:24No, the Chinese will jump at any chance of investing in anything which will sock the Russians.
48:30You don't usually dabble in miracles, John.
48:34Henderson contacted the Albanians in Paris, where the Chinese are welcome.
48:41I think you ought to see this. It's pretty relevant.
48:45Really?
48:46He's been seeing a lot of the Chinese in Paris.
48:49The same Chinese who have been sounding out our people about a possible Albanian settlement and a British road there.
48:57So this whole idea was not initiated by us?
49:00No.
49:01Henderson was nobbled by the Chinese, not they by him.
49:04He is, of course, an amateur.
49:06It'll take him years to get used to the ways of diplomacy.
49:09This could be said about you, John.
49:14Don't gloat, Caswell.
49:18You can't kill the whole project just as simply as that.
49:22What do you think, darling?
49:24Well, as it's the Chinese who are making the running, we're naturally suspicious.
49:28They may genuinely want to use us to keep the Balkans safe from Russia.
49:32Equally, they may want to sour relations between us and America.
49:35Which a settlement in yen would certainly do.
49:41Thank you, darling.
49:50You should have taken Dowling into your confidence before you let Henderson and my son waste their money.
50:05Keep going.
50:34Even a situação, people Nevertheless, no matter what they want, you're listening to, Brandon Hill.
50:35Oh, my God.
51:05Oh, my God.
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