The tragic tale of Maggie Tulliver, the miller's daughter, who defies her embittered brother in standing by the man she loves - shocking the stifling society in which she lives, in an attempt to pursue her blighted dreams and starring Judy Cornwell, Barbara Hicks, Pippa Guard, Christopher Blake, Ray Smith, Anton Lesser, John Moulder Brown, Michael Troughton & Julie Dawn Cole.
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TVTranscript
00:00¶¶
00:30Oh, my God.
01:00Oh, my God.
01:30Oh, my God.
01:40Thomas coming on.
01:42Thomas coming on.
01:43Oh, Miss Maggie.
01:44You'll make yourself giddy.
01:46Oh!
01:47He's coming on.
01:48Hey, Miss Maggie.
01:49Uh-huh.
01:50That is.
01:51Thomas coming on.
01:53Hey, Miss Maggie.
01:55Maggie Tolliver, you'll come to me at once.
02:04Maggie!
02:11Oh, you wicked, naughty girl.
02:15Come here at once.
02:16Oh, you're a little wench, eh, Harry?
02:28She's as much spirit as a brother, that one.
02:46Oh, you're so naughty and disobedient.
02:59Just look at you.
03:00I don't care.
03:01And all your aunts and uncles come this afternoon.
03:04Whatever is Aunt Gleg going to say?
03:05I don't like Aunt Gleg.
03:07Well, just for once, miss, you'll behave like a little lady when she comes.
03:10You'll stay in and do your patchwork, Tom or no Tom.
03:13But it's a stupid tearing things to pieces just to sew them together again.
03:17Perhaps there's my cunning how to keep you in a clean pinafore for more than ten minutes.
03:20Oh, what am I to do with hair like this?
03:22If I pinch it with the iron, do you pull it all out again?
03:24Don't leave it, Mother.
03:26You know it never curls.
03:27Sometimes I think you're half an idiot, and that's the truth.
03:30I send you upstairs to fetch something and you forget what you've gone for.
03:34You moon about all day by the river, singing to yourself like some poor creature from Bedlam.
03:38Will you stop wriggling, child?
03:40I had the gig. I know I did.
03:42What's the use of my telling you to keep away from the water when you're so disobedient?
03:54You'll tumble in one day. You mark my words.
03:57You'll tumble in and be drownded.
03:59Maggie?
04:02There. Now you can't brush it anymore.
04:05You wicked! Wicked girl!
04:10Maggie to the vehicle! Come here!
04:11Maggie to the...
04:12Come here!
04:15Come here!
04:20Tom! Tom!
04:24Tom! Tom!
04:25Come on!
04:26Come on!
04:32Come on!
04:33Come on!
04:33Come on!
04:44Tom!
04:56Oh!
04:57Oh, oh, my sweet boy! Oh, my sweet little boy!
05:03Tom!
05:04Come, Maggie!
05:05Lord have mercy, Tom Tulliver. Where's your colour gone?
05:08Oh, Mother, don't for so.
05:09Oh, that shirt's not seen soap for a month of sundaes.
05:12Come on, Maggie. Let's call the old barn. You'll never guess what I have in me pocket.
05:15Now, don't you go messing up that dress, Maggie!
05:18Leave her be, Bessie.
05:22Is it marbles?
05:23Chantal?
05:24Yes.
05:25I hope it's not marbles.
05:27You know I'm no good at games.
05:29What do you hope to do, most of all?
05:31Oh, I don't know, Tom.
05:33Don't tell.
05:35If there's marbles, cob-nats...
05:37Oh, not cob-nats, you silly.
05:39They only do some when they're green.
05:41Guess again.
05:42No!
05:43I shan't! I can't bear guessing!
05:45Spitfire.
05:47I had to fight Gibbs and Hans Bouncer for these.
05:50You've won in each hand.
05:52One for you, one for me.
05:54I gave Spouncer a black eye.
05:56Look.
05:57A fish line!
05:58Check it!
05:59Now you can catch your own fish.
06:01Put your own worms on and everything.
06:03Oh, don't thank you!
06:04Thank you!
06:05You're the best brother in all the world!
06:06They cost a lot of money, you know.
06:08I wouldn't go half in the toffee and gingerbread all this quarter.
06:11Just to save the right amount.
06:15I say, Magsy.
06:17Aren't those my rabbit hutches?
06:23They are my hutches.
06:25But where are the rabbits?
06:27Did you let me rabbits out?
06:30Yes, you did.
06:31You let them out!
06:32I didn't!
06:33I didn't!
06:34You're lying!
06:35You let them escape!
06:36No!
06:37Then where are they?
06:38Where are they?
06:40Dead!
06:41I forgot to feed them!
06:42You let me rabbits die!
06:43Oh, Tom, please forgive me!
06:44I didn't mean to!
06:45I hate you, Maggie Tolliver!
06:46You shall never go fishing with me again!
06:47You always do summit bad!
06:48I don't!
06:49I don't!
06:50Yes, you do!
06:51Last holidays you put your heads from a kite!
06:52Holidays before that you licked the paint off me lozenge box!
06:53Don't hate me, Tom!
06:54Please!
06:55I'm sorry about the rabbits!
06:56Truly, I am!
06:57I'll buy you new ones!
06:58Go away!
06:59Please, Tom!
07:00Go away!
07:03I hate you, Maggie Tolliver!
07:04I hate you, Maggie Tolliver!
07:25I hate you, Maggie Tolliver
07:48PHONE RINGS
07:56Ah, at last.
07:58Is this visit really necessary?
08:00Now, isn't that something you might have asked before
08:02taking the best part of a morning in preparation for it?
08:07Sister Glegg's bound to be in a bad humour.
08:09She always is at Dole Cup Mill.
08:11Weathering one of Sister Glegg's storms
08:13is not a prospect any of us enjoys.
08:15Except, perhaps, Sister Glegg.
08:17She can't abide Bessie's husband any more than I can.
08:20No warrant. She smells of mould today.
08:23Bessie? Pastry, perhaps, but not mould.
08:25Not Bessie. Sister Glegg.
08:27You know her closets are always damp.
08:29And then Sister Pullet will get the vapours.
08:31Like she did at Mrs Wool's
08:33that time she sat next to the man who fell in the floss
08:35and never let her shoes dry out.
08:37What are you rambling on about, woman?
08:39It's already gone, quarter past.
08:41It's not too late to send Baines in the gig to make excuses.
08:44We could say I felt unwell again.
08:46Now, this is a family conference, Susan.
08:48It's right we should be there if your sister needs us.
08:50But what's it all about?
08:52Well, I imagine it has something to do with young Tom.
08:54He's due home from the academy today.
08:56Well, do we have to stay for dinner as well as tea?
08:59If there's anything decent to eat, which I doubt,
09:02Sister Glegg will only complain of extravagance
09:05and make Bessie cry.
09:06And if it's boiled joint and plain pudding,
09:10Sister Pullet will have the cramps before she has one mouthful.
09:14And that'll make Bessie cry too.
09:16You Dodson sisters are beyond me.
09:18There's not one of you satisfied with the other
09:20and yet collectively you'll stand up against anyone
09:22who's not kin like a brick wall.
09:24If I were not already preoccupied with the unpleasing prospect
09:27of meeting that oafish husband of Bessie's again,
09:30I'm sure I should find that remark most defensive, Mr. Dean.
09:33I'm sorry, my dear, but you ladies present such a solid front to the outside world.
09:36It's a wonder any of you found a man brave enough to marry you.
09:39Every word you utter you make this Thursday more and more disagreeable.
09:42Well, it's Lucy.
09:44Waiting in the carriage, I imagine.
09:45She's been hopping from one foot to the other all morning.
09:47You'd think she was off to see royalty.
09:49You know how fond she is of Maggie.
09:51That naughty, awkward girl.
09:53She certainly takes after the Tulliver side of the family.
09:56Are you ready now?
09:58I shall eat dry bread with my tea.
10:01I have no confidence in Bessie's butter
10:03and her preserves are never first class.
10:05Not enough sugar and boiling.
10:10And I can't abide her cheesecake.
10:12Then pass them by.
10:13I should never hear the end of it.
10:15No, dear.
10:16Well, you know how proud she is of her pastry.
10:19Yes, dear.
10:24One thing she isn't, a secret.
10:26Secretive?
10:27Yes.
10:28Like not saying what she wants to see us about.
10:31That dreadful husband of hers is up to something.
10:33You want my words?
10:34Well...
10:37Wakeham's at the bottom of this.
10:39You mark my words.
10:40Lawyer Wakeham?
10:41Why, he seems to be an amiable fellow.
10:43He's a good attorney, by all accounts.
10:46Oh, he knows meal from Bran, all right.
10:48Sly as they come, Wakeham is.
10:50You're generally a man of safe opinions, neighbour Tolliver.
10:53But on some points you do seem to trust to your unassisted intellect and arrive at, shall we say, questionable conclusions.
11:01All I know is weevils and lawyers were made bite devil.
11:04And Wakeham's the worst.
11:07Well, wasn't it Wakeham trying to get Mr. Dix to go to law, getting me all the dumb?
11:11Wasn't it Wakeham made me lose the case of right away across my bridge?
11:15He had the law on his side.
11:17The law.
11:18The law's a cockfight.
11:20It's birds with strongest spurs at Windsor.
11:22Oh, I know nothing of the nature of mills, but this affair of water power seems a tangled business.
11:28Simple riparian rights, Mr. Glegg.
11:31There's a scoundrel called Pivart bought Binkham's farm up the river.
11:34He's dug dykes to irrigate his land and reduce my water power by doing it.
11:38He has as much right to the water as anyone.
11:41He has no right to stop my wheel from turning.
11:43Is he rich?
11:45Rich?
11:46The rich mostly get their own way in law.
11:51Pivart's got Wakeham to egg him on.
11:53Then I sincerely hope you won't be forced to go to law again, Nebert Tolliver.
11:56Having already lost once to lawyer Wakeham.
11:59Miss Folk can handle law beside Wakeham.
12:06I don't know what ails sister Pullett.
12:09It used to be the way in our family, Bessie, for one to be as early as another.
12:14Oh, she's not coming today, Jane. She's in mourning.
12:18Mercy sisters. I declare Sophia's never out of mourning.
12:23Who is it this time?
12:25Her neighbour, Mrs. Sullivan.
12:27They tell me she died of dropsy.
12:29And her legs all swelled up with water, as thick as my body.
12:33Then it's as well she's gone, whoever she may be.
12:37Lucy!
12:38Come in, Mother.
12:39Don't fret.
12:40Hello, Maggie.
12:41Lucy!
12:42They didn't say you'd come too.
12:43How good is this to see you again?
12:44Can you stay?
12:45You must stay.
12:46Four weeks, two weeks.
12:47Oh, Maggie.
12:48You haven't changed a bit.
12:49Lucy!
12:50Come on.
12:51Oh, Maggie, for shame.
12:52Just look at your hair.
12:53Please, Aunt Dean.
12:54Can Lucy stay?
12:55Do say she might, please.
12:56Well, I don't know that Lucy would like to stay behind without her mother.
12:59Would you dearest?
13:00Yes, please, Mother.
13:01Well said, Lucy, my dear.
13:02Well said.
13:03Well said.
13:04Let her stay, Mrs. Dean.
13:05Well, we shall see.
13:06I declare that child has grown more like a gypsy than ever.
13:07Ain't they?
13:08Do little girls come into a room these days?
13:09Oh, Maggie, for shame.
13:10Just look at your hair.
13:11Please, Aunt Dean.
13:12Can Lucy stay?
13:13Do say she might.
13:14Please.
13:15Well, I don't know that Lucy would like to stay behind without her mother.
13:18Would you dearest?
13:19Yes, please, Mother.
13:20Well said, Lucy, my dear.
13:22Well said.
13:23Let her stay, Mrs. Dean.
13:25Well, we shall see.
13:27I declare that child has grown more like a gypsy than ever.
13:30Ain't they?
13:31Do little girls come into a room these days without taking notice of their aunts and uncles?
13:36It wasn't at all the way when I was a little girl.
13:39Let's meet your Aunt Gleg, Maggie.
13:44Good afternoon, Aunt Gleg.
13:46Hold your head up, child.
13:48And keep your pinafore on your shoulder.
13:52Lord Bessie, I've never seen such a fright.
13:55You're a naughty girl.
13:56I told you not to come in without brushing your hair first.
13:59Little girls who don't brush their hair should be whipped and fed on bread and water,
14:04not come and sit with their aunts and uncles.
14:06A girl has too much hair, sister.
14:08It isn't good for her else.
14:10There's nothing ails the child.
14:12I'd have it thinned and cut shorter.
14:14But she's too big now to have it short.
14:16But I like Maggie's hair.
14:18I'm sure your Aunt Bessie wishes it was more like your hair, dearest.
14:23Maggie, go and brush your hair and don't come back until it's neat and pretty like your cousins.
14:27Oh, the child will be gone till doomsday.
14:31It seems so hard.
14:32You should have a kitten as pretty as Lucy, Sister Dean.
14:35Well, my Maggie has all the disadvantages.
14:37All the disadvantages.
15:07I won't brush my hair.
15:14I won't!
15:20You stupid thing.
15:22What are you smiling at?
15:24Stupid, stupid, stupid!
15:26That's for nasty spiteful ants!
15:38I'll be a rat catcher when I'm a man.
15:41I'll sooner be a rat catcher than ought.
15:44I hope catch rats in me father's barn once.
15:48I know a chap who owns ferrets and some dogs.
15:51Them whitens with pink eyes.
15:54River's fun.
15:55No, he's not as full as last year.
15:58Well, there was a flood here once, so father says.
16:02Sheep and cows would drown and birds could go over the fields.
16:07Floods don't worry me none.
16:08I can swim.
16:10When I'm a man, I'll make a boat with house on it, like Noah.
16:16I'll keep plenty to eat and animals.
16:22Like rabbits.
16:25Come on.
16:29Come on.
16:30Let's play hidden tails.
16:32I'll have a hairpening.
16:38Ready?
16:40I'll call.
16:42Heads.
16:43It's tails.
16:44I win.
16:46But it were heads, I saw.
16:47No, it weren't.
16:48I won it fair.
16:49It were heads.
16:51Give me back the coin.
16:53Gee, Bob Jackin, I'll take it from you.
16:57Call him off.
17:01And fight fair.
17:03And if you're too much of a coward to fight, give me back my hairpening.
17:05If you want it, take it.
17:06I wouldn't have it now you've touched it, Bob Jackin.
17:07Let it lie there.
17:08You're a sneak and a thief.
17:09Then here's the knife you gave me last Christmas, Tom Tulliver.
17:10Let that lie there, too.
17:11I don't want note from you.
17:13Nasty fighting turkey cock.
17:16I don't want you to give me a sound of love.
17:17You, Bob Jackin, let it lie there.
17:20You're a sneak and a thief.
17:22Then here's the knife you gave me last Christmas, Tom Tulliver.
17:27Let that lie there, too.
17:29I don't want note from you.
17:31Nasty fighting turkey cock!
17:32Nasty fighting turkey cock.
17:46The girl has too much hair, sister.
17:49It isn't good for her health.
17:51I've never seen such a fright.
17:53Have it thinned and cut shorter.
17:56Little girls who don't brush their hair should be whipped.
18:00Too much hair.
18:02Never seen such a fright.
18:05Such a fright.
18:07A fright.
18:09A fright.
18:21Well, it wasn't a good line there, will it?
18:25Well, neighbor Tolliver, this is a very excellent port indeed.
18:28But I think we'd all like to know now, for what reason this family conference was called.
18:33I've settled to send my boy Tom to another school.
18:41He's to go to a Mr. Stelling, down at Kings Lawton, an uncommon clever parson, I'm told.
18:46You've removed Tom from the academy?
18:50No.
18:51What I want for the lad is a better education than he'll get at the academy.
18:54To talk fine and write with a flourish.
18:57This Mr. Stelling will only take two or three pupils.
19:01That gives him more time to attend to each boy.
19:03To talk fine and write with a flourish.
19:07Hardly necessary attributes for a miller.
19:10And what is wrong with the academy at Lady Day?
19:13Will Parson Stelling be able to teach the boy to know a good sample of wheat when he sees it?
19:17It needs to be neither miller nor farmer, neighbor Dean.
19:20I've made up my mind not to bring Tom up to my business.
19:22I want to put the lad to something much better.
19:25All profits, no outlay.
19:27A surveyor, perhaps, or an engineer.
19:30Something smartish.
19:31Hmm.
19:31Ah, so it's a big watch chain and a high stool for Tom.
19:36Aye.
19:37I want so one day Tom will look lawyer wake up as hard in the face as one cat looks at another.
19:43I see.
19:44So you wouldn't make a downright lawyer if the lad just scorer enough to help you with lawsuits and arbitration.
19:49Ah, that's it.
19:50That's it.
19:51To be even with lawyers and folk.
19:54And to put me up to an ocean now and then.
19:58It would be a fine deal better if some folk left lawyers alone.
20:01You'll be paying a mighty half yearly bill, neighbor Tolliver.
20:04Clergymen have high notions in general.
20:07It's an investment.
20:09Yeah, something in that, to be sure.
20:12How much?
20:15One hundred a year.
20:18Guineas.
20:20A cool hundred, eh?
20:25Why, bless my soul, it's just come to me.
20:26Didn't somebody say that lawyer Wakeham's son was to go to a parson at King's Lawton?
20:33Why, that's so, Mr. Glegg.
20:35And I declare, I recollect his name was Stelling.
20:40Wakeham's son, dearest.
20:41Did you hear?
20:42Well, then, there you have it.
20:45If Wakeham's to send his son to Mr. Stelling, the man must be good.
20:49Wakeham's a scoundrel, but he'd not send his own son to a bad school.
20:52Wakeham's son is humpbacked.
20:54A poor, deformed creature who's not likely to follow any business.
20:57It wouldn't matter what school he went to.
21:00And what do you think of this notion, Betty?
21:02Well, I should like Tom to go where I can wash and mend for him, Susan.
21:05Or else he might as well have calico as linen.
21:07One would be as yellow as the other before they'd even been washed half a dozen times.
21:11And if I could send the dear boy a pork pie now and then.
21:13And some cake and some apples.
21:14I declare, Bessie, you clack on like a chicken.
21:17She'd ask me not to hire a good wagoner if he'd a mole on his face.
21:20Dear Hartman, did I ever object to a man because he had a mole on his face?
21:23Why, poor dead brother, he had a mole on his face.
21:25And I don't remember he ever wanted a mole.
21:26If I may be allowed to speak, I should like to know what good is to come to Tom
21:32by bringing him up above his fortune.
21:34When land is gone and money's spent, then learning is most excellent.
21:39It's unbecoming to make a joke, Mr. Glegg, when you see your own kin going headlong to ruin.
21:44If you mean me by that, you needn't fret.
21:47I can manage me own affairs.
21:49Then we'd all best hold our tongues.
21:51There's some folk in the world, no better than anyone else.
21:53Ah, and there's some folk think they do.
21:55I shall say nothing.
21:57My advice has not been asked, and I shan't give it.
22:00Then it'll be the first time.
22:01Oh, dearest.
22:02It's the only thing you're overready at giving.
22:03I'm sure Sister Glegg didn't mean that.
22:04I can see I've been overready at lending, then.
22:07Come, come, come.
22:08You have a bond for the £500 you lend me, and you get your 5% kin or no kin.
22:12Things are come to a fine pass when one sister invites another to her house just so she might be abused.
22:17Oh, Lord, Sister Glegg, don't be so quarrelsome.
22:20I declare you may take a fit getting so red in the face.
22:23There'd be no need to argue with any woman if she kept her place.
22:25My place, indeed.
22:27If some hadn't married worse than they might, I'd be treated with a different sort of respect.
22:31Softly now, Jane, be reasonable.
22:32My family's as good as yours.
22:35Indeed, it's better, for we've no damned ill-tempered women in my family.
22:39Well, I'm not going to stay a minute longer in this house.
22:43There are doors behind you.
22:45Oh, Mr. Tulliver, how can you talk so?
22:47Are you going to sit by and hear me swore it?
22:50Let her go, and the sooner the better.
22:58Oh, Sister Dean, do try and pacify her.
23:01Better not.
23:02You'll make it up another day, Mrs. Tulliver.
23:04You'll not be trying to domineer over me again.
23:07But what if she should want her money back?
23:09Oh, Mr. Tulliver, we should be ruined.
23:11There, there, Bessie.
23:12Don't take on so.
23:13It's only a squall after too much port.
23:18Dearest, should we not go in again?
23:20I'm sure neighbour Tulliver wishes to apologise.
23:22Why, you little horsey.
23:47Oh, Father, will it break her heart?
23:50Aye, it will, that.
23:53And they'll send you off to jail, where they'll cut the rest off.
23:58Why, whatever is the matter.
24:01Go on, lass.
24:02Father will take you apart.
24:04Maggie, what ails your child.
24:11You wicked, wicked girl!
24:14Just see what a fright you are!
24:16Oh!
24:17Oh, look, Sister, don't look!
24:19It's too terrible!
24:21Is the child injured?
24:22It is figgled!
24:24It is figgled!
24:25God, bless my soul.
24:27Straight to bed for you, Maggie Tulliver.
24:29Straight to bed, you wicked, wicked girl!
24:31That child will be the right of you, Bessie.
24:33She deserves a good whipping.
24:34Oh, do stop laughing, Tulliver.
24:36You'll encourage her naughtiness.
24:38She should be whipped.
24:39Now then, lad.
24:40She let me rabbits die.
24:41Oh, Tom.
24:42I hope your hair never grows back, Maggie Tulliver.
24:44Thank you, Mr.