32 Brinkburn Street

[repeated lines]

[introduction to each episode, over shots of Brinkburn Street and Number 32]

Frank:
My name is Frank, and this is my family home: 32 Brinkburn Street. It's 1931, the year before I was born, when the world was a very different place. This is the story of my family, then and now.

[Walter has been beaten up by Billy because he owes him money, but he tells Gracie that he was mugged]

Gracie:
How could you have got yourself into a mess like this?

Walter:
Me? Look, I'm the victim here. Attacked from behind. It's getting rough round these parts. Where are you going?

Gracie:
Where do you think? You *have* been paying Doctor Lloyd every month?

Walter:
What do you think I am?

[Elizabeth comes in]

Elizabeth:
Blood and sand!

Walter:
Oh, don't start, woman.

Elizabeth:
Oh, look at the state of that. You'll never get that clean. You're gonna lose that arm, I'm telling you now.

Gracie:
Keep it clean till I get back.

Elizabeth:
Gangrene. That'll be that. And if it gets hold, that's the end of him.

Gracie:
He won't get gangrene. He might well die of starvation, though.

Walter:
I'll be all right in a few days.

Gracie:
You'll be lucky if you're back to work next month. Look at the state of you.

Elizabeth:
If you don't end up deformed, I'll eat me hat.

[Frank has got out of his wheelchair and is standing at the top of the cellar steps]

Frank:
Ellie, have you seen my fishing gear?

[he pushes with his walking stick and boxes fall down the stairs; Ellie comes running]

Ellie:
Dad?

Frank:
Ah, the cavalry. Can you see if you can get my fishing rods out of that lot of mess down there? I'm going fishing tomorrow.

Ellie:
Why?

Frank:
To get more exercise - you heard the doc.

Ellie:
He didn't prescribe sitting there for hours in the cold. You can't do that any more.

Frank:
Oh, and there's carp in that canal.

Ellie:
Well it's their lucky day, then, isn't it. Come on, get in your chair.

[Frank collapses back into the chair, gasping]

Frank:
Don't get old, Ellie. Not if you don't want to be treated like a child.

Nora:
Edna at school's got a cat and a rabbit. Can *I* have a rabbit?

Walter:
Course you can - in a pie.

[Joy is upset that her affair with David is over, and is talking to Frank about it]

Frank:
My mum used to say that every woman should love at least one bad man, so that she'll know the difference when a *good* man comes along.

Frank:
Joy is a decent, kind young woman - qualities that an unscrupulous so-and-so might take advantage of.

David:
I assume you're aware that she's in the country illegally. If the authorities were to find out, it wouldn't just be *her* that would be in trouble.

Frank:
Doctor Mitchell, do you still swear the Hypocratic Oath?

David:
[puzzled] Yes.

Frank:
Whatever happened to "do no harm"?