PICTURES IN MY MIND
SOME FICTION IDEAS BY MICHAEL A W LAVERY- 15/02/89
Many years ago, I disciplined myself to think up at least one ‘raw’ fiction idea a day. However, I never used any of these ideas and never will. Although a lot of these unused ideas are probably rubbish, if you do happen to find any that you like, please feel free to use them.
THE PRIZE (1)
Against all the odds, Jack rose from the ranks of the poor to become one of the USA's richest men and a lot of this was down to him being such a ruthless, ambitious and driven man. On his journey from ‘rags to riches’, he moved around a lot and had many affairs which produced offspring, which he always abandoned and which he never showed any interest in. He eventually married the daughter of a very wealthy and influential senator and although they were together for time, they did not have any children. When she suddenly dies, he decides to track down all his ten illegitimate children and invite them to participate in a deadly fight to the finish competition, the winner of which will inherit ALL his wealth. The competitors do not know each other at the start and each one is given a different set of rules to play the game by e.g. while one has unlimited resources and has to live in one apartment, another has no resources at all but can live anywhere they want etc.
THE CLAIRVOYANT (3)
A lonely widower, John is totally devastated when his granddaughter is murdered. He ends up approaching a clairvoyant who tells him that the killer is a local man with a scarred face and a bad limp. But much to his disappointment John can find no such person. However, the clairvoyant is eventually proven to be right i.e. the confusing thing for John was that the clairvoyant was looking into the future rather than the present (see the fully developed idea).
DISREALISM (5)
John, an average, happily married man, has his whole world turned upside down one day. His life turns into a ghastly nightmare e.g. he cannot find his home or his wife and children, or his place of work etc and everyone around him, including the police, is violent and aggressive towards him. Back in the real world and unbeknown to him, his wife reports his absence to the police. But he seems to vanish off the face of the earth and is never seen again (see completed short story).
TRANSFER OF SOULS (12)
John is an average man living in an average place doing an average job etc. One night he goes to bed as usual with his wife and falls asleep. When he wakes up he finds himself in a strange bed with a strange woman in the very fine house of an obviously very wealthy man. But the strangest thing of all is the fact that he is in someone else's body!
AMNESIA (14)
John, an ordinary working "English" man working on building sites in England, loses his memory one day. However, he begins to have recollections about some people and places in the very distant and murky past, although for some very strange reason these all relate to Ireland. So, he travels over to Ireland because he is sure that once he gets there, his memory will return. But after he arrives there, he is charged with murdering someone 15 years before and is arrested.
THE AUTHOR (15)
John is a would-be writer who has never made it. The terrible murder of X takes place in London but does not capture the headlines because all the news is dominated by some other pressing story that lasts for weeks. About a year later John submits his draft crime novel to a publisher which is seen by chance by a policeman, who recognises it as being an exact description of X's murder. He also notices that it includes details that only the murderer of X could know.
THE DAY THE WORLD MOVED (17)
The continuity of certain laws of physics guarantees the existence of the world in its present state. What would happen if just one of those laws was disturbed, even marginally? What effect would it have on the world and life as we know it?
CRYONIC SUSPENSE (18)
Even if people could be brought back to life after many years in cryonic suspense, they might not like the new world that they are confronted with e.g. values, morals, political beliefs, attitudes etc could be so different that it would make the whole experience horrible.
THE CHOSEN FEW (21)
Although the world is full of millions of "people", the vast majority of them are only "bit actors" and are not really people at all. There are in fact only a handful of real people in the world i.e. the chosen few.
LONG DISTANCE INFORMATION (22)
Man picks telephone numbers at random and rings up total strangers all around the world at all times of the day and night and asks them strange questions etc for a joke. However, it all backfires when he becomes involved in a very sinister situation in the USA.
ETERNAL LIFE (23)
They discover a way to defeat death and create eternal life. However, it involves the use of drugs that are so powerful and take such a toll on the body that each recipient of the drugs has to have a heart transplant every 5 years. So, the people in power set up concentration camps where they imprison white/black "trash" whom they subsequently use as involuntary heart/organ donors.
THE MANUSCRIPT (26)
A young, unsuccessful would be author carries the only copy of his "masterpiece" around with him in an old battered suitcase. However, this gets mixed up with a similar suitcase containing an absolute fortune. But he gives up the money to get his manuscript back.
ESCAPE (28)
Man makes a dramatic escape from a death cell and after some really close calls, he eventually manages to escape, by the skin of his teeth, in a most exciting way. But then he wakes up in his death cell and realises that it has only been a dream, that his execution is only an hour away.
LONELINESS (29)
Woman living in an urban, high-rise flat frets about how lonely life will be when her invalid, bedridden husband eventually dies. Ironically, she dies first.
GUILT (35)
Man kills a girl accidentally with his car and, in his panic, he buries her in a remote field. Later his own daughter disappears and because of guilt and grief, he tells the police about the girl he ran down in his car and shows them the place where he buried the body. When they dig up the body, they find it to be that of his daughter.
SUCCESS (37)
A very wealthy man has five very ordinary children who have done nothing with their lives except sit around doing nothing but live off his largesse. However, when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and is told he only has around 18 months to live, he informs his children that he will leave ALL his money to whichever one of them has the most success in the following 12 months. Needless to say, that has the desired effect and they all get off their backsides. But which one wins?
QUARANTINE (42)
A very rich area is temporarily evacuated and placed under quarantine following a serious health scare. However, after the area has been completely locked down, the authorities realise that there are still a handful of poor people there. But the authorities cannot rescue them and, as a result, they are free to roam the rich area for several weeks and live like millionaires, dressing up in fancy clothes, driving about in flashy cars, living in the luxurious houses etc, etc.
THE POOLS WINNER (44)
John is a poor person who is despised by nearly everyone. But when he wins an absolute fortune on the lotto, he surprises all his former tormentors by giving them substantial cheques. However, the snag is that he has post-dated all these cheques by one year. Needless to say, people’s attitude towards him rapidly changes and they all become extremely nice to him. But what will he do when the year nears its end?
ATTRACTION (50)
A young English man John gradually develops a weird fascination about a graveyard in a remote part of the USA and when he eventually goes there, he is drawn to the grave of a young woman, who had been murdered many years before. He breaks down and weeps for he feels a great sense of loss and it is almost as if he is standing beside the grave of a recently lost loved one. He is then drawn to the grave of the woman's lover who had died of a broken heart after her death and, for some strange reason or another, John feels that this is his grave. John then goes on to resolve the murder mystery, before disappearing completely off the face of the earth.
THE SCULPTOR (51)
Following a rash of strange unsolved murders, it comes to the attention of the police that a sculptor’s busts resemble exactly the murder victims. When they go to pick up the sculptor, they find that he has disappeared. However, they do find an additional bust, which resembles the sculptor exactly.
THE LONELIEST PLACE ON EARTH (63)
A man travels for months to the loneliest place on earth seeking total and complete escape from man, total solitude. And at last he is almost there, and it seems clear to him that the remotest place in the world is a circular stone seat, right at the top of a high mountain. However, when he gets there he finds a family of 11 and two barking dogs having a picnic there.
THE DINNER PARTY (64)
A young man John is invited by chance to a dinner party. However, when he gets there, although people are friendly and speak to him etc, he is offered no drink, food, a place at the table, cigars, bed, a lift home or anything. He sets off to walk home in the dark and falls into a hole. The next day a man comes along and fills in the hole (see the developed idea).
THE BUTLER (70)
Mary is a very wealthy blind old lady who is looked after by John, a very kind butler (50) who knows she is dying of incurable cancer. Unbeknown to John, Mary has left all her money to him in her will. John subsequently meets Julia, a young woman fallen on hard times, and, after helping her back on to her feet, they marry. However, Julia soon forgets what John did for her and is soon back to her ways, boozing, going with other men etc. Julia meets Tom, a handsome, intelligent man, who, by chance, discovers what is in Mary’s will. Julia and Tom hatch a plot, which involves Tom becoming assistant butler. However, after he gets used to Mary’s routines etc, he leaves his job and goes away. Then, although Tom subsequently murders John and takes his place, Mary does not seem to notice. However, Julia and Tom get caught because although Mary is blind, her other senses are more acute, and she could tell from Tom’s smell, footsteps, breathing, picking his nails etc that Tom was not her faithful John.
SUCTION (84)
A new phenomenon starts to occur. Its action is opposite to that of volcanoes and is different to earthquakes i.e. it leads to people and things being sucked into the bowels of the earth.
DISINTEGRATION (93)
Suddenly and without warning, everything gradually starts to disintegrate (including people) and nobody seems able to halt the process.
MEMORY PICTURES (97)
Scientists develop a machine that can create a movie from the memory of a corpse (e.g. they activate the memory tissue and the resulting impulses are translated into pictures etc). It is decided by the police, military and politicians etc that this equipment should be developed and used on the live brains of civilians.
A DIFFERENT DAY (98) - 23/06/90
Anonymous nonentity John wakes up to what he thinks will be another dreary ordinary day. But, for some reason he does not understand, everyone treats him like a hero. He is interviewed on TV and radio and by journalists. Everyone he meets shakes his hand and claps him on the back etc. However, the next day it is back to normal. Everyone ignores him and treats him like a dog. It is as if nothing had happened the day before.
MICROCHIPS (100)
New technology reaches such a stage, along with personality analysis, that when someone is wired up to a computer, it can immediately and accurately sum up that person's nature, political attitudes, morals, aptitude etc (which has all sorts of implications involving the police, politics, unborn babies, fascism, elitism etc). Soon it is common practice for everyone to have a microchip placed in their brain at birth and a central computer keeps a track and record of their movements and performance etc.
FANTASIES COME TRUE (102)
In the future, we shall have the capacity to make all our fantasies come true to the fullest possible extent. Dream women will literally become real women who will fall in love with you and do anything you want etc. But the sting is that you can never return to a particular type of fantasy and each fantasy has a time limit.
THE NEW ECONOMY (103)
Create a picture of what the world would be like if it was based on my economic theories e.g. the concept of money would disappear completely and there would be no unemployment or poverty, shortage of schools, hospitals, food etc. There would also be co-operatives.
REVITALISATION (110)
Scientists learn how to revitalise dead people from bones no matter what their age (i.e. they take a bone, revitalise the cells that form it and, using special techniques, they encourage the cells to divide and multiply until the former human being is remade. Who would you bring back to life and what would you do if you selected the wrong bones etc?
DEATH ROW (111)
Man on death row has only a few hours to live but cannot get his favourite type of cigarette. In his frustration he murders a guard and although nobody is sure that he did it, his execution is postponed so that police can investigate the death of the guard etc (i.e. he could either be the murderer or an important witness).
THE TERRORIST (112)
A terrorist volunteer is ordered to place a bomb (for which there will be no warning) in a public bar. After much thought, the volunteer takes it back to the terrorist HQ and secretly plants it there, where it goes up and blows the terrorist leaders up.
THERE IS NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE (118)
A group of very normal unmarried educated civilised quiet (even boring) people meet on holiday, in a very remote area from which there is no easy escape. Because they get on so well etc, they arrange to meet up the following year. However, so as to widen the circle, they are each allowed to bring a 'friend'. These 'friends' turn out to be a real varied bunch and so different from original group. Ironically the original group breaks up on bad terms and the 'friends' form a new group and, against all the odds, get on very well with each other.
THE INHERITANCE (145)
John is a timid loser living in a remote area doing the only job he can find, a job he hates. Everyone walks all over him. Then he learns his rich uncle has died and that he is sure that he will inherit a lot of money. So, he goes mad and gives his boss etc hell, buys lots of fancy things on credit, boozes etc. But unfortunately for him, he is left nothing. So, he sheepishly has to go back to his job etc.
NOT THE FULL SHILLING (146)
John, an absolutely normal man, suddenly starts acting in a strange but harmless way and people assume he has gone slightly mad. The locals find him amusing and even when he commits a minor crime, they just laugh and let him off (he was actually testing their reaction). Later on, because of his madness, he is able to commit a major crime and when he escapes with all the loot, he reverts to being sane again.
THE HOLE (150)
For no apparent reason, a small hole suddenly appears inconspicuously in the desert. Initially nobody pays much attention to it. However, it gradually gets bigger and bigger until it can no longer be ignored. But no matter what the scientists do they cannot stop the hole increasing in size. In quite a short time, it begins to threaten the world.
NIGHTMARE (155)
John has a nightmare in which he vividly sees ghastly murder (but not face of murderer). He is later involved in a car crash and suffers from amnesia and the only thing he can remember is the murder dream, which he relates to the police. Unfortunately for him, he ends up being charged with the murder and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Later he has another dream again and this time he sees the face of the murderer - his own!
HIS FORMER WIFE (163)
John falls into conversation with this beautiful woman Sally who speaks to him etc in a most familiar way. He initially finds it confusing when she keeps referring to their previous relationship, home, children, marriage and divorce etc because he has never seen her before in his life. But he goes along with what she wants because she is so beautiful, and he is greedy for her obvious wealth. However, when he goes to her mansion in the country, he is locked away in a room full of skeletons of all her "previous" husbands. Needless to say, he dies there.
THE WITNESS (168)
Although John witnesses a man being murdered by some men, he does nothing because both the victim and the murderers are "horrible" people and he fears retribution. But ironically, he is later convicted of the murder himself and the main witnesses against him are the real murderers.
ACTOR'S MURDER (182)
A make-up artist/actor called John commits an awful murder and makes sure he is seen leaving the scene of the crime. However, the police do not suspect him at all because he has a very “good alibi” and the perpetrator had a very noticeable facial "scar" and an arm "missing". However, sometime later after a drunken session, he is involved in a bad car crash that leaves him with an awful facial scar and one arm missing. Needless to say, this attracts police attention and he is later convicted.
CARDIAC ARREST (185)
John is a lovely man in every way and is liked by everyone. However, he has a heart attack which he is extremely lucky to survive. But when he recovers his personality, it is totally opposite to what it was before i.e. he has turned into a really nasty, violent man whom everyone grows to hate. Later, when he has another heart attack, nearly everyone hopes that he will die. But he recovers and strangely enough he is almost like the nice person he used to be. But it is the fact that he is likely to have further attacks that is worrying. What will he be like the next time he survives?!
RECONSTRUCTION (187)
John is a very nice totally innocent actor. A horrific murder is reconstructed on Crimewatch and because John resembles the photo fit so closely, he plays the role of the killer. However, John does something that is not in the script and which only the real killer and the investigating police would have known about. The investigating police then discover that John had been in the vicinity of the murder etc and, after a case is made up against him, he is convicted of the murder. The viewer sees a man sitting in a pub in London who is the spitting image of John except that he has a beard and is reading the back page of a newspaper. On the front are the headlines about John's conviction.
THE SHOUTER (190)
John has to commute into London each day and resents having to stand in crowded train carriages. So, he takes to talking out loud in a strange, mad way and people quickly get as far away from him as possible (for nobody likes a shouter) and not only does he get a seat, but he gets plenty of room as well. However, Tommy, a real nutter, takes a shine to him and follows him everywhere, muttering loudly and acting strangely. Within no time John is back to standing in packed carriages on a different train, minding his own business and saying nothing.
THE HOSTAGE (198)
John who SEEMS to be a psychopath kidnaps Jane the wife of William who is very wealthy and demands a large ransom. William wants his wife but at the same time he does not want to pay a penny. So, when he brings the money, he also brings a band of men. After Jane makes a dramatic escape from John’s house in this remote forest, she bumps, “by chance”, into William and tells him that she has locked John in room in the house. William and his band of men go the room where John is supposed to be in. However, John appears from nowhere behind them and locks them in the room. Then to the viewer's surprise John and Jane fall into each other's arms and flee with the loot.
DISAFFECTION (199)
John is a 40-year-old bachelor living with his parents and sister and her children. For some reason that he does not understand, they all seem to go off him e.g. his mother starts looking at him in a thoughtful way, the family suddenly switch to a strange non-meat diet, people go through his things, his sister and her children suddenly leave without explanation, there is a tense atmosphere in house, results of medical tests are kept from him, friends no longer call, he hears strange mutterings behind his back, strangers look up at his window etc. Eventually John ends up in solitary confinement in a dark cell with pile of tinned food in corner. When he is down to his last few tins he writes this diary, which is found beside his body in his parents' big house. His unexpected death is greatly mourned.
SURBURBAN GAME (208)
The adult residents of a green belt, suburban town are so bored with the usual forms of entertainment that they introduce a new game. Everyone's name is put in a hat along with a range of risky activities and whatever activity you pull out of the hat you HAVE to do it. Everyone is sworn to absolute secrecy. It's great fun for a while. Then terrible things start occurring such as murder and it transpires that some boys got to hear about the game and they meddled with the list of activities that went in the hat.
DISAPPEARING PLACES (212)
After a 30-year absence, a homesick John is persuaded by his wife to return to Ireland, to the village X where he was brought up. However, he cannot find it and there is no evidence that the place ever existed. After returning to England, he can't find his office, his parents' or friends' homes or even his own home etc. It's almost as if the places never existed. When he goes to the police, they can find no record of anyone of his name etc. He either ends up in an institution or else some totally different family claims him (the person who could solve the whole mystery keeps disappearing just when they are within touching distance).
THE £50 NOTE (203)
John is a 50-year-old "loser" who lives in a grotty room and leads a Charlie Foster/Fred Cousins type of existence. Then he finds a fairly substantial amount of cash £250?). For one day and one day only, this changes his life completely. He reverts to being the sort of man he used to be (well dressed, positive, confident etc) and goes to the West End, where he meets a woman etc. The next day he is back to his usual self and circumstances.
ILLEGITIMATE CHILD (225)
In a remote part of Ireland, Sally’s unemployed father William spends all his days looking after his large family while his wife Claire goes out to work as house keeper at various houses in the area. William is a very shy man without any social life and so when he suddenly dies, Sally is puzzled as to why so many men turn up at his funeral. She is then astounded to learn that her father had been impotent and that all his children had been sired by other men, which explains why William and Claire had been so popular. Although the local priest had known all about it, he had turned a blind eye to it all, which puzzled Sally until one day when Claire reveals who her real father is. Comical!
MASS MURDERER (234)
Several people, watching an exciting movie on TV about a mysterious serial murderer Alex, speculate on who the next victim is going to be. Suddenly Alex points his rifle towards them from the screen and shoots one of them dead. All the others flee, amid a flurry of bullets. But there is no escape because the door has suddenly become firmly locked. They try in vain to turn the TV off and also the lights, but nothing works. Then Alex leaves the TV and comes after them. The police never solve nor understand these mass murders.
THE SURGEON (235)
X is such a poor country that although it has plenty of qualified people, it cannot afford such facilities as hospitals. John, a frustrated surgeon, meets William, a multi-millionaire, who says that he will build a massive new hospital in X if William himself is (i) allowed to carry out some operations and (ii) allowed to carry them out in accordance with the rules of his religion. John is most reluctant to agree because not only is William not a qualified surgeon, but his religion forbids the use of anaesthetics. After much soul-searching John eventually agrees because while he knows some unfortunate people will suffer at William’s hands, many more will benefit. After the hospital is built, John goes to sleep a happy man but wakes up tied down to an operating table. It is then that he sees William coming towards him with a scalpel in his hand and a strange look on his face.
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (241)
Comedy. John, who looks 70 but is only 50, is a crusty, Irish bachelor, who lives alone in mountain cottage. There are vain attempts on his behalf by negotiators to arrange a marriage to a widow he has never actually spoken to. However, it all falls through because his wealth does not match hers. Re the Downtown Radio story, include the following: ceilidh, no chimney in cottage, his black face, bagpipe playing in fields at night his only hobby, his diary that only recorded the weather over the years, only drank once year on his birthday when he would go over the top completely. One year, weather stopped him celebrating his birthday in the normal way and he groaned about it the whole year. When rain stopped him the following year, he decided, out of huff, never to go again.
VIGILANTE (243)
To the viewer, John initially seems a tough unlikeable gangster type. He arrives in P and over a period of time, he gets to know the local villains. Then he and these villains plan a serious bank robbery in another town Y and because he says he knows Y so well, it is agreed that he should be the getaway driver. When the others go into the bank, John rings the police and although all the other villains are caught red-handed, John is allowed to get away. It transpires that John is actually a type of vigilante and this is his unique way of ridding society of criminals.
MURDER LINK (244)
In 1536 there was a horrific, motiveless murder which was never solved. The killer John sent a very cryptic note (distinctive handwriting and weird code sign) to an influential person William, who was very puzzled to receive it. Exactly every 50 years after the murder, William’s family received a similar cryptic note (the contents of which were never made public) right up to 1986. But the really strange thing is that the distinctive handwriting for the original note was exactly the same as that for the 1986 one. It's almost as if the original note writer/killer is still alive.
PERSONALITY CHANGES (253)
John and Mary’s marriage is different from the majority of other people's. When they wake up each day, each decides what personality they are going to adopt for the day, without telling the other e.g. John could decide to be a male chauvinistic pig and Mary a real nagging harpy etc. They can be poor or rich, powerful or weak etc. Every day is different, and friends participate too.
PURSUED (253)
John, an average guy, wakes up to discover an intruder in the house. He is absolutely terrified and tries to frighten the intruder Mr X off. But no matter what he does, Mr X relentlessly comes after him, through locked doors, across the roof etc and kills policemen and anyone else who gets in his way. After a very tense and frightening chase, crossing many miles and lasting hours, John finds himself trapped in a cul de sac. Mr X comes up to him with upraised knife as if to kill him, but strangely he passes through John’s body and disappears. Then John realises that he is blood-stained, holding a knife and surrounded by police and it dawns on him that it was he rather than Mr X who was the killer.
PAUL'S SECRET (256)
When he was young, John was a very destructive child who was always doing naughty things. Once while down by the sea, he locked another young boy Sam in a very remote World War 2 gun emplacement and ran away. John actually grew into a very mature stable person and he never forgot the terror that he had inflicted on Sam. So many, many years later he visits the World War 2 gun emplacement (door still bolted) and, much to his horror, he finds Sam inside, a dishevelled, old wreck of a man.
MIX UP (259)
John and Willy are almost identical although not related. They work in an asbestos factory and a routine test reveals that John has terminal cancer and Willy is healthy. While out on a booze up, Willy kills someone and faces 50 years in prison. But John convinces the police he is the killer. Willy dies shortly afterwards from cancer and John learns to his horror that there had been a mix up at the hospital, that it was he rather than Willy who was in the clear health wise.
BOLD ILLUSION (263)
John never managed to realise his dreams and he is bitter about it. His neighbour Willy is a dreamy sort of guy whom John despises cos "he's an obvious freak living in a fantasy world". But the funny thing is that Willy's fantasy world seems to be full of real people whom John cannot see. Also, life there is really good, being full of colour, exciting people and lovely experiences etc. As for John's life in the real world which, it is very dull and grey. Who is happier?
2 LIVES (267)
John, 50, remembers his youth as being dull & ordinary. So, when he visits the towns etc where he was brought up, he is surprised when all his old friends talk about all fantastic times he had when young. They relate incidents that John cannot remember, and it is the same when he meets an old flame who talks about their exciting affair etc. Everyone describes his past life as very exciting, which he finds confusing because it is definitely not the life he led. It's like they are talking about someone else.
BOLD LAMENT (268)
Sally is married to a very boring, undemonstrative man and she has never experienced romance or excitement. Then while on holiday, she meets this handsome, rich, young man John who sweeps her off her feet, introducing her to feelings/sensations/love etc that she did not realise existed and she stays with John in his beautiful castle for a few days. When she returns home, she leaves her husband, her home her family and gives up everything etc to go to John. But then she gets an awful shock when she discovers that John was only the caretaker of the castle. Has she lost everything for nothing?
ROADSTER (269)
John is a very wealthy man who lives his life by a kind of lottery system. He writes options/factors/limitations etc on pieces of paper and puts them in a hat. Those that he withdraws dictate his destiny for that day e.g. whether he'll go N,S,E or W; take a car or bus etc; be rich or poor etc; be nice or nasty etc; be a salesman or executive etc. He moves from place to place acting out the roles that the lottery selects for him.
THE THINKER (271)
John (Irish) lived on the top of a cliff in a very remote area. He survived on a small allowance and spent all his life thinking about the meaning of life. If disturbed, he used to say, "go away, om tinking, om tinking". He was regarded as a genius but on his death bed, when asked what his conclusions about life were, he replied, "it's all a load of ballocks".
BEREAVEMENT (273)
Although Anne and Sally were sisters, they were totally different in every way (personality, looks, moods etc). Anne was happily married to John with 3 children. Sally came to visit and although Anne and John tried to make her feel very welcome etc, Sally felt in the way etc. Suddenly Anne unexpectedly dies. Strangely, neither John nor the children seem upset. When Sally returns to pick up her things and move on, John, the children and neighbours call her Anne. It's almost as everyone sees her as Anne rather Sally. "It's sad about Sally dying like that," said a neighbour. Sally agreed.
BACK TO ANOTHER ERA (279)
John takes his girlfriend Sally for a holiday to a lovely old gun emplacement on the cliffs of Dover and they have a great time. On their last night, John goes for a walk alone. Suddenly the present becomes the past and it is war time again and fleets of Nazi bombers are heading in to bomb X (where John and Sally live). John takes over an anti-aircraft gun from a fatally wounded gunner and shoots many bombers down, although he is killed himself. When his dead body is found, Sally is distraught. But little does she know that if it had not been for his actions, neither she nor her family would have survived the war.
THE MOANER (281)
John is a weedy authoritarian religious little man who gets very upset by people's anti-social behaviour. One day he suddenly takes to lecturing people about their dogs, litter, noise & other "wrongs" and although, amazingly, everyone does as he tells them, they all grow to hate him. One day, when he falls down a hole that has just been dug, he starts crying out for help. However, despite his cries, the hole is filled in within minutes and new tar is rolled over where the hole was etc. Then life went on round the village just like before and John’s name was never mentioned again. It’s almost like he never existed.
THE HOLIDAY HOTEL (283)
John enters a competition and much to his pleasure wins the prize of a two-week holiday at a mystery destination which turns out to be X. He stays at the Y hotel and has a really lovely time there enjoying the sights of the city, the night life etc. Then one day while coming down in the hotel lift, 4 tough men get in and force him down to an underground floor he did not know existed where foreigners like himself become slaves working in a factory. Nobody ever escapes and because the prize was a mystery destination, nobody back home knew where he went to.
BEING SOMEONE ELSE (301)
John jazzes up his life by pretending to be someone different every day (e.g. tv producer, SAS man, bum, businessman etc) and has many experiences that he would not normally have had.
VILLAGE IDIOT (304)
John is the local, harmless village idiot living in a remote desert village N (like Sally Springs - see draft of novel). Suddenly he becomes the target of the security forces (wearing strange protective clothing) who are desperate to eliminate him and anyone who has been in contact with him as soon as possible. They end up razing N to the ground, landscaping the area, deleting mention of it from maps etc. William is the only one to survive and now they are after him!
MEMORIES OF YOUTH (309)
John had an idyllic youth. Born on a farm, he remembers loving parents, relatives, friends and many, many happy days. However, one day his parents took him to the big city as a birthday treat but they became parted on the underground system. Because he was so young, he could not tell the police where he came from or even his parents surname etc. Despite an extensive search his family's whereabouts are never found and now he (50) spends all his life searching for them, driven on by the happy memories of his youth.
THE DREAM (311)
John keeps having a strange recurring dream about a very strange place/people/occurrences etc and he can describe it in great detail. In fact, he has become so used to it, that when asleep, he is aware that he is dreaming and that he will soon wake up. However, one night he does not wake up and the dream becomes his reality in another dimension. But he continues dreaming but this time it is about the life he used to have, his family etc. He hopes that one day, like before, he will not wake up.
DARK HERITAGE (336)
John is a happy gifted young man with a great future in front of him who goes for a holiday in a country called (X) where his forefathers emanated from. (X) has a peculiar legal system and much to his horror he is sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder committed by his grandfather. In (X), every crime has to be paid for, so if the criminal is dead the crime has to be paid for by the nearest surviving offspring, which is John in this case.
REBEL NUN (340)
Anne becomes a nun and is a very good one. But she finds the spartan life dreary and boring. So at night she changes her clothes and secretly visits the local town, where she enjoys meeting men and having a few drinks etc. She was always afraid of getting caught until one night she noticed the mother superior Mary in "civvies" drinking away in a club with some man draped over her. Mary winks at Anne who is never anxious again.
BLACK COMEDY (345)
Mary is married to Jim until Sally comes along and steals him. Mary marries another man called Jim. Later on, when Mary is away on a business trip to the USA, she is told by a weeping Sally over the phone that Jim is dead. Mary does not really care about her former husband but returns to the UK and arrives at the funeral at the last moment. The priest keeps referring to Mary as being Jim’s wife which she finds embarrassing despite her comical attempts to get him to realise that Sally is now the wife of her previous husband. After the funeral, Mary nearly faints when her previous husband suddenly appears and wants to know who the hell they'd just buried. "Why, that was your husband Jim. Who did you think it was?"
COPYCAT (352)
John is a very cunning clever crook who has never been caught and has no police record. When he decides upon a "nice little earner", he concentrates on a crook who would do that sort of job, arranging it so that the police will automatically assume that the robbery has been carried out by the fall guy (e.g. John ensures the fall guy's finger prints and DNA are at the scene of the crime, that he has no alibi and that the job bears all the hall marks of his style etc). (John hates crooks for some reason and always gives the proceeds from the robbery to some charity?)
DOUBLE OPTION (355)
John leads a very monotonous life and suffers from stress and tension etc. Following advice, he changes his life completely by doing the opposite to what he normally does e.g. gets out of bed the opposite side from normal, doesn't shave, wears garish clothes, doesn't go into work or ring in, says hello to people, offers to buy women a drink, goes to new areas etc. And all his feelings of stress disappear.
BRAIN SURGERY (357)
Scientists discover how to reverse the ageing process of brains but not of bodies. They also develop ways of transplanting brains into the skulls of young 'donors'. However, the only snag is that the 'donor' skull must have some brain in it for the transplanted brain to weld on to and form one brain. But one of the irritating side effects is that sometimes the 'donor's' brain remains active and clashes with the transplanted brain, which can cause incredible conflicts and problems etc.
GOSSIP GAME (360)
Life is so boring in this remote town, that the locals devise this weird game whereby a person selected by lottery becomes the butt of vitriolic gossip for a period of 6 months when it then becomes somebody else's turn. But although the gossip is only fictitious, some people actually start to believe it is true. But things get out of hand when they start a fictitious rumour that William murdered someone. The police arrest William for murder and he is sentenced to life imprisonment.
THE GENIUS (380)
John, a brilliant musician, is envious of the extraordinary talents of William until he realises that William cannot play a note. John takes pleasure at a piano, in showing William that he is not the only genius around. But then he suddenly falls ill. When he recovers he realises, much to his horror, that he has lost his capacity to play music. But he is even more depressed when he learns that William has suddenly become a brilliant musician.
DAWN LOVE (381)
From a distance William looks very similar to John. So when, with the aid of his binoculars, he sees William starting off on his daily 10-mile run, John shouts goodbye to his wife and sets off down the lane in his running kit. John assumes that when William passes at the end of John's garden, his wife will think it is John. John then sets off in a different direction to see his secret lover. One day he has to come home early and is shocked to find his wife in bed with William. Who has been fooling who?
ALL A DREAM (384)
John, who feels a failure, wishes he could have his time over again. Suddenly his wish is granted, and he finds himself young again. He then makes decisions that will ensure that he is a success (so different from before). But then he is involved in car crash that leaves him paralysed from the neck down. He wishes he could go back to being his old self, the failure.
QUEEN'S EVIDENCE (386)
John, a member of a vicious gang, gives evidence against his "mates" subject to his being granted immunity and a new start in life abroad. John has visions of the police giving him plenty of money and a home in some sunny paradise etc. However, after the trial, he is dumped on a remote island in a shark invested sea where nobody goes, and escape is impossible.
MISCHIEVOUS MISS (392)
Sally, who inherited millions, was brutally raped as a child. However, she seemed to get over the incident very quickly and although she never got married, she turned into a very mature, extraverted, bubbling personality etc. But, unbeknown to anyone, she got her revenge on men by taking boyfriends up in her plane, pretending it was in difficulties over a desert and persuading them to jump out with parachutes that did not work. 57 male bodies were found in the desert!
SULLY'S CHOICE (COMEDY) (393)
When John, an Irish priest receives orders from Bishop Mark to "arrange" marriages between all the single people in that remote area, he regularly reports his progress to the bishop. However, although he finds 3 women who would suit lonely Willy, Willy cannot make up his mind which one to choose. When Bishop Mark presses John to resolve the Willy problem, John discovers that Willy has taken to living in sin with the 3 women and all are very happy. Rather than upset things, John tells Bishop Mark that Willy is gay and the bishop never mentions it again (see completed story).
PRECIOUS MEMORIES (394)
In the wood where the birds never sing, a very unhappy John falls into a coma. A man comes to him and tells him that he can go back in time and live for eternity in that phase of his life which was happiest for him. John goes through all his memories and decides that the happiest time of his life was when he was 12. The next day his peaceful body is found in the wood where the birds still do not sing. There was a smile on his face.
THE BURGLAR (395)
Sally is having a secret affair with James who has never seen Sally’s wealthy husband John. She and James plot to murder John and get his money. Then one night, they are disturbed by "John" while making love and James pushes "John" down the stairs and is sure he has killed him (Sally does not see body). Sally creates an alibi for herself and reports John missing. The police find badly injured "John" (which is disappointing for Sally and James and rush him to hospital, where the viewer discovers James is a surgeon. James makes sure "John" does not survive. The next day Sally and James are charged with murder. It was not John who James killed but an unlucky burglar.
LAST RIDE (407)
The viewer sees John & Sally setting off on long journeys (beautiful day), John by car and Sally by train. It would appear that they are travelling to meet each other. John is nearly involved in an accident which scares him. While John wonders whether to fill his car up with petrol and pay some bills, Sally thinks about romantic things. After travelling all day (red sunset etc), they reach their destinations. But there was no connection between them. Sally rushes into the arms of her lover Tom, whereas John commits suicide in a lonely, leafy glade.
WOULD BE WRITER (409)
John, an innocent would be writer, writes a murder idea down on a piece of paper and puts it in his wallet which he then loses. When he notices its loss later on, he goes to the police because it had a lot of money in it and is immediately arrested for a murder that corresponds exactly with idea in his wallet. To prove that it was purely coincidental for his idea to match the murder, he shows them 10 more of his murder ideas. However, much to his horror, these match exactly 10 unsolved murders.
ROOF GHOST (415)
After inheriting this big mansion and spending a great deal of money on it, John realises that he will have great difficulty in selling it because it is haunted by a wailing ghost. After some vain attempts to exorcise the ghost, he discovers that his ghost William, a rich lord, was in love with Mary, poor peasant girl, who haunts the nearby cottage. John manages to bring the ghost of Mary to William and initially there is peace in the mansion. But it did not last long. The mansion now echoes with the shouts and creams of William and Mary who spend most of their time fighting and nagging each other, just like many other married couples.
MURDER PLOT (424)
John hates Mary, his very wealthy wife and loves William. But under an agreement, if he divorces Mary, he will not get a penny. So, he decides to murder Mary, get her money and marry Sally. But he does not know how to do it. Then by chance he overhears 2 men plotting the perfect murder. John follows them to see how they do it. But he does not realise until it is too late that he is the murder victim.
THE MAGPIE (N.IRELAND) (440)
The reader/viewer does not realise that this is set in Ulster until the end. It is a lovely summer's morning and John curses his luck when he sees a magpie. Then suddenly he takes the reader/viewer by surprise by shooting a British soldier dead. However, he is caught almost immediately. Later he says, "As soon as I saw that magpie I knew it was not going to be my day". It wasn't the poor soldier's day either.
CARD PLAYERS (N.IRELAND) (444)
The reader/viewer does not realise that this is set in Ulster until the end. Pat, Sean & Seamus, all unemployed, are passing the time playing cards. Just when it looks like Pat is going to win the next game involving a large pot, he and Sean are called out to do a job. Sean warns Seamus not to tamper with the cards in their absence. On the way to the job, Pat frets to Sean about Seamus’s potential for dishonesty. Then to the surprise of the reader/viewer, Pat shoots a British soldier dead. Pat and Sean rush back to complete the card game and to Pat’s horror, Seamus wins the game. Although he can't prove a thing he knows that Seamus "is a cheating bastard with no conscience at all".
AMATEUR DETECTIVE (446)
During their summer holiday, some bored students decide to become amateur detectives to make life more interesting. They have no real crimes to investigate, so they each select someone at random from telephone books and then spy on that person for a month without them becoming suspicious. John spies on Mr X and is really amazed at what he gets up to (John's friends think he is telling fibs). Suddenly John realises that he in turn is being spied upon by some tough, strange characters. After a terrifying series of events John is killed. And Mr X knew nothing about John or his death.
SWEET REVENGE (454)
Obnoxious playboy John marries would-be heiress Mary. When she inherits nothing, he abandons her and his young daughter Sally to go to Australia with Jane who has some money. Mary has a very hard life bringing up Sally. Later Mary saves up to go to Australia to get her revenge (the viewer/reader assumes murder). She is pleased that Jane's money has run out and John is very poor and unhappy. She arrives in a Rolls, wearing a fur coat & dripping with expensive jewellery etc. She shows him a picture of his lovely daughter and on leaving, she nonchalantly gives him $100. "You should have stayed with me, things worked out so well." She enjoys the look of desolation on his face. Back at the airport, she's poor again, in her ordinary clothes.
THE LAST PAINTING (457)
John, a very famous artist, dies just after he has completed his last painting. William, his unsuccessful "friend", who copies John's style, secretly takes John's last painting and replaces it with one of his own. William is hoping to make a fortune from John's last picture (pretending that it is his own) but none of the dealers etc show any interest in it. However, they show tremendous interest in William’s own picture ("full of inner mysticism" etc). So, William tells the truth and reveals what he did. But everyone suddenly loses interest in his picture and starts raving about the real last painting that John painted.
POLICE CHIEF (458)
John has an unusual talent. He can give extensive and comprehensive details about past events even though he has never had any connection with those events. Although tested by scientists, he has never been found to be wrong. However, when he is invited in by the police to resolve a horrible murder, he destroys his credibility by naming the police chief Alex as the culprit. Later when it transpires that in fact Alex was the murderer, the police look for John to resolve other unsolved murders only to find he is dead, killed by Alex.
LIFE SUSPENSION (461)
Scientists develop the ability to "freeze" people's lives i.e. they stop their hearts, drain their bodies etc, freeze them for say 50 years and then bring them back to life, although it is all very expensive. John decides that he will live for 750 years i.e. he will be frozen for 50 years, brought back to life for 3, frozen for another 50 etc ((70 - 25)/3*50). (While he is frozen his money will gain so much interest that he will be able to afford to go on with the operations). But things do not work out as planned e.g. some spoilt brat turns all the freezers off, or the concept of money vanishes so there is no fiscal incentive for anyone to bring him back to life or the government bans this science etc.
TRANSFORMATION (472)
Travelling John is so poor and hungry that he agrees to go and work for this very eccentric woman Mary whose "family" consists of tailor’s dummies whom she talks to and takes for drives in her car etc (all the locals laugh at her). Then one day Mary tells John most sadly that one of her "sons" has died and asks him to bury him. John goes along with it although he feels it is ridiculous. The next day John is horrified to discover that he himself has turned into a dummy. Mary finds another person to help her look after her family and John knows that in due course as more members of the "family" die and are replaced by new dummies like him, his turn for death will come and there is nothing he can do about it.
VOTING SYSTEM (481)
John is like everyone else who lives in X, he has no friends nor social life, he lives in a bleak futuristic city (2025) e.g. massive silent skyscrapers in areas where you rarely see anyone else about although you do often see peculiar vehicles with flashing lights and you hear strange noises etc. John returns from a trip and as soon as he enters his apartment the TV switches itself on. As per usual, before he can do anything else, he has to vote on all the issues listed on the screen and also explain his vote (because there is no parliamentary democracy, all the citizens have to vote on issues via the TV and new laws etc will only be adopted if 95% vote in favour). Because he has been away for some time, there is a backlog of issues to vote on which he knows will take up the whole night. But after about six hours in front of the TV screen, John suddenly decides that he's had enough and refuses to vote any more. So, they come and take him away and send him to 'hell' which in fact is like the world we currently live in and not at all perfect like the new world.
GETTING YOUNGER/OLDER (485)
John is 70, Mary 35, Sally 20 and William a baby. Following a strange phenomenon, John quickly starts growing younger whereas Mary, Sally & William start growing older quickly. Obviously, this has an effect on their relationships etc. Eventually John ends up the baby and William the old man. Nobody dies and each alternatively becomes older and then younger but the rates at which they do vary from person to person etc so there is no consistent pattern.
IN DESPAIR (492)
John, made an orphan when a baby, is taken in by a grumpy uncle who is so cruel to him that he decides to commit suicide. He goes to the empty cottage on the cliff tops where his parents lived, with the intention of saying goodbye to their souls and then jumping into the sea. However, he finds a young couple squatting in the cottage. They are so nice to him that he forgets his suicide plans. He visits them regularly and they fill him full of hope etc. But sadly, they suddenly and unexpectedly move away. Even so he feels strong enough to face the world. Many years later he sees a photo of his parents for the first time. They resemble the squatters exactly.
ROUGH JUSTICE (494)
John, a highly respected widower judge, does not appear to have any heirs. However, when younger, he unknowingly made Sally pregnant and then left her to marry someone else. Sally hated John so much that she told her son Jack lies about John and brought him up to hate John. Jack, determined to get "what is rightly mine" from John, persuades his girlfriend Susy to have an affair with John. Jack then threatens to blackmail John and when John refuses to pay up, Jack exposes him to the press. John's career is ruined. However, John is overjoyed to discover from Susy that he has a bastard son. He tracks down Jack and tells him the true story about his affair with Sally and how he didn't know she was pregnant etc and that he intends to leave all his money to Jack. However, when Susy unexpectedly walks into the room, John realises that Jack is the blackmailer and he leaves him nothing.
GOLDEN GIRL (499)
Sally, a hard but glamorous girl, is absolutely obsessed with gold. Her hair, nails, clothes, furniture, bed sheets, the outside of her house, car etc are all gold coloured and she will only go out with men (whom she treats very badly) who can afford to give her gold. But then one day she disappears and is never seen again. John, intrigued by her story, comes across a statue erected by a millionaire. Nobody knows anything about the statue, but John is convinced it looks just like Sally. John is sure he sees a disgusted look on the statue's face and is convinced that this is because the statue was probably made up from a mixture of her remains and BRONZE
DUST TO DUST (501)
John falls in love with a very beautiful woman Sally who lives in that very strange alien country X. Unfortunately, he cannot go into X legally and so he decides to take the risk and enters X to rescue Sally and her brother Tom. After a very exciting chase etc, they arrive back at the border. But even though Sally and Tom escape, John is betrayed and is caught yards from freedom. He looks at Sally, but she disappears into the gloom with her 'brother' who he suddenly realises is actually her lover. John is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an awful prison.
REPRIEVE IN QUESTION (507)
John, a fit young person, wakes up one night and finds himself in a holding centre on the border between his country and a very strange foreign country. He is very frightened and confused and seeks the help of a lawyer type William whose job it is to act on the behalf of people like John. Although William tries everything he can think of he cannot win John a reprieve, although he is successful with other people in the same position as John. The reader then realises that John is hovering between life and death and because he does not win a reprieve he dies (ref my dream following Mums death).
EVERY NIGHT A DIFFERENT DISGUISE (508)
Every night when John returns from his boring job, he goes up to his wardrobe which is full of many different types of clothes and disguises himself as a character he has never been before. He then goes out into the night to have new experiences as a new person. No character is ever repeated, no experience ever the same.
BURNING LIGHT (513)
Mary and her only son John live in a lonely remote area that is permanently snowbound. Mary’s life completely revolves around her son John and so she is heartbroken when he decides that he must leave to find himself a job. Needless to say, Mary is very sad and lonely and every night she puts a candle in the window to light a way through the snow in case John ever returns. After 7 long lonely years John does return unexpectedly (to surprise her). But sadly, there is no light in the window - because Mary had died the night before.
RARE ATTACKS (528)
Nearly everyone becomes infected with a new virus that only attacks the victim for a few brief seconds from one to three times in their lives. But these virus attacks are absolutely awful i.e. people suddenly lose all control of themselves and commit horrific crimes they do not remember before returning to total sanity. Society is faced with a terrible dilemma i.e. if nearly everyone is infected, and the virus attacks are so very rare, can you convict people of crimes they don't remember committing? If you did, you'd end up imprisoning everyone, judges and all. Or do you just carry on as normal and hope that you do not end up the dead victim of a person who becomes a psychopathic killer for only several seconds in their life?
HALL OF MIRRORS (535) - 11/06/89
When John is 50, he comes across a peculiar deserted fairground full of many strange things. He enters a hall of mirrors and when looks in these mirrors, he sees images of what he and his life would have been like if only he had done this or that, or taken different decisions at different points in his life etc. But not only does he see these peculiar images, but he can for a short time enter the reality that he sees reflected in the mirror. It all makes him realise how different everything would have been, if only…..
HAUNTING BEAUTY (545) - 22/06/89
When John travels to X, a lovely remote country, he meets a very beautiful woman Sally and falls deeply in love with her. They have an absolutely magic time together until she suddenly disappears. Later John is told that Sally is not a real person but a ghost who's been breaking men's hearts for 2500 years!
LAZY RHYTHM (540) - 24/06/89
A different dimension does exist, but before you can go there, you have to live lots of different lives on earth (so the phenomenon of reincarnation actually does exist). However every time you 'return', they ensure that you are totally different from any person you have ever been before i.e. when you die, you go to a special 'workshop' where they work on you and change your basic blueprint so that your next life on earth is totally different from any previously lived there e.g. they ensure that your heart beats at a different rate than ever before and that your whole life rhythm is a new one etc. They also ensure that you have good points & bad points, advantages & disadvantages and, of course, a 'cross to bear' etc.
DREAM MERCHANT (554) - 29/06/89
In the future it will be possible to rent a 'dream maker' that you wire up to your head at night which will ensure, when you go to sleep, that you have very vivid, lifelike dreams that you enjoy tremendously and remember clearly the next day. You can either choose the sort of dream you want or take your chance with a mystery one. Unfortunately, there have been incidences when people with bad intentions have substituted acceptable 'dream makers' with horrific ones you cannot switch off etc.
DECOY (556) - 02/07/89
John & Mary are seemingly a happily married loving young couple. One day Mary tells John she has a lovely surprise for him and persuades him to take a day off work, wear rough clothes and go to an area of town he would not normally frequent to meet her. He is intrigued and excitedly follows her directions. When he gets to the area she indicated, he catches a glimpse of her (but it actually someone else who looks very like her!) at the end of a long street and rushes at full pelt through the thick crowds of people to try and get to her. But she has disappeared. Later he is charged with the murder of her lover (many witnesses saw him running away from the scene of the crime, the murder weapon was found in his car etc). Needless to say, Mary had a perfect alibi for being elsewhere on that fateful day.
DARING TIMES (557) - 02/07/89
In order to relieve their boredom during holiday time, some intelligent students start playing "daring" games (e.g. shoplifting). But the central feature about these games is that the next one always has to be more daring than the last one and nobody can chicken out. Needless to say, they eventually get involved in some very dangerous and sinister activities as the games get more and more daring. What is the ultimate game?
ESCAPE PATH (562) - 09/07/89
M is a harsh prison for political prisoners on a remote jungle island. Although the prisoners do not realise it, there is actually no escape from the island. The prison governor finds life there very boring. So, to make things a bit more exciting, he "encourages" escapes. When would-be escapers break out from the prison compound the governor and his men excitedly hunt them down until they eventually catch and kill them. However, they always tell the prisoners back in the prison that the escapers got clean away which encourages them to try the same.
MEDICAL TESTS (573) - 16/07/89
When John see William’s ad in a paper offering substantial amounts of cash to anyone prepared to act as guinea pig for several simple medical tests, he applies. William summons him to a beautiful big mansion where he and other similar applicants live in luxury while the tests are being carried out. When William then asks John to stay on for further simple tests, he readily agrees. William ends up giving John a very simple job and John leads a very comfortable life etc. However, when John discovers that William's only son and heir Steve has a deteriorating heart condition which can only be cured by a heart transplant, John begins to suspect that there is a sinister plot to give his heart against his will to Steve at some stage. However, when he tries to leave, he quickly discovers that there is no escape!
BETTING PARTNERS (574) - 16/07/89
For many years John & William faithfully did the pools together, using line X. Then one week, John suddenly pulled out of the syndicate. William is very annoyed but says that he will continue on his own. John is then sickened to realise that line X has won William the jackpot the very first week John did not invest. William is absolutely jubilant and leaves the area for a better life in USA. For the next 25 years he writes 3 monthly letters to John telling him about the fantastic life he is leading etc and John is never allowed to forget the awful error he made. However, it transpires that William never did actually win and that he stopped investing at the same time as John. But in order to get revenge on John for initially dropping out of their syndicate, he moved 50 miles away and arranged to have the 3 monthly letters sent to John via the USA just to torture him.
THESIS (575) - 17/07/89
The education system in that strange remote land X is peculiar e.g. if you do well at school you can apply for a government scholarship to subsidise you while you write a thesis on one of the practical subjects listed in the government's thesis list. Details are scarce, but you soon realise that if you want to write a thesis say about the poor you have to go and live amongst them and experience their way of life etc. John looks through the list of subjects on the thesis list and decides he wants to live with and write about blind people. He is really happy when he learns he has been awarded the scholarship but not so pleased when they arrive later and take his eyes out.
ALTERED BEAST (579) - 20/07/89
In that strange remote land X, if you are found guilty of a crime that does not carry the death penalty, they operate on your brain so that you lose your personality and free will etc and you become a mindless slave condemned to spend the rest of your days working for the state. There is no appeal system.
MICRO LOVE (589) - 25/07/89
In the future, there will be 'farms' where they'll breed beautiful 'slaves' totally without personalities, free will etc and if you're a privileged person, you'll be able to select one or more of these 'slaves' for your own use and have them programmed to your own specification so that they do everything that you want them to do in the most interesting and exciting way imaginable. If you get bored with your slaves, you'll be able to have them replaced. Furthermore, you can have as many as you like at the one time. However, discarded 'slaves' are always destroyed because nobody will want second hand goods.
WITNESS (596) - 28/07/89
When John and William are out strolling, John draws William’s attention to Tom who is committing what seems to be a horrific crime. They follow Tom to see where he lives, the intention being that they will later report him to the police. However, the more involved they become, the more difficult it becomes for them to consider calling in the police. They are confronted with a terrible moral dilemma and also extreme danger. It then transpires that John had Tom had set the whole thing up as a kind of game, a test for William. However, ironically, things do not work out as they had planned and their game turns into a ghastly nightmare e.g. William had started off seeming a fairly ordinary person, but as the game progresses he changes personality. Furthermore, it becomes obvious that in fact it was he (rather than John and Tom) who was dictating the rules and rhythm of the game etc.
FLOATING NOTE (609) - 16/08/89
Someone commits this awful but very clever murder, but the viewer does not know who the murderer is although there are say 10 suspects. The viewer gets to see each one and at the end of every programme the person under scrutiny adds something to a note that either absolves him/her from guilt and points the finger at someone else or ensures that they remain definite suspects. What is certain is that the note will eventually not only say who the murderer was but also explain the motive and the means. Can you work it all out before the last programme?
DEBBY'S NEXT (610) - 20/08/89
Sally, a happy, pleasant, pretty girl, leading a normal sort of life, suddenly starts receiving anonymous letters. At first, she does not pay much attention to them because they are so cryptic they do not make sense. But as time goes by they become more and more personal and it becomes obvious to her that someone is watching her. She reports the matter to the police but the notes, which are becoming more and more sinister, keep coming. But what really unsettles her is that the notes start making references to things that only close personal friends would know. However, she gets really scared when they start describing her private thoughts and her dreams. There is someone out there who can read her mind and who is threatening to take it over.
HOTEL DL (614) - 26/08/89
There is this unusual hotel Fantasy World where you can be anyone you want to be e.g. although you are an ordinary average person, when you go there, you can be say a king or a big business tycoon or a film star and you will be treated accordingly. Furthermore, they ensure that realistic things happen, that you meet the sort of people kings etc would meet and have the sort of experiences they would have etc. It is a good place to send someone for a surprise weekend i.e. it is only when you get there that you are told what sort of make-pretend person you are going to be and how they are going treat you etc. This works fine until someone starts playing practical jokes and says that they want John to be a murderer on death row and he ends up being executed (see completed short story).
BESTOW (616) - 26/08/89
John, very rich man, is on his death bed but is dying slowly (nobody has a clue when he will actually die). He changes his will drastically every single morning so that one day you are a substantial benefactor and the next you could be a loser etc. John has many relatives and the tension waiting for him to die is enormous.
TRYING TO REMEMBER (620) - 05/09/89
John, a poor man, is told that William has travelled over 1000 miles from a far-off land to tell him something very important that will change his whole life. However just before they meet, William has an accident and although he recovers his health he has lost the most of his memory and cannot remember John's good fortune. John gives up a promising career to devote the rest of his days looking after William most carefully in the hope that one day William’s memory will return. Then on his death bed, EITHER William's memory does return, and he tells John of the vast wealth he should have inherited all those years before, but which is now all gone, OR it was all a big con by William which enabled to live off John for years.
DREAM OF FAME (621) - 05/09/89
John has this fantastic recurring dream so many times that he can relate every single detail in it. In the dream absolutely, fabulous things happen to him, he becomes very rich and famous, has many homes, beautiful women etc etc. But although the dream is so life-like, he is disappointed because it never comes true for him. But he is horrified one day to realise that his dream came true for someone else exactly in the way he had dreamed it. John wonders why that should be, that surely if he was the lead player in the dream, then he should have been the lead player when it came true.
THE BLUE ROOM (622) - 07/09/89
John, a poor man, has this dream about coming into a lot of money, buying a big mansion and stocking it full of lovely, gorgeous girls, all of whom will be his girlfriends. Then by chance his dream comes true and he gets a vast amount of money, buys a big mansion in the country and finds a lot of girls eager to live with him there. He thinks that he has it made. However, on his first full day at the house, he finds that someone has locked the door of his room and while he can see all the girls and their boyfriends enjoying the house and his money etc, he remains trapped in that room until he dies.
REPLACEMENT (630) - 30/09/89
In that strange land of X, when someone dies, they are replaced by a computer produced dummy which seems human and has exactly the same type of personality as the deceased etc. The dummy is actually better in some ways than the deceased for it does not grow old, never "dies" and its behaviour can be "improved" to suit the wishes of the surviving family etc.
BESPOKE DIMENSION (631) - 30/09/89
Imagine being a person close to death and going through your memories to select all the places where you were happiest, your most enjoyable experiences and all the people you most loved being with and being able to assemble them all together into one place where you could go to after your death (furthermore, if you want to use your imagination and create places, people and experiences you can). In that strange land of X, when you approach death, they can arrange such a dimension for you after your "death" on earth.
STRANGE MEMORIES (632) - 30/09/89
John suffers from amnesia and loses his memory completely. However, after a few months, his memory faculty returns but the weird thing is that the memory that returns is not his own but belongs to someone else. Furthermore, the memories that John reveals are sinister and relate to an incident the police are very interested in (police suspect John committed crime).
ABIGAIL'S PORTRAITS (641) - 02/10/89
A series of seemingly innocuous pictures on a wall tell the fascinating life story of a woman (from childhood onwards). Initially it is all very confusing at first, but everything eventually fits in and makes sense.
UNITS OF HAPPINESS (648) - 09/10/89
In the next dimension, they give you one "unit" for each moment of happiness that you enjoyed down on earth. Some people have lots of such "units", others have very few (and one poor man had none). They then subtract your personal total of "units" from a figure picked at random and the result is the number of moments of happiness you will enjoy in the next dimension.
ALBERT'S WAY OUT (643) - 05/10/89
Just before he died, John's father gave him a letter and told him that inside was a message that would help him gain wealth but warned him that the message would only work once and that the longer he put off opening the letter the greater his wealth would be. During his early 20s/30s John often fought off the temptation to open the letter and he put up with much hardship and poverty etc because he knew that one day he would be rich and that the longer he put off opening the letter the richer he would be. When he finally decided to open the letter, he found that the pencil writing on the note inside had all faded away.
DREAM AWHILE (652) - 10/10/89
Imagine after a hard day's work in the city, when you're feeling tired, frustrated and stressed, to be able to go into a 'dream parlour', where they sit you in a comfortable chair, send you to sleep and then full your head full of beautiful relaxing dreams in which everyone loves you, and you are successful, fulfilled and contented. And when you eventually wake up you feel fully at peace with yourself and the world.
SENILE MEMORIES (659) - 01/11/89
Mary, an old grandmother, is becoming senile. She suddenly takes to relating her pre-war memories of a young man William who was killed in the war. William had been very happily engaged to Sally who committed suicide after his death rather than face life without him. Then Mary moved on from the memories and began talking about William and Sally as if they were alive, telling her family about William and Sally’s lives and children etc. Mary’s family try to persuade her that William and Sally are dead but to no avail. One grandson Tom however takes Mary seriously and much to his utter amazement discovers a happily married couple identical in every way to William and Sally. However, when he brings the others to see them, he finds that William and Sally have disappeared without trace.
DIFFERENT STORIES (663) - 26/11/89
There are six people who get involved in a very intricate and interesting plot involving heroism, sex, wealth, violence, death etc. Each character is allowed to write his/her version of the story and each one writes a totally different story with them being the central character and hero. Who is telling the correct version of events?
ANOTHER ROOM (664) - 08/01/90
After 35 years of living in this big, beautiful, old house (which had been the family home since it was built 350 years before), miserly John sells up to move into a smaller nearby house. He is then horrified to notice, just as he is handing the keys over to the new owner, that his former home has a secret door that obviously leads into a massive underground room full of god knows what fantastic things (he does not get the opportunity to open the secret door and look inside for fear that the new owner might spot the door). Later John tries to persuade the new owners to let him see the inside of the house again (& therefore the secret room) but they refuse to let him or anyone else inside the house. John frets so much about all the family treasures etc he must be missing that he eventually buys the house back at three times the price he got for it. But, despite an extensive search, he cannot find the secret door. He wonders did it exist at all?
COMA KILLER (666) - 27/01/90
After a murder, the police are 100% sure that John knows the identity of the killer because they know he was there. But when they come to interview him, they discover John is in a deep coma following an accident. During the 18 months, he remains in the coma, the killer carries out regular monthly murders. The police know are totally frustrated but take some comfort from their confidence that they will solve the case when John eventually comes out of his coma. But when at last he does, he repeatedly tells the exasperated police that he is the killer. The police give up in disgust and never come near him again. But strangely enough, there are no further murders.
CO-LODGERS (667) - 27/01/90
John & Mary have a lovely detached home out in the country, a nice family, good jobs etc. Every morning there is a mad hectic rush as they all get ready to go to work, school etc. When they all leave, silence descends upon the house. Then William and Joan and their family arrive and take over the house for the day, leaving it just before John & Mary return. In 17 years this has been going on, John & Mary have been totally unaware of William and Joan’s existence. When John & Mary move to a different part of the country, William and Joan secretly follow them.
FROZEN LIFE (673) - 05/04/90
In X, when boys & girls reach a certain age, sperm & eggs are taken from them and are then frozen. Then the boys & girls are sterilised, which means that when they grow into adults, they can indulge in sex without fear of unwanted pregnancies etc. But if they eventually decide they want children, their eggs/sperm are taken out of cold storage and an embryo is developed in a 'test tube' etc. The technology is such that the child is 'born' outside the mother's womb.
REINCARNATED PARTNER (680) - 17/04/90
When John finds some old photos by chance he realises that he has lived before and was very much in love with a beautiful girl Sally. He is very sad until it dawns on him that, because he has been reincarnated, there is a chance that the same thing happened to her too. So, he sets out to find her and, incredibly, he succeeds despite all the odds. The only tragedy is that she was reincarnated 60 years before him and is now an 80-year-old woman.
SLAVE TIME (683) - 17/04/90
In that strange country X, their legal system is peculiar. If you are convicted of a crime, you have a choice: you can either fester for years in one of the country's ghastly prisons or you can become the 'victim's' slave for the same number of years you would have spent in prison. It is not an easy choice to make because slaves have to do everything their master wants and if you get a bad master, your life will be absolute hell.
DON'T TELL THE CHILDREN (691) - 19/04/90
During their married life John frequently cheats on his wife Mary behind her back. He often feels guilt about his unfaithfulness, but that does not stop him having affairs. During their marriage they have 4 children. Suddenly Mary contracts a terminal illness and on her death bed she says to John: "Even if you find out the truth, for God's sake please do not tell the children!" John is most puzzled by this remark and even more so, when it dawns on him for the first time ever that none of the children look anything like him.
DARK SECRET (696) - 20/04/90
John has a dark secret which he regrets and is very ashamed about. He moves to a new area where nobody could possibly know about him to start a new life and he soon makes some really lovely new friends. He has never been happier. Then one day he finds an anonymous note that makes it clear that one of his new friends knows his dark secret. But which one?
PRISON CONTACT (699) - 20/04/90
In X, when you are sent to one of their awful Spartan prisons, they set up a two-way video link between you and your family so that you can see what they are up to and they can see your dreary life in prison. There are also links to special correctional units to enable young potential offenders to view what prison life is like as well.
MANY COPIES (700) - 20/04/90
Scientists make a medical discovery which enables them to create 10 copies of you from some of your cells e.g. they take some cells from you every 5th year between the years of one to fifty and then they use their special new process to make copies of you which relates to the year the cells were taken (sadly however, the copy dies after approx. 12 months and you then have to revert back to the age you were). The result is that you can enjoy being younger again at least ten times, even though you are really an old person. Unfortunately, things go wrong from time to time!
ELECTRICAL STORMS (701) - 22/04/90
It becomes apparent to scientists that the nature of electrical storms is changing. They used to be mainly just thunder and lightning which frightened but rarely harmed people. However, they notice that electrical storms now also affect people in a sinister physical way i.e. although they are not actually struck by lightning, the perverse form of electrical energy in the atmosphere kills some people and changes the personalities of others in a terrifying way (some become murderous psychopaths).
EASY ESCAPE (704) - 23/04/90
John, an ordinary, quiet chap, is suddenly taken away for questioning by the police about an offence that occurred in another town, despite the fact that he has a sound alibi and is obviously innocent. They take him to a massive, windowless building full of dark corridors, barred, locked doors etc and, after asking him very innocuous, almost pointless questions, they inform that he is in the clear and can go. To get out of the building he is told that all he has to do is to follow the instructions announced over the PA system. However, the only snag is that the instructions are in a foreign language which he cannot understand. Everyone else disappears and he spends the rest of his life roaming those bleak empty, echoing corridors alone, deafened by the never silent PA system.
LIFE TAX (705) - 23/04/90
In X, the official life expectancy for people is 65 years (also retirement age). So, if you live beyond 65, you do not get a pension. Instead you have to pay a very high additional tax. This of course does not please potential heirs who see their inheritance being quickly drained away. Also, if someone over 65 can't pay, then his relatives have to meet the tax bill.
EUTHANESIA (706) - 23/04/90
In X, when you reach a certain age and want to die, it is legal for doctors to give you a lethal injection. Mary, 78, living with her timid daughter Anne in a very remote area, miles from anyone else, decides over a period of time that she is tired of life and wants to die. So timid Anne contacts the doctor William, a very grumpy bad-tempered individual, who agrees most reluctantly to make the tiresome journey to administer the lethal dose. However, while William is on his way, Mary suddenly decides that she wants to live. "But you can't change your mind at the last moment like this," says Anne, "the doctor will go mad and tear me to shreds...he just cannot tolerate people wasting his time...you can't be so selfish, you've got to go through with it."
HANDFUL OF TRICKS (game?) (708) - 24/04/90
John is given 10 different remarkable skills which he can use in difficult situations. He does not know what the skills are but is warned that as soon as one has been used it cannot be used again. Then John finds himself in his first difficult situation from which there seems to be no escape. So, he calls up his first 'skill' which, say, enables him to fly and therefore escape. This leaves him with 9 skills to use in subsequent difficult situations. As each difficult situation arises, John calls up another skill to help him out of it. Sometimes the skill does not seem appropriate to the situation and the viewer thinks that there is no escape. But each skill always works ultimately and usually in a very clever, unforeseen way.
THE MESSAGE (709) - 24/04/90
A terrified John rings up Jack and warns him to leave the area immediately as John has implicated him in something serious and several criminals are out to get him. A puzzled Jack comes over to see John to sort things out and finds him horrendously murdered in a pool of blood. Jack immediately flees the area and for the next 10 years manages to keep one step ahead of the killers who are after him, often just escaping by the skin of his teeth. Then he returns to his home village and is absolutely amazed to see John alive and well. John explains that his "murder" was actually a sick joke that backfired badly. Jack is very confused. So, who has been following him for those 10 long years?
KELLY'S KINGDOM (710) - 25/04/90
John, an eccentric millionaire, has a vast estate which he regards as his own private country. It has its own flag, national anthem, laws, currency etc and he is absolute ruler. He is a very generous man and as long as guests play his little games, they all have a very nice time. William is invited along and has an absolutely lovely time there until he is "arrested" by John and charged with being a spy. He is found guilty by the "jury" (drunken guests) and is sentenced to 50 years in prison. He is never released from John's prison and dies there (see completed story).
RICH DREAMS (713) - 26/04/90
John, a poor country boy, meets Sally, the daughter of a very rich millionaire. She falls in love with him and introduces him to experiences he never dreamed existed. Then she takes him home where her parents indicate clearly that they like him. John proposes, and Sally readily accepts. They are both overjoyed and have never been happier. John returns home to break the good news to his family, give up his job, collect his things etc. However, when he tries to find Sally's home, he can't even though he is sure he knows where it is. He eventually accepts defeat and returns home heartbroken. Meanwhile Sally wakes up and tells her mother about the lovely dream she's just had.
REINCARNATED MURDERER (717) - 29/04/90
As John grows up, he gradually realises that he lived a different life about 150 years before, that he was a murderer who never got caught. When he tells people details about the murders that only the murderer could have known, a local newspaper prints the story, which attracts the attention of the police. He is subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for the murders he committed in a different life.
ANTIQUE MAN (718) - 29/04/90
As John grows up, he gradually realises that he lived a different life about 30 years before. He then meets William who is a very successful and wealthy man, a pillar of society. John knows William from his previous life for one simple reason - William murdered him and was never caught! It takes a little bit of time, but John eventually manages to prove conclusively to the police that William was the person who murdered John in his previous life.
FUTURE GAMBLE (721) - 05/05/90
John is a flamboyant millionaire, who made his fortune from rags to riches has always through taking great risks. Although he has always shown great love etc to his ten children, they are an ungrateful bunch who have turned into a fairly obnoxious lot. When John dies, the children are horrified to learn that only one of them will inherit his wealth and who it is, will all depend upon the result of a future ten horse race, which he has sponsored every year. Each family member is assigned the number of a horse in this future race and, after John's fortune is divided into equal amounts (fortune divided by 10), each equal amount is gambled on those 10 horses in that race. This means that there will only be one heir and, furthermore, the level of the inheritance will depend on the bookies and the winner's odds.
ONE FOR THE BOYS (725) - 05/05/90
John has a small company. He encourages his male employees to work very hard by rewarding them with surprise pleasures each month e.g. he secretly arranges for them to go to big football matches, a night out in the West End, a big booze up etc. They get so used to this that it becomes the 'norm'. However, when the company goes through a bad patch, he has to encourage his workers to stay by arranging less expensive but equally pleasurable incentives, involving his wife, sister in law etc.
DAME D'AMOUR (731) - 06/05/90
X is a male dominated society and their brain washing techniques are so advanced that they can get women to do exactly what men want. They provide a special 'love' facility for lonely men whereby an agency allocates women who will love them for a limited period of time. Lonely John is allocated Sally who loves him like John has never been loved before. John falls totally in love with her. Unfortunately, after one month, Sally has to return to the agency. John cannot get over Sally and although he manages to meet her again she does not remember him (she also 'loves' other men in the same way that she 'loved' John). They try to fob John off with other 'loving' women, but he only wants Sally. They then decide to resolve the problem once and for all by making him gay.
CROWN ANGEL (735) - 09/05/90
John suddenly realises that he's died and is in a type of holding centre in another temporary dimension. He is very sad because he cannot return to his young wife and family. His guardian angel Mary suddenly arrives and tells him that as soon as his details etc have been processed, he will be quickly moved on to the next dimension. So, John remains in limbo and has no choice but to look down on his grieving wife and family. However, his time there turns out to be far longer than he’d expected, and he becomes very sad at the way he is so quickly forgotten by his wife (who marries another man etc) and his children. Eventually Mary admits that there has been a ghastly administrative error and that John must return to earth. When he returns, he quickly realises that not one day has passed since the day he "died". However, his experience while "dead" makes him look at his wife/family in a different light than before.
CAMEO PERFORMANCE (738) - 09/05/90
John realises that he has the power to relive the lives of famous people from the past for short periods of time (his instinct tells him not to try and live the lives of people who are alive!). Needless to say, he has a wonderful time. However, one day, he makes the mistake of reliving the life of someone he thought was dead but who is alive on death row. Will he escape from that dilemma?
EXHIBITION (744) - 22/05/90
In X, they select people at random to hold "exhibitions" of their lives in public i.e. they have display to the world evidence of everything that they have ever done or achieved in life. Because this could leave people open to criticism, derogatory comment and ridicule, it encourages everyone to strive to be a winner.
UNFINISHED STORIES (746) - 22/05/90
The viewer sees a group of actors involved in a fairly clever sketch. The action is suddenly stopped, and celebrity guests are each asked how they would make the overall story end. Then the actors ad-lib to act out each guest's story line and marks are given for each one.
FRONT PAGE (748) - 28/05/90
John, a decent country chap, is out shopping one day in the city when he suddenly notices his photo on the front page of a national newspaper. He is horrified to learn from the newspaper article that he is being hunted in connection with some terrible murders and that the police consider him to be a mad, armed psychopathic killer, who is so dangerous that he should not be approached by members of the public. Apparently armed police are frantically searching for him and the implication is that they are going to shoot him on sight. What will he do?
CHELSEA GIRL (750) - 28/05/90
John, an old man, meets his young nephew Jack in Chelsea. They sit outside a pub and John tells him about all the happy days he had when he lived in Chelsea as a young man all those years before. John says he has only one regret and tells Jack about the beautiful young blond woman Mary he used to see every day and whom he loved so much but never got around to meeting (viewer sees pictures from John's past). Then Jack's girlfriend arrives, and John is amazed to see that it is Mary. Later, while sitting in the library looking through very old newspapers, John is even more amazed to see the photo of Mary in a paper dated 20 years before his own birth. Who is this amazing and mysterious Mary?
THE UNVEILING (757) - 29/05/90
A very strange, sinister, chilling murder takes place in a village (P). However, although there are many suspects with interesting motives, the police make no progress with their enquiries. The murder becomes such a legend that (P) turns into a very profitable tourist attraction, with the locals never tiring of putting forward their theories to the many visitors to the town about which of the exciting suspects they think committed the foul deed. Then John, a dull dreary man, owns up and it becomes absolutely clear that he actually is the murderer. However, his confessions are ignored because of the damage the locals realise his conviction would do to the local tourist trade (if only he had even been an exciting murderer!)
FALSELY ACCUSED (759) - 29/05/90
John, a very wealthy young man, is convicted of murder and is sent to prison for life. Under the laws of his country, all his possessions are confiscated and distributed amongst his poor spendthrift relatives (whom he always treated well!). Although John's relatives are sorry about his conviction, they are pleased nevertheless about their unexpected, newfound wealth. Later the family secretly discovers that John was not the murderer. However, they keep quiet for they know that if John is ever released, they will have to hand back all the loot.
ALLY FROM THE PAST (760) - 29/05/90
TV game: you are in extreme difficulties and there seems no way out of your predicament without the help of someone else. However, you can select someone of your choice from the past to help you. Who would you choose and how do you think your choice would help you (e.g. you could pick Napoleon or whoever). Also, what do the other panellists think of your choice and do they think your hero would act differently from the way you think.
PRODIGAL SON (762) - 29/05/90
When John was a young man, he fell on hard times. His poor wife died, and he became so poverty stricken he had no choice but to hand over his only child William for adoption, which broke his heart. However, he later became very rich and successful. He married again and had a big family. But he never forgot William and makes strenuous efforts to find him. Then Tony comes along and claims that he is William. John is overjoyed and lavishes great love, wealth and gifts etc on Tony. Tony can hardly believe his luck until by an incredible coincidence the real William appears on the scene to confuse everyone and everything!
PAINTING GAME (767) - 07/06/90
Show panellists an abstract painting consisting of many different aspects and ingredients (some almost hidden or disguised) and ask them to create a story based on the painting with the condition that every single element in the painting has to have an interesting and crucial bearing on the story.
NDEr (769) - 08/06/90
John "dies" and ends up in another dimension where he meets many people he has never met before, but who he learns are his great grandparents & other relatives who lived on earth many years before. He also meets Sally, a distant relative. He falls deeply in love with her and is happier than he has ever been before. However, he suddenly finds himself alive back on earth and although he is heartbroken, he eventually gets some relief from the pain through the realisation that when he really dies, he will be able to return to his lover Sally. However, when he starts to make enquiries about his great grandparents etc, he is horrified to see from old photographs that they look nothing like the lovely, kind people he met in the other dimension, which makes him fear that he shall probably never see Sally again.
KIDNAPPER'S RANSOM (771) - 08/06/90
Good for nothing John "kidnaps" himself in a plot to fleece his wealthy father William of all his money. John writes a ransom demand in which he warns William that unless he pays up, John will be locked up in a dark dungeon to rot away for the rest of his days. He then sends the note to William by post and goes to bed in his luxurious secret flat in another city. When he wakes up, he finds himself locked in a dark dungeon from which there is no escape. The strange thing is that nobody becomes aware of John's disappearance until the next day when William receives the ransom demand. The last shot is of William smiling knowingly.
ELAPSE (772) - 08/06/90
While John is in X on a secret holiday, he has an accident and as a result falls into a coma that lasts for 5 years (none of his family know anything about it and as far as they are concerned he has disappeared from the face of the earth). When he recovers, he returns to what he remembers and believes is his home, his family, his girlfriend, his friends etc. But much to his horror nobody knows him. However, they tell him all about Jack who disappeared 5 years before and they show him pictures of Jack. John is thunderstruck when it dawns on him that he has for some strange reason returned to Jack's reality. Where is the real Jack and what was John's own past? Where did John come from etc?
THE PERFECT MAN (775) - 10/06/90
Mary goes out for the day with handsome John and has a fabulous time (i.e. John is the perfect gentleman and seems just right for Mary). As soon as Mary arrives home, her house mate Anne says she wants to go out for the night with John. Mary does not mind at all. Anne has a lovely time with John although he is totally different with her than he was with Mary. Later that night Rose says she wants to go to bed with John and neither Mary nor Anne mind. Once again John is totally different with Rose than he was with the other 2 girls. It is only at this point that you realise that while John is human, he has a computer mind which the girls can programme to suit their own needs. When an irreparable fault appears in John's mind, they simply throw him out with the trash and go to the store to pick up a new model.
NOISY NEIGHBOURS (779) - 12/06/90
For 3 years John has to ensure the torment of a noisy neighbour Jack who drives him mad with loud music, revving motor bikes, barking dogs, family feuds etc. At last he can take it no longer and goes to the authorities to complain. They give him a package and warn him that he can only have the loan of it for one night because it is in such great demand. John goes home and when the music gets to crescendo pitch, a noise meter in the package bleeps. John opens the package and takes out an ugly looking weapon which he fires at Jack's house, completely vaporising it. There is complete silence and John is happy (see completed short story).
POTTER'S DREAM (782) - 16/06/90
John, a very wealthy man, has a favourite son William with whom he often plays difficult intellectual games (the other family members bore John). However, when John dies, although he leaves the rest of the family members plenty of money, he only leaves William some seemingly worthless documents and an account of one of his bizarre dreams. William feels rather hurt until it dawns on him that the dream is an ingenious but very complicated treasure map which will lead him to his just rewards, if only he can resolve it. Needless to say, he goes down many blind alleys.
IRONIC RANSOM (783) - 16/06/90
John kidnaps Mary and demands money from her millionaire father William. Although William loves his daughter Mary, he is a mean man who hates parting with money and as a result the ransom negotiations take a long time. During this time, Mary gets to know him and then falls in love with him. When John eventually gets the ransom money, he releases Mary and thinks of course he will never see her again, which he is glad about, because he hates her. However, she has a subtle plan and after she kidnaps John, she locks him in a dungeon, where he remains her pet and slave for the rest of his days.
FAR FROM HOME (784) - 16/06/90
For years John feels he belongs somewhere else. So, one day he leaves home and travels halfway round the world until at last he arrives at a little village in a remote area. When he walks into the kitchen of a small house, all the family are sitting around the table as if waiting for him. "Where the hell have you been? .... the dinner's almost cold!" scolds his mother.
ANOTHER FAMILY (785) - 16/06/90
After John's father William dies, John discovers some mysterious photos of a woman Mary and children which clearly indicate that William had secretly been married before. John is of course very curious and starts making enquiries. However, he finds every avenue he goes down he is blocked e.g. records have been deliberately destroyed etc. But these setbacks only drive him on until at last after ? years, he eventually finds Mary. Much to his disappointment, she proves conclusively that there is no connection between her and John. However, any quick-witted viewer will spot a flaw in Mary’s story. When John realises the flaw, he rushes back to see Mary. But she's vanished completely without trace!
IMPLANTED THOUGHTS (790) - 17/06/90
John hates pompous arrogant people. Then one day he realises that he has the capacity to implant thoughts of his own in the minds of 'victims' i.e. he can make a vicar make an improper pass at a true blue tory woman and vice versa. Needless to say, there are many occasions when he uses this power to produce some very unexpected and funny incidents.
CRIMINAL DREAM (792) - 18/06/90
Things are so strict in X that if you break any of their laws, you are very severely punished. It is, as a result, a very law-abiding society. When John visits X, he stupidly gets involved in a serious crime and is chased by the police. He's absolutely terrified for he knows that if they catch him he will receive the mandatory torture and death sentences. However, he wakes up in a sweat and is so relieved to realise it was all only a horrible dream. He is so happy until about 2 hours later when the police arrest him for the crime he committed in his dream. He is sentenced to death for that crime.
DREAM EXITS (793) - 18/06/90
John often dreams that his soul leaves his sleeping body and goes to strange places in another dimension where he either has a really enjoyable or nightmarish time (he enjoys the good experiences to the full but ignores the bad ones because he knows that he's going to wake up back on earth). Also, he can simply go through an exit door and return to earth any time he wants to. However, one night when he is involved in a ghastly experience, he suddenly realises that there is no exit door and that he is trapped for eternity in that awful place. Back on earth, they find his dead body in bed.
POINT OF HONOUR (794) - 18/06/90
Although John hardly knows William, anytime they meet, William is always very polite and civil. However, John often has this dream in which William humiliates him in front of all John's friends. John becomes so obsessed with this dream that he determines to seek his revenge. Although he has very little control over the course of events in his dreams, he does manage to successfully murder William eventually. Soon after he wakes up contented from this happy dream, the police arrest him for the real-life murder of William!
RAINY FUNERAL (797) - 18/06/90
John is puzzled as to why he has been invited to a funeral but goes along out of curiosity. It is a grey rainy day and while he knows nobody there, they all seem to know him, which is very eerie. Just as they are lowering the coffin into the grave, John has a heart attack and dies. Nobody says a word. They open the empty coffin, put John inside and fill in the grave. Strangely the grave and tombstone then disappear, leaving no trace.
ARMY OF STARS (801) - 23/06/90
Panellists are given very difficult hypothetical situations to resolve and are told that they can call on the services of say 3 unnamed famous people (past or present) out of a pool of 12 to help them. They are given the 12 persons' CVs which describe their personalities, qualities, achievements (disguised), talents etc and, after much debate, they choose 3. They then describe how they would use the 3 to resolve their problem. At the end of the game they learn the names of their choices.
FORGOTTEN WIFE (803) - 23/06/90
When John completely loses his memory and suffers from amnesia, the authorities can find no clue on him as to who he is, although it’s quite clear from the way that he is dressed and other aspects about him that he is probably a wealthy man. So, they end up asking for help on local TV. A very relieved and grateful Mary turns up and thanks everyone for finding her husband, even though John does not recognise her etc. Mary takes him home and looks after him like any loving wife would. She tries to aid his recovery by continually asking him questions about his past and gradually it starts to come back to him, in flashes. 3 months later he is found wandering about again, lost and totally confused. Far from being his wife, Mary was instead a con-woman, who, after finding out who he really was, fleeced him of all his wealth before disappearing, a very rich woman.
DUMMY LIFE (812) - 11/07/90
They develop the technology whereby, before you die, you record your voice and image and answer a large number of questions. Then everything is fed into a special computer which creates a lifelike dummy in your image. After you die, your family etc can bring the dummy to life and not only will it look and sound exactly like you, but it will think like you and be able to hold conversations with people in the same way as you used to do. The only snag is that the computer dummy reveals what people used to really think about other people but never had the nerve to say e.g. although in life you might be nice to someone you hate/despise, the computer will, after your death, reveal your real thoughts to surviving relatives etc, causing some shocks.
ICY ANGEL (813) - 11/07/90
As a form of population control, they freeze some babies and teenagers. If there are very good compelling reasons, these frozen people can be revived many years later to start living normal lives again. John marries Mary and they are very happy for many years. But when John learns that Mary's twin sister was frozen when she was 16, he goes to see her frozen body and is amazed because whereas Mary has grown old, her twin sister Anne looks very like the young Mary he fell in love with. Because there is no way Anne can be revived as long as Mary is alive, John secretly murders Mary. However, it is only then that he realises how much he loved her. But what makes it worse is that Anne can't stand him and makes his remaining life on earth hell.
TELEPHONE RINGING (816) - 12/07/90
John lives on the outskirts of a lovely summery old-fashioned city. He suddenly starts to get this telepathic message that there is a phone ringing for him in the city centre. He becomes so obsessed by it that after a few days he has to go downtown to investigate. After much searching, he eventually comes across a lonely street full of empty houses where he hears a phone ringing. After a long panic-stricken struggle, he manages to break in. Either the phone stops ringing just as he reaches it or when he answers it, someone says "sorry, wrong number".
AFTER DEATH EVIDENCE (817) - 12/07/90
In X, they develop special techniques whereby if they reach a murder victim quickly enough, they can extract cells from the memory part of their brain and activate them in such a way that a special type of computer can use the resulting data to identify the killer i.e. the process enables the computer to detail everyone the victim was in contact with during the hour before his death. They then start using the same techniques on live subjects to find answers to all sorts of questions. The trouble is that when they extract memory cells from live subjects, those people lose some memories forever.
BODY SNATCHERS (819) - 12/07/90
In X, they develop special techniques whereby the rich can steal other people's bodies e.g. if you are one of the privileged few and you see someone whose body you would like to "live in", you can arrange for that person's soul to be killed off and have your soul transplanted into the empty body. Then when you tire of that body, you can move on to another etc. There are snags of course - sometimes "soul transplants" do not work, or your transplanted soul is killed off by another privileged person who wants use of your body. Furthermore, just for kicks, some women move into men's bodies and vice versa.
ALL THE PEOPLE I EVER KNEW (824) - 19/07/90
One night, lonely John is sitting in his city house thinking melancholically about the past, the good old days and all his former friends etc and he wishes he could go back in time. Later he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he is surprised to find himself in a village. He is very puzzled, especially when he realises that every house he ever lived in is in the village and all the people he ever met & liked in his life live there too. Then he learns that the village is named after him i.e. John. It dawns on him that his wish from the previous night has been granted.
CHARACTER RENTALS (825) - 19/07/90
In the same way that you can rent videos now, sometime in the future, you will be able to rent lifelike robots to help you live out your fantasies, whatever they might be e.g. you will be able to rent a beautiful woman, or an intellectual, or a card player, or a psychiatrist, or a servant etc etc. However things go wrong from time to time e.g. the robots, after much use, will start doing strange things or users will tamper with the robots workings and thus affect the performance of the robot for the next user or the person in the rental shop gives you the wrong robot character by mistake, a character that does things you were not expecting e.g. you could be expecting a 'priest' and be given a 'murderer' instead etc.
TEMPTING CALL (832) - 24/07/90
John receives a phone call from Jack who claims to be a very good friend from John's past and who says it is very urgent that he and John meet up as soon as possible to discuss a certain very sensitive matter. Although John remembers nothing about Jack, he agrees to meet him because he is intrigued and curious. Although Jack greets him warmly like a long-lost pal when they do meet, John knows for certain that he has never met him before. John finds himself gradually getting involved in something very sinister which he knows has nothing to do with him, despite the fact that Jack repeatedly insists he's the main character in the whole affair. John ends up on the run, totally terrified.
LOVELY ISLAND (833) - 25/07/90
For some reason he does not understand, busy John, 40, finds memories of his youth constantly filling his mind. One of these memories relates to a beautiful summer holiday he enjoyed when he was 16 on an island with some friends, when he met a lovely girl called Mary who he fell in love with, but whom he never saw again after he went home. He wishes he had kept in touch with Mary for he knows his life would have been so much better. He decides to make a nostalgic return visit to the island and when he gets there he is amazed to find Mary there. However, the strange thing is that she is still as young as the day he last saw her, and the sad thing is that not only does she not recognise him, but she's in love with another 16 year old boy.
A FRIEND IN NEED (837) - 27/07/90
When friendless William is found guilty of murder and is sentenced to life, John feels that justice has not been done. After much time and effort, he eventually manages to prove that William is innocent, and a very grateful William is released. Because William has no home etc, John says he can stay at his house for a few days and he gives him food and money etc. But William settles into John's home, quickly becomes the boss of the house, has an affair with John's wife, abuses John etc etc. But the worst thing of all is that he manages to prove that John is guilty of the murder. John is sentenced to life imprisonment and ends up in the cell that William had been in.
HIS FIRST LOVE (838) - 27/07/90
John, 40, is sad and melancholic about his life. Although he has a wife, a good job and plenty of money etc, his life feels empty. Then he remembers his first love Mary and he comes to the conclusion that if he had married her, things would have been so much better. He then decides to contact her to see if she feels the same way about him and much to his amazement he discovers that not only is she single, but she still loves him dearly. John immediately leaves his wife and home and catches a train down to meet Mary. When he gets out of the train, he sees her running down the platform towards him. He is amazed at how she has retained her looks and youth and it’s almost as if she has not aged at all. He stops and stretches out his arms to greet her. But she whizzes past him and jumps into the arms of a handsome young man who looks just like he used to when he was young.
PECULIAR MEMORIES (840) - 28/07/90
John, 40, gets fed up with city life and goes to live in P, a small remote rural village which he fell in love with at first sight. He is very happy there and quickly makes friends with all the locals. But then he starts doing really strange things e.g. when some of the locals are say talking about people from the distant past, John always chips in with his memories of those people which is odd because, being a newcomer, he has obviously never met those people or ever heard anything about them before. Anyone listening to him talk would think he had been spent all his life in the village. However, things begin to get really peculiar when he starts recounting his memories about local people who had lived over 250 years before. Things start to get really interesting when he starts concentrating on a series of previously unsolved murders and other misdeeds etc.
CLOSED HOUSE (845) - 02/08/90
When John moves to live in remote area M, he is fascinated by the beautiful big empty house standing on the far-off hill. He learns from locals that the house used to be owned by William, a very wealthy but mysterious man, who suddenly disappeared under very suspicious circumstances 50 years before. John is amazed to discover that nobody (not even the police) has set foot in the house since William’s disappearance. So, John decides there and then that he will get into the house to have a look round. Late, when he actually does get inside the house, he finds himself getting sucked into a terrifying and baffling mystery. But there are clues in the house which, if you are clever enough, indicate what actually happened and also the identity of William’s local killer.
LOSING TOUCH (847) - 02/08/90
After finishing work at the usual time, John returns home only to find his wife Mary and children having dinner with a strange man William. They are startled when he comes through the door, says hello and asks who William is. They ask him what the hell he is doing in their house and William chases him out. John is most confused & goes to various friends’ houses. But nobody seems to know him and they all treat him as if he were mad. It later transpires that William is actually Mary's husband and all the people John thought were his friends are actually William's. Later he's taken to a police station where an anxious woman he has never seen before in his life claims that he is her missing husband. He later meets many people who claim to be his friends etc.
GRANNY'S RING (852) - 05/08/90
John is happily and deeply in love with Mary and they are due to get married in 10 days’ time. Mary’s granny Doris gives Mary an old beautiful ring as a wedding present. When John slips it on to his finger to admire it, he suddenly finds that he has gone back in time. He is very sad when he realises that there is no way back to the present. But he eventually accepts his situation and makes the best of. While in this earlier period of time, he discovers a wrong doing by Mary’s family and, despite his love for Mary, he feels he has to see justice done and, as a result, one of Mary 's earlier relatives Martin is sent to prison for life. Suddenly John finds himself back in the present. But the strange thing is that Mary is not there and never has been. He realises sadly that by tampering with the past and getting Martin sent to prison, he has ensured that Mary would never be born.
CITY SOLACE (853) - 05/08/90
P is an extremely large heavily populated diverse city with many different areas, ranging from rich exclusive ones to horrific slums. But the peculiar thing about P is that none of the streets have names and you can only move from one area to another by the underground railway which only operates once a month. But the difficulty is that all the stations are nameless, and you don't know which ones serve the poor areas and which the rich etc. Now when you enter an area, an official assigns you a partner of the opposite sex (+ any children they might have), a job you must go to every day and an address where you must live for at least a month. Everyone has to move at some stage i.e. you are forced to move by the authorities after you have spent 6 months in any one area. Furthermore, you can never return to an area you've been to before.
FRAGILE FLOWER OF LOVE (856) - 10/08/90
Soldier John falls in love with Mary even though her parents hate him so much that they threaten to kill him. John & Mary secretly meet in their "love" cottage in a bleak remote place, where one day they plant a very fragile flower. Sadly, while away on a 2-year military stint, John learns from one of Mary's family that she is dead and he is totally devastated. 5 years later he makes a nostalgic trip to the "love" cottage several weeks after the worst storm in the area's history. John expects to see the fragile "love" flower dead because all the other hardier plants are gone, but to his amazement he finds it alive and thriving. It strikes him that the same might apply to Mary, so he returns to her hometown and is overjoyed to find her alive and all her horrible relatives dead and gone. A happy ending!
TOUGH ASSIGNMENT (863) - 16/08/90
Tony, a shadowy cruel professional assassin, has killed many people. Although people have sought revenge, Tony's always been far too elusive and cunning ever to have been caught. John contacts Tony without actually meeting him and makes a contract with him to follow William wherever he goes and murder him after he has led him to hidden gold (the prize for Tony is half the gold). William leads Tony on a baffling goose chase involving very exciting and dangerous incidents etc, ending up eventually in the desert. It's at this point that Tony realises that he has been tricked, that William is actually John and that he's been led into a deadly trap, from which there is no escape. It's John's revenge on Tony for killing his brother.
FINDING HIS FATHER (864) - 16/08/90
Although illegitimate John often asks his mother who his father is, she refuses to reveal his identity, warning him that if she told him he might be VERY disappointed. So, he has to wait for many years until her death before he can gain access to her diaries which he knows will reveal the name of his father. However, although he is initially depressed to find the diaries are written in code and full of very cryptic clues, he determines to break the code and work out the clues and track down his father, who he knows is still alive. There is something very sinister behind it all and maybe his mother's warning was one he should not have ignored!
CRYPTIC CLUES (877) - 21/08/90
John, a very pleasant but eccentric millionaire, is well liked by everyone. But in the last few weeks of life he becomes very odd and he acts in a most peculiar way, which includes saying things that seem nonsensical. After his death his solicitor reveals that if they can find it, the villagers can have his wealth, which he has hidden in a secret spot. That is when it dawns on them that while some of the strange things he said during his last days were indeed the mad rantings of an eccentric old man, some of the others were in fact cryptic clues as to where the treasure is hidden. But who can remember exactly what he said, and which were the mad rantings, and which were the real clues? A comical treasure hunt begins.
PRISONLESS (878) - 21/08/90
In X they do not have prisons. So, if you commit a serious crime, you are not held on remand until your trial but instead you are sent to live in the "aggrieved" community where you committed the crime to work on behalf of that community. Now your trial never takes place until 2 years after the crime and your behaviour during that 2-year period in the "aggrieved" community is taken into account, if you are found guilty at your trial. So, if your behaviour is good etc, you remain working in the "aggrieved" community for the number of years set by the judge. However, if your behaviour is bad etc, the courts release you to the "aggrieved" community, who can deal with you in whatever way they see fit e.g. agonising death after hideous torture. So, criminals' behaviour in "aggrieved" communities tends to be very good indeed.
LIFELIKE FANTASIES (880) - 22/08/90
The trouble about life is that people rarely do what you want them to do and the people you want to love you, don't. Also, you never achieve the success you think you are entitled to, you are not admired or respected in the way you think you should be, you never have enough money to do the things you want to do or go where you want to go etc. However, in X, they have found ways of adjusting your mind so that when you sink into a special type of dream coma, you enter into another dimension where all the fantasies from your conscious world actually become reality and you have an absolutely fabulous time. Unfortunately, however, when you return to consciousness, things can become very confusing i.e. although you should always remember that people and things are very different in the real world, you often forget that you are not back in your fantasy utopia and you make some terrible blunders!
IN THE GLASS PRISON (882) - 22/08/90
In X, if you commit a serious crime, they send you away for life to a strange prison which has walls of unbreakable glass and a glass roof. There are no warders inside and prisoners have to fend for themselves in whatever way they can (survival of the fittest!). Every weekend, people flock from the city to watch the antics of the inmates in the same way as we go to see animals in the zoo. It is felt to be a great deterrent.
THE CRUCIAL LEAD (883) - 23/08/90
John loves Mary until she falls for newcomer William. John hates William and wishes he would leave and that Mary would return to him. Then one day, John suddenly remembers an unsolved murder that took place in the area that William came from and this gives John an idea. He starts spreading a rumour that the killer was William and, inevitably, the police later take William away for questioning. John is overjoyed until a few days later the police return and charge him with the murder. Later he gets a life sentence and William returns to Mary. But who really was the killer? Could it really have been John?
TELEPATHIC UNEASE (884) - 23/08/90
X's population are all very intelligent, gifted and well educated. They are also a very unusual people i.e. while they will communicate fluently with you in your own language, they converse with each other by means of telepathy. So, you never really know what they are thinking or planning. This would not be too bad if it were not for the fact that although about half of them are very honest, sincere, genuine, kind etc, the other half are very devious, greedy, selfish, cunning and cruel etc. But it's very hard to tell the good ones and from the bad.
GOING BACK (889) - 27/08/90
When rambler John visits village P, he hears the strange story about rich William who lived in a big mansion and who disappeared very mysteriously 130 years before and is told that after William disappeared, the mansion was closed down and nobody has been in there since. John is so intrigued that he secretly breaks into the mansion. Although nothing has been touched for 130 years, he is amazed to see that there is no dust nor cobwebs etc. Then he hears voices. Terrified, he tries to escape but runs into a group of people who are all very pleased to see John and so glad that he has returned from his mysterious journey. Gradually it dawns on John that he is actually William and that he has gone 130 years back in time!
LAST REGRETS (890) - 27/08/90
John bitterly regrets the sad and tragic death of his friend William in an accident. He keeps saying to friends that if only he had done this or that, William would be still alive. Then suddenly, he finds himself back in the past just before William's accident. So, he changes events to ensure that William's accident does not occur. When John returns to the present he is so happy to find William alive. However, 3 days later John dies in an accident caused by William. Therefore, by changing the course of earlier events, John ironically arranged his own premature death!
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR (891) - 27/08/90
A jaded depressed John decides to go on an advertised magical mystery tour because he feels it will do him the world of good. The coach takes him to places he has never heard of and he has an absolutely wonderful time, enjoying many new experiences and meeting lots of new people. However, when he eventually decides that it is time to go home, he quickly realises that this is easier said than done i.e. not only has nobody ever heard of his hometown, but it is not in any atlas. It is almost as if his previous life, family and friends etc never existed at all!
BORROWED BODIES (900) - 17/09/90
John can transfer his soul into other people's bodies. He moves around a lot and during his many travels, if he comes across a situation where he feels he must intervene, he transfers his soul into one of the locals' bodies and influences local events for the better and in a way, he could not have done if he had been in his own body. When the good deed has been done, he returns to his own body and the body's real owner returns. They do not realise they have been away although they are often surprised at some of the changes that have taken place.
HOMESICK (904) - 10/10/90
John is extremely popular in his home town with plenty of male/female friends and relatives. He is very happy there but because he is very ambitious, he decides after much heart searching to leave. On the day of his departure, there are many sad faces and many tears from relatives, girls and friends (nobody can persuade him to stay). However, only 3 days later, he gets so homesick that he rushes back home to all his loved ones. But the peculiar thing is that nobody (not even his family) remembers him or wants to know him. It's almost as if he had never lived there at all!
SURROGATE PARENTS (908) - 11/10/90
When John and Mary arrive in P, all the locals, including their neighbour Susan, think they are a most odd couple. Later Susan discovers that John & Mary cannot have children of their own. Unexpectedly, Susan becomes pregnant. Much to Susan's annoyance Mary becomes very protective towards her i.e. she comes around every day to see how Susan is etc. But what disturbs Susan most is that Mary keeps referring to Susan's unborn child as "her baby". Then when the baby is born, John & Mary immediately claim that it is theirs and run away with it. When they are eventually tracked down 7 years later, Susan is overjoyed until she is told by the courts that not only do DNA tests etc prove that the child is John & Mary's, but it looks exactly like them! Weird!
PREMATURE EXECUTION (910) - 11/10/90
In X, if the authorities arrest you for a crime and you refuse to answer their questions, they render you unconscious and wire you up to a peculiar type of machine, which affects your mind in such a way that although you remain unconscious, you THINK you wake up. The next thing you experience is terribly painful torture before they take you away for a long drawn-out gruesome execution. However, just before you 'die', they wake you up and that's when you realise for the first time that it has all actually just been a horrific nightmare. Needless to say, everyone who goes through that experience is more than happy to answer any subsequent questions by the authorities.
EXPERIENCING POVERTY (918) - 24/10/90
In X, the state TV service advertises for rich volunteers to change places with poor people for 2 weeks for a programme showing how the rich would cope in a poor environment and vice versa. Although very rich John readily volunteers, he quickly regrets his decision (because life in the poor home is so bad) and he longs to get back to his comfortable home, rich friends and lifestyle etc. However, when the 2 weeks are over, he's told that the TV bosses have decided to leave things as they are because the viewers have found it such an interesting experiment. Over the next 15 years, and up until his death in abject poverty, the viewers closely watch with fascination (i) John's decline and misery and (ii) the previously poor family enjoying his wealth.
GHOSTLY PEOPLE (923) - 30/10/90
Normally when people die, they disappear from the face of the earth. However, something strange happens and when people die they no longer go away, remaining instead as ghosts. There are ever increasing numbers of them all around the place. Although they can neither participate in life nor talk to people etc, it is very confusing for the living because they do not know whether to be sad when a loved one dies etc. It is also unnerving because these ghosts can appear without warning through walls and disappear in a flash etc. They are always present silently and mournfully watching the living.
RETURN TO CHILDHOOD (924) - 26/11/90
When John reaches 60, he reflects sadly over his wasted life and longs melancholically for his lost youth i.e. for those long sunny days when he was so happy with all his family and chums. Then one day, he makes a trip back to his home town (the first for 40 years) and, much to his utter amazement, he finds himself BACK IN TIME with all his old chums. Even though he clearly remembers the future - from which he has just come - he realises that somehow or another he has regained his youth and is once again a young boy. Furthermore, on the way back home for tea, all those memories from the future quickly vanish.
LOVELY MYSTERY (925) - 26/11/90
Sad lonely John goes up to the highlands to commit suicide after losing his wife and child in an accident. But when he gets there, he meets a kind old lady Mary who helps him recover from his despair. Although she's very old, John falls in love with her. Then something really strange happens i.e. she starts getting younger and within 6 months she's a very young beautiful woman. Unfortunately, when they have a child, Mary disappears forever. When John returns to the real world with his lovely child, nobody believes his story. Later, however, when looking at an old newspaper, he comes across the photo of a beautiful young woman who'd lost her husband and baby in a tragic accident many years before. It's Mary!
THE PRESENT PAST (926) - 26/11/90
John is involved in a seemingly minor accident while away on holiday. He is not badly injured and looks forward to going home to his lover, family and friends, whom he describes in great detail to a new-found friend William. When John invites William to his home, William quickly realises, when they get there, that all the people that John described so accurately are in fact people belonging to John's youth. William then realises that the accident has damaged John's mind in such a way that while he can remember his youth in great detail, he cannot remember the near past. So, he does not know his current friends, only those from the distant past, a lot of whom are dead and gone!
THE LAW CAN BE AN ASS (928) - 28/11/90
The law in a democratic society can sometimes be an awful ass, with the result that some guilty people get off scot-free because of some legal technicality or because the police haven't enough evidence etc to arrest them. In X they get around these problems by using a special committee consisting of wise and respected people who meet once a month to consider all criminal cases in a common-sense and practical way e.g. if they see someone charged with some heinous crime being acquitted despite that fact that they are obviously guilty, they have the power to overturn the acquittal. They can also order the deaths or imprisonment of obvious criminals, terrorists or anyone else who abuses the privileges of democratic society.
BODY MYSTERY (929) - 28/11/90
John's body is found in 10 different places at 10 different times which involves 10 different stories although all the same characters are involved one way or another. Only one of the 10 deaths actually occurs. The other 9 contain some subtle flaw that eliminates them. The clever viewer picks the one that actually did occur. Furthermore, a subtle link running through the series leads to the identity of the killer(s).
CITIZEN'S ARREST (935) - 06/12/90
John is out shopping when a strange man Jack informs him that he's making a citizen's arrest. Initially John tries in vain to find out what he's done wrong but because he does not want to cause a scene, he goes along with Jack. John assumes Jack is taking him to a police station and is very surprised when he's locked up in a garden shed. Later he is questioned by a "citizen's" detective before appearing in front of a "citizen's" judge in a "citizen's" court in someone's front room and found guilty of some crime he does not understand & sentenced to life imprisonment in a "citizen's" prison (garden shed).
LAST OF THE BUNCH (938) - 07/12/90
Surviving members of a wartime regiment meet each year for an annual reunion dinner where they talk (for the nth time) about their war experiences and toast their fallen comrades. Every year their numbers decrease until eventually only John remains. However, this does not stop the annual reunion dinner for John continues to make his usual long trip to the dinner where he sits and eats alone and toasts all his dead comrades. 7 years later John dies and the annual reunion dinner dies with him.
WILD OATS (SERIES) (941) - 07/12/90
When he was young, John was very poor, wild and irresponsible. But he was adventurous and did a lot of travelling all round the world, enjoying as many experiences as he could. Later he made a lot of money and settled down. Although he married, he could never have any children. Then at 55, he is told he has cancer and has only 12 months to live. He decides to use his remaining time to seek out all the many children he sired all those years before to see how they have fared in the world and if they deserve to inherit any of his wealth after he has gone. Some of what he sees is sad and makes him feel very guilty, but some is also very interesting and makes him feel proud.
A SAD BUT HAPPY LOSS (944) - 17/12/90
When some of John's closest relatives (group (A)) learn of his sudden and unexpected death, there are many tears and great sadness. However, when another group of people (group (B)) hear of John's death there is a great deal of happiness and elation which is very confusing until you realise that group (B) are loving relatives who have moved, after death, from the reality of life on earth to the next dimension and are pleased to learn of the imminent arrival of a loved one. They are not sad about those left behind on earth because in due course they will back with their loved ones. The story is meant to be a message of hope.
TIMELY EVIDENCE (948) - 18/12/90
John's son William is sentenced to death for allegedly killing someone. If William were really guilty, John would have no sympathy for him, but he is not sure. John has only 10 days to discover if his son is the killer or not. There are 10 other characters who are involved in some way or other in the case and who each provide some cryptic clue as to whether William is the killer or not. If you are clever enough, you will, by the 10th episode, be able to decide whether William is guilty or not and if not who the real killer is. But will John come to the same conclusion?
MILLIONAIRE VILLAGE (949) - 18/12/90
An eccentric millionaire decides to build a village on a remote island (from which there is no escape) and populate it with 100 volunteers whom he guarantees life-long paid employment. There is only one condition volunteers have to agree to: they have to do whatever job they select by lottery for the rest of their lives in the village. If you are lucky, you pick the cushy job of mayor or become the rich man and live a life of luxury. But if you are unlucky, you pick the job of surgeon or butcher or morgue attendant. If you become the lawyer, you make your own laws, if you are the policeman you arrest who you want etc etc.
10 ITEM LIFE STORY (950) - 18/12/90
You are shown 10 totally different items and you have to invent your life story based on these 10 items with each playing a very significant part in the story e.g. a plane ticket that took you off to Peru where you met your husband, a knife which he used to murder a rival and which led to your inheriting all his wealth after he was executed, an old boot which reflected the time when you lost all your wealth gambling and were reduced to wandering the streets back in London as a tramp, the scarf that belonged to your old school chum who rescued you from your plight and who set you back on your feet again, the theatre ticket which reminded you of the time later when you then walked the boards and became famous. The only condition of the game is that the last item you talk about must lead you very neatly and believably into your current position in life.
DINNER GUESTS (953) - 22/01/91
If you join the M club you receive invitations to dinner at the homes of other club members which seems normal enough except that (i) you have never met any of your hosts before, (ii) you are taken blindfolded to their houses to prevent you learning where they live and (iii) your hosts do not remain with you because they go to your home to eat the meal you have prepared for them. It is a novel idea and enables you to see how other people live etc. However, things go wrong one night when very wealthy John ends up in a horrible slum home from which he and his family cannot escape i.e. the area he used to live in seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, along with his job, friends, wealth etc.
THE ALMOST PERFECT MURDER (956) - 23/01/91
Highly intelligent John devotes a great deal of time planning and then carrying out what he considers to be the perfect murder of William. He is very pleased when he is not even treated as a suspect by the police. However, he's surprised when charged with Tom's murder who died at the same time as William. He pleads his innocence but is horrified when the police reveal their absolutely damning evidence against him. It quickly dawns on him that someone cleverer than him has set him up as the scapegoat for Tom's murder. The ironic thing is that the only way he can prove his innocence is to own up to William's murder, which was a relatively "worse" one!
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT (957) - 23/01/91
While travelling through a country, John finds himself in a small town where a peculiar murder has just taken place. He is so intrigued by the crime that rather than continuing his travels, he stays to follow the progress of the police enquiries. He becomes totally absorbed in the case, so much so that he discusses his theories with anyone prepared to listen. He attracts police attention and the strange thing is that he ends up being charged with the murder. The evidence against him is irrefutable (finger prints, DNA, eye witnesses, blood type etc etc)!
DREAM MYSTERY (960) - 24/01/91
Lonely John meets Mary. They fall in love and enjoy a beautiful love affair. However, then John suddenly wakes up in hospital and is told that he has been in 6-week coma following an accident. He asks for Mary, but nobody knows anything about her. Later a psychiatrist persuades him that Mary was only a figment of his imagination when he was in the coma. John is heartbroken. However, it begins to dawn on him that the psychiatrist might be wrong, that there might be clues to Mary ‘s whereabouts in his mind. So, he goes through each of his lovely memories with a 'toothcomb' looking for these clues. After following up many of the cryptic clues (and being often wrong) he finds Mary at last!
DRUG SURGEON (964) - 27/01/91
Surgeon John is seemingly a very philanthropic chap who funds 'private' operations on poor people in M. After exploratory operations in M, his patients are flown to his private European clinic where the major operations take place. However, all is not what it seems i.e. during the exploratory operations, he plants packets of drugs in the bodies of his unwitting patients which he later extracts in his European clinic while carrying out lifesaving operations. Although William becomes aware of what is going on, he is reluctant to report this drug smuggling operation because of the good medical work John does for the poor.
FUTURE GRAVE (968) - 06/02/91
While in a graveyard in P, John is drawn to William's gravestone (which has a photo of William on it), not because he knows him but because the date of death on the headstone is a future date. John makes enquiries, but nobody knows anything about it or William and, in fact, nobody had even ever noticed the puzzling date on the gravestone before. John leaves the area and forgets all about the gravestone until years later when he is amazed to run into a chap who is not only obviously William, but who is also very much alive. When John tells him about the gravestone (but cannot remember the date on the stone), William laughs it off. However, after William is suddenly and tragically killed in an accident, John returns to P and much to his amazement he finds the date on William's gravestone is exactly the same as the date he died!
MONASTRY AFFAIR (961) - 26/01/91
John, a monk for many years in a 'silent' monastery is disappointed when switched from librarian to shepherd duties. One day, a beautiful smell attracts him to a little cottage where he secretly watches widow Mary cooking and eating a mouth-watering meal. He returns on other days and gradually they come closer together and develop an amusing silent secret relationship. Then one day she entices him into the cottage where he ravenously attacks a plate of her lovely cooking. From then on, he becomes a regular visitor and they eventually become lovers, although never once during the whole tender relationship do they ever speak to each other.
EBORNEEZER'S DREAM (965) - 27/01/91
John tells neighbours about his dream in which he sees himself receiving some unexpected money and promises that if he does, they can help him spend it. They assume that it's wishful thinking on his part. However, 3 days later he receives a little money in the post. He keeps to his promise and he and his neighbours celebrate until it is all spent. Later John describes other small things in dreams that subsequently come true. The neighbours believe he has clairvoyant powers and listen to everything he says most avidly, especially when he starts talking about a dream in which he inherits millions. When he promises that they can help him spend it, they keep well in with him, giving him plenty of money etc. What they do not realise is that it is all a big fraud and that John arranged in advance for all his 'dreams' to come true (comedy).
OLD AGE LOTTERY (966) - 06/02/91
X can only support a certain number of people and once that level is exceeded, things start going wrong e.g. food shortages etc. So, every 6 months they run a census and if the population numbers are too high, they select, by lottery, some people who are over 60 for elimination (such people are regarded as being no longer useful to the state in terms of wealth generation). Needless to say, the aged are very relieved when the census reveals 'safe' figures. Also, if they hear that a lot of people have died from disease or disaster etc or that any of their friends have died, they are never too sad!
FROZEN TIME (971) - 09/02/91
In X, they develop a process that enables people to live 'forever'. The way it works is that when you reach a certain age, they put you in 'cold storage' and after 5 years, they revitalise you in such a way that you are able to re-join life in a normal way. However, if you want to live 'forever' you have to accept the fact that you must spend 5 years in 'cold storage' followed by 1 year in the real world, followed by 5 years in 'cold storage' followed by 1 year in the real world etc. Needless to say, when you are in 'cold storage', a lot of changes occur in the real world: relationships change dramatically, friends die, your lover loves someone else etc. For some people living 'forever' soon loses its attraction.
MEDIUM EVIDENCE (973) - 25/03/91
Despite massive efforts, the police are unable to resolve a particularly baffling murder. Following pressure from on high, they reluctantly accept an offer of help from a medium called John. John proceeds to 'contact' the murder victim William and much to the surprise of the sceptical police, he reveals certain facts about the case which only the police knew, which proves the medium's contact with William must be genuine. William, through John, explains all the very strange aspects of the case and gives the name of the killer Jack who strenuously denies his guilt. The police are convinced Jack is the killer but cannot prove it without William's evidence in court through the medium John! Will the judge accept such evidence as being admissible?
THE NEIGHBOUR'S TREE (974) - 25/03/91
John and William have been neighbours for many years. At the start, they got on very well and often socialised etc. However, as the years pass, they begin to fall out over the tree in William's garden because, as it gets taller, it reduces John's view. Things get so bad between them that they only speak to each other through solicitors etc and there are frequent visits to court. In the meantime, the tree gets taller and taller. At last, after 37 long years, the court rules that William must remove his tree. So, one day, William cuts down his tree. It has grown to such a length that when it falls, it does so right on John's beautiful house, destroying it completely! (comedy)
DEATH LOTTERY (978) - 22/04/91
In X, when you die, all your assets automatically go into a central fund. Each day the names of 10 citizens are drawn by lottery and each winner receives a tenth of what is in the central fund at the end of that day. You can only win once, and the size of your prize depends on who has died recently e.g. you really only want to win shortly after several millionaires have died. One of the things that people eagerly scan each day in the newspapers are the obituary columns.
TRUTH AFTER DEATH (981) - 26/04/91
In X, they have a technique which enables them to reactivate your 'memory' brain cells after your death and find out the truth about things e.g. if you are executed for a crime, they could apply the technique after you're dead to find out if you were really guilty. However, their main motive for applying the technique is not to establish whether people were innocent or guilty but to discover where criminals have hidden their loot, or who their bosses are or, if the crime is political, who their leaders are etc. So, if they discover that they have executed an innocent person, they keep it all hush-hush and the public never gets to find out the truth.
ARTISTIC FACE (986) - 09/05/91
One day, a lonely artist John draws an imaginary woman's face, which he calls Mary’s face. The amazing sad expression on the woman's face touches him so deeply that he falls hopelessly in love with her despite the fact that she is only a painting. She is the woman of his dreams, if only she existed. Then one day he notices several aspects about background items in his painting that mystify him i.e. they are things he would never think of including in a picture etc. He investigates the items further and it begins to dawn on him that these items are peculiar to a particular area of the country where he has never been before. Excitedly he sets off to visit that place. What does he find there?
DREAM KILLER (989) - 25/05/91
John starts having vivid dreams about Mary being murdered. Initially he assumes that Mary is merely a figment of his imagination. Then he becomes aware of the fact that many of the events etc in his dreams start to come to pass and he realises therefore that Mary actually really exists. So, he sets off on his travels to find Mary and save her life. However, he arrives too late. But ironically, he ends up being convicted of her murder because of the fact that he knows things about Mary and the case that 'only the murderer could possibly know'.
SUBTLE CHANGES (993) - 25/05/91
John & Mary are happily married. Then John begins to notice, over a lengthy period of time, very subtle minor changes occurring in Mary. Eventually Mary starts to turn into a totally different person although, from time to time, she does revert temporarily to her former self. But things become really weird when Mary starts calling John by the name of Jack and herself by the name of Sally. It soon becomes clear to John that Jack and Sally belong to a different time and place. John sets out to investigate.
FAMILY STORY (995) - 26/05/91
John had extremely wealthy 'parents' Mary and William and a very happy childhood in a lovely big house. When he was 7, his 'parents' took him to a remote area of the country where they dumped him in a secure children's home. When he eventually manages to escape from that place at the age of 18, he discovers that his parents are dead, the victims of an uncaught murderer. So, he goes to live with his various relatives for several months each to find out all about his parents' history, why they dumped him (and none of his other brothers and sisters) in a home and what happened to them etc. However, every relative tells him a totally different story (so he cannot build up a consistent picture of Mary and William or of what happened etc) although it soon becomes clear that one of the relatives is the murderer. But which one? They all have a motive. The other strange thing is that John quickly realises that Mary and William were not his real parents and that if he can discover who his real parents are, he will probably find out the identity of Mary and William's killer.
START AGAIN (998) - 27/05/91
They develop a technique whereby if you can afford it, you can have a fresh start in life e.g. no matter what age you are, they can turn you back into a baby. However, you have different 'parents' and home in another area etc. With regard to your real parents, family, friends etc, they eradicate all trace of you from their memories forever. So as far as they are concerned, you never existed, and the treatment is irreversible. Although while 'young', you remember nothing about your previous existence, when you reach your teens, you start remembering your real parents, previous life etc. Sadly, many return to see their former family and friends (who do not remember them) and regret bitterly their decision. You can only have the treatment once and there is no going back.
THE BIG FREEZE (1000) - 10/06/91
In X, they believe implicitly in the sanctity of life and so therefore murder is considered the worst crime imaginable. However, the authorities are faced with a dilemma i.e. because of their beliefs, they cannot execute killers. At the same time a prison sentence does not seem a severe enough punishment. So, to get round this problem, they eventually decide that until such times as they can make up their minds how to adequately punish 'killers', such people should be 'frozen' i.e. the idea is that they can be defrosted at some later stage and brought back to face their punishment whatever that might be. People convicted of murder (whether rightly or wrongly) don't know when their defrosting will take place (it could be say in 500 years’ time or even never) or how horrific the punishment might be.
PRE-LIFE VIEW (1007) - 17/07/91
In X they have developed a technique whereby when a woman becomes pregnant they can take a cell sample from the unborn foetus and with the aid of very complex procedures and sophisticated computers, they can show pictures on a screen of what the child would look like, year by year up until say 20, if it were born. The computer can also provide accurate information about the child's health, intelligence and creativity quotients, aptitudes, personality etc. On the basis of the results produced by this technique, many mothers decide whether to go ahead with having a child. The technique is especially useful for helping single women make decisions following unwanted pregnancies etc.
PEOPLE FROM THE PAST (1009) - 20/07/91
They develop a technique whereby they can bring dead people back to life for limited periods of time, using 'dried-up' cells from their remains. The whole process is obviously very expensive and there is a limited number of cells that can be revitalised. However, if you can afford it, you can have some tyrant like Stalin brought back from the dead to act as your personal butler or whatever for say up to 3 months after which time he starts to fade away. However, for some peculiar reason, things start going wrong and many of the 'revitalised' monsters do not fade away. Furthermore, they are indestructible, extremely dangerous and have the potential to remain 'alive' forever.
THE PHONEY CLAIRVOYANT (1011) - 28/07/91
John married Mary for her money and although he has affairs with other women, he always ensures that Mary never finds out because he knows she would divorce him without one penny under their marriage contract. Then when on holiday, John begins a secret affair with Sally. Mary meets (D), a clairvoyant who tells her of John's new affair. When Mary confronts John with this, he manages after a great deal of effort to persuade Mary that William is a fraud and should be totally ignored. When Mary tells William to clear off and not cause any further trouble, William warns her that John should not return home by air. Mary omits to tell John this until he’s on the plane or just before the plane takes off!!
A DIFFERENT MAN (1012) - 23/09/91
Mary loves her husband John. When he goes off to work, he says goodbye to all the children, in-laws and friends etc. In the evening Mary sees a strange man coming in through the door. She wonders who he is. However, she is amazed when her children, her in-laws and friends greet him and talk to him just as if he was John. She is very confused and feels she is going mad. But one thing is certain - she can't stand this 'new' man!
WEDDING EXPENSES (1024) - 26/05/92
John was due to marry Mary. ALL the wedding arrangements were made by the best man William. However, on the eve of the wedding Mary disappears. Jilted John is absolutely distraught. William promises to cancel all the wedding arrangements (+ the honeymoon holiday to Barbados) and return all the wedding presents etc. John goes on the booze. A few weeks later, John is flabbergasted to learn that not only did Mary marry William on the day he was meant to, but William did not cancel the original wedding arrangements, which meant that John had to foot the bill for Mary & William's wedding. They also got 2 sets of presents etc and a free honeymoon!
THE NEW SUIT (N.I.) (1026) - 28/07/92
One Sunday, John puts on his brand-new suit and heads off out for a drink with his chums. He is a petty thief and although it becomes clear that there are people after him, he does not seem to care. While in the pub, a group of men come in and order him to come with them. He does so without any fuss. They take him to waste ground. You then realise that this is Ulster and they are going to kneecap him. However, before they do, they agree to his request that he be allowed to roll up his trousers to prevent them getting ruined by the shots that cripple him.
THE TYRANT (N.I.) (1030) - 05/05/93
John, a crusty old bachelor who enjoys life with his mates, is persuaded to marry Mary who seems a nice sweet young woman. However, she changes personality after the wedding and becomes a raging tyrant. John is not allowed out of the house and never gets to see his mates anymore because "they are a bunch of no good wasters". However, one day he tells her that he has seen the light and is taking up religion. Mary lets him out to go to church etc but because she is not interested in religion, she never asks him about it for fear he'll start spouting on about it. But little does she know that every time he leaves the house to go to church, he's actually going out to see his drinking chums, one of whom is the local priest (likes vodka now).
THE LAND OF X - 07/03/95
Two-way video links between the prisoner's cell and his home so that he can see what he is missing (e.g. lifers can watch their wives having affairs with other men etc).
As a part of their punishment, criminals become slaves to their victims.
Criminals are sent to a remote island (from where it is impossible to escape) to live whatever lives they want i.e. the principle behind this is that if our society and its rules etc are not good enough for them, then they can form their own society and rules etc.
Convicted criminals are branded on forehead. There are different types of brand marks to indicate the sort of crime the person has committed.
As soon as someone is born, a 'chip' is implanted in their head which enables the authorities to resolve all crimes e.g. if a crime is committed at point X at 12.43 p.m., the computer can tell exactly who was there at that time.
They don't bother with trials etc. Instead they give people truth drugs (that are infallible) and if they are guilty, they are either executed or put to sleep in a special tube for the length of their sentence
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