Charlie, Big Joe and Tommo listen to the Colonel in the cottage.
Private Peaceful - Episode 2: synopsis
In the present, Tommo has food but doesn’t want to eat it. The uneaten stew becomes the springboard for further childhood memories…
We learn that Big Joe had meningitis as a newborn baby and that Joe has a very kind nature, loving everything and everyone, especially nature. We learn of the tricks the brothers Tommo and Charlie play on Big Joe and how Molly, a school friend, becomes like a member of their family. But the Peacefuls live in a tied cottage - tied to the job of the late Mr Peaceful - and now the Colonel, as the local land owner, can compel Mrs Peaceful to take a job caring for the Colonel’s wife up at the ‘Big House’. This will allow them to pay for their upkeep.
Grandma Wolf arrives to look after the three boys while their mother is out at work. Tommo tells us she is mean and cruel to them. And he feels that he is to blame for the sadness in his family because he feels responsible for the accident that killed their father.
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1' clip: the Colonel has an unwelcome proposal
More from this series
Private Peaceful – Episode 1. audio
Private Thomas Peaceful - 'Tommo' - begins the recollection of his short life to date: his school days - shared with his elder brother, Charlie, and their friend, Molly - and the circumstances of his father's death.
Private Peaceful – Episode 3. audio
Tommo remembers how hardship led to poaching on the Colonel's land, the cruelty of 'the Wolfwoman' to their brother, Big Joe...and how Molly fell seriously ill.
Private Peaceful – Episode 4. audio
Tommo recalls how Charlie and he are caught poaching on the Colonel's land; how Charlie and Molly go to work at the Big House; how one day Tommo sees Charlie and Molly holding hands.
