Screenplays

THE INVISIBLE PIPER

A FIVE EPISODE T.V. DRAMA SERIAL
[adapted from the book]

SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE ONE

Rob Adams, an attractive 22 year old Spitfire pilot is sprawled on a camp bed, totally exhausted. Yet within minutes, he is forced into the air by another scramble.

Once airborne, he relaxes back into his harness for a second. Only a second, but one which he will regret for ever.  A Messerschmitt is above him, coming out of the sun. He is blinded and doesn’t see the orange tracers streaming towards him. His plane bursts into flames and he parachutes out as fire eat into his fingers.

Suddenly, we are transported back to 1939 and discover CHARLIE SLATER, an Artful Dodger look-alike who is being evacuated from the East End of London to Hastings with hundreds of other children. This rough working class boy is billeted with Rob’s middle-class parents. A complete mix-match of class and culture. Charlie is swarming with vermin. Although Rob’s mother is an extremely capable woman she finds herself unable to deal with Charlie’s lice. Fortunately, Rob’s father is a G.P. He does cope, albeit unwillingly, as he is overwhelmed with work. As he tells his wife, Mary, the phoney war seems to have created a town full of hypochondriacs.

In the next scene, we meet Rob again, but now he is a fresh-faced RAF recruit, completing his Initial Training for the RAF with his best friend Colin. It is a humorous disaster.

Once they have completed the training, they are given leave and travel back home. Here Rob and Charlie meet for the first time and Charlie  reveals things about his past which he hasn’t to Rob’s parents. Rob realises that under his carapace, Charlie is a very vulnerable child.

Meanwhile, Colin has returned to his terraced working-class home and we see how privileged Rob’s life is by comparison. Here we meet Colin’s family and discover that his sister, the beautiful 17 year old Kate, is Rob’s girlfriend. She is depressed about the war, believing that she and Rob have very little time left together. Her words, we gradually realise, during the episodes are prophetic.

Rob returns to the RAF and learns to fly his dream – the Spitfire. He has found his element – the sky, near his beloved stars. But while Rob is flying Spitfires, Charlie is creating havoc for Rob’s family. At the end of the first episode, Rob’s parents, John and Mary Adams are faced with a difficult decision: do they return Charlie to his poverty-ridden past life or try to cope with his constant problems?