Great Elms School Trip to Wales
Transcript of Scene 15
The Crossing of the Red Stream
Edited by Paul Thompson and Emily Miles
Camera: William Turnstone
Scene: half way down the mountain, by a stream. Mr Kipling on the far side, everyone else on the near side.
Mr K: Right then, listen all of you. You want sandwiches and hot drinks? You’ll have to cross this stream to get back to the car park. Just take a running jump, one at a time. It’s only two metres across, you won’t get your feet wet. You show them, Mr Cockle.
Mr Cockle: runs, jumps, slides down the bank on all fours.
All: Ragged cheers.
Mr K: Darren! Darren jumps, lands well up the bank; Scruffy runs through the stream, then shakes water all over Mr Cockle, who is not amused.
Mr Cockle: * bleep *.
Mr Turnstone: walks carefully across on boulders. I’d better keep the camera dry.
Mr K: continues calling students until all are over, bar Ollie and Gemma.
Mr K: Gemma, come on now, no holding back. You do want some lunch?
Gemma: I don’t want to jump this stream. I can’t jump to save my life. Oh hell!
Gemma lands with a splash then falls backwards, and is wet to her waist.
Mr K: Up you get, Gemma, just get on with it. If you’d jumped properly, that wouldn’t have happened. Now this time you can pole vault back to the other side! Groans.
Gemma: That’s not fair! I could have stayed over here!
Mr K: Not if you want your lunch! Here we go! Dean!
Dean: Yes, Sir.
Mr K. You run up, plant your pole just there, by that red stone, and jump. Got it?
Dean: That red stone Sir, or that one, or that one? There’s more red stones than by the Red Sea, Sir.
Mr K: grabs the pole: Mr Cockle! How do you put up with this idiot? Give me that pole! That red stone, this red stone, any red stone, look, like this! Vaults over, commando style. Ragged applause. Returns same way. Got that Dean?
Dean: Yes sir. You did say that red stone, didn’t you Sir? Jumps quickly, punches air, pirouettes, tosses pole to Darren. Scruffy runs through the stream after Dean, then back to Darren, shakes himself dry over Mr K.
Mr K: Will someone control this * bleep * mongrel!
The rest of the students vault over without mishap. Meanwhile Ellis and Nerys are busy with ropes and poles. They are constructing a zip rope bridge.
Mr K: Ollie! Thought we’d forgotten you? This is how you get across. You’ve got strong arms! We put you in the harness and you pull yourself across. We’ll let Nerys go first.
We admired Nerys’s first trip across the stream and back, then watched as Ollie was hoisted into the harness and shown how to haul himself over. We need not have worried.
Ellis: Right Ollie, that should be you balanced nicely. Comfortable? I’ve got the safety rope, but you won’t need it. You pull yourself along with this one. Ready?
Ollie: Here goes! Wahay!
Ollie swung gleefully across the stream, then turned around to come back to us.
How was that, Nerys?
Nerys: Excellent! Trouble is, we need you on the other side now! Ellis has carried your chair over, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Ollie: panting Right, let me get my breath; ready, and off!
We eventually got everyone across by zip wire, and I had action shots from either side of the river, from the boulders in the middle of the river, from the base of the bridge, and facing the oncoming traffic. Whatever the Highway Code may say, this was not the best place to be when Dean was coming across. I was watching the viewfinder, not the view.
Dean: Oh Sir, Sorry. Is the camera all right?
Mr T: Don’t you mean, “Are you all right?”? Well, no broken bones, thankfully Dean, but the lens is pretty muddy.
Mr C: If you’ve messed my camera up, Dean, I’ll send you home with that dog. Come to think of it, where is the darned mongrel, Darren? If he’s chasing sheep!
Darren: I left him asleep by that tree. Scruffy! Scruffy! Come here! Oh, he never runs off like this! Scruffy!
Mr C: I’ll send you both home with him! I mean it.
Stacey: Shut up, Sir. Here he comes now, look!
Scruffy runs up to Darren, runs round, whining, then makes short dashes back the way he came.
Mr C: Get that animal on its lead! Now!
Darren: Something’s wrong! Scruffy, what is it? Show me.
Everyone ignores Mr C, as the students follow Scruffy.
Mr C: Where are you lot going? Come back here now, all of you!
The students continue to ignore him. Mr T and Ellis look at each other, then follow the students. Scruffy leads them to what looks like a bundle of clothes beside the stream. It is a man with a broken ankle, almost unconscious and very cold.
Darren: Well done, Scruffy! Good boy!
Will Turnstone 