Battered
1 x 30 Minute Pilot Script for a Sitcom
Programme Outline
Set in the Victorian seaside town of Morecambe, Battered charts the daily struggles of Mackenzie's Chip Shop; the luckless troupe who live and work there, the pitiless business pariahs who conspire towards its downfall and those unfortunates who happen across its existence either as unwitting guinea pigs to the shop's erratic cuisine, or as accidental players in the chippy's ongoing dilemmas.
Battling against the remorseless self-interests of a hostile female money lender, the dawning realisation that life may be passing some of them by and the increasing Americanisation of the fast food industry, Mackenzie's staff, and their band of toothless pensionable customers, is an island of questionable family values and problems in an increasingly aggressive sea of super sized McFlurries and tasteless curly fries.
“As far as I'm concerned the War of the Roses is still on, and don't get me started on that little weasel Parkinson.”Elvis, Battered
As a physical representation of the defunct British Empire, the staff and regular customers are capable of magnanimous acts of bold self sacrifice and philanthropic gestures on a grand scale; it was individuals such as these who conquered Everest, forced the English language upon the world and taught it how to be sexually repressed. Sadly, despite their best intentions, many of them are also hampered by a Luddite attitude towards the new, a xenophobic suspicion of anything or anyone from outside of Lancashire and a penny pinching mentality that borders on psychosis.
Battered is a family sitcom made for and about the new British extended family, a family made of hangers on and those hanging onto life.
Project History
Written by Martyn Jowett and Mark Benson. Commissioned by Cheryl Taylor for BBC3 initiative Behind Closed Doors.
Script Status
Project currently being considered by BBC Radio as a sitcom series.
