Castles in the Sky

One. Two. Three. Ah, that's equal.

One. Two. Three.

That's you... Ah... What is this here?

Uncle Robert!

Making the invisible visible!

- Lunch is ready. - Ah... Perfect!

Thank you, Aunty Margaret.

Ooh, what's going on here?

Making invisible things appear.

And then disappear. Like sandwiches.

No one comes in.

Even if the building's on fire.

No one.

This shows that the Germans are working night and day!

So if tension should rise and if conflict -

As I have been saying for some time now, it's not a question of 'if', Mr Tizard,

it's a question of 'when'.

I don't think that necessarily...

We have to work night and day to build up our own reserves and weapons.

Even if we had enough money we'd still never catch up.

We have to overtake them.

We have to build a death ray.

'A death ray'?

A ground-based weapon system that focuses radio waves on enemy aircraft

and boils the pilots to death in their cockpits in a matter of seconds.

Is such a thing possible?

I think these things, you pick the right people, then they build it.

We can make anything happen.

Let's see who has got some ideas, sir.

I'll put out some feelers.

We'll have to disguise it somehow, keep a lid on it.

No need to alarm anyone.

I will continue to put pressure on the director

to let me set up a new committee for aerial weapon development.

As we know, there is a limited pot of money available

and the pacifists in the cabinet continue to... - Sorry, Professor Lindemann...

I am afraid that committee already exists...

- Excuse me? - I'm sorry.

Who is chairing this committee?

I see.

I rather wish I'd done the washing now.

I was told it was going to rain.

It does look like there's a change in the air. - How can you tell?

Studying the clouds, watching how they are moving,

barometric pressure...

Excuse me.

- Hello, Skip! - Hi.

Sorry to disturb on your day off an' all...

We've had a telegram...

You asked the impossible.

By using radio waves only

could we raise the temperature of eight pint glasses of water

to one hundred and five degrees Fahrenheit?

You... did it?

Indeed.

We were forced to make one or two slight alterations to the test conditions...

Very slight alterations.

Such as?

To achieve the desired outcome we reduced the distance originally proposed.

And neither did you use radio waves.

Forgive me for being a little... reductive here

but would it be fair to say that in your experiment you essentially... boiled a kettle?

We failed in our objective...

But we stumbled across something all together different!

By transmitting high-energy waves

we think it may be possible to deafen laboratory rats.

Hello, yes, right, I know what you are up to.

You're worried about the Germans.

Eight pints of water equal eight pints of blood.

The distance and height you specified - an aeroplane.

Ergo - you're wanting some kind of a weapon

that will vaporise pilots in their cockpits, aren't you?

Sorry!

I haven't slept since I received your telegram, barely stopped work!

Goodness knows what my wife must think!

I'm Robert Watson-Watt!

You told your wife about this?

Should I have?

Will you begin your presentation, please?

The thing you propose doesn't work.

It never will work. No one will ever get it to work.

Probably cause more damage to the operator than the enemy.

So you're here to...? Offer you something that will.

Now, I have an idea for a listening device...

Listening devices don't work, we've already built sound mirrors...

This isn't a sound mirror!

As Baldwin said, 'the bomber will always get through'.

How exciting would it be to prove him wrong?

It's night-time, you're in the woods.

The enemy is out there somewhere but you don't know exactly where

so you tie a length of fishing line...

between two trees...

and then you hang a bell off of it.

The enemy comes along, touches the line, which rings the bell...

and we know where he is.

So we use fishing line and bells to enable us to hear our enemies.

Jolly good.

Good. Thank you for your time, Mr...

But instead of trees we have antennae!

And if I may, thank you very much.

So we have radio antennae.

Now, they send out pulses

which are like a fishing line.

And then if something comes along

the waves will bounce off

and that rings the bell here and then we can see them.

- He's an idiot. - Perhaps.

But out of all the ideas we've heard today...

His is the... least idiotic?

We have to do something.

Get him to give you a field demonstration.

I thought you said it would be a clear day?

That's weather for you!

Indeed.

We are going again!

It's not budging!

This... This is fine!

Come on. Let's get the equipment! We've got forty minutes!

Who are you?

I'm his chief assistant.

So we are tuned in on the 50 metre wavelength

waiting for 6Mhz transmission from Daventry

with at least 10kw of power...

This man appears to be living in cloud cuckoo land.

You have absolutely no faith in him, have you?

He's building a washing line... in the rain.

That is going to terrify the Luftwaffe.

We have two aerials...

one in front and one behind.

We have a BBC transmitter sending out... Where's the transmitter?

Er, over there, in Daventry.

Now, that's sending out pulses which get reflected down off an aircraft.

These pulses are in effect like our trap.

The fishing line in the woods. Exactly!

So now we wait for something to hit it and ring the bell, so to speak?

Yes.

Nothing.

The receiver is tuned to Daventry, isn't it?

What are you doing? Well, if...

Just leave it, will you! Come on...

It's there.

It's... actually... there.

We saw you! We - saw - YOU!

I need to get out of this field and find a telephone.

We didn't see it till it was right on top of us.

But we saw it. We saw a plane.

Unfortunately we can't prove it.

The trace recorder failed. Oh no.

Well, we'll just have to do it all over again and hope it records next time.

It did work, didn't it?

I mean, we didn't imagine it? Did we?

Now we'll have to build our own transmitter.

This was just a test.

There are a million and one things against us, Rob.

And we will overcome them all.

Despite your lack of appropriate qualifications I've spoken with the ministry.

And we have recognised the success of the test.

And we would like to proceed to the next stage of development.

In order to move forward, we require you to sign the Official Secrets Act.

Thank you.

I trust the idiot boy is still in the dark about all of this?

He's not an idiot.

He doesn't know what you're doing though, does he?

No.

Good.

The fewer the better.

You only need to read that the penalty for even the slightest deviation from secrecy is...

'To be hanged by the neck until life is extinct'.

Indeed.

Rather a nice pen.

Keep it.

Please.

Someone's cheery!

Why, thank you!

I take it you had a good day?

An excellent day, Mag, a thoroughly excellent day!

I just need to finish this.

I've been struggling with this for quite some time.

Could you hold this while I fasten this clip?

Can you hold this piece here?

Got it... Ok.

You genius!

Well, here's hoping.

SQ?

Tell me all about your excellent day.

You've barely uttered a word about your work lately.

I'm sorry... I can't.

It's a secret.

A secret?

You're a weatherman!

Not just a weatherman.

Oh no, no... You fix broach clips too.

And bicycle chains.

The list is endless!

So, pray do tell, what's so secret?

Are we going to have a hot summer? Should we panic-buy sun hats and the like?

I'm working for the Air Ministry.

No, I am.

No. I'm not joking, stop.

There's a threat and I've been asked to help.