BIRDSONG
FAINT CHATTER
One, two, three.
Ah!
Ah, that's equal!
BOTH: One, two, three.
That's you! Ah, that's good. What's this here?
Uncle Robert! Making the invisible visible!
Lunch is ready. Ah! Perfect!
Thank you, Auntie Margaret.
Ah. What's going on here?
Making invisible things appear.
And then disappear, like sandwiches.
CHANTING
HE SPEAKS GERMAN
No-one comes in,
even if the building's on fire.
No-one.
This shows the Germans are working night and day,
so if tensions should rise and if conflict...
As I have been saying for some time,
it's not a question of if, Mr Tizard, it's a question of when.
I don't think that necessarily...
We have to work night and day to build up our reserves and weapons.
Even if we had enough money, we'd still never catch up.
We have to overtake them.
We have to build a death ray.
A death ray?
A ground-based weapons system
that focuses radio waves on enemy aircraft
and boils pilots to death in their cockpits in a matter of seconds.
Is such a thing possible?
I think these things, you pick the right people, then they build it,
we can make anything happen.
Let's see who's got some ideas, Sir.
I'll put out some feelers.
We'll have to disguise it somehow, keep a lid on it.
No need to alarm anyone.
And I will continue to put pressure on the director
to let me set up a new committee for aerial-weapon development.
As we know, there is a limited pot of money available.
If pacifists in the cabinet continue to...
Sorry, Professor Lindemann,
I'm afraid that committee already exists.
Excuse me? I'm sorry.
Who is chairing this committee?
I see.
I rather wished I'd done the washing now.
I was told it was going to rain.
It does look like there's change in the air.
How can you tell?
Studying the clouds,
watching how they're moving.
Barometric pressure.
Excuse me? Hello, Skip! Hi.
Sorry to disturb on your day off an' all.
We've had a telegram.
CLOCK CHIMES
KNOCK AT DOOR
You asked the impossible.
By using radio waves only,
could we raise the temperature of eight pint glasses of water
to 105-degrees Fahrenheit?
You did it? Indeed.
We were forced to make slight alterations to the test conditions.
Very slight alterations. Such as?
To achieve the desired outcome,
we reduced the distance originally proposed.
And neither did you use radio waves.
Forgive me for being a little...reductive here,
but would it be fair to say that in your experiment,
you essentially...boiled a kettle?
We failed in our objective,
but we stumbled across something altogether different.
By transmitting high-energy waves,
we think it may be possible
to deafen laboratory rats.
KNOCK AT DOOR
Hello. Yes, right, I know what you are up to.
You're worried about the Germans.
Eight pints of water equals eight pints of blood.
The distance and height specified, an aeroplane.
Ergo, you're wanting some kind of weapon
that will vaporise pilots in their cockpits, aren't you?
Sorry.
I-I haven't slept since I received your telegram.
Barely stopped work. Goodness knows what my wife must think.
I'm Robert Watson-Watt.
You told your wife about this?
Should I have?
Will you begin your presentation, please?
The thing you propose doesn't work.
It never will work. No-one will ever get it to work.
Probably cause more damage to the operator than the enemy.
So, you're here to...? Offer you something that will.
Now, I have an idea for a listening device...
Listening devices don't work. We've already built sound mirrors.
This isn't a sound mirror.
As Baldwin said, the bomber will always get through.
How exciting would it be...to prove him wrong?
It is night-time.
You're in the woods.
The enemy is out there somewhere, but you don't know exactly where.
So you tie a length of fishing line...
between two trees...
..and then you hang a bell off it.
Enemy comes along, touches the line, which rings the bell
and we know where he is.
So we use fishing line and bells to enable us to hear our enemies.
Jolly good(!)
Good. Thank you for your time, Mr...
But instead of trees...we have antennae.
And if I may... Thank you very much.
So we have radio antennae.
Now, they send out pulses...
..which are like our fishing line.
Then, if something...comes along,
then the waves bounce off.
And that rings a bell here
and then we can see them.
Thank you.
Yep.
He's an idiot. Perhaps.
But out of all the ideas we've heard today...
His is the...least idiotic?
Well, we have to do something.
Get him to give you a field demonstration.
THUNDERCLAP
I thought you said it was going to be a clear day.
That's weather for you.
Indeed. We're going again!
It's not budging!
This... This is fine.
Come on, let's get the equipment. We've got 40 minutes!
Who are you? I'm his chief assistant.
So we're tuned in on the 50-metre wavelength,
waiting for a six megahertz transmission from Daventry
with at least 10 kilowatts of power.
This man appears to be living in cloud cuckoo land.
You have absolutely no faith in him, have you?
He's building a washing line...
..in the rain.
That's going to terrify the Luftwaffe(!)
We have two aerials -
one in front, one behind.
We have a BBC transmitter sending out -
Where's the transmitter?
Over there, in Daventry.
That's sending out pulses, which get reflected down off an aircraft.
These pulses are, in effect, like our trap.
The fishing line in the woods. Exactly!
So, now we wait for something to hit it and...
..ring the bell, so to speak? Yes!
Nothing.
The receiver is tuned to Daventry, isn't it?
What are you doing?! Well, if...
Just leave it, will you?! Come on!
RADIO WAVE It's there!
It's actually there!
We saw you!
We...saw...you!
I need to get out of this field and find a telephone.
BANG!
We didn't see it till it was right on top of us.
But we saw it. We saw a plane.
Unfortunately, we can't prove it.
The trace recorder failed. Oh, no!
Well, we'll just have to do it all over again
and hope it records next time.
It did work, didn't it?
I mean, we didn't imagine that, did we?
We'll have to build our own transmitter.
This was just a test.
There are a million and one things against us.
And we will overcome them all.
Despite your lack of appropriate qualifications,
I've spoken with the Ministry
and we have recognised the success of the test
and we would like to proceed to the next stage of development.
In order to move forward,
we require you to sign the Official Secrets Act.
Thank you.
I trust the idiot boy is still in the dark about all this?
He's not an idiot.
He doesn't know what you're doing, though, does he?
No. Good.
The fewer the better.
You only need to read that the penalty for even the slightest
deviation from secrecy is...
'To be hanged by the neck until life is extinct'.
Indeed.
Rather a nice pen.
Keep it...
please.
MUSIC: ♪ I get no kick from champagne
♪ Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all
♪ So tell me why should it be true? ♪
HE WHISTLES Someone's cheery.
♪ That I get a kick out of you. ♪
Why, thank you.
I take it you had a good day?
Excellent day, Mag, a thoroughly excellent day.
I just need to finish this.
I've been struggling with this for quite some time.
Could you hold this while I fasten the clip?
Can you hold this piece here?
Got it. OK.
You genius! Well, here's hoping.
So...tell me all about your excellent day.
You've barely uttered a word about your work lately.
I'm sorry, I can't.
It's a secret.
A secret?
You're a weatherman! Not just a weatherman.
Oh, no, no, no. You fix broach clips too.
And bicycle chains. The list is endless.
So pray do tell, what's so secret?
Are we going to have a hot summer?
Should we panic-buy sun hats and the like?
I'm working for the Air Ministry.
SHE LAUGHS
No, I am.
No, I'm not joking, stop.
There's a threat. I've been asked to help.
The Government have asked YOU?
Really?
You're serious? Quite serious.
What exactly is this threat?
I'm not allowed to say.
Sorry, Mag.
I'm sorry.
HE WHISTLES
Morning.
Morning, Professor.
You seem...jolly?
Perhaps I too should whistle a happy tune?
After all, we have nothing to worry about,
aside from Hitler announcing conscription,
secretly practising war manoeuvres and building aeroplanes.
Or perhaps the lightness of your mood is related to some success
by your little committee?
We're making progress. With the death ray?
The system we're developing may help us build a defence that...
Hitler will crush.
Yes, you're right. You're absolutely right.
Good day, Professor.
HE WHISTLES
Certainly not, Professor.
Ooh, well, in that case, it's a direct order.
Tell me who Tizard's committee have met. That's classified.
I'm sorry. I apologise for my manner.
We're all working in very difficult circumstances.
I feel... May I trouble you for a glass of water?
Won't be a moment.
I'm afraid our hands are tied.
How so?
The secret nature of the project does prevent us
from taking out an advertisement in the Times.
Well, you better tell Mr Tizard that we're going to need more time.
There's only two of us here.
Close the door.
You detected a plane a few hundred yards away in a field -
that won't protect Britain.
We need to think bigger.
I'm going to make some calls to Oxford and Cambridge,
see who we can drum up.
No, I'd like to use men from the weather lab.
My dear man, if we want this to work,
we require the very best physicists and mathematicians and we find those
gentlemen not at the weather lab but at our oldest universities.
You don't think weathermen are good enough
because they don't wear the right tie and all that?
Some of your lot don't wear ties at all, do they?
Look, your little weathermen friends are all well and good,
and I'm sure they're perfectly harmless, but they simply
do not have the expertise with this particular technology.
Our best professors do.
They'll also do what they're told.
Really?
Cavendish. Shall we?
Yes, er, Cambridge 2443, please.
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University.
They'll do what they're told?
Is that Sir James Thomson? Yes, sorry to bother you, sir.
I'm calling from the Post Office. Just a wee check on the line.
Do you happen to have a container of water near your telephone?
A sink perhaps or maybe a bucket? A fish-tank!
Yes, that will suffice. Could you please pop your telephone into it?
Yes, into the fish tank.
It's the only way we can fully ensure that your equipment
is compatible with the new system.
That's excellent, sir.
HIGHPITCHED WHITE NOISE
But most folk call me Taffy. I don't know why,
Swansea's miles away from the River Taff.
I was born in Cockett, you see.
Perhaps as well they call me Taffy, eh?
I graduated from Swansea University, First Class Honours,
Msc the year after that
and completed my doctorate at King's College,
and I've been at the station in Slough ever since.
So you're an untried PhD student?
Can I ask you, will I be working for you or for him?
Oh, him.
In that case, thanks for the tie, Rob, and, er, I will take the post.
Thanks. Welcome to the team.
Are you sure these men are the right ones for the job? I'm positive.
We need free-thinkers, rule-breakers, men without ties.
These men will strive to make this thing work
DOOR KNOCKS
Higgy, very pleased you're going to join us.
Sorry, I knocked but... It's all right, come on in.
I'll pop back later if you still want me?
Mr Tizard is on his way over.
Since you won't listen to me,
perhaps you could discuss your team with him?
Sorry, sir. Sorry.
I don't want to be fobbed off with a bunch of Oxford academics
I've never even met.
These are all people I've worked with before. I trust them.
It's your team. I'm very happy for you to choose who you want.
Thank you.
Our intelligence says that Hitler has built 3,000 planes.
Passenger planes?
Two-seaters.
By the time the world wakes up to the noise that's building
in Germany it will be too late.
Your theories, experiments, tests, are all well and good, Robert,
but you need to understand that very soon German planes
may well be dropping bombs onto our homes.
There are others at the Ministry who want to channel all our efforts
into striking Germany hard and fast.
There's opposition to what we're doing?
I've managed to get you a little funding,
a base to test and experiment,
and I'm backing you every step of the way,
but we don't yet know if this thing will work.
It will.
It has to, Robert.
It HAS to.
Are you all right, Uncle Robert?
What? Er, yes, sorry.
I just fell asleep with my eyes open.
It's time I took you home. I'll get my stuff.
You look tired.
I've got to go away for a while.
Work.
The secret thing?
You'll be away from home.
For how long? I don't know.
As long as it takes for me to mess it up and get fired, I expect.
I'm sure that won't happen.
I'm not.
Is there anything I can do to help? I don't think so.
You could visit.
Not at work, of course, but we could sneak away to a wee hotel?
We can be together every other weekend or so?
I'm your wife.
This is our home.
You finish work at the same time, every day, you come home,
we have dinner, we listen to the wireless, we go to bed.
That's what we do. That's who we are.
You are not a secret Government employee
and I am not some girl who visits hotels.
We'll be together here when you've finish your work.
OK.
Professor?
You're in my office.
Tell me what Tizard and this weatherman are up to?
Tell me. They're researching a project.
That much I know. These are my private papers!
What exactly is the project?
Rowe! What is the project?
It's weather related hocus-pocus, all very dull.
Are your loyalties with me or with Henry Tizard?
Are we not all on the same side, Professor?
♪ Beside the sea
♪ Oh, I do like to walk along the prom prom prom
♪ Where the brass band plays tiddly-om-pom-pom
♪ Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside
♪ I'll be beside myself with glee
♪ And there's lots of girls beside that I'd like to be beside
♪ Beside the seaside, beside the sea. ♪
This can't be it.
I've stayed in worse.
I've lived in worse. No, this CAN'T be it.
Right, lads, are we all ready?
Oh, come on! Gently.
We've got to get the pulses strong enough to detect further away.
We need more power.
We need our pulses to go further.
Pass us that, will you? Equalise the power.
Keep your fingers crossed.
We're picking something up.
So our new transmitter is working? I wouldn't call it new.
Our "cobbled together with bits of string" transmitter.
But it works? Barely.
We are detecting a plane out there, right? Estimated a mile away.
A mile away, Mr Rowe! I assume you know this is not good enough?
Yes, it works, well done.
Now let's pretend that you've located an enemy bomber.
One. Two.
Let's also pretend it's headed in our direction.
A modern bomber flying at 200 miles an hour
covers the distance of a mile in what...20 seconds?
You really think that's enough time to pass on the information
and get our pilots airborne?
19. 20.
Exactly.
Mags!
I caught the train. Thought I'd surprise you.
How nice.
I struggled to find a little music on the wireless
with all the talk of Germany.
Yes.
It's a nice little place, isn't it?
The hotel.
Yes, it is.
Can you help me with this?
Right.
Your nephew's called round almost every day hoping you'd be back.
He's really missing you...
as am I.
It's why I had to come here
to see you.
Be with you.
That's got it.
I'll just pop this away
and then we can spend some time together.
Yes, erm...
After I've done this.
Look, why don't you go downstairs
and order a spot of dinner?
What about you?
You can order for me.
You know what I like.
And, er, I'll be with you the moment I've finished.
And then? Yes.
They're sending some supper up for you.
Oh, sorry.
So am I.
This is the future. It's soup warmed with a high-power transmitter.
Can I have your attention, please?
Sorry, sir.
Now, we've shown we can detect a plane
when it is flying right overhead,
but we need to go much further.
How do we do this?
It's obvious we have to go back to the drawing board.
This is the drawing board.
The first obstacle will be...
power.
We need more power to transmit our pulses.
And more power allows us to reach a higher frequency.
Higher frequency improves accuracy.
To increase frequency and get the range we need,
we need to increase power.
It's like inventing chicken and egg at the same time.
But we solve one and the other will fall into place,
so concentrate on cracking power.
We need better valves. We haven't got better valves.
The ones we got aren't up to it. They keep blowing.
You don't have to put your hand up, Higgy. Sorry.
The equipment, if you don't mind me saying, sir,
it's stuff left over from the Stone Age.
I think we're going to struggle, that's all.
We should have been in the navy. They're awash with cash, that lot.
Boatloads of equipment they never use.
Well, I'm sorry we haven't got the funding we need,
but if we show that this can work then that will change.
But we can't show it will work without the better equipment.
Chicken and egg. We have to be canny and clever.
It's up to us to prove that this can work. No-one else can.
I have faith in you and if we work together as a team
we will do this.
Crack power and let's make the invisible visible.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Couldn't you just ask them for the equipment? Oh, yes.
'Excuse me, we hear you have some much larger valves in your stores
'than we've got. Please can we have some?'
We'd have requests in triplicate, have them signed, countersigned.
We'd be dead by the time they approved it. IF they approved it.
Why have I got to do all the talking?
Nobody would believe a Welshy. Or a Yorkie.
Yorkshire men are reliable, unlike the Welsh. Ridiculous.
We pronounce it ridiculous.
I'm going to belt you after this.
Evening. Pass.
The Ministry have contacted you four times in the last week
without acknowledgement.
We don't need a pass. No, what we need... No entry without a pass.
We're here under direct orders from the Ministry
to find the listening equipment planted by the German agents.
Stand in our way and I'll have you arrested for treason. Understood?
Thank you.
What's the paperwork?
Just some old radio transmitter technical plans. Oh.
This stuff is amazing!
We're not out of the woods yet.
Er, this paperwork...
Ah, yes. Thank you.
Ssssh! Don't!
Just don't.
OK?
I think so.
Fingers crossed.
It's working! What is?
Better valves, more power. New valves. New valves?
New valves that arrived this morning. From where?
From friends...in the navy.
The navy sent us these?
They didn't really send them. No.
We had to pick them up.
THEY SNIGGER
We're building up to 350 kilowatts of peak power!
I wouldn't celebrate just yet.
Even with more efficient valves,
we're still not getting enough power output...
THEY LAUGH
Have you not got it yet?
You've not realised what's at stake here?
Tizard and the committee are coming at the end of the week
and we have to show progress.
Hey, we're flogging our guts out here... Looks like it.
..all day, everyday on something that'll probably never work anyway!
Well, if that's what you think you may as well go.
I mean it, go. Go on!
That applies to all of you.
Robert.
Robert Watson-Watt!
You're happy to talk, aren't you, but not as happy to listen?
That bunch of men back there are working till they drop.
Do...? No! You don't get to speak here.
You've done enough talking. You listen!
You said we're working together and we are. You're not. We are.
We're not YOUR team.
You're part of it and it's high time you rolled up your sleeves
and mucked in instead of... You think I'm not working?
You think I am not rolling up my sleeves and getting to work? I am!
From upstairs maybe, behind closed doors, away from the shop floor!
I'm dealing with everything else -
the Ministry, Tizard, Rowe - all this strife.
They're trying to get me to magic a giant rabbit out of a tiny wee hat!
They are going to come down here, the Ministry,
ask what's going on, what progress we're making?
I'm going mad with it and I can't tell Margaret or anyone because
I am supposed to be in charge of the unit and know what I'm doing!
Talk to me. Talk to me, Rob. We are all in the same boat.
You can't do this on your own.
You're part of a team, OUR team.
I'd like...to apologise to you...
..to everybody.
And...I'm sorry.
Taff?
What's that game called?
Yes! Catch it!
Jesus, he couldn't catch a cold, that one!
Here you are, Rob. ♪ Feed me now and ever more. ♪
You trying to take my head off? If I wanted to I would have done.
Oh, yeah? Yeah.
Howzat!
No, no. Come on, Taffy.
Come on, Taffy, back to the valleys!
♪ Hi-ho! ♪
Come on. I'm going to bloody kill you!
I am going to bloody kill you!
Lads! Lads!
Taff, calm down.
Where you going to go, Bell? Where you going to go?
Maybe we should start a sweep?
Come on.
Pace yourself, Taff.
You all right there, Taff?
What's he doing?
Bell! Bell!
Bell! Come on. Bell!
Our transmitters are 5,000 volts, yeah? Aye.
It produces 350 kilowatts of peak power? Aye.
I've never understood cricket.
We can't exceed that... It blows the valves.
..cos it's constantly running, it's constantly in use,
but if we do quick bursts,
like sprinting...
Recover. Sprint. Recover.
The valves have time to recover, don't they?
Aye. Yes!
Oh, let's get to it!
The PM will never spend enough to catch up.
We have to invest all our resources in building a death-ray
and take the fight to them.
That's not going to happen while Tizard's radio-locator
is being considered.
We may be able to push for our own defence committee.
Above Tizard? Naturally.
Will Baldwin listen to you?
He will.
He certainly will when you tell him
what Tizard's merry band of weathermen are actually doing.
I have a man on the inside, Winston,
one of the weatherman's team.
A saboteur?
No, he simply reports back what developments they've made.
And?
Precious few, Winston.
I'll call Baldwin...
..and you keep talking to your mole.
Ah, Bell's secret recipe.
I call it Problem Solver. It sparks the mind, you see.
It is strong that. It's got to be strong to keep the chill off.
Well, if you just wear normal clothes, like me.
WATT SPLUTTERS
THEY LAUGH
Take it off him.
WATT COUGHS
No more for you.
Mr Rowe?
♪ Row, row, row your boat
♪ Gently down the stream
♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream. ♪
Mr Rowe, what are you doing here?
I've been sent to ensure that everything will be in place
for the demonstration.
What, may I ask, are you celebrating? Life!
Progress, Mr Rowe, progress!
So you've built the thing? It works?
Not exactly. But we're well on the way.
Oh, yes. Any minute now.
And power. We've solved the power.
Although we've still got the range to deal with.
So there's no improvement in how far you can send your pulses?
There's quite a large team heading up from Whitehall
who need convincing of the worthiness of the radio locator.
If they don't have proof it works they will pull the plug.
I think we should call it a night. I agree. Gentlemen, good night.
Taff. Come on, big boy.
You can not let this Whitehall...
Here you go. I don't want it.
You cannot allow the Whitehall lot to see this backstage nonsense,
the strings, the smoke and mirrors.
They need to be dazzled with magic.
Right.
MUSIC: "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman
PHONE RINGS
Yes?
Robert, it's me.
Wha...?
Oh, are you in the middle of something?
Er, yes, erm...
Is everything all right? Yes, sorry I won't keep you.
I just wanted to talk to you about the weekend. The weekend?
You are still planning on coming home, aren't you?
Oh, I'm sorry, Mag, I can't.
Well...would you like me to come to the hotel?
Look, I'm really tied up with work.
'I don't think it's, erm... I've got some important people coming down'
to see a demonstration of something I cannot do.
'What should I do, Mags?'
Look to the sky.
Isn't that what you always do, when you're struggling?
Look to the sky, Robert.
I'd better go.
Yes.
Goodbye.
Bye.
I love you.
The ionosphere? It's a layer of the Earth's atmosphere,
a band of charged electrons and... I know what it is.
I named it, you know. Yes, yes, what about it?
We're going to use it.
OK, imagine... Excuse me.
..that this is the ionosphere, right...
And if you can you hold that.
..and my head is the Earth.
So instead of sending pulses from the Earth that go up
and across the Earth, we're sending pulses up from the Earth
and bouncing them off the ionosphere back to Earth.
Ionosphere, Earth, ionosphere.
Bouncing makes our pulses go further,
like skimming stones across water,
a water with a ceiling.
A swimming pool.
A swimming pool with a low ceiling or throwing a bottle across wet grass
or a ping-pong ball.
Anyway, that, in a nutshell, is what we're planning to do today.
Send a pulse up to the ionosphere? We did it yesterday.
We bounced it off the ionosphere 60 miles.
60 miles! Can you imagine that? And your pulse hit something?
You detected aircraft? Not exactly, no. Exactly?
At all. Right.
But there may not have been anything in the air at that particular
frequency at a particular time.
Don't worry, I've arranged for an aeroplane to be flying
through our net today, so fingers crossed this works.
Fingers crossed?
THUNDER RUMBLES
Er, gentlemen.
Apologies for the condition of this hut.
We have built a new transmitter,
which has given us increased power and efficiency,
and also increases our potential of detecting aircraft
at greater distances.
We've also used our extensive knowledge of weather systems
to send a radio pulse further than science could ever have imagined,
all this on a shoestring budget.
So...
(Where's the plane?)
(I don't know.)
Any of your Oxbridge chums know anything about weather systems?
God no!
They do know how to mix a decent martini.
This bunch of barbarians think a martini is a Greek island.
Funding, always a tricky thing.
I understand the pressures but it's chicken...chicken and egg.
Chicken and egg. If we want more eggs, we need more chickens...
..which is funding.
It's better not talking about the chickens and the eggs.
So this is quite a thing. Erm...
(Just do something.)
(You do something!)
OK.
Erm, so...
Ah, ah, can you see this?
If I could just listen there. Thank you, Higgy.
That is a bounce.
Yes, that... That is a bounce.
Thank you. That's a bounce.
We are detecting a bounce of our pulse.
That is bouncing of the ionosphere and back across the Earth!
How many miles away is that?
Err... 60 miles.
60 miles! 60 miles!
If that was an enemy aircraft, that would give us
about a 20-minute warning.
So, there, as you can see...
Help me out.
This is astonishing!
Please, come.
Do, yes. Absolutely...
Higgy, punch it up on the oscilloscope, will you?
Come for a closer look. Punch it up?
It's not the most attractive of set ups,
but there's a lot of substance, a lot of sophistication...
THEY TALK OVER ONE ANOTHER
Thank you.
They all seemed suitably impressed with your theatrics.
So we'll get the money?
Getting money for this project was hard enough
when MacDonald was Prime Minister. And now Baldwin's PM?
What's going on, Henry?
I mean, something's going on
otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Churchill's clawing his way in from the back benches.
He's persuaded the PM to let him chair a new research group
and has installed his main advisor, Professor Lindemann,
on a sub-committee, above us.
Lindemann wants to direct our funding to build
a strike force to hit Germany.
It's early days for Churchill and Lindemann but they'll be waiting.
The slightest of hiccups, they'll seize on it and shut us down.
TELEPHONE RINGS
Hello?
Yes.
The Air Ministry were impressed.
It would appear that Watson-Watt has a cunning streak of his own.
Yes, thank you.
Keep me informed of any further developments. Sir.
But yesterday wasn't a success.
We proved we can bounce a signal over long distances,
but we failed to detect
an aeroplane flying right over our heads, and why?
Calculation error? Not a chance.
Range and target? We've got something now. What?
Aircraft.
Why couldn't we see this yesterday? The equipment's not good enough.
It's the same as it was yesterday.
But now it's working.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The Air Station have confirmed our blip is one of their aircraft.
We have a moving target and it was 17 miles away!
We could tell where it's going and how fast.
We've got to celebrate!
Before we get too carried away with our success,
we have to get this working all the time, every time,
whenever the Germans fly their planes through our pulses.
That's the problem, right there, isn't it?
Our pulse works in a range of 17 miles,
but we've got thousands of miles of coastline, not just 17.
One station can't protect the entire country.
Are you all right? You look awful.
We're ready for you.
The Nazis have passed a law for 'the protection of German blood.'
It is the act of a megalomaniac...
..a man who will wage war
and systematically destroy everyone and everything in his path.
They are churning out planes day and night whilst you lot...
..are sat with your thumbs up your arses
building a castle in the bloody sky!
That may or may not work.
And now, you tell us that one castle is not enough.
I've been entrusted with overseeing your operation.
It is my neck on the block here.
You've had the money to develop this thing and now,
you would like a lot more money
to build a lot more things
that may or may not work.
You wouldn't try to protect an entire country
with just one castle, would you?
One castle.
Our enemies, they would side-step it, go around it.
So what I am proposing, if I may...
..are a series of castles,
20 miles apart, stretched out along the coastline.
Now each...
Each castle sends out a fishing line,
which individually is not that effective,
but together is like casting a net,
all working together as a group to identify enemy aircraft,
pin-pointing where they are and where they're heading.
This gives us time...
time to prepare our men, deploy our planes and build our defence.
I suggest we abandon this project
and channel our resources into attack.
We must build more bombers.
We'll never match the Luftwaffe in terms of numbers.
I think we're all agreed our resources are limited.
So limited in fact that some of your men took it upon themselves
to steal equipment from a naval base.
Or were they following your orders?
I know nothing about that. Of course not.
I believe that we should use our limited funds on defence.
Attack is our best form of defence. But people will die.
That's what happens in war!
People die!
You can't reasonably think to wage a war when no-one dies, Henry.
Given...recent history...
and what each and every one of us here in this room have witnessed...
..what would be so wrong in trying?
We are already building as many more new planes
as the government will stomach.
We can try to build a few more still...
..or we build this.
If this thing works, the planes we do have will become
much more effective.
It will give us a huge advantage over the Germans,
a crucial advantage.
But what if it doesn't?
For the time being, we will invest our money,
our faith and our prayers...
..in your castles in the sky.
Now...
go and see if you can get the bloody thing to work.
Lindemann knew about the navy equipment.
How?! I don't know.
Careful with that, lads.
Well, this is a step up.
Gentlemen, welcome to Bawdsey Manor!
APPLAUSE
We're starting again?
We have a whole new set of challenges.
We need to develop five stations,
a chain of stations stretching from here all the way down to Sussex,
covering the approach to London. Five stations? To begin with.
But we haven't got one working consistently.
You know that one is not enough. But it won't work,
not unless all of the stations are in synch,
communicating with each other, sending out the same pulses. OK.
No. We're not ready for all that!
We've got to be.
People are depending upon us, not just Ministry people,
our people. I mean, our loved ones.
Hitler is creating a force that will vastly outnumber ours.
And if Britain is ever attacked our system,
may be the only chance of levelling the playing field.
This is real. I mean, this is very real. We few in this room may
be the only people in the country who could do something about this.
Scale.
You've got to put scale up there. Scale...
And range. You think you've solved range but you haven't.
And what happens if the aircraft flies perpendicular to our pulses?
What if there is a formation of small planes?
How do we identify the target
if we have spiky noise returns on the display?
Robert!
The first round is on me but that's your lot.
I wasn't going to ask you that.
Just after you left, your wife called.
She said to wish you a happy anniversary.
SEAGULLS CRY
RADIO:..in such a way as to threaten Polish independence.
Come on...
That would inevitably start a general conflagration.
In which this country would be involved.
He's going... He's going well.
CHEERING
You know what you have to do! Come on, Taff, here we go, come on.
Come on.
CHEERING
Fellas...keep it down!
RADIO: The distribution of gas masks began tonight in all areas.
Where's Rob?
He's in the doghouse.
His wife called, he missed their anniversary. Oh...!
PHONE RINGS
Did you make it up to Margaret?
I don't know where she is.
I should be there, at home, not here.
This is a waste of time.
Not for them it's not. Their first night out in weeks,
a couple of pints...
Not this here tonight, all of it.
Rowe was right - they should have professors tasking all this,
not us. I should be at home with Margaret and eating dinner,
listening to the wireless and going to bed...
Waiting for the bombs to drop?
But we can't do this and people will die. People will die because of us
and our bloody-minded pride, and our ineptitude and our stupidity!
This will not work!
Don't say this won't work! Don't push me!
You are not allowed to give up!
We are - you're not!
Something will shift, something will happen
and we'll get our answers.
Don't you ever give up.
We just don't have time.
It's like trying to catch a shoal of fish with one line.
We need a net, a big net, multiple stations,
and that way we will solve range.
That will solve range.
We need to cover every inch of coastline.
Am I building two, for now?
Then five.
If we can make two work...
Five will be easy?
Easy?
Easier...
CLEARS THROAT
You are bloody annoying, you know?
Margaret always says that.
Ta.
Something shifts. Something happens.
So, we're almost there...
They've come to see five stations working together.
And we only have two.
They don't know that. Exactly.
You think this will work? I hope so, sir.
All five stations?
There are five? Correct?
We will show you how two stations communicating together can
detect planes at greater distances.
The planes for today's demonstration are already in the air.
Due to the obvious time constraints, gentlemen,
we have decided to go for quality rather than quantity.
All our energies are being thrown into showing
and demonstrating the capabilities of this particular station
linked to a second station just along the coast.
So I think the time is just about right.
Our two stations are now sending out pulses across the coast, like so...
..and waiting for an echo back...
..from something out there.
Something out there.
A formation of aircraft are right now just turning towards us
and heading back in our direction.
They will be called the Invading Force -
bombers, gentlemen,
which we shall detect,
heading our way, ready to drop their deadly cargo upon our heads.
Just waiting here...
The invasionary force should be due any minute...
AIRCRAFT DRONE
PILOT: Red leader, we are in position.
We've got them.
We've already heard them, with our ears.
The Invading Force have dropped their deadly cargo.
We are all dead.
As you can see, gentlemen, we're having a slight technical
issue with our first demonstration.
So, if you'd like to avail yourself
of the light refreshments we've laid on and we'll commence
with the second demonstration in 45 minutes.
Thank you.
Second demonstration?
I couldn't leave you hanging there, I had to say something.
We're going to fail twice. I've got a plan.
CHATTER
I've had concerns for some time about this radio locator.
Yes, of course, of course there are benefits
if it is proven to work, but as we've just seen...
We didn't have time to test our beautiful new receiver.
I don't think it works. What are we doing?
Old faithful! Shouldn't take long.
Will it work? Honest answer...?
How is that Lindemann up to speed on everything we do?
He asked about the five stations, straightaway,
the moment he arrived.
Lindemann has been up to speed on every problem we have ever had.
And why is it that the first person to point out
the flaws in whatever we are doing...always Higgy?
It's like he's looking for problems.
Do us a favour will you, lad? Go fetch a roll of cable,
might as well wire up the new one just in case.
Covering all bases? Aye.
We know.
What?
You've been spying on us.
II don't know what you're talking about.
It's treason.
They will hang you!
Lindemann said nothing would happen!
He said I had to do it,
that the safety of the nation depended on it!
You compromised the safety of the nation!
Sh, Rob. They're only in there.
I trusted you!
I want this to work as much as you. No, you don't!
You go on about the problems, how it's not going to work...
And if I hadn't we may not have found the faults with it until it was too late.
I want to help you build it, Rob!
You report everything back to Lindemann.
You promised the impossible.
DOOR OPENS
Did you really think they'd just leave you to get on with it?
What is going on? We can all hear a row.
Did you put a spy in my camp?!
Excuse me?
Is this just Lindemann or are you in on it too?!
I have no idea what you're talking about.
How much longer do you expect the Air Chief Marshall to wait?
I'm sorry, sir. We'll be with you in just a moment.
Two minutes.
Let us make this thing work!
Not you!
Your time is over!
Goodbye.
Chaps?
I am in favour of anything that helps us win this war -
your failure helps no-one.
MACHINE CLICKS
HE EXHALES
If you'll excuse us, gentlemen, it's time we were heading back to London.
We've got a trace. Basic on the visual display.
What range? How far away are the aircraft?
63 miles.
It's working? It's working.
We can see them 63 miles away.
Our sister base have confirmed the sighting,
five aircraft, 63 miles out heading in our direction.
That gives us 21 minutes to scramble aircraft and intercept!
Gentlemen, we have a castle in the sky.
LAUGHTER
Air Chief Marshall...
You must be very pleased?
I am indeed. Overwhelmed...indeed.
Thank you, Swingate, track 165. Five aircraft heading north.
Congratulations.
Track 165. Range 58 miles and closing.
Robert...
We are rather pleased your radio locator is working.
Despite your efforts gathering information against us?
Your mole...Higgy.
We don't need him any more.
Neither do I. He's quite dispensable.
Our radio locator is imperfect, as you know...
It's range is limited and unreliable,
and the system's not yet proven at low altitude.
We're working on that.
Germany is building new aeroplanes - smaller,
lighter aircraft that can fly lower -
they might just get under your net.
You have to prepare for such eventualities.
If you don't feel quite up to it we can call in the right people.
There's no shame in handing it over...
for the good of the country.
You have done your bit, Robert.
Have a think.
BIRDS SING
Robert?
We have to develop equipment
that could detect aircraft at lower altitudes,
equipment that's smaller, small enough to be mobile.
You've seen what we're working with - it's the size of a kitchen.
We have to shrink it, there's no other way.
We can't shrink it. Just look at the size of the valves we're using.
We'll have to build smaller valves.
How?
I don't know yet.
MUSIC PLAYS FROM WIRELESS
MUSIC: "Close Your Eyes" by Al Bowlly
♪ Close your eyes... ♪
PHONE RINGS
♪ Close your eyes... ♪
Hello? 'Robert?'
Is everything all right?
Everything's fine, yes.
I'm calling because I'm alone, listening to the wireless,
'and Al Bowlly just came on'
and the you-not-being-here-ness just hit me like a wave.
I'm listening to it.
You can hear it too? 'Yes, my darling.'
Dance with me.
Dance with you?
Yes.
'It'll feel like we're together again.'
Come on.
'Close your eyes...'
and imagine.
'You're a magician, aren't you?
'Make the invisible visible?'
'I remember dancing with you like this once - our wedding.
'All of them around us in a circle.
'All of them there yet none of them there, just you and me.'
'I need you to hold me, Robert.
'I need you with me.'
Come home.
'Please.
'When all of this is over, when all your work is done,'
come home, Robert.
Yes.
'I promise, Mags.'
WIRELESS: 'The BBC will soon be broadcasting the world's first
'high-definition television service,
'their dual-system service.
'EMI's new high-frequency 405-line television system
'and Baird's new 240-lined standard will be transmitting directly
'from London's Alexandra Palace to your businesses and your customers.'
'Operator.'
Oxford 143, please.
PHONE RINGS
Yes? 'Professor...
I need your help.'
Yes.
What's this about?
I don't know.
Hello? Now, last night...
I was thinking of walking away,
handing the whole project over to Lindemann and just going home.
And then I heard on the wireless an advertisement
for these very expensive, but wondrous televisions.
And...
METALLIC CLINKING
..they have engineered, for television, very small valves.
Smaller valves means smaller equipment,
and they've also been designed for a higher frequency
on a shorter wavelength,
which means we'll be able to stop planes flying underneath our net.
Take a look.
Don't drop it.
60MHz.
That's 100MHz.
130MHz.
We are now transmitting at a frequency of 200MHz.
Yes, yes, yes! Yes!
20 stations?
To begin with.
We'd best get started then.
I want to go home.
Not yet, Rob.
Not yet.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN ON WIRELESS: I have to tell you now
that no such undertaking has been received.
And that consequently, this country is at war with Germany.
THUNDER CRACKS
Mags!
I'm home!
Mags!
Mags.
Robert WW has arrived and this is a restricted area.
It's our show now. Get rid of him, please.
You're still here?
Your work here is finished now, Robert.
You're free to go.
Yes, thank you. I just need to see if the system works.
My pen, isn't it?
Now, if you wouldn't mind.
No, I do have to see if the system actually works.
And I need you to leave.
German bomber group, 85 miles out, south-southwest.
Track 167 WN8554.
Go ahead, Swingate.
Swingate have detected a group of aircraft approaching the channel.
Track 167 are German.
'Track 167 WN8554.'
That's them, RAF Debden. Scramble fighters to intercept.
'Calling red section, blue section, scramble east.'
Six Hurricanes heading east and climbing.
'Branscombe calling Filter Operations.'
Go ahead, Branscombe. 'Roger. Track 167'
Branscombe have detected aircraft.
Make 167 a German bomber, scramble fighters to intercept.
Darsham have picked up aircraft leaving the French coast.
My new track is 171.
'Red section, blue section,
'enemy bombers heading towards Lowestoft.'
'Red leader. Maintain angels 18.
'Your target 15 plus now at one o'clock and slightly below.'
'Red leader to red and blue section, bandits at one o'clock low,
'coming in fast. Tally ho!'
GUNFIRE
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