Benny is a Welsh coal miner. He is a radio ham. He is 23 years old, married To Molly. They have a son, young Ben, aged 4, and a new baby. They look after Benny's twin brother Billy, who is apparently a vegetable. The mine is closed By the market forces. The Male Voice Choir stops singing, the village is dying. One night Benny takes Billy on a pub crawl. Drunk in a brightly-lit shopping Mall, Benny vents his anger on a shop window full of multiple TV images of Margaret Thatcher's mocking condescension. In defiance, he steals a cordless 'phone. Later that night, Benny cavorts dangerously on the parapet of a Motorway footbridge, in theatrical protest at the tabloid press. That same Night, a cab driver is killed by a concrete block dropped off a similar bridge. The police come to question Benny; he hides the cordless 'phone under the Cushion of Billy's wheelchair. Billy is different, he can receive radio waves directly without the aid of a Tuner; he explores the cordless 'phone, recognizing its radioness. Benny is sent to prison. Billy feels as if half of him has been cut off. He