Girls Talking

Film.  A street.  Jeanette and Marie in school uniform (ankle socks, track shoes, short skirts, shirts and ties etc) leaning against the wall.  A male interviewer is heard in voice over throughout the film.

Interviewer

Jeanette is fifteen, Marie is fourteen and a half.  Both are from broken homes and living in an area with a high level of unemployment.

Jeanette

Not really been to school since I was five.  Five or six.  I go in, like, if there’s something happening, like vaccination, or a nativity play.

Cut to Marie in mid-speech.

Marie

Well it’s just boring like, isn’t it?  They don’t teach you about anything important – like how to inject yourself, it’s all geography and things.

Interviewer

Maybe you think it’s not worth being qualified as there are so few jobs in Liverpool …?

Jeanette

There is lots of jobs.  The government wants to keep us unemployed so we won’t smoke on the buses.

Cut to Jeanette.

I could have been in a film but it was boring …

Interviewer

What film was that?

Jeanette

Documentary on child prostitution.

Interviewer

You’ve actually been a prostitute?

Jeanette

Yeah but it was boring.  The sex was all right but they kept wanting you to talk to them.

Cut to Marie.

Marie

Music?  Kid’s stuff really, isn’t it?

Jeanette

The government puts things on the record underneath the music.

Interviewer

Sorry?

Jeanette

Like, you know, messages that you can only hear with your brain.

Interviewer

What do they say?

Jeanette

Like telling you what to do?

Marie

Keep you under.

Jeanette

Don’t say ‘tits’ in the reference library.

Marie

Don’t gob on each other.

Interviewer

Is there much sleeping around amongst young people?

Marie

No, it’s boring.

Jeanette

It’s like for your Mums and Dads really, isn’t it?

Marie

Like drinking.

Interviewer

Don’t you and your, er, mates drink?

Jeanette

We used to drink battery acid.

Marie

But it burns holes in your tights.

Interviewer

Do you sniff glue?

Jeanette

That’s for snobs really, isn’t it?

Marie

Grammar school kids sniff glue.

Jeanette

We sniff burning lino.

Marie

Cot blankets.

Jeanette

Estée Lauder Youth Dew.

Interviewer

What effect does it have?

Marie

Fall over mainly.

Interviewer

Doesn’t sniffing heighten your emotions?

Jeanette

Oh yeah, you get a lot more bored.

Marie

Things that were a bit boring get really boring, and that’s great.

Interviewer

How do you see your future – do you think you’ll get married?

Jeanette

We’d like to, ’cos it’s easier to get Valium if you’re married.

Marie

But we can’t can we?

Interviewer

Why?

Jeanette

The government are bringing out this thing – you can’t get married unless you’ve got a going-away outfit.  It’s got to be –

Marie

Suit.

Jeanette

Yeah, suit, and it’s got to be in two colours that match.

Marie

And you have to have a handbag and slingbacks.

Jeanette

It’s just not on.

Marie

My mother’s got enough to do paying off my shoplifting fine.

Interviewer

What happened?

Jeanette

A duvet fell into my shopping bag.

Cut.

Interviewer

Have either of you got boyfriends?

Jeanette

We have, like, one between two.

Marie

Just to save time really.

Interviewer

And what does your boyfriend do?

Marie

He gets tattooed a lot.

Interviewer

Yes, what else does he do?

Jeanette

He has them removed a lot.

Cut

Interviewer

Any ambitions?

Jeanette

I’d like some stretch denims.

Interviewer

I suppose you can’t afford any?

Jeanette

You can apply for a grant.

Marie

For denims.

Jeanette

But not stretch denims.

Interviewer

How do you feel about teenage pregnancies?

Marie

We’ve got used to them now.

They sniff a bottle of perfume.  Jeanette falls over.  Marie looks bored.

Cast

Jeanette

Julie Walters

Marie

Victoria Wood

Interviewer

Russell Dixon

First shown on Wood and Walters, on ITV in January 1982.