- Duncan: I thought about joining the force myself, you know, when I was younger.
- Detective Constable West: What stopped you?
- Duncan: My mother. She said there was already enough disgrace in the family.
- [first lines]
- Hector: Half a century, Molly, since I swore allegiance to king and country. We went into the army as boys - green, callow; came out men - bold and bloody. And now the regiment reunites just as we vowed, fifty years to the day. The old squad all together again for the first time since the war.
- Archie: So how many are coming?
- Hector: Six.
- Archie: Six!
- Molly: What happened to the rest?
- Hector: Eight were untraceable; one's living with a costume designer in Perth, calls himself Judith; another's missing in Acton.
- Stella: Shouldn't that be "action"?
- Hector: No, Acton. suburb of London. Five have moved overseas, two have joined religious orders, six haven't responded, and eleven are no longer with us.
- Molly: What about Toad? He hasn't croaked, has he?
- Hector: Hope not. Hasn't R.S.V.P.'d.
- Archie: Toad?
- Molly: Best man at our wedding. You'd like him, Archie.