♪ I go out walking after midnight ♪
♪ Out in the starlight ♪
♪ Just like we used to do ♪
♪ I'm always walking after midnight ♪
♪ Searching for you... ♪
This is a true story, but I can't believe it's really happening.
It's a murder story, too.
I can't believe my luck.
And a love story, of all strange things.
I know the murderer.
I know the murderee.
I know the time.
I know the place.
I know the motive, and I know the means.
I know who will be the foil, the fool, and the poor foal.
I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to.
You.
Always you.
You can't stop people once they start.
Please...
You can't stop people once they start creating.
It all started three weeks ago
when I flew in on a red-eye from New York.
Nobody in their right mind wants to come
to London right now.
They're afraid the crisis is going to reach a conclusion,
that everything's going to fall into chaos.
I thought I would be able to find something to write about.
See, I write fiction, but my novels...
aren't really fiction.
You have arrived at your destination.
You know, not many people rushin' in
to merry ol' London town these days.
I answered a personal ad in The New York Review of Books.
The celebrated writer Mark Asprey was offering up his apartment for a swap.
He would have been overwhelmed with responses
if it weren't for the crisis.
Instead, poor Mark ended up with my shithole in Hell's Kitchen.
Well, fuck me.
And I got the keys to his inspiring three-bedroom flat
in the heart of London.
Mr. Samson Young.
Mr. Mark Asprey here.
Checking in to see if you survived your plane trip, mate.
Make yourself at home.
Do feel free, by the way, to touch everything.
Everything in that place has inspired a book
in some way, or a million sales at least.
And I hope it does that for you. I really do.
I-I'm sorry it's not all finished.
You know, I'm refurbishing the building
but this bloody panic everywhere,
you just can't get all the stuff you need
no matter how much money you throw at the problem.
I left a copy of my third novel on the desk.
Crossbone Waters.
It never hurts to reread the classics,
for a spot of inspiration.
Your place is just phenomenal.
I had no idea this would be so...
wonderfully diminished.
As you know, my latest character lives in Hell's Kitchen,
and I think I might make him even poorer.
It's just going to be delicious, and I can't thank you enough.
Oh, I just hope you enjoy yourself.
Hey, tiger.
Oh, yes.
I do hope you get a chance to enjoy the mirrors.
I do.
Anyway, see you, mate.
If London is a pub and you want the whole story,
well, where do you go?
You go to a London pub.
Oi!
Here he is. Samson Young.
My famous American friend.
Now, here we got my boy Thelonius, Dean...
Yeah, man. Zbig, Zbig 2, Big Dred,
- Shakespeare... - Shakespeare.
Norvis, Fucker,
Bogdan, Juniper...
Yeah, that's Pepsi, Pongo, and God.
And my mate, Guy Clinch.
Nobility, he is.
Yeah, he's like cousin to the King or Queen or something.
He had a bit of trouble when he first come into the Black Cross,
but I introduced him to some faces
and now he's got a face all on his own.
Guy Clinch, Samson Young.
- Pleasure to meet you, Samson. - Sam's fine.
You know, Sam here is newly arrived.
American. Writer.
Well, fuck me.
- You all right, mon? - Yeah, loan sharks.
Loan sharks?
Keith, you really shouldn't be doing that.
What? Every time I borrowed money from you, I paid you back, didn't I?
Well, no. You've never actually paid me back.
Pleasure to meet you, Sam. Yeah, you too.
Yeah, listen. You don't loan money, do you, Sam?
No, I'm just a broke writer.
Why should they own me, right?
Yeah.
But I'm behind on me rent. Two fucking weeks.
Listen, I appreciate your trustworthy instincts.
Yeah, right.
I had to borrow a pinch from me old loan shark,
Kirk Stockist.
Trouble was, I already owed a ton for me darts training and other expenses.
I recognize the stench but not the face.
So then I had to borrow money from Ashley Royal
to pay the vig on Kirk's loan.
You've got a week.
Then you suffer.
Woulda been fine had it not have been for an unwise investment.
So now I gotta borrow money from me old mate Chick Purchase.
Trouble was, there's a bit of bad blood between us.
You know something? I'm actually fucking ecstatic,
to loan you as much as I can.
So that I can fuck you up as hard as I can when you don't pay.
Don't tickle me with that.
And, love...
it will not be over quickly.
And I promise, you will not enjoy it.
So, my advice to you...
is to celebrate while you can...
go and drop a bit on a bird?
Now, all three require payment,
immediate and in full.
Take care, love.
You don't play darts, do you, sir?
I'll give you lessons if you like.
Darts...
is destiny.
My God.
Do you have any Gauloises cigarettes?
We don't sell French fags here, darling.
Carlyle!
Come here.
Right. Now.
Go and get this lady her French snouts, will ya?
Go on. Fuck off.
Poor grieving girl?
Is the world against everything?
I've lived down the road for over a year now,
and this is the first time I've been in here.
Always wondered what it was like.
Just never had the courage.
I suppose this is...
by way of having been at a wake?
Yeah. Weren't family, was he?
Not anyone I knew very well.
Still. Does you credit.
No, shows respect, don't it?
Here we are at the event horizon of a black hole.
Anything, including matter and photons,
that pass this boundary are unable to escape.
A black veil.
It's ironic how becoming it is.
One never gets enough opportunity to wear one.
People should die more often.
What's your name, sweetheart?
Nicola Six.
What? Sex?
It's S-I-X.
Fuck off.
Thank you.
Now.
An honor...
to service you.
You all right?
Sorry. Thank you.
I must be leaving now.
You've been very kind.
Keith...
You're... You're not, are you?
A girl like that?
A girl like what?
- Well... - Mate, she's dreaming of it.
Yeah, she's begging for it.
She's just been to a funeral, Keith.
Well, then she's praying for it.
Life fucking goes on, don't it?
With Keith and Guy,
I had two promising story characters.
Two men forming a social contrast.
But none of this would have started without the girl.
There was no book without the girl.
You know, they say the first thing that will go,
with the hot sun will be the flowers.
Won't be any more flowers.
Now, I see a girl like you.
You know, bit of a beauty.
Head in the clouds, as such.
Now, me? I'm Handy Andy.
You know, I'm Mr. Fixit.
So what's your phone number, Nick?
Of all things, she lives in my building.
Remarkable.
The pain kit from Dr. Slizzard arrived in good time.
Like a box of candy.
Why can't I do it?
Why can't I just write?
I write. I'm a writer.
From the moment Nicola's thoughts began to be consecutive,
she knew two strange things.
I've always known what was going to happen next.
The second was that she must never tell anyone about the first.
Hers was a specific kind of fortune telling.
Nicola saw the death of many, many things.
She knew her young friend Dominique would fall to her death.
How painful. I was prepared for Mom and Dad.
She knew her parents would die in a plane crash.
They both died, together,
as I always knew they would.
So why love anyone?
I met the surviving pilot and slept with him.
If the crash didn't kill him, love would.
She saw the circles of concentric devastation
with London like a bull's-eye in the center of the board.
She knew that was coming.
Nicola knew when her own story ended, too.
Some minutes after midnight...
on her 30th birthday.
Guy Fawkes Day.
Her final entry.
"In the Black Cross Pub."
I found my murderer.
"I found my murderer." I met him.
"Today."
Yes? Oh, hello. My name is Samson Young.
I live downstairs.
Are you gonna sit down?
Thank you.
Okay.
So I, I read everything.
Look...
I'm a writer.
Anything I might know?
I seriously doubt it.
Listen. I believe your premonitions.
I believe you see your death.
So who's going to kill you?
I don't know.
I just know he was there yesterday.
I've always wanted to write a murder novel, but I...
was never close enough to it. I...
I-I believe I would have to be there,
recording it.
Would you let me do that?
I think you could be my masterpiece.
Yes.
I know what you're thinking.
It's a gift.
And I'm going to take it.
Regardless.
She was a great character.
A fascinating creature.
Compelling.
Self-destructive.
I had the makings
of a really snappy little thriller.
She entered the Black Cross.
She entered the pub and its murk.
She lifted her veil with both hands like a bride.
Surveyed the main actors of the scene,
and immediately she knew, with pain,
within intense recognition,
that she had found him, her murderer.
I just had a deja vu.
Nicola awoke and heard the rain,
and went back to sleep again.
Or she tried.
I want more
of that Mark Asprey.
That's what I want more of.
Not to be greedy, my love,
but you cannot expect a girl to go gentle
into that good night after having received
such an otherworldly fucking.
Come in.
Mr. Handy Andy.
Are you famous?
Everyone has their dreams.
You want a drink or something?
No, not for me, darling. Work before pleasure, innit?
But you're already quite drunk, aren't you, Keith?
Fuck me.
Keith. "Fuck me." Belches.
Fuck it!
Me fucking darts thumb.
Look.
Look, I know the knockers take the piss out of the sport these days.
But I happen to have reached the last 32
in the Duoshare Sparrow Masters.
You know, one more win and Keith Talent here
will be televised.
- You're dripping blood. - Oh.
Let me see.
Are you married?
No.
Well, me wife thinks she is.
How about children? Oh, no. No, no, no.
God, no.
Yeah, a little girl we got.
Princess. Lovely, she is.
What about you?
You know what babies do, Keith, don't you?
They ruin your figure.
And one other thing.
The man you introduced me to the other day at the Black Cross,
the posh one?
Oh, yeah.
Guy Clinch?
I'd like to meet him.
You could arrange that, couldn't you?
Have Guy call.
And do it now, please.
Is it gonna be Keith?
Well, he's kind of an animal presence, wouldn't you say?
I bet he's an animal in bed.
But animals can be trained.
Can't they?
Yes, ma'am.
You know, I went round that Nicky's house.
You know, Nicola. The one in the veil in the Black Cross.
Right. Now, I thought she might want seeing to.
What, you mean her flat?
Don't be daft.
Here.
No, she's a funny one, that one.
One minute she's coming on dead tasty.
And then the next minute, she's Lady Muck.
So, did...
Did anything happen?
Nah. Fuck all, really.
I took my leave, and she's asking about you.
The...
- About me? - Yeah.
Wants you to phone her.
How...
How exactly does she require my help?
Don't ask me, mate.
Maybe she likes her own sort.
I'm going to take a nap.
- Hello. - Do you mind?
Oh, yes.
Smashing wife.
Find out how much Keith owes...
and take care of it.
You know, I told Keith to have Guy call me.
I'm sure he will.
Keith. I couldn't ask you a favor, could I?
To look after the child for 20 minutes. It's my shift.
Of course I can..
Oh, no. I love the little one.
What you doing?
You having a little war on words, are you?
I got a book here you might like.
Have a look at this book.
Yeah, nice picture book.
Kelly, that is.
She's a vegetarian.
Oh, you want some of that? Here, go on.
That's it. Breathe it right down.
Down like a man.
You know, Guy seemed so sweet and gentle.
You know, he might be capable of loving me.
It's Guy Clinch. Is Nicola Six there, please?
Speaking.
I'm not disturbing you at all, am I?
No, no, not at all. I-I'd like your help.
If it wouldn't be too much out of... out of your way.
Do you think we could meet?
She's setting up the oldest conflict in the world.
Two men. One woman.
Someone dies.
Guy Clinch.
When he woke up in the morning, there was no life.
So life could loom up on him at any moment.
So,
Just when things were starting to finally open up between my parents and I...
they died in a plane crash.
Oh, my God. I'm sorry, Nicola.
Thank you.
That's when I joined the convent.
They sent me to work in India,
where I, worked in an orphanage there.
I take it you're married?
Yes. Yeah. Nine years now.
You must be a romantic.
- Like me. - Funny though...
Romantic life never quite matches up... somehow.
Still, one must never give up hope.
There was something I wanted to ask you.
Yeah, of course.
So when I was in the orphanage, I was friends with a little Burmese girl.
She was a few years younger than me.
We were like sisters.
And I promised her one day we would live together.
That I'd get her out.
But when I returned, I found out that she'd been adopted,
by a Saudi businessman.
Right. She had his son.
God.
And when he washed his hands of her,
she was repatriated back to Burma.
Now she's not even allowed back into England.
It's just such a mess.
Yeah.
I just figured you were the sort of person who might know someone.
Higher up.
Of course. Yeah, yeah. I can... I can...
I can definitely try.
Her name is Enola Gay.
And her son is simply known as. Little Boy.
Right.
Sorry...
Eno-Enola Gay, is it?
That's it. Nothing else. Little Boy.
Yeah.
All I know for sure is the last scene.
The car, the car tool,
the murderer waiting in his car.
The murderee walking towards him.
But I don't know how to get to the dead-end street.
Was that the car?
Guy is just so sweet.
So, it's gonna be Guy.
Well, it's his car, and he's falling in love.
It normally ends very badly with me.
Guy Clinch was a good guy.
Or a nice one, anyway.
He worked for the family business, trying to keep tabs,
on the proliferating hydra of Clinch money.
Guy wanted for nothing and lacked everything.
Guy had money, health, handsomeness, and he was lifeless.
Nice joint you got here. Yeah.
For years, he'd been trying to have a child with his wife Hope.
Excuse me.
They used to worry about the kind of world,
They were bringing their child into.
But when their prayers were answered,
they worried about what kind of child they were bringing into the world.
Guy always thought it was life he was looking for.
But it must have been death.
Keith, I've been waiting for you all morning.
Would you take Kim for a bit, please? Nah, love, fuck off.
Look, I'm fucking busy, all right? I got me darts class to teach.
She's got the hiccups, and I...
I-I'm feeling a bit dizzy.
Why, what's the matter with you?
Please.
Here, come here.
Come here, you.
I'm a dart. What kind of dart am I?
You're the finisher.
Yeah, that's right.
What does a finishing dart do? Bullseye.
You're a little angel, you are.
Come on.
Premium shot, Samson.
Imagine the dart's like a pen.
Write a love letter to treble 13.
Sealed with a kiss.
Guy Fawkes Day's coming up, Keith.
Here, darling.
You know what happened to him, right?
No?
Oh.
Then today is your lucky day.
'Cause I'm like a fucking historian, ain't I?
Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi.
He was hanged, drawn, and quartered.
And I know this might sound unpleasant.
But I might just have to fucking Guy Fawkes you.
I thought he was burned.
If they burned him...
he was already dead, weren't he?
Know what I mean?
Ashes to ashes, like, dust to dust.
What?
It's fucking dirt and worms, mate.
It's fucking dirt and worms.
One more thing.
I bought out all your debts.
So, no-one left to borrow from.
She's lovely.
The little girl.
I decided to send the first three chapters
to my long-time publisher, Missy Harter.
I knew Missy. It was right up her alley.
Callous and sensational.
She wouldn't be able to resist.
The normal accepted laws of writing are working backwards.
What started out as reality fiction
is becoming more and more unvarnished reality.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is a story.
I'm writing a story.
If I can just get the balance right.
501 up.
It's the Texas Hold'em of darts.
The rules are pretty simple.
You have to score exactly 501 points.
You go over, you bust.
Play the game!
That's about it.
Come on.
The Black Cross Pub! Tossing them out one by one!
Excuse me.
Not afraid?
Nicola used to think that she might be saved by love.
But it never happened.
She could make a man feel he was, at last, really living.
She could attract it.
She could bring love in.
- Nicola. - Couldn't send love out.
Coming.
♪ She wore an itsy bitsy ♪
Do you know the origin of the word "bikini," Keith?
You what?
Bikini, it's from the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific,
where the US conducted atomic bomb tests.
I know all about your money trouble, Keith.
And very soon...
I'm gonna give you a lot of money.
Oh, I wanna believe that you will.
Guy is supporting a foreigner and her son in their efforts to escape Burma.
Very oppressed people.
Poor, unfortunate, really.
And you, Keith, can get 30,000 just for setting things up.
Nicola, I have some, some rather bad news.
I thought that... Hello?
It's coming.
This is just a little...
to start you off.
Oh, Nicky.
Do you know what that looks like?
A gun barrel in a holster?
Exactly.
You can have the money if you don't touch.
The qualities of patience and coolness,
that I imagine you apply to your darts, Keith...
apply to me.
Nicola?
You'll find with me...
when it rains, it pours.
And when it pours...
I get rather wet.
Take this.
And this.
You don't have to do anything nasty with it, Keith.
Just props. For Guy.
Now, leave my flat.
Hello, mate. Hello, Keith.
Nicola?
Sorry. I was just changing.
Hello.
It's lovely to see you.
Look, er...
Some bad news. I made some calls.
But I didn't come up with anything in Burma.
I'm sorry.
I...
I'm not gonna stop trying. I-I haven't given up.
Well, yet.
Seems a bit stupid now, but I...
I bought you a gift. Er...
It's hardly a consolation prize, but I thought it'd be...
something to cheer you up. It's a...
It's a globe.
Obviously.
There's Burma.
Would you do me a favor? Yes, of course.
Would you please take these to a jewelry store for me and sell them?
I'm sure they'll just take advantage of me if I try to do it myself.
They were my grandmother's.
I don't know how much they're worth but I think it should be enough,
to get me a plane ticket.
It's just that I got a call from my Foreign Office friend yesterday,
and he's going to come into London to talk to me.
He's found Enola and Little Boy, but there are warlords,
and all sorts of complications,
and they need to be paid in order to get out and...
I don't know what else to do.
It's all right, it's all right.
I think I should come with you, all right?
It'll be safer.
I promised my friend I would be alone.
Well, in that case,
I'll come but I'll keep at a distance.
All right?
Look.
I'm gonna take care of everything.
Everything from here on in.
You really are a good person.
Yeah.
Let's put these back where they belong, shall we?
Oh, I'm sorry.
- I'm sorry. - I'm sorry.
Mi Mi's mother's very sick and we have to go to Hong Kong.
She would very much like to clean for you when we get back.
Don't worry.
I understand completely.
Here's a check.
I'm sorry the last one bounced.
Looks trustworthy.
What was his, er... What was his estimate?
60,000.
60,000?
Right.
Can you find out whether it's in pounds or dollars or kyat, I think.
I'm so sorry to bring you into all of this.
No, no, it's...
It's gratifying for me to help, do you understand?
We're gonna save them.
Enola and her Little Boy.
It's pounds.
Right.
Of course.
I better get back to him.
♪ So Sergeant Pepper took you ♪
♪ By surprise ♪
♪ You better see right through ♪
♪ That mother's eyes... ♪
Things are the way they are.
♪ Those freaks was right when they said... ♪
What am I supposed to do, try and stop it?
Exactly. That's what you should do.
Stop it and live.
Everyone has their dreams, don't they?
People kill for a lot of reasons.
My murderer is not gonna be a standard issue thrill kill.
Pull it off and live.
It's fixed.
If you know you're going to die, why don't you just skip town?
That wouldn't stop it.
It wouldn't change anything.
I'm just playing my part. Beginners' luck.
I always knew I'd be killed over an affair of the heart.
Passion, love... You know.
You shouldn't kiss me.
Fine.
Nicola purposely showed up late to her dinner with Keith.
Akbar!
Get her a fucking menu, will you? Double gin and tonic, please.
"I'm on a special diet."
No food.
Is there a good reason why you're late?
Did you dress up for me?
You look so handsome.
You remind me of the king of Saudi Arabia.
"I once slept," she said, "experimentally,
with the king of Saudi Arabia."
He had his men search the entire world
for the most beautiful women alive.
People do want value for their money.
Don't they, Keith?
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely they do.
The thing about the king was...
"The king never slept with the same..." same woman twice.
When I was brought to his room, he laid out two lines,
of the finest cocaine.
When I was brought to his room, he laid out the most miraculous panties.
"Knickers."
Knickers.
"Worth a fortune." Fortune.
They were absolutely weightless.
Six weeks later, there was a revolution,
and the king was dead within a year.
And soon, Keith, you'll be king, too.
If London is a spider web,
maybe I'm the fly.
Did you write that?
In my book?
To tell you the truth, I feel pretty good about my writing right now.
I think I'm doing the best work of my life.
I picked up your book.
Memoirs of a Listener.
Yeah, let's change the subject. How about that?
I'm not one of your one-dimensional characters, Sam.
You've got to get that.
I'm pretty worried that the critics are gonna call you a male fantasy figure.
I know your secret.
You do?
And what is it?
I'll race you to the finish line.
Correction.
You go first, I go second.
Remember, I have to write it.
I'm not in love with her.
Something intertwines us, but it isn't love.
With Nicola, it's the other thing.
It's death.
There's no language for pain except bad language.
The single pill in the bottle.
That's for when the living will envy the dead.
That's for the most painful condition of all.
Life.
Hello, mate. Mark.
I finished your book, and er,
I've got to say I so admire your nerve.
The endless contortions of your prose,
so brave.
You know, an autobiography is, most of the time,
just success stories.
For a man to take up his pen and tell a story, of continual failure.
Just so bloody brave.
Sales, success, and money and acclaim,
they're not the measure of an artist.
No, really, well done, mate.
- Hello? - Guy?
I'm sorry but I can't see you any more.
It's just too hard for me.
I just don't trust myself when I'm with you.
- This has to be goodbye. - Nicola, you can't.
You can't. It's not fair. I could never accept your money.
And please, don't worry about my friends in need.
Nicola, stop it.
All right? Stop it. You have to... you have to let me help you.
- Sorry. Goodbye. - Nicola.
- Keith. - I'm desperate.
Where's the fucking money...
in that?
Are you doing me, young lady?
Are you having me for a cunt?
'Cause I'm not having that.
- Keith. - I'm not having that.
The money is coming. Trust me.
I'm very good at this.
Go and see Guy.
Tell him this.
Tell him I'm pale and drawn and pining away.
And that I sit, staring at the beautiful globe,
crying, and that I'm selling off all my things.
Get out.
Hello, Keith.
Now, listen, mate, I just popped round Nicola's,
and between you and me, it don't look too shrewd, mate.
Yeah, says to me, "Don't fix this."
"Don't fix that. It's not important. What's the point? There's no point."
Says she's leaving London.
Yeah. Goin' to some place with poppies
and drug lords or something.
Y-You don't think she's gonna do that... All this, mate, it's too much.
I've never seen her so down. You know?
She just sits there, spinning that little globe thing.
As though she's been having a bit of a cry.
I'm worried she might do herself an injury.
I had a chill run through me today.
It's the feeling of life leaving me.
My breath was shallow,
and my heartbeat was really faint.
I guess I'm quitting, whether I like it or not.
But goddammit, I can't go yet.
I still don't know who you are.
But you know me.
It's in my diaries.
I know you're beautiful.
And that the entire world falls into you...
and does anything you want.
I mean, look at me.
And look at you.
I have no idea what it's like.
I can't imagine it.
You just don't understand.
Look at me.
Really?
Look at me.
No, it...
As you don't have any living family member,
to advise you, I can't allow you to do this.
- What's this? - Nothing. You're leaving tomorrow?
- I can't let you do that. - I'm sorry, Guy.
It's a bloody good thing you did,
all right, because I'm absolutely furious.
You have to take this money, all right?
You have to. I couldn't. You have to.
I couldn't.
As a little girl, Nicola did have a best friend named Enola Gay.
They were inseparable.
Enola shared in all of Nicola's schemes in domestic terrorism.
But the thing about Enola was,
she came from inside the head of Nicola Six.
It's too much for me.
She didn't exist, so she couldn't die.
♪ Everything, even life ♪
♪ Seems to be made of ♪
♪ Particles ♪
♪ Mathematically the state of ♪
♪ These particles cannot ♪
♪ Be described ♪
♪ By six numbers ♪
♪ Their position and velocity ♪
♪ But by a wave function ♪
♪ Giving them properties ♪
♪ Both the particles ♪
♪ They exist or they don't ♪
♪ And a wave can be ♪
♪ In several places at once ♪
♪ All the simple things ♪
♪ That I forgot ♪
♪ You cover me ♪
♪ You cover me... ♪
Nicola.
Please stop.
Stop it.
You know it has to.
It has to happen at least once.
You see, I can't.
I can.
Be still.
♪ You cover me ♪
Close your eyes.
How do you feel about me?
Truthfully.
The truth is you're a bad dream.
I keep thinking I'll wake up and you'll disappear.
You're so alone, Sam.
Why am I the only person with you?
People don't like to see life fading away.
It's a once in a lifetime...
Yes?
Good afternoon. I'm your new social worker.
Where's Mrs. Ovens? Is your husband at home at the moment?
Yes. He's not been well though. He's...
I'm sure you're aware of the dangers of passive smoking?
I've been passively smoking for years and it hasn't done me any harm.
I'm afraid I might have to seek an order. Order?
What?
I know we haven't got what some do, but we are trying.
Yeah, you tell her, Kath.
- You come in here... - You haven't got any money.
Certainly not enough for proper care.
There is nothing I wouldn't do for my daughter!
My God. Do you abuse your daughter?
And I can't say I like the look of that dog.
Oi! No-one talks about my dog like that!
You fuck off out of it!
What kind of care do you give people
from an office?
Get out, you evil witch!
- Get the fuck out! - Good day.
You don't let her touch you.
You are who you are. All right?
You know I'm gonna fucking kill you, don't you?
Shall we say 8:00?
This is London. There are no fields,
only fields of operation and observation.
Sorry?
I didn't say anything.
The human being can formulate a strategy for death.
Gentle or defiant.
But then death moves in completely and decides to run the show,
at some point near the end.
Nicola wasn't having any of that.
She would be running things right up to the very last second.
You know, I'm looking forward to the eclipse.
It's on my birthday.
No, no, no, no, no.
You shouldn't have come to my place.
Never should have done that.
Now I know why.
You didn't want me to see how you live.
You live like a pig.
That is so fucking out of order!
Sixty thousand Pounds.
That's more than you need
so that you could take care of all your other troubles, and clear your mind,
for what's really important.
The big one. The big one.
Yes.
TV stardom.
Televised?
See, that's where you belong.
That is where everything that you want is.
Including me.
All right?
You can have a taste now.
I said... a taste.
A taste.
Now go home.
♪ I want my MTV ♪
♪ Now look at them yo-yos ♪
♪ That's the way you do it ♪
♪ You play the guitar on the MTV ♪
♪ That ain't workin' that's the way you do it ♪
♪ Money for nothin' and chicks for free ♪
♪ Money for nothin' ♪
♪ Chicks for free ♪
♪ Money for nothin' ♪
♪ Chicks for free ♪
♪ And money for nothin'... ♪
Oh, back in the game.
The finisher!
You're quite the ballerina, Keith.
Chick.
Not-so-nice things are gonna happen
to you in here.
Hey, listen.
There's no need for that. Look, look, look, I got the money.
Look. It's right there. I even got extra for ya.
- There's even extra in there. - Go on, love. Have a look.
- Extra? - Yeah.
- Count it. - It's all there.
What?
You're a smart man.
You're a smart fucking man to bring extra.
Read all about it.
I'm fucking proud of you.
Go on, son. Have it.
Have a bang on that. Fuckin' take it!
I feel like I owe you an apology.
I want to see a man
that can handle his fucking drugs.
Don't disappoint.
- I really need a hug. - A hug?
- 'Cause the fucking floor's... - Want me to hold you or something?
You looked after me, didn't you?
I'll tell you why.
You're such a sweet, sweet fucking boy.
- Chick, Chick, Chick. - Look, look, look at me.
Look at me.
- There's no one else here. - What?
It's just you and me, man.
Go on, open your eyes.
- I got the fucking money. - Open your eyes.
- Fucking God. I had a bag of money. - Where you want it?
- Cock? - No, not the cock.
Is his name Jesus? Tell me now.
- Is your cock's name Jesus? - What?
- Chick, it is now. - It is now?
Jesus fucking Christ.
And he was nailed to the fucking cross.
- That's right. - That's a nail.
I did it all for you. Everything I've done.
On my face.
It's the sort of darts
that Robin Hood would be proud of.
I understand that in years past you threw number three for the pub, Keith.
Then boof! Here you are on a winning streak, a contender for the throne.
Yeah, that's right. It's very sweet, Tony.
You know, the pub's two top darters,
Duane Kensal and Alex O'Boye, were defeated by me very recently.
So the Duoshare comes round, and, you know, it's given me game a spirit, like.
You see, I'm oozing confidence.
May Lady Luck smile on you, Keith.
Right.
There's something about Keith when he's in this mood.
He's so confident. He's got talent, sure, but that swagger,
how long can he keep it?
And how far will it take him?
Some say there's gonna be a Chick Purchase rendezvous a la darts.
Fuck him.
We apologize sincerely for the language.
I can't believe it has taken me this long,
to realize why I felt so strange in your place,
and it's because I've kind of done this.
I could've been you before.
It's a character I wrote in my third novel, Crossbone Waters.
And for all intents and purposes, it was you.
And I cut him in the end.
The character was just too, too depressing.
Just couldn't find any truth in him.
You're not frightened to face the truth, are you, Samson?
Don't be. It doesn't serve you. It won't help.
Anyway, who am I to give advice?
Just 'cause I've sold a few more books than you.
What do I know about life and art?
Some say there's gonna be a Chick Purchase rendezvous...
I ain't playing the board, know what I mean?
Fuck him.
I'm innocent.
That's not what I hear.
Oh, yeah.
Keith.
Do you remember what it feels like to be punished?
Come here.
Oh, you know Keith has another one now?
- Really? - Yeah, oh, yeah.
Just around da corner. The rich one.
You know the one I mean.
He be doing her arse off every night.
Dark personality bitch.
What do you mean I know the one?
I'm innocent.
See, I know you covet the bitch, but she is his.
Keith is a slayer.
And one more thing, she pays him for it. What?
Keith is her toy boy.
No, she has nothing to do with Keith like that.
Don't be a fool now, man. You follow the darts?
Nicola. It is the one.
"I was the only one who ever mattered."
"M.A."
Nicola, you've killed me.
Another writer.
What happened to your apartment?
An accident.
Do you want to sit down?
What's wrong?
Yeah, I'll tell you what, Nicky.
I'm not gonna wash that for a month.
Pure filth, that was.
I'm sorry, I almost forgot you were even here.
Keith.
Hey, I'll tell you what. I'll let me self out, shall I?
Thank you. Goodnight, Keith.
So, tell me...
I'm so sorry, but...
What were you saying? Is he... Is he here all the time?
I teach him.
You...
You... You teach him. I don't understand.
I mean, it's not that he's illiterate, exactly.
I mean, he's really picking up on it.
He's doing great actually, but...
You know, I gave him his first copy of Wuthering Heights the other day.
- Just the other day. - Hold on one second.
Has he ever...
Has he ever done anything to you?
What do you mean? Has he ever tried to fuck you?
How could you even ask me that?
I'm sorry, all right. I'm so sorry. I just...
I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.
All right. I was just being jealous. That's it.
Nicola.
It's because I love you.
That's why.
I love you.
I just want to protect you. I love you.
I want you to have the keys to my flat.
Thank you.
I'll be right back.
Hi.
Hello.
It's okay.
May I touch?
Yes, please.
It's like a rock.
Yes.
The kiss of death.
Wait, wait, wait, wait...
Poisons and paralyzes.
There's something I haven't told you.
What?
I'm a virgin.
Right. Okay. Well, that's okay.
Do you... Do you... Do you want to stop?
Do you think we should stop?
No. No, it's okay.
Oh, my God.
Nicola often found herself imagining that she was going out with God.
She had slept with him once.
And once only. Then never again.
God cried in the street outside her flat.
God got Shakespeare and Dante working, as a team to write her poems.
Of course, there was another man in Nicola's life.
The Devil.
Nicola gave herself to the Devil because she wanted to make God mad.
A jealous God.
He threatened to wash his hands of the whole planet.
He promised plague and famine and terror.
He threatened to make her old and keep her that way forever.
Nicola told him to get lost.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. - What, what?
I just realized something's terribly wrong.
What, what?
There's something you have to do first.
You want me to leave my wife? I'll leave my wife.
I'll do it. I'll leave my wife. That's fine. No, no, no, no.
What, what, what?
I don't want you to leave her. I want you to tell her.
It's bad enough what we're doing.
It could harm her more if she doesn't know.
You want me to...
- Okay? - You want me to...
- You want me to tell my wife? - Okay?
Okay. Okay, that's fine.
Okay, that's fine.
Okay.
Okay, that's fine.
It's okay.
Samson, Mark.
Talk to your neighbors. Get in there.
I would. Well, I did.
This was the fifth of November.
This was horror day.
I wasn't in love with Nicola.
Something intertwined us...
but it wasn't love.
With Nicola, it was the other thing.
Death.
Happy birthday.
Did he...
Did he love you?
Did Mark write about you?
He was afraid of me.
He found a way to escape.
Without the story.
Without being in the story.
This is the dress of my dreams.
Unofficial declaration of war.
A nuclear...
Where the undefeated Chick Purchase,
will play the eighth seed Keith Talent, in the Black Cross Pub.
Good luck, Keith. You'll need it.
Probably sound more dramatic than it really is I expect but...
There's someone else.
It seems to me that there's been a need to redefine our relationship.
You should have lied about it.
Would you like to know how the story ends?
Or you could always imagine whatever you want to.
No matter what's going on in the world,
you can always imagine anything you like, and It'll make you happy.
Okay?
Package for you, sir. Oh. Thank you.
Okay, so where's the actual pub?
Pub?
You know, where's the crowd and the birds and that?
We use cutaways and just slug in fake audience reaction shots later.
There's never anybody here.
What you see at home is 100 percent TV magic.
Love is blind.
But it makes you see a blind man.
It makes you search him out with eyes of love.
After years of war and revolution,
dreams and imagination,
love is a big idea.
It's thought police.
It's a knock on the door at 3 a.m.
Love makes you bring on World War Three for a piece of ass.
Enola Gay was the plane that flew the mission to Hiroshima.
The pilot named the aircraft after his mother.
He was once her little boy.
But Little Boy was the name of the atom bomb.
It killed 50,000 people
in 120 seconds.
There's Chick.
You certainly gotta respect his style.
Well, he's got some nick, and he's got the pull.
Yeah, who's that with him?
It's Julian Neat.
Agent to the darting stars.
As always, looking fabulous, Chick!
Thanks ever so much.
Hey, baby girl.
Oh, Chick, mate.
Listen, let's say we forget any past unpleasantries?
What is a stunner of this stature doing
with a fucking trog like you?
Seriously! The mind boggles.
What is it, narcissistic personality disorder or...
Got it.
Likes to be watched.?
I love to be watched.
I would too, if I was her.
Innit, Keithy? Or is it not?
Okay, you lot.
Pre-match interview.
In five, four, three, two, one.
A real treat in store for you this evening.
To my right, the one and only.
Chick "Cock 'o the Walk" Purchase.
And to my left, Keith Talent.
So... Tony, sir, I'm Keith Talent, "The Finisher."
Right. Chick?
To be quite frank,
I just hope it's not too one-sided really, you know.
For the sake of the sport, for the sake of darts, like.
For Queen and country really.
Got it. Brilliant. Thanks, lads.
Thirty seconds, yeah?
Looking a bit out of sorts, Keith.
Keith Talent, the young upstart
from the Black Cross will throw first.
That's a fine start from Keith. He's come in with a ton 40.
- All right, Chick. - Come on, Chick.
But what does the maestro have?
What a star he is.
Whoa! You can say you don't believe it, but there we go.
That's how to start a game of darts.
Get on with it.
There's one. There's two.
And Chick is... What's Chick doing?
He's toying with him.
What a shock.
Oh! That is a schoolboy error.
This is man against boy.
This is boy against man.
Whipline throw from Purchase. Get your darts out.
Can he keep it together
on the biggest stage of his life?
Well, he's getting a bit finished off here.
I'm not sure he's really concentrating.
I'm not sure his mind's here.
He's responded remarkably well
with that treble 20 to start off the leg.
Nicola.
- I have. - Nicola. What?
I think you should come home with me now.
Please.
Nicola.
I think you should come home with me. Oh, don't be ridiculous.
Come with me!
Hey, don't be a cunt!
Hey, it's game over, mate.
Yeah, yeah. It's fucking game over.
Please, all right?
She's coming home with me.
Yeah, for more of what she got last night.
Fuck off.
Yeah. Ain't that right, girl.?
Hardly.
Keith, are you with us?
Of all the forces, love is the strangest.
Love can make a woman pick up a bus,
or can crush a man under the weight of a feather.
Or it just lets everything go on as if it was yesterday...
and will be tomorrow.
Samson, Mark.
Slightly in my cups, so I'm gonna...
say some uncomfortable things, mate.
I know you're envious on some level of me.
Many levels, probably. And I can't blame you.
But here's the thing.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what anyone writes anymore.
The time for it mattering has passed.
Truth doesn't matter anymore
and is not wanted.
Lower the flag, mate.
Anyway.
See ya.
Keith!
I'm gonna do her.
I'm gonna fucking do her.
Look what she's done to me!
Look what she's done to me! Oh, you want some?
Oh, you fucking want some, do ya?
Come on.?
Come on then! Fucking come on then!
- I lost it. - I know.
I lost it. I lost it.
Could you take him to Thatcher Tower, Golborne Road.
If you could help him upstairs, please, if you don't mind?
Look what she's done to me.
Just get out of the car, Guy.
Look at what she's done to me!
I want you to listen to me.
Get out of the car.
Look what she's done to me, Sam.
This is a true story, but I can't believe
it's really happening.
♪ I go out walking ♪
It's a murder story too.
I can't believe my luck.
It's a love story, of all strange things.
I know the murderer.
I know the murderee.
I know the time.
I know the place.
I know the motive...
and I know the means.
You.
Always you.
The equation she was working on needed love in it somewhere.
And love was dying.
It was fixed from that first moment in the Black Cross,
when she looked my way with eyes of recognition.
Please.
I should have understood that a cross has four points.
Not three.
You can't stop people once they start.
You can't stop people once they start creating.
There are two kinds of titles.
The first kind of title decides on a name or something that is already there.
The second kind of title is present all along.
It lives and breathes...
or it tries, on every page.
If love travels at the speed of light,
then it can have other powers just on the edge of the possible.
It can create impressions on those left behind.
Like a sun, trying to shine right across the universe.
It was me.
Always me.
It was me.
Joining me now in the studio is award-winning bestselling author,
Mark Asprey, with his new novel, London Fields.
It's such an honor to have you here today.
Just for a treat to our audience, could you read a little bit from your novel?
Certainly.
"After sex, she'd whisper,
"'That's what I am,
"'a black hole.
"Nothing can escape me.'
"She had the power of inspiring love
"almost everywhere.
"She received it,
"was empowered by it, and returned it,
not merely negated, but murdered."
Thank you. That was great.
You know, I'm just going through this,
and I-it doesn't sound like you.
I-It... The kind of prose it is written in,
the immediacy of the language,
the whole style of this,
it feels like a real tectonic shift that reads more like a memoir really.
This is not the voice of the Mark Asprey that we all know.
My audience, my readers...
deserve this level of authenticity.
No matter what the...
the cost to me as an artist.
And I'm prepared to shoulder that.
Buy the book.
Oh. All right.
♪ Where did you learn to run? ♪
♪ Always under the gun ♪
♪ Always a little less ♪
♪ When trying to impress ♪
♪ There's a place where you go ♪
♪ And you hide away your choices ♪
♪ While I wait for you to turn yourself around ♪
♪ And this road that you chose ♪
♪ There's a long way left to go ♪
♪ And you'll never get to where you want to be ♪
♪ At least not with me ♪
♪ You've got your vanity ♪
♪ But lack sincerity ♪
♪ How little can you say ♪
♪ Before you're on your way?
♪ There's a place where you go ♪
♪ And you hide away your choices ♪
♪ While I wait for you to turn yourself around ♪
♪ And this road that you chose ♪
♪ There's a long way left to go ♪
♪ And you'll never get to where you want to be ♪
♪ At least not with me ♪
♪ There's a place where you go ♪
♪ And you hide away your choices ♪
♪ While I wait for you to turn yourself around ♪
♪ And this road that you chose ♪
♪ There's a long way left to go ♪
♪ And you'll never get to where you want to be ♪
♪ At least not with me ♪
♪ Not with me ♪