Scum

Out! Out! Out! Come on, move!

Move!

Come on. On the double! Double, double, double.

Come on. Move it!

Move it.

You black bastard.

Come on, coon. Move it.

Over there.

You! In.

Get up straight, boy.

Attention!

- Name and number. - 4737, Carlin, sir.

So this is the daddy, the hard case.

Carlin, is it?

- Is it? - Yes, sir.

You don't look much to me, Carlin.

You're the little toerag who thumped the officer at Rowley.

Fancy yourself, do you, Carlin?

- Thumping officers, eh? - I retaliated.

Speak when I tell you, lad.

So they sent you down here to be sorted out.

You have heard of us, Carlin, eh?

- Heard of us, have you? - Yes, sir.

- And what did you hear? - Nothing, sir.

Well, I'll tell you here and now, lad, nothing was not the correct information.

Because we're having your stinking hooligan guts for garters.

- Right? - Yes, sir.

Pick it up.

I said pick it up.

Name and number.

4737, Carlin, sir.

- Get him out of here. - Out, Carlin. Move it.

Go on, over there.

You. In.

Stand up straight, boy.

- Name and number? - Bastards!

Bastards! Bastards!

Pick those feet up!

Halt!

In!

In line, Davis.

Attention!

Right, up those stairs.

Move!

Right. I'm Mr. Sands.

This is Mr. Greaves.

I'm the senior officer, and I run A Wing.

I run it.

- Right, Carlin? - Yes, sir.

I come down heavy, very heavy, on anyone who doesn't grasp that fact.

Right?

- Right? - Yes, sir.

Now, Angel, you're in a single room.

Some of the lads here can be what you might call prejudiced,

and you're well advised to keep yourself to yourself.

It's your first borstal, isn't it, lad?

Yes, sir, apart from the Scrubs.

Well, forget the Scrubs, the holiday's over.

Move!

Davis, you were fool enough to run away from an open borstal,

and you'll very soon be wishing you were back there.

You're in a single room. Now move!

Move it!

Carlin, you're in a dormitory.

Now move!

That's it. In there, on the left.

That's yours, Carlin.

You know the ropes, and you know why you're here.

I'll jump on you from a great height if you so much as breathe.

- Got that? - Yes, sir.

There's a lad, a big lad called Pongo in that bed.

He heard you were coming.

Now grab that bumper and get to work on this floor.

I want to shave in it.

Carlin.

We don't leave our bed space in that condition in here.

Make up your bed pack and put your gear away.

On the double!

Next time you're on report.

Pick those feet up. And keep quiet.

Banks.

Look to your front, Banks.

- Carlin's been allocated to your wing. - Oh, you hear that?

Shut it, Richards!

Three of them together. So you'll have a bit more company, won't you?

Yes, sir.

- And one of them's a jungle bunny. - Yes, sir.

I said, quiet, Richards! Another sound from you, and you're on report.

Yes, sir.

You off your fucking nut?

Possibly.

Jesus Christ.

I'm a vegetarian, Carlin, and I've read the rule book.

I refuse to wear leather on my feet.

I get extra potatoes as substitute for meat,

and I am allowed fish when on the menu.

Yeah? Bet they give you stick for that, mate.

Yeah, they do. But it causes them a lot of bother, don't it?

- How long you been here? - A month. Transferred from Dover.

- A nuisance? - No. Told 'em I was Christ.

Some cunning bastard had the typical flash of genius, and they bang me in here.

A, the governor's a religious maniac. B, they'll knock the shit out of me.

- How long you done altogether then? - Sixteen months.

Jesus Christ! You must love it!

They're not having me, the bastards.

I don't eat shit for anyone, and I don't give a monkey's

if I do the full two years.

I'll walk out of here on crutches, but they won't have me.

Davis, up!

Davis, you're nothing. I'm the daddy here and I run this wing.

You pay your dues like the rest.

Payday you deliver a quarter of your snout to the striper here.

- Every week. On the dot. - I don't smoke.

Well, you fucking well do now, slag!

There's no dolly mixtures in here, poofter!

I'm the daddy and don't you ever forget it. Right?

- I said right? - Right.

Pongo Banks, the daddy.

- Yeah. - Yeah, Carlin.

Your reputation was here well ahead of you,

and you're gonna have a little weeny bit of bother with that young man.

Now when I came here from Dover,

that lot thought I was some kind of nut... violent, psycho, you know.

So I give them this wild stare about the eyeballs,

and they don't give me no bother.

Yes. I think that'll do it for today.

You don't do yourself no favors, do you, mate?

Carlin, I just want to get through my time in my own little way,

causing as much fucking trouble to the screws as possible.

In my own little way.

Okay?

Oi, you watch yourself with those pigs.

- Woods! - What?

Get over here and keep my seat warm.

Stand up, coon. Name and number.

Up to attention when I come in here! I said up!

He said up, didn't he?

What's this then? Up on your feet, lad. What do you think this is? Stand up!

Name and number.

- Angel, sir. - Number!

- Can't remember, sir. - Can't remember?

Your number, lad. That's all you are, a number.

A number, four digits, that's all you are. 4736.

- Name and number? - 4736, Angel, sir.

- Who did this? - What, sir?

- Don't give me lip, boy. Who did this? - Nobody, sir.

- Fighting? - No, sir.

- Fell? - No, sir.

Damaging government property, are we, you black bastard?

No, sir.

Then what the hell are we doing, you black Brixton slag?

- Nothing, sir. - Fighting. You're booked for fighting.

- Governor's report. Right? - I wasn't.

Right? Hands by your sides! Attention!

Name and number.

4736, Angel, sir.

Louder.

4736, Angel, sir.

Straight out of the banana trees, eh?

Well, you take it from me, nig-nog.

You go stealing white man's motorcars, and you get white man's stick. Right?

- Yes, sir. - Now get this cell scrubbed.

On the double!

I am older than most of the trainees here.

- Yes? - The books available in the library,

they're either trash westerns or hack adventure stories.

Now, I can't read that muck.

See, I don't know whether I'm supposed to be Roy Rogers or Nanook of the North.

My needs are different.

The library caters for all trainees here, not single individuals.

Besides censoring our mail,

you also veto what books are allowed to be sent in to us?

I do.

Then why haven't I been allowed the two Dostoyevsky novels you received for me?

They're safely locked away. You'll have them when you're released.

I shan't need them then.

Matron.

Have you read them? They are classics.

Archer, read them or not,

Crime and Punishment and The Idiot

are hardly suitable reading matter for a young boy in this establishment.

Boy?

Trainee.

Your feet are disgusting, Archer.

You are impudent and foolish.

I know of vegetarians who don't eat meat,

but that doesn't stop them from wearing shoes.

Can't be very sincere people then, can they, Matron?

Is that all?

Yeah. Well, I think it's all going to be resolved soon anyway.

The feet, I mean. And the diet.

Yeah, I'm thinking of becoming a Sikh.

The governor might have something to say about that.

Matron, do you know what I used to do with my girlfriend?

Are you being insolent, Archer?

Hold hands. We used to hold hands.

Is that all you wish to discuss, Archer? I have work to do.

Yes, I think so. Yes.

I keep getting through the days somehow.

You know, Matron, when I was last in the block,