Benediction

I once heard Paderewski play Bartok at Tunbridge Wells, 615 00:46:12,456 --> 00:46:14,083 but I found it rather disappointing. 616 00:46:14,125 --> 00:46:15,918 Well, what did you expect, Robbie? 617 00:46:16,794 --> 00:46:18,504 It was Tunbridge Wells. 618 00:46:20,464 --> 00:46:25,219 Come into the main house and have tea. 619 00:46:25,261 --> 00:46:27,179 May I join you, Ottoline? 620 00:46:27,221 --> 00:46:28,806 Of course. Dorothy, 621 00:46:28,848 --> 00:46:31,934 you are not a servant, but an honourable. 622 00:46:33,060 --> 00:46:36,105 Now come along, Mr Bassoon, 623 00:46:36,147 --> 00:46:41,694 and tell me what you really have against Mr Bartok. 624 00:46:41,736 --> 00:46:44,155 Not a great deal. I just don't like his music. 625 00:46:44,196 --> 00:46:47,116 <i>Oh, a word into your shell-like,</i> 626 00:46:47,158 --> 00:46:49,952 <i>she'll ask you to stay the night.</i> 627 00:46:49,994 --> 00:46:53,080 <i>She always asks attractive young men to stay the night.</i> 628 00:46:53,123 --> 00:46:56,126 <i>So lock your bedroom door</i> 629 00:46:56,168 --> 00:46:59,129 <i>or wear something very, very severe.</i> 630 00:47:09,639 --> 00:47:13,643 I thought that I might be more interesting than cocoa. 631 00:47:17,397 --> 00:47:19,441 I'm afraid I prefer cocoa. 632 00:47:21,318 --> 00:47:22,527 Sleep badly. 633 00:47:36,417 --> 00:47:41,755 <i>Dickie. Curse the Wood! It's time to go.</i> 634 00:47:41,797 --> 00:47:45,175 <i>O Christ, what's the good?</i> 635 00:47:45,217 --> 00:47:50,223 <i>We'll never take it, and it's always raining.</i> 636 00:47:50,264 --> 00:47:51,682 <i>They snipe like hell!</i> 637 00:47:51,724 --> 00:47:54,143 <i>O Dickie, don't go out!</i> 638 00:48:26,259 --> 00:48:27,969 <i>I fell asleep.</i> 639 00:48:28,011 --> 00:48:30,639 <i>Next morning, he was dead.</i> 640 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:35,018 <i>And some slight wound lay smiling on the bed.</i> 641 00:48:52,411 --> 00:48:53,828 Ivor Novello... 642 00:48:55,330 --> 00:48:57,749 of<i> Keep The Home-Fires Burning </i>fame. 643 00:48:57,791 --> 00:48:59,083 Hmm, yes. 644 00:48:59,126 --> 00:49:00,877 That loathsome little tune. 645 00:49:00,919 --> 00:49:04,131 Ah, he always writes at the top of his voice, 646 00:49:04,173 --> 00:49:06,133 but we must try to be charitable. 647 00:49:06,175 --> 00:49:09,053 Ah, Sybil, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. 648 00:49:09,094 --> 00:49:10,387 Ragtime indeed. 649 00:49:10,429 --> 00:49:11,972 Yes, I know. 650 00:49:12,014 --> 00:49:16,268 But Mr Novello plays it so well, it's almost music. 651 00:49:16,310 --> 00:49:19,479 Besides, at the moment, he's appearing in the West End 652 00:49:19,521 --> 00:49:22,858 in a very successful play called<i> The Rat.</i> 653 00:49:22,900 --> 00:49:24,401 I know. 654 00:49:24,443 --> 00:49:26,862 Someone asked me if it was autobiographical, 655 00:49:26,904 --> 00:49:28,989 but I said I wasn't sure. 656 00:49:29,031 --> 00:49:32,534 One day, Robbie, you will go too far. 657 00:49:32,576 --> 00:49:35,329 Oh, one day, Sybil, we will all go too far. 658 00:49:37,081 --> 00:49:39,458 Thank you for coming, Mr Sassoon. 659 00:49:39,500 --> 00:49:43,337 We're all very eager to hear your recitation. 660 00:49:43,378 --> 00:49:46,090 Thank you, Lady Colefax. 661 00:49:51,846 --> 00:49:56,183 Ladies and gentlemen, pray silence for 662 00:49:56,226 --> 00:50:01,231 one of our greatest poets, Mr Siegfried Sassoon. 663 00:50:14,035 --> 00:50:15,828 When I'm among a blaze of lights, 664 00:50:17,413 --> 00:50:20,250 with tawdry music and cigars 665 00:50:21,667 --> 00:50:24,337 and women dawdling through delights 666 00:50:25,546 --> 00:50:27,758 and officers in cocktail bars, 667 00:50:29,009 --> 00:50:31,177 sometimes I think of garden nights 668 00:50:33,221 --> 00:50:35,556 and elm trees nodding at the stars. 669 00:50:37,558 --> 00:50:39,853 I dream of a small fire-lit room. 670 00:50:41,187 --> 00:50:43,314 Yellow candles burning straight, 671 00:50:44,775 --> 00:50:46,735 and glowing pictures in the gloom, 672 00:50:47,736 --> 00:50:50,071 and kindly books that hold me late. 673 00:50:52,408 --> 00:50:54,075 Of things like these I choose to think 674 00:50:54,117 --> 00:50:55,702 when I can never be alone. 675 00:50:58,121 --> 00:51:00,416 And then someone says, "Another drink," 676 00:51:01,750 --> 00:51:04,753 and turns my living heart to stone. 677 00:51:10,592 --> 00:51:13,470 Hmm. 678 00:51:18,184 --> 00:51:19,768 Thank you, Mr Sassoon. 679 00:51:20,519 --> 00:51:22,854 That was very touching. 680 00:51:22,897 --> 00:51:24,231 We both thank you, Sybil, 681 00:51:24,273 --> 00:51:26,108 and now go and rejoin Lady Cunard 682 00:51:26,150 --> 00:51:27,944 before she starts launching something. 683 00:51:40,206 --