Home Fires

...left. Left, right, left.

Left, right. Left, right, left.

Left, right. Left, right, left.

- Morning, Stan. - Eyes front!

Stan!

Left, right. Left, right, left.

David!

David!

David!

Ma?

Ma!

Ma!

Ma...

- What are you doing? - I...

Ma, this is me. It's David.

Hey.

Hey. All right? Come here.

Behaving as if you were already President

before the other members have voted for you is a bit...

Don't you think there's something rather Joyce-like about that?

This pitch alone would yield over a hundred thousand square feet of prime agricultural land.

Why would anyone play cricket on it when it could be used to feed people?

- Because not everyone thinks like you. - Not yet.

But they will.

I've been giving Joyce a great deal of thought recently...

...and I've come to the rather startling conclusion that perhaps she wasn't all bad.

- Joyce Cameron? - Like her or loathe her, she's a born leader.

Morning, ladies!

The cricket season isn't over yet.

My advice would be to tread very carefully.

Leadership is about commanding the herd when the moment demands.

It's about seizing them by the horns firmly with both hands

and hauling them in the right direction.

- The right direction being your direction? - I'm glad you agree.

- It was a question. - I don't think it was.

- No, no. It was. - I really don't think so.

Pat, more tea!

Pat!

About half of that, please, Bryn.

Half?

Hello, Miriam.

Er... that's one and six.

Thank you.

What's going on?

Search me.

I'm sorry.

Why'd you rush out?

When the recruits ran past...

...one of them turned to me and I...

...I could've sworn it was David. - What?

I saw David... and panicked,

and ran out to pull him away before they kill him.

- No-one's going to kill him. - But isn't that how you win wars?

- By killing more boys than the other side? - Stop thinking like this.

I can't!

Hey.

I came back last time, didn't I?

It won't be the same as last time.

Better ways to kill now.

Besides...

...he's not you.

Well bowled.

- Morning, Pat. - Morning.

I'm home.

Ripped By mstoll

- What time do you call this? - I wondered where you were.

- Where were you? - I wasn't gone long.

That wasn't my question.

Are you deliberately trying to impede my recovery?

- Why would you say such a thing? - I wake up exhausted, needing a drink.

I call out for you - nothing.

No note. No idea where you'd gone or what time you'd be back.

- I should have left a note. I'm sorry. - So why were you so long?

I was trying to make the housekeeping last as long as I can.

It takes time to judge what's affordable and what isn't.

- Are you saying I don't give you enough? - No.

If I'd been able to finish my novel by now we would have had more money coming in.

You are this close, Patricia. Yes?

- I had to buy food. - You buy food when I tell you to buy food.

And when I tell you to buy food, you only buy the food I tell you to buy. Yes?

Yes!

Don't look at me like that.

Without you holding me back I would have had so much more success.

You're like a dead weight around my neck.

- I need to go to the lavatory. - When I say you can go, you can go.

- Please... - What... what did I just say?

Go on. Before you humiliate yourself.

Sorry.

There are a couple of boxes of George's things I've still to remove from the room.

Want to work out where I'm going to put them, so um...

Well, put your case and boxes on the bed for now.

It's so kind of you to take me in like this, Mrs Scotlock.

We could hardly allow our new teacher to be homeless.

Boris!

- I'm not sure he agrees with that. - Boris doesn't really do "sharing".

To be fair, he's never really had to.

He's all mouth and trousers. Take him for a walk and he'll love you forever.

Boris!

I'll pop this upstairs.

I can't thank you enough for this.

Let's hope Boris and I aren't too long in the tooth for it.

Yeah, well, we would have taken her but for the RAF officers being billeted with us.

I'm assuming she doesn't know Joyce is behind having the school cottage requisitioned?

Joyce has a lot to feel vengeful about at the moment.

I don't want Teresa knowing that she's in her line of fire.

It's so lovely to see you all here, as we convene for our first meeting in war time.

What the next months will deliver is unknown.

But what is known is that together we shall endure whatever the future will throw at us.

For none understands the true cost of war better than women.

For it is we, alone, who are left to count the cost...

in the currency of loved ones lost and injured.

And I want to move swiftly on to my plan for the next year,

to turn every available square foot of land in the village towards food production.

I am proposing we begin... by ploughing up the cricket pitch.

Oh, no, make no mistake, ladies.

There will be thousands of villages across the land doing the same.

Each making their contribution to the nation's larder.

If we plough up the pitch we run the risk of turning the cricketers against us.

Not to mention the men who watch.

Is it worth pushing this through at the cost of such colossal resentment?

They'll come round in time.

Besides, many of them won't be here for much longer, don't forget.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded.

Didn't you?

Easy for you to advocate ploughing up the cricket pitch, Mrs Barden,

when your husband never goes near it.

Growing produce is a way for women to invest skills

they acquired in peacetime and to take the lead.

- I'm surprised you can't see this. - Oh, I see plenty.

I was on my way home from a District Council meeting

and I felt that it was my responsibility

to inform you of a decision to requisition this hall for the RAF.

What?

Which means that this will be your last meeting here for the foreseeable future.

Was there really no other building the committee could have chosen?

Well, it was a heated debate.

But in the end an unassailable argument was made.

By you, no doubt.

Your committee will receive official notification by the end of the week.

Ah, except there doesn't seem to be a committee to receive it.

It's just Mrs Barden.

We were coming on to that.

An extraordinary general meeting will still need to be held.

At which a secret ballot will be required

to vote in the right person to be President.

Whoever she might be.

Good evening, ladies.

I'll see you again soon, no doubt.

I've been through everything four times, Mr Driscoll,

and each time I find a difference between what your outgoings should be this quarter,

based on previous quarters, and what they actually are.

I see.

Because everything else seems to be pretty constant month on month. So...

I wanted to see you in case I've missed something.

- Well, maybe you have, Mrs Scotlock. - That's a relief. What I have missed?

The Prices of Goods Act coming into force in November.

So... these are... adjusted figures?

The government has a duty to protect this country, Mrs Scotlock.

- And I have a duty to protect my margins. - The act is to prevent profiteering.

Odd how making a profit is perfectly acceptable during peacetime,

but during the war they add a couple of syllables and it suddenly becomes a dirty word.

If these are the books you wish me to work from then I'm afraid I'm unable to help you.

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours - isn't that the British way?

I'm sorry. It isn't my way.

Shame, because I've no desire to take my business elsewhere.

Nor will many of your other clients from the chamber of commerce.

The thing about war is you have to decide whose side you're on.

And we all want you on our side, Mrs Scotlock.

Very much.

Well, I wish I could be of more help, but I can't. I'm sorry.

Good day, Mr Driscoll.

Oh, don't be alarmed!

Contrary to Joyce's insinuation I'm not planning world domination,

but scouring the village from on high

for a building that might accommodate the WI...

now that our hall's been requisitioned in malice.

Malice?

You don't imagine that Joyce would have allowed the hall to be requisitioned

if she were still President?

- Wouldn't she? - Claire.

War is driven by propaganda on all sides.

Now more than ever you really need to question the mere surface of things.

Look beneath, to what's really taking place.

Hm. I suppose.

So, have you found anywhere else?

I've narrowed it down to three barns and the pub.

What would you think about meeting upstairs at the Horse and Groom?

Claire?

- Hello! - Ah.

Just the one.

- For Mrs Barden. - Thank you.

How do you like working here compared to the Camerons?

If I said I much prefer it, how do I know you won't go telling other people?

Come again?

People don't always mean what they say, do they?

- You know, especially now. - Now?

Well, during war.

With all the propaganda and everything.

Well, I wouldn't lie to you, Miss Hillman.

- You didn't tell me you had a sweetheart. - I didn't tell you because...