1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.

lost_spook gave me:

Detective drama set in the 90s/80s/70s/60s/50s (take your pick; you can sell the resulting soundtrack album even if the show doesn't take) around a disgraced ex-spy and his 17 year old daughter who's had to leave her posh boarding school. They're forced to form a detective agency to fight crime and avoid poverty (because working in Tescos is less dramatic). With supporting cast as large or small as you like.

Which I thought would take a while, but it turned out it didn't...

In the Red
Set in 1993

Main characters:
Harry Jones (nee Terry Jones) played by Peter Davison.

He's an ex-MI5 spy who was turfed out in disgrace after it was found that he was taking bribes. He did it to provide his daughter with everything she wanted because she lost her mother and doesn't see her father much, since he's away with work. He put her in a posh boarding school, since he wasn't around enough to look after her, but when they set up their detective agency he finds that he doesn't really know her at all. He spends the series trying to understand his daughter and mostly failing, and also trying to go straight.

Scarlet Jones, played by Georgia Moffett

Harry's 17 year old daughter. She's really unhappy about the situation she now finds herself in. She doesn't care about not having got her A levels, she just misses her friends and her old lifestyle and hates having to hide. However, she's also a pretty good actress - she learnt to act posh at her boarding school, so no one would suspect that she wasn't. Now she's got used to being posh, she's having to act like someone with no money and no qualifications. Her skills come in handy when going after criminals.

Supporting characters:
Will Pearson, played by Ben Peyton

Will is a rookie young PC who's immediately taken with Scarlet. He flirts with her, until he meets her father and his attitude towards anyone going after his little girl. Scarlet ignores her father, but Will is scared enough not to make a move. However, that doesn't stop him from being attracted to her and flirting with her. Occasionally it gets in the way of his policework.

Mike Wilson, played by Philip Glenister

He's the landlord of The Red Lion, Harry's local pub. He's also an ex-copper and he runs the pub with his wife. He has his ear to the ground as far as the local gossip goes and he's a good informant for Harry. Mike understands that not everything is black and white, although at least in his case leaving his old job was his decision.

DI Rachel Davies, played by Jaye Griffiths

Davies is the head of CID in town and has a long-held grudge against Mike. Davies is efficient and you have to work hard to get past her outer shell. Being a black, female DI in a small town is hard and she works long hours to show that she's just as good as anyone else.

6 one hour episodes on BBC1 at 8pm on Tuesdays.

Episode 1: Terry is kicked out of MI5 in disgrace for taking bribes. All his money is taken away from him, he's hounded in the press. He has to take his daughter, Scarlet, out of her posh boarding school because he can no longer afford the fees. She's less than impressed about this. Since he's a master of disguise and she's never been in the press, they leave London and go to the countryside. He has a new name, Harry (fortunately Jones is a common surname), and and new identity. Scarlet manages to get a job at Tescos and hates it, he signs on. In the process they discover a crime, solve it, and at the end of the episode, he decides to set up a detective agency.

Episode 2: Scarlet isn't happy about working for her father, but it's better than working in Tescos. She's surly and uncooperative through most of the episode, but brightens up a bit when she meets Will, the local PC, who's young and good looking. They're attracted to each other, but he's dissuaded from making a move because he's scared of what her father might do.

Episode 3: Harry gets a tip-off from the landlord of the local pub - who's an ex copper. He has a grudge against the head of CID in the town, DI Davies. Harry and Davies butt heads over the case but work together to solve it in the end. Harry discovers there's two sides to every story when both Mike and Davies tell him their side of the story about why they hate each other. Harry spends the rest of the series trying to keep the peace between the two of them.

Episode 4: Two of Scarlet's friends turn up during their school holidays. Scarlet desperately tries to get in with them, but they laugh at her. However, one of them is attacked and they gain a new respect for her when she helps find the attacker and bring him to justice.

Episode 5: Harry is finding life hard without money and goes back to his old way of taking bribes. After all, catching the criminals and getting money off them pays better than handing them over to the police. And then he's caught in the middle when the police catch up with the briber. At the end, when it's all sorted out, Davies wonders why the taking bribes bit rings a bell. Then she recognises him, although Harry knows nothing about this.

Episode 6: It all looks like it's gone horribly wrong when Davies confronts Harry about who he really is. He tells the truth to Davies and Mike in the hopes that they'll trust him now that they know him. And he points out that he has been punished. However, his friends are coppers or ex-coppers and they're less than impressed. Suddenly he and his daughter are persona non-grata in the town. It's only when Harry solves the latest mystery, when he recognises someone from his days in MI5 that they agree to let the past lie. However, his friendship with Davies and Mike isn't quite the same as it was.

Other notes: The series gets good reviews and a second series is commissioned after the first two episodes have been shown. Series two keeps the same mix of crime and personal lives. Scarlet and Will continue their will-they-won't-they relationship and kiss at her 18th birthday party. We get more backstory on all the main characters, another threat to Harry's identity when an old colleague turns up and Harry struggles to stay on the straight and narrow when he gets into debt. At the end of the series Davies is promoted to DCI and leaves for another station in a bigger town.

Series 3 does less well with the loss of one of its main characters. Her replacement is widely disliked and her relationship with Harry doesn't have enough chemistry to make it believable. With Peter Davison saying before the series started that he didn't want to do a fourth, the series sees Scarlet joining the police force and finally get together with Will. In the final episode Harry is outed to the national press and abandons his detective agency to go on the run.

There is a connection between the actors who play the main characters - and Georgia Moffett is the odd one out. Bonus points to anyone who can work out what the connection is.

The trouble with having written all this is that now I want to see it...

3 Responses to “TV show meme”

Copper Says:
Sunday 14th February 2010 at 11:03 pm

They have all played policemen/women except Georgia.

I want to see this now as well

Nic Says:
February 15th, 2010 at 9:10 am

I knew you'd get it

Angelic Paranoia – Olympics Says:
Monday 15th February 2010 at 8:26 pm

[...] Copper won the prize for guessing the connection between the actors in mine: they’ve all played policemen/women: [...]