Latest offering from Scratchyr and myself - as always opinions welcome.
Plates
GRAMS: THE ACROBAT OR SIMILAR
V/O:
For over fifty years, Brian Lently has captivated, enthralled, and delighted audiences. From his heyday in the nineteen fifties to the starkly beheld times which befell his latter years. Tonight we celebrate the life and work of man. A man who liked to spin plates.
CUT TO:
INT. FAMILY HOME. DAY.
AN ELDERLY MAN (WALTER) IS SITTING IN AN ARMCHAIR.
WALTER: (CAPTION: WALTER LENTLY - BROTHER)
He was always mad for plate spinning. We were very poor back then, like most folk. But one day father brought home some sticks for him to practice with.
CUT TO:
OLD CINNE FOOTAGE OF A YOUNG BOY RUNNING TO AND FROM MANY POLES. HE WOBBLES EACH ONE AS IF SPINNING PLATES BUT THERE ARE NO PLATES ON TOP.
V/O WALTER: (CONT'D)
No plates as such, mother and father didn't have that kind of money. But you could see he had talent.
V/O:
Indeed, so much was his father's desire to see him succeed, he sold some possessions so he could buy his son the plates he so needed to progress. Unfortunately the only possessions he could sell were the sticks.
CUT TO: OLD CINNE FOOTAGE OF A YOUNG BOY RUNNING TO AND FRO CARRYING A STACK OF PLATES. FREQUENTLY PAUSING TO SPIN A PLATE WHICH THEN FALLS TO THE GROUND AND SMASHES.
V/O: (CON'T).
Brain would have to wait another six years before he could afford to buy some more sticks after saving his wages from his part time job at the bakery. He got his first break in nineteen fifty six, when, encouraged by his father, he entered Opportunity Knocks.
CUT TO:
BRIAN STANDS EXPECTANTLY ON STAGE HOLDNG SOME PLATES. BEHIND HIM SOME STICKS ARE STILL WOBBLING. HE IS SPLATTERED WITH GRAVY AND FOOS SCRAPS. HE IS DRESSED AS A ROYAL GUARDSMAN.
HUGHIE GREEN:
Sentry Fugal, Ladies and gentleman. The plate spinner from Bristol. Let's have a big round of applause for him...
SFX: APPLAUSE.
V/O: BRIAN LENTLY:
That was the turning point for me. of course there wasn't meant to be food on the plates still but the audience seemed to love it.
V/O:
And love it they did, with a record sixty eight percent of the vote; Brian went through to the next round and on to win the final. This made him a household name and propelled him onto the big league. But it wasn't long before it all came tumbling down.
CUT TO:
BRIAN IS DOING HIS ACT ON THE PAUL DANIELS MAGIC SHOW. THE AUDIENCE SEEM BORED.
CUT TO: OLD INTERVIEW FOOTAGE OF BRIAN ON A CHAT SHOW.
BRIAN:
I came on after that bubble guy, that was the problem. Everyone saw it as an anticlimax.
HOST:
I remember the bubblle guy, he was brilliant. The one who put smoke inside the bubbles right?
BRIAN:
That was him, the trouble was you see...
HOST:
Didn't he make a square one?
BRIAN:
Yes yes..
V/O: This was the beginning of the end for Brian. Fading from the spotlight to occupy nothing more than a caption on the photograph of failure.
He still does his show twice a week at the local community hall, with a matinee on Wednesdays for nearby pensioners from the care centre.
CUT TO:
INT. FAMILY HOME. DAY.
BRIAN IS SITTING IN AN ARMCHAIR
BRIAN:
In many ways it's just like the old days you know just me and my plates and sticks, well, no plates again.......no sticks either. I still got it though, see?.
BRIAN GETS UP AND SHUFFLES AROUND THE ROOM AS IF MIMING THE SPINNING PLATE ACT.
PAN TO:
WALTER SITTING IN ANOTHER CHAIR.
WALTER:
Brian why don't you sit back down? Brian? Brian?
FADE TO BLACK
CAPTION :
After the shooting of this documentary Brian went missing from his nursing home accommodation. After a nationwide appeal and police search, Brian was found mauled to death by a Tiger after attempting to sneak into the convoy of the travelling Moscow State Circus.
Brian is now spinning plates for the highest possible authority.
END
