assuming this is ever made - would be able follow what was going on?
WRITER I’ve no idea.
EXT. BBC BROADCASTING HOUSE DAY
A fork cuts into a piece of chocolate fudge cake. SALLY takes a bite as she sits with JOHN at a café table outside Broadcasting House.
JOHN
I guess it’s also about loss – about a family coming to terms with grief – or not, as the case may be – I mean it’s about all of those things. So what did you think?
SALLY (finishing her mouthful) Hmm…sorry?
JOHN
I mean it’s only initial thoughts but…
SALLY
I think it’s interesting. JOHN
You do?
SALLY
Definitely. In terms of the
relationships between the father and the son – and his attempts to help him regain his memory – all that I think is great.
JOHN
Oh good. I just thought it’d be interesting to write something that looks at how we remember things, particularly traumatic events – and how it’s possible to bury them. But also I think it needs to be about how we all
remember things differently – how the truth obviously depends on point of view. I’ve started writing already – just a few scenes.
JOHN rummages in his satchel and pulls out a notebook. JOHN
I’ve not yet decided on a
structure though. I could take it chronologically – start with news of his fall and then go from
there.
SALLY
Where do you see it ending? JOHN
Well I hope he recovers - obviously.
SALLY
No. In terms of the story. JOHN
Oh I see. Umm…I’m not sure. SALLY
Because you could do it so that we see the script being produced.
JOHN A play within a play?
SALLY
Why not? Pirandello did it. You show the recording – the writer, the actors…
JOHN
SALLY
As a way of questioning what happened – the truth – from
different perspectives – or rather different versions of the truth. False memory too.
JOHN What do you mean?
SALLY
I read something the other day about a group of people - about an experiment, a study at some
university or other, where a group of students were fooled into
believing they’d committed a serious crime.
JOHN Really?
SALLY
It was extraordinary. Researchers managed to plant false memories - and not just minor offenses
either, but assault - that they’d actually assaulted someone in the past when in fact they hadn’t at all. It was amazing. I think they interviewed the parents and
gathered various true facts about each of them, which they then included in the interview
alongside false memories - and the students accepted the false
memories as having taken place. Absolutely convinced. It’s
bizarre.
JOHN
But this isn’t about that though. SALLY
No. But it’s interesting, don’t you think? That just based on the tiniest thing we can convince ourselves that something happened - something terrible in this case. (Taking another mouthful of cake)
JOHN No. I’m fine.
SALLY Sorry. You were saying?
JOHN
Well I quite wanted the son to narrate it – so it’s very much told from his point of view.
SALLY Right.
JOHN
You don’t like that idea? SALLY
No. It’s fine. I’d just be wary of having too much voice over. ‘Show don’t tell.’
JOHN
Right. I’ve already started
jotting a few things down, if you want to have a quick read? Just a couple of scenes.
SALLY Oh okay.
JOHN passes the notebook to SALLY.
JOHN
Umm. The first one is where he’s in the garage and he finds the rolls of film.
SALLY Alright.
As SALLY starts to read JOHN sits back and watches people walk in and out of Broadcasting House while a news crew interviews someone on the other side of the walkway.
SALLY
You don’t think it’s a bit convenient?
JOHN What?
SALLY
That he comes across the home- movies as soon as he gets back from the hospital.
JOHN
But that’s exactly what happened. I was looking for a screwdriver and I found these rolls of 16mm film he’d taken. That bit’s actually true.
SALLY
Do you think you need it? JOHN
You mean cut it?
SALLY
I’m just wondering whether it might be enough to just have them watching the films together – you’d assume John had found them somewhere – in the attic, or wherever. JOHN Maybe. SALLY Or it could be tapes. JOHN What do you mean?
SALLY
What if he came across a box of tapes, rather than film? Given that it’s radio.
JOHN
Did people record things in the same way?
SALLY
I think so. On quarter-inch. With reel-to-reels.
JOHN
But he would’ve had to have been an enthusiast.
SALLY
It’s just a thought. I think the best thing is to write it – all – and then we can see what we’re dealing with in terms of structure as well. You know, you could play around with that quite a bit – cutting back and forth.
JOHN Yeah. Maybe.
SALLY
Because of course that’s something you might want to think about – time itself. What it means for Father once he’s had his stroke. I imagine his perception of time changes – and also I think somewhere John talks about how those summer holidays seemed to last forever – two weeks in
August, to a child, seemed like an age. Just a thought anyway.
Speaking of which I was supposed to be in an edit half an hour ago.
SALLY slurps down her coffee.
SALLY How’s Val – by the way?
JOHN Good. Yeah.
SALLY When’s the baby due?
JOHN Not for a while yet.
SALLY
Okay – well I’ve got to go. Email me, yeah?
JOHN Sure.
They kiss on the cheek and John watches Sally head back into the building. He glances at her finished coffee cup. He reaches across, takes the wrapped Amaretto biscuit from the saucer and puts it in his pocket.
INT. BEDROOM DAY
The word ‘VAL’ is written in black pen on a yellow post- it note. JOHN then sticks it on the wall. As the camera pulls out from the yellow square of paper it reveals a line of post-it notes all with words scribbled across them. ‘FATHER FALLS’ – ‘BRAIN SCAN’ – ‘16MM FILMS’ – ‘MATTHEW’ – ‘BEACH’ – ‘RESCUE’ - JOHN stares at them all – a jigsaw of scene headings - before removing the word ‘RESCUE’ and moving it earlier in the sequence. He looks at them all again before reshuffling them into a new order.
INT. GARAGE DAY - FLASHBACK
JOHN empties out a cupboard full of brown paper bags and stuffs them into a refuse sack. He clears empty paint tins, bits of old wood and junk from shelves.
MOTHER
You don’t have to do this you know.
JOHN
I might as well while I’m here – make myself useful.
JOHN picks up an old tennis racket.
MOTHER
You’re not throwing that out, are you?
JOHN
JOHN
Mum – he can’t even make it to the toilet. I can’t see him dashing to the net.
MOTHER You never know.
JOHN
Besides, it’s full of woodworm. MOTHER
He was captain at school. JOHN
It’s just gathering dust.
INT. BBC CONTROL ROOM DAY
There is a clatter over the speakers as CAZ throws a tennis racket onto a pile of rubbish heaped on the studio floor. MOTHER 2 breaks down in tears as she stands with JOHN 2 by the microphone. MOTHER, LUCY and FATHER watch through the glass. The camera moves slowly from one to the next as the actors speak their lines.
MOTHER 2