English Literature / Drama GCSE: Plot: Blood Brothers by Willy Russell

MICKEY:Are you soft?

NARRATOR:'In a northern town, two boys…'

EDWARD:You say some smashing things, don't you?

NARRATOR:'one rich, one poor…'

MICKEY:What's your birthday?

EDWARD:July the 18th.

NARRATOR:'are about to become best friends…'

MICKEY:Hey! We were born on the same day.

NARRATOR:'unaware that they are really twin brothers.

NARRATOR:'Welcome to the plot of Blood Brothers.

NARRATOR:'The beginning of the story is its end. In a town hall, two twin brothers lie dead. The boys' mother tells how the tragedy unfolded.'

MRS JOHNSTONE:The seeds were sewn way back when I was 25.

MRS JOHNSTONE:Single mum, seven kids, completely skint. You can't stop the milk. I need the milk, I'm pregnant.

MILKMAN:Don't look at me love. I might be a milkman, but it's got nothing to do with me. Now you've been told. No money, no milk!

MRS JOHNSTONE:All I had was a cleaning job for a wealthy couple, who had a different set of problems.

MRS LYONS:'I couldn't get pregnant.'

MRS LYONS:And then I heard Mrs. Johnstone was pregnant with twins.

MRS LYONS:She couldn't afford to raise them, so… I offered to secretly take one of the babies. Raise it as my own.

MRS JOHNSTONE:If my child was raised in a palace like this one, he wouldn't have to worry where his next meal was coming from.

MRS LYONS:So, we made a secret pact that she would hand the baby over.

NARRATOR:-'But when the babies are born, Mrs. Johnstone begins to have second thoughts.'

MRS JOHNSTONE:Couldn't I keep them? Just for a few more days, please? Please, they're a pair. They go together.

MRS LYONS:My husband is due back tomorrow, Mrs. Johnstone.

MRS LYONS:I must have my baby. We made an agreement. A bargain. You swore on the bible.

NARRATOR:-'But despite handing over the baby, Mrs. Johnstone can't contain her maternal feelings.'

MRS JOHNSTONE:One day when I'm cleaning, I pick up the baby. Mrs. Lyons, she can't face me fussing with him. So she sacks me.

MRS JOHNSTONE:I want to tell, but she gives me a dead scary warning.

MRS LYONS:You do know what they say about twins secretly parted, don't you?

MRS JOHNSTONE:What? What?

MRS LYONS:They-- They say that if either twin learns if he was once a pair, They shall both immediately die.

NARRATOR:'So the two twins are raised in different houses. Both unaware of each other's existence.

MICKEY:So, I was up playing around the posh houses, when I meet this soft kid.

EDWARD:Do you want to come and play?

MICKEY:Might do. But I'm not playing now, 'cause I'm p[BLEEP]ed off.

EDWARD:[BLEEP]ed off. You say some smashing things, don't you?

MICKEY:'And he's alright.'

MICKEY:Turns out we share the same birthday. So we become blood brothers.

MICKEY:See? This means that we're blood brothers. And that we always have to stand by each other. Now… You say after me. I will always defend my brother.

NARRATOR:'As soon as the mothers hear of their meeting, they ban the duo from seeing each other. Ever.'

EDWARD:But, we're friends. So we keep on meeting in secret. Together with a girl called Linda. Then, my mother finds out and she insists we move house.

MRS LYONS:We have got to move, Richard.

MRS LYONS:Because if we stay here, I feel that something terrible will happen. Something bad.

NARRATOR:'When Edward is caught throwing stones through some windows, his father's finally persuaded to relocate the family.

MRS JOHNSTONE:So, Edward's moving to the country. But before he goes, as a parting gift… I give him a secret prezzie. Would you like a picture of Mickey to take with ya, so you can remember him?

EDWARD:Yes, please.

NARRATOR:'Move forward seven years, and the same locket helps get Edward suspended from boarding school.

EDWARD:One of the teachers asked for a look at the locket but I wouldn't let him. Swore at him.

EDWARD:Course, then my mother gets holds of it. When she saw Mickey's picture inside, she completely freaked out.

MRS LYONS:Where did you get that locket from, Edward?

MRS LYONS:Why do you wear it?

NARRATOR:'Meanwhile, the Johnstone's have been rehoused. As fate would have it, just down the road.'

MICKEY:Course, it's only a matter of time before I bump into Eddie.

MICKEY:'We become best mates again.'

MICKEY:Hanging out with Linda, going to the movies.

NARRATOR:'The boys renewed friendship causes a guilty Mrs. Lyons to confront Mrs. Johnstone.'

MRS LYONS:Wherever I go, you will be just behind me. I know that now. Always and for ever and ever, like Like a shadow!

MRS JOHNSTONE:I think the guilt of what we'd done kinda made her flip. She tried to bribe me to move house. Crackers! And then she attacked me! With a knife! Mad, completely mad.

NARRATOR:'Meanwhile, the friendship of Edward, Mickey, and Linda becomes tighter and tighter.'

EDWARD:So, I'm just about to go to University when I realise

EDWARD:that I'm in love with Linda. But, Mickey and her are so much better suited. In the end I… I get him to ask her out.

EDWARD:Would you talk to Linda?

LINDA:Oh, Eddie!

EDWARD:Go on, go on!

MICKEY:Well, the thing is Linda I–

MICKEY:Oh, Linda for Christ's sake, will you go out with me?

LINDA:Yeah!

NARRATOR:'Whilst Eddie is at uni, Mickey and Linda get pregnant, then married.'

MICKEY:And then disaster strikes. I lose me job. I hated it but I can't get another.

MICKEY:Then when I see Edward, he says the most stupid thing.

EDWARD:Why-- Why's a job so important? If I couldn't get a job, I'd just say sod it, and draw the dole. Live like a bohemian. Tilt my hat to the world and say, "Screw you".

MICKEY:'Can't believe he said that.'

MICKEY:Stuck in uni in his ivory tower. He has no idea what the real world is like.

MICKEY:So I told him.

MICKEY:Eddie. Just do me a favour. And [BLEEP] off, will ya.

LINDA:'So Edward [BLEEP]ed off, and then he comes to find me.'

LINDA:Tells me he's in love with me.

LINDA:And I love him, in a way.

LINDA:But I'm newly-wed, and pregnant.

NARRATOR:'Meanwhile, desperate for cash, Mickey agrees to be a look out on a robbery his brother Sammy is planning.'

MICKEY:The robbery's a disaster. Sammy shoots someone, and I end up going to prison for seven years.

MICKEY:Can't cope.

MICKEY:'End up getting addicted to anti-depressants.'

LINDA:He gets out early for good behaviour.

LINDA:But he's not the same.

MRS JOHNSTONE:We gotta do something about him. He's been out for months and he's still taking those pills.

MRS JOHNSTONE:Linda, he needs a job. You two need a place of your own, and–

LINDA:Mam. So I turned to the one person I know who can help. Edward.

LINDA:He's on the housing committee.

NARRATOR:'But the intervention has an unexpected outcome. Linda and Edward begin to have a relationship.

MRS JOHNSTONE:It's just two fools who know the rules and break them all. And grasp at half a chance to play their part in a light romance.

MICKEY:Then I find out from Mrs. Lyons, that Linda and Eddie are carrying on.

MICKEY:And I lose it. Go and find Sammy's gun.

MICKEY:And I turn up at Eddie's work.

MICKEY:There was one thing left in my life. Just one thing I had left, Eddie.

MICKEY:Linda.

MICKEY:And I wanted to keep her.

NARRATOR:'As she attempts to disarm her son, Mrs. Johnstone tries to intervene, But can't stop the tragedy.'

MRS JOHNSTONE:I told Mickey.

MRS JOHNSTONE:That he and Edward were…

MRS JOHNSTONE:Were brothers.

MRS JOHNSTONE:But at that moment…

MRS JOHNSTONE:He accidentally shot Edward. And then, the police…

MRS JOHNSTONE:The police shot him.

MICKEY:I could have been him! No!

MRS JOHNSTONE:It was just like Mrs. Lyons said.

MRS JOHNSTONE:If either twin learns that he was once a pair, they shall both immediately die.