Facts, that could only be told by someone with insider knowledge of the clandestine unit 14th Intelligence and Security Group, that operated in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ are revealed, and original news footage is signposted to events that occurred during my tour of duty.
The Rigger, (143mins) is an adaptation of my published book The Rigger, author Jack Williams, it has generated 167 reviews on Amazon.
Analyst Kitty Walker wrote, I enjoyed reading it very much, this is a thrilling and moving story. You write very well, with sharp dialogue and immersive scene description (action). There is a balance in your storytelling – you explore all of the characters without judgement. It’s a fantastic story, and I do think there is potential in this screenplay.
Logline: Covert Operations - to Red Carpet.
Synopsis: He's bought the house, will soon be 'Mister Civilian', but a midlife crisis changes everything. After volunteering Jack’s choppered in, taken by armoured personnel carrier, or covertly drives to locations where he climbs radio masts under cover of darkness, and rigs antennae for forthcoming SAS operations.
The IRA leader seeks revenge wherever he can after his brother was shot by a British soldier, and tries to eliminate Jack, but he survives being shot at whilst climbing a mast, narrowly escapes an exploding claymore mine, and walks away from a downed helicopter. His partner is shot on a mast whilst standing in for him, his wife refuses to speak to him because Jack volunteered, and her rejections, and his tour, begin to grind him down.
With only days to push he's diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they won't release him, and one last climb puts him back in the danger zone.
Jack is called upon to rig his final antenna, that will transmit the signal to explode an IRA lorry bomb, that is going to devastate Belfast city centre. After battling his way through a snow-storm Jack climbs a snow-covered mast, rigs the antenna, but slips on his way down, just manages to hang on with one hand, but breaks his nose.
Jack’s given the remote control to detonate the lorry bomb, but his finger hovers nervously over the detonator button, until he’s told, his antagonist is driving the lorry bomb.
He flies home, hopes his wife will be waiting for him, she is, but she doesn’t recognise him with his undercover makeover, broken nose, two black eyes, swollen bruised faced, and is shocked when he speaks to her.
Sitting at the top of a radio tower, Jack tells how he left Northern Ireland with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, how he overcame it by writing his memoirs, and his relentless determination to write this screenplay. 22 years after receiving analytical feedback, entering screenplay competitions, placing his script on a web site that producers and film companies visited, networking in London and Birmingham, and brushing off the thousands of rejections he'd received, shooting finally began. His writing adventure ends with, ‘The Walk’, along the red carpet.
