Years and Years (TV Mini Series)

Episode 6 (2019)

Anne Reid: Muriel Deacon

Quotes 

• Muriel Deacon : And that doesn't change the fact that it's all your fault. The banks. the government. The recession. America. Mrs. Rook. Every single thing that has gone wrong, it's your fault. Because we are. Every single one of us. We can sit here all day blaming other people. We blame the economy. We blame Europe. The opposition. The Weather. And then we blame these vast sweeping tides of history, you know, like they're out of control, like we're so helpless and little and small... but it's still our fault. You know why? It's that 1 pound t-shirt. A t-shirt that costs 1 pound. We can't resist it. Every single one of us. We see a t-shirt that costs 1 pound and we think, "Ooh that's a bargain, I'll have that." and we buy it. Not for best heaven forfend, but nice little t-shirt for the winter to go underneath, that'll do. And the shop keeper gets five miserable pence for that T-shirt and some little peasant in a field gets paid 0.01 pence... and we think that's fine. All of us. And we hand over our quid and we buy into that system for life. I saw it all going wrong when it began in the supermarkets, when they replaced all the women on the till with those automated checkouts. Yes. But You didn't do anything. did you? 20 years ago when they first popped up, did you walk out? Did you write letters of complaint? Did you shop elsewhere? No! You huffed and you puffed and you put up with it. And now all of those women are gone and we let it happen. And I think we do like them. Those checkout. We want them. Because it means that we can stroll through, pick up our shopping, and we don;t have to look that women in the eye. The women who's paid less than us. She's gone. We got rid of her. Sacked. Well done. So yes, it's our fault. This is the world we built. Congratulations! Cheers all!