Done Up - a treatment for a television film

This is an incomplete scenario/treatment for a television film, probably in two ninety-minute parts:


Becky fancies herself as a property developer. She’s just received a pay-off from a high-earning job, and sees this as a great opportunity. Trouble is, she knows nothing about property development, building or DIY. But she knows a man who does…

Craig is an ex-boyfriend of Becky’s. They haven’t met in years, but when one of Becky’s friends reminds her that he used to be in the building trade, it’s not long before Becky is on the phone and arranging a meeting. Cynically, she begins by looking on dating websites for suitable partners with a background in building. Her objective is to find someone who will do the work for nothing.

Craig is made up when he hears from Becky after all this time. He proudly tells her how much he’s added to the value of his own home through his various improvements. Becky doesn’t realise it yet, but Craig’s ideas of taste and style are somewhat at odds with her own…

Becky has already found a property that she considers ripe for development; a dilapidated terraced cottage up a quiet country lane. She’s inspected it, and hasn’t been deterred by the dreadful state of the buildings. An auction follows, with a fierce bidding war between Becky and a very smooth operator in the form of rival developer David Keene.

Becky gets the cottage, but at a much higher price than she’d bargained for, leaving her little in the way of a budget to get the work done. She’s going to have to do some work on Craig. And meanwhile, David Keene has his sights set on a new project of his own – Becky!


Story Breakdown:

Opening sequence with Becky in a performance car (eg TVR) racing through English countryside in high summer. She turns into a quaint little lane, lined with twee cottages. View through wisteria as she gets out of the car and walks up a garden path. We can’t see the house. Close up as a key turns in the lock. Then close up as her heel goes through the rotten and broken floor inside. Pull back to reveal she is standing in a totally derelict shell. Birds are nesting in the roof, most of which is open to the sky. The walls are without plaster. In her smart suit and heels, Becky looks somewhat incongruous, to say the least.

In flashback, a sequence in a smart London office, impressive skyline without. A blustering, shirtsleeved executive is explaining what sounds like a new business proposition: reallocation of resources, retention of key personnel and key accounts. What it amounts to is that Becky is fired. The good news is her redundancy package.

At home, Becky and her girl friend, Steph, are drinking wine and watching TV, celebrating Becky’s new found freedom and wealth. She hasn’t decided what direction her career will take, but she wants to do something for herself, something creative, something constructive, a career in which she can take charge of her own destiny. As the girls talk things over, a TV programme chunters away in the background. We see more and more of the programme during the conversation – it’s a show about people who buy and renovate old properties. Suddenly, Becky realises she’s staring her future in the face. She will become a property developer. What’s to stop her? Well, several things. Point one, she knows nothing about property development. Point two, she knows even less about building; and point three, she’s the world’s worst when it comes to DIY. Yet even as Becky and Steph consider these drawbacks, one of the would-be developers on the TV programme is in the middle of explaining how they started from exactly the same position. Becky’s mind is made up.

Before the night is out, she is online, scouting for suitable investment properties. The next day she is out visiting estate agents and viewing potential purchases. What she sees does not fill her with confidence. She has a budget of £45,000 to spend on buying a property, and expects to spend around £10,000 doing it up. By the end of the day, she’s feeling demoralised. It takes Steph and a few bottles of Shiraz to revitalise her enthusiasm. The only properties in her price range are virtual ruins and will need extensive work – ‘a comprehensive scheme of refurbishment’ as the estate agents’ blurb puts it. Becky can’t possibly take on a project like that. But before she can go any further, she has to make her purchase.

We rejoin Becky a week later; she’s sitting in a sale room, waiting nervously for the auction to begin. At the back of the room, crisply-suited and exuding confidence, stands David Keene, an experienced property developer, who just happens to be after the same country cottage that Becky’s set her heart on. A furious bidding war ensues, with the price of the ruined cottage soaring from a guide price of £65,000 to £190,000. Becky sweats it out and emerges victorious. Keene offers some sneering words of advice as they leave the auction rooms, and audaciously offers to take Becky out to lunch. To Steph’s astonishment, Becky accepts. But Becky has an ulterior motive – picking Keene’s brains.

Keene is no fool, and his advice to Becky over lunch is not altogether honest. In fact, he steers her in entirely the wrong direction. He does, however, give her a contact in the building trade. But when Becky sees his estimate, she begins to wonder if she’s done the right thing. Keene is waiting for her to give in, and hopes that she will get demoralised and sell to him at a loss, just to get the place off her hands.

Steph is determined not to see her friend’s venture go down the drain, and encourages Becky to find someone else to do the work. The problem is that Becky has already overspent and has little or no budget left. No problem, says Steph. Welcome to the world of internet dating!

Cynical though it seems, Becky’s new strategy is simple – find a bloke online who she can charm into doing the work for her. None of the candidates looks entirely suitable, but Becky arranges dates with a few. It looks as if she’s getting on quite well with Tom, who’s a hunk, runs his own plumbing company, and is a dab hand at DIY. But when Tom is taken on a moonlit drive to Becky’s ‘folly’, the penny drops and he realises what’s going on. End of relationship.

Steph, meanwhile, is trawling the dating websites for suitable candidates, and Becky is soon exchanging messages with several more potential ‘lover/developers’. But there’s a shock in store when she sees one of the blokes that Steph has ‘favourited’ for her. It’s a guy she once went out with!

Becky has all but forgotten her three-week relationship with Craig; it was, after all, ten years ago. In the intervening years, Craig has married, had kids and got divorced. More to the point, he’s set himself up as a jobbing builder and one of his specialities is doing up old houses.

Craig hasn’t forgotten Becky; in fact, he’s kept a photograph of her all these years, as he shows her on their first date. Things seem to be working out nicely, and it’s not long before Becky is gearing up to make a proposition to Craig. Craig is somewhat disappointed when he realises it’s a business proposition, but Becky can be very persuasive when she feels like it. Soon, Craig has got totally carried away with the idea and is going round telling everyone – including his kids – that he’s now a ‘property tycoon.’

The work gets under way, and Craig is no slouch when it comes to the business of gutting and refurbishing the old cottage. Becky is soon lording it on the site, swanning around in her hard hat and high heels in her new role as project manager. The first hurdle comes when Craig starts asking about the money. The short answer is – there isn’t any. Becky is hoping he’ll do the work for nothing. She hasn’t considered the cost of materials, which Craig has been paying for. Convincing Craig that he will recoup his out- of-pocket expenses ten times over from the profit they’ll make on the sale, Becky manages to keep the project on course.

Keene, however, is never far away. He’s still hoping to step in and take the cottage off Becky’s hands, and pays several visits to the site where he makes disparaging remarks about the quality of Craig’s work, and all but precipitates a fist fight.

The more the old house is examined, the worse it looks. There are unforseen problems and setbacks, but somehow, against all the odds, the ruined cottage begins to resemble a desirable home. Craig, unfortunately, has got it into his head that the cottage will be a home for himself and Becky when it’s finished. Becky realises this early on, and has to tread carefully so as not to upset him before the project is complete.

It’s only when the structural work is done and the house is ready to be fitted out that Becky realises how far her ideas differ from those of Craig. Only now does she visit Craig’s own home, with its tasteless ornamental features, mock tudor styling and baronial interior, none of which looks quite at home on a 1970s semi. She daren’t risk telling Craig what she thinks. When Craig starts taking tips on interior décor from his grandmother, Becky realises that it’s time she wrestled back control of the project.

At last, the cottage is finished. Despite Craig’s predlicition for tasteless tat, and his colour-blind approach to décor, the end result is not unimpressive. It’s Craig who is less than impressed when he takes a drive down the lane to show his kids their new home and sees a For Sale board up outside. Furiously, he sets off to confront Becky...


© 2008 Martin Cater