Now that’s what I call a good day.

First, I call a contact who spent a very productive day some weeks back coaching myself and co-conspirator Andy Tudor about our slowly simmering multi-platform project for younger viewers. We had a good chat, I confirmed that we were on track for meeting the deadlines we’d agreed…and she dropped a bombshell. Only, bombshells have unpleasant connotations whereas this news was very good indeed: she indicated her readiness to invest a four figure sum in the project, so convinced is she by its creativity, credibility, and our ability to work as a team. Gosh.

This offer came totally out of left field: Andy and I are aware that we need backers, but we’ve been concentrating up till now on getting the work done. The next milestone is getting a project bible together and having it trademarked by a firm of very cool media lawyers in London. Which is one relevant example of where it’s helpful to have someone backing you to the tune of a four figure sum. There will be many others on this particular road.

That was all sorted by 11am, so it seemed wise to go with the flow and get some writing done. And I’ve — finally — completed a script that means a lot to me, and a few people have already expressed an interest in having heard the basic concept. It’s inspired by my experiences in a mental hospital, when I was sectioned there some years back. But, honest, it’s not a pity-me biographical piece. Not remotely. I instead used the pieces of what happened, to create a…well, I still don’t know what to call it exactly. A gnostic pyschodrama? Sounds good, even if I’m not sure what one of those is. Let’s stick with it for now.

What I can tell you is that it’s called The Devil You Know, and it’s about a cop who cracks while he’s undercover, obsessed by one particular bad guy. When he’s sectioned, and allowed out into the community, he meets a woman he gets on with. They arrange to meet again — but she’s killed. And he’s convinced that the bad guy is responsible. What follows is partly his journey towards accepting that his obsession is bogus. But it’s also about an internal transformation: having failed to achieve what he set out to do, what does he need to become in order to succeed, and is there a penalty to pay for that success?

Sounds fun, huh? Well, it’s pretty dark and intense in places. But there are glimpses of humour and humanity too. Each sheds light on the other. And I’m very proud of it. I wanted to write about the experience of psychosis and have a positive outcome to the protagonist’s experiences, since that’s my own experience. There’s more than enough grim stuff concerning mental health out there already: I’m not at all one for claiming to speak on behalf of a community, but I wanted to make my own feelings clear, even if the story they’re attached to has little to do with my own hospital stay.

So, completing The Devil You Know is a bit of a victory for me. I’m very happy with the way the script has turned out, and have sent copies to several trusted readers. In due course, with rewrites, it’ll become part of a package that’ll hopefully secure me an agent. I’ve deliberately avoided that until now, since I wanted to have not just any old script portfolio, but one which represents me at my very best. And I now have that selection, with which I hope to make some steps forward in the months to come.