LONDON SPY Page #2

Episode #5

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Danny unlocks the door. A low rise block of apartments

adjacent to the railway, the clubs and MI6.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. CORRIDOR. EVENING

Danny enters. He shares a small, beat-up apartment.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. KITCHEN. EVENING

Danny enters a bustling kitchen. A foreign language

chatter. His flat-mate Pavel is eating pre-night shift

dinner with friends dressed for construction work.

Danny peers into the fridge. Decaying scraps.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BATHROOM. NIGHT

A handwritten sign warns people to use the hot water

for no more than sixty seconds. A feeble dribble

flattens Danny’s hair. And he does not mind.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

A tiny, narrow, chaotic bedroom, with a clothes hanger,

packed with second hand clothes. On the floor protein

powder jars intermingle with cheap sneakers.

Danny flops onto the bed, eyes on the beside cabinet,

atop of which sits the sports drink.

EXT. RIVERBANK. MORNING

Danny running, wearing mismatched T-shirt and Bermuda

shorts. The sports drink stuffed into a pocket.

The river embankment is popular with joggers. While

everyone else runs in neat straight lines, Danny runs

with no strict route, turning round, eagerly checking

who they are, looking back & across the river.

Not the mysterious runner. Danny isn’t dismayed, he’s

having fun, certain he’ll find this guy.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. EVENING

A jovial but tatty living room. An old television. A

games console. Bashed up furniture.

5

LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

An attractive, off beat woman in her twenties is

sprawled on the sofa - Sara. Danny is lying beside her.

Sara’s on her phone perusing an internet dating site.

She moves through the men with breath-taking speed.

SARA:

(with variation)

No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

To dismiss a profile you flick the screen with your

finger, an act that Sara performs with relish.

DANNY:

I’m going to stay in tonight.

SARA:

(concerned)

You don’t feel so good?

DANNY:

I feel fine.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. HALLWAY. NIGHT

Pavel and Sara dressed up for the night, leaving the

apartment. Danny remains inside, shutting the door.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT

Alone, Danny turns on the TV. Saturday night variety

shows. Loud. Bright. Noisy --

THIS SCENE IS CUT

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BATHROOM. NIGHT

Danny smoking out the window. Looking at the view of

the internal courtyard --

EXT. DANNY’S APARTMENT COURTYARD. NIGHT

As in ‘Rear Window’ Danny can see into lots of flats.

We see a couple arguing. A family eating dinner. And an

old man in front of the television, alone.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

On the table is a garish flier to a club night.

Underneath is a line of crystalline drug. A cropped

plastic straw. Mischievous temptation.

6

LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

Danny studies the flyer. He picks up the straw but

doesn’t snort the line. Instead, he wipes it away.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

Danny sets his alarm. Five AM --

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BEDROOM. DAWN.

Five AM -- the alarm rings.

Danny wakes. Dark outside. Tempted to go back to sleep,

he almost does. But then, remembers, and leaps up.

EXT. VAUXHALL. ‘FIRE’ NIGHT CLUB. DAWN

Danny passes a club. Still open. He’s beckoned in by a

bouncer. Danny politely declines.

EXT. LAMBETH BRIDGE. DAWN

Danny stands on the bridge with the sports drink.

Watching the north/south riverbank paths. Sunrise.

EXT. LAMBETH BRIDGE / RIVERBANK. MORNING

Unable to wait, indefinitely, on the bridge, Danny’s

seated, cold, on a riverbank bench near the bridge.

His patience is rewarded: he sees the mysterious runner

along the riverbank path.

Danny, apprehensive, walks forward, into the path of the

runner, and waits, holding the sports drink, trying to

find a natural pose - an impossible task.

The runner sees Danny. And slows to a stop, catching his

breath. Perplexed, again. Not unpleasantly so.

Flustered, Danny offers the runner his drink container

back. It’s cute. And ridiculous.

The runner doesn’t accept. He just stares, assessing,

neither hostile, nor affectionate - baffled.

The silence becomes too long, even for Danny.

Progressively sadder with each beat --

DANNY:

I wanted to say thank you. Which

I didn’t say. Last time.

(beat)

It was just a hunch.

7

LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

DANNY (CONT'D)

Sometimes you have to take a

chance, right?

(beat)

Otherwise, how do you know...

(beat)

Obviously I got this wrong.

Danny puts the drink down on the ground.

Still no reply. Danny walks away. Humiliated. None-theless,

he braves one last glance back. Only to see --

The runner holding the drink container, contemplating

it, as though trying to solve a puzzle.

He looks at Danny, the other half of this puzzle.

Danny doesn’t quite know what to do. He stops. And they

stand facing each other for the second time.

A greater distance between them. And yet, somehow, this

time they feel closer.

EXT. RIVERBANK. MORNING

Danny and the runner walking, slowly, side by side.

DANNY:

My name’s Danny.

MYSTERIOUS RUNNER

(unusual emphasis)

My name is Joe.

He can’t even answer a simple question with ordinary

cadence. These nothing words feel like more.

EXT. RIVERBANK. MORNING

The riverbank walk continues, the pace notably more

assured, Danny and Joe side by side.

DANNY:

Joe, are you...

Danny pulls back on the question. Joe observes. Danny

cleverly, lightly, turns it into a joke.

DANNY:

Are you...?

(smiles)

I ran out of questions.

JOE:

Ask me. Please.

8

LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

A crucial line, pulling Danny closer.

DANNY:

Are you out?

Understandably the question seems enormous to Joe.

JOE:

No.

(as if it were a more

nuanced variation)

No.

Danny assesses. Joe assesses.

JOE:

If you want to go - I can

understand, that reaction.

DANNY:

I don’t want to go.

Relief on Joe’s face. First emotion we’ve seen from

him. He tries to hide it. But Danny’s caught it.

EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT BUILDING. CHELSEA. MORNING

A square. A grand house. Expensive. Impressive. A

security camera. Three locks before the door opens.

Joe observes Danny observing the level of security.

JOE:

I work for an investment bank.

(beat)

It’s their apartment.

(beat)

Security is a concern.

Danny nods - okay, whatever. They enter.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. MORNING

The apartment is spectacular. Modern. Immaculately

clean. No personal touches. No photographs.

Danny’s amazed. A grown-up life. Adulthood. He studies

this other world of success while Joe studies him.

JOE:

There’s a terrace.

A jarring estate-agent-like boast? Actually it’s Joe

trying to be nice.

9

LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

JOE:

If you want to smoke, I mean.

Joe disappears into the bathroom.

EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT. TERRACE. MORNING

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