Alan Bates credited as playing...
Charles Crossley
- Charles Crossley: Every word of what I'm going to tell you is true. Though I tell it in a different way, it's always the same story. It's always the same story, but I - I change the sequence of events and I vary the climaxes a little, because I like to keep it alive. You see, I like to keep it alive. Have you ever walked the sand dunes?
- Charles Crossley: That one over there is John Blake. He'll probably open the bowling. Played for England a couple of times. He's likely to bowl straight at the batsman's head. He's not really insane. He's just magnificently bad-tempered.
- Charles Crossley: There you are.
- Anthony Fielding: Sorry, did you say something?
- Charles Crossley: That man had a wife who loved him. A rare phenomenon, wouldn't you say?
- Anthony Fielding: I presume you believe in the power of that magic.
- Charles Crossley: Oh, yes. I believe in its power. It's there.
- Charles Crossley: Religions all have to answer the same question.
- Rachel Fielding: What?
- Charles Crossley: Has the human a soul? And if he has - where does he keep it?
- Rachel Fielding: Has the Vicar any idea?
- Charles Crossley: His belief is based on speculation.
- Charles Crossley: I've always found it hard to believe that the soul is imprisoned in the body until death liberates it. Don't you think that in periods of spiritual starvation, that the soul might take refuge in a tree? A stone? Come, I'll walk with you and talk some more.
- Charles Crossley: That magician in the tailcoat gave me a terrible power over my enemies. He taught me the use - of the terror *shout*. It took me 18 years to perfect it. Now I can kill with it. Kill! Instantly.
- Charles Crossley: If I shouted for you now, you would die. As would your wife - and anyone else around here.
- Charles Crossley: Marriage in an aboriginal society is different to what it is here. Oh, yes, it's true. If a young man wants a girl for his wife, he steals some trivial possession from her, casts a spell over it, and then she finds him irresistible.
- Rachel Fielding: And does it last?
- Charles Crossley: Until death. Or until the husband leaves. Or until he deliberately relaxes the magic.
- Charles Crossley: It's the - weather. Thunderstorm weather. It makes everyone here behave more irregularly - than usual.
- Rachel Fielding: I think that Anthony is jealous of you.
- Charles Crossley: Are you happily married?
- Rachel Fielding: Possibly. What about you'?
- Charles Crossley: Could I have some sugar, please?