GUV:Never Let Me Go!
Is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Ok. Key plot points. You ready?
Eyes to the plasma screen.
Our story begins with Kathy H.
PC GREEN: Surname Guv? For my notes.
GUV:Just says ‘My name is Kathy H’.
PC BENNETT: Lazy. The writer couldn’t be bothered to think up surnames.
GUV:Let’s just stick to the important plot details OK?
SHANE:(squeaky, nervous voice) It is important.
GUV:Who are you? You new or something?
SHANE:No my name’s Shane. We’ve met. A lot.
Perhaps Kazuo Ishiguro did it on purpose, so straight off, we don’t see Kathy’s individuality as important? S’a dystopia isn’t it?
PC GREEN:(to Bennett)What does dystopia mean again?
SHANE:An imagined place or society in which everything’s, sort of, awful.
GUV:So, Kathy H is 31, a carer.
PC GREEN:Who does she care for Guv?
GUV:They’re referred to as ‘donors’.
PC GREEN:Oh right, like when you get a chocolate HobNob for giving blood.
Kathy wheels in her patient, Ruth, and helps her into bed.
She’s been a carer for 12 years.
PC GREEN:Oh right. She must proper love her job then?
GUV:I wouldn’t exactly say that, no. But Kathy H does admit to feeling privileged compared to other carers. One, she’s allowed to choose her donors - like her friend Ruth here - and later her boyfriend Tommy. Two, she’s ex Hailsham.
PC GREEN: What’s Hailsham Guv?
GUV:Boarding school.
PC BENNETT:Bet they got up to all sorts, traumatizing their parents. Youth of today, don’t know they’re born.
GUV:
I’ll stop you there because no students at Hailsham have parents.
PC GREEN:So they’re orphans?
GUV:No. Not as straightforward as that.
PC GREEN:How do you spell Hailsham, Guv?
SHANE:Hail like the frozen rain stuff and sham, as in, well, not real. Hailsham.
PC BENNETT:Doesn’t make it sound posh or owt.
PC GREEN:What’s up with ropey Ruth?
GUV:Not well. She’ll complete soon.
PC GREEN: Complete what?
PC BENNETT:Not a marathon by the looks of it.
GUV:Before we get into all that, we must explore what happened at Hailsham.
As Ruth sleeps, Kathy tucks her in, looks tenderly at her.
GUV:Certainly wasn’t your average school. They had Guardians who looked after them, not parents.
PC GREEN: Mind - officially - blown.
GUV:So let’s have a look at them. You’ve got Miss Emily, the head mistress - a kind, protective lady. (Shows pic of Miss Lucy) Miss Lucy of course - very honest.
And this lady, Madame, is the boss.
GUV:Health. Very important at Hailsham. They had regular checks and a lot of emphasis put on them to keep fit and play sports outdoors.Creativity was also very important at Hailsham.
RUTH:Oh wow. An elephant, Tommy? That’s really nice
(laughs)
TOMMY: What?
RUTH:Tommy, look at it! The trunk! You haven’t even put any effort in the eyes.
GUV:Tommy struggled it would seem. He was bullied for it by everyone apart from Kathy.
TOMMY:I’ll stop. I’ll stop.
PC GREEN:I understand approx none of what’s going on. Why was art so important?
GUV:The creativity thing’s important for a number of reasons… just make a note of it for now Green.
The students stand with their art around them. Madame scrutinizes it, being careful not to touch any students. She picks the pieces by Kathy and Ruth, but not Tommy’s.
GUV: But if Madame selected a piece for her private gallery it was seen as the ultimate compliment.
GUV:Now. Onto Miss Lucy.
PC GREEN:That was te Guardian you said was honest?
GUV:To her detriment, yes Green. Now. You need to strap in for this, team.
PC GREEN:Got a bad feeling about all this.
PC BENNETT:When you’ve been around as long as I have, there’s nowt that shocks.
MISS LUCY:Your lives have been set out for you. You’ll become adults, and then before you’re old, even before you’re even middle aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you were created to do.
PC GREEN: They don’t have parents. But they’re not orphans. There was a great emphasis on them being healthy. O M Gee, they’re clones!
PC BENNETT:S’like what I said all along - about the surnames and what-not.
SHANE:So completing, that’s when they’ve donated all the organs they can, and die?
GUV:Lets move on. After Hailsham some students move to the cottages.
PC GREEN:Oh well that sounds nice at least.
GUV:They were cold, grotty and left to fend for themselves.
PC GREEN: OK. Less so now.
GUV:The cottages are sort of a halfway stage between leaving school, and becoming carers. Kathy, she moves in with Ruth and Tommy, who are, a couple now.
PC GREEN:Wait. Ruth and Tommy are a couple?
Didn’t you say Kathy looked after Tommy ‘her boyfriend’? Made way sense that they were an item. But Ruth was horrible to Tommy for starters.
GUV:That’s kind of the point. Kathy and Ruth’s friendship is tested, partly because of Ruth’s relationship with Tommy. However, the most significant thing that happens during this period, is that they go to Norfolk because some of the older students at the Cottages think they found Ruth’s possible.
PC GREEN: Possible what?
GUV:A 'possible' is the person you were modelled from, the person your DNA came from.
SHANE: Spose s’the only link to who you might be…
GUV: Good, and Ruth was bitterly disappointed the possible wasn’t hers for that reason. Shortly after that the three of them go on their separate ways for a considerable amount of time. But when Kathy hears Ruth’s started donating, she seeks her out.
PC GREEN:So we’re sort of back to the start?
SHANE:And that’s why Kathy talks about feeling privileged because she gets to choose her donors, means she can look after the people she cares about, not just randoms.
PC GREEN:What happened to Tommy?
GUV:Ruth and Kathy decide to go and visit Tommy who’s also started his donations and Ruth drops a verbal stink bomb.
RUTH:I kept you and Tommy apart.
RUTH:That was the worst thing I did.
PC GREEN:Bit late mate. Tommy’s already ill!
GUV:Now. A rumour existed, linked to this pressure to be creative at Hailsham - that if a student could prove they had artistic ability and if they were in love, they’d get a deferral.
PC GREEN:What’s a deferral Guv?
GUV:Meaning they stall their donations, thus extending their lives together.
SHANE:I suppose if they could prove they have artistic ability it’d mean they were like us, ie, humans with feelings, able to think, fall in love and feel sad?
GUV:Kathy and Tommy visit Madame, where Miss Emily also lives.
They take along some of their artwork and discuss their relationships in the hope of getting the deferral.
TOMMY:They said there was the possibility of a deferral if a couple could prove that they were in love. And we are, we are in love.
MISS EMILY:A wishful rumour, that’s all this talk of deferral ever was. We collected your art to prove you had souls at all.
GUV:After that, Tommy requested his final donation take place without Kathy as his carer and then…
SHANE: Tommy completed?
PC GREEN:(sad)
Tommy died?
GUV:Kathy continued her work as carer until it was time to start donations herself.
I can’t believe that that’s a true story?
ALL:It’s a dystopian novel.
PC GREEN:Why didn’t anyone say that then?
GUV:We did…
The plot of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is explored using a mixture of a police case conference-style discussion, interspersed with short video sequences of plot re-enactment from the novel.
The police officers discuss the plot with the support of a ‘case wall’ with photographic depictions of the key characters and a TV screen to show some of the dramatized moments from the novel.
As the police officers discuss the ‘case’, they explore the developing plot and use quotations from the text to support their developing understanding of the events in the novel.
This is from the series: LIT P.D
Teacher Notes
Could be used to summarise the events of the novel as a revision activity.
After a first, initial reading, students could watch the sequence in order to gain a fuller understanding of the main events and the shape of the novel as a whole.
Curriculum Notes
This short film is suitable for teaching English literature at GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 5 and Higher in Scotland.
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