Responding to the brief provided on the Drama Commissioning pages of the ITV website, I have prepared the following synopsis & treatment for a 3-part contemporary crime drama, stripped over three successive nights in the 9:oopm slot for ITV1.
THREE
BAD
DAYS
A thriller (3x60m) by Michael Feeley
The Hook:
“I believe that, right now, most people in the UK are only 3 bad days away from total insanity” – The Caller.
Treatment:
Tapping into the modern fears, insecurities and anxieties that plague us all, ‘Three Bad Days’ is a chilling, contemporary crime drama, screened over three successive nights on ITV 1 at 9:00pm. Locked into a deadly race against time, DI Robbie McKendry has 72 hours to find a brilliant killer that no one else believes exists – or lose his mind…
Synopsis:
Day 1
When the host of daytime news discussion show guns down his panel and blows his brains out live on air, Detective Constable Robbie McKendry is appointed to clear up the mess.
With his marriage in trouble and a dark secret from his army days haunting his dreams, it’s a mess DC McKendry could do without – particularly when a seemingly open-and-shut case becomes much more complicated.
Robbie learns of a call received by the TV show a few days earlier. During a phone-in discussion on mental health and a recent spate of violent meltdowns, a male caller tells the host of his belief that everyone in the country is only three bad days away from total insanity.
The show’s host dismisses the caller’s suggestion as nonsense. The Caller tells the host chillingly: “I’ll prove it to you.” Three days later, the host is dead.
Intrigued, McKendry notices small links between this incident and the others, where seemingly happy, sane individuals unravel spectacularly over a few short days.
Convinced that one individual may be provoking all of the recent meltdowns, McKendry takes his theory to his colleagues and superiors, who reject it outright as a work of fantasy and warn him to improve his performance.
Robbie receives a package that makes him think his wife may be cheating on him.
Dejected at his desk at the end of possibly the worst single day of his life, Robbie receives a telephone call. It is from the mystery caller –
“Had a bad day?” asks the mysterious voice.
“Yes,” says Robbie.
“Consider it the first of three,” says the caller.
<End of Episode 1>
Robbie is locked into a race-against-time where the stakes couldn’t be higher – he must find the mysterious villain before he loses his mind…
Day 2
Robbie continues to investigate the previous meltdowns, where all the victims have killed themselves and others. Robbie realises that there is an earlier victim who survived against her will and is now in an insane asylum: a former chemistry teacher who poisoned her entire class.
An interview with the teacher provides Robbie with a vital clue.
Robbie loses wife and kids through his betrayal. His wife receives photos/evidence of Robbie’s secret Iraqi love-child from the first Gulf War (where he worked with explosives). In the same revelation, Robbie learns that both his Iraqi child and the child’s mother have been recently killed in Iraq.
Robbie, now teetering on the brink of madness, and The Caller exchange a hostile call. The conversation ends with Robbie shocking The Caller with the accuracy of his latest investigations. “Sleep well,” taunts Robbie, “because tomorrow is the day you die.”
Day 3
Robbie narrows his search down to three individuals within Government (who have unlimited access to the information held on all Government databases).
Robbie is suspended by his bosses for harrassing Government figures.
Robbie learns that all three will be attending the Scottish Cup Final, an Old Firm clash, seated in the VIP box.
Robbie attempts to enter the VIP box but is challenged by cops. He pushes past them but trips and falls on the stairs of the aisle – and a gun falls of out his pocket. A former colleague spots the gun, confiscates it and has Robbie bundled out. After Robbie has left, his colleague inspects the gun – and is surprised to find that it is not loaded.
Robbie walks down to the pitch as kick-off nears and produces another gun. He calmly walks to the centre circle, grabbing the announcer’s microphone.
We learn that Robbie has used misdirection in the VIP box – while attention was drawn by the gun following his trip, Robbie has planted an explosive device under a row of VIP seats.
Robbie shares a deranged, potted version of his last 3 days with the 60,000 crowd.
“We wondered what would happen first,” he booms over the mike. “Would I find him in time? Or would I lose my mind? The answer that neither of us had considered…”
Robbie produces a detonator from his pocket.
“…is that both would happen at once.”
He presses the button, destroying the main stand and killing hundreds.
Robbie is shot in the head by a selection of snipers.
<Epilogue>
A very happy 20-year-old woman receives a call to her mobile phone. It is from The Caller…
(In reality, The Caller is the female PA of one of the Government officials mistakenly targeted by Robbie. This should be hinted at throughout, then revealed outright in the closing moments.)
