lie down and put her head right next to the Dansette to hear it.
Close on JENNY as she silently mouths the words along with the almost inaudible track.
12 INTERIOR: JENNY’S HOUSE - AFTERNOON
JENNY, her parents and GRAHAM are eating afternoon tea - neat fish-paste sandwiches, Battenberg cake, best china.
MARJORIE
Battenberg?
GRAHAM
Thank you. ( As MARJORIE serves, the cake breaks up .) I actually like the crust.
JACK
So where are you applying, Graham?
JENNY looks embarrassed. She knows what’s coming.
GRAHAM
I’m not sure yet.
JACK
When will you be sure? You can’t let the grass grow under your feet, young man.
GRAHAM
I might take a year off.
JENNY winces. JACK looks at him as if he’s just said he’ll take all his clothes off.
JACK
What for?
GRAHAM
( mumbling )
I don’t know. Maybe do some travelling.
JACK
Travelling? What are you, a teddy boy? Close-up of JENNY - she knows what’s coming, and can’t bear it. Beat.
JACK
( nodding at JENNY)
You know she’s going to Oxford, don’t you? If we can get her Latin up to scratch.
JENNY sighs.
So she’s studying English at Oxford while you’ll be the wandering Jew . . .
JENNY looks at him curiously. GRAHAM steels himself to speak.
GRAHAM
Mr Mellor . . . I’m not a teddy boy. I’m an homme serieux . Jeune . No.Yeah. I’m a homme jeune serieux homme .
JENNY winces again. Her father stares at GRAHAM. GRAHAM blushes.
13 EXTERIOR: JENNY’S HOUSE - EVENING
It’s the day of the youth orchestra concert. JENNY , her mother and her father are on their way out of the door. JENNY is in her school uniform, with her hair scrubbed back in a severe ponytail and is carrying her cello. JENNY opens the front door.
MARJORIE
Ooh!
MARJORIE and JENNY have seen something on the doorstep, and JENNY stoops to pick it up - a large basket of flowers.
JENNY
They’re for me!
MARJORIE
( curious )
Who are they from?
JENNY opens the card that’s attached to the handle.
JENNY
Gosh. Him.
JACK leans over JENNY and stares at the flowers in disbelief.The bunch of flowers has created in JACK the kind of panic and fear more typically associated with a biochemical attack.
JACK
What’s this?
MARJORIE
( drily, knowing the trouble this will cause )
Jack, I’m afraid Jenny has been sent some flowers from a chap.
JACK
A chap? What kind of chap?
JENNY
( patiently )
He’s wishing me luck for tonight.
JACK
Is that all he’s wishing you? Where does he get the money from?
JENNY
He earns it, I expect.
JACK
Earns it? Why isn’t he at school?
JENNY
Can we just go? Otherwise the good-luck flowers will actually be responsible for me actually missing the concert. Which would be ironic, n’est ce pas ?
JACK
I don’t like it.
MARJORIE
Objection noted. Jenny?
JENNY
Noted.
Gesturing at the flowers.
JACK
There’s got to be ten bob’s worth of luck here. That’s a bit much for a schoolgirl, isn’t it? You can’t leave it out. Even I’d burgle a house that had flowers outside. They’ll think we’re made of money.
MARJORIE puts them inside the house, shuts the door.
Thank you, Marjorie.
14 INTERIOR: COFFEE BAR - DAY
JENNY and two school friends, HAT TIE and TINA , are sitting at a table in a typical late-’50s coffee bar, sipping cappuccinos. JENNY is easily the most attractive of the three - and also, we will see, possibly the cleverest. HAT TIE is slower than the other two and a lot frumpier; TINA is pretty and sharp rather than clever. She is also the least middle-class of the three - she’s clearly a scholarship girl. They are all dressed in an unflattering and unambiguous school uniform - no attempts to disguise it with more fashionable accessories.
JENNY is holding a copy of Camus ’ The Outsider and smoking pretentiously, and seems to be practising some kind of pout. TINA starts to slurp the froth from her cappuccino with a spoon, inelegantly
Close on JENNY as she silently mouths the words along with the almost inaudible track.
12 INTERIOR: JENNY’S HOUSE - AFTERNOON
JENNY, her parents and GRAHAM are eating afternoon tea - neat fish-paste sandwiches, Battenberg cake, best china.
MARJORIE
Battenberg?
GRAHAM
Thank you. ( As MARJORIE serves, the cake breaks up .) I actually like the crust.
JACK
So where are you applying, Graham?
JENNY looks embarrassed. She knows what’s coming.
GRAHAM
I’m not sure yet.
JACK
When will you be sure? You can’t let the grass grow under your feet, young man.
GRAHAM
I might take a year off.
JENNY winces. JACK looks at him as if he’s just said he’ll take all his clothes off.
JACK
What for?
GRAHAM
( mumbling )
I don’t know. Maybe do some travelling.
JACK
Travelling? What are you, a teddy boy? Close-up of JENNY - she knows what’s coming, and can’t bear it. Beat.
JACK
( nodding at JENNY)
You know she’s going to Oxford, don’t you? If we can get her Latin up to scratch.
JENNY sighs.
So she’s studying English at Oxford while you’ll be the wandering Jew . . .
JENNY looks at him curiously. GRAHAM steels himself to speak.
GRAHAM
Mr Mellor . . . I’m not a teddy boy. I’m an homme serieux . Jeune . No.Yeah. I’m a homme jeune serieux homme .
JENNY winces again. Her father stares at GRAHAM. GRAHAM blushes.
13 EXTERIOR: JENNY’S HOUSE - EVENING
It’s the day of the youth orchestra concert. JENNY , her mother and her father are on their way out of the door. JENNY is in her school uniform, with her hair scrubbed back in a severe ponytail and is carrying her cello. JENNY opens the front door.
MARJORIE
Ooh!
MARJORIE and JENNY have seen something on the doorstep, and JENNY stoops to pick it up - a large basket of flowers.
JENNY
They’re for me!
MARJORIE
( curious )
Who are they from?
JENNY opens the card that’s attached to the handle.
JENNY
Gosh. Him.
JACK leans over JENNY and stares at the flowers in disbelief.The bunch of flowers has created in JACK the kind of panic and fear more typically associated with a biochemical attack.
JACK
What’s this?
MARJORIE
( drily, knowing the trouble this will cause )
Jack, I’m afraid Jenny has been sent some flowers from a chap.
JACK
A chap? What kind of chap?
JENNY
( patiently )
He’s wishing me luck for tonight.
JACK
Is that all he’s wishing you? Where does he get the money from?
JENNY
He earns it, I expect.
JACK
Earns it? Why isn’t he at school?
JENNY
Can we just go? Otherwise the good-luck flowers will actually be responsible for me actually missing the concert. Which would be ironic, n’est ce pas ?
JACK
I don’t like it.
MARJORIE
Objection noted. Jenny?
JENNY
Noted.
Gesturing at the flowers.
JACK
There’s got to be ten bob’s worth of luck here. That’s a bit much for a schoolgirl, isn’t it? You can’t leave it out. Even I’d burgle a house that had flowers outside. They’ll think we’re made of money.
MARJORIE puts them inside the house, shuts the door.
Thank you, Marjorie.
14 INTERIOR: COFFEE BAR - DAY
JENNY and two school friends, HAT TIE and TINA , are sitting at a table in a typical late-’50s coffee bar, sipping cappuccinos. JENNY is easily the most attractive of the three - and also, we will see, possibly the cleverest. HAT TIE is slower than the other two and a lot frumpier; TINA is pretty and sharp rather than clever. She is also the least middle-class of the three - she’s clearly a scholarship girl. They are all dressed in an unflattering and unambiguous school uniform - no attempts to disguise it with more fashionable accessories.
JENNY is holding a copy of Camus ’ The Outsider and smoking pretentiously, and seems to be practising some kind of pout. TINA starts to slurp the froth from her cappuccino with a spoon, inelegantly
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