A television comedy-drama mini-series – by Bob Denton
THE DREAM TEAM MAJOR PARTICIPANTS:
GEOFF Barnes is Dream Homes Acting Event Director. In his mid-20s, he is a southerner with an estuary accent. Previously on the sales side, he is now responsible for all aspects of the management of the event. He has an inherited team from which he has yet to earn respect. Early on, he is prone to U-turns and a tendency to panic. This is his big opportunity to become appointed event director.
KATE Warren is the Operations Manager, responsible for all technical aspects of the build and management of the many contractors she has appointed. She is broadly experienced and a tad world-weary. In her early 30s, from Lancashire, she had hoped (but as a woman not expected) to merit this event director role.
KEVIN Thomson is Contract Manager for the main stand-building contractor. KEVIN works closely with KATE. A mid-30s Londoner, he is a capable character who really has seen it all before. He has a sharp eye for adding to the charges that he can levy on the organiser and its exhibitors. He is married but develops an at-site relationship with KATE.
VICKI Stephens is the event’s Sales Manager. Another Londoner, late-30s, she is not able to manage BILL. She accepts GEOFF as her new boss. Very business-like and well-groomed she has developed a penchant for a rather masculine look (male suits, waistcoats, ties, etc) leading to a presumption by her colleagues that she may be gay, but this is never confirmed.
BILL Caterham is the other sales team member. In his mid-40s, he is an unsavoury chubby chauvinist. An effective salesman, he is lazy and a heavy drinker. Female harassment is one of his ‘specialities’. Quite an unattractive person, he completely fails to appreciate the effect this has on others or act upon their complaints.
ASHA Johal is a late-20s administrator from the East Midlands. She has something of a weird dress-sense and a quirky sense of humour. She claims to be a resting actress, although according to the team, she has been resting for quite a while.
JORJA Richards is a regular ‘hospitality girl’ hired to work in the show’s ‘back office’. Early-20s Afro-Caribbean, she is very quick-witted, wears outrageous outfits, and is prone to striking poses.
PETRA Latham is another temp employed for the show as receptionist in the Organiser Office. She is a mid-20s Sloane whose aloof manner seeks to hide her lack of common sense and awareness.
STEVE Wilson is Group Event Director, the person who will decide if it is to be GEOFF or KATE who will become the Event Director of Dream Homes.
THE DREAM TEAM OTHER PARTICIPANTS:
MIKE Stone is from the ExCeL Hall Management department. He is event coordinator and safety officer for the venue. A mid-30s scruffy northerner with a distinct charisma by-pass and halitosis. He has little sense of other’s personal space and the type of person who instantly grates and offends.
CRAIG MacGregor, a 40-something gruff Scot, is the show’s appointed Security Manager. He has the appearance of a once useful boxer. He wears a crisp uniform with a peaked cap pulled down over his eyes. Tending to march rather than walk, he stands to attention when he is talking to someone and uses the stilted delivery of a policeman giving evidence in court.
DAVID Reagan is the appointed Floor Manager. He is a 50-something Londoner who is very effective. He calmly sorts out problems with the minimum of fuss, often before the team encounters them.
MEL Peters is the Marketing Manager who runs the site press office. She is never seen during the screenplay but is the final member of the on-site team who is occasionally heard on the radio.
JOHN Wright is the Exhibition Manager for Colour Style. He is South Londoner of dour character, dapper and a smart dresser. He is a good negotiator if a little too pushy. Not a particularly likeable individual, he has the tang of someone feathering his personal nest a little too regularly.
Small cameo parts:
- The Minister – a top politician who comes to formally open the show.
- Minister’s aide – escorts and ‘minds’ the Minister.
- Exhibitor – nerd, sports jacket and trousers with heavy lensed glasses, an archetypal computer nerd.
- Child – a troublesome ‘lost’ child visitor, perhaps in both senses of the word!
- Father – a visitor, father of the child, something of a rough diamond.
- Delivery man – a biker wearing helmet and leathers.
- Woman – KEVIN’s wife, mousy-haired, appearing dowdy and downtrodden.
- Glenn fan – with dyed menopause-red hair and a floppy T-shirt, an ageing groupie.
- Female – an exhibitor’s temp staff member who gets burned, then complains about her ‘treatment’.
- Del – one of CRAIG’S security team, never seen, but heard.
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