PC BENNETT: I shall be conducting this interview from behind here Mrs Woman In Black/Jennet.
Interview recording with Jennet Humfrye, deceased, aged 36, now of haunting people and murdering innocent children.
GUV:Interview recording with Mr Arthur Kipps, Solicitor, married Stella, widowed, remarried Esme. (like Arthur’s mad)Why was completing the job at Eel Marsh House so important to you? Why didn’t you leave the second you were aware of the hauntings?
ARTHUR:I wanted to marry Stella and had to be promoted to do things properly.
I wanted to prove myself.
GUV:Well, that backfired didn’t it?
PC GREEN:Interview recording with Mr Samuel Daily, a land dealer, resides in Crythin Gifford.
(with kindness) How’s your dog Spider?
MR DAILY:She’ll do. She’s been a bit nervous of water since Kipps saved her from drowning in the marshes that night.
PC GREEN:It was very kind of you to let him have her.
MR DAILY: Least I could do really.
SHANE: Interview recording with Keckwick, Mrs Drablow’s former Man Friday, drives the pony and trap in Crythin Gifford. Are you ready to get started sir?
Nothing from Keckwick.
GUV:Do you think Mr Bentley was ever felt guilty about what he put you through?
ARTHUR:At first I was angry with Mr Bentley for sending me there but I was also angry at my own foolish blockheadedness, in ignoring the veiled warnings about Eel Marsh House.
GUV:Bentley made you partner in the end? He must have felt really guilty.
PC BENNETT: Upon seeing you, Kipps says “I bent my head and prayed with a sudden upsurge of concern, for the soul of that lonely old woman”.
PC GREEN: Now Kipps said and I’m quoting here that “countrymen …were more superstitious, more gullible, more slow-witted, unsophisticated and primitive, than we cosmopolitans”
MR DAILY:Was that before or after the hauntings?
PC GREEN:That was quite a bit before.
MR DAILY:(still smiling) Thought so.
PC GREEN:Why didn’t you tell him you’d lost a child through The Woman In Black.
SHANE:For the sake of the tape, Keckwick still hasn’t said anything.
I’ll just ask you again, in case you… didn’t hear, um. I understand that you were driving the pony and trap when Nathaniel Pierston and his maid Rose Judd drowned in the marshes?
For the sake of the tape, he’s not moved a whisker. Did you stop talking after the accident?
For the sake of the tape, Keckwick nodded.
PC BENNETT:For the sake of the tape, I am now reading letters from Jennet Humfrye addressed to her sister Alice Drablow.
(reads)HE IS MINE! WHY SHOULD I NOT HAVE WHAT IS MINE?
(a different letter)WHAT CAN I DO? I FEAR MY HEART WILL BREAK!
(a different letter)I SHALL KILL US BOTH BEFORE I LET HIM GO!
Some of the key characters in The Woman in Black by Susan Hill are explored through police interview-style dramatization.
The four characters of Jennet, Arthur, Sam Daily and Keckwick are interviewed separately by police officers and respond to questions designed to explore their respective motivations and perspectives.
This is from the series: LIT P.D
Teacher Notes
Could be used as part of an exploration of character and theme, either after an initial reading or as part of a revision activity.
Students could use this clip as the stimulus for their own presentation on a different character from the novel, or as the basis for an essay-style response to one of the characters explored in this clip.
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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