Misha Williams

 7 
ALBERT 
             And take a young inexperienced lad instead…  
 
BRIAN 
Well, there were reasons which I won't go into here. 
Yes, Jack went. He was on the same wavelength as my 
father. But not me. 
 
ALBERT 
And Jack's very close friend, Raleigh? 
 
BRIAN 
Yes. 
 
ALBERT 
And they never returned... How distressed did your 
mother and the rest of the family feel? 
  
BRIAN 
(Sarcastic and impatient about the typical cliché media 
question) "Vaguely" to "Medium" distressed. If we're 
applying the Richter scale; "Five" perhaps. 
 
ALBERT 
A secret city still with its original population hidden 
away from the modern world? A whole ancient 
undiscovered culture…What did you think as they were 
setting off? You were twenty then. 
 
BRIAN 
I wasn't too impressed. I wasn't a dreamer like my 
father and Jack. I was a practical lad and so I left for 
Peru to work as an apprentice railway engineer building 
railways over the Andes. I had a wonderful, exciting 
career.   
                                              
    
 
 
 
             ALBERT 
But when the years went by and the three had not 
returned…You and your mother and sister Joan…You 
weren't terribly distressed, then? 
 
BRIAN  
(Impatiently) There was a probability that my father 
and the others had chosen to stay in there! 

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 8 
   
 
 
      
ALBERT 
Extraordinary. 
BRIAN 
Several years perhaps. There was no point in returning 
before he found "Z" and solid proof of his theory. His 
last letter to my mother from a place called Dead Horse 
Camp, because it was where one of his horses died, 
said; "Don't worry if we are gone several years and for 
God's sake don't let rescue parties come looking for 
us".  
 
ALBERT 
But the rescue parties got underway didn't they? Many 
people lost their lives "Looking for Fawcett."  
 
BRIAN 
Over the next twenty years probably a hundred 
adventurers lost their lives looking for my father. It 
was a fashionable alternative to joining the foreign 
legion. If you were tired of life or crossed in love…well 
then, "Go and look for Fawcett in the swamps of 
Amazonia!" 
 
ALBERT 
The world began to forget your father until you  
published your best seller "Exploration Fawcett" 
outlining his previous adventures. 
 
BRIAN 
My book put my father firmly on the world map. I was 
even invited by the Brazilian government to look at 
some skeleton purported to be his. Of course it proved 
to be a hoax. The Brazilian government wanted to stop 
these Fawcett seekers coming in, fearing they were 
really foreign agents and so produced a body to finally 
close the case. It turned out to be the skeleton of a five 
foot two Indian found in an area the Fawcett party had 
never visited, besides which my father and the others 
were over six feet tall. 
 
ALBERT 
And you thought Jack might still be alive?… 
 

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 9 
BRIAN 
Yes. I hired a plane and flew over thousands of square 
miles and whenever the pilot and I spotted a clearing 
with smoke from Indian fires we'd swoop down and 
drop leaflets. It was terrifying. Especially when the 
single engine occasionally started sputtering and 
stalling. Well, I never found Jack.  
 
ALBERT 
…So let's talk a little now about your father's personal  
background. His inner beliefs and so on. 
 
BRIAN 
No. Let's not talk about them. 
 
ALBERT 
Why? 
 
BRIAN 
You damn well know why!! Because I asked you not to 
when we negotiated this interview. So just let's unplug 
this… 
 
 
BRIAN dives forward in a rage and rips the microphone cord from the 
tape recorder. 
 
ALBERT 
No, please! That's BBC property! 
 
BRIAN 
Good! I shall enjoy stamping on it then if you don't get 
out of my house right now! 
 
ALBERT 
Is this really necessary? 
 
BRIAN lunges menacingly at ALBERT till they are face to face. 
 
BRIAN 
(With quiet venom) I requested and you agreed you 
would avoid questions about my father's personal life.  
 
 

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 10 
ALBERT 
But couldn't we talk? I mean without recording. I have 
a special interest. 'Always have. I feel there's 
something unspoken, about this story…Unfinished.  
 
BRIAN 
It's finished where you're concerned! So… Good-bye, 
Mr. de Winton!! 
 
Loud sound effect of music like a giant door slam. The scene shatters. 
BRIAN moving into the darkness of his bungalow and into the arms of 
"M", as ALBERT paces the street outside. JESS arrives. 
 
 
 
SCENE  FOUR. CARLISLE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE BUNGALOW 
 
We see and hear both sets of dialogue; ALBERT and JESS and BRIAN and 
"M,"  
    
BRIAN 
Phew! That was a close one! 
 
"M" 
You did very well, darling. I almost felt sorry for him. 
 
Outside. JESS returning. 
 
ALBERT 
Oh my God, what a disaster. 
 
JESS 
             What happened? 
 
ALBERT 
If you'd shown the slightest interest, Jess, you'd have 
seen what happened. He threw me out! I just wanted 
to get to the core of the story, and he went ballistic. 
 
JESS 
(Laughing) I told you! The Fawcetts are mad! I was 
right. You're not going to get anywhere with this  
project. 
 

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