Voice over visuals of radio
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
SOE Agents (Working Title)
SCENE 1. EXT. BAKER STREET LONDON 1942
___________________________________________________
SCENE 2. INT. BAKER STREET OFFICE
fade IN:
Baker Street office
MAJOR
Please be seated.
(gestures
toward chair)
NICOLE
(Sits down)
MAJOR
Thank you for coming, I have something
very important to discuss with you.
NICOLE
Is it about my husband?
MAJOR
No, why?
NICOLE.
My husband was a pilot in the Air Force.
He was shot down over France.
The letter said he was lost and presumed dead.
MAJOR
I'm sorry. How very sad
NICOLE
Yes.
What did you want me for?
MAJOR
I have been looking at your application
for the First Aid Nursing yeomanry.
NICOLE
I want to do my bit for the war effort.
MAJOR
I see your were born in France
and went to school there.
NICOLE
Yes, when I was 14 my family came to England.
Then after I completed my nursing training
I went back. I worked in a French hospital
for a couple of years, and then
came back here, just before the war.
I was thinking your knowledge of France
and your fluent French might be very useful.
NICOLE
In what way?
Well, it comes under the
heading of dangerous work.
NICOLE
You mean—spying
MAJOR
No. This is different, but in some ways
the conditions are similar. It calls
for special training, as well as special
qualifications, and, after that,
it means moving about, living,
and doing a particular job,
in enemy-occupied territory.
NICOLE
In France?
MAJOR
In France, where we are trying to make
things as unpleasant and difficult
for the Germans as possible.
Sabotage in fact - blowing up their
troop trains, railway lines, bridges
and factories. And, they don't like it.
They react violently and brutally.
NICOLE
That would suit me very well.
MAJOR
It would? Why?
NICOLE
You mentioned danger. I am prepared to
face danger - of that kind. Since
my husband's loss I have wanted to
carry on the fight, do my bit for
the war effort. If the work you give me
is worthwhile, the sort of way his was
as an airman, that’s what I want to do.
I don’t want my children growing up
in a country ruled by Nazis.
MAJOR
And who would look after your
children while you are in France?
NICOLE
Oh, they are staying with their
grandparents.
Up in Scotland where it's safer.
MAJOR
I'd like you to think this over very
seriously indeed, and let me know in
about a week, whether it's the sort
of thing you want to undertake. I don't
have to tell you that you must think
all this over alone. You must not tell
anyone about our meeting.
Security on this is absolute.
NICOLE
I don't need to think it over.
I know it's I want to do.
I can tell you that now.
MAJOR
Well, I'd like to think it over myself.
I'll write to you in about a week's time.
(stands up to show Nicole out)
___________________________________________________________________
SOE agents
SCENE 4. PREPARING TO GO TO FRANCE
____________________________________________________________
SCENE 5. EXT NIGHT COUNTRY SCENE IN FRANCE
Nicole arrives in France
fade IN: Night sky somewhere in France.
B25 aircraft passes low over a field, a parcel is dropped by parachute. Then a person is seen to parachute down.
NICOLE falls to ground wearing parachute. She press quick release on harness and starts to get up. Hears a sound and pulls out her colt 45 automatic.
She feels the barrel of LOUSA’S gun on the temple.
louisa
Drop the weapon
Nicole
(drops her gun)
louisa
The moon is round
nicole
No The moon is green
louisa
I am Louisa of the resistance
Nicole
I am Nicole.
Louisa
Come, we must go quickly before the Germans find us.
nicole
(unfolding spade)
Can you help me bury this parachute.
Louisa
Non! We will take it with us. That silk is too valuable. We can make dresses from it, or sell it at the market.
Nicole
My orders were to bury it.
They gather up the parachute.
Louisa
Come quickly, there is a car waiting.
nicole
We are not supposed to travel by car, it’s too risky.
Louisa
Aah! The resistance do it all the time. The Germans only drive on the main roads. The resistance know the back roads so well they can drive without lights.
They walk off in the direction of the car which is hidden behind some bush.
The car, a 1937 Citroen TA drives out from the bush and off into the darkness.
