- Your son's posted there, isn't he?
- Northern Ireland?
Yes, sir.
Yes, he is.
- Getting on all right?
- Hard to tell with, Sam, sir.
He writes home to his mother once a week.
But with the postal strike.
- And Morse, how's he these days?
- Morse is Morse, sir.
You know more than any what last year took out of us all.
He walks a step slower, maybe.
- Lost some of his bounce, you mean?
- Bit less full of himself.
Bit less cocksure.
That's not always a bad thing.
Bit of uncertainty, bit of doubt makes a man more careful in his work, more thorough.
- Perhaps time does that to all of us, sooner or later.
There are some blows from which one never quite recovers.
Not fully, at least.
- One thing's for sure, he's no more the kid that got off the coach from Carshall New Town.
(gentle thoughtful music)
