Robert Burns - Blackheath Arts

SPIN OFF

SPIN OFF. SYNOPSIS.

Against a background of a protracted Western bombing campaign against Iraq, an outspoken Foreign Office Minister, Dick Willis, abruptly resigns after claiming that he was attacked and robbed on Clapham Common.
The mystery surrounding Willis’s sudden resignation is compounded by much speculation in the press, but then equally suddenly the story is dropped by the media – much to the chagrin of two gay actors, who promptly mount a show lampooning the Minister’s plight in a small fringe theatre.
However, in direct contrast to the levity of the actors’ performance, another interview is taking place at a nearby Police station between D.C.S. Leeson and Hugo Tremlett, the Minister for Health, who claims to have been abducted after what appears to be an identical incident.
As the investigation proceeds, the difficulties faced by the police are considerably increased by the fact that Tremlett has no recall whatever of the circumstances which led to his abduction, and later when DI5 become involved it emerges that on certain points he has been lying.
Amidst growing suspicions that either Tremlett or Willis may have been set up by someone in government, the actors are shown to have links with a dissident Muslim organisation, whose aim is to discredit and blackmail senior members of the U.K. Government to prevent them from supporting America in its bombing of Iraq
Subsequently a Palestinian contact of an investigative journalist reveals that he has found lurid pictures of Hugo Tremlett in the desk of a Military Attache at the Syrian Embassy, and it emerges that after his abduction Tremlett was subjected to a humiliating sexual assault.
As protests against the bombings grow, full scale riots occur, and following this the police act on information received to arrest both the actors and the leaders of the dissident Muslim organisation.
Then, during a series of interrogations, it gradually emerges that the abductions of Willis and Tremlett were linked, and that one of the two men, Willis, was initially set up by a person acting on behalf of those at the highest level in government, but that the plan back fired and there was, as in the case of Tremlett an unfortunate SPIN OFF, the full consequences of which remain to be resolved.

SPIN OFF. PROLOGUE.

AS OPENING TITLES/CREDITS COME DOWN.

1 - The screen is filled by a photograph of a short heavily built man in a smart three piece suit.

2 - A picture of the same man being interviewed by reporters, while in the background a motley crowd is chanting

PEACE NOT WAR ! AN END TO BOMBING NOW !

3 - A shot of the same man being shouted down in The House of Commons.

Followed by

4 - Headlines from several newspapers

MYSTERY OF DICK WILLIS RESIGNATION.

SUDDEN DEPARTURE OF FOREIGN OFFICE MINISTER.

5 - Almost unrecognisably bedraggled – a picture of the same man wandering haphazardly down a street late at night towards a police station.

6 - MORE HEADLINES

MINISTER BOWS OUT AS RUMOURS ARE RIFE OF TRYST ON COMMON.

WESTMINSTER STUNNED AS REBEL MINISTER RESIGNS.

7 - The camera pulls back to show three men in an office staring down at the photographs and headlines, which are shown to be from the front pages of newspapers strewn about a desk. Suddenly one of the men laughs

WELL HE’S FINISHED NOW. BOMBED OUT.
STITCHED UP. AND GONE WITHOUT A SQUEAK.

There is a knock on the door and a secretary enters and as she does so

8 - The camera pulls back behind her and tracks down a series of corridors and winding staircases past a host of civil servants to the front of the building, where a policeman opens the door to a visitor.

9 - As the door opens and we see another policeman outside, the camera pulls back yet again to reveal that the building is 10 DOWNING STREET.

SPIN OFF. BY ROBERT BURNS.

MAIN CHARACTERS.

1	FRANKIE COUPLES	IST ANARCHIST ACTOR.
2	ELMORE BENT.	2ND ANARCHIST ACTOR.
3	HUGO TREMLETT	MINISTER FOR HEALTH.
4	D.C.S. LEESON	INVESTIGATING DETECTIVE.
5	KIMBLE	ASSISTANT COMMISIONER AND HEAD OF C.I.D.
6	SIR ONSLOW SHAND	CO-ORDINATOROF INTELLIGENCE IN CABINET.
7	HORACE AITKEN	HEAD OF DI5.
8	ALISTAIR BRACKLE	DOWNING STREET PRESS SECRETARY.
9	NASEEM	HEAD OF MUSLIM FOUNDATION.

OTHER CHARACTERS AND ENSEMBLES.

1	FRANCIS SLIPPETT	PRIME MINISTER'S PRIVATE SECRETARY.
2	JACK HANSON	HEAD OF DOWNING STREET POLICY UNIT.
3	DITCHLEY	COUPLES MALE PROSTITUTE LOVER.
4	SORAYA SARFAZ	HUGO TREMLETT'S MISTRESS.
5	DICK WILLIS	DISGRACED FORMER MINISTER.
6	THOMAS AND TRIMMER	GOVERNMENT WHIPS.
7	MONROE AND SCULLY	NEWSPAPERMEN.
8	EL MABRI	MUSLIM TERRORIST LEADER.
9	D.I.GREY &SGT.JONES	D.C.S. LEESON'S ASSISTANTS.
10	HABBAS	SYRIAN MILITARY ATTACHE.
11	SOFIAN SHEBIR	SCULLY'S INFORMANT.
12	SPECIAL BRANCH DETECTIVES.
13	JUNIOR WHIPS/M.P.S/SECRETARIES/CARLTON CLUB MEMBERS.
14	T.V. AND RADIO ANNOUNCERS.
15	CARETAKER/STEWARDS/PRISON WARDERS/MUSLIM RIOTERS.

CD ONE.

1	TWO TALES OF MINISTERS’ ABDUCTIONS.	14.43
2	SUSPICIONS GROW. THE PLIGHT OF TREMLETT.	19.13
3	ACTORS’ LINK TO ‘ SONS OF LIGHT.’	19.33
4	REVEALED A SET OF GROTESQUE PICTURES.	11.55
5	A FORMER TERRORIST CALLED EL MABRI.	14.04

RUNNING TIME 79 MINUTES 28

CD TWO

1	BOMBS RIOTS AND TRIAL BY TRUTH DRUG.	23.16
2	POLICE RAID ‘ SONS OF LIGHT.’	10.25
3	THE INTERROGATION OF THE ACTORS.	16.52
4	SPIN OFF.	10.25

RUNNING TIME 60 MINUTES 58

SPIN OFF

Music

Drama

Verse