you have hatched...
Sweeney is seventeen. He's wearing something camouflage. He's standing on the edge of a roof in a city housing estate. As he tells the story, he leaps and bounds, but he never comes down. He never comes down.
He's joined by others from the estate, kids of about his age. They can do as they please: boarding, dancing... hanging. They play out his story with him.
SWEENEY
We should'a stayed down. If we'd stayed down, we'd'a been alright. But we heard the call...
OFFICER
Get up, get up!
SWEENEY
So up we stood, and the enemy fired, and there we was bobbing up and down like a bunch'a floating corks. Like the Grand Old Duke of York's ten thousand men. Up we went, and we got shot down again.
EVERYONE
And when we were up, we were up, and when we were down, we were down, and when we were only halfway up, we were neither up nor...
SWEENEY
We should'a charged together, one almighty force... but no.
OTHERS
Go, go, go!
SWEENEY
So off we went, and the enemy fired, and there we was, ducking in and out...
OTHERS
Bobbing up and down...
OTHERS
Diving, dodging...
OTHERS
Get down, get down!
SWEENEY
It felt like standing at a grave, cos all my mates who bravely stood up tall were falling down like Humpty off a wall.
OTHERS
And all the Queen's soldiers and all the Queen's men couldn't put Humpty together again.
SWEENEY
So down I went, down in the mud, pretending I was done. I prayed and prayed, and lay dead still until those bastards won. And even then, I never moved. They look for stuff to nick. I felt some bastard walk right up and give my boot a kick. He pulled away my weapon and my heart began to race. He got so close that I could feel him breathing on my face.
ENEMY 1
Got a live one!
ENEMY 2
A live one!
ENEMY 3
Got a live one!
ENEMY 4
Let's have him!
ENEMY 5
Let's hang him!
ENEMY 6
String him up!
SOMEONE
So off they go...
SWEENEY
No!
SOMEONE
And find a tree...
SWEENEY
Please, no!
SOMEONE
And string a rope...
SWEENEY
Please! Wait!
SOMEONE
To make a noose...
SWEENEY
No! Please!
SOMEONE
And then Sweeney feels The Fear. The poor old soul jumps clear out of his wits, and in the branches of the tree he sits. He's gibbering and jabbering just like a bloody ape.
SOMEONE ELSE
He's laughing at us! Get him! Don't let him escape!
SOMEONE
So Sweeney jumped clear to the sky, a-leaping like a loon.
SWEENEY
Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such fun, and the dish ran away with the spoon, the spoon, the dish ran away with the spoon.
