En 2014, Robert Wyatt pose sa voix sur deux chansons composées par Adrian Johnston pour le téléfilm de Jimmy McGovern Common que The Guardian qualifie de "brutal and devastating drama".
Le texte du premier morceau, The Debt, est un poème de Paul Laurence Dunbar constitué de trois strophes qui seront chantées chacune par RW à trois moments différents du film.
This is the debt I pay
Just for one riotous day,
Years of regret and grief,
Sorrow without relief
The Dept - part 1
Pay it I will to the end —
Until the grave, my friend,
Gives me a true release —
Gives me the clasp of peace.
The Dept - part 2
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best —
God! but the interest!
The Dept - part 3
Le texte du second morceau - ‘One morn I left him in his bed’ - est un long poème d'Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard dont seules les trois premières strophes sont chantées par Robert Wyatt.
One morn I left him in his bed;
A moment after some one said,
‘Your child is dying – he is dead.’
We made him ready for his rest,
Flowers in his hair, and on his breast
His little hands together prest.
We sailed by night across the sea;
So, floating from the world were we,
Apart from sympathy, we Three.
One morn I left him in his bed
And in less than 12 minutes, the essence of the film ...
