A Christmas story. Should one who killed a child be allowed to live? Harry Waters, a London thug, sends Irish hitmen Ken and Ray to Bruges to lie low after a job goes awry in a London church. Ken's the old hand, fascinated by the Medieval, with a fatherly attitude toward Ray, who's young and bored but chastened after the London job. Ray's disposition changes when he meets Chloë, a hip young woman who sells drugs on the local set of a movie featuring Jimmy, an American dwarf. Harry calls with irrevocable instructions. Ken balks, setting up a showdown in the town square. A pregnant innkeeper, dumdum bullets, and a code of conduct play into the resolution.

In order to create the feeling of the holiday season, Christmas decorations were kept in some streets of Bruges until the end of March. The town council made an official communication to the people of Bruges explaining the reason why.

Ken:
Coming up?


Ray:
What's up there?


Ken:
The view.


Ray:
The view of what? The view of down here? I can see that down here.


Ken:
Ray, you are about the worst tourist in the whole world.


Ray:
Ken, I grew up in Dublin. I love Dublin. If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't.

Factual errors: The stationary of the hotel where Ken and Ray are staying has the hotel name as "De Rozenkransje - Brugge". Brugge being the Flemish name for the town of Bruges. Even a fictitious Belgian hotel would never be named like that, because the article is incorrect. 'Rozenkrans', meaning Rosary, would indeed have the article 'de'. However, 'Rozenkransje' is the diminutive and as such would always have 'Het' as the article. Even for proficient but non-native Flemish/Dutch speakers, this is a commonly made mistake.

Written by Chrissie Hynde
Performed by The Pretenders
Courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd