Inspector George Gently (TV Series)

The Lost Child (2012)

Alison Steadman: Esther Dunwoody

Quotes 

• [a few years ago, Hazel Joyce was an unmarried mother who had a baby at Esther Dunwoody's adoption clinic but decided not give him up for adoption; now she works for Esther and the two of them are doing a sales pitch to prospective adoptive parents] 

  Esther Dunwoody : All our babies come with a clear biography and a clean bill of health. We want our adopters to have as much information as possible on which to base their choice. Hazel?

  Hazel Joyce : Just think of it like a bring-and-buy sale. We bring them. You buy them.

  Esther Dunwoody : Hazel...

  Hazel Joyce : You can choose your baby by eye colour, skin colour, fat, thin, or by parentage.

  Esther Dunwoody : No need for flippancy, Hazel.

  Hazel Joyce : Oh, sorry. I won't be flippant.

  Hazel Joyce : You can choose how your baby was conceived - back seat of a car, quickie in a bus stop.

  Esther Dunwoody : Right. That's enough. What's the matter with you.

  Hazel Joyce : Drunken night on the beach with a total stranger. My baby, for instance, was conceived when my uncle raped me at my cousin's wedding, in the middle of my second term at uni. Which is why, I suppose, Mrs Dunwoody has me in her book as "quite bright". Which compared to her, I am.

  [Esther tries to usher the couple out of the room before they hear even more details that she would rather they didn't hear] 

• Esther Dunwoody : They are, for the most part, lovely, lovely girls. They make one mistake, Mr. Gently, and they pay for it.

  George Gently : My sergeant can tell you about all that.

  [laughs gently] 

  John Bacchus : Yes, um

  [clearing his throat] 

  John Bacchus : my wife made a mistake.

  Esther Dunwoody : You made it together, but you stood by her.

  John Bacchus : [annoyed]  Yes, and now we're divorced. Can we crack on?

  Esther Dunwoody : Yes, well to thread a needle requires both needle and thread, you know.