LONDON SPY Page #3

Episode #5

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Danny stands, smoking, on the terrace looking out over

the city and square. It’s incredible.

He turns to the bedroom.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT. BEDROOM. MORNING

Danny peeks inside the wardrobe. The clothes are

expensive. Tailored. Elegant. Meticulously organized.

Danny catches himself in the mirror. His own clothes have

ragged style, skilful purchases from second hand shops.

Then, on the surface of a cabinet, an odd looking device.

Danny examines it. A personal panic alarm.

Danny puts it down just in time -Joe

enters from the shower, a towel around his waist. A

great body. Not an invite. Yet not entirely naive.

We’re on the borderline: a casual sex pick up, or

something more. Danny must decide.

DANNY:

I’ll let you get dressed.

Danny passes Joe on his way out.

They’re close - that flint-spark pull between them.

INT. ALEX’S APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. MORNING

The bedroom door closes with no particular haste.

Danny’s about to open the door but recovers his senses

and backs off. Muttering disapproval.

Flustered, he accidentally touches the laptop on the

table. It’s expensive. The screen comes alive --

Complex computer code. A hypnotic kind of beauty: the

soft glow of unfathomable numbers and equations.

Bedazzled, Danny briefly forgets himself and scrolls

down, revealing more of this strange magic.

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LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

INT. CHELSEA. FASHIONABLE RESTAURANT. MORNING

A corner table. A swanky restaurant.

Joe’s immaculately dressed. He wears his clothes well.

Cuts a dashing, if austere, figure. Danny admires.

Danny and Joe at breakfast. Danny eyes the prices,

daunted by them. Joe observes.

JOE:

I can pay.

DANNY:

No, it’s fine...

(beat)

I must be easy to read.

JOE:

You are.

DANNY:

Is that bad?

JOE:

It makes a change. The people I

work with are inscrutable.

DANNY:

I can be inscrutable.

JOE:

Did you look through my clothes?

Danny hesitates, caught, and then laughs. Joe smiles.

For the first time since we’ve encountered him.

EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT BUILDING. CHELSEA. MORNING

At the doorstep. A goodbye.

Joe raises a hand for Danny to shake. A stilted

formality. Yet it isn’t disappointing or anti-climatic.

Danny finds it cute and happily shakes his hand.

EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT BUILDING. STREET. MORNING

Danny walking away, with a spring in his step, as though

the date couldn’t feasibly have gone better.

He passes various expensive-flash cars, with no interest

in them, glancing back at the terrace. Joe isn’t on it.

Danny crosses the road, passing a parked white van. The

inside is thick with cigarette smoke. But no driver.

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LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

Again, of no interest to Danny, a background detail.

Danny glances back for a second time. Joe is at the

window - looking at him.

Danny’s thrilled. He raises a hand. Joe waves back.

The white van blurred behind.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Danny stands, recounting his date with great gusto.

Sara and Pavel are seated on the sofa, back from the

clubs, worse for wear. Sara smoking a joint, laconic.

Pavel is gnashing his jaw, bug eyed.

An empty space on the sofa where Danny would normally

have sat.

DANNY:

We shook hands.

A love struck Danny checks on his wasted audience.

Sara inhales, unmoved. Pavel turns to Sara, baffled as to

why Danny is so happy when he didn’t even get laid.

PAVEL:

I don’t understand.

SARA:

They shook hands.

Pavel still doesn’t understand. And Danny’s exceptionally

pleased with their reaction.

EXT. WHITEHALL. EVENING

Danny waits outside one of the ministries. In the hub

of political power.

We see Scottie. Early sixties. Emerging from the grand

entrance of a ministry: a civil servant figure from a

bygone era. Immaculate Jermyn Street tailoring.

We presume this man can’t be who Danny is waiting for.

Yet it is. A kiss as a greeting.

EXT. WHITEHALL STREETS. EVENING

Scottie and Danny walking. An excitable energy in Danny

movements, compared to Scottie’s steady steps.

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LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

SCOTTIE:

Has he rung?

DANNY:

He will.

Danny adamantly unconcerned.

SCOTTIE:

(gentle)

A week..?

DANNY:

I’ve never been more certain of

anything in my life.

SCOTTIE:

Why?

DANNY:

Because -(

thinks)

That can’t be it.

(thinks)

There’s more. There has to be.

SCOTTIE:

You love falling in love. The

moment when it’s all possibilities

and dreams.

Danny misses Scottie’s point.

DANNY:

You think he’s out of my league?

SCOTTIE:

The thought never crossed my

mind.

Danny’s caught. Changes subject. He’s breezy.

DANNY:

Where are we drinking tonight?

SCOTTIE:

(without much hope)

Somewhere dimly lit and terribly

old fashioned.

Danny locks an arm through Scottie’s.

EXT. HAMPSTEAD. DAY

After meeting in Whitehall Danny and Scottie have

travelled and are walking.

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LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

Danny recounting his date with great gusto. But we’re

primarily interested in Scottie’s reaction.

DANNY:

We’re at the doorstep, saying

goodbye, I’m trying to give him my

flat mate’s number because I don’t

have a phone, except he doesn’t

write it down. And I’m like, “if

you don’t want to see me again”

and he says:

(acting)

“Numbers, Danny, I have no problem

with.” Like he could remember

every phone number in the world.

And then - we shook hands.

(beat, fondly)

If you’d told me a week ago I

would’ve been this happy with a

handshake at the end of date...

Scottie has been patiently listening. Tolerant of his

friend’s indulgent recounting.

DANNY (CONT’D)

I’m sorry. I’ll stop talking about

him.

SCOTTIE:

No, it’s okay, you’re (excited --)

DANNY:

(interrupting)

It’s just... that feeling... You

know? Not being able to think

about anyone else?

SCOTTIE:

Yes. I know the feeling.

Because he has felt and still feels that way about Danny.

DANNY:

Right - of course. With... that

guy...

Danny doesn’t understand Scottie feels that way about him

and presumes he’s referring to a past lover.

Scottie watches his friend, waiting for some spark of

recognition that never comes.

Danny’s mind has already fluttered back to Alex.

Scottie understands that he will never have Danny. It

will always be so. And he turns his gaze elsewhere,

accepting.

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LONDON SPY -EP 1 -SHOOTING SCRIPT

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

Danny enters. Sara’s smoking a spliff. Danny’s eyes are

full of hope. Sara shakes her head. Offers her phone.

Danny checks, stoically - no messages.

Sara offers the spliff. Danny accepts, smokes and smiles,

defiantly. As if to say: “he’s going to call”.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. BEDROOM. DAWN.

Danny wakes. Someone knocking on the front door. He

looks at the alarm. Early in the morning.

INT. DANNY’S APARTMENT. HALLWAY. DAWN

Danny staggers out in boxers. And messed up hair. He

opens the door. Standing before him is Joe. Pristine.

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