James Van Santen is a white South African historian currently living in exile after being imprisoned and tortured for his anti-apartheid activities. He spends his days living in an attic bedsit in London, working on his book on the parallels between on the Divine Right of Kings and the philosophy of apartheid. Katherine, his Trinidadian landlady, doesn't get his motives for his activism or why he still pines after his partner, Stephen, who he left behind in South Africa.
Provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: James’ friend and fellow exiled activist, Hallyday, has turned to alcohol to cope with his loss of direction now that he’s no longer able to take any meaningful action against apartheid from thousands of miles away.
- Black Gal on White Guy Drama: Katherine mentions that her relatives would probably criticise her for not "sticking with [her] own kind" if she were to marry Richard, her posh, white photographer boyfriend. However, they would also complain about the Trinidadian guy that she's been seeing if she chose him over a rich white man who could provide for their whole family.
- Feet-First Introduction: It’s not the very first shot we see of her, but one of the establishing shots of Katherine is her putting her feet into a pair of cosy open-toed slippers just after we’ve seen James huddled around a paraffin burner.
- Horrible Housing: James’ bedsit is particularly grim and cramped, although it’s debatable that the room’s as in a bad state as it is because James is too depressed to do much in the way of tidying.
- Pretentious Pronunciation: Katherine asks James to call in sick for her, and tells her that her boss pronounces his name Smythe, but that she wants James to ask for "Smith" on the phone to bring him down a peg.
- Poverty Food: Katherine accuses James of eating cat food after she spies the empty tins amongst the rubbish.
- Soul-Sucking Retail Job: Katherine loathes her job as a checkout girl.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: James and Katherine's relationship initially seems to be quite combative, but they are also quite friendly with each other, like when Katherine comes to talk to him when she's feeling ill and can't sleep.
- Voiceover Letter: Both James and Katherine write letters whose contents are relayed to the audience via voiceover.
- Straight Gay: James and Stephen, in contrast to Robert.
