(Dogs barking)
(Man ) No. No way, man. I ain't going back in there.
- Come on, Terence, give it a rest. - I told you, I need to be moved!
- It's booked! - Don't give me any trouble, Terence.
I am no trouble, man! I only do trouble in here!
Hands!
He's gonna hurt me!
Why won't you protect me? (Screaming)
(Terence ) Sir, the light's gone out! I need my light!
(Panting) I need some light, now.
I need some protection!
Sir! Sir! (Yelling)
(Guard) Put a bloody sock in it!
(Squeaking)
(Whimpering)
(Terence screaming)
(Woman ) Do you want to be in trouble with the school?
Do you want to be an embarrassment to me?
Jason, I'm not telling you again.
Terence?
(Gasping)
Robert Bridge, Kevin Wadham.
Ah, the psychology department's resident sceptic.
Barbara tells me you were a student of hers once upon a time.
In London, yes. She was young and anarchic and we conspired together.
- Well, she's still young and anarchic. - Of course. How can I help?
I'm...a wing governor at Northcote Prison.
Now, are you prepared to keep this under your hat before I go on?
Yes, of course.
We've had three suicides on the lifer wing in the last three months.
The thing is,
they all have been talking about the same kind of strange things happening to them.
Flickering lights, footsteps when there's nobody there...
I told Kevin this was your area - the psychology of beliefs, superstitious thinking...
Convicted criminals are not the most reliable witnesses by definition
but what have they got to gain?
There are some pretty highly strung individuals in there
and I'm just worried that this rumour mill of a ghost might get out of hand if it isn't already.
Look, I'm writing a book about a medium, a woman called Alison Mundy.
- Now, I don't know... - Robert...!
No. No, no, I'm ahead of you.
If the inmates thought there was someone coming in who was going to exorcise something,
that just might put the lid on this.
I think that's a very bad idea,
as well as cod psychology of the worst kind.
So you volunteered me?
Thanks.
Thanks a lot, Robert, thanks for trotting me out like some sort of pet.
You're not listening.
I think for all his surface rationality, Wadham thinks something odd is happening
and he's afraid to admit it.
What is going on in your head that you think I'd go to a place like that?
It's not just that it's a prison, it's the high security wing.
People have died.
People have heard things, seen things and died.
Do you think it's good idea that I go looking for this stuff?
Well, if you don't who will?.
They'll dredge up some bogus psychic out of Yellow Pages
and what will that do to the men locked up in there if something really is going on?
I wanna go there with someone genuine.
Plus, I'll be with you. You won't be on your own for a second.
(Door buzzer)
(Buzzer)
(Guard) Follow me.
Thank you.
Follow me, please.
Would you place your cross on the tray, please?
What's the story here, Terence?
You tell me, you're the one with the powers.
They say it's the atmosphere, they say it gets to you.
They should talk to Curtis, they should talk to Devlin.
I want to know what you've seen and heard, not anybody else.
Footsteps, like someone coming up behind you.
Feeling someone's eyes at the back of your head and there's no one there,
things going missing!
There's somebody evil in here and I don't mean somebody living either!
- Have you seen this person? - What's the point? They don't care.
Nobody cares about nothing in here.
Give me your hand.
It's maddening, man.
Last night I heard them again
with their pinkie feet and their pinkie tails
and then he was there in my cell!
- (Guard snorts ) - You know who, it's obvious who!
Look, he brought him here and he won't go away.
(Terence panting)
It's six o'clock, they're unlocked for association.
- (Wolf-whistles ) - (Cat calls)
- I'm quite interested in life after death. - You're living proof of it, Tango.
She's a very experienced woman. Let her do her job.
(Bell ringing)
Don't waste your time with him, love.
Terence bashed in a granny's head with a steam iron,
not exactly the answer to a maiden's birth.
He doesn't respect women.
There's plenty of us who do.
Open up! Take me back to my cell!
He's messin' me up! Take me back to my cell!
Open up this door! Open!
Open up this damn door now! Open up! Take me back to my cell!
He's messin' me up! Let me out!
Move. Move! Take me back!
Open up!
I could do with a chinwag.
You and I have a lot in common.
(Footsteps )
(Crackling)
(Footsteps continue )
(Squeaking)
(Squeaking intensifies )
I could do with a chinwag.
You and I have a lot in common.
He doesn't respect women.
There's plenty of us who do.
(Terence ) You know who, it's obvious who.
He brought him here and he won't go away.
(Barbara ) Garland? (Robert) Yeah, lan Garland.
He was in Belmarsh when I interviewed him.
You interviewed him?
For my book.
The spine's not even broken.
- Thanks a lot! - I was getting around to it.
Seven years ago he was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of three women.
- I was an expert witness for the prosecution. - That must have been pleasant for you.
He's a very disturbed and manipulative individual, Robert.
Probably got a buzz out of winding up the other prisoners.
But Alison saw a very definite figure. Even I noticed a negative energy in there.
Maybe to Alison it became something tangible.
Do you know how crappy that sounds?
It's psychology, Robert, it's hysteria.
It happens in girls' schools, convents.
Wherever people are confined, their stresses will find an outlet, physical or otherwise.
This woman has seeped into every crevice of your sense of reason.
Genuine scepticism involves openness, not blanket dismissal.
Jude!
How's the family?
m, I've just come to see Barbara actually, we're going for lunch.
Have fun.
I'm sorry that I wasn't clearer on the phone
but I'm now convinced that Garland is somehow the focus of the hauntings
and I need to have a one to one with him.
You want it to stop, don't you?
I suppose if he's prepared to talk to someone, that's productive.
Makes a change from the usual prison visitors.
The milk of human kindness types who always want to marry me or mother me.
Or both.
- I'm Alison. - I know. I'm lan.
- Would you like to be called Al or Ally... - Alison.
- Who's he? Toy boy? - Dr Robert Bridge.
Cabot University, Psychology Department.
Oh, a psychologist! I know all about those.
Daddy smacked my bottom and I was exposed to bingo when I was five years old.
Why did you say we have a lot in common?
Because we're cut from the same cloth, you and I, Alison.
You can never be normal, hm? Lead a normal life.
Neither can I, but fate's brought us together.
He's an innocent.
I was an innocent once.
I was a choirboy.
Used to go round with the collection plate in church.
- Never even took a penny. - What changed?
Oh, everything.
Everything.
It was like the voice of God.
It was like being born again.
When I was visiting my mother's grave with some flowers one bright summer's day
and I couldn't disobey it.
That was the first time the Rat Man came to me.
I had to do what he said and...
you know what he said.
Kill women.
Ah, you see! Simpatico. I knew you'd understand me.
After the first one, I thought he'd leave me alone but he didn't.
Describe what's it like when he comes to you, I want to know.
Oh, well, if you want to know...
First it's the smell.
It's like a really bad drain.
And the squeaking.
The little squeakers and squealers...
then it's all fun and games
till the Rat Man's work is done.
Why doesn't he leave you alone? What good are you to him in here?
Oh, you know what it's like, Alison.
When they have you, they won't let you go, hm?
When the spirits have hold of you, you are at their mercy.
Hm? To be totally theirs.
Their tool, their puppet, their instrument of destruction.
It's bliss, it's a high, like the best drug...
(Whispers ) The best sex.
OK, that's enough, time to go.
He likes you, Alison.
He's like me, he's starved of company in this place.
Alison...don't worry, you'll be back.
You know you will.
You wanted to have a meeting?
Yes, this is it, this is the meeting.
- Alison, Barbara. - Yes, we've met.
I really hope you can help us.
- What do you know about the Rat Man? - Oh! Dear God.
That whole Rat Man thing was a concoction by Garland at the time of the trial.
Akin to "the Devil or Marilyn Manson made me do it,"
in an attempt to get a cushier stay in a psychiatric unit.
The police thought so and the jury thought so.
I'm impressed he's kept up the act.
But the Rat Man wasn't a fabrication, he was a real person?
Chapter Six. Albert Pannhausen, nicknamed the Rat Man,
a multiple murderer hanged in 1948.
He was a church warden, he ran a lodging house.
He'd scour the streets for homeless girls and give them a place to stay,
professing an act of Christian charity.
In fact, he'd imprison, torture and finally murder them.
By profession he was a rat catcher
and he used the rats in his sadistic tortures.
He considered the rats were, like him, "agents of God in wiping sin from the earth,"
and sin, as we all know started with Eve.
He used to turn up the wireless to cover the noises
even though they were gagged.
Ironically, that's how he was caught
a neighbour complaining about the radio.
But if the Rat Man is controlling Garland is he really responsible for his actions?
Don't excuse his acts by believing it has anything to do with the spirit world, please.
- Nobody's excusing anything. - Good.
Because lan Garland is just a boring little man.
Like most sexual predators he doesn't savour fine Chianti and go to the opera.
He has no empathy and no charm.
Just an overwhelming ego to satisfy and he doesn't give a shit.
He scared you, didn't he?
Yes. He still does.
He scares me too.
May I?
Thank you, Robert.
(lan ) You have to look after your mental health in this place.
He's never going to leave you alone, is he?
I'm doing you a favour, Terence.
Let's both be realistic.
There are ways to make the pain go away.
You know that.
I do like a nice plum duff, do you like plum duff?
(Squeaking)
Albert Pannhausen ate a hearty breakfast of eggs and black pudding
on the day of his execution.
He polished his shoes fastidiously before his walk to the gallows.
Unrepentant to last, as the prison chaplain intoned a prayer,
he drowned him out with a loud rendition of the Sunday school hymn Jesus Loves Me,
cut off only when the merciless trap was thrown.
(Ian ) To be totally theirs,
their tool, their puppet, their instrument of destruction...
It's bliss.
- Sorry. - It's OK.
(Child shouting) I want an ice-cream! I want an ice-cream!
(Barbara ) Sorry about this but I couldn't tell you earlier.
- I promised faithfully I wouldn't say, but... - Say what?
Jude, she's in a hell of a state. It looks like Clive has left her
for a younger, prettier model.
God! I always knew that bloke was a wanker!
Apparently he fell uncontrollably in love, he felt he had to follow his heart.
He's got a newborn kid for Christ's sake he's not an 18 year old.
- But she kicked him out? - No, he left. He's moved in with her, this...
- I don't wanna think about it. - How is she?
Pretty rough, really.
She needs a shoulder to cry on, poor thing.
- Well, thank God she's got you. - That's not what I meant.
I know it isn't.
(Door slams shut)
(Birds cawing)
(Door closes )
(Tapping)
What's the matter?
What's happened?
- You don't have to come, I'll go alone. - Now you're being ridiculous.
- What can you possibly hope to achieve? - Robert, I don't know what to say to you.
You're the one who persuaded me to go there in the first place.
Well now it's different. I'm worried about what this is gonna do to you.
(lan ) I had a nice dream last night.
- You were in it, funnily enough. - You weren't in mine.
Really?
I wrote it down, you can read it if you want.
Do you want to read it?
You can correct the spelling, I've no doubt.
Might be a few words you haven't come across before, mind.
No matter what you've done and no matter how much I despise you,
I'd still like you to be free.
Why? Because you can't be?
Negative self reinforcement I'd say, wouldn't you, Doctor?
But you are a bit of a martyr, aren't you...essentially.
You know nothing about me.
No, but he does.
Nothing's hidden from him.
He comes from the sewers, he sees into the dirt of the soul...
through the bone and the flesh into what you really are,
and he knows exactly who deserves to live and who deserves to die.
Do you deserve to live, Alison, do you think?
(Chuckles ) Just curious.
You're talking about yourself.
You're the one who doesn't believe that they deserve to live.
(lan, chuckling) Are you taking lessons from him now?
Stick to the tarot cards, if I was you.
You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what it's like
to have someone clinging to you and they won't go away.
They're just there, you carry them around like a weight
and they just pass over you.
What happened that day when you were taking flowers to your mother's grave?
Let's talk about those scars on your wrists.
- How far do they go up your forearm? - What put you in that place,
what opened the door that let him in?
What other scars are there elsewhere, I wonder?
- Why did he choose you? - No, I'm just...
trying to imagine.
Legs...
hips...
thighs...
genitalia?
- Or did you choose him? - Yes.
You carry those wounds around with you
so nobody knows what Alison really is.
Someone who hurts...
but it doesn't hurt enough.
Someone who's touched death...
because deep down, you think that's where you really belong.
- Alison? - (Chuckling) You're precious, you are.
Do you know that? You can smell it off you.
Another victim, another bashed up wife. It's written all over you.
I survived. I got through, which is more than what you've done.
Look at you!
You're in here because you need him, you cling to him, not the other way round.
That's the truth, isn't it?
Bruises, black eyes, tears at bedtime.
Ah...
That's why he likes you.
That's why he's coming.
Oh, the Rat Man's taken a shine to you.
(Buzzing)
You're just his type, do you know that?
- (Robert) Alison, stop now. - No!
I'm not like you.
You're weak, you need him.
I'm strong. How does that feel, that a woman's stronger than you?
- (Faint buzzing) - He's coming.
Do you hear him?
Yes, I do, I do, I do.
(Footsteps )
(Buzzing and squeaking intensify )
You've come to fight his battle, is that what you always do?
When it all gets too much,
when lovelessness and rejection
make him want to take it out on an innocent woman.
- (Whimpering) - You don't need him, he needs you.
You fixed on him because he's weak.
He wants you because evil is power and without power he's nothing!
- Let's get out of here now! - (lan ) You think I'm afraid?
I'm not afraid of you, you whore!
It's your job to be afraid!
All of you!
What's he looking for inside you, Alison?
What's he going to find
when he's cut you open?
(Footsteps )
(lan, whimpering) Don't listen to her, I'm strong.
I... (Snorts )
I've done everything for you.
Everything you've asked.
(Sobbing) I've never let you down.
I won't let you down, ever, you know that.
Please! P...Please...
give me another chance.
(lan ) # Jesus loves me this I know
♪ For the Bible tells me so
♪ Little ones to him belong...
♪ They are weak and he is strong
♪ Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me
♪ Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so ♪
(Soft clattering)
Too many things, Barb, too much stuff.
(Barbara ) We all get to points in our life when we're drawn to things that make us feel secure.
I feel more insecure every day.
(Sighs )
How much do we ever know about other people?
Even about ourselves?
This is about Jude, isn't it?
Why don't you go around and see her?
(Sighs )
I can't do that, Barb, don't ask me to do that.
(Gurgling)
(Squeaking)
(Flies buzzing)
(Squeaking continues )
(Panting)
(Phone )
Yeah?
- (Alison ) He's here, he's here. - What? Alison?
Alison? Alison?
(Squeaking)
(Squeaking intensifies )
(Rattling)
( # Fanfare on radio )
( # 1940s style show music)
(Cheering, radio show presenter chattering)
(Horns hooting)
- (Radio ) Ahoy there. - (Cheering and applause )
You know the funny thing about me...
(Man talking on radio )
Lorraine shook her head when I asked her.
(Laughter)
- The barge. - Barge, boss? What barge?
Cab-barge. We're having sprouts today.
Well now I must get cracking. Here's the orders for the day.
5am... Show a leg, don't like the look of it, put it back again.
(Laughter)
Ten o'clock, cup of tea served with twin hammocks.
(Laughter)
- 10..05, wake up. - (Laughter)
- 11am... Send the captain's letters... - (Laughter)
- ..and copy out all the new words. - (Laughter)
- 12 noon, manicure big toe with anchor. - (Laughter)
1..05, cast off the buoy and tie up the girl.
(Laughter)
- 2pm... Come in. - (Woman ) Good morning?
- (Man ) What a beautiful broadside. - (Laughter)
(Woman ) Can you give me a light? (Man ) Certainly.
(Radio show continues, indistinct)
(Banging on door)
Alison!
(Radio show continues)
- Jesus! - (Dog barking)
Alison!
(Phone beeping)
(Alison ) Robert?
It's OK.
You're safe.
He could have killed me but he chose not to.
He came to thank me for setting him free.
There are some things that I've never talked about.
There some things that it's too difficult to talk about.
I know.
Sometimes it's like the place that you're from...is like a net.
It supports you, but it's full of holes
and at anytime it could open up and swallow you,
do you know what I mean?
If you had the chance to go back...
to a time when something happened, to hurt and pain, to sort it out,
would you, or would you just leave it?
It's not about changing the past if you're unhappy,
it's about changing the person you are now and...the person you're going to be.
Easy, then.
(Doorbell)
I'm busy, Robert.
- Can I come inside? - No.
And why not?
Because I've got enough troubles without you gloating.
How am I gloating?
I came to see if you're OK, don't accuse me of doing anything wrong.
No you never do anything wrong, do you? You're always in the right.
- Well, do you know how boring that was? - You don't have to take your pain out on me.
Don't patronise me! Is your life...was our life so perfect?
No, Jude, nothing is perfect.
I didn't come here to resurrect the past, so why are you?
You always have all the words, don't you, Robert?
I hate arguing with you. You make me feel so stupid.
Jude, please.
I'm sorry. Please...
ask me to come in.