S3E8 "Standard Practice". Colour version. Fascinating political drama series with a splendid cast. Businessman and politician sir John Wilder, after becoming ambassador and special envoy for special situations and trade, pursues his tangled schemes, despite many adversaries (the original name of the series was "Special Envoy''). This is series 3 of this sequel to "The Plane Makers". Starring Patrick Wymark, Barbara Murray, Michael Jayston, Clifford Evans, Peter Barkworth, Donald Burton, David Savile, Richard Hurndall, Jack Watling, Deborah Grant, Barrie Ingham. Written by Peter Draper, Wilfred Greatorex.
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00:30© BF-WATCH TV 2021
01:00© BF-WATCH TV 2021
01:30© BF-WATCH TV 2021
02:00© BF-WATCH TV 2021
02:22Mail bills.
02:26Tell the musician he can go.
02:30© BF-WATCH TV 2021
02:38£154, 16 shillings and ninepence.
02:45Reasonable.
02:49Let's call it £180 with the tip.
02:55I'll give you a cheque for...
02:58...£90, then.
03:01He'll give me a cheque for £115.
03:07The home comforts.
03:15I didn't see her making herself up at the table.
03:18How did she come to leave her lipstick?
03:23I always do.
03:25So they can ring back from where they're taken.
03:28Ask about what they've left and give a number.
03:32Should it be found.
03:34I see.
03:38Why?
03:41Future reference.
03:48Awful little losers.
03:52Standard practice.
03:56Er, got a clip.
04:00Have you no clips of your own?
04:02No, darling.
04:04I've no intention of filling in civil service forms to get any.
04:08Takes but a moment.
04:10And subservience.
04:12It would take but a moment for you to go to Sir John's room
04:16instead of throwing through my room.
04:18Think 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.
04:30Neither here nor there in this department.
04:33Oh, is that what yours are?
04:35Here as Sir John's private secretary one moment,
04:38and there, informing on him to Lord Bly the next.
04:41Lord Bly, as it happens, has asked me to inform,
04:44but not on Sir John. You.
04:46What, he wants to know, are you doing in this department?
04:50Patience, pussy. Patience.
04:59Ah. He's in Madrid for another day, then.
05:02Sir John? Yes. How did you hear?
05:05Well, you putting letters on his desk and then sitting on it.
05:08Which is a nicer sight than the usual indication of his absence,
05:11dowling, sitting in his chair.
05:13Is that immediate attention stuff?
05:15I'll put this on top, will you?
05:17No, no, no, on top.
05:19It is on top.
05:21Till you plonk something else on it.
05:23I've finished plonking.
05:25I wasn't leaving them on his desk, knowing how he feels about clutter.
05:28Um, Jill?
05:30Look, uh, I'll be out of town tomorrow,
05:33so see that he puts that through fastish.
05:35Expenses?
05:37Not having seen it, how did you know?
05:39You open the door for me.
05:49Thank you.
05:56Your supplies, please.
05:58Out of clips, too?
06:00This is Sir John Wilder's private secretary.
06:02Could you send up a key for the door between rooms 617 and 619, please?
06:08I shouldn't ask for one if one were in the lock, should I?
06:11The forms will be here when the key comes.
06:19How many forms for a plug of dynamite?
06:37Oh, Jill, would you get me the file on Catalonia Irrigation, please?
06:41It's in front of you, towards the bottom.
06:43Lord Bly would like it.
06:45Did you get it for him or for Sir John?
06:47I'll tell him it's upstairs with Lord Bly.
06:50Lord 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.
07:01I do believe the old gentleman would let you sit on his desk.
07:08Sense I should ask you something.
07:10Should it be what is the matter?
07:12Too many people are opening doors for me.
07:14Just follow your nose. You won't come to any harm.
07:28Where?
07:29I left it on top.
07:31No.
07:32Yes. Mr Darling also left a thing or two.
07:34It'll be a bit down now, I suppose.
07:36I think you'll find it'll be a bit up now, Jill.
07:39How much was it for?
07:41I didn't look, but as he's in a hurry...
07:43I didn't look, Sir John.
07:45Do you know all his appointments?
07:47Only as much as I know yours, which is not all of them.
07:50And he didn't say where he'd be out of town today?
07:52No, nor when he'd be back.
07:54Shall I ring round on the off chance?
07:56He'll be in tomorrow if he's waiting on heavy expenses.
07:59Good morning, Sir John. I didn't know you were here.
08:02You come straight from the airport?
08:04Yes.
08:05Good morning.
08:06Lost something, Jill?
08:07Yes, something left...
08:09Don't worry. It will turn up very soon.
08:12I was going to leave this for you. Lord 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.
08:21As I said, very soon.
08:26Go to hell!
08:28That's what I suggest.
08:29You send Henderson.
08:31I'm not dismissing him and I'm not letting you.
08:34It's the Prime Minister who wants his head.
08:37Has he heard of Henderson?
08:39Heard what?
08:40Of his existence.
08:42Is that what you tattle about on your stately visit to Downing Street?
08:46Henderson?
08:47Oh, you can see that where affairs...
08:50Where affairs of state are concerned, Henderson is a person of insignificance.
08:53He won't be missed.
08:55I can see that he is unlikely to engage the Prime Minister's interest.
09:00Whatever does.
09:01On that score, none of the staff would be missed.
09:05Not even your...
09:06Oh, no, I'm sorry.
09:08My private secretary.
09:10Downing Street requires Whitehall to show willing, John.
09:14The civil service must cut expenditure.
09:18The Prime Minister has 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.
09:29No, save your tibble for your foreign salesman.
09:32That's the only tax concession which is allowed on entertainments nowadays.
09:37Then I hope Henderson's dinner guests last Tuesday were foreign.
09:42Very foreign.
09:43230 pounds worth foreign.
09:47That's the expense claim.
09:48His expense claims come to me, and so they should.
09:51Well, you were away. He must have been impatient.
09:54You know, I always thought that you were too lenient with him, John,
09:57and today's little sample is rarely disturbing.
10:00Today's is pennies.
10:02Pennies for what?
10:03For whatever it says.
10:05Well, it says, for entertaining, nothing more.
10:08Only the bill itself tells me the number of people entertained.
10:11Ten.
10:12Ten into 230 goes 23 times.
10:15I have spent more, and you have tried.
10:18I'm a minister. You're an ambassador.
10:20Henderson is neither.
10:22Indeed, according to our permanent civil servant, it's difficult to say what he is here.
10:26That's why he's so often able to do things for me that they can't here.
10:31Oh.
10:33So he entertained these people for you.
10:35Who the hell else?
10:36You can tell me who they were, and why they were.
10:39And, as usual, the result in my monthly report.
10:42I'm your minister.
10:44Then stop behaving like a Tupney-Hapney accountant.
10:49You are ignorant of this claim, John.
10:52So incompetently ignorant that you don't even know that Henderson is only claiming a half.
10:57And obviously he didn't have the guts to go the whole hog, so he's claiming only 115 pounds.
11:01And then, to explain the incomprehensible fact that the bill is more, much more, he adds, and I quote,
11:06balance met by private source.
11:14What are you complaining about?
11:16The department's quits-in.
11:21I'm complaining, John,
11:24about a man who, um,
11:27who adds, uh,
11:3050 pounds onto an expense claim,
11:34and, um, you know, I quote,
11:37added expenses, 50 pounds.
11:40Uh, and here, in a place where, you know, you have to
11:45fill in five or six forms to get a ninepenny ballpoint.
11:51This is a ninepenny one.
11:53What do you want, Caswell, really?
11:56His head, mine, or both?
12:00Or do you want advance warning of what I've asked him to do for me,
12:03so if the results look like being good,
12:06you can tell the prime minister you've told me to do it for you?
12:10This claim, John, what are you going to do about this claim?
12:15I'm going to frank it for payment.
12:17As a birthday present?
12:21Oh, last Tuesday was his birthday.
12:24Wednesday was mine.
12:28On happier days, I agreed with him.
12:30It was the one thing that he'd always be ahead of me.
12:36Don't go, John.
12:40I don't like sick rooms.
12:43This has become one.
12:46I'm instructing accounts to refuse all claims made by Henderson
12:50unless endorsed by me.
12:52And, uh, as for that claim, I'll endorse it
12:55only when I know the identity of the private source.
12:59And I'm satisfied that Henderson shared the expense on official duty.
13:06Yes?
13:07Mr. Kenneth Bly is here, Lord Bruce.
13:10Yes.
13:11Mr. Kenneth Bly is here, Lord Bly.
13:13Who?
13:14Your son, Lord Bly.
13:19My son?
13:22Why is he here?
13:24Shall I say you are engaged at present?
13:28Um...
13:30Please ask him to wait.
13:33Oh, I...
13:35Don't hear from him for two years
13:38and then he presents himself like the prodigal son.
13:46For nerve, he and your Henderson would be hard to tell apart.
13:50They already are.
13:52Hmm?
13:54Anybody you go for as you are going for Henderson
13:58is today's substitute for Kenneth
14:00because at the green age of 36
14:04he got off his bended knees, kicked you in the parental pants
14:07and went his own way.
14:10Stay out of my domestic affairs, John.
14:13You haven't had any for two years.
14:16That's your trouble.
14:17No son to boot around the nursery
14:19and in search of one you've wandered into second childhood.
14:23Much good did it do Ken to go, much good.
14:27So you hope.
14:29You have to.
14:30To see him standing on his own two feet would knock you off your own.
14:39John!
14:44John.
14:50Yes, Lord Bly?
14:52Uh...
14:53Yes, Lord Bly?
14:54Uh...
14:56Send my son in.
14:58He's gone, Lord Bly.
15:07Can you see this person, Sir John? He hasn't an appointment.
15:11He's outside.
15:13He wouldn't say his business only that he was here as a private source.
15:23Ah...
15:34I have one telephone call to make, Kenneth.
15:37I'll give you two minutes, John.
15:40That's one more than I just gave Father.
15:44PHONE RINGS
15:54PHONE RINGS
16:10PHONE RINGS
16:15Hello?
16:16Good morning. I believe you specialise in Balkan dishes.
16:19Yes, but only at night.
16:22In the day we sleep, particularly in the morning.
16:26I... I may want to entertain a Yugoslav diplomat.
16:30A Yugoslav diplomat would not be entertained here.
16:34Merely politically insulted.
16:37Why, you are Bulgarian.
16:39Worse, Albanian.
16:42At least the dishes are.
16:45Thank you.
16:53DOOR OPENS
17:01Come along.
17:05Well, well, well.
17:07Very nice.
17:12Er...
17:14No, no, no, thank you.
17:16I stopped morning drinking, ooh, six months ago.
17:20I didn't.
17:22And you look remarkably undeteriorated after all these years.
17:26Was your concern health, morality or economy?
17:29Is 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.
17:38How could he get an impression to spread, then?
17:41Well, he wouldn't receive me just now, so he must be sure I need help.
17:46He'd help you like a shot, Kenneth. He always did.
17:49Provided I asked for it while licking his boots.
17:52I always find it difficult to articulate in that posture.
17:55Then articulate about the Albanians.
17:59Hmm?
18:01Tuesday's Albanians.
18:03Henderson's told you?
18:05Should he not have done?
18:07No, well, I mean, he's out of town today and you were yesterday.
18:11He habitually leaves reports.
18:13Not if they excite your private secretary.
18:16This time he risked leaving an expense claim.
18:19I've only just got back.
18:21Oh, 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 you do.
18:29Besides, the subject is Albanian.
18:32And they want to buy British.
18:34And the British won't sell to them.
18:36I'm sorry?
18:38We have no trade, no relations with Albania.
18:41Nor will we have till an important debt is settled.
18:44Four and a half million pounds,
18:46awarded by the International Court of the Hague
18:49about the sinking of a British destroyer.
18:51In the Corfu Channel in 1946?
18:54I'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?
19:07I'm still in business, John, making roads.
19:09Yeah.
19:10As I see, off the wagon again.
19:13And 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.
19:22Well, they'll look up when you pass Henderson's claim.
19:25When will things look up for me?
19:30Um...
19:31When the Prime Minister notices
19:33that, acting upon your own initiative and not Father's,
19:36you've enabled Britain and Albania
19:38to get over their sulks and talk to each other.
19:41Departmentally, the initiative was Henderson's, wasn't it?
19:44And externally, mine.
19:46But, as Father used to say,
19:48in business, whenever he took the boardroom applause
19:51for what you'd done,
19:53to endorse the initiative of a subordinate is to exceed it,
19:57because it's to act from a larger responsibility.
20:01So, endorse Henderson's claim
20:03and you'll get more out of it than he will.
20:06Shadow what you'd get
20:08if your father, my minister, sniffed a fiddle?
20:11Nothing from the government,
20:13should your road reach a dead end,
20:15granted that it ever started.
20:17What?
20:18You have a small, broken-down company,
20:22which could handle maybe the verges on a footpath
20:26from a backyard door to an outside loo.
20:30The Albanians want roads.
20:33So, you have to swing in bigger men, a consortium.
20:36Now, what big British company is going to risk money in Albania?
20:40What government is going to allow them
20:42till that four and a half million is paid?
20:45What's more,
20:47while Albania follows the red Chinese line,
20:50they are out, not only with us,
20:52but both sides of European communism.
20:55Any day, Russia may decide to squash them.
20:58And what better excuse
21:00than that the West were building military roads out there?
21:04So, if you want a British company
21:07to join you in your desperation flutter,
21:09you've got to get me to get the government
21:11to underwrite you against financial loss.
21:14Can't you?
21:15No.
21:16From this nook in Whitehall,
21:18only your father can.
21:21Of course, I could go straight to the Foreign Secretary
21:24and tell him about this piddling highway.
21:26Piddling?
21:27Piddling!
21:28Population of Albania is one and a half million,
21:31scratching a living at subsistence level.
21:34And do you think your father
21:36would risk a business gamble in Albania,
21:39not to say with you?
21:41I thought you'd gathered
21:43that it suits us both to keep him right out of it.
21:45And I thought you'd gathered
21:47that he can't be kept out of it
21:49if you want government backing.
21:51You've expressed necessity, Admiral Blip.
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,
21:59and then you can say this to the government.
22:02My father cannot express a ministerial opinion
22:05on an enterprise in which his own son
22:08is privately engaged,
22:09so he's left the matter entirely to you.
22:12Your father would say,
22:14having exercised his renowned impartiality of judgment,
22:17that he decided that his own and only son's company
22:22was too small, too unsuccessful,
22:25too badly managed to take part
22:27in so difficult an enterprise.
22:29So he persuaded the consortium to drop him.
22:32And so he would do
22:34if you wouldn't lick his boots,
22:36as you were brought up to do.
22:38Would you lick his boots again, Kenneth?
22:41I prefer to stuff this down his throat.
22:43See, I'm the private source.
22:45I spent money. Henderson would testify.
22:47The external initiative was mine.
22:50It's £115, Kenneth.
22:52He'd see that you were restituted
22:54with one flick of a knife and he'd ballpoint.
22:56It is three months of travel, negotiation, risk.
23:02And, and, with the encouragement of this department,
23:05because a member of it, Henderson,
23:06spent state money while I spent private.
23:09Henderson spent his own money,
23:11unless I put this through.
23:12But that's the point, John.
23:16We both thought you'd have signed it by now.
23:18Signed in ignorance.
23:19You were in Spain.
23:20That's ignorance.
23:22Oh.
23:24You don't trust Henderson.
23:26You caught father's mania.
23:27Nothing 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
23:37that you're no longer his son?
23:39Trusting him never paid.
23:40Why should trusting you...
23:41Because I thought you'd put that through already.
23:43I called on him this morning. Do you believe that?
23:44Yes.
23:45It was to tell him that I'd done him in the eye
23:46and there was nothing he could do about it.
23:48I trust you were mixing business with pleasure.
23:53Well, as it happened,
23:54I was able to mix nothing with anything.
23:56He wouldn't see me.
23:58Well, don't worry, Kenneth.
24:00Henderson will get his expenses.
24:05Uh...
24:11When will you see the Board of Trade about my guarantees?
24:14Hardly today.
24:15I haven't met the Albanians yet.
24:18Indeed, if they exist,
24:20when can you arrange that for me?
24:22Henderson's fixed you up an appointment tomorrow.
24:25Before you go,
24:26arranging things for me before I request them,
24:29young Kenneth, understand this.
24:33I don't want you going up to your father
24:35and knocking him about.
24:38Do you still share the same doctrine?
24:40Why?
24:42When a man of Caswell's age
24:44starts to fade in a position of power,
24:47he begins to expose a very quick flashpoint.
24:50I should find out how quick that flashpoint is
24:53before you provoke him.
24:54I think it's so quick
24:56that it might go up
24:57before he stops to think.
25:00I don't believe you.
25:01You fail to sound delighted.
25:03It doesn't suit me to have a fading minister
25:06liable to blow up at any minute
25:07and blowing me up with him
25:10just because his son is being cheeky.
25:18Here.
25:30Give that to my personal assistant on your way out.
25:34Good.
25:36Cheers.
25:43Walk and start tomorrow then.
25:44Lunch.
25:45Who's the negotiator?
25:47His name's Migulik.
25:48How did he get here?
25:50Watching the way most people do.
25:53Immigration won't allow Albanians in,
25:55especially Albanian envoys.
25:57That's news to me.
25:58Better ask him yourself.
26:00I do have a dossier on him.
26:03Bacon.
26:04Yes, Sir John?
26:05What do you know about a man called Migulik?
26:08He's the Albanian commercial attaché in Paris.
26:12How did he get into Britain then?
26:14I can only think the name on his passport
26:16suggests someone else.
26:18Do you want him chucked out?
26:19Oh, no.
26:20No, anything but, Lincoln.
26:24I've heard a lot about Darling.
26:26And if he mentions this to Father and you don't,
26:28Father will know what it's about.
26:30And he could, as you said,
26:31find it too much for his flashpoint.
26:34Because despite what you said
26:35about the piddling population,
26:38you know what's in this politically
26:40for whoever brings it off.
26:43You do Darling an injustice.
26:47He is, in some ways,
26:48my most valuable instrument here.
26:53Good morning.
26:56Good morning.
27:17Get me Foster, Cortlandt and Rebold.
27:21Yes, they're stockbrokers.
27:23I want a Mr. Keith Hollins
27:25and only Mr. Hollins.
27:28If he's engaged, hang on for him.
27:34Mr. Kenneth Bly said you wanted this.
27:37Yes?
27:38Mr. Henderson's claims, Sir John.
27:40I've had a formal memo from accounts.
27:42His claims are to go to Lord Bly.
27:46Well, you'd better tear that one up, Jill.
27:50No, I'll tear it up for you.
27:57Mr. Bly,
27:59I'm sorry,
28:01but I can't do it.
28:03I can't do it.
28:05Well, this will be personal, Jill.
28:07Yes, Sir John.
28:13Hello, Keith.
28:16I want you to buy until I tell you to stop.
28:19Bly Development Limited Ordinaries at their best.
28:25No, no, no.
28:26Not in my name.
28:28Buy them in the name of Don Henderson.
28:30Henderson.
28:34Well, you can tip off who you like
28:36once you've got that lot at bottom.
28:40Bye.
28:48Lincoln.
28:49Yes, Sir John.
28:50Will you dig out all the figures
28:52on our trade dealings with Albania
28:55before the Corfu Channel incident?
28:57I'm going out to lunch.
28:59Will you see that they're on my desk by the time I get back?
29:28Dieting or snacking?
29:32I'm leaving room for the night.
29:34I always do, John, now, when I dine in Downing Street.
29:37Is it a state occasion,
29:38or are the two of you charting our road to ruin?
29:42Apposite, you should mention a road.
29:44What do you know about Albania, John?
29:47I have a daughter,
29:48and I have a son,
29:49and I have a son,
29:50and I have a son,
29:51and I have a son,
29:52and I have a son,
29:53and I have a son,
29:54and I have a son,
29:55and I have a son,
29:56I have a dossier about it on my desk at the moment.
29:59Modesty me,
30:00onto the same whisk, then.
30:02I don't know,
30:03you get whispered to so much more often than I do.
30:05fragrance...
30:06My hearing is better.
30:07I take it that you have had access to a dossier, too.
30:10Well, mine canvasses the possibility
30:12of a consortium
30:13led by Buddley & Sons,
30:15the Millington Combine,
30:16and Feesby Enterprises.
30:18So does my dossier, I suppose.
30:21Tell me, John,
30:22which of them do you think is the initiator,
30:24Feesby?
30:25No.
30:26And the Combine?
30:27No.
30:28Then, um, Beaudley and Sons, we agree.
30:30I don't know, sir, my amour, your social round or your deductive powers.
30:34Hmm.
30:35Well, they can't risk going into Albania without government support, and that's not forthcoming
30:39unless, um, unless there's a settlement of Albania's debt to the United Kingdom.
30:44John, why are you so interested in this, um, little rogue me?
30:51Yes, you kept it very much to yourself.
30:53Is the inducement monetary, a little rake-off from Beaudley and Sons?
30:56Little rake-offs have never interested me.
30:59Ah, no, indeed.
31:00Well, perhaps you expect a grateful government to give you a peerage like mine.
31:04Ha, ha, ha.
31:05Your peerage is a life peerage, a thing dead on delivery to be taken to the grave and buried
31:09with you.
31:11John, give me your overdue opinion of this, uh, Albanian project.
31:16Overdue?
31:17I only got my dossier just before lunch.
31:20Yes.
31:21Well, it's urgent.
31:22You know, if British companies can't be found to build this motorway, the Albanians could
31:26go elsewhere.
31:27Now, what matters is who pays.
31:32If we support a British consortium in Red Chinese Albania, in the end, it will be the
31:38British taxpayer who pays.
31:42You forget your memorandum to the Foreign Secretary the day after the Russians marched
31:46into Czechoslovakia.
31:48From 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.
31:59That explains the air of incomprehension which has hung over it ever since.
32:04I comprehended it, John.
32:06The Russians don't want a British road in Albania that Yugoslavia might use militarily
32:10the 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.
32:24I mean, is that a fair summary of the memorandum?
32:28It also indicated the lack of any available Albanian negotiator, a British consortium,
32:36and a government guarantee against financial loss.
32:39Not to mention a forgive and forget gesture by Britain about the Albanian four and a half
32:44million.
32:45Well, the Albanian negotiator is now available, John.
32:48His name is Majulik.
32:49And by the way, the Home Office would be interested in his passport.
32:55The British consortium, we know about.
32:58And as for the government guarantee, I 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.
33:12There's no minister he likes more than one who takes personal action.
33:15Oh, no.
33:16No 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.
33:37Tomorrow, luncheon at the Balkan Star.
33:41Let it stand.
33:43I'll apologise to him for your absence.
33:46Should he notice it.
33:47Have you met him?
33:49Have you?
33:50No.
33:51But as they've let him out of Albania to represent them as a attaché in a Western capital, Paris,
33:57you know he may turn out to be a primitive, hardline Marxist.
34:03They're the easiest.
34:05Pamper their prejudices, that's all.
34:08I'll deal with him, John.
34:25Yes?
34:26Is that you, darling?
34:28Yes, Lord Bly.
34:29Well, what's the matter with you?
34:30Got a cold?
34:31No, Lord Bly.
34:32Well, you're not going to have lunch with me today.
34:33Yeah, I'm free.
34:34Good.
34:35I'm free.
34:37Good. And come up for a drink first.
34:39Thank you.
34:41Well.
34:43Neither of us know where.
34:45But I tell you what.
34:47Grey roast beef and a bucket of brandy was just the two of you.
34:49He didn't say whether it was just the two of us.
34:51Nor shall I.
34:53John Innes.
34:55He asked for you at ten and he asked for you at noon.
34:57The last time he asked for someone twice
34:59the someone was exiled to the treasury.
35:01Then I mustn't keep the ambassador waiting.
35:03Nor I the minister.
35:09Ah.
35:11I spent yesterday at Coventry with old Bewdley
35:13and Birmingham...
35:15With the Combine and then Salford with Enterprises.
35:17Next time things go so well
35:19boast before not after.
35:21You were in Madrid.
35:23The last fool who said that had heard of the telephone too.
35:25Yes.
35:27And the last time
35:29I drew a blank on your Prague memorandum
35:31you told me not to take up your time
35:33until I got results.
35:35Oh.
35:37You know I
35:39wouldn't like to push a funicular
35:41through those mountains let alone a motorway.
35:43Oh. Russians would cough up
35:45before it reaches the foothills.
35:47Forgotten your own strategy.
35:49I don't record it including Kenneth Bly.
35:51Oh come on John.
35:53You warned me that none of the big boys would be so
35:55uninformed as to let themselves be used as bait in Albania.
35:57That's an awful lot of letters
35:59to spell Kenneth
36:01or to hide a helping hand.
36:03They worry off as a helping hand needs one.
36:05Bewdley and the others
36:07they'll come in now.
36:09You wrote them in when you signed my expenses.
36:11Are you in a hurry
36:13for those expenses John?
36:15No. But as they're waiting
36:17why should I let them depreciate?
36:19Well they're planted. Just let them grow.
36:21They're what?
36:23Are you so short of a hundred
36:25quid that you can't drag your mind off the subject?
36:27I did. My mind wasn't on the subject.
36:29But if it comes to that
36:31John yes I am likely to be a little short.
36:33I mean I've been entertaining all over England
36:35and there's today's little frolic
36:37with Macdulic to come.
36:39Kenneth told you.
36:41I'm host again. Your guest.
36:43Kenneth Shearing of course.
36:45Macdulic's guest.
36:47I'm not.
36:49But you go along.
36:51Play host.
36:53And telephone me
36:55immediately that Caswell louses up a whole deal.
36:57Caswell?
36:59Yes Caswell.
37:01How
37:03did he get on to it?
37:05How indeed.
37:25Hello Bly.
37:27Hello Bewdley.
37:29Caswell.
37:31Hello Jim.
37:33May I introduce Sir James Bewdley
37:35Lincoln Dowling.
37:37It's Sir John not coming.
37:39I've been asked to sit in for him.
37:41Thank you.
37:43Will you
37:45stand.
37:47A drink.
37:49A large one please.
37:51Thank you.
37:53A whistle.
37:55And a large one for me too please.
37:57Now look Jim
37:59I'll come straight to the point.
38:01You know
38:03I can't give you or Feesby or anyone
38:05a firm promise of
38:07government support but I can guarantee
38:09that it's out of the question if you want to
38:11carry sprats.
38:13Gentlemen may I present our guest of honour.
38:15Ah.
38:17Mr Mayuric.
38:19You're not him.
38:21He's the interpreter.
38:23Would you say that
38:25I am Lord Bly.
38:31And what did all that mean?
38:33I told the negotiator you are very happy to meet him.
38:35Oh yes of course.
38:41He says he does not know you.
38:51If Mr Mayuric is unaccustomed to your system
38:53he asks if you are Sir Lord Bly.
38:55Just Lord Bly.
39:01You see the joke.
39:03Who asked Sir John Wilder?
39:05He asks where is Sir John Wilder.
39:07Perhaps you better say you're here a second string.
39:09Will you say that I'm the relevant minister
39:11and that I'd like him to meet Sir James Beaudley.
39:15James this is
39:17this is Mr Mayuric.
39:19How do you do?
39:27It is asked if Sir James Beaudley
39:29is of Beaudley and sons of Coventry.
39:31Tell him he's Beaudley and there are no sons
39:33present here today.
39:35They're all in Coventry.
39:37Ah
39:39Ah
39:43No
39:47There can be no discussion
39:49in front of representatives of private capital.
39:51But Beaudley is a public company.
39:55Will you say that that is quite understood?
39:57What?
39:59Don't worry, don't worry Jim.
40:01You go out and wait.
40:03No I'm staying.
40:05We did anticipate this Sir James.
40:07It's merely protocol.
40:09When the representatives of states have agreed
40:11you'll be called back in as 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
40:1710 minutes sir.
40:19Thank you very much.
40:21Will you have an aperitif?
40:23Just sit him in front of a bottle of Schlivovitz
40:25and take it as natural that he drinks without invitation.
40:27You've never been to Albania.
40:29Have the brains to leave it to people who have.
40:31Get out.
40:33Get stuffed.
40:35Gentlemen may I suggest that we all sit down
40:37and discuss.
40:41Negotiate with him to make it clear
40:43he could return to Paris immediately.
40:49Governments are contracts to be made
40:51with private companies.
40:53Do you understand?
40:55Minister, do you understand?
40:59What was that again?
41:01I said the negotiator wishes to make it clear
41:03that he could return to Paris immediately.
41:05Whether he goes or stays
41:07depends on what you propose.
41:09Is it an agreement between governments
41:11or are contracts to be made with private companies?
41:15Between governments, naturally.
41:17You bloody old fool.
41:23Negotiator asks why you say naturally.
41:27When in Rome
41:29when in Rome
41:43Negotiator indicates that we're in London
41:45and that he had great inconvenience getting here.
41:49Assure him that I know where we are
41:51in an area of compromise
41:53between ideologies.
41:55He's not permitted to compromise
41:57but I am.
42:01There will be
42:03no agent's fees
42:05and
42:07no form of commission
42:09to any individuals.
42:27Negotiator says that you have accurately reflected
42:29Saint-Marx's theory.
42:43Hang on, I'll come with you.
42:45Yes, I would too, Kenneth, but I have a call to make.
42:53May I conclude the negotiator's remarks?
42:55They are that he did not expect to encounter
42:57Marx's theory from the representative
42:59of a capitalist government.
43:01He thanks you for the extension of your hospitality
43:03but elects to
43:05to eat elsewhere.
43:07I'm afraid he regards our talks
43:09as concluded, Lord Bly.
43:11Sotomayor Leek.
43:25Is the purchaser's name on all these
43:27Mr. Henderson's?
43:29Yes.
43:31Have your nominee foreign
43:33buy them from Mr. Henderson
43:35within the account, in fact, this afternoon.
43:37The price won't move before tomorrow morning.
43:39Your nominee
43:41then can take
43:43his certificates to Switzerland.
43:45As soon as the price
43:47has risen probably by six shillings
43:49and he feels that they are at the top
43:51he should dispose
43:53of a fractional proportion
43:55and remit the proceeds
43:57in cash to Mr. Henderson.
43:59Yes. That would obviate
44:01capital gains tax.
44:03The remainder of the holding
44:05is to be transferred to a numbered account
44:07in Geneva
44:09and only realized on the principle
44:11of a numbered account. In your name, of course.
44:13Not in my name, of course.
44:15For a Swiss banker
44:17you ask a British amount
44:19of questions.
44:21Who shall I advise
44:23as to the number?
44:25I shall advise the
44:27beneficiary as to the number.
44:29Ah, what is it?
44:35Yes? John, will you come up,
44:37please?
44:39Is it about Albania?
44:41Yes.
44:43Then you come down here, Caswell.
44:45This is the number.
44:47Thank you.
44:49Ah,
44:51dinner on Wednesday, then.
44:53And good afternoon now.
44:55Good afternoon.
45:01He won't
45:03come down.
45:05You went too far on that one. I know him.
45:07No, Kenneth. You merely hate him.
45:09And you don't?
45:11Not enough to finish
45:13him off in front of you.
45:15Dinner on Tuesday?
45:17You want me out too? Yes.
45:19Well, just one thing, John. If, as you say, I bought
45:21all those shares yesterday, do you want
45:23a cheque from me for your broker?
45:25Haven't you been with me long
45:27enough, Don, to realize
45:29that to buy and sell within the account
45:31will cover all your expenses
45:33and Kenneth's ten times over?
45:37Well, the
45:39banker gets dinner, Kenneth gets dinner, don't I?
45:41How about tomorrow?
45:43No, I shall be dining with Dowling
45:45tomorrow. Who?
45:47He wants to make his peace too.
45:55Hell.
46:05Well,
46:07what are you going to tell the Prime Minister?
46:09It isn't often he gets the chance
46:11to dine
46:13two times in a row with the same minister.
46:15He must have had his
46:17appetite thoroughly whetted last night.
46:19You even have
46:21spies in Downing Street?
46:23No. No, only
46:25here.
46:27You're on your own, Caswell.
46:29Except for me.
46:31So, will you tell the Prime Minister tonight
46:33that you find the negotiations
46:35unexpectedly complicated because of
46:37standard practice
46:39and have handed them back to the
46:41initiator? You?
46:43No. Anderson.
46:49Standard practice.
46:51You said
46:53standard practice. What
46:55standard practice?
46:57Ask yourself
46:59why the Albanians have
47:01tacked themselves on to Peking.
47:03Because it's ludicrous.
47:05Because they're five
47:07and a half thousand miles away from Peking
47:09and only a few yards
47:11away from Moscow's nearest
47:13puppets. Which means
47:15that their communism is no
47:17different from any other of their systems
47:19of government.
47:21It's just something to make the peasants
47:23suffer.
47:25And the rake-off
47:27is, was, and always was
47:29something
47:31for the rulers.
47:33Nothing has changed.
47:35The king has gone
47:37but only a few more
47:39people than usual are
47:41enjoying his throne. And the
47:43reward for people in positions of
47:45state hasn't changed either.
47:49Majulik wanted
47:51a bribe. An honourable,
47:53unexceptionable
47:55bribe. Not
47:57Marxist practice.
47:59Standard practice.
48:01Did you forget, John,
48:03that all your plotting with Albania
48:05will be so much hot air until
48:07they pay back the four and a half million?
48:09Taken care of, Caswell.
48:11But how? They haven't any money.
48:13Their friends have. Well, they haven't any
48:15friends except the Chinese and they're hardly
48:17likely to pay back four and a half million.
48:19Even in yen. Don't be so sure.
48:21No, no. It's unthinkable.
48:23Oh,
48:25the Chinese will jump at any chance
48:27of investing in anything which will
48:29sock the Russians. You don't
48:31usually dabble in miracles, John.
48:33Henderson
48:35contacted the Albanians in Paris
48:37where the Chinese are welcome.
48:41I think you ought to see this.
48:43It's pretty relevant.
48:45Majulik?
48:47He's been seeing a lot of the Chinese in Paris.
48:49The same Chinese who've been sounding out
48:51our people about a possible Albanian
48:53settlement on a British road there.
48:57So this whole idea was not
48:59initiated by us. No.
49:01Henderson was nobbled by the Chinese,
49:03not they by him. He is, of course,
49:05an amateur. It'll take him years
49:07to get used to the ways of diplomacy.
49:09This could be said about you, John.
49:13Don't gloat, Caswell.
49:19You can't kill the whole project just as simply as that.
49:21What do you
49:23think, darling? Well,
49:25as it's the Chinese who are making the running,
49:27we're naturally suspicious.
49:29They may genuinely want to use us to keep
49:31the Balkans safe from Russia.
49:33Equally, they may want to sour relations
49:35between us and America.
49:37Which a settlement in Yen
49:39would certainly do.
49:41Thank you, darling.
49:51You should have taken Dowling into your
49:53confidence before you let Henderson
49:55and my son
49:57spend the night.
50:27© BF-WATCH TV 2021
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