Danny the Champion of the World (1989 TV Movie)

Samuel Irons: Danny

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Quotes 

• Danny : [about Victor Hazell]  Do you think he's going to do nasty things to us?

  William Smith : Yes, my love. I think he is.

  Danny : He's a millionaire, isn't he?

  William Smith : Well, he's what we used to call a spiv in the war. While the rest of us were off fighting, he was busy making money out of everybody else's misery.

  Danny : Is he a crook?

  William Smith : Mm. I suppose he is, sort of.

  [in a West Country accent] 

  William Smith : But I reckons as though you and I are match enough for 'im.

• William Smith : I *hate* organised shoots like Hazell's.

  Danny : Why?

  William Smith : Because they're unnatural. I mean, they're against nature. Do you know why he's got so many pheasants? Because he buys them as chicks. He puts them in pens and the keepers feed them like... like pets. And when they're released, they're practically tame. Then on the big day of the shoot, an army of beaters crashes through the wood and frightens them all up into the air and a load of rich idiots, who couldn't hit a barn at fifty paces, blasts the senses out of them. Well, that's disgusting, that's organised slaughter. Poaching on the other hand is a quite different matter. It's one man on his own. It's the hunter and his prey. And the pheasants have a chance, it's not easy to catch a pheasant. And anyway, there's the added spice of the keepers lurking behind the trees with loaded shotguns.

  Danny : Guns? They wouldn't shoot you, would they?

  William Smith : Well, Hazell's keepers might. In the old days they just used to pepper your backside a bit. Your old grandfather had a backside like a pin cushion.

• Mr. Snoddy : Captain Lancaster, I thought I made it crystal clear when I appointed you that I will not tolerate any form of corporal punishment in my school!

  Captain Lancaster : I was perfectly within my rights. The boys were cheating.

  Mr. Snoddy : Oh, were they indeed?

  [goes from his office to the classroom] 

  Mr. Snoddy : Danny, Sid...

  [they come to him] 

  Mr. Snoddy : The rest of you, sit down, sit down. Try to be good.

  [shuts the door] 

  Mr. Snoddy : Now, on your word of honor, were either of you two cheating just now?

  [Captain Lancaster looks on derisively] 

  Danny : No sir.

  Mr. Snoddy : And you?

  Sidney : No sir.

  Mr. Snoddy : Good. Back to class.

  [the boys leave] 

  Mr. Snoddy : Captain Lancaster, if I catch you using the cane ever again in my school, you'll be out on your ear. Is that understood?

  [Lancaster refuses to answer] 

  Mr. Snoddy : Is that understood, sir?

  Captain Lancaster : [through his teeth]  Yes, sir.

  Mr. Snoddy : Good, sir!

• William Smith : What's the matter with your hand?

  [he looks at Danny's hand and sees the mark from the caning given to him by his teacher Captain Lancaster] 

  William Smith : Who did this? Who did this, Danny?

  Danny : Dad...

  William Smith : Was it Lancaster?

  Danny : He thought me and Sid were cheating.

  William Smith : Cheating? You? Right!

  [he gets up, angrily] 

  Danny : Where are you going?

  William Smith : I'm going to see this Captain Lancaster!

  Danny : Dad, please don't! Please!

  William Smith : And I'm going to beat the living daylights out of him!

  Danny : Please don't! It'll only make everything worse!

  William Smith : It'll make him stop and think before he lays a hand on a child again, I guarantee that!

  Danny : I'll hate you if you do it!

  William Smith : [pausing]  Danny?

  Danny : You've always taught me to fight my own battles. You've always said.

  William Smith : [hugging him]  I'm sorry, Danny. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're right. You're right. I'm all angry inside and when people get like that then it just... comes out. I want to get even with Hazell and I can't!