Main Street (Masefield Avenue)
JEFF MATTHEWS, storm-faced and tense, bangs on the front door. The house is silent for a beat, then a muffled voice.
JEFF MATTHEWS:
Owen, are you in there?
OWEN JARRETT (O.S.):
I'm just about to have a shower. What's up?
JEFF MATTHEWS:
I've got a 53. You remember what that is.
A pause. A long pause.
OWEN JARRETT (O.S.): (grimly)
…We haven't had one of them since 2007.
JEFF MATTHEWS:
I need to discuss the details with you.
OWEN JARRETT (O.S.):
Wait until I get out of the shower, and then we'll formulate a plan.
JEFF MATTHEWS: (gruffly)
Champion.
WILLIAM SUGDEN sits near the window with a weathered mug of tea, peering through the net curtains. JULIA TROUGHTON and ARCHIE MATTHEWS are with him.
WILLIAM SUGDEN:
Something's telling me—with the black clouds and the look on your Jeffrey's mush—there's gonna be eruptions tonight.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS:
I'd be like that if my family was rumbled like that. I'm not saying I condone what he's doing… but I'd do the same in the situation.
JULIA TROUGHTON:
There's talk that Oliver has a collective piece of evidence to help him.
WILLIAM SUGDEN:
That's brilliant. Maybe he can call off Jeffrey before he and the Ultimate Warriors kill them.
JULIA TROUGHTON: (tight-lipped)
Oliver's forgotten where he put it.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS: (spits his tea)
HOW... do you forget something so significant?
JULIA TROUGHTON:
I could ask you the same question, Archibald. Remember April 1972… you know, about the skeleton in your wardrobe?
WILLIAM SUGDEN: (sits forward)
What happened then? Did you kill someone?
ARCHIE MATTHEWS: (grumbling)
Oh, it doesn't matter.
JULIA TROUGHTON: (with bite)
I'm not ashamed, Archie. And I won't hide the fact that Oliver should've kept care of the evidence. But I'm not letting anyone think he did it on purpose—you know he's not that simple.
WILLIAM SUGDEN:
Why don't we all have a nice hot brew around the Café? I get a discount… and maybe you two can spill your past indiscretions to me.
JIMMY DUFFIELD (O.S.): (calling from outside)
Can I come too?
They all turn. JIMMY DUFFIELD, leaning heavily on a cane, approaches the window in his slow, shuffling walk.
JULIA TROUGHTON:
Sure, come along.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS: (groans)
We're trying to get there in minutes, not in months.
WILLIAM SUGDEN: (smirks)
We'll all be like that one day. You're 72, and you're not gonna be as mobile or quick as you think.
JIMMY DUFFIELD:
You go on without me—I'll get Peggy to wheel me.
WILLIAM SUGDEN:
If you're sure?
JIMMY DUFFIELD:
Yes, I am. Save me a drink.
WILLIAM SUGDEN:
Will do.
Certainly! Here's the next continuation of the script, leaning into Julia and Archie's argument about a secret son they left with Auntie Isobel and Uncle Bart, with William Sugden nearly catching on before being deflected.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
So— You were saying something about April 1972? I mean, if you're gonna dangle the gossip like a carrot, don't expect me not to bite.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
(Flatly)
Drop it, William.
JULIA TROUGHTON
(Sharply)
He should know. It'll all come out sometime, And you can't keep it buried forever. Especially not now.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
(Firmly)
Don't start, Julia.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Chuckling nervously)
Wait—wait—what is this? Did you two—what, rob a bank? Bury a body in the back garden?
JULIA TROUGHTON
(Quietly, trembling)
We left him. We left our son with his Auntie Isobel and Uncle Bart. We said we'd come back. But we never did.
A long, shocked silence.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Blank)
I'm sorry. What? You two had a—
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
(Firmly cutting him off)
Drop it.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
You can't just say something like that and tell me to—
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
You can, and you will.
This isn't gossip, Will. This is family history. Private.
JULIA TROUGHTON
(Voice cracking)
He was born in Carlisle Infirmary. 1971.
We weren't ready. Not for him. Not with our marriages with our partners breathing down our necks, not only with your dad threatening to disown you— So we gave him to Bart and Isobel. And Promised we'd come back when things were calmer. We never did. We never even said goodbye.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Softer)
And no one ever found out?
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
Only Roman knew. And he swore to the grave. It's about the only thing Roman was good at was keeping secrets.
JULIA TROUGHTON
Oliver doesn't know. Neither does Andrew or Barney, I've been getting letters he finally found the adress book, he knows exactly where we are and i don't know how i should feel. I wanted to tell them… but then Sarah got sick, and it just kept—piling up.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Trying to lighten the mood)
So… you're telling me that Oliver, Andrew and Barney have a brother roaming around the UK, Possibly angry and mysterious?
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
(Grim)
More than wandering. I've seen him. Twice. Once in 2012 when Sarah was ill with her Cancer and in 2018 for Roman's funeral, i thought it was a bit rich that the go fund me had rich benefactor as a donator.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
Wait—you've seen him? Does he know who he is?
JULIA TROUGHTON
He suspects. But he was told we were pretty much uninterested, Auntie Isobel said it was better for him to think that. That we were adukts kids who had a one night stand before he could remember us.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
Bloody hell...
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
Enough. That's all you're getting. We shouldn't have said this much.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Still stunned)
Does Oliver really not know?
JULIA TROUGHTON
(Quietly)
He knows something's off. He always had a strange connection with that part of the family. But he never dared to ask. He's always respected silence more than most.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Leaning back)
So what happens now?
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
Now? Now we drink our tea and pretend the past didn't punch us in the face.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Pointing at Julia's mug)
You need a top-up. And I need a slice of Battenberg after that bombshell.
JULIA TROUGHTON
Make mine strong. No sugar.
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
Mine's fine. And if anyone asks what we talked about—
We were reminiscing about the '76 FA Cup Final.
WILLIAM SUGDEN
(Smirking)
You mean the one you missed because you got drunk in Woking?
ARCHIE MATTHEWS
Exactly. Let's stick with that version.
They all share a quiet moment, heavy with memory, regret, and decades of silence. But the storm outside rages on, and so do the rumblings of the past.