Ordinary people have to work for a living, remember? Ordinary people pay rent. Play for Today: Rocky Marciano is Dead, Harry to squatters, BBC 1974
Give me the past any day … You were born in the gutter, you could rise up … People worshipped him as a god … They were doing it for us; they were us. ibid. Harry thumbs through old boxing magazine
He reckons he can turn me into a boxer. ibid. squatter friend
Nasty, British and short is the phrase that comes to mind. Play for Today: All Good Men, re school, BBC 1974
I left school on my 13th birthday. I went down the pit. That’s when I first became involved in the trade union movement. It’s what fed me politics all my life. ibid.
This film is based on events which took place in Leeds during the winter of 1970. Thursday February 12th 1970 … when there were twelve pennies in a shilling. Play for Today: Leeds United, by Colin Welland, BBC 1974
I wouldn’t want my time over again not for bucket of bloody bobs. ibid. woman on bus
The company has no contractual arrangements relating to incapacity to work due to sickness or injury covering your employment. ibid. employers’ commentary
The company has no contractual pension scheme covering your employment. ibid.
I’ve got a skill. A trade for life. ibid. young woman
We want a substantial increase … We want equal pay for women. And when you see how these lasses work, they bloody well deserve it. ibid. union rep
Sod the union, give us a bob! ibid. chant of branch meeting
We are at war with our union because they are incompetent, they are inept and at times they are downright bloody cowardly. But the real enemy’s still up there, the bloody masters, the most ruthless, arrogant and vindictive bosses in contemporary industrial Britain. ibid. union rep
The prospects of a national stoppage in the industry grows greater by the day. ibid. Leeds Trades Council
Wife in bed: What are you thinking?
Husband: The cellar will need clearing out. Play for Today: Sunset Across the Bay by Alan Bennett, BBC 1975
I’m not sorry to be retiring. Whittaker’s? Well I shall miss it a bit but not a right lot … The best time was when we was on war work … ibid. husband leaves factory
We’ve lived round here all our lives. Courting in the cemetery! ibid. wife
It’s like leaving a bloody battlefield. ibid. husband
That’s the trouble with flats – you never know who’s listening. ibid. wife
Anyhow, you can’t be branching out into yoghurt at our age. ibid.
I’m an independent communist now. Nothing to do with the Kremlin. Play for Today: Brassneck, Tom, BBC 1975
Quite jolly boating weather, don’t you think? Play for Today: A Passage to England by Leon Griffiths ***** Anand, BBC 1975
I’m talking of gold, Mr Onslow … It’s my uncle’s whole life savings. ibid.
First, I’m going to Army and Navy Store and buy myself a blue blazer. Then I’ll stroll down Parliament Square and have a look at mother parliament. Tea time: I’m going to Fortnum’s. ibid.
I’m afraid he’s [uncle] now as dead as a dodo. ibid.
We’re going to have to merge … They’ll be some sort of handshake of course. Tied you over. Play for Today: The Saturday Party, boss, BBC 1975
I suppose you won’t be having the party then this year. ibid. housekeeper, now redundant
I think the whole party idea is grizzly. ibid. daughter
High Voltage Drama. Play for Today: Gangsters, writer Philip Martin, starring Maurice Colbourne & Ahmed Khalil & Elizabeth Cassidy & Saeed Jaffrey & Alibe Parsons & Paul Barber & Robert Lee et al, opening caption, BBC 1975
Revenge: Blood on blood? Death on death? On and on? No. ibid. Maurice
The so-called Asian Mafia. ibid. news reporter
I know everything in this city, me. Everything in Brum that moves, breathes or speaks I know about it, and how to profit from it. ibid. Rawlinson
Why should we jeopardise all this for the sake of killing this one Kline fellow? ibid. Aslam to Rawlinson
I said I’d done the job before. I said you had a delivery round … Play for Today: Housewives’ Choice, Joyce, BBC 1976
The whole culture was designed to keep women in the home. ibid. Marcia
I am free not to be a sexual object. ibid.
I want the whole world to be a home, and no-one would be homeless. ibid.
I do with people wouldn’t invite strange men to meet me. Play for Today: Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Rita, BBC 1976
Going out has been something of a trial. ibid. woman at dinner party
I thought about going on the market meself but er somebody’s got to stop by the telephone. Play for Today: The Happy Hunting Ground, Mrs Brown, BBC 1976
That lad – got a bit of a reputation. Know what I mean? ibid. friend of father to Mrs Brown
Economics are at the root of quite a few of the world’s problems. Play for Today: Nuts in May starring Alison Steadman & Roger Sloman, writer Mike Leigh, Keith Pratt, 1976
Everything was peaceful until you came along. ibid. Mr Pratt to fellow camper
I planned to take forty-five minutes along that road and now we’re going to be late. ibid. Mr to Mrs Pratt
If everybody did that, there wouldn’t be any pebbles left. ibid.
I’m going for another walk; do you want to come? ibid.
Excuse me! Do you mind making less noise please! ibid. Keith to fellow campers
You get back to your tenements! ibid.
Rule number one is no open fires. ibid.
Come on! I’ll knock your head off! ibid.
He’ll have gotten the place at a low rent with its course red clay. It fair sucks at your feet. Play for Today: Clay, Smeddum & Greenden: Clay, daughter, BBC 1976
All he thinks about is his course bit moor. Feeding it, harrowing it, he’s cross-ploughed it twice, thrice. He coddles it as though it were his own flesh and blood. ibid. mother
She did half his work in the Tocherty parks, on that ill bit croft that sloped to the sea. ibid. Smeddum
A drowsing cluster under the moon on the harvesting cart. ibid.
I never married your father, you see. ibid. mother to sprogs
The farm of Greenden that lay west of the Tulloch by Bervie Water. It was a 40,50 acre place, the Den, wet in the bottom … ibid. Greenden