Barbed Wire In The Blood

How to make – TV Series – the easy way

Barbed Wire In The Blood

Robson Green, according to The Sun 'exclusive' today, has criticised Simon Cowell by accusing him and Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller of using Pop Idol hopefuls to boost their own bank accounts.

Is the pot calling the kettle black?

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How to make aTV Series – the easy way

In memory of BRUNO with respect to William Patrick Davis Tony Burgess, Ron Brown, Lukshini, our ancestors who ensured the safe passage of the caring gene

100% net profit will be donated to

Animal Help Society with special thanks to my family for their enduring support _________________________________________________________________________

This work is dedicated to all those good hearts who have helped and donated their time to the work of Animal Help Society. Greater London residents especially those of Redbridge, Newham, Waltham Forest who provided AHS with financial support HRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Jan Godfrey, Chris Radburn, Alex and Laura Caan, Carl Creckendon, Michelle Lambert, John Bailey, Christine Davis, Caroline and Paul Saunders, Lyndon Basha, Colin Dean, Tina Tait, Larry Green, Joyce, Gillian Walker, Paula, Barbara Tippett, Peter Radburn, Tania Kosminsky, Penny Ley, Beryl Brown, Tony Smith; Caroline the Animal Warden, Ken‟s Pet food supplies, Naomi, Benjamin and Sophie Freeman, Mark Seddon, John Perschy; Frank the Ambulance/Pilot, Dave the Rev Warner, Mad Alex, Linda FO, Peter, Henry, Ben, Brenda, Jan, Tracey, Liz, Fred, Paula and the horses, Les the shop, Ben the accountant, Lee Graham, Glen Campbell, Alan Cockayne, Chris Beale, Paul Gaunt, Delroy Beder, Pandora, Roselle, Steven, Jack, Peter, David, Elaine M, Ann,

Sophie, Nicola, Chris, Francis,

Katherine, William, Peter, Daniel, Rosina, Georgina, Alice, Jane, Felicity, Tanya and Alex, Les and Patrick, Tony, Johanne, Cherry and Neil, Jennifer, Terry, Angus, Ursula, Michael, Mark, Jessica, Adam, Jasmin, Mary and John, Wez, Felix, Jonesy, Lol, Bill, Alison, Lesley, Sarah, Jean, Elizabeth, Marion, Andy, Fiona, Gina, Simon, David, Alan, Amir, Oliver, Stuart, Janice, Janine, Simon, Andrew, Jean, William the bin man, Jan the shop, Charles, Redbridge Pearly Queen, Mary and John, Ann, Ian, Fred at the Barking City Farm who took our rooster, Christine and Daphney, Russian Blue Breeders Association helped PC, Dogs Trust who helped Bruno, Goddard Veterinary Group, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Swan Rescue, Fox Project, St Tiggywinkles, Kennel Club of Great Britain, Cat Fanciers Association, Barking Canine Club, Travis Perkins, Please don‟t be offended if I have left you off the list. Names defeat me. Email me [email protected] ....

I swear this to be a true and accurate record of events:

Janet Ives

Janet Ives [Director Circle Multimedia Ltd]

ALL STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT CAN BE SUBSTANTIATED WITH EVIDENCE Date: 7 Sept 2008

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CONTENTS Number

Content

Preface

Frontispiece

5

Chapter 1

Charitable Beginnings

11

Chapter 2

Bruno TV Appeal

25

Chapter 3

Play For The Planet

43

Chapter 4

Year of the Cat

51

Chapter 5

The Arts

59

Chapter 6

Wire In The Blood Beginnings

71

Chapter 7

Approach to Robson Green

81

Chapter 8

Turning Points

97

Chapter 9

Legal Contracts

113

Chapter 10

Filming begins

121

Chapter 11

Hollywood Studios

129

Chapter 12

Quarter Million Breach

137

Chapter 13

Women In Film and Television

141

Documents

Evidence of Deceit

146

Chapter 14

New Legal Team

171

Chapter 15

Health Issues Delay

177

Chapter 16

Final Prep on Alchymist‟s Cat

181

Chapter 17

Important matters

189

Chapter 18

Post Operative Disclosures

197

Chapter 19

Particulars of Claim

221

Chapter 20

Court Hearing

231

Chapter 21

The Final Descent

239

Chapter 22

The Deepest Cut

249

Chapter 23

Rectification

263

Corollary

Squaring the Circle

275

Appendices

.......................................................

276

Appendix 1

Wire In The Blood (cuttings)

277

Appendix 2

Play For The Planet (2 pages)

278

Appendix 3

Alchymist‟s Cat (10 pages)

281

Appendix 4

Case notes (5 pages)

291

Appendix 5

Sumatran Tiger Trust (2 pages)

296

Appendix 6

Wire Press Cuttings

298

Appendix 7

CMM Business Plan 2005

299

Appendix 8

CMM Defence for court 2008

317

Declaration

Statement of truth and validity

333

Total pages

334

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Page

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If fate should look upon this page And see these words of scorn and rage Of muttered thoughts and silent prayer And views too bold for one to bear My hand cries out in tearful woe As to the page my thoughts do flow O, picture not what lies within This heart I keep so clothed in sin

I am but as a rising tide That fortune merely cast aside To hunt and search and seek in vane To suffer the torments of pain To rival with the minds of Man To find the Universe I am

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Frontispiece Writing this is as much a cathartic exercise for the author as any attempt to provide the inevitable inquest with a full and detailed record of events leading up to the fated collapse of Circle Multimedia Limited, which had been set up to hold the rights for drama projects produced in support of the charitable aims of Arcadia. The company began life by originating Wire In The Blood the successful crime drama series on ITV starring Robson Green and based on the award winning crime novels of Val McDermid. The protagonist of the show, is a modern-day „Sherlock Holmes‟ type character in the guise of psychological profiler Tony Hill who, like his Victorian counterpart, engages the audience in the intellectual process of crime detection. By unlocking the workings of the perverse mind of the killer, he carries the viewer on a suspense filled journey of discovery - unravelling the clues in a cat and mouse hunt to bring to justice perpetrators of the heinous crimes graphically depicted on screen.

Having correctly identified that a niche in broadcast schedules would be left by the demise of police dramas like Frost and Morse, which we predicted were near the end of their long runs, our approach to Robson Green offered him both a TV series with franchise potential with which to launch his independent production company and a lead role that could save his, dwindling acting career. Professionally authored contracts certified Coastal Productions and Circle Multimedia‟s intent to produce a TV series together on terms agreed. With chillingly original subject matter, as forecast, the first series immediately pulled an audience of over eight million UK viewers and instantly sold to broadcasters world wide, grossing a cool £1million. Signed agreements entitled both parties to an equal share of profits. Robson Green‟s independent company, contracted to produce the planned series, faced a substantial pay out to the co-producer. Rather than honour that debt, it referenced non existent industry practises citing a bogus precedent that allowed it to re-evaluate the wording of the signed document. This new interpretation, made long after the series had aired, was constructed to Robson Green‟s advantage. Pandering to his obsession, his company‟s aim worked to acquire absolute control and reduce the co-producer‟s share of profits to © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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zero. Coastal Productions breached the signed contracts and refused to pay due royalties, depriving its co-producer of both creative accreditation and its just revenues across six series. The rights agreement underpinning the series bore the originating producer‟s signature and the broadcast contract included it‟s synopsis as testimony to the company‟s contribution. Whilst the signatory co-producer lay in a hospital bed fighting for life, Green‟s company took unfair advantage, depriving the partner company of almost all its rightful returns. Gloating over its assumed success, scripts were cruelly and jeeringly created by Coastal Productions to include veiled references to her disability!

The wonder is what kind of character gains satisfaction from disrespecting the afflictions of others? On 17 September 2007, a press advertisement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, Robson Green had answered that question when he proudly revealed himself “as godless as the scattered criminal psychologist he plays ........” explaining that “What Green has in common with Hill is their rejection of God and their acceptance of evil “.

The image conjured was the antithesis, a million miles from the ideal we envisioned a decade ago: of using TV projects to provide funds for sustainable charitable initiatives.

Finally, the co-producer sought legal rectification. Obvious, if the judiciary was allowed to assess the facts, the position was clear. Coastal had signed a number of agreements that entitled co-producers to 50:50 share in profit. Coastal Productions was liable and had to pay up or keep it out of court at all costs. Having retained the co-producer‟s portion of profit including the amount intended for the charitable network, this provided the added financial resources required to secure the most senior legal team, equipping it to outflank the co-producer company and Coastal Productions dishonoured its promise.

The story is truly a decline from good to evil. Having drawn together a group of charities to form Arcadia Network, we embarked on a set of purely commercial ventures in an attempt to provide sustainable financial support for its good works. From the outset it had been our accepted objective that profits thus made would be applied, in part to benefit charitable aims. This is evidenced by a catalogue of activities undertaken by both these directors across almost two decades. 6

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Instead we traced a path along the twists and turns of a lengthy creative process. The promised revenues channelled through a treacherous co-producer partnership whose only object was to claim a disproportionate share of the proceeds. And just how that was achieved was of little consequence to the instigator.

Broadcasters, media specialists, and lawyers alike, all admitted that the production company had violated long standing and accepted industry codes of practise. The lack of statutory protections available to the co-producer was itself an indication of the unusual nature of such acts of bad faith between parties. Lawyers reported that Senior ITV Legal Advisor [Colette Galza] had claimed, “this was the first time that she could recall an issue of this nature arising,” Here is the full story from the beginning ..............

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Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au

Stranger in a strange land Yuko Narushima September 17, 2007

Feeling the heat ... Wire in the Blood star Robson Green. Photo: Alan Peebles AdvertisementAdvertisement

Robson Green, star of the British thriller series Wire in the Blood, says he is as godless as the scattered criminal psychologist he plays. And the television star will seek a godforsaken land when he returns to Australia in the not-too-distant future to film two special episodes of the show. "Sydney's too pretty," says the 42-year-old actor who plays Dr Tony Hill. "The only way the show works in a foreign land is if you put Tony in a very oppressive backdrop." Green has just finished filming a feature-length episode of the psychological drama in Texas, where his duffel-clad character had to sweat through 44-degree heat to be an 8

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expert witness against a man charged with slaying his family. "We really have to bring out the aspect of alien in a foreign land," says Green, who is in Australia promoting the fifth series of Wire in the Blood, which begins this week on the ABC. "Maybe Alice Springs." Hill thrives in an unforgiving climate, cracking a frenetic pace when teamed with forensic scientists and police to solve a murder a week in the gritty, crime-ridden city of Bradfield. He combines logic with intuition to pursue the suspects. He coaxes some to talk with lollies and empathy and jackhammers others with accusations. All the while, he mutters his train of thought to a detective team resigned to his wacky hunches. A jam biscuit is just as likely to lead Dr Hill to a killer as blood on a jacket. "He's awkward, he's clumsy but he's endearing," says Green, blue-eyed veteran of such dramas as Casualty, Soldier Soldier and Touching Evil. He also dabbled in a singing career, encouraged by Simon Cowell of American Idol notoriety, although he now refers to this period as "my own personal Vietnam". What Green has in common with Hill is their rejection of God and their acceptance of evil as acts performed by humans rather than challenges posed by an all-powerful being. "When people ask Tony if he believes in God, he says, 'I don't confide my problems in an invisible friend.' It is so true," Green says. He recalls going to church as a child and thinking everything surrounding him - the iconography, paintings and symbolism - was placed there as a means to control. "It had nothing to do with private thought or enlightenment. It was about control and discipline through fear," he says. "I am an atheist." Wire in the Blood is now seen in 36 countries and Green believes part of its appeal is the way it taps the uncertainty of the times we live in. "We all want answers to certain questions and one of those questions, especially in today's time, is: 'If there is an almighty, why is He allowing so much suffering?' We seek answers through drama and this genre," he says. One of the reasons he returned to Wire in the Blood for the fifth season is the writing, which he says is the "most intelligent" of any show he's been in. There's also the lure of the travel. "Because we filmed in Texas and it looks like we'll be filming in Australia, there is the carrot to keep me going," Green says. "You can only kill so many people in Bradfield. There'll be no one left.' Fans can only hope he finds more victims in the Alice. Wire in the Blood returns to the ABC on Friday at 8.30pm.

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Chapter 1

In 1990 I had been elected to the committee of a small East London based charity Animal Help Society, with a remit to enlarge the organisation to meet a growing demand for its services. Founded by Joan Smith, AHS efforts had originally centred on Barkingside Police Station‟s intake of stray dogs, for which it provided a rehoming service.

When I joined, the charity was about ten years old and had already gained

registered status with around 60 members. It had grown mainly through the sterling efforts of a small but dedicated group of volunteers led by Jan Godfrey and Chris Radburn, who had worked together to extend its services to include, all types of pet animals and were struggling to manage a 24 hour helpline.

Juggling management of an active charity with the demands of a young family left Chris very little time to spare so any offers of assistance were fast seized upon. From memory, I first encountered the charity‟s efforts when at the vets, where I extended an offer to foster a needy orphan over the Xmas holidays, after which I had to return to my teaching job .... but with another baby on the way, I knew that situation was soon to change. When the orphan puppy‟s paperwork revealed her name to be Poppy it was no surprise that true to form, her effect on my family was intoxicating.

For my part, I hardly needed an invitation when it came to animals in need. I knew nothing about managing a charity but running a commercial business for a few years had left me with a few useful skills. I had offered to make myself available to assist with the work of the charity, in any way that I could. Before I was able to draw a breath, I found myself recruited to committee.

There was much to learn and I spent the first few months reading up on charity law to understand just what the responsibility entailed. The five members of AHS committee met monthly to discuss the calls on the charity funds which were managed by the well respected Treasurer. Health of the animals was an issue always high on the AHS agenda. The Vice Chairman Jan was a head veterinary nurse, a full time employee for another registered charity and also a trustee of Border Collie Rescue. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Chris ran canine obedience classes in East London and was also well entrenched with the local Police community. Her knowledge brought an awareness of pet–owners rights and responsibilities for committee consideration. The fund-raising officer held very firm views on the importance of canine nutrition. Each of these committee members owned a pack of dogs: German Shepherds, Labradors or Boarder Collies. To take top dog position over a pack of working breeds, you have to know what you are doing. This was a formidable team and I listened avidly to them, taking special note of those values upon which the charity had historically been operated. The first task I undertook was a re-drafting of the charity‟s legal instrument to formalise its extended mission which now included all pet animals through the running of a helpline service and I re-registered with the Charity Commission, to ensure the organisation continued to maintain its tax free status. Now, with its new constitutional powers incorporated, the organisation was able to run recruitment drives to expand its volunteer force and to coordinate larger events, more complex and sustainable fundraising activities. Enthusiasm being infectious; I readily attracted others to join.

I believe there was a welcome sense of relief, among the work-weary Trustees, who were eager to pass on the baton, safe in the knowledge that the charity‟s work would continue. The committee proposal that I stand for the position of Chairman surprised me. I was not sure I felt confident to take on the onerous load of heading a registered charity. Still, bolstered by a vote of confidence I agreed and stood for election. By late 1991, the chairman stepped down and I was duly installed. At that time the committee comprised of five people. I was very idealistic added to which, I had a good heart, and strong work ethic coupled with boundless energy. It is probably true to say I was quite a workaholic and niaively convinced that anything was possible if it was for the good of the animal beneficiaries and the community at large.

Working together, this new committee moved the charity operation into shop premises at Gants Hill and opened its services daily to the public. Membership swelled through an ongoing recruitment drive and its fund-raising events became more adventurous. The organisation ran purely on volunteer labour, providing a valuable public service to the East End community whilst engaged on its mission to ease animal suffering. 12

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Animal Help Society [front] Colin Dean, Carl Creckendon, Bruno, Alex Caan, [behind] Caroline Saunders, Janet Ives

In November 1992, the newly elected Fund-raising Officer Michelle Lambert gave the committee a flyer advertising an event opening in the week following at the London Design Centre: Festival of Tales from the Earth. It is quite usual, where vacancies still exist, close to an exhibition start date, for charities to be offered space free of charge or at greatly reduced rates. This adds interest to the event and avoids it running on empty. The Vice Chairman Larry Green, keen to progress the charity‟s profile, suggested that we offer festival organisers the services of his professional security team, for three days, in exchange for a £5k stand space for the charity. Not only would the presence of AHS add content interest but also, in this case, the organisers would gain professional security personnel without any added financial outlay. So, they readily agreed. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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We had only days to prepare. The members rallied around to provide all the resources necessary. The AHS Treasurer, Christine Davis ran a print department in one of the colleges at London University. Having obtained special permission to use the facilities out of hours, she donated her time and worked late into the evening to produce boxes of new leaflets, sponsorship forms and hand-outs for the event. Somehow we managed to find display panels and got some large blow-up photographs of our rescued animals prepared. Rotas were drawn up for the full three days to ensure the smooth running of the helpline, we got cover for the animals in the charity‟s care and emergency back up in our absence. Then with transport arranged, the show was finally on the road.

The exhibition hall was a buzz of activity on set-up day. True to say, it was an ambitious attempt to bring radical thinkers together, consolidating a large number of cutting edge organisations concerned with the environment and conservation, in an effort towards building a sustainable future. Each group taking part at the festival carried a portion of this overall message of our endangered planet and the need for action, urgent. In keeping with these attitudes, Animal Help Society held strongly to Ghandi‟s philosophic view that, „you could judge a nation by the way it treats the animals in its care‟.

It was almost immediately apparent that this large assembly of disparate groups, all held different aspects of the same message. The common belief was that of: „consequence‟. This was not a new idea, after all Newton‟s Law states: to each and every action there is a equal and opposite re-action. It was increasingly apparent there was a need to consider the environmental consequences of today‟s activities. These would be felt tomorrow. We could opt to use that knowledge to guide our actions today. Equally obvious was the urgent need to focus the effort holistically and its message needed to be communicated to the public at large.

There was a strong current of energy operating through these pioneer groups whose aim: – to encourage the undertaking of personal responsibility to build a sustainable environment, that affords all residents the lifestyle which we all wish to live. There was an eager presence by the press and television companies keen to get a fresh angle on the work and motivations of attending organisations. Several AHS representatives were interviewed concerning the work undertaken by the charity. These clips were broadcast 14

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on BBC Radio World News programme and after a visit from the producers of television‟s Channel 4-Breakfast Show, the charity organisers were invited to contact their production offices to arrange a suitable appearance date, to talk about the work of the group.

Celebrities were in plentiful supply at the event and most seemed sympathetic to the charity‟s message. We were acutely aware that recruiting a celebrity spokesperson would enhance the message as well as gaining a great deal more attention. We were hopeful that our presence at the show could increase the chances of finding a celebrity spokesperson sympathetic to our cause. The trouble was that with so many competing good causes, the prospect of achieving that for our small charity diminished daily.

It is generally accepted that water finds its own level. Close to AHS was a stand run for the purposes of joint initiatives for the environment by Carole Burgess, a middle aged woman who had worked for a short while, as an assistant in a film company, and she certainly seemed to cleave to a similar viewpoint. Her daughter, Jenny who was in her mid twenties at the time, was assisting her. They were both enthusiastically promoting the need for a more holistic approach to encourage awareness and fund-raising within the environmental sectors under the unincorporated company title Arcadia The name which had originating from Greek [idealised rural location], seemed particularly appropriate for an environmental group with a strong charitable mission.

It was evident to all that the Burgesses had little business experience, though Jenny had gained some limited experience in promotions whilst volunteering for an historic trust, in Hertfordshire. However, enthusiasm made up for their other limitations and by their efforts to that point, Arcadia had managed to attract a small handful of like-minded individuals, although the organisation was still very much at an embryonic stage. There seemed to be a strong force of collaboration among organisations at that time and by the end of the festival, I had networked AHS with a number of other groups. We had all recognised a common objective and undertaken to work on joint initiatives.

At the festival, the Burgesses had expressed their intention to register Arcadia as a charity and since I had just completed the very same task for AHS, I knew the steps, so I © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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was only too happy to assist. In the week following the festival, at Jenny‟s invitation, I travelled to Hampton where the Burgesses shared a tiny one bedroom flat. Neither of these women seemed on top form: overweight and suffering a variety of anxieties and serious health complaints, but ambitious and I sensed they were keen to advance the cause so their enthusiasm hit a resonant chord in me and we agreed to maintain contact.

Some time later, an invitation was extended for me to attend an evening meeting that was scheduled to take place at a terrace house in the South London suburb of Balham, owned by the third member of the Arcadia team [who was absent from the festival], Susan Ross-Turner. She was very business like in her manner and quite different from the Burgesses. An attractive slim blonde, around 40 years of age, I recall thinking she looked more admin than mission. She introduced herself to me as a professional conference organiser and revealed that she had been taking care of the day-to-day running of the Arcadia team effort, sending out publicity and marketing material to increase support from targeted activists and meeting the group‟s general office management needs.

Also attending this meeting was Paul Jones, the Managing Director of Greenprint, an East London company that he had founded the year previously. It was impossible not to warm to Paul. A quiet unassuming man dedicated to the causes of the environmental movement, his company had contributed publicity material for the festival stand. He had typeset and printed, on recycled paper stock, free of charge: a small Arcadia handout, which listed a number of project ideas that might be used for promoting public awareness to generate funds e.g. Conferences; Fashion-Shows; Concerts; and Telethons. The fifth member of the group was erstwhile London City Stockbroker Simon Cowell, [not the famous X Factor judge] who had relocated from the city, to found a Surrey based animal charity Wildlife Aid which it seemed he was running in a very similar fashion to AHS. To his credit, the operation still appears to be thriving to this day and providing a valuable ambulance rescue service to injured wildlife in the South East region of the country.

Also making his debut appearance at the meeting was the exceedingly knowledgeable 16

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Dr Terry Moore a lecturer who was actively compiling Greenworld: the largest existing database directory of worldwide environmental and wildlife organisations. Dr Moore was Founder of the group known collectively as The Earth, which included Cat Action Trust operated from a smallholding in Hertfordshire. A university lecturer and writer for several learned societies and the House of Commons, he had fellow status in numerous organisations including BHMA; Environmental Information Forum; Environmental Council; Federation of Zoological Gardens; Forests Network; Royal Geographic Society; UN Environment and Development Health Council [Agenda 21].

The evening discussions centred around the need to promote a global message: it was recognised that a spokesperson was required who could attract public attention and we concentrated on mapping out a plan to make approaches to celebrity artistes from whom we hoped to gain support and add weight to the cause in general. Susan Ross-Turner accepted the undertaking of making these approaches with the Burgesses contributing.

In the weeks which followed, Susan Ross-Turner prepared and sent out letters to musicians, film celebrities, TV personalities, known supporters of the cause and activists working for the environmental movement and in the field of animal welfare. The objective was to gather influential supporters who could lend hands-on assistance in presenting the message to the public and so enable the organisation to mount the global awareness drive. Such an initiative would be designed to focus public attention and desirable action on the issues via the media through the slogan:

Think Global : Act Local

Responses showed that there was certainly no shortage of people and organisations sympathetic to the cause. Around this time, a number of celebrities agreed to be associated with the efforts of a group initiative, artistes and promoters from the music world and among the actresses Jenny Seagrove and Rula Lenzka also pledged support. Susan then turned her attention to securing Arcadia a Central London conference venue for the group‟s first symposium which she was organising.

As a result of these efforts, in early 1993 a meeting of around fifty environmental © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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activists gathered at the Connaught Rooms in London to consider the agenda for a group initiative. The Masonic Conference Rooms in Great Queen Street, Covent Garden London was an impressive location. In the large hall formally dressed waiters provided canapés, and wine on arrival. The lay out of white linen cloths covered a giant square of tables with seating for everyone in attendance providing full view of the proceedings where the chairman of the meeting and speakers were clearly audible. Christine Davis the Treasurer and I as Chairman were the Animal Help Society delegates.

The agenda assembled was very professional, opening with self introductions around the entire group. These were followed by several keynote speeches given by some of the Arcadia organisers covering the aims of the organisation as a network co-ordinator of publicity and fund-raising activities for groups operating within the fields of environmental concern and animal welfare/conservation. Following the midday break where a snack lunch and drinks were provided, all organisations attending were given an opportunity to voice their concerns, ensuring that the composite message represented all the elements in areas of crucial importance.

Most of the delegates ran small to medium sized charities active on the cutting edge of areas of environmental or animal welfare concerns. From memory some of those organisations present were:-

Born Free Foundation; Whale & Dolphin Conservation,

Cat Action Trust, International Animal Rescue; Animal Aid; Friends of the Earth; International Dolphin Watch; Earth; Soil Association; Tusk Force; Green Network; Earthwatch Europe; The Humane Research Trust; Environmental Investigation Agency; St Tiggywinkles; Dian Fosse Gorilla Fund; Horse and Ponies Protection Association, Animate; Compassion In World Farming; People‟s ethical Treatment of Animals; BUAV; David Shepherd Conservation Foundation; Anti-Vivisection Lobby; Fox Project;

Greenprint; Wildlife Aid and Animal Help Society.

By the close of day, Arcadia was the agreed title for the network initiative, aimed at bringing funds and awareness to those areas represented by the member organisations. The AHS, along with all the other organisations present, had committed to joining force as the Arcadia initiative only the project detail, was still to be decided. By any view, it was certainly a top class event; the organisational credit was well deserved. 18

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Shortly after the symposium a major row broke out. Susan Ross-Turner, I was told had circulated a letter, to group members, containing critical remarks. I never saw the document; never heard the remarks as the Burgesses acted swiftly to get a retraction of statements made and Susan was forced out of the group. Word had it that following this incident she moved her conference business out of London. No doubt disappointed after all the hard work it had required to organise such a large event and one which had proved to be highly successful in bringing together so many disparate groups and individuals to give them a common voice. With Susan‟s conference skills lacking Arcadia Network never repeated such an event.

Although I was led to believe, that all organisations were mail shot, AHS certainly never received a copy. I never read this document and only ever heard a version of the story presented by the Burgesses. I was not in contact with Susan so with no alternative conflicting facts on offer, I had only one option but to accept the status quo.

From that point in time, the Burgesses would ring me daily to talk about how we could move the aims of the Arcadia Network forward together. The group had some pretty bold aims and objectives. I can remember discussing the pros and cons of publishing a newsletter and spoke to an editor about detail. But, before any progress could be made, the group had some big hurdles to get over. Not least, it had to decide how its own income would be generated. Towards that end, a meeting was set up with Friends Provident who was known to have funds available to be applied to charitable initiatives.

A delegation was assembled to present Arcadia‟s aims to the Friends Provident board but getting everybody to a meeting was never straightforward. Carole Burgess, totally refused to get into a lift or use escalators, would only attend a meeting if it was on a bus route. She would not go near any underground tube, and planes were right off the map. Moving body parts were all unpredictable; bad legs, bad feet, bad back, bad teeth, and those were just the bits I knew about. Getting anything organised was a major undertaking of skirting all the various personal terrors.

Jenny on the other hand, was a good deal less phobic but just as dramatic. She was recovering from spinal surgery and had some serious mobility issues, at that time. Her © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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dream was to be a producer and her personal passion was for fantasy Sci-Fi, and romantic period drama. Jenny and I had a number of elements in common. We had both given up the aspiration of a performance career in music. Jenny having studied classical singing ended up reading for a BA in Medieval Studies. I had switched from playing stringed instruments and the piano to read for a degree in Physics and Astrophysics. All three of us shared a profound love of animals, particularly cats.

Muffin

I think although we came together at this point on a common agenda, philosophically we were moving in opposite directions. The Burgesses were overtly conservative which was at direct odds with my worldview. They were very gripped by the aims of the animal conservation groups. My philosophy on life was existential, anti capitalist and I wore it on my sleeve.

From early childhood, I preferred a totally meat-free diet and since that time, I reared two healthy children as vegetarians/vegans. Evidence was in plentiful supply that abstaining from the meat consumption actually improved an individual‟s health and 20

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though convinced of that personally, I was more concerned with the treatment of animals. I actively encouraged other vegetarians and vegans to join with the charity‟s efforts. After the first year of service, this number grew to a sizeable proportion of the active volunteer workforce. Though I do realise that not everyone feels strongly enough to adopt such an extreme lifestyle change but I wanted to see a far greater degree of respect for all those animals man used.

Years of study had convinced me, the inevitable future of developing technology would be the full expression of public choice. The future that science had taught me lay ahead, was a cashless society where profits would be diverted into good works driven by public choice. For the first time in the history of the planet, emerging technologies offered us an opportunity to communicate on a scale previously unheard of. I knew a media revolution was looming and the emerging technology would soon facilitate access to the entire globe of expertise and initiative.

Like a growing number of people, I was eager to see an end to practise of vivisection. Though the argument that such research provides life-saving drugs was to a degree compelling, there were more convincing arguments for questioning its validity - it was becoming increasingly apparent that the results of animal testing themselves were flawed. Added to this, there was a variety of alternative testing methods which would yield much more meaningful results. A drug which is perfectly safe for a rat may not be so for man. Disregarding that completely, there was no excuse for the barbarity of many of the test methods carried out for the cosmetics and tobacco industries. The volume of willing human consumers of these products afforded a very adequate study set to act as a basis for statistical investigations. Any such reform of the laws governing vivisection would require the pressure of public opinion to mobilise those in government to act.

Public opinion was already mounting. Large numbers of citizens were taking to the streets to protest the treatment of livestock being transported to Europe for slaughter to supply the meat industry. This was an area of concern hitherto protested by a radical minority but there was a rising tension in society today, objecting to a variety of exploitations of animals and legislation was trailing a long way behind the attitudes of the man-on-the-street.. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Scientific investigations have concluded that everything on the planet is interconnected. As such we are all increased by the good works of others but conversely, the detrimental effect of abuses committed by individuals and governments lowers the human vibration. AHS volunteers worked tirelessly to build a more caring community – to provide a free service assisting local residents to solve animal related problems and to ensure their pet‟s continued well-being.

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Ilford Recorder

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Animal Help Society Ambulance sponsored by Caroline Saunders

Not work for the feint-hearted! Often it was emotionally charged and would bring the volunteers face to face with situations which they found extremely distressing. Everybody was acutely aware that mopping up the mess caused by uncaring members of society did not address the underlying issues. Those volunteers are the real unsung heroes.

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Chapter 2

AHS helpline rang red hot throughout the year following the festival. The country had plunged headlong into deep recession with over three million unemployed and property repossessions in the thousands were taking place on a daily basis. London‟s East End, was a poor area, categorised as a development region, with high density population and it felt the full effects of the crisis. As financial hardship bit deeper into the fabric of society, the call on the charity services to assist in the rehoming of dispossessed pets was relentless.

Animal Helpline Services

Coping with this influx was a hundred strong volunteer work-force, which required military precision to manage effectively. Recruitment drives targeted specialist expertise and AHS soon had the additional help of animal wardens, dog breeders and show judges © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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in Committee positions. Sub-committees were formed to delegate responsibilities into a manageable operating strategy and still we were generally averaging over ten hour work shifts just to meet the demand. On any given day, there would be some 350 cats, 150 dogs, approx 70 rodents and a varying numbers of birds, horses and farm animals, all registered awaiting the offer of permanent new homes.

Live collections/deliveries were made round the clock by any one of three alternative charity vehicles: the dedicated AHS ambulance; an independent commercial animal transport service which provided a back up at special reduced rates in off-peak hours; or one of a team of volunteer drivers using personal vehicles for which the charity had introduced out of pocket expense claim forms to provide them a pro-rata allowance to cover petrol costs for charitable missions. Where possible, the latter category was just reserved for fund-raising collections of donations, home visits or general missions which did not involve collections or deliveries of live animals.

Every animal admitted was given a health assessment, vaccination and neutering. The society, operating a strict non-destruction policy, had recruited two qualified volunteer vets who made weekly rounds of foster homes to carry out health checks and vaccinations while pharmaceutical companies supplied palette loads of free drugs to assist the charity in the provision of its services. A deal struck with a local vet practice, secured the charity reduced rate neutering and general medical cover through its large chain of surgeries and hospital facilities.

Negotiations with local business owners had gained the charity permanent use of two blocks of kennels in which it housed 24 homeless dogs and a varying number of cats these were open to the public on a daily basis, between 10 am and 5 pm. The remainder of the animals were kept in foster homes for which the charity covered the food bills.

All new homes offered, had to be approved which meant they needed to be visited and owners interviewed, a task which as in many organisations, was conducted by trained volunteers. In an effort to encourage responsible dog ownership, all adoptions of charity dogs would qualify for a number of free lessons under the kennel club Good Citizen Award Scheme at an approved training facility. 26

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Only approved trainers were permitted to operate the scheme and fortunately, one of the AHS committee members was among those approved and new owners were strongly encouraged to take up these schemes. Successful training was awarded a certificate of merit indicating the dog to be judged obedient by qualified dog trainers, and the owner able to handle the animal acceptably. It was a very successful scheme by which everybody gained.

Left to right: Beryl Brown, Bruno and Janet Ives

Keeping abreast of the financial requirements of running the operation required a massive fund-raising effort and to ease the burden a scheme was introduced whereby both relinquishing and adoptive owners would be asked to contribute towards the cost of the vaccinations in the form of a fixed donation levy, although it was only enforced if and when affordable and never excluded any animal from getting the services it needed. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Financial target requirements were constantly undershot, shortfalls being made up by regular fund-raising exercises: public box collections and media appeals. Redbridge Havering and Waltham Forest Councils ever helpful in providing locations.

Sponsored Advertising

There was huge support from local business owners, many of whom were not in a 28

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financial position to solely undertake large fund-raising events for the charity but would part sponsor advertising for the charity‟s effort of finding new homes. Publicity for the organisation was given full support by the local papers, the new cable TV station which had started to penetrate the area, ran permanent advertisements for new homes and the volunteer membership was kept abreast of developments by the quarterly release of the Animal Help Society newsletter which was written, compiled and printed internally, the postage and packaging costs paid for by local advertising sponsorship.

Though the machinery worked well, the pace of incoming calls meant that volunteers were on the go most of the day and evening without a break. Committee discussions were centering more and more on the society‟s need for a mascot by which the public could identify its ongoing effort. Then as if by design, a call was received asking the charity to assist with rehoming a two year old St Bernard dog called Bruno.

According to the current owners, we were told they had journeyed to Holland to purchase this champion pedigree dog, for the princely sum of £15,000 however, on the arrival of their first baby, they feared that his boisterous behaviour and heavy bulk might injure the child so he had been relegated to living outside with a pot-bellied pig. Bruno always retained an allegiance to his companion. Pigs‟ ears were regularly supplied as food treats for the dogs in kennel but when one was offered to Bruno, it provoked a horrified response as he backed off almost terrified barking incessantly. Kennel staff had never seen such a reaction at the prospect of being offered a pork chew and only made sense of the curious behaviour once we had filled in the full details of Bruno‟s history.

Bruno only stayed in the kennel overnight. The next day he was assessed and went into foster with Larry Green but the situation could only be temporary as Larry had a full time job. Once a week, Bruno would join Larry for a pint down the local where he had his favourite tipple and became something of a celebrity in Leytonstone.

Several weeks earlier, I had promised my daughter that should a St Bernard come into the society, I would foster – and no prizes for guessing who was working the helpline when that call came through! © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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What the owners did not reveal was that Bruno had serious health issues. Our mandatory health check up uncovered what we came to believe had been their true reason for calling in the charity, Bruno had orthopaedic problems with his back legs that needed immediate surgery and, even with the generous discounts vets afforded the charity taken into consideration, it would still cost thousands. Without the pedigree papers to confirm the owner‟s claims regarding his Dutch pedigree and in light of the skeletal problems that had developed at such a young age, we felt it more likely that he had been bred irresponsibly, quite possibly through a puppy farm. The owners had not helped Bruno‟s condition by keeping him outside although the breed was built for rugged terrain and a dog of this type in good condition would have preferred living outside to an artificially over-heated interior environment. We had a major problem on hand!

I waited for the charity fund raising officer to make a move suggesting how we might meet these veterinary bills for Bruno but I think everyone was completely over awed by the enormity of the situation. At Committee Meeting, no inspiring suggestions were forthcoming and I felt despondent. I just could not accept defeat. Well, not without at least putting up a small fight! I decided to sleep on it and hoping that when refreshed in the morning, some solution might come to mind. I thought if we had given it our best shot and the Gods were with us, we would not fail. There had to be a solution. It was just finding it.

The following day I arose feeling fired up and determined to get Bruno some help; after all this was the breed which everybody traditionally associated with help but now the tables were reversed. I just could not let him down!

I began calling anyone and

everyone to bring in those requisite funds. I started with local offices of national organisations and among these the chairman of Canine Defence League [now renamed Dog Trust] immediately agreed to add its support. The charity itself made a nominal donation to Bruno‟s surgical fund, to start the ball rolling.

The chairman put her publicity officer at our disposal and, over the ensuing weeks, she got us several write ups in the columns of the dog press. Like our own organisation, this charity proudly declared it operates a non-destruction policy which in my humble opinion, set it far above almost all of its competitors... added to which, it is also the 30

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charity that promotes responsible dog ownership via the most successful slogan of all time: “Not just for Xmas: a dog is for life”

I continued calling papers and television stations all morning until I had exhausted my list of contacts. Several local papers including South London Press and Ilford Recorder pledged support and agreed to include an article to inform readers that a fund had been set up for Bruno. Next I contacted as many national papers as I could find details for and then faxed out the press release I had written in advance, to confirm the information details to any who had shown interest and then sat back with fingers crossed. I was sure the story had to fit with somebody‟s agenda! Although I had no way of knowing it, the story hit editors‟ desks at just the right time. Press clippings for the Bruno Appeal

Ilford Recorder 1 September 1994

Volunteer Mark Ward with Bruno.

August as I was later to discover, is what is known in media terms as the „silly season‟ © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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because there is usually a drastic lull in newsworthy items. This had all the elements to make a story: a big soppy face, young volunteers, a sad dilemma, and a good cause!

The Evening Standard sent a photographer to captured Bruno, with one of the younger members of the charity who had organised his own sponsored activity to bring in funds. The story broke with an appealing shot in their midday edition and the producers of London Tonight sent its top reporter Glen Campbell with a film crew the same day. Glen who was very sympathetic, interviewed everybody including the charity workers, the vet, and the crew took lots of film footage to compile a three minute report which aired at five o‟clock, against an emotive musical accompaniment „Stand by me‟.

It was excellent and the message was heart rending! As poor Bruno limped along, viewers could see that he was not at all fit. The vet had described it as a problem suffered by many large dogs through irresponsible breeding programmes though it did not require any medical knowledge to understand that Bruno needed help. The requisite help was available provided we could raise the funds for the operation. We knew the report was going to be seen by a large number of viewers so we hoped that somebody hearing the story would offer to help him. We knew that if enough readers contributed a small amount, together the sum total might cover the largest part of the costs of the operation and the extensive aftercare. What we really had no idea about, at that stage, was the full power of the media.

I clearly remember going to the post office box the next day wondering tentatively whether there might be an offer of assistance from some kind individual – we hoped! We were definitely not prepared for the stack of letters that were handed across by the post office official. I had never seen the like of that response and it was heart warming to discover how many really good and kind people there are out there, knowledge of which has served and encouraged me through a lot of bad times ever since.

Out of all those kind replies, one special gift still remains firmly etched in my memory, even today. The sender obviously wanted to maintain anonymity because there was no return address to which we could send our thanks. Judging by the shaky style of the hand writing on the envelope I guessed it had come from an older person. 32

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Folded inside was a note offering best wishes for Bruno‟s speedy recovery and concealed within it a piece of cardboard roughly cut from a Kellogg‟s cornflake packet, upon which was cellotaped a group of coins totalling a £1.08 donation. There was something very poignant about the odd amount – I wondered if it was the residue of that week‟s pension or the amount the donor had managed to save after sacrificing some commodity normally enjoyed but after reading Bruno‟s story, was deemed less important that day? Undoubtedly, it was as much as the donor could afford! Although it was in amongst much larger monetary sums, it somehow hit a chord and it moved us all. Nobody spoke for some time; we were all lost in thought. I reflected on the biblical story of „the widow‟s mite‟, which my mother had so often recounted to us as children and I sat wondering how big a sacrifice the donation might have been for the person who sent it. In the years that followed, I have reflected on it many times over. I have always weighed each, and every, expenditure of charitable funds against it ever since asking myself, “Could this be considered a worthy expense of that donor‟s £1.08?” It had taught me a valuable lesson and made me truly aware of the worth of each and every donation. Because we had no knowledge of the possible sacrifice it had taken to provide, we were all even more conscious than ever of how we must never waste a single penny of the gifts the public afforded the charity works. Today I still feel just as moved by the kindness of that gesture and I sincerely hope that the donor, got their own just reward at some point. Such was the response to the breaking news story of Bruno‟s plight, that the day following the report, the charity had the full £10,000 of requisite funds to cover his operation and the period of his recuperation. So on the advice of our regular vet; we booked him in at the Royal Veterinary Hospital immediately. We could rest assured that, as it was a teaching establishment, the expertise there would be cutting edge and second to none. The hospital at Potters Bar had all the facilities, so we knew it was the best. They were very kind to Bruno and made it as pleasant an experience for him as possible. The operation seemed to take forever and we held our breaths until we got the call through, to report that Bruno was out of the anaesthetic and all had gone well. He was heavily sedated for a few days to prevent his moving about too much unnecessarily © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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which could burst his stitches.

St Bernard dogs weigh somewhere in the region of 140 pounds which makes them about the size of an average human being. As it happened, Bruno was considerably underweight for a two year old dog, but that was no bad thing since it put less pressure on his bones as he healed from the surgery. He stayed in the hospital for a few days where he was kept on strong painkillers and sedated to avoid too much movement which could cause added complications. Bruno proved to be a good patient and made a fast recovery. He had the most wonderful temperament. He loved people and fixing his huge brown eyes on you, it was impossible not to melt under that gaze. Of course, it made him a big hit with everyone especially all the nurses.

After his discharge from hospital, he rested at my house so that we could ensure he got round the clock care. The press and TV stations continued to follow his story and when he had recovered sufficiently to make the journey; London Tonight sent transport for him to visit their London Studios at Waterloo where Mary Nightingale ran the interview and covering story, to bring viewers up to date on Bruno‟s progress. It gave us a welcome opportunity to thank those kind donors who had made it all possible and show them that Bruno was on the mend and enjoying life. They do say, “Never work with animals and children” and we were live on air, in a prime time broadcast slot so there was no room for error. TV sets are really not designed to accommodate slobbering St Bernards and the crew was understandably nervous as he lumbered around their expensive equipment. Bruno was a natural „star‟ and played up to the moment, drooling and salivating all over the set. Everyone made a fuss. He adored all the attention and the edible treats in the green room had not escaped his notice either! I think Mary was much more comfortable with people than animals but she made a very professional job of the report and we managed to prevent Bruno from drooling all over her navy blue suit and to keep him in shot while the cameras rolled.

We had taken the welcome opportunity to thank the donors. Even more money flowed in. It did not take me or the committee of Animal Help Society long to realise that we had found our mascot. Of course after all this, Bruno was part of the family anyway and 34

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there was no way I could re-home him. Although my house was far too small for a dog of Bruno‟s size and I already had two rescue dogs of my own, one a cruelty case – lurcher named Timmy, who was almost as big as Bruno and a Yorkshire Terrier bitch, at the other end of the size spectrum [toy] added to which I also had an ever increasingly large number of cats on foster, in addition to my own four. So we took the only option available; we moved to a larger house. Bruno remained with us for four more delightful years became an integral part of our family and we all loved him dearly.

Bruno assisting with recruitment © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Alex and Linda (Fund-raising Officer) holding Bruno who is busy making friends

The recession years were dark indeed for the charity and Bruno was a beacon of light through those most difficult of times. Money was always in short supply because regardless of how much the charity had coming in, the demand far outstripped its available resources so an important part of his work was attending the many fund-raising events in Ilford with Alex Caan and sister Laura. Every Saturday Bruno and I would be found at Romford Market with Beryl Brown to keep her busy Lost/Found Helpline solvent and to provide food and medicine for the animals in AHS care.

Throughout this Bruno was a friend to the young volunteers, focussing public attention on the efforts of the group. The volunteer workforce was a hotchpotch of individuals ranging from aloof business types to hell-bent Hippies. I had always felt it important not to impede anyone‟s offer to help and the financial climate had cast thousands out of work so there was a large pool of skilled volunteers readily available. Because Bruno‟s breed is traditionally associated with rescue - he symbolises help and his own generous nature made him a public „star turn‟ everywhere he went.. 36

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Bruno Schools Programme He regularly accompanied AHS volunteers to local schools, encouraging the emotional development of special needs children. During this time This rewarding programme had © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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been set up by Animal Help Society and proved particularly successful. Many children who had never spoken, uttered their first words when encouraged by Bruno‟s presence. Clinging to his long hair, those who had difficulty walking somehow overcame their problem and, autistic sufferers engaged emotionally with those around them. On more than one occasion we saw the teaching staff overcome with emotion.

No price can be put on dog‟s head Ilford Recorder Newspapers Thursday July 13, 1995

I feel so sorry for the person that felt Bruno should be put down (viewpoint, March 6). Maybe the person didn’t read the whole article. I am a school’s liaison officer who arranges assembly visits for Bruno and other Animal Help Society animals. I would like to point out the love generated and the children he visits cannot be bought or priced. One teacher remarked that she witnessed “300 children falling in love with him at once” The headteacher of Valance Infants School said: “Bruno is truly a star and so well behaved with the children, we give talks in assembly which teaches responsible pet ownership – these children are after all, the pet owners of tomorrow. “ Millions of animals give their lives each year in search of medical treatment for humans, and many human treatments come as a result of experimental work conducted by vets in teaching hospitals. Bruno’s operations have been carried out by the Royal Veterinary College and will therefore swell the general fund of knowledge in this area, to the benefits of humans too. Bruno’s real strength lies in his effect on special needs children – an autistic child drew for the first time and a Downs Syndrome child was inspired to speak for the first time after being introduced to Bruno. Maybe the writer would accept an offer to come along on one of Bruno’s visits. He will need to bring a box of hankies with him. PENNY LEY, Bennetts Castle Lane Dagenham

These gave everybody a much needed boost of gratification. The practical outcome was that as news of the work spread, the volume of calls increased and the charity received many more offers of homes for dogs that could do the same kind of work in old peoples‟ homes or as companions for social workers. All this time positive reports fed back to the charity of the success stories. Without Bruno‟s help the charity would not have achieved as much as it did, and could not have assisted so many needy cases over those years. Since the St Bernard image is synonymous with emergency help, he thus provided a focus for many young people who joined in the AHS rescue efforts. Encouraging better standards in animal welfare, and building towards a more responsible and caring community. 38

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Over those years, Bruno also attended a number of Arcadia events. Together with several of the other charities in the Arcadia Network he was present at a summer afternoon event held at Longleat where he met with the colourful owner of the estate – Marquis of Bath. He also went to a Chiddingfold event which Tony Smith, [manager of the rock group Genesis] ran annually in Godalming Surrey. Many of the great and good attending that day had their photos taken with Bruno and Tony generously made a donation to the fund but Bruno had competition as Simon had brought some interesting wildlife - of course, this was Surrey and Wildlife Aid was local plus a worthwhile cause to support.

Bruno did not attend many events beyond this point. He was getting on in dog years and although the public never realised, those who knew him best could see he was not his usual self. Though Bruno enjoyed all the public attention that he received at fund raising events, he was slipping into old age and we had to allow him to rest more often. St Bernard dogs are not long lived, especially when they have had a bad start. Bruno had to be rushed to the vet on quite a few occasions from this time onward. He was experiencing problems with his bowel twisting. Ken our food delivery man had paid around a thousand pounds, for Bruno - to have our vet staple his bowel to the abdominal wall to try to prevent a repeat torsion emergency. Meanwhile we did everything possible to reduce the likelihood of his gut twisting. Bruno was fed organic food products to aid digestion and eliminate the possible effects of unknown chemicals. He was on the best medication it was possible to buy and strong painkillers to ease any unnecessary suffering and we tried to keep his stress levels to a minimum.

His last day is vividly printed on my memory. It was early December and the police were at my house to discuss the set up for the charity‟s Xmas fund-raising events when I suddenly noticed Bruno swelling up again. Immediately recognising the signs, I yelled for help and the police officers slipped straight into emergency mode. Instantly they were at his side to assist. Transporting a dog of that size was always a problem to be considered. At that time the AHS ambulance was out on its rounds. Fortunately, the Police had arrived in a large vehicle which was parked on my drive. Together we got him into their wagon and sped off to the surgery in Forest Gate as fast as possible. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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No time was lost. Our vet, Lyndon was called en route to enable preparations to be made ahead of our arrival which was only minutes away. Work began the minute he arrived at the surgery but all attempts to release the pressure failed and he had to go on to the operating table. My daughter, a veterinary nurse at the time, assisted and stayed with him throughout. Poor Bruno, his insides looked a total mess. Everybody did their level best to put things right for him but it was not to be. I sat with him for a long time waiting for him to „wake up‟. I could not accept he was not going to come home. He was as much a part of my family as my own children. We had been constant companions for the past four years. We had built a highly refined working relationship which solved so many problems for the thousands of applicants calling on the charity‟s help, I just could not believe this final battle had finally beaten us

....

Bruno was gone forever!

Bruno was sorely missed after his passing. There was a deep sadness within our hearts, our home, and within the membership of the charity. The void was just impossible to fill. Personally, I was always so busy, I had never contemplated loosing Bruno. He and I were joined at the hip and had forged a deep bond over the four years we enjoyed together. I was in shock for some time after. Our lurcher Timmy, who had become his pack companion moped and languished, completely disinterested in everything without his friend at his side. After somewhere in the region of six weeks he was finally consoled by the gentle introduction of another canine escort. With momentum at such a low ebb, animal rehomings had dropped off and this left the operation with a shortage of foster space. I had been reluctant to take any new animals whilst everyone was grieving. The drastic shortage of temporary homes forced me to take in a male Papillion for a few days stay – surprisingly Timmy‟s spirits lifted.

For the grieving volunteers there was no such quick fix. All the fund-raising activity scheduled for the period in the immediate aftermath, which included street box collections, were cancelled because nobody felt in the mood with Bruno gone. It took everybody time to come to terms with the loss – time for the wound to heal. He had taught us all a lot about „service‟ and the nature of giving and provided a strong focus for a very eclectic group - a rallying point for the young volunteers. The whole team felt truly lost without him. 40

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The committee was devastated. It had lost a friend and a mascot. Bruno had touched so many souls; his legacy had to live on. Elevated, by this time, to celebrity status Bruno‟s journey had instilled in the charity organisers, a sharper understanding of how to craft a clear and well defined message that would resonate with the public viewpoint. We had learned how to convey to the public the true value of the ideals sought by the group we all now understood the value of publicity and much more important – we had a far greater appreciation of the power of the media [press + TV].

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Chapter 3

As a Physics graduate, I was instantly drawn to looking at how the figures stacked up. The key to any charitable solution is sustainability and, in my view, that has to extend to funding, too. From the beginning, I was interested in exploring the possibility of feeding company profits directly into good causes and after the Bruno appeal, I saw television as the most advantageous line to pursue. Years of study in the physics of image processing had moulded my awareness: a media revolution was the way and I knew this could provide both the revenues needed to fund a campaign while, at the same time, acting as an informative vehicle and a rallying point.

So out of the suggestions listed in the Arcadia leaflet, I was only ever interested in the TV telethon idea and I immediately set to work thinking and writing around this, producing layouts for how the network of companies might mesh together. I believe it was Simon who brought in the requisite £5k as a donation from Friends Provident to cover the set up costs for a company Aracdia Productions Limited incorporation . In this company we all took director positions. I also took on the role of Company Secretary. Jenny Burgess talked incessantly so was a „natural‟ at promotions and enjoyed the job of networking. She constantly made new approaches, garnering interest from people influential in a variety of media whilst the whole group worked to assemble ideas for what would later come to be known as, the Play For The Planet – a fun show to raise funds and awareness for environmental and animal welfare projects. Using new and existing successful game-show formats adapted to work with celebrity supporters to include a message of all the organisations working at grass roots level [see Appendices]. „Eco Warriors‟ linked and policed the elements to focus public awareness in assessing

an individual‟s own carbon index and presenting activities aimed towards reducing it. Initially the show was designed to focus on smaller charitable groups which had joined forces as Arcadia Network, since the larger ones all had dedicated fund-raising and publicity departments. There was a high risk that if the larger groups were allowed to dominate, the show would become a conservation vehicle on the one hand or reduce to a © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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slaughter on the other. The whole area was fraught with dangers and conflicts of priority. Sentiment versus scientific process; residents versus habitats; manufacturing versus maintenance - managing the group was a diplomatic minefield.

Many of the environmentalists fired up by the degradation threatening our planet, seemed barely cognisant that animals were required to maintain a balanced eco-system. Welfare concerns in the commercial exploitation of animals conflicted with human demands for cheap and safe food supplies, drugs and commodities, providing a natural hiatus between the two sides of a common objective.

All this was set against a backdrop of the constantly shifting global weather patterns which brought an added dynamic into play. How much man‟s activities, within controllable limits, contributed to the fluctuations of world patterns was an arguable matter and one upon which even the experts did not agree and it had provided the impetus for endless heated debates in scientific journals. Although this had certainly undermined action, for the first time, a wide variety of environmental, animal welfare and conservation organisations were promoting the message that action was needed now. For the first time a diverse array of organisations actively worked together, to create an event of profound national and international importance for the planet.

To forge the union among Arcadia Network organisations, I recruited volunteer Carl Creckendon, to act as the publicity co-ordinator. He was a dedicated full-time volunteer and fundraiser for AHS animal services, fostering psychologically damaged dogs which he would re-balance ready for rehoming. At the same time, he was a regular donor to Essex conservation efforts, undertaking coppicing and forestry management work unpaid on weekends. Carl was very enthusiastic and with a foot in both camps, was able to maintain an informed perspective on issues. As a media student, Carl used his skills to amass a database, prepare copy, and seek publication for press notices on issues common to Arcadia Network organisations. Having use of AHS phone lines he liaised with organisations‟ press officers whom he reported, had joined positively in his efforts.

Human health hazards from chemical pesticides and impact of pharmaceuticals used in the food industry were topics covered by the overall group message of Green Network 44

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whose founder set up the first symposium in this area at Warwick University. Carl and I travelled up to represent the Arcadia Network and, Dr Terry Moore was guest speaker. Terry was systematically buying up tracts of rainforest to protect and conserve its indigenous wildlife, added to which he had a trust set up to rescue small cats such as lynx and bobcats from zoo closures, etc. He was an inspirational character, for sure, as were the other speakers, all of whom led the field in a particular sector of concern.

Celebrity guests for the weekend were the newly weds, Imran Khan [Pakistan cricketer] and Jemima Goldsmith. The purpose of the event, attended by international world leaders, was to consider the dangers evident in food production and prepare a statement of intent for the United Nations Environment and Development Health Council for Agenda 21 which was meeting in Rome shortly thereafter. The Founder who organised the event was Vera Chaney, a lady of great dignity and dedication, who took a key role on the Arcadia Steering Executive Committee for Play For The Planet, and in organising the charity marquees at the Glastonbury event.

In 1994 Jenny Burgess contacted the organisers of Glastonbury Festival that supported Greenpeace, to secure space for the Arcadia Network charities, tantalising organisers with possible attendance of celebrities who regularly supported the cause of the network charities. In return, Michael Eavis agreed to allow 40 charities a free weekend entry pass to three marquees which he provided with associated parking and camping spaces. Everybody pulled together, Vera Chaney‟s group provided transport to get all the charity properties and volunteers down to Somerset. As before, the AHS Vice Chairman, Larry Green provided his professional security team to protect the organisations‟ properties over the three days and even became a press hero for the day by saving the life of one of the fire eaters whose entertainment had gone tragically wrong. [see Appendices]

Getting so many organisations down to Somerset was a mammoth undertaking. Unlike many subsequent years, the weather was very hot and several of us got sun stroke. The atmosphere and the music made up for any discomfort suffered. The traffic through the marquees was fairly constant but, as it turned out, not one celebrity supporter was available that weekend to attend the Arcadia Network charity marquees at Glastonbury © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Festival. As Glastonbury Festival is awash with celebrities, I was surprised to hear that following the event a row broke out as the organisers expressed their disappointment to Jenny Burgess, suggesting that her assurance of celebrity attendance had been exaggerated. Whether the altercation soured the well I can not say but organisers never made a repeat offer in subsequent years. Despite Michael Eavis‟ alleged regrets and the fact that Glastonbury provided an already sympathetic audience, all the charities had a wonderfully productive weekend and saw it as a great success in conveying the message!

Meanwhile we all returned to our groups and the organising of Play For The Planet. My work with AHS was very much a hands-on task, managing volunteers on a daily basis, taking in animals, arranging for foster care, their remedial training, home visits interviews of prospective adoptive owners, follow-up calls to check on progress, the endless round of fund-raising activities to oil the machinery and paperwork, paperwork, paperwork! All these tasks took people – volunteers! I recognised that throwing money at the situation was not enough, on its own and, if we were to truly make a difference bringing a solution to these urgent global problems, we needed to attract volunteer help to the causes within the Arcadia Network.

Everyone contributed suggestions. I was keen that the Play For The Planet initiative include an objective for raising donations of work. I knew our future would see increased leisure time available, providing a silent labour force and the intake of volunteers could be readily managed by those organisations with an extant infrastructure already provided.

To co-ordinate the voluntary labour force, the proposed use of

existing organisations such as The Volunteer Bureau whose mission was rather like that of an employment agency, matching individuals with charitable pursuits.

We realised there was a need to quantify this objective and since the event also lacked a slogan, we felt that both needs could be satisfied by assigning a target figure to the call for volunteers in Play For The Planet telethon‟s aim of raising a volunteer labour force to provide - one million hours. An ITV meeting was set up to pitch the idea of Play For The Planet to John Blake. A delegation was drawn from the Arcadia Network, accompanied by Jenny Burgess to make this group presentation which met a positive reaction. A date was scheduled for its broadcast on bank holiday Monday 27 May 1996. 46

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Stephen Leahy of Action Time [Krypton Factor / Catchphrase] was attached by ITV to prepare the format for a four-hour live show. Liaising with Arcadia Action Time set about building the presentation format. After several drafts the documentation was finally ready to be submitted to Network Centre and within a short time, Arcadia was advised that it would need to include the major charities among the show‟s beneficiaries. Thereafter the task shifted to bringing on the larger organisations, although ITV had cast doubt on Arcadia‟s likely ability to draw together such a disparate group, into a single cohesive unit. Such expression of doubt was a red rag to the bull.

There had been telethons a plenty but with all previous broadcasted appeals the problem addressed was always in somebody else‟s back yard. This problem was different; it affected everyone on the planet and in equal measure. If predictions were correct, nobody would escape the calamitous effects. It was not too late to rectify the system but there were conflicting opinions among scientists as to which methods would be most effective. So, there was the matter of the underlying core evidence upon which all the doom and gloom was based. A question which, I believe, hung heavily on the broadcaster was … „How reliable were Arcadia‟s predictions?‟ And ultimately ITV was faced with the biggest question of all… „Was the public ready for this?‟

Of course, Arcadia did everything possible to allay these concerns and to assure the broadcaster that there was an urgency of need and a wealth of public sympathy already existed for these causes which ran into the millions of members signed up to pressure groups, campaigning and rescue organisations. Invitations sent out, to director level, of major charities working in the field and a worthy steering group was assembled. Contrary to ITV initial concerns and predictions, this group made up of directors and leaders from the ten largest charities and NGOs active in the fields and this group successfully held meetings for six months under the Chairmanship of Roger Wilson, MD Field ex Vice Chair Stitching Greenpeace Council, before we were informed ITV had passed

on airing the show.[see Appendices]

Some time later, when a new Controller was installed at ITV, undeterred we renewed © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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our efforts by attempting to annex government support. We held meetings with our local parliamentary candidates. I visited Mike Gapes (MP) at his Ilford surgery with Steven Kraft, a local enviro-activist, and discussed commercial projects, environmental initiatives and charitable ventures. Other membership directors approached their constituency representatives. We also wrote letters to the then Depute Prime Minister John Prescott (MP) and Tony Blair (PM) and the government did try launching its own initiative some months later but the campaign was ill-conceived and sank.

We had engaged an anchorman of considerable experience with Children In Need, and the person who had been responsible for naming the famous mascot „Pudsey Bear‟, Michael Hollingsworth [BBC Radio]. We met a number of times at the Liberal Club in London and at an address in Stockwell to go over the strategy. We also discussed the project with Edward Windsor of Ardent Productions to consider possible collaboration and appointed an ad-agency to prepare the presentation material, hopefully so as to increase its effectiveness with the broadcaster commissioning editor. Still with all these elements in place, our ITV pitch failed to meet with success and with resignation we finally had to read the writing on the wall. I clearly remember the last meeting in Action Time‟s offices in the Strand. Producer Stephen Leahy, quite sensibly recommended that the only way for us to get the material on screen was to break up the Play For The Planet telethon format into bite size individual programmes each tied in with its own individual charity.

The Steering Committee had held regular monthly meetings for half a year and prepared the set up for a global initiative. We convened the final meeting to relay the news of that ITV decision to the disappointed organisations of the Arcadia Network and forward Action Time‟s advice. Several charities already had close links with the film industry and were the constant reminders of media power. Everybody took heed.

Following this format, Simon Cowell went down this route in factual television producing a documentary programme on the emergency rescue, treatment and rehabilitation of injured animals and has successfully used Wildlife SOS to fund dedicated hospital facilities of Wildlife Aid in Surrey for over a decade – RSPCA did the same with Animal Hospital and we are proud in the knowledge that we played a 48

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small part in creating a solution which has thus brought resources to these charitable initiatives and help to thousands of animals. With the benefit of hindsight, it is now very much easier to see just how far ahead of its time Play For The Planet actually was. The tariff phone lines that were envisaged for collecting donations were predicted to be in place ready for the broadcast but in actual fact it took over five years for the technology to be introduced and the management of them beset with difficulties ever since. The content took much longer to reach the screens, it has taken well over a decade for the subject matter to even begin to get a full airing on screen in the manner we envisaged.

It would have required a very brave broadcaster to present such material in that premillennium climate and not one of them was willing to stick its neck out, at that time, and be the first, just in case it caused a public backlash. No channel was willing to chance its luck with such hot material. Even Channel 4, the most avant-garde of British broadcasters, with whom we had held talks about running a comedy format I had created entitled Raw Meat based on the fact that cattle flatulence [cow farts] was the leading cause of global warming. Despite the seriousness of the situation, there was something deliciously funny about the message. Maybe Ch 4 found the content just too risqué. Some of those chilling concerns shared by the group initiative we wanted to air were: Ethics Food production: milk, egg and meat trades, Abattoirs versus vegans, Vivisection, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics industry; Fur trade and Ivory poaching; Rainforest clearance effects and influences on indigenous flora and fauna; Green Revolution/Developing nations; Pet-animal ownership. Logging and Palm oil production; Animal versus Human rights; Genetic Modification. Conservation: Trade/Endangered species; Threatened habitats; Oceans/Over fishing; Protection of wildlife habitats; Public Audits wildlife/wildflowers; Breeding Programs; Public safety; Wildlife Health Management; Relocation Policies; Public actions e.g. river dredging, coppicing and forestry management, wildlife breeding provisions, Surveys of wildlife population and wild flowers.

Health: Air/Water/Soil; Pollution/waste management/pyro-technologies; Acid Rain; Global Warming; Recycling/redirecting Nuclear proliferation; Industrial Waste © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Management; Water/Rain/Tap/Sea/River; Radiation/Technology; Toxic Environments Control; Soil/Pesticides; Public/Fluoride; Hormones/Birth Control; Farming/Lindane; Pharmaceuticals; Plastic Surgery; GM Technology; Drug Abuse, Contamination of food.

Energy: Traffic/public transport; Methane & Bio source substitute energy supplies; Sustainable technologies; Wind farms; Solar conversion; Wave energy; Hydro power; Enviro-friendly Soils urban renewal; Geo-thermal initiatives, Cleaner alternatives to Fossil fuels: Pyrolosis;

Education: Sustainability; Permaculture; Biodiversity; Resource depletion; Seed Banks; Food chains; Organics; Predictions Quakes/Tsunamis/Famines; Agriculture; Ozone Hole; Global Warming/Personal responsibility; Beauty without cruelty; Hunting/culling; Eco-friendly living in the 21C and beyond; School programmes; Government action local/national/international; Respect for our shared environment. Global communication network of the future; Personal choice and personal action...

Since this time many of these subjects have been dealt with by the media. As predicted the public responded positively to the message and, encouraged by local and central government, has adopted many of the strategies being promoted by Arcadia Network organisations in this period. I believe that the initiative was beyond the scope of a telethon type broadcast which is well able to meet the needs of a single disaster. The situation we were highlighting went way beyond that point. It required every resident on the planet to alter its viewpoint and to change, what often amounted to, the habits of a lifetime. Each of us would need to be prepared to reduce our own carbon footprint and swell the global effort to preserve our planet as a sustainable environment. The only way to assess the likely public reaction was by the voluminous membership of organisations working in the field. There was a mood of change in the air and I was more than prepared to place my faith with fellow residents of Planet Earth whom, I believe like myself, all wanted a safe and sustainable environment in which to rear their children. The broadcaster had to judge the likely reaction to the release of such alarming information. When things blow up on TV it creates a storm. Quite likely the real reason for ITV reluctance at that time, was simply down to – fear factor. 50

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Chapter 4

Whilst working on Play For The Planet, the directors of Arcadia undertook a number of projects to assist individual charities with fundraising efforts or publicity. The first among these was the London premiere of Michael Crichton‟s Congo [Paramount Pictures] for Dian Fosse Gorilla Fund. To assist, several Arcadia personnel joined the committee to help the charity with its organisation of support and to boost ticket sales for both the event itself and the invitation only party which followed at the Royal College of Art in Kensington. The premiere itself was managed by UIP and to be attended by the film‟s producer Kathleen Kennedy among a glittering array of well known personalities from film, TV and music. Kathleen Kennedy who had famously partnered Steven Spielberg to make the Indiana Jones features was now branching out on an independent path. We trawled the Network supporters and managed to fill all the charity allotment of seats with a good number of celebrity faces. The evening was a huge success and netted the charity a substantial sum of money to continue its valuable work in the war torn region around Virunga National Park, for saving the last 650 breeding pairs of mountain gorillas.

In the following year, Arcadia Productions made contact with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Cameron Macintosh, to request their support for an Animal Help Society initiative celebrating the Year of the Cat organised to highlight the worsening plight of feral cats in UK urban areas. A special Royal Gala Charity Performance of the hit musical CATS was thus agreed to be run on 26 November 1996. Kindly accepting the charity‟s invitation to attend the performance as special guests were The Prince and Princess Michael of Kent who keep Siamese cats, included among them one rescue cat.

One of the regular team of active AHS volunteers was Alex Ferguson who told us her late brother had been a lead singer in Sir Cameron Macintosh‟s Phantom of The Opera and she was progressing arrangements for a memorial performance in her brother‟s name. Later reports suggested that this was eventually staged at the Prince Edward Theatre. Alex took me in to speak with Nick Allot CEO of Really Useful Group. The theatre together with the organisers, Arcadia Productions worked pro bono and they © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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gave the charity 200 seats to use for encouraging press support to gain publicity for the initiative. The charity invited everyone who could publicise the message about ferals. London Tonight broadcast a full three minute report to several million viewers in the South East of England. The film clip showed the work undertaken by the charity which regularly trapped sick feral cats in the East End. These would be provided with veterinary treatment where possible and the un-castrated Toms and over-breeding queens [female] could be neutered to control the number of unwanted kittens forming overcrowded colonies where disease was spread. Once veterinary checks were completed, new homes would be sought for all those kittens able to be socialised.

Pet cats left neglected would quickly return to their wild state and their kittens, after reaching six weeks of age, would be virtually impossible to domesticate. The numbers of feral cats had escalated with the country‟s increasing slump into recession over the past few years and this was having an effect on the wild bird populations. Added to this, in areas of dense urban settlement, foraging feral populations were badly diseased and this presented a health hazard, infecting pet cats in those areas.

The way it looked to me, even those among us who are not great animal lovers nevertheless did not want disease on their doorstep. This situation required urgent attention to remedy. Animal Help Society was in contact with a number of other charities also working with ferals, to improve conditions for animals and Greater London residents.

The New London Theatre has no royal box so we assigned the best seats for the royal couple. The security arrived several hours ahead of the party from the palace to sweep the whole area and to advise on any necessary adjustments that might be needed. Press photographers had to stay outside the theatre and the charity had its own photographer inside the foyer.

A short line-up included AHS committee, event organisers together with key charity workers and some of the younger members presenting flowers. Joining the welcome party were leading Arcadia personnel and a representative from Hamlins the firm providing legal services was also present, all assembled to greet the royals on arrival. 52

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Leaflets sponsored by Ilford Lane Printers

Anita Harris who had lead the CATS cast playing McGavity for some time and the artist Mike Margolis presented the princess with an exclusive art work from his beautiful CATGRAFIKA collection.

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Janet Ives (AHS Chairman); HRH Prince Michael of Kent; Mike Margolis; HRH Princess Michael of Kent

The artist Mike Margolis provided a wonderful painting of one of the CATS characters which was given as a gift to Princess Michael. Two of the younger children, Adam Ives and Spohie Freeman, presented bouquets of flowers. The arrangements were all kept very formal. Taking care of the Princess, making the introductions and chatting about the work of the charity in general was my pleasure for the evening. Both our royal guests showed themselves to be knowledgeable about the problem areas we dealt with and expressed an interest in work we were doing. Princess Michael already supported the work of Battersea Dogs Home, an organisation which made a valuable contribution, dealing with stray dogs and cats in the London area.

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I had arrived at the theatre late because I had to detour to collect leaflets and flowers. My absence had doubtless given rise for concern and I recall there was some tension when I got to there. The charity did not have to sell any seats itself, but I did have to give the Box Office the list of names of those who would be attending. Jenny was in a spin because guests were already arriving. She reported that the theatre management were on hot bricks. I think there was such apprehension for the event but it was all quickly settled and our guests arrived.

With everyone seated, Jenny took to the microphone and made the speech welcoming the royal party, thanking them for attending our event. She thanked the theatre organisation and everyone who had supported the charity initiative, detailing the charity‟s main sponsors by name and giving special acknowledgement to the generosity of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Cameron Macintosh before moving on to describe the increasing problem of feral colonies and the work being done at grass roots level to tackle the problem. Finally, thanks went out to the Animal Help Society members who had come along that evening and purchased seats in support. The theatre management had covered every detail of the evening‟s agenda and had provided a room for the royal party to use during intermission where champagne [which had been donated for the event] could be served to a small gathering away in private. The performance was fabulous playing to a packed audience still after its 15 years run. At the end of the show, the cast was presented to HRH Princess Michael who told me she had seen the show several times before but it still remained one of her firm favourites. The evening ran like clockwork.

Those journalists present provided newspaper articles on the feral cat problem, reporting on the support given by Really Useful Group company for the work done by Animal Help Society, as well as that of other organisations like Cat Protection League and Celia Hammond Trust, both of which operated neutering services in South London. Through these articles, thousands of local residents in the London area were made aware of the enormity of the problem and it was hoped that the increased awareness among pet cat owners, would prevent at least some of those cats being abandoned and turning feral. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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In the run up to the event, we had received a call from Australia to say that my father in law had suffered a minor stroke and the family were sending us airline tickets to spend Xmas in New South Wales. My husband had not been back since 1977 and it might be the last time the whole family could get together. I instantly saw how the outside world might view it. I had read stories in the papers about unscrupulous individuals using charity funds for their own ends. Although this event was a publicity initiative, not a fund-raiser, with royalty present, I knew that press attention would be focussed and I could not afford to leave the charity, the royals or myself open to false accusations. I had to be scrupulously careful. The call had come through during our regular monthly meeting and so all the charity‟s committee was present in the room. I immediately beckoned to the Fund-raising Officer, Colin Dean. Handing the phone across to him, I asked the caller to repeat the message to the charity trustee. Much later, when the flight ticket money arrived, I forced a very reluctant CEO, John Bailey to check my personal bank receipt, which fortunately had arrived complete with the Australian sender‟s details in tact, and Carl accompanied me to the bank, so that the charity had been fully assured everything was above board.

The trip was well timed but it was the last I would enjoy with my father in law as he suffered another stroke on that Xmas afternoon with shade temperatures over 40C. We had left London in freezing cold weather, and landed in a heat wave. It was hard to adjust and we spent most of the days in or beside the family pools. Though the trip had provided a welcome break from the months of hard work that had gone before it we were sad to see a beloved family member and a pillar of local community sinking into ill health. After a few weeks, with my father in law a slightly improved, we took our leave and returned home. It was almost a relief to relax in the cooler temperature of London.

On arrival back, I learn from Jenny Burgess, that the organisers were in communication breakdown. I am sure it must have occurred to somebody that my trip to Australia was too close to the event for comfort and that suspicions were aroused by my departure. I learned that after we left for Sydney a reporter had called on the family home of my inlaws in Australia hoping to interview me. Fortunately, as AHS Chairman, I had been careful to ensure that everything was in transparent order. The charity had accounted 56

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publicly for all revenues and expenditures and conducted itself in all aspects honourably. With the assistance of sponsors, it had drawn publicity to the plight of feral cats which was its aim at the outset. It had also given acknowledgement and thanks for the considerable support from Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Cameron Macintosh and the press who brought the feral problem to public awareness. Now we just had to hope that with public recognition of the problem, the situation would improve.

The East-end of London had a bad reputation for animal abuses. The callous trading methods employed in the last century still leaves an imprint in the community. Today we were battling against organised pit-bull and cock-fighting; and a catalogue of general welfare concerns thrown up by those among us who keep and transport animals in conditions which do not adequately provide for the animal‟s needs. The whole sordid industry turned my stomach.

But the East-end community were self confessed animal lovers and were generous in their financial support of the charity‟s work. The East London boroughs had already spawned and supported three major national organisations. Dr Barnardo, Guide Dogs for the Blind and PDSA [People‟s Dispensary for Sick Animals] and they could have been forgiven for feeling they had „done their bit‟ for charity. They had certainly made a quite unprecedented contribution to social welfare.

For most of Redbridge residents, money was very tight. In a large part of that community, there were many families who had suffered one or more of its members being made redundant and existence became very much a hand-to-mouth affair. Under these conditions, the requests made by Animal Help Society could have been seen as just a bridge too far. That, fortunately, was not the case. The overwhelming support from local people kept the society operating. The Met Police referred people through the helpline and supported the charity‟s efforts. The local council gave the charity a rebate on the rates for its shop premises. There were still appeals for the charity‟s assistance, coming through the helpline at a rate of 350 to 500 calls per day and whilst there was a need for the society to continue then we all just got on with the work. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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The work was emotionally charged and most difficult of all were the cruelty and neglect cases which found their way to the AHS door. These creatures had every reason to hate man but hate is a very human reaction and animals show an amazing capacity for forgiveness.

Press Clippings

Guardian & Gazette Series ,Wednesday, October 17, 1996

Volunteer: Elaine McDonald

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Chapter 5

All this time, UK was in financial recession. Volunteers were often working an average sixteen hour day for AHS. There was the ambulance service bringing in a constant influx of needy animals, a busy helpline and a charity shop to manage; plus a team of volunteers. As each intake was given a complete vet health check, vaccinated and neutered, the charity battled against its escalating bills.

Kennels were always full; coffers always empty, the task was an endless treadmill. Demand for the charity‟s help was persistent, especially for unwanted cats and there was usually in the region of 350 cats awaiting adoption, at least half of that number were being fed and cared for, in foster homes or kennels, through the AHS fundraising efforts.

We were all disappointed that Play For The Planet had been dropped from broadcast schedules and we gave some considerable thought to the suggestion of linking charities directly to factual programming as several of the Arcadia Network charities had done quite successfully already. We had spoken to Action Time about formatting quiz shows where the prize money could be split with worthy causes. Jenny and I were still deliberating on the matter in spring, when the Production Show ran at the Design Centre in Islington and Steve Leahy had arranged to lunch us there. The exact purpose of our meeting is long since forgotten. What is now clearly etched in my memory is the long deliberation that Jenny and I applied to making a decision over which direction we should progress the Arcadia venture.

Finally, we decided to take Arcadia down a drama rather than factual route to achieve the same aims. There was nothing revolutionary about our decision. Several of the network charities with whom we were working had grown out of a public awareness driven by dramatic productions on film. In our small group there was the eponymous Born Free Foundation started by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers which was then under the stewardship of their son Will. The charity had developed out of the awareness entirely driven by the film of the same name. Dian Fosse Gorilla Fund was another charity in the network which had developed after the public learnt of the vital work © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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pioneered by this incredible woman, through the dramatised biopic Gorillas in the Mist and more recently the need dramatically showcased in the film Congo which depicts the backdrop of the warring tribes that affects the stability of the entire region in which the gorillas reside.

Our decision was based first and foremost according to personal viewing tastes but added to this we knew that drama productions yield far higher profit margins than factual programming. That was a lot of profit going into private pockets which we felt sure we could earn a portion of to be put to good works of Arcadia Network that would benefit society as a whole. We were particularly interested in improving conditions for animals in human care and we looked for literary works to tie in with any initiatives. Many years earlier, a book entitled The Alchymist‟s Cat by Robin Jarvis had left a lasting impression upon my young daughter. In 1996 she had bought me a copy and after reading, I agreed, it would make a wonderful lavish production. She actually made the running and contacted the publishers to establish the identity of the agent and we arranged to meet with her and the author in our Wardour Street offices.

Sue Hook was a pleasant and efficient agent who remained fairly quiet throughout the meeting. Looking back, I would judge her to be quite atypical of agents in general, although at that time I had not met enough to make any assessment. Robin was the most likeable of characters, a young and generous man, with a legion of stories to tell. He wore an almost permanent grin from ear to ear and we instantly liked him. With the help of Hamlins legal services Arcadia Productions formally optioned the rights to his trilogy for young readers entitled: The Deptford Histories The Alchymist‟s Cat was the first novel in the series which included Thomas and The Oaken Throne.

A red Persian cat, in AHS kennels called William, put me in mind of the character in Robin‟s story Alchymist‟s Cat. It was easy to see why this beautiful pedigree Persian had come to our attention. Almost wild with his coat totally matted William had to be shaved on arrival at the charity. With some very unattractive habits which severely reduced his rehoming prospects, AHS volunteers, were unable to handle him because he would lunge and attack. 60

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It was an all too familiar problem for long haired cats who have become feral and do not want to be handled yet have the type of coat that requires constant grooming. Without the requisite attention, thick hair quickly becomes matted and fly-blown. At this stage, the only recourse is for the vet to administer an anaesthetic and shave the matted coat off. This solves the immediate health issue for the long-haired feral cat but does not address the behavioural problems that underpin the situation. A permanent solution needs to overcome the animal‟s resistance to grooming.

The daily kennel volunteers were all reluctant to approach William - so to avoid losing too many of the charity‟s precious helpers, the cleaning of William‟ kennel would be left to Carl or myself. Our regular methods included the use of aromatherapy oils such as Bergamot and Lavender to calm the spirit and this was balanced with Cat Nip which had a slightly opposite effect. Cats loved it and it allowed for the gradual application of domestication techniques, traditionally used to train out these wild traits.

Whilst in Australia, I had read two scientific reports on the development of feline artistic expression. Cats, being highly territorial creatures, mark their domains in a number of different ways. Using identifying scent, urine and faeces they warn off, or attract, others to their spaces. Such techniques, although they are natural and efficient methods when used in the wild terrain, are not so easily tolerated in the home. Cats also scratch and scent mark the boundary limits of their domain, often using the same location to do this. It can be difficult to appreciate this when the cat is repeatedly reshaping the corner of the owners‟ best chair or spraying the same piece of freshly laundered curtain. I am sure that what to the human mind translated as creative artistic ability was an extension of this scent marking instinct. Thus certain cats would take more readily to artistic expression than others. I predicted those would also display dominant territorial behaviour.

I decided to test my theory and to see whether there may be any therapeutic benefits in providing artistic opportunity, as an outlet, to ease tension in some psychologically damaged cats that were held in kennel and provided William with acrylics and a surface upon which to vent. Just as in human terms, most of us could not paint the Mona Lisa, art and creativity among felines was not to everyone‟s liking and most cats showed no interest. I certainly did not find dozens of artists among the inmates of our kennel © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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blocks, far lower than 1% responded and it was not an activity that could be forced upon any animal. They would take to it or not, and most of our kennel inmates chose the latter and ignored it. William however was very different. William had much to communicate and he responded immediately. He really did take to it, so much so that initially he became even more territorial about his space. In fact, any attempt to remove his equipment, would prompt him to show his displeasure by shredding the paper carpeting his floor until it had completely filled his kennel space. Burying himself underneath, he would wait in his concealment, ready to spring at any unsuspecting volunteer who chanced a visit. Workers would suffer quite a vicious attacking. William certainly was a one-off.

Throughout the entire winter that year the equipment was available and William created dozens of markings with the acrylic paint that the charity had provided. We saved as many as we could. After several months on the marking programme, supported by aromatherapy and drug treatments, we noted that William had gradually mellowed and had begun to trust humans. It was just the beginning of the process of domestication, and that we knew would eventually lead to his increased socialisation which would facilitate in his rehoming. In due course this was exactly what happened and once we were able to maintain his coat quality, we found William a lovely new home and true freedom.

The problem of living with a need for regular grooming, places demands on long haired cats. Anti social behaviour is less tolerable than it might be in regular moggies. This had been the major problem with William and why he had come to us in a totally matted state. Well, he certainly went away a different cat. Carl and I collected and preserved a number of William‟s artworks intending to mount an exhibition and thus bring awareness and funding to the services for cat rehomings at some future date – I had privately considered that we could possibly coincide the potential unveiling of William‟ artworks with a premiere screening of Alchymist‟s Cat. Although that was still a long way off at that time.

We immediately identified our preferred screen-writer for the adaptation of the novel Alchymist‟s Cat in Richard „Kip‟ Carpenter. We had admired his work for years – and considered him Master of the children‟s genre. Kip had been responsible for so many 62

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highly creative and successful series on television including Catweazle, Black Beauty, Scarlet Pimpernel; Robin of Sherwood; to name but a few of his tour de force. Nobody could tell a story quite like Kip and he had a grip on that Celtic world of magic like none other. Together with director John Henderson, they had proven their ability to mix special effects with drama, easily taking the Bafta for their Fx laden production for BBC of the Nora Lofts novels The Borrowers. At that time we were focussing on a TV series.

With sales predictions in place, having been provided by Intermedia, before long the project had progressed its way to the BBC legal department where contracts were in negotiation. These were progressing accordingly when quite suddenly, an internal crisis, in children‟s television, threw a major spanner in the works. Stories hit the tabloids. A key presenter of a popular children‟s show had been caught in uncompromising activities and heads rolled. A new Controller of BBC children‟s programming was installed, bringing along her own programme preferences, and our project was pulled at the eleventh hour. Disappointed, we spoke to the other channels but the material was not right for their schedules. The story, an equal of any Dickens novel, will eventually end up on the BBC as that is the natural home for Alchymist„s Cat. The only issue will be that of budget, as effects laden and set in 1666, it will require lavish and expensive sets.

The Animal Help Society fundraising effort, the year following the Cats event, was a classical recital at the Festival Hall in London. Arcadia brought in a producer to manage the event which relieved the charity from the task of ticket sales. Charity workers only job was that of encouraging known supporters to attend the Royal Gala Event.

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The main items on the programme were suitably the Carnival of The Animals and some Mozart chamber pieces. Arcadia engaged a producer to organise the event who brought in Rory Bremner to narrate the main item and the Mozart Players for the orchestration. Absolved from arranging ticket sales, AHS volunteers had arranged the invitations. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were flying in to England that afternoon and it was all a bit of a rush for them so we were fortunate that they agreed to join us again as our 64

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special guests for the evening. Special box seats were reserved for the royal party and AHS committee members.

The royal couple had a particular fondness for Mozart and Prince Michael had very thoughtfully brought me a clipping from the paper he had read on the plane trip home about an animal story he thought would be of interest to me. Champagne was served and we had arranged light snacks at the intermission. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable evening. There was opportunity for the royals to meet the artistes before the second half began and we had invited key charity workers to the line up as a thank you for their efforts over the year. It was a lovely evening that had gone off without a single hitch.

Jenny, who had always been supportive of many charity activities, had for a short time been a trustee of World Youth Music Foundation, part of the UN initiative for youth and she asked me along to a meeting our casting consultant, Phil Shaw, had set up for her with the famous tenor José Cura. We met in the wings of the Royal Opera House, after one of his performances. Discussions focussed on the possibility of filming a production of a short one act opera of Puccini‟s - Il Tabarro. José was the conductor of the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra which had some available dates so could possibly provide the score if a production was to go ahead. After several meetings with the Maestro, we established an interest in directing, from Simon Callow, and he and José held a number of meetings to discuss the possible treatment. All that was required was to make the production profitable in a reasonable time frame.

Jenny had taken private lessons in opera singing and had sung occasionally with the Philharmonia Chorus. After an audition to continue in the chorus had gone badly, she was feeling somewhat downhearted and heard about an Oxford based operatic charity which inspired her with renewed hope of joining an opera production. This organisation which was self funding operated under the direction of ex-Glyndebourne opera director Robin Martin Oliver and produced full operatic performances providing opportunities for resting professionals and amateur singers alike.

The method by which those productions normally covered costs was by levying a charge upon the cast – effectively a fee for taking part. There would also be a small Box Office © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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charge levied on the audience and the company ran as a non profit making charity venture. Jenny drew me into a meeting with the director Robin Martin-Oliver and his charming wife in their Oxfordshire residence. He had a reputation for being highly creative. Thankfully and unusually this did not shape his demeanour and keen to extend his operation, we discussed several opportunities which could have fit with his agenda.

The Stage Director role on the Il Tabarro production was still open, we arranged a meeting for Robin to speak with José Cura about a possible treatment for the production. We also talked around ideas for a reality TV talent show for classical singers allowing the public to guide the selection, the finalists to win a role in the production to be filmed in rehearsal and in performance at the end of the series. It was all pre – Pop Idol and reality shows had not broken through at that stage. Everyone was very open to the opportunity which had a working title BritOp.

Knowing that Jenny was really keen to sing, I gave my consent to providing company sponsorship for the opening sessions, paying rehearsal room hire and a pianist for the next production; in return, Jenny was offered a part in its performance of Figaro. But what seemed like a good idea at the outset soon got out of hand. The costs escalated by thousands, taking us considerably over what I had understood to be the predicted level. Figaro‟s needs would quickly outstrip our abilities. I had no time to raise a budget and we already had commitments which had the priority claim on available funds. Our company had covered a considerable portion of the initial costs, and we decided we had to withdraw. Whether the Figaro production secured a replacement sponsor, or whether it actually went ahead, I never heard but BritOp never happened with our company. Jenny never took part in that performance of Figaro and the parting was more than slightly tense.

Jenny and I travelled to Madrid to visit José Cura and move the production of Il Tabarro forward. I worked at drawing a budget together but with so many creative variables it was difficult to settle on any accurate cost estimates. Finally, we visited backers in Bloomsbury who were not themselves unfamiliar with the opera market. These meetings with financiers brought us to the full realisation that it was not possible to get the figures to line up profitably. The classical market was just not large enough to cover the 66

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multimedia production costs on its own and turn a sizable profit.

We reluctantly had to pass on the project entirely. I knew intuitively the business model was sound. We just needed a larger market and with a digital revolution under way I knew that it would soon be measured on a global scale. There were a series of other musical ventures the company had rights in, which Jenny was packaging, with some major names interested. I had accompanied her to meetings in some fairly distant locations in the South East of England and Wales to discuss productions such as Evocation the Midsummer Dawn Chorus at Stonehenge. I know broadcast deals were under investigation because I had been present at discussions with recording artists, record labels, OB units and all crew from directors down to set designers. We visited the site for Jenny to negotiate with several TV stations to get assurances for a scheduled broadcast deal. I do not know whether anything came of those talks certainly no commission that I know of.

I felt our time would be better spent locating a wealthy backer to underwrite the production through to delivery. The fee payable upon delivery to the domestic market should then provide for the return of the capital outlay plus the interest accrued across the bridging period. Assuming a quality product can be produced inside those budgetary constraints, foreign distributors should then jump to a license deal and producer‟s profits returned through syndication. The successful ventures could assign that profit according to its equity holdings, paying a portion across to charity. The question was how to get the manufacture costs covered without offering all the profit returns as inducement to risking the capital. That puzzle was soon solved. The size of the profit would be determined, in part by the market chosen.

Jenny had very high brow tastes, many of which I shared but if the cost of product manufacture was the same in both cases, servicing the mass market got my vote every time. Although we may have differed on content, Jenny had long been a fan of shows such as X Files and Star Trek and, well understood the cult dynamics. Through my own studies, I also understood that we were on the verge of a digital media revolution and I knew multimedia convergence only a few years distant. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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With multi-channel TV, on-demand service and digital convergence on the horizon, I recognised that intellectual property was going to be a major feature of the market in a few years time. With a variety of media options, for exploiting a product in a global market, those companies who saw what was coming could prepare. Jenny and I resolved to seek out some projects that would fit into the mass market and especially ones that had multimedia cross platform potential. We opened discussions with DTI representative to arrange to send Jenny on a fact finding trip to the US to cut the UK a pathway into this new market region.

There was a pile of red-tape to qualify for funding. There was a three stage application process. My earlier studies in Physics equipped me with enough general information to prepare a report on the digital revolution, in which I predicted the date of digital convergence, being just a few years into the future. As an undergraduate I had been made to consider the consequences of contemporary scientific investigations and especially to consider the ramifications of technologies that were being developed by our peer group. Added to this I had studied three years of digital electronics in my degree. I had thought long and hard about the media revolution and the shift in consciousness that this technology would spawn. The average time taken, from lab bench to market place, is a known quantity so it was not difficult to calculate the probable date that this shift would likely occur.

I knew by its response, that the DTI knew what we were talking about and I had hit the correct estimate. A „supervisor‟ was assigned and for some months I tweaked the application report and prepared the requisite budget figures to satisfy qualification requirements. We annexed support from successful producers like Michael Khun [UK] and Steve Golan [US] and started piecing together a development programme but the DTI had rigid regulations concerning acceptable line items in the budget.

There was no problem drawing up a budget with those objectionable items omitted but they were necessary expenditures and as such would still have to be covered. Taking this stricture into consideration added to the company‟s contribution to costs. There was also the preparation for the mandatory lecture tour at the back end of the sponsorship period, I calculated that it would leave us with a substantial budgetary deficit to attend lectures 68

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and essentially divulge the information we had gathered, to our competitors.

My feeling was that if we were going to fact-find for the whole UK multimedia industry, it should not cost us personally greater than 50% costs. The information would serve the nation as a whole and therefore, I thought the DTI should actually pay for the whole venture and was nit-picking even beyond my measure.

The type of programming that a digital revolution would spawn I knew would be public choice and public chance, i.e. reality TV type formats. Eventually the communications technology would inevitably give the public its voice. Public opinion will have the power to decide and it is possible to ensure that the UK holds a position in that developing world market.

Jenny was the person who would be liaising with the foreign producer company, forging production links and gathering the data but she absolutely loathed the developing format. She made a big issue of the fact that she had never seen a single frame of programming like Big Brother and denounced the reality format as the demise of quality drama culture. It just was not her thing at all.

Although Jenny was very keen to make a US trip, she had not come up with any alternative proposals to interest the DTI in funding her trip and she would never have wanted to work on productions of the type which my application report was heading towards. This was the inevitable future of the industry but Jenny had quite definite views on the type of programming she wanted to make and those companies with whom she wanted to work. She had already made contact with many of the leading players in the industry. She also held adamant views on the level of her own requisite spending to undertake the task in her own way.

For me, it was difficult to tailor the proposal to satisfy all these factors and yet keep its content real. I totally lost patience. I conveyed my rather candid opinion of DTI rulings and reluctantly withdrew our interest.

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Chapter 6

Whilst working on the Alchymist‟s Cat project, our talented casting director, named Phil Shaw had spotted a new book by Val McDermid entitled The Wire In The Blood, which had won the Golden Dagger award for fiction. After reading the book we concurred with his assessment regarding its potential to provide the basis for a franchise series. There was room in the market for a production based around a criminal profiler. Police drama was already popular on British television and the device allowed the audience to engage with the psychological detection process. Also, a schedule gap was looming as several long running; popular series like Frost and Morse were soon to end.

Still operating as Arcadia Productions and still working to our original philosophy, we opened talks with Val McDermid‟s agent in July 1998 although at that time we did make it clear to the agent that a commercial company would be set up to produce the adaptation for television with the intended title Intrigue Productions. Our initial approach was to propose a year‟s option over the rights, Val amenable to our terms, had already responded in writing via the agent, agreeing to allow us a six-month period up front, with a right to extend to further periods providing progress was being made. Following this the author‟s acceptance was then emailed to us on 11 August 1998 and then confirmed on 18 September 1998, by the agent: a nominal option on two of her author‟s books with a right to extend. Over the next month basic terms were negotiated to secure the rights on two popular Val McDermid‟s novels Mermaids Singing and The Wire In The Blood. Initially, we had not decided on which to concentrate at this point in time. We arranged to meet with the agent, at our Wardour Street offices, to discuss our intentions for format, treatment and casting the planned production.

Jenny and I were in the boardroom when the agent arrived and I remember the scenario clearly. It was an uncomfortably hot summer afternoon. Jane Gregory an imposing, yet not unattractive, flame redhead, made it obvious from the outset that she was ready to do battle and this meeting was going to be anything but a pleasant walk-through. Crime drama had never been a preference for me. It was far too sinister for my tastes so I was © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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well out of my comfort zone. Reacting to the ambient hostility, a flippant remark, I made early on, incensed the agent and did not get things off to a good start. In contrast Jenny was a Medieval Studies graduate, an avid reader with a personal liking for psychological drama. She was much more familiar than I was with this genre and could converse knowledgeably about other competing novels on the market, many of which she would have already read. She lightened the atmosphere with the agent. Still, our deal offered the author an opportunity to get her work on screen.

Although Val McDermid had won awards for her literature, book sales had not yet taken off and she had been required to pay her own US promotional tour costs. With Intrigue Productions proposals, she stood a good chance of taking her work to a whole new audience. We managed to recover and move discussions forward. It was agreed that a meeting with the author would be arranged in the following month at the agent‟s office in West London.

First steps can be a bit shakey

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From memory, the Gregory & Radices offices had a Dickensian feel about them as I, Jenny Burgess, and Philip Shaw arrived a few weeks later for the late afternoon meeting at 3:30 pm on 8 September 1998, with Val McDermid. Everything appeared cramped and small and I remember that it was a squeeze for all of us to fit into Jane‟s tiny room. The tension of the previous meeting left behind us, the agent was a great deal more relaxed and good humoured on her own territory. Val McDermid, a very down to earth soft spoken Scot, had quite a robust frame with a shock of pure white hair. She sat next to the window and chain-smoked the whole time. I myself also shared the bad habit, though smoking was much more tolerated in society at that time, than it is now.

Our purpose in meeting that day was to discuss our production approach to ensure it met with the author‟s approval. Our intention from the outset was to craft a long running series in the style of X Files where the two main characters have a sizzling on screen romantic link which never matures so that the audience is kept in perpetual suspense. The characters in Val‟s novels, the protagonist Dr Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordan, lend themselves to this treatment and we had put this suggestion across to the agent at the meeting in Wardour Street the month before. Not unexpectedly, our proposal met with a positive response.

To assemble a winning team of elements, required to craft an acceptable show, would take time and this was the reason we asked the author to allow us a lead in period to the formal option, to enable us to make some progress whilst negotiation of full terms was ongoing. This was understood by the agent and both she and the author agreed. At that time there were only two novels in the Tony Hill series and we had considered long and hard, upon which of these we should concentrate our efforts. Based simply on ease of adaptation, we had decided to settle on the second novel „The Wire In The Blood‟. We talked freely about formatting a pilot based on „The Wire In The Blood‟ as we felt that storyline would be more easily translated into a TV script than the alternative, which was The Mermaids Singing and we revealed that our intention was to use the work to build a pilot with which we hoped to secure a franchise from the broadcaster but this would take some deft manoeuvring. It would take us time to locate all the requisite components and we had requested a free option period to get some of those elements in © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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place before signing the full contract. My role would be attending the preparation of contracts and thus the first prepared, was the Heads of Agreement which was signed by all those originating the project to protect the intellectual property of its development.

At this point, no approaches had been made but Phil, who was working as a freelance casting consultant, had prepared a wish list and Jenny had begun writing a synopsis and a treatment. Phil Shaw explained that from his experience, which was considerable, to be successful in turning Val McDermid‟s characters into a franchised series, we would need to craft the pilot show Wire In The Blood as a „star vehicle‟ and that we were thinking along the lines of making an approach to Robson Green who like Val came from a mining background, in Dudley only a little way South of her own home area.

We could see where there was a common link and we were hoping that this choice would sit well with the way in which Val saw her characters developing. Obviously writers have a mental picture of their characters and Robson Green may not automatically spring to mind as a typical college professor type which might fit with the Tony Hill character profile. Thankfully, she turned out to be a big fan of Robson Green. Although she told us she had not considered him playing Tony Hill herself, she liked the idea. We talked around the idea and she readily agreed with our strategy.

The matter of broadcaster choice was touched on. Of course, it would very much depend on who was attached as to which broadcaster was approached and which schedule it would fit with. At this point, it was too early for the broadcaster to have been chosen. We were developing some series ideas with a BBC executive at that time and, through our Play For The Planet development, we also had some contacts at ITV although now there was a new Controller, with whom we had never had any dealings at that point in time, although we had attended several of his Production Show talks.

We discussed with Val the creation of the screenplay and enquired as to whether she would be interested in undertaking any of the writing work herself. She was not tempted by this opportunity, and explained that her reasons were based on the fact that financial returns for screenwriting were not attractive enough for the amount of time it required to complete an adaptation. However she did say she would be interested in a consultancy 74

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position on the productions, or some small walk on part and naturally we agreed to this.

We talked about finding potential writers. Phil, with many years of industry casting experience had been, in the early part of his career, an ICM agent and had built up a large number of contacts. He knew Bethan Evans, at The Agency whose clients had strong track records in crafting television screenplays and he proposed we should contact her to source a writer for the pilot to the proposed series.

Jenny talked for some time about our intention to build the relationship between the main characters using the X Files as an example of how it might translate to screen. Describing the technique used in that production series of keeping the two main characters in constant romantic pose but never allowing the relationship to escalate too far, so that the endless sizzling keeps audience interest high.

Both author and agent confirmed they were happy with our strategy to use trusted screenwriters to adapt for series if there was franchise potential and they were informed that our intention was to approach The Agency immediately to find a writer but the condition was that we could not change or kill off any of the characters, such that any changes made would impact on future books that Val McDermid might want to write. Of course, there was no problem with agreeing to this logical condition; we may wish to use future works as source material on our series. We had already covered this possibility and got the right to negotiate for prequels and sequels agreed. We enquired about future publications that were planned using the central Tony Hill character. Another book was planned but not then near completion; of course the potential of a TV series, it was agreed, would be a huge inducement for the author to write more.

The price which we would be able to offer for the rights to the books and characters had been covered in our earlier correspondence with the agent and we agreed to make a 50% payment where stories were crafted around the characters and not direct adaptations of novels. The exact fee was a matter that would be determined, at the end of the day, largely by the budget limit fixed by the broadcaster although a floor and ceiling were fixed as outer limits. It was a well known fact that there existed quite a differential between the levels awarded by ITV and those of BBC where, although paying © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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considerably lower for the rights to literary works, the prestige afforded a production by the BBC logo of quality, then made international sales easier to achieve. All that would depend upon our choice of leading actor and the audience potential. The meeting had lasted just over an hour and we ended it undertaking to formalise the detail of the terms of the agreement with the agent over the ensuing weeks.

I recall we were quite upbeat as we left Gregory Radices offices and relieved that Val McDermid had reacted positively to our specific plans for the shape of the production. True to say, that Robson Green was not the only actor we had considered but as that suggestion met with the author‟s approval, it did push him way up on the list with us.

I had read somewhere he kept a Weimaraner dog, called Fern and that he had regularly undertaken work to support a local rehoming charity so we concluded that he probably shared some of our motivations. I was still running a charity working in animal rescue and animal conservation had from the outset been Jenny‟s conviction. It may have influenced our opinion of Robson Green as a business partner but that would have no bearing on his acceptability as an actor in a challenging leading role. Robson Green‟s career had started in the 1980s with a small role as Jimmy, the porter in the popular hospital series Casualty where his youthful good looks had earned him the start of UK fan base. This part was quickly followed by his next role that of Fusilier Dave Tucker in Soldier Soldier, during which time he was teamed up with fellow actor Jerome Flynn to sing an old hit song Unchained Melody for a wedding scene in one of the autumn episodes in 1994. Terrestrial channels were then pulling audiences of well over 15 million viewers for popular shows and the public demand the next day, from viewers looking to buy the single, ran into the thousands. No single actually existed but demand continued and pop promoter Simon Cowell heard about it and pounced. This led to its release as a cover version soon after.

Public support however did not guarantee critical acclaim. These were not singers and did not aspire to singing careers; they were actors. As a consequence, the release was panned by most of the press and the radio stations vetoed it from their play lists. Despite the radio stations‟ refusal to give it airtime the record proved popular with the public and 76

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sales rocketed. With appearances on Top of the Pops the reluctant singers were said to be surprised at its level of success. Having managed to knock Oasis from its number one position, Robson and Jerome‟s Unchained Melody topped the charts for over six weeks, heralding a successful, if only short-lived musical career, for the actors. This resulted in several hit singles plus x million album sales and doubtless it turned them a comfortable profit before they resumed their regular acting professions again. But, Robson Green had now tasted sweet „success‟ and he had enjoyed the returns! At the time we met Val McDermid, Robson Green‟s current production role was that of the investigator, DC Creegan in Touching Evil, whose job it was to track down serial killers. Based on real life case files, as the title suggests, the series tackled some very dark and unsavoury subject matter indeed, like the abduction and murder of young children. Detective drama is always a popular genre as it allows the audience to engage in the process of uncovering the crime.

Such dark content, at that time on British TV, was almost taboo and well outside the area commonly dealt with in police dramas. This factor set the show apart from its rivals and may actually have helped to make it a hit. There was however, a strong similarity to those crime subjects tackled by the protagonist in the Val McDermid novels. But, the lead character Tony Hill, was very different. Hill was a psychologist, an intellectual role and one that we felt sure would provide Robson Green with just the kind of part he was looking to take on – not only because it would present the actor with a fresh challenge but it also offered a means by which he could hit back at his scathing press critics who had called in doubt his ability to pull off „professional‟ roles. This would provide him with a chance to prove his acting ability to the doubting press and the franchise potential assured providing viewing figures were high enough.

So our casting of Robson Green for the lead was based largely on political factors rather than his ability to act the part and convincingly portray an intellectual psychologist which still remained to be seen. He was certainly not a natural for the role. I would have preferred we screen test first but my role was to take care of contracts and pushing for that would be stepping on Philip Shaw‟s toes. After all, what did I know about casting? © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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We were still unsure, at this stage, whether the public would buy into his character portrayal. All we had to go on was that we knew Robson Green had proved popular with audiences in previous productions, but those were very different character types. In his favour was the fact that even on occasions when the press had panned him, he still managed to hold public sway, so we were hopeful. There were a number of common elements to tie him in with the author, not least the fact that they shared a mining community background. I knew that such communities were very close knit and that it should make for good rapport between the two which ought to guarantee good on-set communication. A happy creative team would add a dimension to the production values which should then manifest on screen. We could be hopeful of success on this front.

We knew that things had been moving in a negative direction for his production company Coastal with the near fatal disaster of Ain‟t Misbehavin‟ two years earlier.

Added to which, and

despite all the later remarks from business partner Sandra Jobling, we knew his career desperately needed a boost. So, all in all, we were pretty confident that our approach should meet with a positive reaction from Robson Green, the producer and provided he felt confident in his ability to portray the intellectual, and challenging role of Dr Tony Hill, should fire Robson Green the actor, too.

Only time would tell. A synopsis was needed to begin the job of making

approaches. Jenny set to the task of preparing it – the first aim was to write a one page fast taster that could be sent out first and Jenny excelled at crafting these persuasive documents.

Whilst in a recent meeting with BBC executives to discuss development of an idea for a series Daughters of Eve - a project which I was researching at the time, Jenny spoke informally about the possibility of crafting a long running series around the character of the psychological investigator Dr Tony Hill for the BBC with Mike Dormer who had won a coveted drama production award for Warriors - based on a platoon of soldiers. There was the inevitable discussion over who could play the leads. Among the various names we had mentioned to Mike on our casting list for Tony Hill was Robson Green. He confirmed our suspicion that the actor was locked into ITV by contract. That 78

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determined if we wanted to cast Robson Green we had to secure a commission from ITV. By the same token, if they had him under contract, ITV needed good material for their actor so it was a double edged sword.

An eternal romantic, Jenny had an almost obsessive fascination for productions in the fantasy genre. An evening of back-to-back episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Robin of Sherwood or Stargate and Jenny was in heaven. She had made a personal study and well understood how their components and techniques hooked the audience. The X Files treatment (as Jenny would refer to it), of the main characters was discussed at some length. Jenny was determined that we would make use of as many of these devices as possible in the Tony Hill series, especially the relationship between the leads.

This drew an encouragingly positive reaction, providing us with a fall back alternative should an ITV approach fail to gain interest. We were doubtful we would have need to call upon this, but it would provide some useful insurance. We could negotiate a better deal with ITV.

Jenny also talked with Mike unofficially about using any of the Silent Witness production team technical personnel who had reached very admirable standards that we would hope to emulate with the Tony Hill works. The BBC was internationally noted for the quality of its dramas productions and had won the drama award that year. Discussions looked into the likelihood of whether it could be successfully moved across to a commercial channel without losing its gravitas. It all looked very promising indeed.

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Chapter 7

The next task was to find a writer. Since Phil‟s recommendation had met with Val McDermid‟s approval Bethan Evans at The Agency was contacted almost immediately to request CVs. Bethan quickly responded by forwarding details of a number of her agency clients whom she recommended to adapt The Wire In The Blood pilot for screen.

Over the ensuing weeks, emails went back and forth in our attempts to find the best writer for the job and Phil also contacted Kate Feast Management with a view to opening a line of dialogue for Robson Green to consider the lead role, Tony Hill. Phil was told by the agent that the actor had his own production company and that we should contact him through Coastal Productions. He passed the details over to Jenny. On 22 October 1998, three months into our option over the „Tony Hill‟ novels, the first call was placed to Coastal Productions and Jenny Burgess spoke directly with Sandra Jobling. She reported that Sandra‟s interest had initially been measured but it rose when she learned we had covered the rights to two literary works. Following the call, a synopsis/treatment was sent. The material was claimed by Sandra never to have arrived and Jenny had resent it the following day. It is referred to in fax sent to Coastal 4 November 1998.

We only ever discussed Robson Green playing the lead part of Tony Hill which was what we had discussed with the author and agent and gained their assent to, but when Sandra had had an opportunity to read the treatment, her immediate reaction was that the actor might be interested in the part of the killer Jacko Vance. The character was a well known TV personality, so certainly a more natural character role for Robson Green.

As he had always played the good guy, this factor would be very important in the minds of the viewing public, it was an angle that could have been exploited to build the suspense. But strategically, it was not the role to select if sights were set on a franchised deal. Of course there was still a question of whether the actor could pull off an intellectual role which was a departure from normal for him. Undeniably, it would put © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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his acting ability under the microscope. Despite that, as Sandra had requested Jenny duly provided an alternative treatment with Robson Green playing Jacko Vance. Such treatment would mean casting another actor in the returning role of Dr Tony Hill and it would argue a case for using Robson Green to open the series, bringing in the audience and establishing the rest of the cast. We advised that business-wise this was a bad call.

All the while, Gregory & Radice Authors Agency and I had been drafting terms which was going well. By the mid November 1998 the task was almost complete and the deal terms agreed. We were all ready to sign so it came as rather a shock when the agent suddenly back peddled asking for references. Not that this was to create any difficulty but the timing of the request seemed strange. After all, we had been discussing the project for over four months by this time and there had never been any mention of their needing confirmation of status and proof of our ability to bring in the requisite elements.

It was even stranger still considering that, the change coincided with our opening talks for Robson Green at the end of October 1998. If proof was ever required it was not after we had done the job because at that point it is obvious we were able to do what we had been predicting all along. It was fairly obvious and later admitted that the agent was contacted! Of course it would be highly unethical to attempt to do a deal directly negating the originating producer so a plausible excuse had to be found to move around the company.

The reason cited, by the agent, was equally enigmatic; claiming to be confused by changes to our company name although we had clarified at the outset our intention was to set up a dedicated company since Arcadia was a company dedicated to directly linked charity productions and, though we still intended to funnel profits into our charitable works, here the link was purely financial. The name chosen for a company is immaterial, and a dedicated production company would be incorporated as is the standard. Undeterred, we provided according to the request, four referees of such high calibre in the industry that not only was the agent assured to be on safe ground with Circle Multimedia, she also must have realised that one of them at least, provided her client with the coveted BBC ticket against anything falling through with the ITV route. 82

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In early November, following our first approach to Robson Green, we held the first few meetings at the Grafton in Tottenham Court Road although he never attended any in person, instead he was represented by his business partner Sandra Jobling. We were familiar with Coastal Productions history ahead of our meeting. Word had got around that whilst arranging a personal mortgage, in his local building society, Robson Green had head-hunted Sandra Jobling, a finance manager, to run the company he had set up Coastal Productions Limited. If discretion truly is the better part of valour then, she was not what I expected. A very diminutive stature with a highly theatrical amount of makeup and those talons ... those red talons! One thing we knew for certain, if she was a banker, then we had better watch our backs very carefully!

It was established fairly quickly that Coastal wanted to produce, so a meeting took place in its Newcastle offices. Considering Jenny and I had endured a five hour journey to get there that day, and the fact that we had brought Coastal a prize production, the hospitality was sadly wanting. I believe the order of the day was a dry sandwich, still in its plastic wrap, a can of coke and the family sized bag of kettle crisps placed centrally on the floor so that we could all reach them. I felt quite speechless. Even my dog had his food on a plate! We had not expected silver service but I am quite sure they have crockery in Newcastle and to offer your guests bags of food placed on the floor was just one step beyond the pale. I believe it true to say both Jenny and I were completely dumbstruck by the cold reception we received. From that point onward, „Kettle crisps‟ became a sort of private cliché between us which we used to signify situations where there was a total lack of protocol. Despite Robson Green‟s 70% control of Coastal Productions, he was not at any meeting. Present in person, there was Sandra and husband Ken Jobling and producer Bill Boyes. Having taken along some draft agreements, the discussions centred on the set-up through which we could run the production. My suggestion was that we required a transparent system which was independent from all other productions. A system whereby there could be „no commingling of funds‟. All present claimed not to understand the terminology which I found incredible. In fact I thought they were joking to begin with, considering the banking background. I was feeling a good deal of unease with the whole set up and I recall saying as much to Jenny on the journey back home. I © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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doubted we could trust them and had a bad gut feeling about dealing with them all.

I place a great deal of store by intuition. Often one cannot rationally give a reason why something does not feel good but those indiscernible nuances of behaviour are collected up by the subconscious brain and rationally processed outside of the conscious mind. I used to often remark that charity brings out the „best and worst‟ in people. The first category needs no explanation but the latter might not be so obvious. If I had a pound for each person who volunteered hoping to turn a personal profit...I would now be wealthy! The trouble is there are too many people who confuse sound ethics with feebleness just waiting to be exploited; any inclination towards sincerity is construed as weakness; any predilection to decency is mistaken for vulnerability. Working so long in this sector, I was used to being very careful that not only all my own dealings had to be ethically sound, but also without being too judgemental, those of the people with whom I associated, had also to withstand scrutiny. After all, a person is often judged by the company kept. Added to which, we knew that there would be scrutiny of any business which raised money for work in the charity world.

Not that we were not going to take payment. We certainly were. I had already worked for ten years without being paid anything for the work on the rehoming services. As a trustee it is forbidden in law. Maybe because I had worked at the helm of a registered charity for so long, I had a heightened sense of what I felt was acceptable in my business dealings. And as they say, old habits die hard! I was sure that they were not playing straight and I definitely did not feel comfortable. It was vitally important to me that everything was sound. It would often irritate Jenny my constant nit-picking over detail in this regard. I was used to public scrutiny which was always maintained by the Charity Commission to whom we were answerable.

Jenny was always much more laissér faire having developed against a promotions background where the acceptable ethic is far less exacting: format for copy is famously described as being 10% fact and 90% persuasion. Her usual reaction to my gut hunches was that I was over-reacting and over-playing the conspiracy card. Maybe on this occasion she was right. Maybe I was being over cautious so I set my reservations aside. I knew Jenny was very keen to tie a deal and I did not want to be the one to wreck it all 84

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through paranoia. Little did I know at that time, history would show that several other deals had fallen through with other companies who cited exactly the same reasons?

My original suggestion had been either to tie the companies with a co-production agreement, such as a sample I had brought with me, where Coastal would take the Producer role, with us as Co-producer and then a collection agency would be used for the disbursal of the receipts. Or, alternatively we could establish a totally independent company Intrigue Productions to which the property would be licensed for a fixed period of time in exchange for a license fee and, in which we could all take director roles if necessary. I had no preconceived set up fixed in my mind. I was just looking at the expedient way of setting the whole thing up to satisfy and exploit the laws that govern the media sector.

Coastal favoured the co-production alternative wanting to establish its own name as an independent producer and less interested in considering separate production vehicles for each production. I got the distinct impression that they had already made up their minds before we arrived and nothing I might have to say was going to alter it. As it happens, I was happy with the co-production alternative so I was not in the least put out by their reaction and from that point forward, it became the intended strategy between us. The understanding from the outset was that everything would be split down the middle 50:50

Over the next eight months, there were several meetings held in London at the Soho House or The Grafton Hotel lounge. When Circle Multimedia was hosting there would be drinks or tea. On those occasions where Coastal took this lead role, the venue altered to one of Sandra‟s choosing and a plate of chips might be placed in the centre of the table such that everyone present could reach in and fingers were the order of the day. Needless to say, this was wonderfully effective at stemming the appetite.

I mused on whether this was normal behaviour for Sandra Jobling or whether it was affected to draw some desired inference in us – were we supposed to conclude that we were so unimportant in her estimation that we were beneath consideration? Typical of economists and bankers, she gave the impression that she was exceedingly careful with expenditure. So was this maybe just her cautious thrifty nature coming out? One plate is © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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certainly far cheaper than four but still, by that rationale - utensils and napkins would not have added to the price but would enhance the experience. I was increasingly uncomfortable about these matters I felt as though we were on set for Planet of the Apes. Coastal‟s choice of entertainment at a formal meeting left me feeling quite uneasy about the company‟s ability to meet the social demands of running a production of the calibre we had in mind. It was the accepted norm that a certain amount of wining and dining would usually be expected of the producer in the usual course of a company‟s duties and a bag of chips just did not create a business atmosphere conducive to tying multi-million pound deals. Both Jenny and I felt mounting unease on this front.

Ten months after our first approach, Sandra Jobling finally sent confirmation in writing on 30 July 1999 that Robson Green was interested – but confirming he wished to play the part of the killer Jacko Vance. This perplexed us, to say the least, as our suggestion had been that he should consider playing the lead, Tony Hill. For all the reasons cited earlier, we had expected him to be drawn towards playing the role of the psychologist. Sandra Jobling conveyed her wish to build the company profile and her manner suggested that she wanted to prove her worth to Robson Green. It really was not a convincing argument.

The explanation she gave verbally was that Coastal Productions was only in its second year when we had first approached it and, both her and Robson Green‟s intention was to build it as an independent company that would stand alone, rather than just a vehicle for the actor. That being the case, she stressed the project was all that mattered to the company. As such “Robson Green may take a supporting role to introduce the show so that he is able to withdraw when characters had become established”. This may have been plausible had he been inundated with work at a higher fee, and which he was having to refuse, but the fact was his career was at its lowest ebb. His last production had not gone well.

Sandra Jobling was a banker, not a producer so why should she understand? We protested and told Sandra quite frankly in production terms her business idea was 86

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“mad”. If Robson Green could pull off the role and the pilot was successful then ITV would want to commission more Tony Hill series and that would serve to re-establish his career at the same time bring in substantial profits to both companies Coastal Productions and Intrigue Productions or any other companies involved. How would leaving a potential franchised production serve his interests? It really did not make any sense and if she hoped to build the production vehicle, as she suggested and impress her partner we made it clear that that in production terms, that was not the way to do it!

At the end of the day, it really mattered not which role Robson Green played, we had identified him as the „star‟ to head up the production. If we wanted to encourage the broadcaster to franchise the series then the production would need a lead actor in the main role, somebody who could bring in an audience to establish the show but the broadcaster would want some degree of longevity if it was to re-commission.

On 24 Aug 1999 Producer Bill Boyes and screenwriter Caleb Ranson were present. Caleb had been one of the writers we considered during the time we were in discussions with Bethan, This was long before we contacted Coastal but the writer was already working on a production in which Robson Green was playing the lead. We discussed his possibly writing the pilot adaptation of the novel The Wire In The Blood as a two hour drama. He could have easily crafted the piece and he was certainly keen to do so, although there were a number of writers around, who could have done the same. Writers are not in short supply in this highly competitive market.

Some time after this meeting Sandra began pushing to begin the process of securing Caleb Ranson to write and applied considerable pressure to get something from us in writing to enable her to approach his agent. Under the terms of our option we had covered all extant Tony Hill stories which included a first refusal to negotiate for prequels and sequels. This clause was included as much to prevent the agent from selling those rights once we had the production underway as to possibly providing for additional story lines, although that was definitely an option that was under consideration and had been discussed both with the author and the agent. Under pressure we gave Coastal an agreement letter with conditional permission to engage Caleb as writer to adapt the novel The Wire In The Blood for a pilot. [see documents] © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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He was never engaged but this letter and agreement was used to lever the author‟s agent to apply pressure on us. Having obtained the right to engage a writer, Coastal could then claim ethical grounds for contacting the author‟s agent which would otherwise be ruled out as a consequence of our position as option holders. The excuse used to extract the letter ie that the project would be lost if the writer could not be engaged immediately was just not true. Caleb was never engaged and it made not one jot of difference to the commissioning process. It was understood that the writer chosen had to be acceptable to the broadcaster and we knew Caleb was acceptable but the fact remained, there were plenty of writers on „ITV‟s preferred list‟.

The fact was we had been open with the author and agent, had consulted fully with them, discussing all the options ahead of making any move. Having gained approval of our intended production strategy, we kept to all our original undertakings. Despite this and the fact that it was we who had brought both the Robson Green/ITV deal and the alternative Mike Dormer/BBC option to her table, I can imagine how persuasive Sandra Jobling‟s pitch could have been and how precarious she could make the author‟s position appear to the agent, whilst all along giving the impression that it was we who were responsible for putting the deal at risk. The agent, who up to that point had been perfectly business-like in her dealing with our company, under pressure to secure her client the best deal, may have felt an obligation to acquiesce and play along – who could blame her? But she knew she had a duty to conduct matters ethically. Once the agent could be contacted by Robson Green‟s company it could be suggested that there was no longer any need for the originating producer. Sandra Jobling would have no doubt used exactly the same device with the agent as she had always fed to us. Sandra‟s line was always that Robson Green had guaranteed hours with ITV and the suggestion was that because he had this relationship with the broadcaster, he could do anything he wanted – or so she would argue! Judging by some of the productions he had been associated with, there may have been some shred of truth in the statement. Added to this, Sandra Jobling‟s background expertise in the banking world had not only taught her how the financial system worked but how it could also afford her credibility in so far as satisfying potential investors, in the company, of its fiscal management 88

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skills. I am sure they all bought it hook, line and sinker and it was the real reason why the agent suddenly wanted references. It is certainly a much more plausible reason than the one the agent offered us, i.e. that we had chosen a different company name!

Baelzebub

In October 1999 Hamlins had supplied Arcadia with a Memorandum & Articles to enable us to register a company to hold rights to projects which Jenny and I were hoping to produce in order to generate funds for Arcadia. This company which we had named © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Circle Multimedia Limited would be responsible for the early development of literary properties which would be produced under license through dedicated trading companies. Options owned by Arcadia would be redrawn in the name of Circle Multimedia. Treatments would be produced and early project packaging undertaken to bring the property to the pre-production stage. The Memorandum & Articles of Association for trading vehicles was made available to us and the company for the Wire In The Blood productions, Intrigue Productions was prepared and made ready for incorporation. That would take place when the lawyers gave us the go-ahead.

We had operated under this assumed title as an unincorporated body for 16 months but in formal documentation, it was always clearly stated our intent was to file for limited liability. The dedicated production company would then provide investment opportunity, sign any co-production contracts, make above line attachments, and open dialogue with lines of distribution. Circle Multimedia Ltd was an Executive Producer and never designed to take a co-producer position.

Each production vehicle would produce, or co-produce film, or TV shows, for one literary property. The only exception would be in the situation where a show becomes a franchise and repeat commissions are secured based around a set of characters. All production expenditures / revenues would go through accounts in that dedicated production company. In this way, project accounts were to be kept appropriately separate, avoiding the commingling of monies from different productions. This would ease the job of accountancy. We engaged Alan Cockayne as Company Secretary. To consolidate our plans Jenny and I prepared a scant business plan for the executive development company. Each and every year this plan would be reviewed and fine tuned to ensure we were continuing to stay on our original targets. The first plan drawn up for Circle Multimedia is on the next page [see final business plan 2005 in Appendix 7].

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Circle Mu ltimedia Limit ed Business Plan

A company set up to hold the rights to projects entering development for screen and television. The 100 shares are to be divided between the two Directors: Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess [25 each] and Company Secretary: Alan Cockayne [one share]. The remaining authorized capital will provide for a return to investors and a percentage to provide for the charitable activities of NGOs and the organizations which formed Arcadia Network. The rights to each project will be licensed down to a dedicated production company. A portion of profits will be retained for the development of new projects. --------------------------Short term [3 years] 1999 - 2002 Aim: To produce one multimedia project for delivery before October 2002 and to develop a number of secondary projects that will reach completion in the second and third phases of this plan. Expenditure will be minimised, whilst a corporate office is maintained at 180 Wardour St, London W1F 8LB, no production site will be opened. Secure Options over the Film and TV rights to: 1) Val McDermid‟s novels [a] The Wire In The Blood [b] The Mermaid Singing 2) Robin Jarvis‟ novels [a] The Alchymist‟s Cat [b] The Oaken Throne [c] Thomas 3) Declan O‟Dwyer script: Boadicea – Queen of the Icini [Previously signed to Arcadia Productions 1997] 4) Declan O‟Dwyer script: 1066 [Feature Film] [Previously signed to Arcadia Productions 1997] 5) Alan Crossley book: The Helen Duncan Story 6) Treatment: Daughters of Eve [TVM/Series] - in preparation --------------------------Production: Wire In The Blood Approach agencies regarding suitable writers Attach star [Robson Green] to play lead character, Tony Hill. Secure a co-production and broadcast deal for a series pilot with ITV Raise production finance for pilot [or series] Engage Producer/director Open a dedicated company Intrigue Productions Limited Finance: Development funds will be provided by the directors and production funding will be a cash-flow arrangement offset against a UK commission. It is anticipated that this production will provide a revenue stream through its foreign sales, video, e-rights, etc to fund new production ideas development.` Potential: The company‟s strategy for this production is that it will lead to a long running series on ITV. The Wire In The Blood has been chosen as the pilot because it is more filmic than The Mermaids Singing. However, all works featuring Tony Hill are to be covered in the option and it is intended that these will form the basis for storylines of future series. At present there are only two novels in existence and a third is in development. In the event of a successful series, the author may be persuaded to write more but has agreed to allow script writers to originate fresh storylines. Foreign sales potential for this genre is good however merchandising revenues are limited. Begin development on slate of productions: Features for theatrical release and TV Series. Projects will be selected for[3their multimedia Medium term years] 2003 – potential. 2005 © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008 91 ---------------------------

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Aim: To produce three projects over this period whilst developing a further five aimed at distribution/broadcast in the next phase of this plan. Corporate: The company will concentrate efforts on finding gap finance through soft options such as government funding Lottery, EU Media and Tax Shelters and building name awareness via directory listings and a web presence. . It will be necessary to impose structure upon the company and key operatives will be engaged to cover the main areas: Development Executive, Casting, Production, Crew, and Financial/Business contracted on an ad hoc basis. Company overheads will continue to be kept to a absolute minimum – all staff engaged on project development will be attached to the production vehicles from which they will draw salaries/fees. Development finance during this phase will come from the Wire In The Blood foreign sales revenues, some private investment and deferred fees. --------------------------Production: Alchymist’s Cat Approach Richard Carpenter to prepare screenplay Attach star [Ben Kingsley; Ian McKellen] to play lead character, the Alchemist. Secure a co-production with Festival Films – Ray Marshall Raise production finance against pre-sold distribution rights in global territories Engage Director Open a dedicated company Bardic Productions Limited --------------------------Production: Conqueror 1066 Approach writers to prepare screenplay Attach star [Viggo Mortensen; David Boreanaz] to play lead characters. Secure a co-production with Pathe and Warners Raise production finance Engage Director: Hugh Hudson Open a dedicated company Conqueror Productions Limited --------------------------Production: Afterlife [The Spirit Guide] Approach writers to prepare screenplay Attach star to play lead character Secure co-production partners Raise production finance Engage Director Open a dedicated company Afterlife Productions Limited --------------------------During the final stage of this period, the company will require a UK production office and this will be sited at one of the studio locations in the Home Counties eg Bray. It is intended that Janet Ives will take overall charge of the day to day activities of this office which will be permanently manned by a Receptionist/Production Assistant. It is possible that Wire In The Blood will be run to second series and this being the case it is expected that the cash flow situation will ease from 2004 onwards. Jenny Burgess will then concentrate on US market links, staying for periods of 3 months. Janet Ives October 1999 to 2005 Arcadia Productions

The Option Agreement was ©thus 92 All Rights finallyreserved prepared Janetaccording Ives 2008 to the agreed terms and I

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signed and paid on our behalf on 1 March 2000 under a holding company specifically set up for the task that we had named Circle Multimedia Ltd. On 7 April 2000, just one month into the first year of that formal option agreement, Sandra Jobling reported to Circle Multimedia that she had pitched our idea to the broadcaster: “following conversations with Jenny Reeks at ITV Network Centre ITV they are extremely positive in respect of Wire In The Blood........ sees it as a new ‘Prime Suspect’.” Even if it could be argued that prior this point, the two-part pilot we were developing, was all we had ever had in mind regarding the project‟s potential, this statement puts the matter to rest. From this point onward, we knew we had been spot on in our estimates and that our hopes for a franchised TV series had broadcaster approval. Even if we had never considered the possibility of the project becoming a franchised series, now the option was firmly on the table; the possibility was now a probability and from this point April 2000 forward, it remained at the front of our minds. The author‟s agent was informed by email from Jenny and this statement shaped our expectations and our discussions for the production thereafter. In her witness statement Jenny remembered it thus: To illustrate that everyone concerned regarded the project as a series project with longevity, Sandra Jobling in her email to me of 7 April 2000 (timed 13:44) says that Jenny Reeks at ITV regarded Wire In The Blood as ‘the new Prime Suspect’ Prime Suspect of course was a series – not a single one-off drama. I report the comparison to Jane Gregory in my letter to her of 15 August 2000 where I comment. ‘There is so much follow on potential with Val’s other novels and original material possibilities’ and report that ‘ITV are definitely viewing this as a potential franchise’ Sandra had sent the 7 April 2000 immediately after the first meeting between Coastal and ITV Note also that the same e-mail refers to ‘Wire in the Blood’ being the series project as distinct from The Wire In The Blood being the novel. Why would Sandra, Jenny Reeks and I be talking in these terms and making these comparisons if Wire in the Blood was to be a single one off drama?

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All our discussions were based on the understanding that we were now looking at producing a franchise series which we hoped would be repeated and therefore my task was to ensure that I protected our rights to those subsequent series, protecting repeats in broadcast and any production based on Tony Hill who we all saw as the central character. Now we all knew that the broadcaster ITV also saw it the same way!

We had a perfect right to share in the success of a franchise which our foresight and actions had brought together; where all the elements had been gathered together according to our strategic plan. And, if our predictions were right, such a series would make the careers of a lot of individuals and companies. It would also make an enormous amount of money for all concerned especially ITV who could pull in advertising revenues around a show which guaranteed audiences of over eight million viewers, while at the same time satisfying audiences who had loyally followed productions such as Touching Evil; Frost and Morse with a new series, securing their viewing preference.

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Just before Xmas 2000, it came to our attention that a piece placed in the industry press reported that Caleb was to adapt Mermaids Singing for BBC. The journal involved had not pulled the story out of thin air! So, who was behind this „leak‟? – We strongly suspected, at the time, that it had been made deliberately by Coastal to apply pressure on ITV knowing that talks were due to begin after New Year to secure Robson Green‟s contract. Although there was no official report forthcoming and certainly no admission of responsibility for the leak, it really did not take much working out, to see who stood to benefit from the appearance of the report. We sent the agent a letter of complaint reminding her of our exclusive option over the works. We knew it would be pointless our contacting the magazine concerned as the journalist would never divulge sources. If Sandra Jobling‟s word was to be believed, we knew from her reported talks with Jenny Reeks, she had told ITV that Coastal was in negotiations over the works of Val McDermid and I believe that Sandra wanted ITV to agree use of the second book as I had confirmed to the agent that we wanted to exercise our rights under the option for the prequel Mermaids Singing – This would have slightly muddied the waters for Coastal since, in principle, we could have, quite independently, developed this literary work with another producer and she knew we were in communication with Mike Dormer.

I believe that by this point there was an understanding between Coastal and Gregory Radice Agency and everyone knew that Val McDermid was very keen that a deal was done with Coastal and Robson Green. The fact was it was we who had proposed the idea of casting the actor in the first place. Eventually, our legal representatives agreed that a marker should be put down for the agent and a letter was written to the author‟s agent by our lawyers. But they all knew that we had a pathway into the BBC so they could use that as a lever on ITV and Sandra Jobling knew this, too. Now it was a published fact and could be openly discussed in a meeting with ITV. Only Coastal stood to gain a thing by leaking the statement. At the end of the day Caleb was never engaged.

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Chapter 8

Sandra Jobling faxed Circle on 3 August 2000, to apply pressure however this correspondence was later mislaid and only the reply remains on file. That stated the company reaction was ambivalent and I urged Sandra Jobling that the solution was for the company Coastal to confirm its position.

On 9 August I wrote informing Coastal that we were ready to sign contracts to expedite matters and on 18 August the letter to Hamlins detailed important points of the deal prior to the date set aside for the signing of the co-production agreement. Further to this, on 22 August Jenny Burgess wrote to Hamlins specifying more basic points. However, by 24 August 2000, in my absence, she cancelled the meeting that had been arranged for the signing ceremony. I was only to discover this upon my return to work on the following Monday morning by which time it was too late to reset it for that day. I was a good deal annoyed that arrangements had been thwarted.

I had prepared all the documentation many months before and both parties had been sent copies. But, my annual holiday with the family, fell the week immediately before the meeting to sign. I had asked Jenny to do me a favour and get me some quotes in readiness and together we compiled a contact list of experts in the field [among which were finance experts such as Jeffrey Broom –consultant; Barclays Bank; ITV Network Centre; Brebners; Ray Marshall and Baz Taylor – director of The Bill] to establish some facts and percentages ahead of the meeting, the purpose of which was to ensure that we were prepared for anything which might move from the expected path. So, nothing could wrong foot us in the signing formal procedure.

Jenny had duly gathered the facts I had requisitioned, obtaining statements from all the names on the list. The message common to all these findings was that the percentage ITV would agree a producer for the Production Fee was a maximum 10% of the total production budget but more usually ITV settle around 8.5%. So the assessments I had used to calculate the terms had been absolutely spot on. That was exactly what I had asked Jenny to get me confirmation on and was all I needed to know. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Jenny Burgess was not responsible for contracting and on reading the replies provided by the experts, she probably felt out of her depth and decided that I would also feel the same way. As it happened, the reports merely confirmed the known facts upon which I had been working and those upon which I based all the clauses of the co-production agreement. I believe that Jenny‟s loss of confidence, at this point signified by her cancellation of this meeting at the last moment, probably made Hamlins feel uneasy. Whilst we were operating in the charitable sector, Arcadia had been represented very well by Hamlins who had sponsored projects, on a pro bono basis. Although we still had no salaried staff, and our intentions had always been aimed at feeding profits into our charitable mission, the drama projects were now beginning to cross, overtly into the commercial sphere. As such, we felt increasingly uncomfortable at accepting the firm‟s generosity.

Equally, after many years of representation I believe Hamlins too felt a similar awkwardness with regards to shifting our business onto a more commercial footing. Ian Down‟s specialisation was corporate law and he had brought in David Birchall to assist with the Play For The Planet set up as I believe he specialised in charity law and together they had provided for our needs very well. Having received my list of demands for inclusion into the co-production contract between Circle and Coastal, he conveyed to us that he felt we needed a media specialist. I assumed that media was outside the firm‟s areas of specialisation and began the task of finding the best representation in the field of entertainment. I have since learned this assumption was wrong! Consequently, at the end of 2000, to resolve this situation, we decided we should move representation of the drama projects over to another law firm. Ian Down of Hamlins had served the charitable aims and the company very well and there was no dissatisfaction with the firm‟s services.

In fact quite the contrary and, I have since rued, many times over, our decision to shift away from this company. I sincerely wish we had asked Ian to recommend a media lawyer before we moved our business away from Hamlins. I simply do not know why we did not do so. 98

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The excessive workload had been taking an adverse toll on my health for some time and I had kept all knowledge of it to myself. Over the years there had been a number of attacks on charity property: assaults on volunteers at AHS street collections, thefts of donated fundraising items, opportunists snatching donation boxes at street collections, bricks hurled through windows of the charity shop premises and the smooth running of the helpline interrupted by an objectionable volume of nuisance calls. We even endured the charity premises being squatted and had to apply to the court for the tenant‟s removal. Yet we managed to tolerate this regular bevy of crime and bounce back each time with renewed vigour.

Fire damage to charity shop when vandals set light to donations left outside

In the summer of 2000 an individual had visited the AHS charity shop to supposedly sign as a volunteer. The member who was tending the shop turned his back for a short time to deal with a customer enquiry and the new volunteer seized the opportunity and stole one of the pedigree dogs. Fortunately, the dog stolen happened to have been © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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chipped with an ID implant. The police were called immediately but it was 48 hours before we located the dog again. The story I learnt from the Police was that the dog had been sold for a small amount of money which was used to buy heroin on the black market. In the process of injecting the drug the thief had died. We did at least retrieve the animal but the whole event was pitifully sad.

When we had to house animals overnight in the shop premises, there was always a member who acted as night watchman to ensure the animal‟s safety was not put at risk. I had put in many a night in at the shop to make sure everyone was safe and to attend to night feeding and medication. Manning the premises 24hours a day also safeguarded, animals being dumped on the doorstep, a frequent occurrence. The year following the Millennium Celebrations we had to move and with properties in such demand, there was nothing available in close proximity to the premises.

Two miles away, it was difficult to maintain a constant watch over the shop. Somebody had obviously been monitoring our movements. When the coast was clear they broke in by sawing through iron bars at the back window and took two pedigree animals. We were totally devastated and searched all over the Greater London area in an attempt to relocate them. Appeals were put out across the internet and adverts via the cable network TV station but failed to bring in even one substantial lead. The Police had descriptions as did all the breed rescue societies but it was like searching for a needle in the proverbial haystack. We did the best we could to try to find those stolen animals and we all felt we had let those animals down but try as we might, there was little we could do to rectify it. They were nowhere to be found.

Things were not made easy for us and my health was not 100%. I had been suffering a number of worrying symptoms for some time and none of the medical experts I consulted regarding the matter had any thoughts about what the likely cause could be. The situation had been developing gradually for years and each time my attempts to find an explanation drew a blank, I would push all thought about the worrying symptoms father back in my mind and try to just dismiss them as my over-fertile imagination. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore as the symptoms gradually worsened. Around this time I began regularly collapsing. 100

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Ilford Recorder 8/7/99

The additional stresses brought about by these random acts of criminal damage and thefts of fund-raising items took their toll upon the spirits of the whole volunteer work force. During the year the level of this activity took a downward turn when thieves targeted the animals themselves taking donated food intended for the rescued animals © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Yellow Advertiser 9/7/99

I sank into a deep depression. Added to this fact, in the back of my mind I knew my parents were advancing into old age and living sixty miles distant. So, with no successors presenting themselves to take over the reigns of the organisation, I took the decision to suspend the charity operation and move my family back to Maidenhead so as to be on hand and ready to lend support to my parents when it was required. 102

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Over the second half of 2000 having rehomed most of those animals in the charity‟s care, in early November I rented a rural cottage in the farmland between Maidenhead and Marlow, taking the family and the remaining animals with me.

After so many years, I had become acclimatised to the constant ringing of the AHS helpline, the bustle of volunteers and home checkers, and the regular trips to/from the vets each day. It felt strange to not have twenty kennels to care for on a daily basis and the phone silence was deafening. I missed the young volunteers, the team and the bustle of daily activity at the charity shop. I missed the animals a lot in those first few months. I was glad of the rest from the gruelling pace and the burdensome responsibility of dozens of sick animals, the heart rending victims of cruelty and neglect. It had been an emotional rollercoaster but I missed them all.

In the first week after moving, I homed the last foster dog, a Basset Hound bitch called Bessie. The cottage was not large enough to house too many animals and Bessie was a young boisterous dog too energetic for our lurcher who by this time was getting quite old. We had all grown to love her madcap personality in the short time we had fostered her for and the place felt empty when she was gone.

All we now had were the two dogs, our Lurcher Timmy a cruelty case and his companion, a one eyed Papillon; our one remaining Siamese cat called Zimby who had come to AHS with a hole in his head from constant abscessing; a crazy cockatiel named Charlie who whistled the Red Flag endlessly and Engel the nomadic tortoise. Life was very different and I was not sure I wholeheartedly liked the change but I knew my own health was failing and that was no good when dozens of living creatures and a charity with 250 regular working volunteers depend upon you. The work was more than a full time job; it was a mission – a life commitment. I missed them all terribly to begin with and I filled my days throwing myself into the production work.

Maidenhead was the area in which I had spent my childhood so the transition for me was less traumatic than for my children who had only ever known an urban lifestyle. Now we were a mile from the nearest road and sharing our new environment with about sixty horses. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Thankfully, the children shared my love of animals so, in our new surroundings, the plentiful abundance of wildlife made their adjustment easier to bear. The one major difference was that not one of them was our personal responsibility. There was plenty to do though, having downsized from the larger property secured to house Bruno and it necessitated placing half of our possessions into storage. Carole Burgess had sold her late husband‟s home in Wales so she kindly brought over some of the furniture for me to use as a standby until we were able to sort everything.

That first winter was severe! There were constant snow falls and our little town car was not used to the freezing weather or the rough country terrain. My husband was offered production work on Mummy II which was shooting in a disused quarry site in the depths of Hertfordshire so he needed to get out at 5 am to make the journey and he was having 104

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to push start the car to get it going in sub-zero conditions. It finally gave out and we replaced it with something more suited to the environment but not before he had lost so many days work because the frozen engine had failed to fire first thing in the morning.

Jenny took over the business workload in the run up to Xmas whilst I settled into country living once again. For the first time in years, having closed off with Hamlins, we were without legal representation and it felt more than a little vulnerable. As we belonged to the producer‟s alliance, we could have opted to take up the introductory offer extended to PACT members by Davenport Lyons, a law firm which markets itself as „media specialist‟.

This offer would have provided its services, at a greatly reduced rate for our first project instructions. However, Jenny preferred personal recommendation and wanted to request Simon Cryer of Brebners, the company accountants, to make the introduction for us in the New Year. Brebners had on its client list, one of the Davenport Lyons media partners of whom they spoke most highly.

It was the end of the millennium year and the Xmas celebratory drinks were held at the Grafton, at Warren Street, as usual. It was attended by a small group of associates. Before Xmas Robin Jarvis always spent an evening with us and we would exchange gifts and give him the latest update on Alchymist‟s Cat progress. Declan O‟Dwyer a colleague of several years had provided three scripts of excellent quality which Jenny was trying to package was always among the Xmas gatherings. He had recently secured the Director position on the The Bill and brought along some actors with him. Phil Shaw who worked as a voice coach would often bring a few of his clients. He was also a spiritualist and was working part time for the College of Psychic Studies where he had met the proprietor of Psychic World Ray Taylor and, had annexed him as consultant on our film Afterlife, the story of the war medium Helen Duncan.

There were usually a smattering of my charity workers present at our annual Xmas drinks, but with the emphasis shifting from direct animal charity work things were slightly different this year. My moving back to Berkshire, a considerable travelling distance away, it meant I had to leave earlier than I normally did. When I was ready to © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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take my leave, Jenny had already drunk more than she could safely handle and like an infatuated schoolgirl had draped herself across Declan who looked as though he enjoying the attention. I saw there a great comedy format just awaiting a writer!

Jenny and I had already arranged to meet up for New Year, she had booked a couple of rooms at the Holiday Inn in Maidenhead and we were going to have a late millennium celebration with both our families present. Our new company had completed its first year of business. We had compiled our business plan, calculated the budgets and cash flow forecasts, written our treatments, and prepared our pitch documents. By the end of the year we had lined up all our work and our workload was well on target. We were hopeful that everything would just fall neatly into place in the New Year. There should be nothing to hinder that progress, we thought. Could our life just ever be that sweet?

In the late morning of 31 December 2000, I was expecting the Burgesses to travel over to Maidenhead, take up their hotel rooms and then we had planned we would all go for a meal before ringing in the New Year. As neither Jenny nor Carole was able to drive, Tony Burgess, Jenny‟s father was travelling across from Wales where he had a remote farmhouse on the West coast. The plan was that he would spend the day catching up with Jenny. They would probably do lunch before he drove all of them over to Berkshire. He would join us for dinner and a New Year drink but then Tony would return to the flat to take care of the cats while Jenny and Carole stayed over in Maidenhead for a day. The plan was that he would then collect them at some time in the latter part of the following day.

At some point on the evening before, I spoke with Jenny on the phone. She told me that things were not quite going according to plan. Tony was feeling unwell so she had called in the doctor and was then waiting for the ambulance to arrive. She thought things would be OK and not likely to result in any alteration to our plans.

Tony Burgess who had a very placid temperament, was a retired Flight Engineer who had been with British Airways for many years. Just like all those who man the cockpits of commercial airliners, Tony had enjoyed regular health checks throughout his career. Although, it was said later, that nobody had ever heard him complain of feeling any ill 106

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health, it seems he had fixed himself a precautionary cardiac check up for the New Year. He was destined never to make that appointment or any of the New Year celebrations that had been planned for later that day, either. As he was moving to the ambulance, he had suffered a major attack falling on the stone stairway. Jenny was at his side. Paramedics did their best to resuscitate him before taking him to the local hospital.

The next time I spoke to Jenny, she was in a very distressed state.

The drama of her

father‟s passing which had unfolded in front of her, had been traumatic and shaken her to the core. Unable to remain in the flat where the incident had occurred she moved down to the South coast and was prescribed sedative medication by the doctor. Jenny had always felt close to her father and understandably took his loss very badly. Tony was ever supportive of our efforts and a kind donor to my charity‟s work. I tried to comfort her as best I could; but at 60 mile distance that is not easy. I would call each day and we would talk for hours on the phone throughout the evening. It was as much as anyone could do to help. There was nothing magical that I could say to ease her pain but we had worked together for eight years by this time and my years of experience in manning the charity helpline prepared me, in some ways, for dealing with personal loss.

Bereavement was a regular issue which applicants called in to the helpline for support with, so I knew the trigger points. I also recognised that there was a profile to grief, of course the length of each of its stages was a very personal matter dependant on the many and varied factors within an individual‟s sphere of experience as well as the external pressures that life brought to bear. I notified all our work colleagues that Jenny was on compassionate leave, until further notice would be staying with her mother in Selsey. I advised everybody that any messages of condolence would be forwarded and requested that Jenny was not to be contacted until further notice. I took over the duty of running the company business. Most contacts sent their condolences and respected Jenny‟s need for peace in her bereavement. Well who would not respect a person‟s need at such a sensitive time? As the loss of loved ones is a universal human experience, it is commonly accepted that sufferers be given respect and time to come to terms with their grief. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Only Robson Green‟s business partner Sandra Jobling failed to observe that tradition. Instead, according to Jenny she was hounded with calls on her mother‟s private telephone, insisting on the need for a meeting, threatening that Circle stood to lose the Wire In The Blood project if she failed to make contact. I do not know how Sandra got the phone number because it was not one we used for the business but somehow she certainly did. The answer phone message was played to me so I knew that Jenny was not imagining the matter. The message was clearly identifiable as Sandra Jobling‟s voice said we HAD [Sandra‟s emphasis] to talk immediately. Jenny‟s mother Carole told me she had heard the message being left and picked up the phone. The way she reported it was that the person had “panic” in her voice.

Carole explained to her that they had not had a good time since New Year. The voice in dismissive tone had said “Yes, I am sorry about your loss, but is Jenny there?” She advised Sandra that Jenny was unwell and, if something was urgent, to call my mobile. No calls were ever placed to my phone or my mobile and no email ever received according to the billing records or the message service. What could be so urgent it could not wait a week or so and I could not answer? Why did it concern only Jenny? I was totally livid at the sheer lack of decorum. Yet again!

Just a few days earlier, on 16 February 2001 Sandra had addressed an email to Janet Ives, Philip Shaw and Jenny Burgess to let us know that Robson had changed his mind and agreed to play Tony Hill. She also told us in this email that Val McDermid was writing a third book entitled The Last Temptation. Although since we had the option over the works including prequels and sequels, the agent should have been conveying this information to us. Yet, there had been no such communiqué. The fact that Robson Green‟s company had been given this information indicated that there was communication between Val McDermid‟s agency and Coastal outside of our relationship with both these companies. In this email she alludes to ITV wanting to commission „6 hours of Tony Hill with us‟ There was also a change from 4 hours covered in the option agreement to 6 hours. The Mermaids Singing was to be commissioned making up the other two hours. – since she was obviously in contact with the author‟s agent and the option agreement allowed for 108

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up to 4 hours when Sandra Jobling wrote „6 hours of Tony Hill with us‟ we understood this to mean the agent had agreed the adjustment and the “us” referred to the coproduction partnership. After all, outside of the partnership, nobody had the right to discuss commercial exploitation of those properties. Now it was less than a week later that she was hounding for a meeting – what could have transpired in the interim to make the situation so desperate? I emailed Coastal reminding them that Jenny was on compassionate leave. However, this was disregarded and further calls were placed. Carole remembered a number of calls, all panicky and hurried. Jenny was quite frantic by the first half of February. She said she could not take the calls personally so she left them to go on answer-phone. Finally Sandra left a message saying that it was imperative that we meet the following week.

Jenny was on medication and not in any fit state to deal with business matters. I tried to put her off getting involved in any meetings at this time. Jenny was naturally quite a volatile personality at the best of times and under her present conditions all emotions were considerably heightened. In part I succeeded in placating her, until Sandra called again leaving yet another message saying we stood to lose the project if we could not get together. This was obviously getting to Jenny. I felt it unforgivable to apply that degree of pressure at such a personally difficult time. What kind of people were they?

But, this was not the considerate world of good works and charity. This was the world of the bankers! It was the world of „dog eat dog‟ where the law of the jungle prevails and your every right must be fought for with a dozen knives between your shoulder blades! Bereavement - why on earth should that stop a person from doing important business? Well that might be fine for Coastal Productions and the Mafia but it was not the way I like doing business. It is obvious Sandra had picked her time well – intimidating Jenny to agree to a meeting when she knew she had the psychological advantage. Taking gross advantage of a person knowing they are at their most vulnerable point, at a time when most decent people would show a modicum of respect. I was already highly suspicious of Sandra‟s “crises” from earlier examples based on wildly exaggerated claims which never seemed © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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to pan out. I had grave doubts that there was truly any kind of crisis as suggested and that it would all turn out to be a storm in a teacup.

I tried to dissuade Jenny from meeting anyone at that time and most certainly any meeting with bankers. We had after all got our signed agreements so the deal and the split were safe, regardless of any threats. I tried to calm Jenny‟s fears. We also had the fall back protection of the BBC interest. All my protestations failed. Jenny was after all in an emotional turmoil and not at her most rational state, made far worse by the added effects of the heavy medication that was propping her up over this difficult time.

Sandra had demanded she ring and Jenny naively reacted as she was asked to because, she irrationally believed what Sandra said, that the project was in some kind of jeopardy. Before I could intervene, she had responded to the request to contact Coastal and agreed to meet in central London. The most I could do was to accompany her. The meeting as I remember was very short. I do recall that Sandra Jobling was in a big hurry because she was travelling somewhere, Paris I think. Anyhow, she wanted to keep the meeting as short as possible. I suspect the real reason was to keep the tension as high as possible!

The whole meeting took place in the time it took to drink a cup of coffee at Soho House. Sandra got straight to the point revealing that: ITV were not going to pay the top price for the series and as such she wanted to alter the conditions, she asserted that we could not pull together the quality production if we took too much out up front. Sandra had insisted she intended not to claim any set up costs for Coastal and gave the impression that she was virtually going to work for free.

I certainly did not want Circle Multimedia to hamper the project by taking an over excessive front end fee so I agreed that we would match Coastal in absorbing some of our costs to lessen the burden. This was yet another fabrication as it transpired much later on, we only discovered this after absorbing a substantial portion of development costs from our bill. The book rights fee which was a line item in what Coastal had supplied representing the draft Wire budget, ascribed to us but was never paid at all and requests to see the final budget were repeatedly ignored. Coastal Fees were far in excess of our development fees. - Sandra‟s £300k+, Robson Green‟s £400k+. 110

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Focussing her attention on Jenny, and despite the fact that we already had a signed agreement detailing a 50:50 split which had been signed on 12 October 2000 to cover all productions based on Val McDermid‟s characters from The Wire In The Blood, Sandra was quite determined to talk percentages. She wanted to renegotiate the back end split of subsequent productions. Notwithstanding Jenny‟s inability to participate in negotiations due to the heavy medication she was taking and her highly charged emotional state, this was never an area with which she dealt and Coastal knew this.

Drawing her to a meeting was unforgivable but pinning her down in this way was ruthless and that “banker” instinct rose to the surface and showed a total lack of respect just so that Coastal could make more money than us. This desire to be the one who makes the biggest % was bordering obsessive with Coastal. This was traditionally not Jenny‟s area and I could see she was getting very agitated. I knew she regularly suffered high blood pressure and without the added pressure of bereavement. I felt the situation was getting out of hand, she might just go over the brink. No amount of money can compensate your health and I realised that I had to get her out of there as quickly as I could without being rude or agitating things further.

I knew the project meant a lot to Jenny, as I was lead to understand that her father had put up a portion of the initial option payment money, so she felt duty bound to see it through, in his memory. The project was never in jeopardy in so far as we had the backstop of the BBC interest but now was not the time to take things in a new direction. Jenny was on the edge; it was all too raw at that time! I was sure she would have a breakdown. So I decided to end the meeting, as quickly as possible. I agreed to revise our agreement for subsequent productions and we left the meeting.

Money was evidently so important to Robson Green that he was willing to drop his standards as low as necessary to ensure he won those percentage points. So, now he had his pound of flesh! I felt it was all in very poor taste but I was somehow not surprised by their tactics. It had become increasingly apparent that this was their style. Reflecting, I thought back to the letter from Coastal, detailing Robson Green‟s first © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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reaction to Jenny‟s synopsis. Why had we been so mystified, by his desire to play the role of the villainous psychological tormentor? Did he consider those characteristics so much more attractive to explore or just easier to adopt since they rang such a resonant chord? After watching the episode unfold, it could be argued he would hardly have to act? It all started to make perfect sense!

But, I was between a rock and a hard place. I felt more and more uneasy about doing business with people whose morals were at odds with my own to such a degree but at the same time I felt a duty of loyalty to Jenny and to our original business plan. It was the topic of several conversations between us. Jenny, quite correctly pointed out that the revenues could be put to good use to save animal suffering and if I did anything to interfere with that deal going ahead, I would be denying all those creatures their individual salvation.

How could I argue with that?

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Chapter 9

It was 23 February 2001 when we engaged the legal representation of Richard Moxon, of Davenport Lyons and instructed him to pick up the negotiations for the co-production agreement with Coastal. He was given very clear indications of those points which had already been agreed. Copies of all previously signed agreements were handed across and explicit pointers detailed as to those elements which we considered to be important deal breakers. Since this law firm was a media specialist, I considered we were in fairly safe hands. Certainly its lavish Mayfair offices, with their marbled interior and art deco furnishings, gave the impression that the company was operating very successfully. Despite the fact that the hospitality fell a long way short of that which we had enjoyed in the capable hands of Hamlins, their legal services had come with the highest recommendation and so there was nothing to indicate that our company‟s interests would not be extremely well taken care of by Davenport Lyons legal service.

Following our initial meeting, my instructions confirmed in an email to Richard Moxon were quite explicit. The following excerpt from my extensive email clearly detailed those elements of the deal that were considered priority most important to us: “Our priorities are maintenance of the rights with an automatic right to any successive series based on the Tony Hill character and the financial return ….”

This I feel, spelt out exactly what we regarded as the most important issues and was only one part of quite an extensive email of instructions which should have left no doubt in any minds. A meeting took place at Davenport Lyons offices at which point all signed agreements and documentation were handed across, so Richard Moxon was starting out in no doubt whatsoever as to the status quo and our party‟s expectations. Four days later, on 27 February 2001, Sandra Jobling wrote to lay out the terms as she perceived them. In her email she clearly states that it was her understanding that the rights would be assigned jointly to both companies. Sandra wrote: “This would mean we would both jointly hold the rights and the option.” “ For clarity we agreed that both companies would hold the copyright to the work” © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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As such, even if Richard Moxon had not quite grasped the situation from my explicit verbal and emailed instructions, this surely ought to have enlightened him very succinctly. He never once gave any indication that he was confused about which elements we all considered to be the priorities. He never suggested that he was in any way confused about his instructions or did not understand the expectations of all parties. I do not believe he was ever in doubt about what we wanted out of the contracts.

As a fee to renew the option had been paid, five days into the second period we had received a disturbing email from the author‟s agent dated 5 March 2001 stating that the author had instructed the agent not to take further action until contracts are signed. Such an act would have been in breach of our agreement. Pressure applied by Robson Green‟s company? Maybe, however there was no way that Circle Multimedia was holding up the procedure. Quite the opposite was true and we already had a signed heads of agreement.

In fact, I had been urging Coastal from the outset to ratify its position, as stated in its letter 22 October 1999 and move to signing contracts. Added to this fact, there was already a signed Heads of Agreement binding us over the literary work. I sent a rather curt response to the agent the following day and passed the matter to the lawyers so that a stronger assertion could be sent out. By 7 March 2001, I wrote to lawyers relating to Sandra Jobling‟s continued wrangling over the terms, pending the deadline with ITV. With BBC back-up, my emailed instructions to Richard Moxon were: “Jenny and I feel you can take it as close to the edge as you need … and settle on a standard deal – as time approaches her personal deadline.”

Although initially, Richard Moxon had felt it was not necessary to write formally to the agent in reaction to her correspondence of 5 March, some time between that date and the 14 March he had changed his thinking on the matter and decided to write to “put a marker down for Ms Gregory”

The contract we had engaged the law firm to provide was a co-production agreement. We had already signed on a 50:50 deal under the proposed company title Intrigue Productions and Hamlins had prepared papers ready to incorporate this company. This 114

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company was to contract with Coastal and Circle Multimedia would assign the rights down to the joint venture. On 20 March having sight of an early draft of terms, I wrote to Richard Moxon querying his modus operandi. I wanted to know why the contract draft had suddenly changed from the co-production agreement to an Assignment to Coastal and did not appear to be doing the deal in the way we had proposed originally ie to the joint venture Intrigue Production and Coastal. It was contracting Circle to Coastal “I do not understand the benefit of doing it the way that is suggested”

The deal terms had shifted so radically that it was difficult to get a sense of our position because the set up had altered drastically. I also listed another eight points which I felt it was necessary to query. These included credits specifications and ensuring direct accounting which I had said from the outset was a deal breaker. I had specified that our company should receive a credit listing at the end of each episode which should be in size and prominence equal to that afforded Coastal Productions.

In addition, we [Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess] were to be afforded individual credits as Co-producers of equal prominence and size as that afforded Sandra Jobling as Executive Producer. Though I was subsequently led to understand from Richard Moxon that the wording included „gave a high degree of protection‟, but this has proved not to be the case. The fact was it rested on Coastal Productions behaving honourably and giving the broadcaster an itemised list of contributions made by the co-producer company. Furthermore, I have since discovered that a direct accounting method is the most usual system of payment where a collection agency distributes funds fairly to two or more coproducing parties according to agreed terms of their contract.

Most of my queries did not get adequate replies in writing. In phone conversation the attitude was one of condescension where I was lead to understand that the suggested approach was the best way to achieve the deal we had specified we were seeking and that it afforded us a rather “high degree of protection”. So we were led to believe!

On 22 March I wrote to Richard Moxon requesting adjustment to the draft contract: the word “NOT” in clause 11.2 I had realised denied our participation in the revenues of repeat screenings. I requested that the word be removed to ensure our participation in © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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profits earned through repeats. Reiterating the amendment on 26 March 2001 as my previous emailed instructions had not been acted upon. Later on 26 March, I sent a further email in which I referred to the removal of the word “NOT” the third request referencing this point and in this email. I also added a very pertinent query which seems to have been ignored, as to whether the rights protection would not be better served by: “any work that features the character „Tony Hill‟ in case it is changed or turns into an ITV franchise.”

This very clear instruction was emailed a full 10 days before contracts were prepared for signing. Without these amendments included we were left only to assume that the wording chosen, by Richard Moxon whom we believed was an expert in the field of media contracts, would be tailored to our specialist needs, and protected our rights according to the original instructions he had been given, at the outset. We had no way of knowing at that point in time that he may not have followed my original instructions: “Our priorities are maintenance of the rights with an automatic right to any successive series based on the Tony Hill character and the financial return ….”

We are not lawyers and having expressed our intent quite clearly therefore we have to place trust in those whose services we engage, and pay to act on our behalf, with confidence that they are acting to protect our interests and our rights. If we knew all the answers we would not need to employ „industry experts‟ to draw up the documents.

When we make a purchase that fails to meet specifications we expect that we are protected by the statutes. If a product is not of merchandisable quality, the law holds that the manufacturer is accountable and as customers, we have a right to redress from that company. Knowing that solicitors and other professionals, to meet legal requirements, have to have negligence insurance we assumed that the law similarly protects citizens and companies against inferior service provision by those professionals.

These solicitors were at the top of their game as media specialists and therefore we took it for granted that we were protected and that the contract the firm had produced followed our instructions and catered for our specified needs. The engrossments were 116

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prepared in the first week of the new financial year. Further to this the contracts were signed on 6 April 2001.

In the period immediately following the signing of the contract with Coastal, we resumed working on our other productions and writers got to work on the first draft scripts for Wire In The Blood. Reports in the first month were sent every couple of weeks. They were sent through for us and appeared to be authored by Sandra Jobling. On 8 May 2001 an email informed us negotiations for Wire In The Blood had been finalised between Coastal Productions and ITV. The confirmation in the form of a letter of intent was issued by Simon Johnson ITV Controller of Legal and Business Affairs dated 3 May 2001. This, subject to contract (2947), detailed all the main terms agreed by both parties and was signed by Sandra Jobling on 11 May 2001, returned immediately with copy to us. We asked why our company name was missing but we got no meaningful response.

The tripartite contract (2947) agreement was signed by ITV, Coastal and the Licensee. Yorkshire Television Limited had been nominated The Licensee by ITV to perform the compliance and production monitoring role and would also cash flow the production budget. The YTV representative named was Filip Cieslik and ITV Commissioning Executive named was Nick Elliot – Circle Multimedia/Intrigue Production as coproducer was not included. To be deliver by 5 March 2002 the first episode then weekly thereafter for five more weeks with a running time of 49‟ 30” (forty nine minutes thirty seconds) and the license fee payable to the producer for the programme £4,050,000 (four million and fifty thousand pounds sterling).

Over that first quarter year, script writers were contracted and the adaptations began for the pilot series. As far as casting was concerned, we had made it clear to Coastal that Phil Shaw was in line for the position. It was Phil, after all, who had spotted the novel. It was Phil who had got us all involved, effectively had started the whole production. If it was not for Phil none of us would have had the project so we had asked Sandra to honour that for him. The tripartite document contained the synopsis that had been supplied by Circle Multimedia having been written by Jenny Burgess. We had mapped out the entire strategy for Coastal. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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„Honour‟ is a very big a word. Sandra, blaming her decision on ITV Network Centre, engaged alternate casting directors. We were livid that we had gone back on our word with Phil. Of course, he took the news very professionally but I am sure he felt we had let him down. Still he continued to provide cast suggestions and had made approaches but several months down the line Sandra complained that she was being inundated with calls from agents and asked us to stop putting out notices.

The co-production relationship went steadily downhill from this point onward. It became increasingly obvious that Coastal did not want any input from Circle Multimedia or its agents. Though Sandra Jobling followed our strategy, to the nth degree there was no further consultation as the contract stipulated. Personally, I believe that was Coastal‟s intention from the start. This may have been fine had they kept to the agreed terms on payments to our company.

Of course, we had already made our contribution in laying out the entire strategy and assembling the team. We had fulfilled our contractual terms and expected to see the returns. With hindsight, it is very much easier to see now than it was at the time. Looking back now, I can see just how from the very outset Robson Green‟s company worked to undermine the relationship and prepare the ground to pull the production away from its originating producer company at the very earliest opportunity. It gives lie to the very first clause of the agreement signed between the parties on 6 April 2001 stating that it was the intention of the companies to work together: “A. Coastal intends to produce the Programme (defined below) with Circle; and B. Circle has entered into an Option (defined below) with the Author (defined below) dated 1 March 2000 whereby the author granted Circle the exclusive option to purchase the right to adapt the Work (defined below) as a film for cinema or television or television series.”

(quote from opening paragraph of agreement and core understanding upon which whole venture based signed by all 6 April 2001)

Looking across the evidence now, it is difficult to see anywhere that Coastal Productions 118

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behaved in a manner which suggests this statement was true at the time of signing. I now doubt the company directors ever intended to keep their promises which Sandra Jobling had outlined in a letter dated 22 October 1999 stating how she saw the deal:

22 October 1999 letter from Coastal to Circle Multimedia “Please accept this letter as my confirmation that we would like to enter into a co-production arrangement for the above, we have agreed that this venture will involve a 50-50 split and exact terms and conditions can be ironed out in a longer form agreement (if you so wish). I see it very simply that we split everything down the middle between the two companies and have joint approval over all matters both creative and business, this would then extend to personnel.” Sandra Jobling

These statements confirm that the original intention of both companies was of an equal split costs, revenues and creative control. That was the amount we offered to Coastal Productions at the outset. Sandra Jobling, acting on behalf of the company had stated in forthright and unambiguous terms in her letter (above) written to us [22 Oct 1999] indicating that this agreement was so firmly fixed in her company‟s opinion that the need for a longer form written agreement was totally at our discretion, being only necessary she suggests “(if you so wish)”.

We had provided the treatment and business plan for the production and all parties were agreed that the manner we had suggested was the best way to move production forward. Under the terms of the contract, Coastal had just three months to secure the broadcast deal whereupon failure to do so, the rights would return to Circle Multimedia. The Synopsis written by Jenny Burgess of Circle Multimedia was used to persuade all parties to become involved in the project and itself also forms part of the extant tripartite contract between Coastal, ITV and YTV which was signed on the final day permitted by our agreement with Coastal. No accreditation was made and in fact no mention was made of our company‟s involvement within that document yet all these agreements were underpinned by the exclusive rights agreement which I had originally signed with the © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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author Val McDermid. The standard terms agreed prevented the Author exploiting either the film and/or television rights during the period of our contract.

The following synopsis was supplied by Circle Multimedia and forms part of the tripartite contract by which ITV commissioned production of series on 5 July 2001

SERIES SYNOPSIS BY

JENNY BURGESS

Wire in the Blood You always remember the first time. Isn’t that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder ... Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one’s different – this one’s on the loose. In the northern town of Bradfield four men have been found mutilated and tortured. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. Clinical psychologist Tony Hill is brought in to profile the killer. A man with more than enough sexual problems of his own, Tony himself becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional skill and personal nerve to survive. Young girls are disappearing around the country. Everyone assumes they are teenage runaways, headed for the big city and bright lights. They vanish without a trace – society’s disposable children. There is nothing to connect them to each other, let alone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind. Nobody moves around inside the messy heads of serial killers like Dr Tony Hill. After his success tracking down the Bradfield serial killer he’s now heading up the recently founded National Profiling Task Force. He sets his team an exercise: they are given the details of thirty missing teenagers and asked to use their new techniques to discover whether there is a concrete theory, but it is ridiculed by the rest of her group ... until a killer murders and mutilates one of their number. Could Bowman’s outrageous suspicion possibly be true! For Tony Hill, the murder of a member of his team becomes a matter for personal revenge. Aided by his colleague, Carol Jordan, he embarks upon a campaign of psychological terrorism – a game of cat and mouse where the roles of hunter and hunted are all too easily reversed.

These were terms and the entire negotiations were overseen by solicitors. 120

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Chapter 10 Undeterred by the BBC turnaround, in 2001 we re-optioned Alchymist‟s Cat and packaged the production as a feature, having tied a co-production deal with Festival Film & Television. Ray Marshall had the rights to most of Catherine Cookson‟s extensive body of work and had produced a number of them as features for ITV gaining a Bafta for Black Velvet Gown. Ray‟s „credibility‟ was at top level and he came across as a thoroughly decent man. We instantly warmed to him and nothing has ever changed our opinion from day one, which, in this industry seems a rare quality indeed. We had wanted Richard „Kip‟ Carpenter to adapt a screenplay but our first approach had met with a negative reaction so we asked Ray to negotiate with Nigel Britten, Kip‟s agent. The first production meeting took place at Ray‟s offices. It was my first visit to Blackheath Village which I had at first thought an unusual location to site a production office. It had a rather trendy feel to the place that would have sat more comfortably in Fulham than South London. Ray‟s offices were spacious and minimalist in design not at all cluttered as mine always had been.

After a meal at the Thai restaurant, we all retired back to discuss the treatment to ensure that we had a common goal for the adaptation and therefore direct the writer with a single voice. We wanted Kip to get started without delay. Everybody was in attendance Robin Jarvis and Richard Carpenter, Jenny Burgess, Janet and Jessica Ives, Ray and his son Matt Marshall. The assembled group thrashed out our treatment over that afternoon, the main consideration was the way to treat the magical elements in the story and how to deal with the animal characters. The question was whether to have them speak directly using CGI and / or animatronics methods or to use a voice over narration.

The first draft was provided by Kip in a matter of weeks. Over the next three years, the screenplay went through a number of drafts. In our search for a bankable director we looked at all UK alternatives – not easy to find for that genre. Described as Oliver Twist © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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with magic we needed a director who could bring in the FX technology without losing the drama. This would not have been a tall order in US but in UK was very difficult. I wanted to get Charles Sturridge to direct the film. After my first conversation with him, by phone I felt it may be just possible that he could agree to take the production on. He relayed the fact that he was not committed to any production at that time. Looking back I should have immediately put in an offer he could not refuse. Instead I lined up a distributor, Icon and I got two banks in place. The mistake was hesitating! Charles had told me that he had other projects on offer that he was considering so I should have made an immediate move to secure him. Unfortunately, my hesitation cost us dear.

He decided to put his commitment on a remake of Lassie, and despite my later attempts to persuade him otherwise, his mind was made up. Ironically, Lassie had always been a personal favourite of mine, since I was a child and maybe Charles felt the same way about the subject matter. Anyhow his mind was certainly made up and nothing I was to say was going to alter his intent at all. Having now seen the film that he chose over ours, I think he made a bad call and he could have made Alchymist‟s Cat a greater film.

For many years, Jenny had harboured a desire to make a film of the story surrounding 1066 conquest. Declan O‟Dwyer had written a screenplay and Jenny contacted Artists Independent Agency in March 2001 to seek out suitable directors.

Luc Roeg

represented Hugh Hudson who directed the Oscar winning Chariots of Fire. He also had a similar wish and he was given Declan‟s script to read. Although a talented writer and the subject matter fit with Hugh‟s broad canvas, however, it was not exactly the story he wanted to tell. William the Norman Conqueror was actually a blood relative – a first cousin of Harold 1, the Saxon king and Hugh, perhaps unsurprisingly, wanted to tell the story of the macho conflict between them, in the period leading up to the battle of Hastings. I am sure Hugh was correct that it would make a compelling drama and we were prepared to go with his instincts. Expecting that Wire In The Blood would bring us revenues through the sale & leaseback deal, which we knew had to complete by the end of the financial year, we envisaged that we would shortly have the funding to commission a revised script and thus we retained Hugh Hudson to direct Conqueror, promising him his script shortly. 122

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Jenny arranged for us to visit the Hastings site on 14 October 2001 the anniversary of the 1066 battle where a re-enactment of the War of the Roses was taking place. A meeting was set with the mayor of Hastings who provided a very pleasant lunch with a few of the town dignitaries. Jenny insisted that Hugh be in attendance. It was obvious that he was less than happy about this demand upon him, probably because he felt it was a total waste of effort and I have little doubt he would have been absolutely correct. Without a brochure in preparation, I produced a 40 page prospectus for use in raising deficit funding but I felt this was rather starting from the back end forward.

I really do not know what we hoped to achieve at this meeting and the money could have been better spent producing a treatment but Jenny was fronting the costs and she wanted to go this route. I felt it was fairly obvious that the mayor would support any film which would attract attention to the area and bring in foreign tourists. A cameraman was hired for the day to provide video footage to be used in a promotional CD, wasting more precious resources. Still, in Jenny‟s defence, she had no way of knowing at that time that expected funds would not be available later down the line from a Wire sale & leaseback and a CD would have enhanced a presentation package... but not to the detriment of a script.

A writer was located in Hollywood, coming to us on top industry recommendation and approved by Hugh Hudson, we met with him in early December at Beverely Hilton LA but when the funding ran out, it was impossible to start him writing. Hugh put us in contact with several industry heavyweights who could have brought in the distribution deals and the banks would not have presented us with much of a problem.

The week following the recce in Hastings, filming began on Wire In The Blood, in Newcastle. Jenny had arranged that we would visit the production office as filming began but Coastal had made it clear that any such visit had to be at our own expense. Jenny had always expected to start the production with the usual party attended by all artistes and crew – well I am sure that was done and was the likely real reason why our visit could not be accommodated on day one.

The first day of principal photography on Wire In The Blood was also our first purely © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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commercial project. True, we had produced many high class events but they were tied much closer to the charitable missions they supported and as such we took a backward position as is proper in such circumstances. Even though some profits from the Tony Hill productions would go to the various charitable works we perceived this project differently. This should have been different but the North-South divide was never more evident than over that three day stay during which Robson Green did not have the good manners even to greet us.

The hospitality was even worse than we had come to expect. This was our first visit to the country areas surrounding Newcastle so we had looked forward to the trip. Sandra Jobling picked us up from the Copthorne Hotel in a large people carrier. As I remember it Simon Wheeler, the script editor, had been booked to drive us to observe the filming. The first shoot that day was a scene outside the city. Passing the „Angel of the North‟, we travelled through some very beautiful moorland scenery, until we reached a desolate open location where a small group were assembled and several police cars from the „Bradfield‟ force were waiting for the cameras to roll.

On first arrival I had noticed the drop in temperature from what I was used to in London where the density of high buildings shield out the most severe conditions. We were now quite a way north, in late October and the winds were whipping across the flat landscape making it chillingly cold. We stayed about 45 minutes until the shot was in the bag. Before moving on we were introduced to the „killer‟ and I noted that Sandra did not refer to us as co-producers or any other recognisable title reference. I remember thinking at the time that it seemed a bit of a strange introduction but I just set it aside.

Back on the moorland roads, travelling I believe westwards, up and down hills the scenery was just stunning and I noticed what I took to be grouse moving about everywhere on the moors. We passed through some picturesque villages and after about an hour or so driving we arrived at a remote cottage belonging to a ranger that had been found to depict the murder scene. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it fit with the mental image I had formed when reading the book. I felt almost as if I recognised the place and it sent a shiver down my spine. In the garden the torture chair stood ready for the shoot which was scheduled for later the next day. The drive back to the city took 124

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some time and we went back to the hotel to prepare for the evening.

Jenny had emailed the invitation that we would like to take her Robson and Val to dinner. After an hour or so, having showered and changed we awaited Sandra‟s arrival in the lobby. As arranged she collected us from the hotel, took us to a central Newcastle restaurant where we dined with some of the crew. This is not quite what we had in mind. The restaurant was nice and obviously regularly frequented by media folk as either Ant or Dec were on the next table. I recall Sandra remarking on the fact but my back was to that table so it was out of my range of sight. Sandra‟s husband Ken who now worked in the office of Coastal Productions had joined us, and he seemed like quite a pleasant man. He had a catering background and happily ran through the menu making his recommendations. Also there was Simon Wheeler, the script editor, who had accompanied us around the sets earlier in the day. Simon was an amiable fellow who contributed most of, what we considered to be, the interesting conversation that was generated that evening. I recall earlier in the day, Sandra had made a point of informing us about his military upbringing, dwelling on the fact that he had a notable father or something along those lines. I think we were supposed to be impressed. I probably would have been but the truth of the matter was, I had never heard of him, so it was all totally lost on me.

It proved to be a very long evening. I remember a considerable portion was spent listening to Sandra‟s scathing monologues as she detailed the catalogue of faults suffered by the famous personalities she had encountered at some award ceremony or other. My mind drifted back to the kettle crisps placed on the floor at lunch and I realised how impossible was the task of matching up to those high standards. I was in little doubt as to the real point she was attempting to make! There was a constant need to score points on everyone, to give the impression that they were part of the in-crowd. I think it made her feel more accepted to be so familiar with those players who had already achieved status. I just could not wait to escape and return to civilisation.

The next morning Jenny and I spent a few hours wandering the city area, taking in the atmosphere of Newcastle along the Tyne. Coastal‟s offices were just a short hop from © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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the hotel so we made our way there on foot. The afternoon filming was in Newcastle city centre. Val McDermid was on set, having been given a bit part to play a journalist but for whatever reason she was not available for us to meet up with. Sandra had some business to sort with the accounts so we made a stop at the production office just long enough for her to complete her task and then returned to the Coastal offices.

When we arrived to review the rushes we were surprised to find Robson Green already seated there going through the day‟s footage. Sandra made the introductions. We had always dealt with Sandra Jobling and not met with Robson Green up to this point. Jenny always placed great store by the face to face meeting and I was equally convince that her method was sound. Instantly, we felt hostility. I am naturally suspicious of people who avoid eye contact and I remember making a mental note of this factor. Maybe he felt ill at ease with us. I cannot say but there was absolutely no openness or indeed any conversation, not a single word and, considering this was his first meeting with the coproducers who had brought his company such a prize possession as, Wire In The Blood he had to be either very ill mannered or his behaviour was, simply by design. This was certainly not the way we had always envisaged our first production. We had approached his company in the spirit of open collaboration.

We were not their enemy, although that was how they had treated us from the outset. We had brought them a great production, on a 50:50 deal, all the elements were mapped out and the synopsis written. There was nothing more required - what we had taken them was a potential goldmine! So, why did they have such a hostile attitude towards us? Sandra had given us some clues. She had told us on several occasions that the some of the previous companies with whom they had worked had stung them financially. These companies were big and powerful and at the time Robson Green was just beginning to develop his career. These companies had brought the literary work to each production and Robson Green was attached as a jobbing actor. But, he was ambitious and wanted ever more control. With the power that he had tasted and the profits made from the release of Unchained Melody, he had seen a way of achieving it. I believe initially the plan included Jerome Flynn but he soon outweighed his usefulness when Robson found his Banker, Sandra Jobling and together they set up Coastal Productions Limited. From then on, it became a condition of Robson Green‟s terms of engagement that his company 126

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was signed as a Co-producer. As such the company would be afforded a credit listing and be paid a token 1% fee. Sandra had revealed at the outset that because Robson Green now had his own production company, he was of the opinion that somehow the tables had reversed. He decided that Coastal was not going to be domineered – not that we ever intended any such exploit. In his mind, he was convinced that Coastal Productions should take the lead position and we should accept the position of „subjugation‟ that they felt they had always hitherto been made to endure. This is the way he saw the system working and worked systematically to reduce down our percentage of the production. Like the child who suffers at the hands of the playground bully, – liberated from its tormentor, it may often seek a victim of its own to overpower and, from the reversal of roles, derive a sense of status in retribution and revenge. In actual fact, when viewed objectively of course it is easy to see that they have just become a clone of their oppressor.

Robson Green felt intimidated so he got himself a pit bull! With a set of heavy handed morals acquired in the „Banking Sector‟, it would not be difficult to secure the position he so desperately desired. Provided company directors were prepared to double-deal and renege on signed promises, embezzle and steal then anything was possible.

As requested, I had prepared an invoice before leaving London and handed it over for settlement as our contractual terms dictated the initial payment was due on first day of principal photography 22 October 2001. This date was exactly three years to the day since our first approach to Robson Green. Despite the fact that the figures used for the calculation had been taken directly from the ITV contract and the draft budget supplied by Coastal, Sandra Jobling still queried the total. Eventually, the cheques for the first of four front end payments and the development costs were handed over and I recall we dropped the deposit at the Newcastle branch of our company bank. It was the last thing we did between saying our goodbyes and boarding the train back to London.

To add insult to injury, the trip back was problematic! The train was delayed by several hours. Time which we had to spend on the freezing platform whilst we reproached ourselves for having chosen rail travel over airlines and after a tense two days it really was a bridge too far. We were relieved when at last the hold up cleared and we were © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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able to board the train. We quickly found our seats. The journey back was subject to further delays but, at least we were in the warm and we had a table seat near the restaurant car which meant refreshments were readily available. It was too dark to pass the time gazing out of the window so to alleviate the boredom of the long journey, I amused myself by calculating all the investors‟ returns and prepared the cheques. It cut through the boredom plus it ensured that not one of the investors would have to wait for his payment from Circle Multimedia if I could help it.

Our trip to Coastal Productions had not been the most pleasurable experience. We never did make a return visit.

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Chapter 11

Ten days later, we flew out to Los Angeles to meet with the writer for Conqueror. The terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York had taken place only the month before and the airport was crawling with security. Everybody was on edge, ourselves included. Never had such an act been committed and it had given everyone a jolt of enlightenment regarding security matters. Passengers were all checking each other out constantly, we were all wondering whether the person in the next seat looked suspicious.

I had always enjoyed flying and had travelled extensively. This flight was not like any other I could remember and I was not in a relaxed frame of mind for any of the journey. Travel time was a full twelve hours. Unlike my anorexic frame, Jenny was tall with the statuesque figure of an opera singer which prohibited our travelling twelve hours in the small economy seats so we had booked business class. It was still far from what one would term luxurious and a long way from the comfort of first class. Smoking was banned so I was decked in patches to get me through the flight.

We expected security delays so we had stayed the previous night at an airport hotel to ensure that we were able to get to the departure desk on time. During the evening, the TV news reported another flight had come down in the Alps – just great! With public opinion on the edge, all such reporting was suppressed so as not to cause undue alarm. I wondered whether we would actually make it to LA in one piece. What we should have done was got ourselves a sedative for the flight and slept the whole journey. For whatever reason, we failed to do this so we got virtually no sleep the entire trip and with the time difference to deal with as well, we were not in very good shape on arrival.

I had taken a course of antibiotics the week before we left, to quell yet another ear infection but almost immediately we arrived, this flared up again. I was in great amounts of pain and running quite a fever. I now know that the cause of this was most likely the result of the health condition of which, I was still unaware. I put it down to having contracted an infection. After 3 days, I was so ill I had to get medical help. The doctor provided by the Hilton was in two minds whether to hospitalise me and prescribed some © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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miracle pills to get me on my feet again. After 36 hours of unconsciousness, in the hotel room, I seemed to improve and was then able to get up. Jenny had arranged the full diary of meetings with agents and studios so I needed to be operating at full strength to make all my commitments.

Phil Shaw had made a few phone calls and set up a contact with Visionary Entertainments who managed the Buffy star David Boreanaz, an actor Jenny had spotted and wanted for the part of William the Conqueror although her enthusiasm was not shared by Hugh. Over lunch we discussed with Tom Parziale the possibility of his client filling this role. Back in England, I had spoken to the management for Viggo Mortensen who I had in mind to play the Saxon Harold. This was in the period before Lord of the Rings catapulted his name into the stratosphere of Hollywood stardom.

Tom was a perfect host, charming and witty and knew just how to play the game, which Jenny loved about him. We enjoyed a nice meal and laughed a lot. Then he dropped us at Fox Studios where we were due to speak with producers about another film project on our slate that we had been working on for some time, based on the life of a Scottish clairvoyant war medium Helen Duncan and which we had already had several writers prepare treatments for but had still not settled on any particular writer.

Concern for security was at fever pitch. Every place we went, there were road blocks and every part of our transport vehicle would be checked. Using long sticks with mirrors attached they were checking under the vehicle body; security personnel would scan under the seats, the engine, the glove-box and the passengers would be swept with detector devices. Finally, a sniffer dog would circle the vehicle. The security at Warner Bros studio lot was so rigorous that we failed to even get passed the porters desk the first day, blocked on some technicality. Despite our ability to prove bona fide intentions, substantiated by on-site studio personnel and evidenced by written confirmation, we had to return the following day. Such was the level of paranoia in the immediate aftermath of the twin towers destruction of 9\11.

Jenny, ever the romantic was very buoyed up by the idea of playing the role of big shot producer in Hollywood. I believe the trip gave her a sense of having realised in some 130

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way a dream, she had nurtured since her early childhood and made up in some small way for all the bitter disappointment she had felt over the Wire In The Blood filming fiasco.

As a realist myself, I did not share these romanticised feelings. I had already travelled extensively and stayed in many foreign countries. I had now lost count. In my younger days, as a governess at the Iranian Embassy, I had lived a luxurious and privileged lifestyle. By comparison, Tinsel Town appeared to me, just that – about as real as the celluloid dreams it existed to create. Not that I had anything against the North American culture per se, I had lived in Ottawa for a year but Canada seemed to have the best of both worlds.

LA by comparison lacked the gravitas afforded by the old style architecture of its neighbour and though the road lay out is very geometric, there is little else to suggest much in the way of town planning. Still, I would not spoil Jenny‟s enjoyment, trying to acquiesce as much as possible. The weather was great. We were staying at the Beverley Hilton, a nice hotel and in a good central location on Wilshire Boulevard. The rooms were spacious, the food exceptional and with a limo at our disposal – one could hardly complain! Jenny had planned our agenda in fine detail, cramming in as many meetings as she felt it likely we could realistically manage but after the first week in which I almost had to be hospitalised though ill health, I had had enough. Jenny was starting to grate on me with the „star struck in Hollywood‟ act and I was missing my kids, my animals and my family – in her single status, such concerns understandably drew little sympathy from Jenny.

So, to ease my feelings, we flew up to Seattle to spend the weekend with my brother-inlaw who lives just to the south of the airport, in Tacoma, in a picturesque waterfront property, on the edge of the Sound. Though another flight was the last thing I needed, it was family and I had not seen Steve for over four years. The flight up the west coast was fascinating. It was an area I had never visited before and the aircraft flew for quite some way at low altitude beneath the cloud cover so we had a panoramic view of Malabo beach, the mountains and national park. For the first hour I was absolutely glued to the cockpit window. Then as we climbed the view was obscured by clouds and the arrival of © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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the meal broke my concentration.

Shortly before arrival at Seattle the plane flew over Mount St Helens which several years earlier had erupted and had caused such devastation to the surrounding areas. The weekend with the family was just what I needed. The area around the Sound is scenically very beautiful and the air a great deal fresher than LA. Steve is such a comedian that he managed to lighten my mood considerably. I got to meet my new sister in law for the first time, a total delight and she and made us feel very welcome. It was my first trip and I was keen to see Seattle. I felt much more fortified than I had been on the outward journey and in this stronger condition I was better able to endure the remaining part of the stay in LA.

Among the numerous studio visits Jenny had arranged for us, was a VIP tour of Universal. As I chatted casually with the guide, my conversation ran to our involvement with the charitable initiatives. At that time, I had managed the rehoming service for ten years. I loved animals, especially cats but I had a deep, fondness for dogs.

I was a keen obedience trainer with my own dogs plus I would quite often take any problem cases with me to classes and normally pulled their behaviour around in a short space of time. I attended several clubs run by police dog handlers and the club which was my regular membership had won Crufts for its agility and obedience teams just a few years earlier. The comparison of different training methods this afforded, had considerable advantages as it enabled us to sort the behavioural problems in difficult cases coming in to the charity.

Making light of my fascination for training, I mused that it had probably grown out of my childhood obsession for Lassie films, which to this day I still love to watch. It was just a casual remark, true but then I instantly set it aside as we moved on to the next location where Psycho was filmed – the famous house looming up ahead of us, stirring thoughts of the production the topic of conversation naturally shifted to horror films. It was early in the day and we had a great deal more studio sets to tour.

So, when much later in the day, our previous conversation long since forgotten, I was 132

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surprised to hear my name announced over the tannoy, ushering me to a seat on a closed set. I had no inclination as to what could be in store, and totally unprepared for the encounter about to take place. Without warning, the studio had prepared a little treat for me and I was presented with one of the canine actors who played the lead role in Lassie.

A beautiful Rough Collie padded out with his head held high, his perfectly groomed coat rippled with every stride, as he made a beeline straight towards me, almost as if the meeting had been pre-ordained. It is probably a regular feature being brought out to engage with the audience but I was so taken aback that I fell in hook, line and sinker. I was just delighted. It was definitely a total Hollywood moment. He was fully aware that he was the „star‟ - he was „on stage‟ and about to meet one of his adoring fans! He knew exactly what he had to do. I was absolutely thrilled.

Over my years with the charity rehoming service, I had encountered many thousands of dogs, neglect and cruelty cases, with all manner of psychological problems that required correction before the animal could be passed to its new owners. The breadth of this experience had left me some degree of expertise in dog handling and canine assessment. I sensed immediately that this dog was totally different from most of those that I had been used to handling.

Only Bruno had displayed a temperament like I saw in this canine actor and of course it had been the reason why he became the AHS mascot. This character had all the self confidence which most of our orphans dogs lacked and I recall it amused me to see what a „diva‟ he was.

In true theatrical tradition, the part of Lassie, a female dog in the stories, is always played by a male actor and there are actually about eight separate dogs used, each of whom performs its specialist action for the Lassie character.

I spent an hour or so discussing with the trainer the various methods used to prepare him for action on set and it served to highlight just how different the world was for this pampered pooch when compared with the poor little orphans who found their way into the hands of my charity. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Of course a dog is a dog the world over and part of their appeal is that in many ways they do share the common characteristic of immediacy. All dogs live in the moment. An appreciation of this is the secret of really successful dog training.

Effective methods can only ever be constructed in a balanced environment with kindness and understanding and that was something upon which we both agreed. Since rescue dogs have often experienced negligent lifestyles, they would learn coping mechanisms which manifest in a variety of anti-social behaviour patterns.

Not surprisingly, the charity employed very similar reward based training methods, to remove these bad habits from its rescue dogs, as those exploited in preparing the theatrical dog, for his acting career. As social creatures, dogs need companionship. Working provides them with a structured activity which satisfies their innate desire to please. It was very obvious this dog was in his element and totally content with life.

Without doubt, we both agreed that the only way to encourage controlled behaviour in dogs is through patience and understanding. The meeting certainly made my day and I can think of no human actor with whom the studio could have presented me, to have made a better experience. It was so totally unexpected and thoughtful of our guide. I am very grateful to Universal Studio personnel for making it happen for me.

So my visit to Universal Studios had turned into something of an event. The encounter with the legend of Lassie had not only made that day a great deal more memorable but it had added value to the whole Hollywood experience that would stay with me long after the trip had ended. You have to hand it to Americans, they sure know how to put the razzle dazzle into a show.

The illness of the first week by then under control, the last few days were spent touring the sights of LA. We went to Sleepy Hollow, where every house was decked with moving scenic panoramas of Xmas decorations. It was like wonderland in lights and an enormous extravagant expenditure of electricity which no doubt added considerably to global warming but was nevertheless, a magical experience and so totally American. 134

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We visited the famous Chinese Theatre, walking the Avenue of Stars, and we jogged a while on Venice Beach before going to see the new Harry Potter film in the evening. I actually fell asleep in the cinema and not because the film was boring but just due to the sheer exhaustive pace of the day‟s hectic schedule.

One of the final nights we dined at Trader Vics with Randy Johnson, the producer of the US Presidential 80th Birthday bash and the daughter of Louis Prima, who like everyone else in LA had a production for which she was trying to find a backer. It was actually a gem – a musical biopic on her father‟s development of swing. I have no doubt it will be a huge hit one day but regrettably we were in no position to assist her in lifting it.

The journey back to London was a great deal more relaxed than the outward journey had been. I no longer felt so ill. The warm weather had been less stressful than the cold English winter we had left behind. It was just two weeks away from Xmas and until our trip to Sleepy Hollow, I had completely forgotten all about it. All the Xmas shopping was still to do at home.

The two week run up to Xmas was taken up with domestic preparations. I was determined that this year I was going to get some rest – after all, most of the industry back room closed over December and nobody expected anything from us so opportunity to catch up. We had to update the business plan we were working to and we were well on target at the beginning of Year 3.

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Chapter 12

The only reason I knew that a Sale & Leaseback deal could be done was because I had joined a finance seminar earlier in the year, where I had learnt about methods of film funding. The seminar was provided by PACT the producer‟s alliance organisation of which we were members and the presentation was given by Mary Booth [Ingenious].

Thus I learnt that having completed a production, the rights owner could sell its interest in the film to a financial organisation and the proceeds would be placed into a holding account where the deposit would attract interest. The film would then be leased back to the producer, over a fixed period of time, and this would be paid for in regular instalments. Calculating the total payment required to meet all the instalments across the life of the leaseback and subtracting this from the sales total [including interest], would leave the producer a profit margin of in the region of 12.5%.

Since the Wire In The Blood total budget was £4.05 million by my calculations, this meant that any sale & leaseback deal arranged over it would net the producers around a half million GBP. Under the terms of the signed agreement, Circle Multimedia was due half of any profits from the production and therefore expected to make from such a transaction at least £¼ million.

I also learned at the PACT seminar that although the facility would remain in place for film financing, following on from the last budget modifications, legislation was closing in on television producers and the method would only be open to TV productions until the end of the financial year. TV producers only had until 4 April 2002 to source deals.

Around this time Richard Moxon had called me on the mobile to say he had heard that a deal was about to go through and that £50,000 was on the table for us to back off. I knew that the Circle profit share should actually be £250,000 which was exactly the Hugh Hudson‟s script requirement. Coastal‟s failure to remit Circle‟s 50% profit share of the Wire revenues was a major stumbling block. Without this expectation we would never have paid such a high retainer fee to secure a director of the calibre of Hugh © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Hudson. After I had rejected the offer – much later, I discovered that the deal finally went through with Ingenous Media, the very same company which had confirmed to me that the current industry practises dictated that all co-production partners should receive their percentages of the residual profit. The notes are still on file.

By this time my health was failing badly although I was still trying to mask it. I can remember meeting with Hugh Hudson and Luc Roeg at the Groucho Club late in the afternoon of 29 June 2002. Of course, they wanted to know why we had not commissioned the writing of the script that we had promised to produce. I had written a full treatment over that Easter period for the basic feature shape but with no dialogue which had been sent out to financiers in the Far East and was ready to send to the US writer when the anticipate funds came in at the end of the next financial quarter.

Hugh had lined up a French contact Philippe Carcasonne to bring in a distributor, Pathé who had met with us at the Covent Garden Hotel the month before. Everything was lined up to begin and all that was needed to light the blue touch paper was the screenplay. I never told them the real reason was that Robson Green‟s company had breached contract and cheated us out of our rightful returns from our own project, consequently reduced expected funds by about £¼ million to nothing.

I guess it would have been easier had I revealed that this was the reason. On that afternoon I was enduring such intense head pains that I could not communicate with anyone. I remember that it had come on in the hour before the meeting started and escalated so quickly. I sat sipping green tea for the whole time unable to engage in any of the discussions which I had to leave entirely to Jenny. It is likely, they were of the opinion that the whole thing was all just an act because I could not face the reality of the situation – I wish it had been! Still, there would have been no point in telling anyone, even if I had known the cause of it, at that time. I was shortly to discover just how serious that cause was.

Hugh and Luc were not happy and got up leaving us at the table. I think Jenny drank another coffee and got me a fistful of pain killers. We finally left knowing that our film had fallen on its face but not quite realising at that point to what extent things would 138

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continue to decline. I was too ill to continue that afternoon and went home. Some time after the dust had settled I managed to track down a copy of Jake Ebert‟s book: My Indecision Is Final relating the events in 1986 and the lead up to the collapse of Goldcrest Films, the company he had set up. What part Hugh played in the company‟s downfall was unknown to me. It was a well discussed saga, in the industry, and I knew that Hugh had been at the centre of the drama. It had been mentioned several times that his association with a project may impact on our ability to get the production financed.

Jenny had brought the matter to my attention and it left me feeling we were vulnerable. I needed to know at least as much as anyone I might approach for funding. I needed to establish the facts for myself if I was to successfully counter this potential opposition since, up to that point, I had not been clear on any the details of the drama.

The company, had been set up as an independent production facility, which in the mid 1980s was hoped would provide a challenge to the domination of Hollywood, but in 1986 had fallen around a production for which Hugh Hudson had been retained as Director, entitled Revolution – a feature film set in the American Civil War which was being filmed in England using an international cast. The detail of events revealed no particular surprises and it appeared that the book‟s message was that blame could not be placed squarely on any one individual; only the title chosen hinted at where the author considered some margin of error could be assigned. I picked up on the nuances but doubtless, with the wisdom of hindsight all participants would have made alternate choices. One snippet of information did however astonish me and sent shivers down my spine, as I discovered that the address of the Goldcrest office when the collapse occurred was none other than our own registered office address 180 Wardour Street, London. W1. I wondered if maybe there was some negative karma associated with that address – Hugh must have done a double take when he saw it listed on the front of the Conqueror screenplay. He certainly would have if he had known all the facts that I was withholding. The similarity was quite uncanny and the facts I felt would be too cruel to let on to Hugh. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Perhaps not surprisingly though if he had noticed, he made no reference to it. On the surface, there had been no indication that we would not be able to engage the writer. We certainly had all the paperwork in order and had used the services of one of the leading media law firms to prepare and oversee the contracts including that of Hugh Hudson and Robson Green‟s company Coastal Productions.

We had lost momentum on our business plan which hinged on the early projects providing seed funding for later development. Conqueror was irretrievable and in losing the film our company had forfeited the large retainer we had paid to Hugh Hudson. Jenny had provided the company a bridging loan which was also in jeopardy as a result. I was now very much of the opinion that we would need to take Coastal, Robson Green and Sandra Jobling into court to get our deserved percentage of the production profits.

Jenny and I had been brought up to conduct ourselves with some degree of honesty. When we give our agreement and shake hands on a deal, we consider the terms immutable from that point forward. That is a part of personal integrity. Put another way, our pledge our word is our bond. I guess we took for granted the fact that others worked by the same rules. Most people do but that belief does not always have foundation. We had made verbal promises, gave and received undertakings and then furthermore signed expansive contracts.

We had fulfilled every contractual term and the quality of our predictions upon which we had based our treatment and all our business strategy has been proven by subsequent events. We have made employment for a great number of people. And a great number of people are a good deal wealthier as a result of our efforts. We are not looking to receive an unfair portion of the production budget. In our initial position, many executive production companies would have limited the profit share allotment to 30%. But, we had increased the share offered to Coastal as a production fee to a 50:50 deal. We have delivered on our undertakings and are owed under the terms of every contract we had signed. None of it means a thing if one of the parties later flouts a contract‟s authority. 140

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Chapter 13

There was a run of publicity in the week preceding the first ITV broadcast of the new series Wire In The Blood. In a Robson Green interview on Tonight With Jonathan Ross, a trailer was shown and the sting at the foot of the screen read Coastal/ITV-1, totally missing our credit altogether and we wondered whether the actual show tapes which Coastal failed to send copies of, had been similarly wiped. The first broadcast took place on 14 November 2002 and although the Circle Multimedia credit was in place, it contravened the size detail as specified in the contract we had signed with Coastal on 6 April 2001 but our personal credits were missing altogether. Some considerable wrangling went on over the matter of credits in the period after this.

Coastal claimed that it was unable to adhere to requirements relating to the provision of credits as detailed in the contract because it was bound by ITV rulings and that our contribution failed to meet its stringent requirements. Yorkshire Television, who were complying the production, had been asked to intervene and admitted that our contribution would justify a credit however it required Coastal to verify that our contribution was as we stated ... unfortunately, Sandra Jobling refused to do so. Basically, she lied.

As PACT members, Circle Multimedia requested that the company lawyers approach the organisation to request that it mediate which was a service offered to paid members. Coastal had failed to pay the levy and Richard Moxon was on the board of PACT. I suspect this was a contributory reason that we could not gain its assistance. Finally, it was suggested that Richard Moxon was to telephone Colette Galza Senior Legal Advisor at ITV to plead for its intervention and we established ITV was not obstructing. Still, all these avenues closed off and it seemed that our only recourse was to seek redress through the courts. Whether the company lawyers made a serious attempt at gaining the assistance of any of these organisations I cannot say since it later became clear that Davenport Lyons had a vested interest in not having the contract brought under scrutiny as any defect in its construction would throw their competence into question. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Sky guide listing Wire In The Blood as based on a novel by Val McDermid

This first two episodes, shown on two consecutive Monday viewing slots, were an adaptation of the book Mermaids Singing. The remaining four episodes would be based on the book The Wire In The Blood and these would air over weeks three to six. The production standard was high and the public reaction to the show positive. Audience viewing figures hovering around 8.5 million were reported and ITV said to be very pleased with the results and the second series was underway.

On 18 November 2002 Jenny took Richard Moxon and David Gore, our legal representatives from Davenport Lyons to lunch at Joe Allen‟s at the South end of Covent Garden, a nice industry restaurant where the food and service were good to which we would often take business associates. Unlike so many others restaurants, there was 142

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always a decent vegetarian option on the menu for me. And, the interiors were appropriately covered in old production posters with film and theatre memorabilia. I was unable to attend as I had a prior engagement booked at the Ivy with Women In Film and Television where I was having a formal lunch with the group. The guest speaker was to be Nick Elliot Commissioning Editor [Drama] at ITV. I was curious to hear his take on the Wire In The Blood series which he had actually been responsible for commissioning. It had to form part of the talk subject; as its executive producer, coproducers, agents and the author were all women. Added to this, it was only days since it aired in the UK, had sold successfully in all major territories and had screened in Scandinavia. Seating had been arranged, placing me within close proximity of Nick Elliot but we were not in direct line of each other. As predicted the Commissioning Editor‟s talk to the 25 guests [approx] contained references to his new hit show that had unveiled that week Wire In The Blood however for whatever reason he failed to make a point of the fact that such a large proportion of the above line jobs were filled by women. I wondered whether this omission was intentional, the fact was that two thirds of its all women executive team had been denied a deserved credit, a small matter which was overlooked entirely.

I was not sure whether Nick Elliot knew that I was there but, it is likely he would have been prepped. After the meal I made my own introduction as the co-producer of the show and he certainly did not react as I would have expected, had he not known. He was most definitely awkward and I could tell he felt uncomfortable at being cornered by me, so I concluded that he was fully aware of the ongoing battle between our two companies. Although he had said nothing overtly, he did not need to, I had all the answers I required and I allowed him his escape route which he took advantage of, at breakneck speed.

The Australian company Southern Star, had been signed to take care of international sales. This very proactive company went aggressively after international sales deals and did an excellent job of pre-selling the series all around the world. I do not think there are many places left where Southern Star has not sold a Wire in The Blood broadcast deal or a DVD syndication deal. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Contrary to Richard Moxon‟s assertion, we were not able to get direct accounting simply because Coastal had not engaged the services of a collection agent as is the standard. Southern Star would only send out one statement which would go to the collection agent who would disburse according to contract. With Coastal taking this position employing delay tactics, it meant that Circle Multimedia would have to wait for Coastal to account. The contract terms stipulated that the co-producer had to be provided with a statement within 3 months of delivery of the programme. That date was 5 March 2002 and thus the first statement should have been provided by 4 June 2002. This statement should detail the profit made on the sale & leaseback transaction and indicate the value of the invoice which should be drawn. To this date, no such statement has been provided. The company and its legal representatives has been requisitioned to provide this many times since.

The first statements were sent to us in 2003. By this time, Coastal had gained their new reading of the contract and reduced the co-producers share of the production. Added to this the accountants had shaved hundreds of thousands off the profits to repay overspend amounts not covered in the draft budget. Apart from the fact that this shifted the date that the production achieved profitability, it also meant that the original calculation of our fee was wrong. Our agreement was that the budget would be held within the figure provided by the domestic broadcaster, but Coastal was now claiming the total budget exceeded this. Despite all Sandra Jobling‟s assurances that Coastal was absorbing the set-up costs it incurred, as an inducement to lower expenses claimed by Circle Multimedia from the Production Budget. Consequently, we were in fact owed more than I had invoiced for. I constantly requested a copy of the final budget but this still has never been supplied.

Instead of conforming to the accounting dates which were fixed contractually as 4 June, 4 September, 4 December and 4 March, Coastal suddenly announced it had shifted the accounting date to 22nd of the quarter months, As a consequence, each statement would be out of synchronicity by nine months.

Coastal continually asserted that we had been overpaid and justified the further withholding of revenues by citing a bogus precedent . It is my belief that every deviant trick it was possible to muster was applied to the effort of reducing the amount payable, in order to squeeze the co-producer company out of business at the very first opportunity. 144

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I do believe that the company‟s intention was to seize the entire production away from us. Well, if the English legal system and morality of this society permits that to happen, without availing the wronged party the opportunity to seek redress through the legal system then I think we all have serious problems ahead.

This predicament would be serious enough if we were considering only a breach of promise with a contracting party, but to withhold funds destined for community and charitable projects is nothing short of despicable.

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DOCUMENTS

Sky guide listing in contrast to the assertion by Coastal solicitors episode 5&6 listed as based on a novel by Val McDermid

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Documents [For reasons of security signatures are represented graphically Original hard-copies are on file and stored in electronic format] ]

Awards / Robson Green website news and complaints (21 November 2002)

148

E-mail: Chris Nardoni – Warner Bros Syndication (18 November 2002)

150

E-mail: David Gore – Davenport Lyons re: credits (13 June 2002)

151

Letter: Sandra Jobling to Originating Producers (30 July 1999) Letter: Sandra Jobling to Originating Producers (22 October 1999)

152 153

Heads of Agreement ( 7 December 1999)

154

Letter Circle Multimedia to Coastal (12 October 2000)

155

Terms and conditions of the Co-production between (12 October 2000) Intrigue Productions (Circle Multimedia Limited) And Coastal Productions Limited

156

Letter David Gore to Filip W Cieslik YTV (21 March 2002)

157

Letter Filip W Cieslik YTV to David Gore (22 March 2002)

159

Email: Jenny Burgess to David Gore – Davenport Lyons (29 March 2002)

160

Email: Jenny Burgess Detailed Response to Muckle letter (18 May 2002)

163

Email: Jenny Burgess to Legal Dept (3 June 2002)

164

Email: Request for statement of profit to Coastal Productions (28 October 2002)

165

Excerpts from Witness Statement of Jenny Burgess. (2002-3)

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AWARDS

Sandra Jobling picking up a TV award Wire In The Blood Series I On 21 November 2002, our lawyer received a letter of complaint from Robert Muckle, the solicitors for Coastal Productions and wrote to us concerning its content. It concerned an email message they claimed had arrived at the official Robson Green website several days earlier from Chris Nardoni of Warner Bros Syndication. The content was described by them as “abusive ....... highly emotive and threatening language” and “refers, for example, to the „public lynching‟ of Sandra Jobling.”

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The conclusion, which everybody seemed to jump to, was that the information contained in the offending email had to have originated from Circle Multimedia however there were many individuals privy to the facts contained within the text. They made their own deductions and erroneously asserted “it is very clear from the email that only your client could have supplied the information referred to”. Accordingly, they claimed it “is actionable under civil and criminal laws of England” warning that their clients‟ instructions was to initiate proceedings. (Muckle, solicitors wording)

Looking through the documentary evidence, one may feel that the Warner Bros writer had a point. The emails on the following pages may be construed that he got his facts accurate. However, if Coastal consider that it is justified in taking on Warner Bros because it feels it has been misrepresented in this email, then we will all enjoy the entertainment. Readers can make up their own minds as the email and documents are included here for comparison...... This email was sent from US to Robson Green‟s website and forwarded to us via Coastal‟s solicitors with a veiled accusation that the content had come from us. How the information found its way to Chris Nardoni at Warner Bro Syndication has never been established but the strength of his assertions can be compared with the email detailing the ITV position as relayed to us by our legal representative [see the next page] Coastal‟s response to this message was to set their law firm on to the sender, threatening legal action to Circle Multimedia and the sender if any further messages of this nature were sent to the Robson Green website forum - a place which the world understood existed solely for fans and viewers to voice their opinions. Obviously, the only permitted opinions are those that specify positive adoration, as opposed to negative criticism, which must severely curtail the content on the Robson Green website.

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From: Sent: To Subject:

[email protected] 18 November 2002 20:31 Webmaster@ robsongreen.com Thanks for Your Message Monday 11/18/2002

E-mail Message From: Chris Nardoni – Warner Bros Syndication Email: [email protected] Message:

It has recently come to my attention that British production company, Circle Multimedia and their creative personnel, with whom I intend to co-produce a major US/UK TV Series, were individually excluded from the closing credits of “The Wire in the Blood” on UK Television. As I have it on genuine authority that Circle originally optioned the film/Tv rights to Ms McDermid‟s novels, I am appalled that their associate producer credits have been omitted from the programme. This clearly shows that there is something devious at work within Mr Green‟s production company which if he isn‟t already aware of, then he most certainly should be. For a company such as his, to be offered the chance to produce such acclaimed books, and bask in the reflected glory without even giving due credit by name to the producers who initially brought them the novels is despicable. If it were not for Circle, Mr Robson Green and his company would not even have had the chance to dramatize these works. I also understand that Circle were not even invited to the UK press launch. If I‟d had anything to do with this, then Mr Green‟s executive producer would have been publicly lynched by now, but be assured, I have her name, and will certainly not forget it! Yours, Chris Nardoni Warner Bros TV Syndication

Sandra Jobling consistently asserted that the reason she could not uphold her obligation to apply our credits on Series 1 according to the specifications agreed in the contract we both signed on 6 April 2001 was that ITV was denying us on the grounds that we had not made a sufficient contribution to the programme.

Originating the entire series, designing and constructing its treatment and engaging the producer and star is not considered enough ????

The following email lays out the true situation concerning our credits as established by our litigation lawyer who, acting upon the complaint that our personal credits had not been included had called Colette Galza - Senior Legal Advisor at ITV to find out who, or what, 150

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was blocking inclusion of our names at the end of the Series 1 (episodes 1- 6) .. At least we had a corporate credit on series 1. Series 2 – 7 saw Circle Multimedia‟s credit also dropped along with our personal accreditations. And no explanation offered!!!

From: Sent: To: Subject:

Tracey Prevett on behalf of David Gore 13 June 2002 17:28 [email protected] Coastal Productions Limited

Dear Janet and Jenny I spoke to Colette Galza today about the issue of the credits.

She said that ultimately this was a decision for the Compliance Lecensee, in this case Filip Cieslik and he had made his decision and she had confirmed to him that she was happy with that decision. I said that that decision had been made without the benefit of all necessary information and that, in fact, when I had provided point by point details of your contribution, Filip Cieslik had indicated that most of the items probably would amount to a sufficient contribution to enable you to have your individual credits under the ITV Credit Rules. In other words, this was the last position that I thought he had adopted and it was only Coastal‟s reaction to those points that prevented you from getting those credits. I pointed out the inconsistency in Coastal‟s attitude from agreeing that you should have individual credits in the contract, putting forward your claim (albeit neutrally) in the early part of the year to YTV but then attacking that claim when it was made in writing to Filip Cieslik in March. She saw the point that I was making. I have left it that she will speak to Filip Cieslik and possibly to Sandra Jobling to see if she can persuade them to agree to the credits. She said she would get back to me in a few days. She said that this was the first time that she could recall an issue of this nature arising although there were occasionally issues internally. I left her with no uncertainty about your strength of feeling. I suspect if it was up to Filip Cieslik and her they would probably agree but I am far less sanguine about Sandra Jobling..

Yours sincerely David Gore

It was all a very long way from the original understanding between our two companies. The original letters by Coastal‟s representatives are on the following pages. This was the stated intention sent three years earlier, at the beginning of project development, when we had control over the rights to the literary work. This should be contrasted with the second letter [page 151] which was written some 3 months later and an entire year after receiving the synopsis and treatment documents compiled and produced by Circle Multimedia Ltd. As letters went out informing all parties of our involvement, ie ITV legal dept, Gregory & Radice, Val McDermid and Yorkshire Television then one can only assume that they each chose to take a complicit role in what the full set of documentation might suggest was a premeditated breach of promise.

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Emailed to Circle on 30 July 1999

Coastal Productions Ltd 25 B BROADCHARE THE QUAYSIDE NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NE1 3DQ TEL: 0191 222 3160 FAX: 0191 222 3169 Company Directors: Robson Green Sandra Jobling VAT Reg No 686 6726 77 Company Reg No 3166162

Jenny Burgess, Philip Shaw Trading as Intrigue Productions The Quadrangle, Second Floor, 180 Wardour Street, London WV1 3AA

30 July 1999 Dear Jenny and Philip, Re: WIRE IN THE BLOOD Further to my messages left today on voicemails and mobile, I would just like to reiterate that Coastal and Robson still definitely want to pursue the above with Robson playing the role of Jacko Vance. I have managed to pin Robson down to re-read both the initial treatment and the further treatment, Robson having done this would like to commit to the project, my biggest problem not having arranged another meeting has been his availabilty and not mine.

I have taken the liberty of having an off the record conversation with Caleb which I can fill you in on when we talk, we are working heavily with Caleb at present, so there is already a great rapport with him, Coastal and Robson. I am not sure just how important the meeting with Robson is at this stage, I felt his definite commitment to the role was the most important, I can make a meeting anytime within reason, which we can also have Caleb attend , if you so wished. Robson‟s schedule has been hairy on Grafters, just to let you know we finish Grafters on 18 September and would be able to meet with him sometime after 3 October as he and I are having a short break. As I have said before we could all meet anytime before then hopefully with Caleb if we can pin him down, and then bring Robson in when he is freed up. I do hope this is OK and thankyou for bearing with us.

Speak soon,

Sandra Sandra Jobling

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Coastal Productions Ltd

Emailed to Circle on 1 November 1999

25 B BROADCHARE THE QUAYSIDE NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NE1 3DQ TEL: 0191 222 3160 FAX: 0191 222 3169 Company Directors: Robson Green Sandra Jobling VAT Reg No 686 6726 77 Company Reg No 3166162 Jenny Burgess, Philip Shaw Janet Ives and Carole Burgess, Trading as Intrigue Productions The Quadrangle, Second Floor, 180 Wardour Street, London WV1 3AA

22 October 1999 Dear Jenny, Philip, Janet and Carole, Re: WIRE IN THE BLOOD Please accept this letter as my confirmation that we would like to enter into a co-production arrangement for the above, we have agreed that this venture will involve a 50-50 split and exact terms and conditions can be ironed out in a longer form agreement (if you so wish). I see it very simply that we split everything down the middle between the two companies and have joint approval over all matters both creative and business, this would then extend to personnel. Currently we are embarking on the option with the writers Agent, my understanding is that the cost of an option for two years would be £3,000.00 which would obviously be split between us. We will then pursue Caleb as the potential writer, however we should all be quite clear that I do not think he is available for this until the end of 2000. Robson‟s availability for the role similarly is not until 2001. Any cost outlay need‟s to be jointly agreed by both companies. Hope this is sufficient for the time being, Yours faithfully, Sandra Jobling Sandra Jobling Director

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Heads of Agreement

Between: Intrigue Productions Ltd* of The Quadrangle 2nd Floor 180 Wardour Street London W1V 3AA and: Coastal Productions Ltd of 25B Broad Chare The Quayside Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3PQ [hereafter known as “The Parties”] * [provisional title of the company being established by Jenny Burgess and Janet Ives ]

The above parties have agreed to collaborate as a team on a project provisionally entitled “The Wire In The Blood” based on a book by Val McDermid [hereafter known as “The Project”] for the protection of the intellectual property of its research and development and commercial exploitation thereafter. The future aim of the parties is to proceed to CoProduction Agreement as subsequently agreed by The Parties. Confidentiality regarding The Project will be strictly maintained during the development phase with the exception of such individuals companies or other organisations who are necessary or productive to the furtherance of The Project. The Parties hereby agree not to work on any other directly competitive project and should any one of The Parties at any stage in The Project‟s development wish to terminate their part in the collaboration [or their directorship in the aforementioned company if it has already been established] then they must be prepared to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding The Project. It is agreed that areas of proposed development expenditure including but not limited to optioning/scripting/hospitality will be agreed by The Parties before being expended and any such expenditure will be met equally by both The Parties provided that it is documented and supported by receipts. It has been agreed that net producers profits which result from the commercial exploitation of this production will be split by The Parties in 50:50 ratio This agreement does not constitute any legally binding partnership between The Parties outside of the terms herewith agreed as a joint venture for the development of the project. Each of The Parties warrants that he is entitled to enter into these Heads of Agreement and that he is not bound by any agreement which would render him incapable of performance of these Heads of Agreement and further warrants that his involvement in the Project will not infringe the rights of any third party The terms of this Heads of Agreement are hereby agreed.

Janet Ives

Signed: ................................................................................... Janet Ives For and on behalf of Intrigue Productions Ltd Sandra Jobling

...................................................................................Sandra Jobling For and on behalf of Coastal Productions Ltd This agreement is dated this 7th day of December month in the year 1999 And is to be considered valid and binding as of this date [which will be the date of the final signatory] Address where copy of this document is filed and available to view: 39 York Road Ilford IG1 3AD 154

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Circle Multimedia Ltd The Quadrangle [2nd Floor] 180 Wardour Street London W1F 8LB VAT No: 782 3561 15

12 October 2000 Coastal Productions 25b Broad Chare Quayside Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3DQ

Dear Sandra: Re: Co-production Agreement Taking the terms and conditions thus far agreed as detailed in the attachment to be a summary of the long-form co-production contract to be signed by both parties before 1 January 2001 and on this basis, we the undersigned, being the option holders of the property entitled The Wire In The Blood by Val McDermid hereby grant Coastal Productions Limited the right to contract with Caleb Ranson, as the writer to adapt the property into a screenplay for television. Yours sincerely,

Janet Ives Janet R Ives Executive Producer Intrigue Productions/Circle Multimedia Ltd

Directors: J R Ives; J L Burgess; Co Sec: A Cockayne. © Company All RightsRegistered reserved Janet Ives 2008 in England

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Circle Multimedia Ltd The Quadrangle [2nd Floor] 180 Wardour Street London W1F 8LB VAT No: 782 3561 15

12 October 2000 Terms and conditions of the Co-production between Intrigue Productions (Circle Multimedia Limited) And Coastal Productions Limited

The Property is the literary novel THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD by Val McDermid

1. Coastal Productions Ltd shall be engaged as The Producer 2. Coastal Productions Ltd shall negotiate the commission with ITV 3. Coastal Productions Ltd shall contract the writer Caleb Ranson 4. Coastal Productions Ltd will hold a 50% share on the copyright 5. Coastal Productions Ltd will receive a 50% share of net receipts of UK Worldwide sales 6. Intrigue Productions Ltd will receive a 50% share of net receipts of UK Worldwide sales 7. Coastal Productions Ltd shall pay to Intrigue Productions 1% Production Budget 8. Coastal Productions Ltd shall have creative control over the production 9. Coastal Productions Ltd shall shall raise required production development/ production finance* 10. Credits: Produced by Coastal Productions/ Intrigue Productions 11. Coastal Productions Ltd shall issue a copy of writer‟s contract to Intrigue Productions

*At a fair market rate Intrigue Production/Circle Multimedia reserves the right to propose an alternative lender if our accountant deems the % is too high. These eleven points are the basis of the Agreement under which Circle Multimedia Limited gives Coastal Productions Limited the right to contract the writer and must be signed and returned to Circle Multimedia Ltd The Quadrangle 2 Floor 180 Wardour Street London W1V 3AA before the attached becomes binding. I agree that this summary forms the basis of the Agreement between the Parties

Sandra Jobling

Sandra Jobling For and on behalf of Coastal Productions Limited

Janet Ives

Janet Ives For and on behalf of Circle Multimedia Limited

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Directors: J R Ives; J L Burgess; Co Sec: A Cockayne. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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DAVENPORT LYONS

Your Ref: FWC/JMH/22 Our Ref: DJG/tlp

1 Old Burlington Street London W1S 3NL Telephone +44 (0)20 7468 2600 Fax +44 (0)20 7437 8216

By Fax 0113 222 7190 21 March 2002 DX 37233 Piccadilly 1 Email: [email protected] Web: www.davenportlyons.com

Filip W Cieslik Director of Business Affairs, Granada Content (North) Yorkshire Tyne Tees Productions Limited The Television Centre Leeds LS3 1JS Dear Mr Cieslik Wire in The Blood Credits I am surprised to have heard nothing from you since I wrote to you on 13th March. Clause 3.1.3 of the Assignment of Rights of 6th April 2001 between my client and Coastal provides that “Coastal shall ... credit Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess as individual co-producers” Both you and Coastal have suggested that those credits in your words “were not guaranteed unconditionally but would be subject to the views of the commissioning broadcaster”. That is simply not the case. The only consultation in Clause 3.1.3 is as to the size and prominence of Circle Multimedia‟s Co-Producer credit. My client is determined that Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess receive a proper credit as contractually provided. As you will appreciate this is of considerable importance to them. Before taking legal action my client is required to comply as far as possible with pre-action protocols under the CPR with a view to avoiding unnecessary disputes. You have said in your letter to Richard Moxon on 13th March that you would only reconsider your decision is we were able to demonstrate that Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess have made a substantial creative and technical contribution to this project. Entirely without prejudice to my client‟s rights against Yorkshire Tyne Tees Productions Limited Coastal and ITV Network which are formally reserved, I can confirm that the input of Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess into the programme was as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

They identified the work They conducted meetings with the author and agent to discuss creative treatment and gained author‟s assent to suggested strategy, approach, cast and writers. They negotiated terms and optioned the books They identified ITV as the broadcaster of choice, over the expressed interest from several others, including foreign national Broadcasters and BBC They identified an approach to the star Robson Green They engaged the producer company They prepared and gave to Coastal the initial brief for ITV They discussed with the Author the writing/creation of additional storylines They wrote and gave to Coastal an extensive synopsis and treatment They suggested writers, meeting with Caleb Ranson and his agent Bethan Evans They read and approved the scripts They met with prospective producer and requested his removal from shortlist – subsequently not engaged © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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They identified leading executive producer of BBC „Silent Witness‟ and undertook discussions with Mike Dormer – ITV subsequently engaged its producer Phil Leach onto WIRE They put forward suggestions for directors, including Baz Taylor and David Blair who was a serious contender on the final shortlist They contributed extensive casting lists and their suggestions were largely acted upon – in fact so considerable was this contribution that Coastal requested that Circle reduce its input volume as its office was unable to cope with the resultant number of agents contacting as a consequence They made offers of revenue sources at competitive rates of interest They attended the set for the first days of filming bearing the expense – at Coastal‟s insistence the production could not cover the costs of the visit. They toured fixed sets and location shoot, art department and production offices, viewed dailies/rushes and submitted constructive input on use of music to create atmospheric enhancement. They submitted critique on the fine cut episode 1 and 2

13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18.

19.

On any basis this input is substantial and it is indeed the case that without the creative and practical input of Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess the programmes would never have been made. I would therefore ask on my clients‟ behalf that you reconsider your decision as a matter of urgency and at the latest by close of business tomorrow. If notwithstanding what I have said you feel unable to accord the credits then legal action will follow without further notice. Yours sincerely

David Gore Cc

158

Robert Phillips – Robert Muckle Solicitors Colette Galza – ITV Network Janet Ives Jenny Burgess

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Filip Cieslik Director of Business Affairs GTV& YTTP

(facsimile copy) Direct Line 0113 222 7123 Direct Fax: 0113 222 7190 22 March 2002 David Gore Esq Davenport Lyons 1 Old Burlington Street London W1S 3NL

By FAX to 0207 437 8216 Dear Mr Gore WIRE IN THE BLOOD – CREDITS I refer to your letter of 21 March 2002 in connection with the above. All the proposed credits for ITV productions are subject to the guidelines of ITV. The guidelines are absolutely clear, and as advised in my letter of 13 March 2002, Coastal may only credit those who have made “a substantial creative and technical contribution”. With regard to the listing of production inputs included in your letter, I must advise that a number of the elements which you would use as evidence of your clients‟ involvement are simply not relevant. Accordingly, I would advise that points 1,2,3,4,13, and 16 are not relevant. The other numbered points, if your claims are supported by Coastal, might fulfil the criteria of “substantial creative and technical input”, and I know that Coastal will be responding specifically to those matters in the course of today. We, acting in our capacity of Compliance Licensee, will reconsider the position when we receive a copy of Coastal‟s response to the outstanding numbered items, and shall write to you again. Yours sincerely For and on behalf of YORKSHIRE TELEVISION LIMITED

FILIP W CIESLIK Director of Business Affairs, Granada Content (North) Cc

Chris Wissun Mel Quirk Robert Phillips Colette Galza Sandra Jobling

Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Productions Limited The Television Centre Leeds LS3 1JS Tel:0113 243 8283 Direct Tel 0113 222 7123 Fax: 0113 222 7190 Registered No 1542206 England Registered Office The Television Centre Leeds LS3 1JS

GRANADA

A Granada Company

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From: Sent: To Subject:

[email protected] [Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess] Fri, 29 Mar 2002 18:27:46 +0000 [email protected] WIRE CREDITS - R MUCKLE LETTER

YTV = Yorkshire Television SJ = Sandra Jobling

Dear David Gore:

Our credit is non-conditional in the Assignment Point 1 to 4 YTV have already said these relate to the corporate credit. If YTV deem Circle Multimedia is credit-worthy as co-producer then it must be acknowledged that it was the individuals who comprise the company who actually undertook the work itself. Point 5 Totally Wrong ..... We only suggested Robson Green playing Tony Hill Philip Shaw was present at the meeting with the Author/Agent and witness to this fact. Initial Treatment and Pitch was prepared on that basis. Sandra Jobling raised the possibility of Robson playing the role of Jacko. She states in a letter on 30 July 1999 :“I would just like to reiterate that Coastal and Robson still definitely want to pursue the above [Wire in the Blood] with Robson playing the role of Jacko Vance”

SJ requested we draw up an alternative Treatment based on RG playing Jacko. The existence of these two variations is evidenced further in the same letter [see pt 7] All this is irrelevant, we identified the star regardless of the role he played. Point 6 Coastal Productions was engaged as “The Producer” on 12 October 2000 This agreement was signed by Sandra Jobling and Janet Ives and is still on file as evidence. It was drawn up as a shortform agreement to accompany a letter enabling Coastal to engage Caleb Ranson as writer and to be followed by an extensive Co-production Contract by 1 January 2001. Point 7 Coastal has admitted that we provided the synopsis for Wire In The Blood Our development expenses insofar as we submitted them were repaid: and testify to the fact that all the running in development was made by Circle. But as for “handsomely paid” we dropped £10,000 on the basis that SJ told us she would not be taking a fee from the production. We are still owed money – as detailed in the Budget?? If Robson now claims not to have been influenced by either treatment then why, on 30 July 1999, did Sandra Jobling write:“I have pinned Robson down to re-read both the initial treatment and the further treatment, Robson having done this would like to commit to the project ...”

Yes, the synopsis pre-dates the programme. Would it have been any use to write a synopsis after the event? What a stupid remark! Point 8 Coastal has admitted that we met with the author for discussions unknown. How would SJ know what was discussed since she was not at the meeting nor had her company been approached at this time. It was on the basis of these discussions that we moved the production forward. Val McDermid met with us to discuss various aspects of how we might translate her works to film. All creative aspects were discussed in particular Robson Green playing the part of Tony Hill. We discussed how the author would feel about writing the screenplays herself – she was not interested as it did not pay enough. We talked about creating new story lines around her characters and extended the option to cover 160

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the other books containing the Tony Hill character – she asked that we did not kill any of them off as this would create problems for her in writing new books. Point 9 Coastal has admitted that we produced a synopsis and treatments for Wire. Point 10 Coastal has admitted that we were actively involved in engaging the writers. We did not meet Bethan Evans on Coastal‟s suggestion but knew her already via Philip Shaw and met her to discuss various writers for WIRE. We have the evidence in fax letters to show that they were providing CVs of clients as suitable writers for WIRE in late 1998. Yes Coastal brought Caleb Ranson [represented by Bethan Evans] to a meeting so we could assess his suitability on the basis they were already working extensively with him. It was originally agreed he‟d write the script printed in Broadcast Magazine Xmas 2000 [prior to signing of the Assignment] but then we were informed he had to withdraw because of conflicting commitments although Sandra wrote more than once to say the project would be in jeopardy if he pulled out ... clearly not so though. So what can we believe? Point 11 Where does our contract state we must supply script notes for the production We were happy with what we read and said so in various correspondences via email. First draft script was accompanied by a note to say that „for speed‟ editors notes had already gone to the writer and told that rewrites were underway. Hardly in the spirit of consultation – dictation would be a more appropriate term. Point 12 We were invited to meet with a potential producer Coastal proposed Bill Boyes We did not share SJ‟s enthusiasm for this producer. Reports we had been given lead us to believe he would not be the best choice and we made this clear. His name was subsequently dropped from the shortlist. Sandra may have a selective memory but we have the letters. Point 13 We suggested recruiting from Silent Witness production team Mike Dormer [BBC TV] Drama of the Year award winner – the year in question. We identified his team who made „Silent Witness‟ for BBC [Exec = Mike Dormer] as the most desirable production team for WIRE. We spoke with Mike Dormer as the potential Executive Co-producer and he wanted to pursue this for BBC; but we chose ITV/Coastal/Robson. Therefore when Coastal revealed that one of its Producers, Phil Leach had been secured for WIRE we were delighted. It is very convenient for SJ to now profess not to know who Mike is, especially as it was he who provided character references for us at the same time as being all over the news having won Best Drama for Warriors that very month. Either SJ thinks we are as green as grass or she does indeed have her head in a very deep sandpit! Point 14 Coastal has admitted that we were actively involved in engaging directors It is irrelevant if Baz Taylor [The Bill] was shortlisted – we suggested him, it was our prerogative under the contract to do so. It is irrelevant that David Blair was on Coastal‟s list – it is a coincidence as he was also on ours. We had no idea who was on their list when we brought his name up and what does it matter anyway? Input means exactly that – it does not say in the contract or by YTV that their input has to have been taken up merely that we took an active part of the the process of selection. Point 15 Coastal has admitted that we were actively involved in engaging cast Philip Shaw on our behalf was asked to supply casting suggestions – he did so. As he was representing Circle he was therefore correctly citing himself as the co-producer according to the Assignment that was our position. How can making suggestions on cast and their agents contacting the WIRE casting people be a problem? Having too much interest is a problem? How were we to have any input if we were actively forced not to DO anything?? We agreed to have him stop in order to preserve harmonious relations with Coastal

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Point 16 Finance is ALWAYS relevant! What a totally stupid comment! Offering to find finance is ALWAYS relevant to everything and it testifies that we were ready and willing to fully involve ourselves as co-producers in this respect Point 17/18 Coastal has admitted that we were present for filming Sandra herself limited our visit since according to her executives [including herself] make the crew jumpy – we wanted to be there much longer. We spent those two full days on set and during which we viewed and commented on rushes and discussed with the team, all the various aspects of the production, to ensure that our original vision was being adhered to – was this not input??? Point 19 Coastal has admitted that we submitted a full critique on episodes 1 & 2 We were sent only ep 1 in fine cut – we responded to say it was looking good but waited for ep 2 so we could return a fuller critique BUT this ep 2 was sent ALREADY PICTURE LOCKED!!! So it was too late. Nevertheless we still forwarded remarks. We asked time and again for fine cuts on 3/4/5/6 but HAVE RECEIVED NOTHING CIRCLE is not a broker – we are the originating producer and made the approach and offer on the books before we even knew Coastal; wrote the pitch for ITV, the synopsis and two treatments; opened the dialogue with the Agency to find writers; actively participated in the identification of key personnel, monitored all the production activities and provided the backstop of deficit funding. This is the position of a Co-producer Our contract states due credits and does not say we have to do anything to get them. Only that the size and type of the corporate credit of Circle and Coastal [which must equate] will be made in consultation with the Broadcaster. This condition was known when the contract was made with ITV and if anything was in the guidelines that would prohibit Coastal‟s compliance with any clauses, it should have been brought to our immediate attention. Coastal would not have been in a position to sign if this situation was apparent at the outset and I would construe such action as duplicitous – and as conspiracy to defraud us. Also surely the guidelines that were in place at the time of signing should have been those upon which the consultation was based.

Jenny Burgess Jenny Burgess Executive Producer Circle Multimedia

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From: Sent: To Subject:

[email protected] [Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess] 18 May 2002 19:59 [email protected] The Wire In The Blood

DAVID: herewith a copy of the email to Sandra Jobling dubbed “intimidating” by her solicitors [well I suppose it is if one cannot answer the questions without shooting oneself in the foot] Janet and I agreed I send it following her unqualified refusal to send us the tapes of the series. As you will see it is just a list of questions to which we are entitled to receive honest answers as a co-production partner. J Burgess Dear Sandra I have read your fax correspondence of 13 May 2002 and Janet‟s email response to you of today‟s date and I am confused as to what is going on here. So on Circle‟s behalf I am going to address issues numerically and ask questions relevant to the situation generally. Please will you address and answer each one in turn honestly and fully: 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

8.

9.

Your first fax of 13 May 2002 in response to our fax/email of 7 May 2002, could you please explain what you mean by the last paragraph beginning “For clarity”? It makes no sense, what is it referring to? Circle is your co-producer in this production. Our contract states in the opening clause that Coastal intend to produce WIRE with Circle Multimedia – QED a co-producer is what we are. Do you dispute this? As your first fax of 13 May 2002 rightly identifies we have a 50% financial share in this production so why does your second fax of 13 May 2002 say that you consider we do not have a stake in it? These are contrary and conflicting statements are they not? Stake and share allude to the same. Our 50% financial share gives us a 50% stake does it not? Why will you not allow us to see the tapes of the series when in various letters this year you promised Circle that you were sending them to us sequentially after delivery? Why have you broken your promise, your written word? What has changed that you will now not send them to us? As Circle‟s name is attached to the production, as our name will be on the production credits we must see the tapes and should have seen them before any other party – and yet there has already been a public screening! Why did you not keep your word and send the tapes after delivery? Circle must be reassured this is a production we will want our name on and it is very suspicious that we cannot see the tapes – is there something wrong with the production? Is it to do with the fact that you no longer have the deal you had with ITV? Have the goalposts changed with your status with Robson Green in a way that affects our production? We note that ITV have said Robson will be working with other producers too, does this mean you would no longer automatically be Producer for a possible series two of WIRE IN THE BLOOD? We see that Robson is now London based? Why have you omitted Circle‟s name from international publicity releases when you have stated other co-productions – why is our name not alongside that of Coastal as a co-producer? Is it that you think by hiding Circle‟s identity and involvement you feel you somehow elevate Coastal and yourself more? Does not honouring our role and right achieve that? We would like to give you the honest advice that if so you make a rod for your own back in so tainting your first production. Why have you maligned Circle‟s name to Yorkshire Television by way of not honestly representing our contribution? Why do you act so deliberately mean –spirited and petty a fashion towards Circle over these issues? Why do you show no gratitude or sense of professional honour whatsoever toward a partner who openly brought you an excellent project and enabled you to make not only your first independent commission but also created one of Robson‟s best roles? When we have always acted in good faith with you why do you act in bad faith towards us? It is not worthy of an industry professional is it? Interest on the fourth overdue instalment of the Production Fee: why does your lawyer say this is not payable? Coming as you do from a banking background rather than a media one, you know that interest would have accrued on this money whilst it has been in your account – which is presumably an interest bearing account? As we were fair enough to allow you to equate the Contract with the last day of delivery [April 9 2002] for making payment rather than the first date of delivery [5 March] when it should have been rightly paid, do you now refuse to pay us interest on money that has been overdue to us for at least six weeks? We are talking of a sum of £155.00 [from final date] – can you not honour this interest payment? There is another matter outstanding: why have we not received the £8070 which is Line Item 35.0 in the Production Budget payable to Circle for Rights Purchase? You wrote to us and told us we could invoice quarterly for this as we did for our Production Fee but we chose to defer to the end: we sent an invoice to Robert Muckle weeks ago but they wrote back and returned it saying we were owed no more money so we construe you must have sent us this payment? If so we have never received it – can you explain why? Did you receive the invoice from your lawyer or shall we send you another copy?

Sandra, you have broken your word to Circle, breached your promise given in letters as well as our Contract. Do you call this honourable, ethical, mature, professional? Under the Contractual terms the Rights have reverted to Circle Multimedia because you are in Breach: when this is enforced by a court you will have no right to produce a second series except by permission of Circle Multimedia and if your attitude persists as it is we will never be able to grant you that right. It is so regrettable and all so unnecessary isn‟t it? We reserve our right to copy correspondence as above to ITV Network Centre to keep them appraised of the Rights status of the property. Yours sincerely

Jenny Burgess Jenny Burgess

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To: Legal department Report: Jenny Burgess Date: 3 June 2002 Subject: McDermid website statement / WIRE IN THE BLOOD The following article which is an interview with Val McDermid from one of her websites. Janet and I regard her statements as a misrepresentation of the facts in a public arena. There is no mention whatsoever of Circle Multimedia. Val McDermid did not identify or bring in Coastal Productions. Circle decided to option WIRE IN THE BLOOD, Circle approached Val‟s agent, Circle met with Val and her agent and proposed and agreed with them the fundamental Rights deal. We did all this before Coastal even came into the picture or knew anything about the project and we have a great deal of paperwork testifying to that fact. As we told Val at our first meeting Circle saw Robson Green as the Star we proposed to cast. Circle then contracted Coastal and brought the company into the deal. It is unacceptable to us that Val should be misrepresenting the facts in this way to the public and media and giving no mention or credit to Circle at all. It is truly contemptible as she owes the genesis of the production of these books entirely to Circle. We honestly put it all down to Sandra‟s influence upon her subsequently, I am afraid. Jenny Burgess

Interview with Val McDermid Ayo: It has been a long time coming, but finally your fans will soon be able to see WIRE IN THE BLOOD on television. I understand that filming actually started in October 2001. Why did it take so long and are you happy about the way things have turned out?

Val: It took so long because I was waiting for the right team to make it. I wasn‟t prepared to entrust these books to the first person that came along looking to option them. I‟ve seen too many good novels turned into trash TV. I wanted to be sure the books would be treated with a degree of respect, that they would be made with appropriate production values and the right actors. Robson Green‟s company Coastal Productions, fit all my criteria, and I am very pleased with the way things have worked out. Robson is a terrific Tony and Hermione Norris is a dream casting for Carol. The scripts are very effective, though of course certain narrative elements in the books have had to be sacrificed because they don‟t work for TV. I‟ve seen the finished version of the Mermaids Singing, and I have to tell you, it had me on the edge of my seat! [Jenny Burgess transcript] Where did you get the idea of teaming up with Robson Green? 164

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Circle Multimedia Ltd SECOND FLOOR THE QUADRANGLE 180 WARDOUR STREET LONDON W1F 8LB TEL:+44 (0) 1243 601 482 +44 (0) 1628 509 501 EMAIL: [email protected]

Attention of: Sandra Jobling and Robson Green

Coastal Productions Limited 25b Broad Chare The Quayside Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 3PQ 28 October 2002 Re: Hardcopy by post of email from Circle Multimedia dated 26.10.02 and fax dated 28.10.02 – “Wire In The Blood”

Dear Sandra and Robson Thank you for your undated letter received on 24 October 2002 along with the Sales Summary for period 10 May to 26 August 2002. Unfortunately, the faxed copy is almost incomprehensible and appears to contain no financial information as required under the terms of the Assignment of Rights 6 April 2001. In accordance with the terms of this agreement [clause 3.1.4] would you please send a copy of the final production budget. In addition would you please send “statements evidencing the calculation of net profits” [regardless of the resultant value] in accordance with [clause 8.4]. Such accounts must be supplied “on a quarterly basis”, the first of which falling due “within three months of the Programme being delivered to the Broadcaster” – thus the delivery dates, that accounts fall due are: 6 June 2002, 6 September 2002; 6 December 2002 and 6 March 2003. Note: despite earlier requests, the first two statements are still outstanding. Such accounts should be made up to 5 September 2002 and should include financial details on all Publishing deals; sale and leaseback; foreign sales made to date, both where there are gross receipts and where grosses have not come through, should then include the sums agreed in the respective contracts, such that we are able to predict our cash flow. We note that the Danish broadcast was underway by the end of August, the Australian by end of September and US broadcast to go ahead before our next accounting date 5 December 2002. We would appreciate your earliest attention to this matter. Yours sincerely, Janet Ives Janet Ives & Jenny Burgess Executive Producers

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Excerpts taken from Jenny Burgess‟ witness statement May 2003 3

We approached Val McDermid‟s agent, Jane Gregory of Gregory Radice Authors Agency in about July 1998. Jane came to Arcadia‟s offices in Wardour Street shortly afterwards to discuss optioning the material. At that time, there were only two novels in existence written around the main “Wire In The Blood” characters – Tony Hill, DI Carol Jordan the Bradfield police team; ACC John Brandon, DS Don Merrick, DS Kevin Geoffries. Those two novels were (1) The Wire In The Blood and (2) The Mermaids Singing Our intention was always to obtain the option for both these books although we did think The Mermaids Singing would be a difficult book to bring to the screen. As I have mentioned however, the intention was always to produce a series with longevity and we thought that a series could be built on The Wire In The Blood with The Wire In The Blood as a television pilot episode. It was always understood between Arcadia and the author that we would be looking at optioning both books even though we had reservations about the dramatic possibilities with The Mermaids Singing. The fax of 11 August 1998 from me to Jane Gregory makes this plain and my fax to Jane Gregory of 18 August 1998 shows that it was the novel The Wire In The Blood we wanted to base the series around but that we wanted The Mermaids Singing covered too so that we could take bits out of it. To clarify the genesis of our aspirations; whilst we had every intention of using The Mermaids Singing (as stated in the 11 August fax referred to) by the time I wrote the 18 August fax we had decided our best course of action was to build the pilot on The Wire In The Blood and to cover all sequels/prequels. Furthermore, on 19 February 2001 Janet Ives wrote to Jane Gregory to renew the option, with payment cheque and confirmed that we would wish to exercise our rights to option both the other books. 4

I would also draw attention to the fourth paragraph of the 18 August 1998 fax in which I refer to a “major star vehicle”. A vehicle is a moving object and shows that I was thinking in terms of a series with longevity not just a single dramatisation of the one book. 5

On 8 September 1998 I met Val McDermid in Jane Gregory‟s offices. Janet Ives and Phil Shaw (Arcadia‟s Casting Consultant) were also present. Val told us that she would not be interested in writing the screenplay so we knew we would need to get a screenwriter on board. We asked her if she intended writing more books using the “Tony Hill” character and she told us that she did and therefore she wanted a restriction inserted into any Option agreement which would prevent the character being killed off. We talked about the longevity of the project and our view that we would need to make it a star vehicle in order to build it into a franchise for ITV. We talked about giving the project “X-files treatment” ie creating an on-going screen partnership between Dr Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordon around which the drama is built and emphasising the sexual fizzle between them to tantalise the viewer, whilst never allowing the relationship to reach maturity – the “sexual cliff-hanger”. This is what Coastal have done with the Tony and Carol characters. We also talked about possible stars. Robson Green‟s name came up and Val responded positively to the suggestion that he could perhaps play Dr Tony Hill (the obvious role for him at face value). We continued then to think of the project as a star vehicle for him and targeted him from that point on. The fact that we were looking to attach a star such as Robson Green to the project is evidence that our sights were on its franchise potential. 9

I prepared a synopsis of the novel „The Wire n The Blood‟ and sent it off to Coastal Productions Limited in October 1998. The purpose of the synopsis was to avoid the need for Sandra Jobling to read the novel and to illustrate how it could be dramatised. This „synopsis‟ is sometimes referred to in the industry as a „Treatment‟ This document is referred to in a fax dated 4 November 1998 from me to Sandra Jobling. The material apparently never arrived the first time it was sent and I wrote to Sandra Jobling on 23 October 1998 re-enclosing it and stating our interest in Robson Green as an actor and a producer (as he now was styling himself). I mentioned the role of the killer Jacko Vance in The Wire in the Blood for Robson in that letter The Wire In The Blood being our intended Pilot for a returnable series The reason why I mentioned this was because Robson‟s career had been somewhat static (in terms of critical reviews and declining ratings) and I surmised from remarks and intimations Sandra had made in our September 1998 telephone call that Jacko Vance was the role she favoured for Robson Within our own company we had always only talked of his playing Dr Tony Hill and Dr Tony Hill is the only role we had discussed with Val McDermid at our meeting that Robson Green should play. 166

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Excerpts taken from Jenny Burgess‟ witness statement May 2003 12

It was of course crucial which part Robson Green was to play. If he played the lead Tony Hill character, he would have to continue to do so for the sake of continuity. If he played the role of the murderer – his name alone would serve to draw the viewers in whilst allowing some other actor to establish himself as Tony Hill. 13

At the January meeting with Coastal in the Grafton Hotel (or shortly afterwards), Sandra asked me to prepare a Treatment to illustrate how Robson could portray the Vance character. She refers to this in her letter to me of 30 July 1999. 14

Also in January Coastal meeting at the Grafton, we discussed what the proposed input of the two coproducers (us and Coastal) would be. Sandra told us that the way she liked to do things was ‟50:50‟. She said that we would have a 50/50 partnership and we would produce together. She affirms this in her letter to me dated 22 October 1999 – „we have agreed that this venture will involve a 50-50 split‟. She said that Coastal would take the technical headache away. She said that she had an existing relationship with ITV and that Coastal already had guaranteed hours for Robson Green(by which she meant there was a contract specifying that Robson would get x number of guaranteed hours on TV per year.) 16

To illustrate that everyone concerned regarded the project as a series project with longevity, Sandra Jobling in her email to me of 7 April 2000 (timed 13:44) says that Jenny Reeks at ITV regarded Wire In The Blood as „the new Prime Suspect‟ Prime Suspect of course was a series – not a single one-off drama. I report the comparison to Jane Gregory in my letter to her of 15 August 2000 where I comment. ‘There is so much follow on potential with Val’s other novels and original material possibilities’ and report that ‘ITV are definitely viewing this as a potential franchise’ Sandra had sent the 7 April 2000 immediately after the first meeting between Coastal and ITV Note also that the same e-mail refers to „Wire in the Blood‟ being the series project as distinct from The Wire In The Blood being the novel. Why would Sandra, Jenny Reeks and I be talking in these terms and making these comparisons if Wire in the Blood was to be a single one off drama? I am of the view that the understanding between Sandra and I about the franchise nature of Wire In The Blood is obvious... If such a potential franchise were to be expedited on one book then it is implied and overtly stated that it would necessitate generating original material. At the time there was only one other book available so where were the storylines for the series to come from? It had been to cover this eventuality we had given Val McDermid the consultancy as well as the financial settlement of 50% fee where another writer scripted around her characters. Other matters which are relevant to these issues are that Broadcast Magazine in its Christmas 2000 issue reported that Caleb Ranson will be writing the series Wire In The Blood. The article stated as I recall “Caleb Ranson to adapt The Mermaids Singing for BBC” We immediately contacted the agent Jane Gregory to advise her to make the correction as we had the novel under option agreement. I suspected Sandra was attempting to force ITVs hand over the rest of the books BUT we had in fact spoken to Mike Dormer at the BBC who was very keen to do a deal. We had already decided to approach ITV and told Mike this. He made it clear that he would welcome the project and told us to return to him if ITV would not commission because the BBC would. I also refer to the letter dated 19 December 2000 which I wrote to Sandra Jobling. In it I make plain that there will be multiple stories on screen using Tony Hill(and other central character Carol) Sandra never contradicted this or said – no – we are only discussing a one off single drama here. This 19 December 2000 fax is also the first time there is a shift in focus and the „series separates from the story of one particular novel. For the first time the series is given the working title „Wire‟ which was diminutive for what we had come to call the series title Wire In The Blood. Evidenced by the email of 7 April 2000 from Sandra to me (and which I have referred to above) In the email dated 8 May 2001 (timed 4:54) from Sandra at Coastal she states, under the heading‟Generic Title‟ „Finally we have all agreed on Wire In The Blood being the series title‟ So far as Coastal and Circle were concerned, this had been agreed long before May 2001 and I can only suggest that she was referring to ITV having agreed it.. This email is written at the conclusion of negotitations with them © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Excerpts taken from Jenny Burgess‟ witness statement May 2003 17

Returning to the distinction made in the documents between Wire In The Blood the project/series and The Wire In The Blood the novel; The only time Circle intentionally refer to Wire In The Blood is when we talk about the production as distinct from the book. However, we are all careless from time to time and there are documents which got lost when our computer crashed so we cannot guarantee there are no documents which will show this not to be the case. Since we had considered that the books were only to provide a skeletal frame, we did not consider they equated to the TV programme/s. The only time we referred to the book was with the agent and regarding Option Terms where we had the benefit of a clause which allowed us to write around the stories (in the novels/literary properties) as long as we did not kill off the characters. As previously explained however, regardless of whether we wrote with the “the” in front or not, as far as we were concerned all references, verbal and written, to this title unless specifically made with regard to the literary Option of the actual book, meant a TV dramatisation. It was taken for granted by us, as producers, which is why we took no pains to always observe diligent technicalities in writing. Further, the letters just would not make any sense if you take them to refer to the book all the time. Reference to the book is always a reference to The Wire In The Blood whether it is written in every piece of correspondence or not. The point at which this is crucial is in the Assignment of Rights agreement dated 6 April 2001 where the name of the book is The Wire In The Blood and this is distinct from the work of the film entitled Wire In The Blood.ie the scripts/treatment/film They are clearly not the same thing. „Programme‟ in the agreement means in respect of a TV .........6 hours. This must surely refer to the Filmed TV adaptations/Scripts. Otherwise it does not make any sense as we do not film a book! „Work‟ means Wire In The Blood must surely refer to the TV adaptations not the book upon which it draws its influence otherwise reference would be made to the correct title The Wire In The Blood. The Book is correctly The Wire In The Blood. In clause 9 of the Assignment of Rights agreement it state that if Coastal acquire the rights to the remaining titles (ie something which had been satisfied) the Subsequent Programmes will be developed with Circle (and details of the payment structures). Subsequent Programmes only need to be made „with respect to‟ not based upon, the remaining titles. „Based on‟ means sticking rigidly to the book whereas „with respect to‟ means they contain the same characters, setting, relationships and must recognisably so. Only the action line alters, but that can be said of straight adaptations where stories are totally restructured as indeed happens with the adaptation here. Regardless of the action lines, they can be seen as having been made „with respect to‟ other books. 18

On 24 August 1999 another meeting took place at the Grafton Hotel which was attended by Janet Ives, myself and Philip Shaw Sandra Jobling and Caleb Ranson. Caleb was an ITV preferred screenwriter who Sandra had suggested might be ideal for the project. We discussed how he felt about the material and how he intended to structure it. It is best to have continuity with writers and I recall it had been suggested that Caleb write the pilot episode based on the novel The Wire In The Blood and possibly episodes following. We talked about both books(The Wire In The Blood and The Mermaids Singing) We talked about using elements of „The Mermaids Singing‟ and thereafter using the characters. 21

On 16 February 2001 Sandra emailed Janet Ives, Philip Shaw and I (timed 12:09) to inform us that Robson had agreed to play Tony Hill (it was the first we knew of this) and that Val McDermid was writing a third book entitled The Last Temptation. In this email she refers to ITV wanting to commission „6 hours of Tony Hill with us‟ and we understood this to mean 6 hours of „Wire In The Blood‟ with us – the „us‟ being both production partners. There had also been a change from 4 hours to 6 hours. The Mermaids Singing was to be commissioned too ( the other two hours)

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Excerpts taken from Jenny Burgess‟ witness statement May 2003 24

The 27 February email referred to makes reference to a meeting on „Wednesday 21st‟ This meeting had been called by Sandra who had flown down to London for it claiming that the meeting was „vital to the production‟. By the time of this meeting, so far as Janet and I were concerned, Coastal and Circle already had an agreement on the terms previously agreed and along the lines detailed in the 12 October 2000 document. Sandra confirmed this with Jane Gregory who informed us of the fact in her fax (20 February 2001) We had been discussing the project for nearly 3 years by this stage. 25

Originally it had been our intention to set up one company to produce the series „Wire In The Blood‟. Sandra did not want to do this. She wanted Circle, as the rights holder, to assign the rights down to the joint ownership of Intrigue Productions Limited (although incorporation for this company was not completed) and Coastal Productions Limited –who would have the co-production relationship. Intrigue and Coastal would then pay Circle 1. At Soho House it was agreed that 1% of the Production Budget would be paid on „Wire‟ and there would be a 30% split on the other material. Essentially, Sandra was removing Intrigue from the equation and dealing directly with Circle – thereby paying only 1% instead of 2%. By way of further background information – we had previously discussed, at a meeting in May 2000 in Coastal‟s offices in Newcastle, the option of setting up a dedicated company to produce „Wire In The Blood‟ where both companies would take equal shares and Circle would assign the rights to this company in return for a fee. Sandra Jobling, Janet Ives and myself were all present at this meeting. Bill Boyes (who Coastal had suggested we consider as the Producer for the series; this role was eventually taken by Phil Leech instead) was also present. He asked Janet Ives if she was aware of the realistic fee structure for TV and she said “Yes, I would expect around 3% to 5% total budget) –this being around 50% of the allowance considered acceptable by Broadcasters. Sandra was not interested in doing things that way. So we said that Circle would open a dedicated company called Intrigue Productions Limited which would be the Co-producing partner for Coastal, and Circle would assign the rights jointly to the two companies who would both take an equal % fee. Hamlins solicitors (our Solicitors at the time) then drew up the Mem & Arts in readiness for this and we signed them awaiting incorporation. I supplied a draft Co-production Agreement detailing this set up and Hamlins set a date for Sandra‟s attendance, to sign. At this point Hamlins (Ian Down) told us that Entertainment was not his area of specialisation and that we should get a media lawyer. This is when we approached Davenport Lyons. All these papers were given over to Richard Moxon at Davenport Lyons. At the meeting at Soho House, this % payable to Circle was driven down by Sandra Jobling. The % payable to Intrigue was not discussed at that time. Sandra wanted Coastal joined to the option so to speak. 26

At the meeting at Soho House on 21 February Janet and I agreed to the 30% for sequel productions. The other matters are slightly confused in my memory. The meeting should however never have taken place. I had recently lost my father in tragic circumstances and I was not emotionally or physically fit to conduct business. Sandra knew this but was threatening to pull out of the deal. She was saying things like – „I don‟t care about this – I have lots of other projects – I do not need these books because I have other projects of worth‟. I felt I had to go along to the meeting because of Sandra‟s insistence that it was vital for the production and despite the fact that I was under my doctor‟s supervision for extreme nervous anxiety and depression owing to the circumstances of my father‟s death and was still in shock/ on compassionate leave. Janet perceived that I was very near the point of a nervous breakdown altogether if it appeared we would lose the project my late father had helped financially to bring about, and she chose to support my welfare as her partner rather than negotiate hard for Sandra to maintain the original agreement.

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Excerpt taken from Jenny Burgess‟ witness statement May 2003 27

I have been asked to comment on the contents detailed in the 27 February 2001 email. I think the main reason we were angry/confused is that Sandra related the percentages to actual specific titled books whereas in the meeting I am positive she talked in terms of % of SERIES indicating series one then subsequent series on the basis of re-commission would inevitably follow from ITV if Series One was a ratings hit. Also she avoided any mention of the % that would be due to Intrigue Productions and she knew very well we had said that we would have that as a trading company and Circle would licence the rights to it and to Coastal jointly. Why did she sign a draft coproduction agreement months before citing the name of Intrigue Productions if this was not the case? Way back in our first meeting with her we told her this was the norm and “Circle” was the parent company, that Intrigue would be the trading vehicle. She knew we were planning to do this. So why she says she always assumed it was Circle/Coastal I have no idea. She knew the difference and she knew that the reason Circle‟s name was on the option was because Circle was the holding company and Intrigue was not yet incorporated. I can‟t recall subsequent negotiations (which must have been largely verbal) except that we definitely instructed Richard Moxon as stated in the proof of evidence by Janet Ives and why it went awry is I think we just got backed into a corner. Sandra was threatening to pull out and it was or it felt it was getting away from us. Richard acted and it was against what we had instructed whether he did this to save the deal or not. 28

I have been asked to comment on the letter dated 8 June 2001 from Coastal to Janet Ives and I in which Sandra talks about a decision to create a „completely new story for the third episode‟ This letter makes reference to a „delay with the [third story] manuscript. This is a reference to the delay in the manuscript for „Last Temptation‟ from Val McDermid. This means that something else needed to be written by 5 July 2001 in order to satisfy the terms of the agreement – otherwise the rights would revert. If the manuscript was late it was not of course the fault of Circle and the only reason why „Last Temptation‟ was not used was because Val McDermid did not deliver it in time. It is irrelevant what the last two episodes were about so long as Tony Hill was in them. We did not raise any queries in relation to this letter at the time because we thought we would receive our money anyway regardless of the fact that a new story was going to be used. Whether „Last Temptation‟ is used – or whether a new story is used did not, we thought matter because it was still Wire In The Blood as referred to in our contract with Tony Hill and the same set up was being used regardless. I have read the Proof of evidence which Janet Ives has made and I am aware that she is convinced she, and probably me also, responded in writing to Sandra‟s 8 June 2001 letter.

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Chapter 14

We had instructed Davenport Lyons to get an immediate injunction on Coastal for breach of contract on a number of counts concerning our missing credits and the non-payment of our half of the sale & leaseback profits. The law firm‟s constant delay in carrying out instructions, was giving us serious pause. We were feeling more than a little concerned about its representation. Around this time the case was moved to the litigation department under the care of David Gore. This was a very bad move on our part. This is when we should have seen the writing on the wall but it never occurred to us that the contract itself could have any impediment or might be less than what we thought we had paid for. Something was not right though and we knew instinctively that all was not exactly as it seemed. The shame was we failed to follow that gut instinct which is so rarely wrong.

We instructed litigation solicitor David Gore to attend the first showing of episode [1&2] of Wire In The Blood screened at NFT, on 12 July 2002 where Robson Green was on the platform to answer questions from the audience. As expected, he completely forgot how he had first acquired the novel, and attributed it to his having read it himself.

A real case of convenient amnesia and quite ironic considering that it took him over nine months just to read Jenny‟s one-page treatment. I recall being a told by somebody that they had heard an interview where Robson Green allegedly told the reporter that he regularly read the books to his child. I found this slightly far fetched when I learnt that the child, at that time, was about six months of age. Hardly plausible!

Several barristers were engaged and pronounced on the claim points we raised. Eventually we met with John Critchley to discuss our grievances against Coastal who had not complied with its obligations under the terms of our contract. I remember David Gore making light of the situation in the taxi on the way back to their offices in Burlington Place, as he told us that it was a summary judgement action in a case if one party breaches contract outright. The phrase “summary judgement” he explained was a © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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term used in legal jargon for situations where there is “no defence available” and the judgement is automatically awarded to the plaintiff. This was exactly our claim there could be no defence to Coastal‟s obligation to pay its co-production partner its portion of the sale & leaseback profit. I questioned how we would force the other party to pay even if we were to win the point and he said we just declare Robson Green‟s company bankrupt, if they failed to meet the court order to pay. It all seemed very simple, so why were the papers not served as we had instructed?

The delays continued and I was losing confidence in the company altogether. A new lawyer was assigned to the case and her task was to assemble the case notes and prepare the witness statements – or so we were led to believe. She made ready a set of documents for Jenny and myself in ring binders which we were asked to go through. We were to check at home and in the office to make sure we did not have any other documents which were missing from their file.

As this task was nearing completion at the end of May 2003 we had looked at the situation in detail. We had a suspicion, by this time, that the agreement had some impediment. The paperwork illustrated that the set up conflicted with the directions given at the outset and we challenged the law firm with having acted against our explicit instructions in the preparation of the Coastal Agreement.

So, at the beginning of June 2003 I set out to find a new law firm. This time I was determined we would not make the same mistake as before. Therefore, we did not request a recommendation from anyone else and I did the research to establish who might give us an improved service. I sought out those companies who were at the top of their game and we held meetings with Olswang, who held the first position for IT /intellectual property and Harbottle & Lewis, the top media firm.

We finally settled on the latter, instructing Samantha Phillips to act for our company. Her specialisation appeared to be taking highly contentious cases and smoothing out a pathway whereby, even if the results failed to bring a solution, her actions would render the legal situation easier to deal with in court, at a point later down the line. Samantha entered the meeting with such dramatic flourish that she commanded one‟s respect. 172

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Davenport Lyons refused to release paperwork because they claimed they had not yet prepared their final invoice. Although we were advised there was some complicated method by which we could withhold payment and the law firm could be forced to release the papers, we were not a company which had bad debts. Obviously, whilst the situation was still under process, the company reputation would be tainted as one who fails to meet the payment of its costs and therefore we felt that we would prefer to pay the bill than have bad debt against the company name.

If it was shown, at some stage, that their representation had been substandard, then all payments made in lieu of that work should be taken into consideration in the settlement figure. We informed Harbottle & Lewis that we preferred to settle the bill and awaited Davenport Lyons drawing up the final invoice. We then settled it in full. The document set was then handed over to Harbottle & Lewis. It amounted to four large ring binder files. Within a short time, one of the solicitors from Harbottle & Lewis visited the offices of Davenport Lyons to go through papers and ensure that all the documents had been handed over. They began in earnest to prepare the Particulars of Claim. A barrister was engaged and a letter of claim subsequently sent out to Coastal detailing an extensive number of breaches made by the company over two years of partnership.

At this point and maybe as a result of our action, Coastal gained a new interpretation of the contract. With the help of this new interpretation, Coastal determined that it could fragment the contract into individual episodes and thus claimed it had only to pay Circle for single episodes of the Wire In The Blood series which were said to be directly based on a book by Val McDermid. Further to this claim, it argued that of the three episodes which made up Series One, the first entitled “Mermaid Singing” was based on the book The Mermaids Singing, the second episode “Shadows Rising” was based on The Wire In The Blood and the third “Justice Painted Blind” was a story written by a screenwriter Alan Whiting. According to Sky TV Guide “Justice Painted Blind” is advertised as being based on a novel by Val McDermid [see page 143].

This was not what we had agreed and it was evident that Coastal knew we had not intended this interpretation at the outset. The ITV contract actually contained the synopsis provided by our company for a “series” based on the format of Wire In The © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Blood. The production was underpinned by the rights contract with the author that I had negotiated, on behalf of Circle Multimedia, and the first clause of which allowed for the adaptation of the novel The Wire In The Blood by Val McDermid. The document covered its use for a film or television show or television series. As a result of this „new‟ reading, Coastal actually claimed that Circle had been overpaid £27,000 on the front end fee. From that point onward Coastal began deducting from the Circle Multimedia portion of profits to compensate this alleged overpayment.

This was a total outrage. There was no way this new interpretation of the contract was valid. It was citing a precedent unknown to any of the industry specialists. There was no just argument for splitting the property covered by the ITV contract into part segments and excluding some. Nor could it be said to be representative of our understanding at the outset. It did not reflect the intention of either party, as is evidenced in the email sent from Robson Green‟s own production company.

On 27 February 2001 in the email sent to our lawyers, Sandra Jobling states:“This would mean we would both jointly hold the rights and the option.” “ For clarity we agreed that both companies would hold the copyright to the work”

Added to which, we had the previous agreements stating the split was to be 50:50 which had been signed in the run up to the full contract detailing the terms settled upon. Had a co-production contract been used to tie the two companies together, as I had instructed Davenport Lyons to craft, then it would have successfully provided a means of achieving both the instructions given by Circle Multimedia at the same time satisfying the above statement by Coastal.

We had taken this project to Coastal Productions in the first place. We had identified the potential and the method of bringing it to the screen. It was through our efforts in writing the Treatment that Coastal was able to employ a planned strategy and sell it across to ITV for franchise series. The synopsis which Jenny Burgess had prepared was well written punchy and tantalising. As the document had been sent to Sandra Jobling at the outset, it was the document which had secured the interest of both Robson Green and ITV and by which the series was shaped. 174

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Finally, the synopsis which Jenny constructed actually formed part of the contract with ITV. It was, according to Sandra Jobling these very treatments which had persuaded him to become involved in the first place. She informed us in a letter that Robson had read both. As such, there was no way anybody could dislodge our involvement from the project or claim that we had taken no part in its development. Or that our treatment had not had a major influence on the way the attachments were chosen or the way the series were made.

Jenny and I had negotiated with Val McDermid [and her agent Jane Gregory] to gain her agreement on bringing in screen-writers to craft around her characters and settled on a 50% fee to be paid to the author, for works that used the characters from, but were not directly based on, storylines taken from a novel written by Val McDermid. It was in negotiation with us that the author gave her assent to the suggestion of using Robson Green in the lead.

When the suggestion of using this actor was put before Val McDermid, there was no indication from her or from the agent Jane Gregory that she had ever entertained the idea herself. We had first made known to the agent those actors on our wish list for the proposed production, at the meeting in Wardour Street in the summer before. There were others on the list of possible leads but we knew that like Robson Green, Val came from a mining community. We felt that with similar backgrounds they would get on.

Actresses on the casting list to play the female lead were numerous but the decision remained open. Whoever was chosen, the prime concern was the chemistry between the leads. In order to create this we had to establish the Tony Hill character first, to know who could create that sizzle. Whether Robson Green had actually read any of Val McDermid‟s novels before we made our approach is unknown to us. For all we know, he could be an avid reader. I have my serious doubts that he is a bookworm and I am not sure he is much of a reader. Even after Robson Green‟s company was offered the opportunity it still took him nine months to actually read the material. At that point, Sandra Jobling informed us that it was Jenny‟s synopsis and treatment which had persuaded him. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Without our suggestion and prompting, he might never have considered the novel at all. Without our input, the book might never have found its way to the screen. It certainly had not done so up to that point in time. Despite the fact that the novel had won a Golden Dagger award, business for Val McDermid was pretty tough. She has reported in a press interview that finances were so bad for her, that the situation had led to her having to pay her own fare to US in order to promote her work.

Without our influence, Robson Green might never have pulled his career out of the doldrums. He certainly has not featured in anything else which has been as successful as Wire In The Blood over the past seven years. The BBC series which began in 2002, entitled Trust, styled on a US production format, saw ratings fall immediately and the show was dropped after its pilot had aired. Apart from the occasional one off drama, since 2001 Robson Green‟s career has hung on Wire In The Blood and for very good reasons because the project was specifically tailored for a gap in the market, by the creative team of the group calling itself Intrigue Productions.

If Robson Green had been mindful of his long term interests he might well have nurtured the business relationship offered. It is always advisable to take good care of the goose that lays you a golden egg.

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Chapter 15

Unfortunately, all this co-incided with a series of urgent incidents in my home life which out of necessity had to take precedence over everything – in July 2003 my hitherto perfectly healthy 12 year old son suddenly had a heart attack and was rushed into hospital. Tests immediately performed showed a congenital heart defect which required immediate surgery that would be arranged as soon as possible. We were in shock.

Adam was a normal healthy child who had plenty of energy and played in the school rugby team and was a member of a local theatre group. There had never been any indication of a problem in the past. He was placed on the urgent waiting list at Great Ormond Street hospital.

Whilst we awaited notification of that date, a call came through to inform us that my father-in-law had suffered another massive stroke and was not expected to live. It was a three day journey to get to him in the outback of Australia and touch and go whether we would actually make it soon enough. For once fortune smiled and we did make it, though only just in time. Sadly we buried Alan in the week and we stayed for a week to support Mum and help where we could.

It was rugby fever in Sydney as England played the Wallabies in the World Cup match only days later in Sydney and every flight back to London was packed out with supporters. After a few days wait the crowds cleared and then were able to return home.

The day after we arrived back, the letter we had been waiting for came with the date for my son‟s surgery. It had been booked three days ahead. Having experienced reasonably good health up to that point, understandably, my son found it all rather daunting. As any mother would, I vowed to stay in hospital with him.

The aneurysm, causing his problem was at the very back of his heart making access difficult for the surgeon. It proved to be a tricky procedure and took twice the time allocated by the team. Of course, nursing staff made the whole procedure as matter of © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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fact as possible. Although the surgery did not eradicate the problem totally, the outcome indicated that the surgeon had managed to lessen the probability of further attacks. If they did occur; our son‟s chance of survival was measurably improved. Only a few days into his recovery came yet another blow when both my parents were taken into hospital immediately before Xmas. By this time, I really felt that by now I must have expended a lifetime of bad luck.

Maybe the New Year would bring some overdue good fortune? The breach action against Robson Green‟s company was ready to be served. As the breach had robbed Circle of its due profit share, the company was not taking any money. In order to settle incoming invoices, it would be necessary to bring in private money. I had been told by Jenny that she had raised 50% of the requisite funding to run the case and it was down to me to raise the balance. Jenny was keen to move the case forward and it was up to me.

Knowing that sourcing the amount would be possible, I authorised the lawyers to raise a VAT invoice. Only after I had successfully raised the rest of the balance total the following week, did Jenny enlighten me that she had not been totally straight with me. That, I felt was hitting below the belt and I was very angry. My health was deteriorating rapidly but I was keeping it to myself. Things were difficult enough without my adding to the situation and I still did not know the cause of my symptoms at that time.

After the New Year period was over, the Company Secretary made it known to me that whilst I had been away, at my father-in-law‟s funeral, Jenny had contacted him several times to persuade him to relinquish his small shareholding. He delayed in complying with the request until he was able to speak with me. In light of the catalogue of personal difficulties, and my failing health, it was just a bridge too far. I could not deal with it adequately, under the pressure of everything else.

I recall asking Jenny what on earth had been going on whilst I was out of the country? Why was the Company Secretary suddenly being asked to give up a minority shareholding after three years? I informed her I felt the request was unethical and I was not happy with the situation at all. I queried why the Company Secretary‟s voting share had suddenly become such a target in her mind. What had caused her concerns and why 178

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had it only now come to her awareness? She told me that the impetus had come from Brebners. The company accountants, she explained, were concerned that Alan could control the company by applying his vote. Jenny told me Brebners wanted us to move the Company Secretary position over to their firm. I would not agree.

This was suspicious in the extreme, after all we had no complaints with the Company Secretary we had and it would mean going back on our agreement which did not sit well with my personal ethics. Besides which, Brebners was already doing the accounts and I thought it dangerous to place all our eggs in a single basket. What I could not get my head around was why the accountant was suddenly taking such an interest in the internal running of our company. The issue was raised several times and I put off dealing with it because I felt very uncomfortable about taking back what we had agreed.

Jenny told me that Brebners had already prepared papers for Alan to sign. I could not see why an „impartial accountant‟ would be taking the lead in making such a request to the Company Secretary and why it was their business anyhow? Alan had been in the position four years since the company was incorporated and had never exercised or abused this power so it made no sense to me why anybody would start to worry about it, at this time. It certainly was not something which concerned outside organisations and individuals. I could not see why this had suddenly become necessary but whatever Brebners had advised, Jenny was convinced.

After all, if it was true that we were operating in a dangerous setup, it had served us for four years - why had it only just been realised? I could not recall a single instance of a split vote on the board of Circle Multimedia and we had long since settled on a procedure for settling disputes. Notwithstanding we had no disputes at that time. I believe that, if what she had told me was true, Brebners was casting its sights into the future based on the knowledge that we had just left Davenport Lyons and it was known that we were unhappy with the quality of service received. It could have been predicted that the situation would escalate and if anyone was intent on interfering with board decisions then they had to gain a foothold on control. At the time, I was too ill and distracted to see this. My suspicion was that it must have a financial basis. After all, if the suggestion had originated with the accountant then that was the most logical thought. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Focussing on the dividend that would be lost, and knowing that there was little chance of there being any profits in which to share for some time, until Coastal was brought to book. I figured that it would not be an issue until the company started to be profitable at which time we could make payments for fees directly to anyone who provided services as opposed to by a dividend. I suggested that maybe Alan should just temporarily comply with the accountants‟ request for the time being as I could not understand why the request was being made and I would sort it, as soon as I could do so.

I cannot remember any detail about how the stock transfer actually took place. At the time I was becoming too ill to contemplate the situation. I had too much on my mind with my brain becoming increasingly dysfunctional, and I was now also suffering what I can only describe as sudden bolts of electricity through my body. I was unable to consider the situation properly or to see the bigger picture of what lay ahead. I have since reviewed this set of events and have drawn a very different set of conclusions.

The situation with the legal bill was not so easily remedied. I could have sourced the entire amount but, I did not feel that I should carry the entire weight of responsibility alone until I had discovered just what was causing my poor health. I levelled my objections to Jenny and tried to urge her to sort her own situation. Though I did sympathise with her financial difficulties, having been for many years constrained on a tight budget myself but I felt her situation was made worse by her own irresponsible and erratic spending habits which I had spoken to her about before. Personal grooming was very important to Jenny and who could argue with the assertion that negotiations relied on her standard of presentation. In the final analysis, had revenues due under contract to be paid to the company actually been remitted, the matter would not have arisen.

I wanted the company to focus much more closely on the group of chosen productions because I felt that Jenny‟s scatter gun approach had brought no yields over too many years of effort on her part. I proposed we narrow the field down and we made a tight selection of those projects which we felt had the best potential to find distribution and reducing our list to about six productions which the company would concentrate all its efforts on lifting. 180

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Jenny had packaged Alchymist‟s Cat when it came to me, to move into pre-production. Jenny had been working on Alchymist‟s Cat since 1997. Knowing that the clock was ticking on the second Option, we decided to move it to pre-production because we knew we would run out of time with the agent reluctant to renew for a further period, as she was fast losing patience. This meant that I took over the production to attach those elements which Jenny had put in place. Almost as soon as I started lining up the elements of Jenny‟s package, in readiness for the lawyers to contract – the production package began to fall to pieces. We had aimed at packaging the production from UK talent and Jenny wanted to cast her sights to US for a suitable director. I was not happy with that strategy and maintained we had possibilities that had not been explored. I was of the opinion that we should approach Charles Sturridge and rather than pass it back to Jenny, we agreed that for speed and to avoid further delay that I would contact him to make an offer and then take over the job of re-packaging and build the production bible.

Meanwhile I contacted my doctor to arrange tests to hopefully establish the cause of my increasingly debilitating symptoms. I finally divulged to Jenny that I had been unwell for the past three years and that I was going to undergo a series of detailed tests to try to establish the cause. I warned her that the results could well require surgery to correct and though I would do my best to continue to progress projects whilst I was still able, though it was getting harder to cope. I was getting very concerned.

Jenny had her own health issues and I do not think the news really sank in entirely, after all I had always been healthy and worked twenty five hours a day. There were no visible symptoms which she could see so why would she take notice. I had sight and hearing tests conducted and went on the urgent waiting list for an MRI brain scan. This „urgent‟ list still meant a wait of many weeks. By the time it came round, I was spending increasing amounts of time flat on my back and taking more and more of a back seat with company duties.

I knew something was radically wrong but all I could do was hope that whatever was causing my symptoms would manifest on the test plates to provide the means by which © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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my specialists could attach a recognisable label. Finally, the hope was that whatever was found was something which current medical science was able to rectify.

I could barely hear in my left ear by this time so I was unable to take helpline calls and I was too ill to manage the animals. I called the charity‟s banker and gained its assistance in contacting all the regular donors to say that as the charity was in a state of suspension because of my health situation and the fact that I had set up projects to bring in funds meant Animal Help Society was soon to receive a regular income from the drama projects. Therefore all regular donors could, if they wished, re-direct those funds which they were currently sending to Animal Help Society on to another more active group. The charity‟s bank, HSBC was helpful in passing the message on to the banks sending monies regularly from anonymous donors.

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Chapter 16

By the end of 2004 we were almost ready to go into pre-production on Alchymist‟s Cat. Having journeyed to Prague to survey studio facilities, the production was at last moving forward. We had transferred our interest across to John Henderson, the director who had worked with Kip on the Borrowers. He had just completed a remake of the Disney film of Greyfriar‟s Bobby, the little dog who kept vigil on his Scottish master‟s grave that was to premiere at Cannes in 2005.

I well remember our first meeting with John Henderson at the Waldorf Astoria in London where we had arranged to meet for tea. Kip and Robin were there. Jenny and my son Adam had accompanied me. Adam was a pupil at the elite Redroofs Theatre School and had a small part as one of the Slitherin schoolboys in the Harry Potter production. He was about the right age to play the lead part of Will in Alchymist Cat although he was anything but angelic and growing at such a rate that he would soon be too tall for the part.

I knew Adam had a keen interest in directing which, having listened to him quizzing Hugh Hudson a few years earlier, I intuitively felt it was the career Adam would eventually choose and so I was eager for him to meet with other directors. John talked very knowledgably about the film‟s direction and we felt an instant rapport. This was somebody we all felt we could work with.

Kip held him in very high regard and had been the person who had put his name forward to be considered so we knew they would work well together and the quality of their work certainly spoke for itself. I contacted his agent at the Seifert Dench Agency and John Henderson was retained to direct the production of a feature film based on Kip‟s adaptation of Alchymist‟s Cat by Robin Jarvis..

We had already checked studio facilities in Prague and Alpha Film had produced some rough thumbnail costings for below the line facilities. Prague is a beautiful city and we spent an enjoyable day touring the city sights with our host. Word had it that Tim Burton © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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was shooting a period drama there in six months time, so there would be a standing set which maybe could substantially cut back on set manufacturing costs, if we could start filming before they were due to strike that previous production.

Then sometime later, during a conversation with David Parfitt, he recommended that before making a final decision, we should look at the facilities offered by Hungary where the financial incentives would yield up to 20% budget via soft deals. We decided it was worth checking out further so a recce was planned. I wondered whether my health would hold out long enough for me to make the journey to Budapest. By this time, the symptoms had worsened and I was living on handfuls of pills just to stay upright and get through the days. I still had no diagnosis but I knew something was seriously wrong.

Chris Courtney had come to us through a referral which had put us in contact with his agent. Ex public school with personal connections that went right to the top; he was a seasoned industry hand with about a hundred and fifty years experience. We retained Chris to Line Produce and set about fixing the above line attachments. When Budapest was visited, we took Robin Jarvis with us for 3 days, to check out locations and studios.

Budapest also had a standing set which could keep our building costs down but with the added advantage that financial deals in Hungary were more attractive. Chris spent a great deal of his time in Hungary and had an office there. He met us at the airport with a Hungarian Producer, Kornel who ran Laurinfilm with his wife. The company had been Co-producer on a successful international production Underworld, which starred Kate Beckinsale, so we were in no doubt that the company knew how to bring in Hungarian film finance.

They were perfect hosts providing us with a lightening tour of the city locations and the studios before settling us at an atmospheric back street restaurant where they served traditional Hungarian Goulash but also catered for vegetarians, so that suited me. Entertainment was provided by a pianist who had played there for a lifetime without missing a single performance, or so the story went. He played everything by ear and we tried to get Jenny to do an opera turn, but she was having none of it. 184

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Back in London and all that was required was the UK distribution. Chris Courtney put me in contact with a US producer BJ Rack [Total Recall, Terminator] who coincidentally had come over to complete the film which John Henderson had just finished working on and which had ground to a halt in the final post production stage. The reason for the problems had not originated with John but as he was Director, the buck stopped with him and it made our job with Alchymist‟s Cat doubly difficult until the film was completed. Our company had no track record in feature film production – we certainly did not have a reputation to carry a project against any negative opinion.

BJ helped to open talks with Hensons as she had known the family since childhood but the company folded before we could get the production up. It was just such bad timing. Hensons show reel illustrated that they could have provided exactly the animation we needed for the animal characters within the story and they loved the script. By the time I was attending the meetings with BJ the few minutes walk from the tube to the Henson offices just about killed me. I was struggling to hide my advancing ill health and my symptoms were starting to show on the surface. I liked BJ and found her easy to get along with. She was an „Earth Mother‟ type and had probably forgotten more about film production that I will ever know in my lifetime. She was like many women, was very intuitive and there were comments which made me wonder just how successfully I was actually hiding my ill health, although she never asked any open questions. We managed, in the final weeks before I eventually had to give up work altogether, to secure an offer from Grosvenor Park Financers and I also arranged the overdraft from our bank to take the film into pre production. Figuring I would be out of action for a time, I had tried so hard to try to get the film lifted before I had to cease work. I did not want to leave Jenny with more than she could cope. Also I felt bad about dumping on her. I wanted to do what I could.

My doctor finally signed me off work. My hearing had gone completely in one ear and it was getting quite embarrassing having to ask people to repeat themselves constantly. I was totally blind in one eye and the other was not working 100%. Walking or in fact any kind of exertion caused my body to overheat. I was constantly upsetting people, the shocks had me so on the edge. Basically, I was a mess and still the cause was unknown. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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With all the above line attachments made, and the entire budget sourced for a £20m production, there was just one remaining contract that still needed to be secured – the UK distributor. Added to which, some of the below line technical elements for special effects and post production editing had also been attached. The deals secured included offers from two major banks, three financiers, gap financing and a leading insurance agent. With the production bible [see Appendix 3] for the film drawn up, an overdraft facility arranged to take it into pre-production and the lawyers in place, I handed over to Jenny to complete things.

Laurinfilm was bringing in the Eastern Europe distribution. That had been confirmed in writing by Kornel. I also had written confirmation on Russia, too. To move the feature to pre-production, we needed to locate the Distributor [region 2] and to sort ourselves a sales agent. I had contacted a few of the majors and intended to go for online distribution which would be in place by the time the film was through post production and ready to be viewed. I suggested Jenny try BBC films because they are tapped into that market and to try to secure a UK deal, as we had their prize Bafta winning team. Cast lead: Gary Oldman and Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi; Omar Sharif, getting one last single contract – It just never entered my mind that she could fail?

The company was the business into which we had sunk everything, in both financial terms and in man-hours. Carole Burgess was recovering from cancer treatment and she had asked me to promise her that in the event that her cancer returned, I would take care of Jenny. She need not have asked but without hesitation I had agreed. I was to say nothing to Jenny of our conversation and never did. Carole had also given me her assurance that there would be a reciprocal arrangement if I was to die prematurely.

By this time, it was mid April 2005, I was now falling over constantly and I was becoming critically ill. The way I felt, I considered that may not be too far off and I had to trust that my business partner of thirteen years would ensure my children and the Animal Help Society would be looked after and to reap some of the benefits of the work I had put into Circle Multimedia, Intrigue Productions and Arcadia Productions. Such considerations, for any mother, touches the very deepest levels of one‟s survival nerves. I now realise how misplaced this trust was and it has proven a valuable lesson. 186

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My family would say that they have removed the rose-tinted spectacles I had always worn and I could now see life in all its ugly reality. It sickened me for some time. I felt betrayed by my fellow director and it upset me deeply. I wondered how long the duplicity had been going on. I started to seriously doubt my powers of reasoning. Had I just been niaive in not seeing the obvious tell-tale signs? But see them I had not and it all left me feeling very disillusioned and depressed.

I was still committed to our original brief but I was getting conflicting feedback and it looked as though Jenny Burgess was now following another agenda. I had difficulty coping with all the information. Because the surgery had affected my ability to sequence correctly, I had difficulty in remembering the order in which events took place, so I began compiling a set of chronological records to try to get the facts in order in my mind. I had always kept detailed records so the information was readily available. Reflecting back to where we had started, the charity work and the Bruno Appeal, I started to get things into perspective and see where we had gone wrong.

As I reflected on the details of the sting they had pulled on us, I felt sick. The effort we had put into the project over so many years. This was the second project we had packaged for ITV for the purpose of providing funds to reduce suffering to animals in need that had been levered out of our grasp. In the case of Play for the Planet there were extenuating circumstances but on this occasion we had followed the procedure to the letter. I felt very disillusioned and wondered how the public would feel about this actor if they knew the true facts of what had taken place.

It was quite obvious Robson Green was not the person we were led to believe assisted his local rehoming charity. I have never had the opportunity to enquire directly from the actor himself whether that original report had been factual. I now found it impossible to believe that it was true. Nobody who cared enough to volunteer, would take vital funds away from the work. There was no other way of viewing it, under the contract we were owed a great deal of money. The directors of Coastal Productions knew that they had entered into an agreement with us which they had now breached. Regardless of whether they were able to twist the system to avoid paying out, they knew that in reality they had entered into an agreement with us and they owed us. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Chapter 17

From the early days of working together on Play For The Planet, Jenny who majored in the arts had wanted to take the title Creative Director and because I had numerate qualifications, I undertook the role of Business Development Director. We kept these job titles quite rigidly fixed until 2003, although I created and prepared the documents. It was no surprise that relieved of the packaging work on Alchymist‟s Cat, Jenny slid back into familiar territory and took on some fund-raising/promotional work for an animal charity, Sumatran Tiger Trust. Having organised a donation of VIP set visit: Coronation Street [overnight stay in Copthorne Hotel] as prize, she arranged a competition auction be run on a Capitol Radio phone in show. I believe this netted somewhere in the region of a £1,200 to fund the charitable work of Dr Neil Franklin: Ph.D Director Indonesia Programs Sumatran Tiger Trust and opened the debate relating to Tiger Conservation.

A major problem the Sumatran Tiger faced was that its habitat was being rapidly eroded. Following the tsunami, large areas of land had been devastated and the efforts to provide food were obviously being prioritised. One of the major Indonesian crops was Palm Oil, an ingredient present in almost all processed foods. To supply this burgeoning market demand, vast swathes of protected rainforest were being taken and cleared to grow plants for mass processing and these plantations were cutting straight through the centre of tiger habitats.

Global demand for Palm Oil was rising at such a rate that it was obvious the problem was not about to go away, if the threatened tiger population was to be saved a solution needed to be found, whereby both could co-exist in harmony. Jenny and I began discussing ways to publicise the issue and to bring funds to the work which was underway, to stem the dwindling numbers of wild tigers in the islands. Certain that the only way to solve the problem was to talk to those co-ordinating tsunami reparations, that was the United Nations. The man in highest authority was Pasi Rinne, the Chairman. He extended an invitation for us to meet at his office in Geneva. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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So, at our own expense, Jenny and I made a trip, flying out to see Pasi Rinne Chairman (Asian Tsunami Environmental Task Force) - United Nations Environmental Programme [UNEP] to

make UN aware of the problem. Jenny made the presentation and I added some detail. Quite often these vanguard missions do not yield an immediate tangible result but – rather like Play For The Planet bold objectives – seeds must be planted in preparation for future harvests. Pasi Rinne assured us that support would be made accessible to the Sumatran Tiger Trust work now that he was fully aware of the problems. I am sure he honoured his word as they had with Play for the Planet by now a UN initiative.

Charities were working to trap and relocate those tigers who had been cut off by environmental development into new and protected areas but there were many associated problems. To track these new residents, the relocated tigers were fitted with satellite tracking device collars. These were expensive and resources ever low. The work was difficult and, in a climate where the human population had endured enormous tragedy, where many were struggling to maintain their own precarious existence. It was an exceedingly difficult predicament in which to operate.

Tiger populations were dropping to dangerously low levels and the species was severely under threat of extinction. In an international poll, the tiger was selected as the number one favourite animal by the public. We needed to take action before it was too late. A similar fate befell another native on the islands – the orang utangs. The problem had been saving the large numbers of orphaned infants who were too young to fend for themselves. An urgent situation brought about by the deaths of the nursing mothers in forest fires and local resident slayings.

These orphaned young orang utangs required

hand rearing. Many were being taken from forests as very young infants to service the international pet trade, to be sold illegally often to purchasers totally ignorant of the needs of the animal. Some of the survivors had found their way into the homes of well meaning, if not misguided purchasers.

Several charities were actively collecting from the forests and hand rearing these young. When the animals were capable of independent survival they were rehabilitated into protected areas, national forest regions patrolled by crocodiles. In addition, the ongoing 190

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global rescue task continued locating orang utangs from unhealthy environments that needed to be returned to their natural forest. The work desperately required funding and the support of government authority to prevent further loss of this endangered species.

Various formats were under discussion, both television and feature film. We looked at the biopics of activists working to save these creatures. We had discussed the possibility of depicting the life of the founder of the Orang Utang rescue mission who had quite a colourful life story.

I was very ill by this time and I can barely remember the day in Geneva which was my last activity with the company, having been signed off work eight weeks at that point. It was only a matter of weeks later that I had the diagnosis: a massive tumour which had spread over a large portion of my brain. To begin with, the extent of the tumour suggested to the doctors that my situation was quite hopeless. A consultation was set up for me with ENT specialist.

The prognosis was I had about six months left to remove the growth. So optimistically, my next consultation was booked for seven months later – if I was still here but the search for a surgeon would begin in earnest, and letters were sent out to specialists in neurosurgery. My ENT consultant was quite pessimistic and doubted his ability to locate a surgeon willing to take on my case. He was considering the global medical resources available. The situation could not have been more depressing. I was placed on the emergency surgical list for the earliest date available.

Just like many people, I had never seriously considered my own mortality. I was always far too busy dealing with the day to day task of rearing my second child. Added to this I was taking care of my family, the charity – shops, animals and volunteers, as well as the media work with Jenny and the Arcadia group projects. Basically, I never stopped long enough to engage in any contemplation and I really did not have time to consider what might happen if ... I was running from one end of the day to the other and still I never managed to meet the full demand on the charity. Once I had the diagnosis confirmed, I let Jenny know the findings assuring her that I would do what I could to assist her before my admission to hospital. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Jenny‟s Reaction to news of my health situation came by return. [email protected] Subject: memo-Jenny Jan: Oh God. I cannot believe all this. You have a brain tumour? It sounds like you had exactly the diagnostic procedure that I had on my spine. Is it benign? I am assuming/praying it is. God, how on earth are you-we-going to cope. Your parents and Christine will be frantic when they find out.I won't tell Carole anything until you give me more news. Obviously I understand if this means I won't see you Friday: I can cover that meeting. We can defer our board discussions-we'll have to. After all there are no budgets in sight yet anyway......... WHTTM: I cannot believe it-the production looks like it is going to fall. It was such a great project but of course it happens all the time to the best of them. I get all that about Alex/Diane and the longterm which is great, but this project was something that could have netted us a fee now which we so desperately needed. Still at least if the will to work with us is there perhaps they will bring something else juicy to us when they come in September. But is is a great disappointment. Documents: I am sorry I have been inadvertently filing your documents-I am very confused and bogged down recently with all the incomings and this telemarketing makes me so tired. I did see the Venice thing, I moved it unthinkingly-Lord knows why. Sorry. It is a lovely event. I only wish I could afford to go as I guess do you. But the way things are panning out financially I doubt I can go anywhere-even Prague for the day on those August prices. I'll be sure not to delete the Dell email when it comes in. I am back [pretty much] at square one financially is my bad news. The telemarketing firm I was stupid enough to think actually appreciated my services today unveiled the small print in my first paycheque. They have paid me pro rata per hour ...so what I get for part-time is not the basic weekly salary I was arrogant enough to think they were offering me [how could I been gormless enough to think someone would actually want to pay me a fraction of what I am worth] but per hour is something the formal letter of employment certainly NEVER said, it just said "You will work a minimum two days a week and the basic salary is £12,000pa"-my fault for arrogantly assuming what was not, I guess. I thought I had sold myself as more valuable but apparently saving a campaign and making more appointments in one week than the rest of the staff in a month counted for nothing really. I'd quit but I cannot replace this just now-what with. Anyway even working three days a week not two [which in a boiling hot office at a stupifyingly boring task is an almost unbearable thought], I can only make a maximum £500 a month pro rated by the hour after 22% tax comes off, and I have to give Carole a minimum £400 a month as my contibution to bills/mortgage/council tax/food so I'll be left with very little to even fund trips into London or pay my overdraft. I can't do this fulltime-it is horrible and would kill me and anyway how about Circle, especially with you ill! So I am in an awful place. I get no tax credits at all because the salary is just above the minimum allowance for those. God knows when Circle can pay us a salary, specially with projects falling to pieces left right and centre. I have never felt worse than today-not even last year. I know you want to pay HL all of the Coastal £2000 and whatever remains in Circle I guess this will have to pay the MM invoice [which I think is far higher than he should have charged as well if it is supposed to be about tangible results].Sadly in expending all that Circle has in the bank will leave not only you but me also, now, with no company money to fund any activities at all.Oh well. A'Cat: I don't know what Mythberg Films are talking about regarding meetings in Budapest: I never even contacted Jozsef Berger about an August meeting in Budapest, I'd forgotten all about him [this is the company that is working with David Parfitt remember, not Jacqui Fincham's client Chris Courtney-that is Laurin Films]-Mythberg have got their wires crossed. Anyway it is all a moot point as I cannot afford to go to Budapest to see anyone in the forseeable. The costings will just have to arrive by email from either/both companies. I realise I dont exactly sound like a pick-me-up but I starting to wonder what we are both doing. I am starting to think that if our brains were functioning we should have gone and been high-flying successful studio producers like Kathleen Kennedy did [we could have done, very easily] and just pulled a big salary and sod the independence-this is a fucking nightmare. I will call you tomorrow night and see how you are. I'll give you some space tonight. love Jen xx

Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Executive Producers Circle Multimedia Ltd 192

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The shock of the prognosis really took the wind out of my sails. I know that the day following, I had an attack, I was unable to breathe which scared me and the family such that they called an ambulance. At the hospital I was told I had had a panic attack. I had never had a panic attack so I did not know the symptoms but I suppose, on reflection, it was hardly a surprising reaction to the news I had just received.

I calmed down and came to terms with my condition hoping that the medical establishment could find some solution. Physically I was a mess but intellectually I felt razor sharp. Unable to work, I put in some time at Reading University on a short course studying DNA, which I passed gaining 15 points towards another science degree, if I wanted to go that route at some time. During the interim period Mr Richard Kerr, consultant Neurosurgeon at Oxford University was sent my scan results. After making full examination, he agreed to attempt the delicate surgery but, as the tumour was covering an extensive area of my brain, the operation would be 10 hr at least and it would definitely take more than just one operation to remove it all. So, finally after so many months of waiting on 30 November 2005, I was admitted into the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and underwent extensive brain surgery.

Well, that was another experience to add to the collection. The good news was that once surgeons had the skull open, they were able to biopsy the tissue and confirm that the tumour was in fact benign. Well, things could be worse! The first of two operations was completed and initially appeared to have gone well. After only a short time, it was evident that everything was not quite as it should be. The predicted ten day stay in hospital stretched eventually to six months as the start of my recovery was exacerbated by stubborn infections which resulted in encephalitis [fluid on the brain]. The treatment for these infections was to drip feed antibiotics.

On the fourth day following surgery, Jenny visited me in hospital. I was surprised at her coming so soon after the operation but she had made her decision. I cannot remember much of the actual visit except that she bought a pizza. I know I told Jenny I had woken up from the anaesthetic thinking about the Alchymist‟s Cat production and I reminded her that we had only six months to secure that last deal. The agent, getting tired of our long development, had warned that she would not renew the option for another year. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Jenny had to secure UK distribution but then with the team assembled, there should be no problem and she told me not to worry about anything. She reported that she had contacted the BBC regarding distribution for Western Europe and Spice Factory wanted to co-produce. Jenny appeared to be building quite a strong link with Spice Factory. She had reported on her meetings with Michael Cowan in the months prior to my hospitalisation. She was very excited about the developing relationship and impressed with Michael Cowan who she said wanted to fuse the two company‟s slates. I would not be surprised if they did – we had a lot of choice material on ours, and they were reputed to have about six million pounds to fund any for which we could get a distribution deal. I was less enthusiastic.

I had nothing against Spice Factory per se but financial backing was already sorted but I suppose one can never have too much. I cautioned Jenny that we already had our financial partners so Spice Factory would have to offer an increased deal or buy somebody out. Ray Marshall maybe could be interested in an offer if it was high enough. She told me they intended going out to Canada but that Spice Factory would pay the costs and she would get a deal for Nexus. We had established interest from CanWest several years back and it also had received a positive reception from New Zealand where we had secured the co-production interest from the producers of Hercules. I had written an extensive treatment for a fantasy series which Jenny, for a large part of the year, had been discussing with the Stargate producers.

Jenny knew better than I did, the likely timetable for my recovery. She had had a spinal tumour removed herself at the London Neurological Hospital in the early 1990s. She brought me cards with some very warm messages from everyone which later provided some focus whilst I was healing. At that time, I just wanted everyone to go away and let me sleep. It was such an effort to deal with visitors and I was ill for several days after the exertion of each visit. Jenny‟s one-hour visit took me two days to get over. That was two days of vomiting and intense head pains. That was my parting gift. It was the only time I saw Jenny whilst I was in hospital and she never contacted my home again.

I had never been in hospital before, except to have the children so I did not know what to expect nor did I know how my constitution would stand up to the rigours of surgery. 194

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In order not to alarm my parents, I had played the whole thing down and I was five hours into surgery before my father found out what was going on. Given what I know now, I would not do things the same way again but I truly expected to bounce back. My parents had their own health issues and I did not want to add to their problems. Hopefully all would go well and they would never know the difference. When I had failed to emerge after five hours, my parents thought something had gone wrong with the operation and spoke with the hospital. The surgeon told them the news and that they were only half way at that point. My parents were devastated. Mass was said for me at several Catholic churches, arranged by the family. I am still here, so I guess somebody‟s prayers were answered!

Most of the time I spent in hospital, I was so ill that I literally did not know where I was. Brain surgery causes some strange effects.

With the added complication of the

meningitis infection, most of that period was spent in a state of confusion, unsure just where I was. My prolonged exposure to drip fed broad-spectrum antibiotics had left me prone to the ever present super bug MRSA. Thankfully after five months the infection was beaten and, as soon as the count in the bloodstream dropped to zero, my surgeons were able to install a shunt inside my skull to carry away excess fluid and at long last my recovery could begin.

Six months had elapsed since the operation when I was finally discharged from hospital. This was only the start of the journey back to normal health. Meningitis and MRSA infections leave a difficult set of symptoms with which to deal, the most debilitating being what is described as „muscle wastage‟. All of a sudden, nothing in the body works – as if no messages can get through from the brain to any part of the body. Once I sat down, I was rooted to the spot unable to get up again. I had to re-train every body reflex.

Nevertheless, with the help of an excellent medical team, I had made it through. I knew I was lucky. Many others with similar complications had not fared so well. By the end of six months I was a fixture in Oslar Ward and I felt quite terrified at the prospect of going out into the real world. I felt very wobbly indeed. The staff at the Radcliffe Infirmary were just brilliant. There has been much debate about the cleanliness of hospital wards but the cleaning regime in that hospital never ended. My surgical team had worked a © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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miracle and, the nurses were nothing short of angels. I owe them all so much. I owe them my life. Eventually, I was discharged. It had been half a year since the operation and all felt like the morning after a very long dream. I had missed my children, my family and my dog too but, judging by the hours they spent at my side for those first few days, the feeling had been mutual. It was so good to be home at last and on the mend.

I really did not feel strong enough to be out of hospital. Nothing was working. I was not able to walk or take care of myself and nurses/OT/social workers were available to me at home if I needed assistance. I certainly did and it was a tough struggle over the first months after my discharge.

The period out of action, had afforded me time to reflect on things and question all my motivations. The fact was, I had not chosen this pathway. The job of running the charity had pretty much been thrust upon me and, though true to say, I felt very deeply about its mission, I had never aspired to the thought that one day I would be responsible for taking a lead position. However, as long as I was in the Chair then I would do the job to the best of my ability regardless of how many people I upset along the way.

Determination always wins through in the end and, as long as I have a breath in me, I will fight to complete the work I had begun. I cannot allow misfortune or misdeeds to derail it. After eighteen years with the work of the Animal Help Society, I have seen the need for the charity‟s services with my own eyes. I have seen the benefits its work brings, not only to the animals themselves, but to the community as a whole.

Animal Help Society tied in with specialist groups whose aim was to assist volunteers from minority sectors back into the workplace. It provided a means by which they could take part in programmes giving individuals the satisfaction of participating in building better community standards and which promoted a higher level of care for the animals whose welfare depends on us. Everybody benefited.

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Chapter 18

When my faculties returned sufficiently to start thinking about business matters I was disappointed to learn that there had been no contact from Jenny to report progress or to enquire about my health. We had worked together for many years and it should have been obvious to me that, all was not right but it took a long time following the infections to finally shake off their effects and for the brain to return to coherent functioning. My powers of deductive reasoning were not operating sufficiently to see what had been happening in my absence and although those close to me probably realised the situation, they did not want to draw my attention to anything which they felt would cause me distress. Having waited half a year, the family would not want anything to interrupt my recovery. The feedback I was getting suggested all was far from well.

The business partner I had trusted had either changed drastically from the person I thought she was, or she never had been the person I assessed her to be in the first place. Either way it was not attractive. Since we all judge others by our own merits, it really never occurred to me that she would double cross me whilst I was fighting for my life in hospital. My family was appalled at what they saw as a major betrayal, especially after working together for so long and since I had struggled long after I should have ceased work, placing my own health at additional risk, just to ensure that I did not let her or the company down. They all realised that there was a problem but nobody wanted to bring my attention to it.

There was not even a single phone call to find out how my children were coping with the very difficult situation of having their mother in hospital for six months. Not one call to find out if I was still alive! Apparently, the only contact had been one email request sent to my daughter for documentation, for some account files to be located. I was more than a little disappointed to learn of this - being the first test of Carole Burgess‟ personal assurances made only a few years earlier. I could not see any of that because I was still too ill and deductive reasoning took a very long time to actually return. Every faculty had to be re-honed. The first email took me just ages to type. I had to re-learn to use the computer before I could start but as always perseverance won in the end. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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From : Janet/Jenny Ives/Burgess [email protected] Sent : Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:00:08 To : [email protected] Subject : Hi from Janet

Hi Jenny,

This is the first time I have used the computer for months. I tried a few times but got totally confused - had got so out of practise that I forgot how to use it. I've tried phoning so many times and left messages for you but never seem to catch you. I hope your health is holding up and the fibroids are not giving you too much trouble. How about the productions? Is all going well with Spice? What was the Broadcaster's reaction to Deckies? I hope something positive is near, though by the looks of this mailbox it seems as though things have still not quite developed according to plan. How are Carole and Tony? I've also tried her number a few times but had no luck catching her in at the time. Please let Carole know that I have tried. She came over very cold in our last conversation, even ticked me off for not phoning - I did point out that I had been fighting for my life for six months. On the health front, I am progressing well. Some of my sight and hearing has returned and I am walking again. Tomorrow, I see my consultant to discuss my next operation which should remove the tumour that is left. Financially, I have had a beastly time but eventually we had a bit of luck and got Adam's fees paid for all of next year. Considering it amounted to almost £10.5K I was very surprised and obviously relieved. He is still shooting Harry Potter and really enjoying the experience. He says the production has had about five directors since it started. He has really changed over the past year and is now 6 foot tall. You wouldn't recognise him. Jessica has got a year's break because of the situation and will resume her masters degree in 2007. She's not so tense now that I am progressing. How is all the team? What is happening with Alchymist's Cat? Is anything happening with it. Have you spoken to Chris Courtney or Kip? Has anything happened as a result of the talks you had in Canada? Please convey my condolences to Jan. How sad it is when you loose close family made even worse when the distance between you is international. Hopefully I will catch you home soon. love Janet x Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Executive Producers Circle Multimedia Ltd 198

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From : Janet/Jenny Ives/Burgess [email protected] Sent : 12 September 2006 17:19:25 To : [email protected] Subject : Hello from Jenny

Hi Janet, I'm replying from an office; it is virtually impossible to reach me in the day because I am out for 98% of it and very tired and preoccupied in the late evenings-and weekends have been a write off.I have a multitude of commitments. As you know I lost the reliable part-time job I had here and replacing it was very difficult. Email really is the best option for now. I'm delighted you are steadily improving and hope that the second operation will alleviate the remaining problems. That's good news for Jessica and Adam's futures. Carole has not been about much as she's been having a lot of treatment on her leg and dealing with placing Tony's disabled son in a residential nursing home which has taken ages to pull off. I am sure she was not deliberately cold. She is under continual acute financial pressures, has almost lost this house more than once and her hopes of moving from here are a way off from being realised [as are mine]. The failure of any returns on years of investments in ventures inevitably creates a negative domino-effect. She and Tony both send their warmest good wishes for your health. The situation with The Alchymist's Cat is still as it was, BBC Drama are not prepared to commit and BBC Films awaiting a new script draft. BBC may decide to run with it but it is not possible to say anything conclusive. It depends on the availability of big budget drama slots and in that department the BBC are on critical overspend .I've had a couple of communiqués from Chris Courtney but there is really nothing he can contribute at this stage. Deckies: I am waiting for broadcaster reactions. They all liked the script a lot. I'd like to produce it as a series. I hope someone runs with it. But I have learnt not to second guess broadcasters. They either will or they won't. As a balance of well written, directed and produced original comedy-drama I think we did a super job for Spice. Nexus: I'm awaiting news on movements with the broadcaster in Canada. But it can all take years as we all know and their terrestrials are as slow as broadcasters here. I have passed on your thoughts and good wishes to Jeanette, it was an awful loss. She's coping beautifully and is currently in Australia on a music lecture tour. take care, Jenny x Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Executive Producers Circle Multimedia Ltd

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This was definitely not the reply anticipated I expected that Jenny would already be filming by this time. How could we have failed to get distribution? I had raised an overdraft facility to cover all requirements to move the film to pre-production.

This was accompanied by a full business plan with budgetary information and explanatory notes with duplicate copies going to Barclays Bank and the company accountants. It had been fully explained, and recorded, at board meetings that some spending itemised in the budget were not allowed for from the bank money, therefore, those items off budget would have to be provided for out of personal funds, although it was always understood that when project revenues began to flow, valid amounts could then be claimed back through personal expenses per production.

The issue of personal spending had long been a matter of contention within the company and many frustrated emails had flown back and forth, detailing my discontent at Jenny‟s lack of self-control and the commingling of personal spending which made work later down the line, isolating individual personal payments when accounts were being drawn up. It appears that all my protestations fell on deaf ears and Jenny had continued to mount personal expenditures with the debit card.

With all of the money used - money that had been raised specifically to cover the legal process of taking the Alchymist‟s Cat production to principle photography, the only remedy that may have provided a possible lifeline to Jenny, that of securing the lawyer‟s help, had by her own actions, been totally closed off. We had an award winning team assembled so why it had proven impossible to secure a distribution deal for the film, I do not understand. This is the job of a producer!

It remains quite unbelievable, with all the elements that were assembled, that the company was unable to get a single distributor to join what professes to be a quality product. It might be comprehensible if it was the case that nobody else had signed up to the production. It takes courage and vision to be the first to lock in interest but that was not the case here. Everything was poised ready to go ahead once the UK deal was put in place. Many of the elements could have been altered to accommodate terms, if a deal depended on it, so I am mystified as to why no distribution deal was secured. 200

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The last brick in the wall should have been the easiest to put in place. It is the position of least risk because its very presence completes the package and squares the circle. Nothing in the package was carved in stone. In the case of Alchymist‟s Cat all those individual elements were accomplished experts in their own field that increased the probable product quality. So what had prevented that last deal being tied?

It is obvious now that there was some force acting against what should have been the natural progression. I had no idea where to look for that force so I began to back track and consider who it was that was working behind the scenes and why. Who stood to gain if the productions were to fail? Having lost the revenue from Wire in the Blood and Conqueror, the next project in line was Alchymist‟s Cat. The property was we hoped another eventual source of profits to support our good works.

There was possibly a fair list of people whom I have upset over the years who would like to see me fail generally in my endeavours. There are those whose attempted exploitation of the charity was curtailed by some swift action on my part. There is also a large group of people who gain a living out of the exploitation of animals who would be under threat from an active animal welfare charity. There are an increasing number of citizens willing to stand up and be counted on these issues and unlike in previous decades, the proponents today are not activists from a minority grouping. They are mainstream pensioners, housewives, office workers, teenagers, school children etc. Any aim to unite this force would quickly find opposition, at least until the politicians had created ways of taxing it.

There may have been a persuasive explanation as to why Jenny Burgess had let me down and failed to move projects forward but she was definitely not communicating it to me. The first inclination I had that all was not well was a call I received from a service provider. The call came through to my home asking if I would pick up the monthly payment of £21 for my internet connection. I had experienced enough of a problem getting the service in the first place so it was important not to lose the connection now. I also had the charity helpline still coming through to me so I did not want anything to interfere with that. Calls came through regularly and having found the AHS helpline number meant at least we could point them the right way. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Animals in need dependent on that.and not wishing to be disconnected, I had agreed at first thinking it must be an error which could be sorted. There had been thousands in the account. Of course, had Coastal met its agreed payments then there would have certainly been no problem. Even with Jenny‟s poor mathematics she should have been able to avoid emptying the entire bank account balance. I wrote again to Jenny to ask if she knew why this had happened.

From: "Janet/Jenny Ives/Burgess" To: [email protected] Subject: a query Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:37:40 +0100 Jen, Some time ago I had a call from Orange [who have taken over Wanadoo]. There had been a problem with the payment, or something - I wasn't able to go into it at the time but I gave my own account details so it would be paid. I noticed that they took considerably more money out than I was expecting. Can you confirm that you are sorting your internet payments before I call them over the amount. I tried to check the Circle account today to find out and the machine ate my card. Do you know why that happened? Also i forgot to ask if there had been any response from Coastal to your invoice re the 2%? Has there been any payments from them since the 29 June 2005 £1,930.53 [Invoice 10]? I cannot find any accounts or references in the box but there must be something in 12 months. cheers Janet x

The reply came but I was still so ill I could hardly cope with the shock of Jenny‟s revelations. True, I had never expected her to report that everything had gone according to plan and she had packaged all the productions. Everything was a struggle and we never experienced exceptional amounts of good luck so I expected to hear that she had made fifteen steps forward and maybe slid back twelve. I certainly did not expect to hear that absolutely no progress had been made across an entire year, especially since she had told me she was concentrating on tying up a deal for Nexus in Canada. I knew from earlier talks with the head of CANWEST he liked the concept. I also knew that Jenny had spoken to the series writers of Buffy The Vampire Slayer about the format. Once the seed is out there, nothing will prevent its germination, 202

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Sent :

14 September 2006 12:24:19

To :

[email protected]

Subject :

RE: a query Attachment : JennytoJanetCircleMultimedia.doc (0.03 MB)

Sorry, Janet, for the delay in responding-I did receive the email the first time. I had no opportunity to address it yesterday and I needed to make a proper response. Please see attached. Jenny x Hi Janet, Re your email. I am sorry you had to find out about the situation this way, but perhaps it is for the best. Given your severe ill-health and the importance of not having additional strain to the process of getting well, I had intended to wait until you were past the second operation to discuss it with you, but maybe it is best you know now the extremely difficult circumstances of the last three months which have lead to us having to take over our own direct debits, and to the need for some serious decision-making. Coastal’s cheques continued to arrive quarterly as they have always done, but the amounts are decreasing. There are no mailbox references for this year because I never e mail Coastal - there is little point, as they never respond. If I need to communicate with them, I do so by recorded mail or, in urgent circumstances, by telephone. From November to April, while I was working regularly part time, the account was managed well within the limits of the overdraft. However, after April I lost any source of external income, and was unable to find more despite my best efforts-my restrictions of geographical location and inability to travel far for the level of money on offer being a major obstacle. As such, I was forced to rely on entirely the Coastal money in order to keep a roof over my head, as well as to cover all company related necessities and payments. Then, there was a disastrous and unforeseen chain of events; Brebners had temporary receptionists in for the summer, who lost / mislaid the Coastal statement, which had been sent by ordinary post. As you know I had been in Canada, pushing Nexus. I immediately pestered Coastal for a swift replacement. By the time I received it, however, and returned the VAT invoice – which I sent the same day – they had shut their office, cleared it of personnel bar one dimwit to answer phones, and vanished for a six week holiday, leaving no contact information for themselves. As a result, and in spite of every effort on my part, the cheque which should have been banked around July 1st, was not deposited until nearly mid-August. Needless to say, I soundly berated Ken Jobling for not advising us of their hiatus, but he was totally unconcerned and said they were not obliged to tell us anything about their actions. As the account was in danger of exceeding the overdraft limit, I made Barclays aware of this delay, and stopped all my direct debits. Unfortunately, I was too late to stop my phone bill and two huge sets of bank charges, interest and excess fees were then taken out, which sent the account into the red by hundreds in a matter of days. This obviously necessitated further discussions with Barclays. I had a meeting with the new banking team, who have been very sympathetic to the situation vis a vis Coastal and your illness. However, they also said – very reasonably – that as the overdraft was put onto the account when we thought THE ALCHYMIST’S CAT would lift imminently, and that strictly speaking, it was way too large for a company with scarcely any income. Given some years had passed with no sign of that production lifting, it was way past time to redraw the terms of the © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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overdraft and as such, the account was frozen and the overdraft removed. As such, any further debit payments, however small, which anyone tried to take from it were returned, including Wanadoo. I was charged simultaneously for multiple declined internet payments to my personal bank account and I am now badly overdrawn as a consequence. This is the domino-effect the situation caused. Some of the excess was cleared when the overdue cheque finally arrived, but by arrangement with the bank, at this stage I had no option but to use a sizeable portion of it to clear very urgent bills which were weeks overdue. I have arranged with the bank to begin repayments from the next cheques. Barclays have strongly advised that as it has consistently been trading at a loss for years that Circle Multimedia be wound up, and I cannot but agree with them. There is no immediate expectation of income. All that could be done to get projects moving has been done, and if THE ALCHYMIST'S CAT or NEXUS do lift at some point in the future, then they can simply be assigned, rights and all, to individual trading vehicles and produced under those and repay us some of the gargantuan amount we've invested. As far as DECKIES is concerned, Spice Factory very much wanted me to produce it-I could simply have done it as an individual. But I insisted it be an official company co-production with 25% net profits to Circle. My thought was at least this way you could have some income from something and all the personal debts could be settled in one go. DECKIES is the project with the highest chance of immediately lifting due to its type and budget. DECKIES will be produced within its own trading vehicle so the 25% can easily be assigned over to the former Circle directors individually. But it'll be at least year before we see this even if it is commissioned by a broadcaster this year. Coastal have not responded in any way to the letter regarding the 2%, and I do not believe they will do so. It is high time that we took a frank and realistic look at this situation. We are in no position to continue the claim against them. The Claim of Tort expires April next year. To take any further legal action, we must guarantee that the company has more than sufficient income and assets to bear all costs and any potential loss, and not cease trading as a result. Short of winning the lottery, there is no way we will be in this financial position in time. And to attempt to pursue the 2% is equally pointless. Coastal have ignored it, and will simply argue that the contract was ambiguously worded [which it is] and prevaricate at length until we are both out on the streets. We cannot afford to set lawyers onto it. It would be money down the drain even if we could. At this point, I am also simply not willing to dedicate any more time, energy or money [not that I have any left] to a fight we cannot win and which has done nothing for either of us except ruin our lives. Your medical state must have been exacerbated by all this stress and I am in a miserable, lonely existence I cannot escape from after years of sacrifice with no returns. It is time for both of us to cut our losses and move on. I want to start proceedings to wind Circle Multimedia up, in order that both you and I can chalk this up to hard experience, start afresh and rebuild our lives. At this stage, I think you should focus on your health - I pray that you will achieve 100% recovery soon – and that we should proceed as I have suggested above as soon as possible. Jenny xx Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Executive Producers

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The words, “to wind Circle Multimedia up” hit me like a lightening bolt. I could not believe what I was reading. How could the company have made absolutely no progress in over a year. And, why should the bank be making such recommendations I guess it is instructive for directors to be advised by their bank on matters of financial management, however, there had been sufficient funds available provided that its management was administered with a responsible attitude.

I was not really interested in what the bank had to say. If it truly intended to offer advice then it had missed the biggest opportunity - pointing out to Jenny Burgess the error in mixing private spending with company money. This was our company and it had a higher mission than just making profits for investors and shareholders. Eventually I called the bank manager and he admitted that Barclays had, in fact, assisted her in the removal of funds off mandate which might have been explainable if it had been to settle company invoices but inexcusable to be wasted on personal toiletries and to pay one‟s mother vast sums.

No wonder the bank was recommending she should close the

company down, especially before I get back in the driving seat. I began to see what had been happening in my absence and I felt physically sick.

Yes, things were difficult. I knew that but I could see that it was possible Jenny was being manipulated. She was in a very difficult position with me out of action, there was no cover for those areas over which I had traditionally taken control. Jenny was obviously concerned about the money she had tied up in the company, no doubt with her mother, Carole adding her own discontented pressure and it was known that this was Jenny‟s Achilles‟ tendon. I believe the manipulators used it to their advantage to get Jenny to fall into line. Working on the basis of „divide and conquer‟ I am convinced that she was led to believe that to go ahead with legal action, she was placing herself at financial risk. Added to this Carole would be Jenny‟s constant source of concern. Living under the ever present threat her cancer may return and, feeling responsible for not having made the vast sums of money they always dreamed they would one day see. I knew that Jenny would feel she was personally responsible and would want to make amends. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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I was starting to regain my strength from the wastage caused by the MRSA infection. Before I went in for surgery, I must have guessed at some earlier point that such a situation was open to possibility of arising. I had asked Jenny to get me clarification of the timelines on the breach of contract case against Coastal Productions, so that it would be ready waiting for me when I returned to work.

As we moved towards the end of 2006, when I was getting back into the swing of using the computer, I started to go through the email box folders to re-familiarise myself with the projects. I had been out of the loop for over a year. Jenny may not be interested in running the company any longer but I had invested a lot of time and effort into it, too and had no intention of just allowing it to be closed around me. My thoughts went back to Bruno. I remembered the day I resolved to bring him the help he needed. Again, I felt the same stab of indignation. Nobody was going to close down this company if I could help it. The years of careful planning that had gone into building a source of revenue for the work of caring for animals in need, was not going to be cast on the scrap heap. I found Jenny‟s email querying the time-lines on the breach case and I discovered the reply written by our lawyer Samantha Phillips. From the information she had sent, it appeared that the earliest date upon which the defendants could hang a limitation claim started six years from the contract date, 6 April 2007, we had until Easter to serve the Particulars of Claim. That gave me just under 5 months to get things back on track so I figured we were still OK. After I picked myself up from the shock of Jenny‟s revelation I tried to pull together a plan. The question was, “Did I feel strong enough to carry the whole thing single handedly”? I was not sure I did but Jenny had made it clear that her thinking on the matter had changed. I was all that was left. If the Animal Help Society was to get its base of operation, I just had to try to manage and I prayed for the strength to see it through. Taking Jenny‟s report at face value, it appeared she was no longer interested in running the company. She had said several times that she wanted out of the company. She had indicated in a number of emails that she wanted to close the company down arguing that 206

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in her opinion, closing the company was the most favoured option. Things had not gone according to plan and she was obviously feeling very disillusioned indeed.

I think she had forged a working relationship with Spice Factory and was keen to produce the comedy they had worked on together entitled Deckies which they were trying to sell. She had not told me anything of project development taking place during my absence, although she did send me a CD containing the pilot for the show, prepared for UK terrestrial channel. I had subsequently asked for an update on progress but she would not provide any further information in response to enquiries concerning the possibility of a broadcast deal. The Company Secretary‟s requests sent to Spice Factory for a report on progress also failed to get any meaningful responses. The letter requesting information which I had sent Brebners‟ accountant Michael Burton had also failed to bring in any meaningful response so I then sent a reminder email in the hope of prompting a reply. I used to take care of the account preparation each year so I knew that figures had to be filed with the authorities around the end of the year and I had guessed that they would be in preparation by Brebners who had always taken care of the company‟s account filing. So I assumed they should be readily available for me to view. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ From: Janet/Jenny Ives/Burgess [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 12 December 2006 02:16 To: Michael Burton Cc: [email protected] Subject: circle multimedia

Dear Michael: I sent you a letter, via snail mail, a couple of weeks back and have had no reply. I am concerned that it has got lost in the post. Jenny has made it clear that she does not wish to speak to me and there is no apparent reason for her hostile attitude. In addition to this, the email box is littered with correspondence concerning the closure of this company. Despite your reassurances, I am still very concerned about this situation. I would like to see copies of the bank statements over the last year and I offered to pay the cost of copying these in my letter to you. I would appreciate some help in this matter. Yours sincerely, Janet

Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Executive Producers _____________________________________________________________________________________ © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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By mid month having received no responses I had started an attempt to re-acquaint myself with everything and began reading through the stored emails in an attempt to patch up the gaps in my memory caused by the surgery and simply by my absence from the daily work regime. Files were missing! Files that I knew had been created before I left to have surgery. There was a total lack of any accounting or invoicing information. Jenny had simply ignored my requests for figures. I had written to the company lawyers a few days before to confirm we would press ahead with our claims to Coastal but I needed the previous year‟s figures to assess the damages and so felt the need to prompt Brebners once again and I wrote to Michael Burton. _____________________________________________________________________________________

From: Janet/Jenny Ives/Burgess [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 21 December 2006 13:05:57 To: Michael Burton Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: circle multimedia

Dear Michael: Apologies for bothering you with this again. It would appear that Jenny has abandoned ship, having destroyed many important company files before departing. Obviously there is a legal responsibility to sort this company's business and I have taken steps to establish the current situation so that I can plan the best course of action. As I advised you, in our phone conversation, I have a set of bank statements coming to your office which will be addressed to me. I have informed Harbottle’s that I want to get the Coastal case to court and, further to your queries, I have asked Sam to assess the personal risk involved. I am aware of the situation regarding the BAT bill and will honour the agreements you have made with Jenny to settle an amount from any WIRE payment. Please advise me when the Coastal statement arrives, [due this Friday], so that I can invoice. Thank you for your patience, Best Janet Ives

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I went through the folders, in an attempt to re-acquaint myself with all the projects. In total I spent about three months doing that. My productivity severely hampered by my health. Nevertheless, it provided good therapy, to have something upon which to focus my attention and it helped my progress enormously. The accounts were due to be filed at Companies House soon and I wrote to remind Jenny and Brebners and to ask if figures 208

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had been prepared for submission.

Searching for board minute folders, to check the resolution to go ahead with the case, I began to realise how many files were missing. With plenty of server space, there was no reason for statutory files to be removed. Apart from the possibility of there being a good reason for the disappearance of files, as company directors, certain files had to be available by law. I locked the box to prevent any further removals. I delayed my second operation and from Jenny‟s correspondence, I knew if I wanted to try to sort out the mess, I needed to find the requisite funding to cover the costs of running the case plus clear the backlog of unpaid invoices. I had plenty of experience of doing that from my days in charity work - so I sourced family finance, then once again contacted Harbottle & Lewis to say that further to a board decision [May 2005] I wanted to get the case back on track, revealing that since Circle currently had no bank balance, and I would personally be bringing in funding to cover the costs.

I never considered there would be any objections from Jenny, who had not only said she wanted out of the company but also stood to gain personally if the court found in the company‟s favour and that I was sure was a foregone conclusion, provided we could get a court to consider the evidence. Jenny had said she had no funds and therefore I never asked her to provide any and made it clear to the lawyers that she would not be requested to contribute and agreed to pay her directors loan and a share of any proceeds won in court.

I knew a board resolution to mount the case had been passed the year previous and it was now up to me to activate progress however I was not prepared for what happened next. The lawyers forwarded me an adamant letter they had received from Jenny Burgess. Despite her earlier written confirmation urging me to settle the retainer bill and take up the management of the case, she had written again informing Harbottle & Lewis that she was now opposed to the action. Why had she suddenly done this about turn? Just what was she playing at?

Well, if the invoice had been settled, she would not have to find any means of meeting © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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liability now. I suspect that her advisors were proffering their wisdom and persuading her that such action was not in her company‟s or her own best interests and likely to fail. Jenny Burgess had publicly stated that she favoured closing the company down, aware she would get nothing, so any option with opportunity would have be seen as worthwhile.

She was not being asked to provide any of the funding to mount the case yet she felt the need to state again that she would not make any funds available. Her advisors had to be telling her, that maintaining a claim on any company profits from Wire In The Blood, her assets were at risk of being called upon to settle any debts created in the process of mounting the case. If she was led to believe that her property was in jeopardy her fear factor would understandably kick in. These were trusted advisors whom she had known and worked with for many years and then she had her mother to consider as well.

Harbottle & Lewis advised that in the case of a split in board decision, the firm was unable to act. The only recourse was for one director to resign and she had made it known she wished to close the company. Once again she wrote that she was willing to resign provided that I gave her undertakings to settle her director‟s loan. That was never at risk. My first letter of 18 December 2006 had given this undertaking and a copy sent to the company lawyers. Having been told by Jenny Burgess that she wanted to close the company, I interrupted the settlement of the retainer and asked once more for her to confirm her resignation, undertaking to settle any outstanding amounts on her director‟s loan account balance, to enable me to run the breach of contract case against Robson Green‟s Coastal Productions Limited and Davenport Lyons who drew up the contract.

Jenny agreed to resign on condition that I have the letter drawn up by a solicitor. I let her know that I would comply with the request. I sourced private money to cover legal costs and engaged a solicitor to have the letter drawn up. The fiasco which followed cost a considerable amount of money and time as Jenny repeatedly reneged on submitting anything further in writing, other than demands for assurances. Whilst the money spent on legal fees was an excess because it did not achieve anything – I had also been denied access to company figures, so I had no way of quantifying the reply to her demand as to when she could be repaid all the money outstanding. The bank account had been moved 210

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two months prior and I had no idea where it now resided or what sums were going through it. The last filed accounts were March 2005. Without the figures, how could I assess income and expenditure or how much the outstanding amount was that Jenny was looking to be repaid.

To overcome this stalemate, my legal team advised the Company Secretary to call a board meeting at which a proposal could be raised to ratify the 2005 decision to mount the case. Alan Cockayne, set an urgent EGM for the 26 March 2007. As the limitation had to be stayed by a court and the company was hard against its deadline. The decision was taken to maintain the earlier resolution to continue its case for Wire In The Blood payments. The fee was to be paid out of personal funds and the company applied to court for a stay the date of limitation.

The application was successful and Circle Multimedia was allowed a further six months to serve the particulars of claim on the defendants. I set about sourcing the money to cover the fees and established that Jenny had no objection to my settling back invoices. She wrote to confirm that she was happy for me to go ahead with clearing the bills. I made the condition of my sourcing settlement of these invoices that I have a clear pathway to manage the case. She agreed.

Efforts began in earnest to draw together the recollections enabling Harbottle & Lewis to begin the task of assembling the Particulars of Claim. Our original witness statements were on file. Jenny wrote offering to assist in the process but I never saw anything. Harbottle & Lewis had all the files so I felt there was little she could add at this point.

We were now into another financial year. Accounts still outstanding with the authorities and I still had not seen any details regarding financial transactions in my absence. I had managed to obtain a set of bank statements and I challenged Jenny to explain what had been going on or, to move out and let me take the reigns on the company! I reiterated for the umpteenth time that I would honour any outstanding amounts owed to anyone provided she allowed me a free hand and ceased obstructive behaviour which would surely thwart the case. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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I also drew her attention to the fact that as Brebners repped the second defendant, it was a bad idea to keep copying all these contentious emails to them. I had no confidence that the accountants were behaving impartially and I did not trust that information was not „leaking‟ over to the defendants and weakening our position. At the very least, by copying contentious documents to Brebners, it placed the firm in a difficult position. Jenny assured me that she would observe protocol and stop copying contentious emails to third parties. There may have been some dilution in Jenny‟s copying activities but she continued to cc emails.

The AGM was then set for 31 May 2007 and notices duly sent out. The acceptance of Ms Burgess‟ resignation was a point on the agenda under any other business and I expected her to provide accounts before leaving, in order that company filing duties could be met. The due filing date had been missed and accounts were three months late at that point despite my reminders and I had already paid £100 penalty payment for this.

Following her instruction that she had appointed a proxy, then she informed the Company Secretary that neither she nor the proxy would be attending. Within the company‟s Articles of Association, there is a remedy for just such a situation which determined the meeting would automatically reconvene one week later, on 7 June 2007 at the same location or one determined by those attending. As neither Jenny Burgess nor the proxy would be attending this meeting and no accounts information had been sent, her resignation was formally accepted and her conditions agreed in her absence. The form was prepared for sending to Companies House for registration. Despite the company‟s acceptance of her resignation, Jenny Burgess continued to issue instructions on its behalf and refused to comply with reasonable requests to cease. Having made it known that she had no time or inclination to manage the company, I had taken over and I advised her that I had begun the process of clearing the backlog of debts. With no authority to do so, Jenny continued to invoice on behalf of the company and clear company cheques with the assistance of Brebners, who had taken care of company accounts for many years. Since Brebners had told me that they were no longer able to extend credit enabling the filing duties to be complied with I had informed Brebners that their services were no longer required. 212

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For reasons which have never been revealed, Brebners partner Michael Burton wrote (uninvited) to Harbottle & Lewis to provide an opinion over the Board membership of Circle Multimedia stating that the company was in a 50:50 split position. Not only was this untrue but no request had been made to establish Brebners‟ view on the internal politics of our company which was none of their business. These comments placed the law firm in an awkward position. Had it been shown at some future date that Brebners‟ assertion was true then the law firm had to have evidence that it had behaved impartially for the company. The behaviour of Michael Burton of Brebners‟ certainly could not be construed as being in this company‟s interests. It was not in the interests of Brebner‟s either. In fact the only possible beneficiaries of his action were the defendants. Conveniently, the second defendant was also Brebner‟s client. I remembered a comment from a conversation with our litigation solicitor David Gore at Davenport Lyons Mayfair offices when he was trying to impress upon us the power wielded by Richard Moxon whom he described as having, “tentacles with an exceedingly long reach”. Finally, I realised who stood to gain by the Company Secretary relinquishing his shareholding at the time when I took the legal case out of the hands of Davenport Lyons in 2003. Brebners represent one of the partners of that law firm.

The only plausible explanation to me is that it had become obvious to all that Davenport Lyons may be subject to a claim from our company at some future date. I believe they knew, long before it had dawned on us, that they had not given us the best of services. They had got my measure – I am a battler and I never give up. In fact there are times when a dignified retreat would be the best option but I find it impossible to submit to it. Their best chance of undermining the action was to play on Jenny but whilst the Company Secretary held a share, he was a loose canon. If it came to a vote, he could side with either argument. Maybe even choose to pursue an action. This possibility had to be closed off.

I do not know the actual motivation that was suggested to persuade Jenny, but I guessed it was that the firm would assist her in removing money from the company account to repay her directors loan and help return some of the money she and the company owed © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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her mother. I may be wrong in my assessment but it is just the most logical reason and try as I might, I was unable to come up with a satisfactory alternative as to why the company should act in a manner detrimental to the case.

To thwart their disruptive activities and get the company figures, eventually I lodged a complaint with the Institute of Chartered Accountants to the effect that Brebners was interfering in the internal workings of our company and withholding information from one of its client directors which was obstructing the preparation of annual accounts that it was our statutory duty to file. I had little doubt that Jenny was unable to see what was going on from the close proximity of her position. She was working on Deckies which she hoped would secure a deal at some point soon.

A board meeting was held on 4 July 2007 in Maidenhead at which the return of the Company Secretary‟s shareholding was formalised and this was duly recorded at Companies House. The registered office was changed to avoid more documents going astray or being withheld by Brebners.

Despite having paid for a mail redirection service for six months, company letters including statements of due royalties from Wire In The Blood were disappearing. I wrote my complaints to the Post Office. Despite the fact that No VAT return forms had been seen by me since 2004, company money was disappearing and all requests for information were being ignored. This situation continued until I had lodged a complaint with the governing body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

In a further attempt to rectify the legal position of the company, I contacted the Inland Revenue office to explain the situation I had returned to find and request guidance as to what outstanding matters needed attention. I also wrote to Companies House to do the same with regards to the late filing of accounts. I had contacted Barclays Bank to obtain copies of statements over the period of my absence and the full horror began to unfold, the entire contents of the account had been emptied. I re-read Jenny Burgess‟s email of 14 September 2006 and cross referenced the detail with the entries on the bank statement. I found the trip to Canada [16 May – 31 May] 214

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which, I was lead to believe, Spice Factory was to cash flow. Expenditures for and on this trip had been the very items which had taken the account over its agreed limit by the beginning of June 2006. That was slightly at odds with the version of the story that Jenny was now telling me, where she had claimed it happened some eight weeks later.

The evidence was there for all to see and one would have to be very niaïve to not realise that a bank would levy charges for borrowing its money. It was not the first time Jenny Burgess had taken bank finance so she knew it had to be paid for and knew what the system would bring to bear if those payments were defaulted upon. I had calculated the costs of borrowing on the day that we had met with the bank in February 2005.

I really do not find this a plausible excuse for allowing the company finances to get into such a mess. Even if there was a justifiable excuse for it, I had every right to know what had caused it. I am not convinced by the claim that details were withheld from me out of respect of my considerable ill health. There had been no particular consideration of my health condition up to that point so why would it suddenly become an issue of concern? And how could it be construed to be in my best interests that my company was closed down behind my back and personal investments forfeited?

As a major shareholder in this company, I had certain statutory rights. As a director I had even more which included a right to know what sums had been paid into the account during my absence. Since company directors are liable for the running of a company and ensuring that it complies with its statutory obligations, its directors can be prosecuted in the event that they breach dictates applicable to the company.

Company directors must file accounts yearly. Failure to do so renders all the board liable to prosecution and the fine is considerable £5,000. The fact that the company had not filed the accounts meant I was placed at risk of being prosecuted, fined and barred from holding any other directorships. This was a bit harsh considering I had no way of affecting the decision not to comply with requirements. I had covered several penalty fines for late filing yet I still had no idea whether the company even had a bank account. . There is a lengthy list of so-called protections for shareholders on the statute books. My © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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assessment of the effectiveness of any and all of these is they are not worth the paper they are written on. These laws are all fine if you have a bottomless bank account to ensure the services of a top barrister who can impress the judiciary to afford you your rights. One has difficulty in not drawing the conclusion that Justice in England is still a commodity which is available only to the wealthy.

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Circle Multimedia / Intrigue Productions claim to have originated or initiated TV Property: Wire In The Blood (a series) Informal literary option Agreements [in writing] August 1998 September 1998 Formal option agreement with the author 1st period paid in full dated 1 March 2000 Formal option agreement with the author 2nd period paid in full dated 1 March 2001

1. The literary properties ---- identified Tony Hill novels as potential TV Series August 1998 Author first approached – novel option agreed (Arcadia Productions Ltd) September 1998 Optioned (right to renew) - (The Wire In The Blood by Val McDermid) 1 March 2000 Formal Option Agreement – (both novels covered) (Circle Multimedia Ltd)

2. Writers

[evidenced]

Val McDermid first offered the job of writing of screenplays – not interested, happy with use of industry professionals to adapt for screen [@ 50% fee] but cannot kill off characters The Agency / Bethan Evans approached before Coastal was invited onto project –to provide writers to write the screenplays... [evidenced]

3. Lead actor/CAST

[evidenced]

Robson Green identified, ratified with author prior to making contact November 1998 Phil Shaw provided extensive casting assistance – office deluged / requested to cease

4. Format

[evidenced]

1 Mar 2000 Option contained clause allowing the adaptation of novels for a TV Series 6 April 2001 The Agreement signed covered the production of a series [evidenced] The Commission agreement signed with ITV is for a series [includes Circle synopsis] Circle Multimedia treatment : [„x files‟ = onscreen btw Dr Tony Hill / DI Carol Jordan] This was the treatment used by Coastal to shape the production agreed by author/agent

5. Series Synopsis/Broadcaster

[evidenced]

Synopsis was written by Circle Multimedia for a TV series and forms part of the ITV © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Coastal contract for Wire In The Blood commission [evidenced] “(Part C) Programme proposal One page series synopsis attached”

6. Directors/Crew

[evidenced]

Declan O‟Dwyer was recommended by Circle at the outset, among others having worked together for years in signed agreement with Circle Multimedia Ltd [evidenced] Identified „Silent Witness‟ crew as ideal Phil Leech attached with approval [evidenced]

7. Co-production

[evidenced]

October 1998 Coastal first proposed to author/agent November 1998 Coastal contacted [plenty of documentary evidence showing] Agreed project = co-production of Tony Hill series - aiming at ITV franchise [evidenced]

8. Split

[evidenced]

The split was always agreed would be 50:50 with no discounted exceptions and signed agreements exist between the companies prior to the 6 April 2001[evidenced]

9. Prequels & Sequels

[evidenced]

The underlying option agreement was that the company had a right to negotiate for any prequels and sequels and the author‟s rights were restricted for material with the characters appearing in ~The Wire In The Blood [evidenced]

10. Approval/Credits

[evidenced]

Scripts and production decisions were to be made with Circle Multimedia approval and the company AND individuals were to be credited in equal prominence to the credit afforded Sandra Jobling - this was an undertaking spelled out in contract [evidenced]

11. Subsequent Series

[evidenced]

Wire in the Blood has broadcast seven series. The terms of our original agreement was that we would split the rights and revenues 50:50 However to date Robson Green has paid virtually nothing (series 1) and absolutely nothing (series 2 – 7). [evidenced] In my estimation – this is outright

theft 218

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Correspondance sent to Circle Multimedia by Jenny Burgess 25th April 2007 [in response to your letter below entitled “My Views On This Mess”]

Dear Janet Thank you for your most recent letter. Having read the issues you address and the comments you have made, it is clear that we are not going to agree on any of these matters, all of which I have already adressed on several occasions. As such, I see no point in going into all this any further and I believe the most constructive way to proceed is for us to simply settle the terms and conditions under which we can sever our relationship. As I have told you previously, Barclays Bank have recommended that the company be dissolved, since it has been trading at a loss for so long. I feel that this would still be the best option and in the best interests of us both. (I am fully aware that the directors' loan accounts would cease to be recoverable if the company were to dissolve). If this option were taken, individual Circle-owned projects [such as Nexus] could still be exploited: through the mutual agreement of the Directors and transfer of rights into a trading vehicle. However, if you still wish to continue with the company on your own, I propose the following:I have been advised that in order for a Director to tender their resignation, that they should have a formal letter of guarantee specifying when their director’s loan account will be repaid and what sources of funds will be used to repay it. In addition the remaining Director will have to undertake to acknowledge and uphold the interests and opinions of the departing Director who will obviously retain their shareholding in the company. If you will provide me with this letter of guarantee, providing I am satisfied with the form and content of it, I will tender my resignation as a Director of Circle Multimedia Ltd, retaining my shareholding. The guarantee must be drawn up by a solicitor and signed by you. It is important you understand that my decision to resign on the conditions given is because I wish to sever this partnership. It is not a decision made as a result of any of the allegations or demands made in your solicitor’s letter of 24th March 2007 or subsequently by yourself. I will also require an undertaking, again in a formal Letter drawn up by a solicitor, to the effect that if the Defendants [Coastal Productions/Davenport Lyons] apply to the Court for Security of Costs from the Claimant [Circle Multimedia Ltd] and the Court should demand individual payments from the company’s shareholders, that you will undertake to solely source and provide such payments that are demanded and that you understand I am not in the position as a shareholder in the company to be able to personally contribute to such payments. I look forward to your response. Sincerely Jenny Burgess CC Michael Burton

On 25 April 2007, Jenny Burgess finally provided a letter specifying her wish to resign. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Chapter 19

In early August the Particulars of Claim were duly served on both defendants. Coastal: a company owned by Robson Green [70%] + Sandra Jobling [30%], the first defendant was charged with breach of contract having withheld almost all of the revenue profits from Series 1 and all revenue profits from subsequent series thereafter. It was Circle Multimedia‟s intention to ask the court to rectify the agreement to better reflect the parties intention prior to signing. If this count fails in court then Davenport Lyons, it would be claimed, had failed to carry out the client‟s instructions or to advise it correctly in accordance with the client‟s natural expectation of a firm of solicitors, and especially one which markets itself as a media industry specialist.

The first count referenced to the missing quarter million from the sale & leaseback. When the defendants submitted their defence statements, only Coastal continued to challenge Circle Multimedia‟s right to share in that profit claiming yet another unknown industry practise. Davenport Lyons the second defendant admitted that Circle Multimedia had a valid claim to 50% profit on the sale & leaseback deal which they had previously described as a summary judgement.

Lawyers first dealt with the internal matters of the company which stood to interrupt the action. A meeting convened in October 2007 at the offices of Harbottle & Lewis. Jenny Burgess and Michael Burton of Brebners invited to attend, the aim was to stop their disruptive activities. Brebners had charged that its company was still owed money by Circle Multimedia which had been outstanding for two years and had raised a statutory demand. When its hand was forced to provide the figures which related to company cheques cleared through its account, these showed a different picture. Brebners had been paid so why had it raised a statutory demand?

The cheque I had left to cover the invoice when I went into hospital in 2005, still sat on file as evidence of the company‟s intention to settle outstanding amounts. The reason why this cheque had not been transacted was that the cheques cleared had settled the outstanding bill. Either way, it was a matter for Jenny Burgess to explain as she had © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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been in sole charge of the company over the period of my absence but there was certainly evidence that Brebners had cleared cheques to a value far in excess of the sum of those invoices. I wanted to know why they were now threatening the company for non payment when it was clear that there was no outstanding amounts owed them.

Jenny Burgess emailed the company lawyer to confirm she would attend the meeting but made a stipulation that I was to arrive alone. Why should she make such a demand? She knew it was unreasonable and unsafe for me to travel on the train to London on my own. My eyesight is poor and I am now very unsteady on my feet. I insisted that I would have a carer with me at all times and this was not a luxury but a necessity. She was advised in the reply email and she had no alternative but to accept the situation as I could do nothing about my health requirements.

I was beginning to lose patience with Jenny Burgess. There was no good reason why my carer should pose a problem to anyone else as the person who accompanied me would not be taking part in the meeting or discussions. Jenny, having suffered a spinal tumour herself, knew better than anyone else how my health would dictate my needs. Her demand was totally out of character for the person I had come to know who was generally a considerate individual. It was patently obvious to me there was something going on. Jenny was being influenced by somebody. I believe that somebody was feeding Jenny ideas about how she might secure her rights – not that any of her rights were ever in need of protection from my actions.

Had they piled on the fantasy that much, she was utterly blinded to the real situation? Or had they undermined her confidence in our ability to win our company‟s rights to such a degree all the while fuelling her fear of financial reprisals in the inevitable outcome of Circle losing the case. Jenny would only need it suggested that Carole may lose the house as a result and she would go into panic mode. One cannot object to a person showing family loyalty. Statements Jenny has made along the way give me cause to believe this is exactly what was happening. No amount of reassurance from me satisfied her enough.

I arrived early at the offices of Harbottle & Lewis with my daughter accompanying me 222

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for the journey and we were ushered up to the board room to await the arrival of the others who came about a half hour later. Jenny arrived first. She had always taken great care in her personal grooming, and I was quite shocked by her appearance. She took up her seat without looking me in the eye. She appeared very uncomfortable with herself.

Michael Burton was visibly shaking when he took up his place at the table and he kept his hands underneath, on his lap the entire time. There was obviously much more to this than meets the eye. I had been suspicious of Brebners‟ connection with its client being a partner in Davenport Lyons and I had challenged that they were not acting impartially towards our company. My recent letter to the Institute of Chartered Accountants had complained that Brebners was interfering in internal company matters purposely creating a board split then using it to create bad faith with company service providers.

Michael Burton assured me that he had never discussed the matters with any representative from Davenport Lyons. Although I am sure that what he imparted was correct in the detail, I would be niaïve not to realise, the way these matters are dealt with in business is a great deal more subtle.

Company lawyers pointed to the fact that Brebners had for the past year, been clearing cheques for Circle Multimedia and it was unlikely that it would do this when their company was not being paid. Michael Burton agreed that he would not clear cheques if his company was owed money, yet his company had issued a statutory demand for non payment. This was obviously a ploy to prevent the action and, although it was never said aloud, I am convinced that the lawyers knew this. Michael Burton agreed to set aside any further action assuring us that it was not his company‟s intent to thwart the litigation process and requested that in return I agree to withdraw my outstanding complaint with the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

I subsequently kept my word and informed the Institute of Chartered Accountants that the matters were being dealt with by the company‟s law firm but once again my attempt to act honourably, worked to my company‟s detriment. Jenny Burgess was made a financial offer which would provide the settlement of her outstanding loan to the company, a share in the proceeds of a successful trial outcome according to her © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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shareholding. This settlement had allowed for a percentage to cover the donation to charity and the repayment of the financial accounts. Effectively, I was undertaking to honour our original understanding. I am not sure Jenny really quite understood what was being offered when translated into financial terms. She was highly suspicious. She kept insisting that I had removed her shareholding. How could I have done such a thing? Despite my assurances that I had no power to do any such thing, she did not believe me. There was nothing I could do to convince her otherwise and I realised that this idea had to have come from her advisor at Brebners. Such suggestion, I believe, was purposely timed and would be guaranteed to provoke this reaction.

During this meeting I was shown two emails purporting to have come from our company which I had never seen before! I learned that these had been forwarded by the defendants solicitors. One was alleged to have been received by Coastal Productions and appeared to have been written by me. The very strange part was that nobody had seen these documents before, neither I nor Jenny, nor the second defendant. Added to which was the fact that in early 2003 we had trawled all the files to ensure Davenport Lyons had a full set of documents. These letters never emerged from any source. Where had they suddenly come from? I knew that I had not written them – the style was not mine. Jenny could offer no information and did not recognise the letters either.

A letter was sent out to both defendants with an out of court settlement offer based on the lowest percentage of what Circle Multimedia would be guaranteed to win. This was the payment of the sale & leaseback money. Using Coastal‟s own bizarre interpretation the TV series which was based on the third book [which had been adapted for Robson Green‟s little joke prepared for the period when I was discharged from Hospital] suitably entitled Torment was to be admitted as falling under the terms of the contract, then a part payment to be made calculated on what return we would be entitled to under a positive court judgement. This represented only a fraction of the true value of the coproducer‟s share agreed by both parties, but would avoid lengthy and highly expensive litigation.

Both defendants rejected this offer and chose to apply for the court to fix a bond, in an attempt to stifle the proceedings and prevent the case coming to trial. This came as no 224

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surprise as it was always predicted this would happen. The company accounts had been closed and Jenny with Brebner‟s help ensured that all incoming revenue was out of my reach. Added to which she frustrated my efforts to bring equity funding into the company. The result was that it would be virtually impossible to fund the case under such pressure of opposition. I believed that Jenny was being manipulated by some agency because her actions were not in her own interests or those of the company. One thing was for sure they would certainly benefit the defendants.

So the court would then look to the director‟s personal assets to evaluate whether the defendant‟s costs could be covered in the impossible situation where they won the trial. I had no assets which could be converted to cover an order for costs. The work I had undertaken over the years for charities had been largely unpaid. Though I had raised substantial amounts for those projects, I had no accumulated wealth in my own name.

I had not acquired property which I could now use to secure personal bank loans, however, I knew that in the past I had been able to raise finance privately and I knew I could access lines of credit if necessary. However, it made little sense to keep throwing money into a case where there was internal strife that was working against a successful verdict as much as any efforts on the part of the defendants themselves. I had emailed Jenny to convey this to her and asked her not to obstruct the action further. Also to cease copying everything, especially contentious documents, to Brebners because I felt we were compromising our own company‟s best interests. It was all now a bit late in the day but she assured me that from that point onward, she would not circulate documents.

Unable to take on work to support the legal costs, my family had provided me with a means with which I was able to settle the company debts, those which the company had failed to pay during my absence. The reason the company did not have the funds to cover a court bond was the very reason it needed to bring the case in the first place. The fact was the company should have had a quarter million from the sale & leaseback deal.

At least one of the counts in the Particulars of Claim was according to the second defendant, a summary judgement issue to which there could be no defence. Robson Green having made sure that my company was not paid its rightful due under the terms © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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of the contract and my own business partner having diverted 2 years of company funds – on a personal level, my only income at the present time was Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance all of which had been used in the costs of preparation.

I had delayed my surgery in order to satisfy the legal requirements dictated by the statute of limitation which places restrictions on the permitted delay allowed for a claim to be served. I had put my health at further risk and started to think it was all a waste of time. Jenny Burgess‟ resignation eventually had been recorded with Companies House, and after making my witness statements, the outstanding accounts were prepared and filed. This was still not an end to the trouble. The last Wire In The Blood cheque had been invoiced for by somebody and I assumed it was by Jenny Burgess, despite the fact that she had resigned. Having only learned of the amount in the court statement and knowing that it had been invoiced, I was informed, on Brebners letterhead, I guessed that the accountants were sitting on the cheque. I sent notice to Michael Burton to say that the entire amount could be used to offset any remaining balance of their outstanding fees and the VAT remitted to Customs & Excise. Having tallied the invoices against all the payments I could find suggested, it would more than satisfy any remaining debt. Once the debt to Brebners was officially extinguished, it would deny them any recourse to petition for a wind up on the company which would obstruct the continuation of the claim.

Within a short time, a request came via email from Michael Burton asking if half of the value of the cheque could be paid to Carole Burgess. I had used figures I had on file cross-referenced with bank statements and calculated that far from any amount still owing, she had in fact been overpaid by in excess of £1600 on the capital amount. Although I was not about to request a refund, I had not had access to my own company for over two years and, added to this, I was covering bills for the company without any support from Jenny. In fact – true to say Jenny was actively working to frustrate all company progress. I did not see any reason to comply.

Carole was not a member of the company and had not built up any credit in recent months by my estimation with her hostile attitude. I refused and deducted the entire 226

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cheque value from the last invoice raised that may be still owed to Brebners. This negated the possibility of Brebners applying for a winding up order on the company and an assignment of the Coastal Agreement, which would have frustrated the claim. Having arranged for the settlement of all outstanding legal fees plus the cost of mounting the claim, I had to stop that happening.

Companies House returned the accounts I had filed to Brebners which was according to their records, the company‟s last known accountants, with a request to complete one page that I had omitted to sign. Brebners did not send the documents or the demand letter to me but handed it over to Jenny and emailed me to say that Companies House had „rejected‟ the accounts. I then received an aggressive email addressed to Michael Burton from Jenny objecting to my filing of the accounts. I was getting sorely fed up with the unnecessary battle. I began to feel quite belligerent. Jenny wrote to Brebners: _______________________________________________________________________

Cc: [email protected] Date: Tue, 20 N0v 2007 Dear Michael, In reference to Janet’s email to you as below and regarding the issue of company accounts Year Ending 31 March 2006. As a director, I insist that you do not release requested information until I have investigated how these accounts were prepared as they contain discrepancies. An audit will possibly be required ........

_______________________________________________________________________

Notwithstanding Jenny having withheld all company financial information from me, and resigned as director, then emailed in an adamant tone to inform me that she intended to call Companies House to complain. The reason for her objection was that there had been an adjustment to the director‟s loan accounts. Well, of course there had. A huge amount of money had been needed to to cover items she had left unpaid (1) company bills which © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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were outstanding, (2) solicitors bills for the letters demanded by Jenny Burgess for her resignation, (3) staying the limitation time, (4) penalties / fines payments levied for non filing of accounts during my absence. I had to get these covered. All these payments increased the amount the company now owed me reflected in my loan. Jenny Burgess‟ account was similarly adjusted down by the amount of funds that she had removed from the accounts on personal spending as detailed as line items on the bank statements. Bank statements were itemised witnessing to these payments out.

I believe she did just what she threatened and called Companies House to complain. I am also sure that she will have been informed by them that as the duty of the company director was to file the requisite annual returns it is a criminal offence not to file the company‟s accounts and she was causing an offence by obstructing the filing. She would have likely been persuaded it was in her own best interests, not to obstruct.

There was a system in place for any objections to be raised if required. As it was she who had failed to file and then made the task as difficult as possible, frustrating my attempts to complete the process by withholding figures, forcing me to gather the income data directly from the bank records which I had to requisition several times. It would not have looked good for her, or for Brebners, if the authorities decided to prosecute.

The year in question began 1 April 2005 and Jenny had been in sole charge of the company since 18 April 2005 when my doctor had taken me off work. All records were handed over to her at that point and I continued to give her some assistance to file the VAT form, a job which traditionally I had undertaken.

Within a matter of days Jenny had done a complete about turn and began supplicating for me to re-file the accounts – obviously she did not want to find herself in court. No surprise there. I had sincerely considered throwing in the towel and just walking away from the whole thing. But, there were investors to whom we owed a debt of loyalty. It was not fair on those individuals and companies to take the easy path and behave selfishly but I did feel sorely tempted. 228

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I had appointed my daughter as an additional director to make up the quorum at a meeting in order to legally transact the company business and non filing of accounts is a prosecutable offence for which the director would be left with a criminal record and the fine of around £5000.

We could be held liable for that and my daughter, who certainly did not deserve a criminal record, was not going to be put in that position if I could avoid it. After all, with Jenny refusing to meet up to her statutory duties, my daughter had only become involved to help me out of an impossible situation and her future reputation was being jeopardised because of Jenny‟s mean spirited actions. Beside this neither of us could afford a fine of that size.

Most of the week I felt too ill to get off my back and this constant battle was so unnecessary. Why was Jenny deliberately acting against all my attempts to rectify the company finances which we had put so much effort into building for six years? I kept thinking there was something I was missing, it did not add up.

Jenny was not stupid and none of it made any sense. I was still in recovery and found it difficult to assess what was going on. At that time I could not maintain concentration on more than one thing at a time and my sequencing mechanism was severely disabled but I knew my brain was slowly healing. Like a veil being drawn aside, my progress came in quantum leaps and the sudden clarity of thought. For a while it feels like waking up in somebody elses life then everything starts to come into sharper focus and recognition dawns. Eventually I knew I would work it all out. I just had to be patient.

Xmas and New Year holidays took up a large portion of the month and the disruptions caused by Jenny Burgess‟ filing objection took yet more of my time. Like most of the UK population, we had all come down with the particularly pernicious flu virus, resulting in the cancellation of all festive gatherings over December. Our family had fallen into a habit of running our Xmas to accommodate everybody‟s needs, the care of our elderly parents, the carnivore-vegetarian-vegan divide and ensuring that the animals were well taken care of. Everybody was so ill that holiday © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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period that the whole thing had to be cancelled. None of us had any appetite and no one could cope with preparing a meal, let alone eating it so Xmas dinner just did not happen. It took over two and a half weeks to rid myself of the bug and it was still touch and go as to whether I would be well enough to travel up to court in mid January.

The journey would take me over two hours travelling each way and consisted of four taxis, two trains, two underground tube journeys and a lot of walking. With my mobility severely hampered it would be quite an expedition. It felt exhausting, just thinking about it. The company lawyer had said that I should be available in case the Master had questions to ask.

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Chapter 20

The hearing was set for 14 January 2007 to be held at the Royal Courts of Justice to be presided over by Master Fonteine. My son Adam had agreed to accompany me and we travelled up to London by train and took a cab down Chancery Lane, to the North East gate where we were due to meet with our legal team at 1.15 pm.

Our lawyer had chosen the entrance carefully to hopefully avoid my encountering any staircases, which I still found difficult to mount. It was quite an arduous trek for me through ancient stone corridors, the building being hundreds of years old, it was completely devoid of any modern travelling assistance. Eventually we located the court chamber. I was in an exhausted state. We took up seats outside to go over my statements, and some of the detail of which our barrister felt might be a sticking point.

I had been truthful in my witness statement though as soon as discussions begun, I learned that Jenny Burgess had managed to throw a spanner in the works by lodging a 288 form [appointment of new Director/Secretary] with Companies House back dated to the day of incorporation - 1999. This in no way affected the fact that she had resigned on 7 June 2007. I have been informed that the arrival of the signed form was duly noted by Companies House as a new director appointment. Such evidence, threw in doubt the validity of my statement in the hearing. How could she do this?

She had written a year ago warning me about the methods the defendants would play by and she was advised by the company lawyer what she needed to do to allow me room to operate. The money outlaid to get to this point was far in excess of any payments that had ever been owed to her by the company! Added to which she had by nefarious means, extracted her debt from the company already so it was rather selfish to jeopardise the case which puts at risk the return of the money others had invested. And she was going to make sure she was in line for any payouts. Why she could not view the case as an investment to encourage rather than thwart, I could not understand. After all, it was not costing her anything. It might be regarded as smart to just sit tight and do nothing to rock the boat.. Seemed to me like a win : win situation! © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Entering the court chamber, I felt as though I was on a set for Bleak House. I had never ventured inside that legal enclave in my life and really did not have much of a clue what to expect. I was quite surprised to find not a single wig in sight. The Master presiding almost lost from view, sat centrally behind a deep wooden desk and there seemed to be a mountain of books and papers surrounding her but that may have been just in my imagination. The barristers all sat in front facing her and we took up seating behind their backs.

The defendants both had very senior representation as might be expected. They could afford the best. Certainly Coastal could – after all they had all our money as well as there own. They both needed the best because we had a very sound case to be answered. The barristers presented the witness statements for all sides, in very low tones. There was a lot of whispering going on, which I found difficult to hear. My hearing was not up to making out what was being said for most of the performance. I studied our barrister‟s demeanour to get a hint of how things were going. Earlier, he had been “cautiously optimistic”. Judging by his gestures everything was not going quite as we had hoped.

Two and a half hour had been pencilled in to hear the application and after the statements had been presented, a considerable amount of muttering had gone on. The court recessed to consider its verdict. We left the chamber to take up seating outside. Our barrister was not feeling confident.

I had re-submitted the accounts to Companies House. Little did I realise this would present more problems for me with the defendants. Though there was nothing in the accounts information to affect the Defendant‟s position. I was informed, the defendants should have been notified of the filing of accounts. I was more than slightly confused by this. Apparently they had requested sight of them but if I had been told, I can not recall in all the trouble surrounding their filing. There was nothing to be revealed by the accounts. Coastal had calculated the figures so they knew the extent of the company income unless there was something else which Jenny had kept from me.

My statement claimed that I was in sole charge of the company but the filing of the back dated 288 form by Jenny Burgess brought that statement and my integrity into question. 232

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I wondered who had recommended that Jenny ought to submit the form. I was sure it would not be the natural way Jenny would think. I wondered whether Brebners were at the back of the action or her solicitors. The court was concerned with whether Jenny Burgess was on the board and had been approached for funding.

As she had been told months before that the way forward was to resign and had in fact sent a letter detailing her wish to do so in April 2007 which had been logged with Companies House having been accepted in July 2007, her action could only be construed as disruptive. Had she bothered to inform the company of her intention, lawyers could have asked for a witness statement directly from her. As we had not done this it was another factor which muddied the issue.

I was finding the whole procedure extremely stressful. Jenny had made what could have been, and should have been, a straightforward procedure unnecessarily complicated for me. Her action had thrown my statement into question had rendered my position, as viewed from the outside, to appear duplicitous and the court would consider I was not being honest and open in my dealings. Finding this out at the eleventh hour was more than a little shocking to the system. I was really starting to wonder who‟s side Jenny was batting on.

Deliberation took some time and after about 45 minutes we were recalled to hear the verdict. The delivery took a surprising amount of time where once more I found it impossible to hear everything. Master Fonteine delivered her verdict explaining that she had consulted various precedents set by previous cases of similar nature or content which she read out to the assembly. It all went a little over my head.

At the final turn, as our barrister had predicted Ms Burgess had disrupted my witness statement by her apparent appointment. We could not plead that she would not be able to meet the required bond as there was no statement from her either way specifically for the hearing. A witness statement was required if she was a director. Because Circle Multimedia had managed to clear its debts, and as I claimed incapacity benefit could not have any assets. It was felt that therefore there clearly was a silent source of funding. “Was that Jenny Burgess” the Master justifiably queried? The fact was, Jenny had not © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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provided any of the settlement for any of the payments the court considered! I had brought in finance but I had no proof of that with me at court and none of my sources wanted to be identified. Nobody gave me the opportunity to speak myself – the court just decided without further consultation acknowledging that Jenny Burgess could not be represented as she had not been formally asked.

The bogus submission by Jenny Burgess of 288 form to Companies House had confused the situation because she was listed as a director which I was told appeared to give a lie to my witness statement that I was the sole director. This was a stupid move on her part – if she wanted the hearing to succeed, but that is not necessarily what Jenny believed was possible as the advice she was receiving, I believe, contradicted it.

Having been told categorically that, since she made it clear she was not willing to make funds available for the trial to go forward, but nevertheless suddenly desired the larger portion of any proceeds, she needed to remove herself from the board and in fact had done so in April of that year. Her subsequent lodging of a 288 form, stating that she had been appointed director of the company on the day of incorporation was not untrue. She certainly had been appointed on that date but had later resigned, and despite the barrister indicating that the form had discrepancies which should have rendered it invalid for registration by Companies House, it had succeeded in confusing the court decision.

Thus it was held that I had not been open in my witness statements. The court showed, I believe, unfair sympathy to the defendant‟s application, the bond was fixed to cover both defendants‟ costs, to the preparation of witness statements. The first defendant did reveal during the hearing that it would not be continuing with the argument that payment of the Sale & Leaseback was not due because of an alleged industry practice which had been the objection it had used for the past five years as to the reason why it refused to pay the amount due to Circle Multimedia Limited. So, I concluded it no longer had any defence to not paying the amount due!

As I had always maintained, there was no industry practice which excluded that payment and as I had always maintained Coastal was in breach of contract! Davenport Lyons, the second defendant had always maintained this to be so, too and its defence to 234

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the claim once more agreed the point. The court fixed the bond as requested by the defendants and Master Fonteine allowed Circle Multimedia just two month to settle the costs and raise the amount set – a quarter of a million pounds.

So Coastal would now challenge the whole contract! Robson Green had come such a long way from his partner‟s first Coastal statement [22 October 1999 ] : “we have agreed that this venture will involve a 50-50 split”.

Coastal admitted there was no defence to its withholding of sale and leaseback revenues but if it succeeded in thwarting the case on the strength that Circle Multimedia did not have the funds to post a bond because it had been cheated out of its rightful revenues, it would never be called on to pay up and nobody would be any the wiser. Coastal would just continue to maintain its lie that it had originated the series. This is surely an attempt to pervert the course of justice. This is surely a criminal act!

Davenport Lyons had really earned their fat fee for drawing up that contract! As a „Media Specialist‟ they should feel quite embarrassed at the inefficiency of the contract produced by an „expert‟ in that it has failed. I always understood that all law firms have negligence insurance for situations such as this so why was it not paying out? My assessment was that they had been negligent in drawing up our contract or we would not be in this situation! It seems that the only way to exact the compensatory payment was to lose the case in court, which would prove that the contract was useless. Then Davenport Lyons would have to pay the damages due. What a system of justice that is! The fact that our Prime Minister of the past decade was himself a barrister one can assume that the government was well aware of the inadequacies of the system.

In the week following the hearing, Circle Multimedia lawyers questioned the financial worth of the company seeking the claim through court since Coastal would employ a more senior barrister, the costs of the case may exceed the immediate returns if the rectification claim failed or a judgement went against us. Of course Davenport Lyons would then be due to pay out the damages from their negligence insurance.

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and found this whole situation slightly difficult to comprehend. How can the defendant in a case get his request for money heard ahead of the claimant – this seems a very odd way to meter out justice? I now feel very disillusioned regarding the effectiveness of our legal system! It seems unevenly balanced in favour of protecting the rights of the wrongdoer. I know I am not the first victim of the system to complain of this and probably will not be the last. Over this time a number of cases came to highlight inadequacies in our antiquated system.

It was certainly baffling how could we find ourselves in a situation where we start out with a property that we are cheated out of, but in spite of having right on our side, still find ourselves unable to bring the case to be heard. Why? Because the other party had gained such strength from their criminal actions that they now outflanked us – using the money they should have paid to our company, to prevent us from getting the case in court. Despite having originated the project and having a contractual entitlement, we are unable to have the matter considered by the legal authority which I thought was there to protect us. There is something seriously wrong with a legal system which in its efforts to be fair and impartial perpetuates such a situation to exist!

It appears that the only way forward is to source the quarter million to post as surety and make it clear to the court that the Claimant is confident that it has a case to be answered. As the Wire In The Blood franchise is into its 8th series, the property is worth millions and in the digital era, the repeat broadcast potential would mean that we should have secured the future of our company on the royalties of this one production alone. The profit share our company is due would have funded an entire sanctuary or rescue shelter that would have serviced the community for years to come. Instead it was going into the coffers of the Coastal legal machine.

If it is possible for Coastal to use the law to stifle our rights then it must equally be possible, given sufficient resources, for Circle Multimedia to secure its rights. The surety payment, of £250,000 needs to be either paid into court or written confirmation from an acceptable authority, testifying to the provision of funds available to cover defendants costs. The possibility of raising the backing required was not out of the question. There was a lot of money riding on the case so one alternative was for the 236

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company to raise equity funding by taking on additional partners. Jenny had made it clear she was against this solution preferring to close the company down. She never expressed any reason for her blanket dismissal of this alternative. I challenged Jenny that she was displaying a dog in a manger attitude and had no convincing argument for taking this line of defence. It was a moot point since I had no particular target in sight at that time.

Having co-founded the company and worked so hard to build it, I know Jenny would be reluctant to now leave the management of Circle Multimedia to others. Added to this, any success, made by the new board, would serve as a beacon to what could be construed as failures by the previous management. It would be a bitter pill but that is the way of commerce.

The fact was, Jenny Burgess had stated on about ten occasions, in writing that she wanted to close the company but I do not believe that she actually wanted any such thing. I am increasingly convinced that she was tired of the endless trail of failed attempts to bring Coastal to account. I am equally convinced that somebody was poisoning the well and that was the reason for her obtuse behaviour.

At last, in the month following the hearing, my brain started to finally clear. It all felt a bit like a veil was being lifted. Everything started coming into sharper focus. I started to realise just how long I had been operating under the severe handicap of the brain tumour. Considering the debilitating effects it has on the working system, it is staggering that I managed to achieve as much as I did.

I started to piece together the details of the case against the two defendants. I re-read my way through all the files which were quite voluminous and began the process of quantifying the company‟s loss.

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Potential Arguable Claims Minimum verdict Count 1.

Sale & Leaseback revenue profit share = 6.25% total budget >

£250,000

Count 2.

Balance (owed on Series 1) (£27k £33,765k £39,160k £3x? ) > £1,000,000

Count 3.

Torment (series IV) (£100k £2x? ~ £700k)

> £ 800,000 > £2,050,000

TOTAL

Potential outcome 2% Total Production budget x 7 series @ >£4,050k/series

= £ 600,000

50% Net Profits Wire In The Blood series each series gross 6 x £1,000k = £3,600,000 Loss of interest on money retained [minimal] 40% = £ 3,600,000; 30% = £2,850,000

= £1,00,000 > £5,200,000

TOTAL

Davenport Lyons negligence insurance Wire In The Blood (Series 1 to 7) Broadcast worldwide +DVD +Allied Rights. “Our priorities are maintenance of the rights with an automatic right to any successive series based on the Tony Hill character and the financial return ….” [Circle authored] “This would mean we would both jointly hold the rights and the option.” “ For clarity we agreed that both companies would hold the copyright to the work”

[Coastal authored] Damages to company by Defendants actions are in part quantifiable. Severe business interruption and financial impediment to development slate of four projects, resulting in the loss of £10k retainer et al.

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Chapter 21

Considering that Robson Green came from humble beginnings somehow made the whole matter much worse. He has sold himself over to the public as being just a working class lad who had climbed his way to considerable success. He followed the „footie‟, supporting his local Newcastle United, read bedtime stories to the „nipper‟, loved his „Mam‟ and seemed to hold all those British values that identify ourselves and of which we are all so proud. He even „promotes‟ new talent through a theatre on his premises. Well, that is what he wants everybody to believe! The truth was not that way at all.

The truth was he was destroying our company and our dreams! We were not a huge corporation that he was bringing down, we were ordinary people like himself, and we had delivered him a product which had made him an awful lot of money. We provided the entire strategy and treatment to enable Coastal to turn the novels into a successful franchise. Robson Green and Sandra Jobling had stolen our credits, our continued involvement and our share of the profits. Those profits included what had been earmarked, at least in part, to fund the continuation of our charitable works to build a better community for everybody. We have all been deprived of this for no good reason other than avaricious greed!!!

But, it was not the first time Robson Green had behaved in this way. When he and Jerome Flynn had sung Unchained Melody in an episode of Soldier Soldier in 1994, the public had flocked to the High Street next day to buy the single – it did not exist! It never would have existed had it not been for the tenacious efforts of RCA music producer Simon Cowell who pursued Robson and Jerome and talked them into allowing his company to produce it. The success of that song‟s release the following year led to a second single and two other albums. Since Robson Green has admitted on countless occasions that he was a reluctant singer, he surely now had Simon Cowell to thank for his millionaire status. The clipping on the cover of this book shows how he repaid Simon Cowell. So was this behaviour out of character for Robson Green?

The suggestion that Robson voiced through the national press, was that the music © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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producer actually exploited young talent in his Pop Idol show by taking unfair advantage of them. I have no idea as to whether there is any truth in that assertion but just like the wealth of public opinion all I see is a great entertainment, giving lots of wannabe performers an opportunity that they otherwise would not have had. And Robson Green admits that Simon Cowell greeted him with a large cheque in hand as an up front offer. Although I have heard several versions detailing the amounts involved. Exploitative?

Robson Green was paid an advance and also shared in the royalties from the record sales so he was left a very rich individual after his encounter and seems to be of the opinion that nobody else should have made any money out of the production. The music producer and the record label company in Robson‟s eyes appear to have no right to make a living out of their efforts. I could not help seeing a similarity between Robson‟s nasty behaviour towards Simon Cowell and the situation in which I find myself with him and the production of Wire In The Blood. I had heard reports whilst staying in the North of England, that other contributors to the series had complained about late or non existent payments. It has been suggested that Coastal came up with Wire In The Blood all on its own – we have thousands of pages of documentation proving that we originated the series. The only reason he had been able to gain on us was because I had been flat on my back in a hospital bed, fighting for my life. But, there was no sense of shame on the part of Coastal Productions for this.

In fact, as a welcoming home gesture for my discharge from hospital, Robson Green had assumed the complete mantle in series IV, as his Tony Hill character was bestowed with his very own brain tumour and the murderer and victim were both given names which played anagrammatically on my own and my internet tag. And, just to rub salt into the wound, the director chosen for the episode was one they knew to be close to us, Declan O‟Dwyer. Declan is a good director and there is no suggestion he would not have stood to deserve the job on his merits alone. We had been recommending him from the outset, so why was he only brought on for that episode? That was no co-incidence! It was no doubt a point of considerable humour for Robson Green‟s team that the 240

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broadcast of this offending episode timed exactly with my release from hospital just to let me know that ITV were also party to their little „sting‟. As things turned out, I was far too ill at that time to watch any television and so I missed their sick joke entirely for some considerable time!

Though Robson Green has successfully created an image of Mr Nice-guy and drawn the public into believing that he is exactly like the characters he plays to the point of being outspoken about the rights of the underdog – the reality was quite the opposite. Whether his business partner had informed him of our charitable aims, I cannot say for certain but Sandra Jobling knew our intention and our track record. Val McDermid‟s agent also knew because we were still operating under the company dedicated to charitable media projects: Arcadia Productions when we approached the agent. Now, the Robson Green team was overtly „mocking‟ his co-production partner‟s disability and using the opportunity it afforded his company to lever the property out of its grasp and drive the other company totally out of existence. He is a really nice guy!

Of course, Robson Green had all our money as well as a substantial amount himself, thanks to our efforts and to public support, building his sagging career, and could therefore now afford a more senior barrister which our lawyer informed us, may hold more sway with the court. Well, I had always believed that a court was swayed by the evidence put before it. The hearing was set in the “Royal Courts of Justice” – possibly a misnomer in this case? I am not sure who got justice out of this. Certainly none of the investors who put money, time and effort into Circle Multimedia on the strength of its originating position on the production! Certainly not the suffering animals that Jenny and I worked to provide for. Certainly not our families who had backed our charitable endeavours, on the promise of being paid back at the earliest opportunity.

I had discussed the situation with my backers who agreed to support my attempts at rectification and assist with some finance. Meanwhile, I emailed the company lawyers to report that the requisite amount was sourced to cover the defendants‟ costs and surety protection would be secured on a London property. My hesitation was that there were children living in that property and if Robson Green outflanks us by using expensive barristers, he would then force its sale to cover his court costs. Of course, that is © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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obviously what security of costs means. In the event that the company is called to pay, its sale will insure the settlement of the defendant‟s bill. Since Robson Green‟s case had limited foundation, he would need a skilful legal team to argue a successful plea for his company and such a team would not come cheaply. Those costs would be considerable. I had no doubt that Coastal Productions would render the children homeless in the blink of an eye, without even a second thought. And, then write it into his next episode so the whole crew could have a good laugh at it.

I knew we had to cover the costs of a top barrister if we were to continue to trial and the backers agreed. The family solicitor was contacted to start the process of covering the court order and see whether there was some method of securing the company position without placing those children at too great a risk. As the solicitor was abroad it meant there would be an inevitable delay.

Company lawyers were informed to expect contact on her return to England. Along with the general catalogue of tragedy in the week that followed, went my computer and my internet connection. Fortunately, I had long since learnt my lesson as regards the backing up of files so it proved only a minor irritation.

By this time I was seriously wondering whether there was some non-human agency at work or just how far the reach of those powerful players I was challenging really did extend. Surely I had now expended all the bad luck that can befall a person – just as it is highly improbable that anyone could expect constant streams of good luck, the same should apply to bad fortune and I felt I had surely had more than my fair share. But, I do not give up easily; there is an extra bit of fight in me. It was always a useful mechanism to have to hand when I was running the charity – that tenacity was often the very thing which won the day. Well, it seemed fate had a few more surprises in store.

The day of the initial hearing, our lawyers informed me that Jenny Burgess, having resigned her board position in April 2007 which had been accepted officially at the AGM on 7 June 2007, had submitted a 288 form to reinstate herself to the board of Circle Multimedia on 3 December 2007 and signed the authorisation. As Jenny Burgess 242

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was not a board member on 3 December 2007 and therefore not eligible to authorise her own re-instatement. Notwithstanding, she invoiced Coastal for the December royalties. Several payments were detailed as being cleared through Brebners accounts for Circle Multimedia. This was in direct defiance of my written instructions forbidding any further clearance of company funds. The company of accountants had been dismissed formally in writing well over six months before this date and the firm‟s directors knew that they were not working legally for Circle Multimedia. There was no way this act could be seen as impartial and the money certainly did not belong to anyone other than Circle Multimedia. What became of this cheque is unclear at the time of writing. It certainly never reached the company accounts. No officer of the company ever saw the money.

It was obviously considered a sure thing that within a short time Circle Multimedia would not be in existence to mount a complaint. They felt safe enough in their illicit activity, as it was reported to me that they did not even attempt to conceal it, having sent the invoice on the accountant Brebners letterhead.

The advice from the lawyers was that it may cause problems at the hearing if I mounted a challenge directly at Jenny, since previously she had made several attempts to thwart efforts at getting the case to court. It was decided that the company should be up front as regards the matter and reference it in witness statements. However, it is nevertheless a fact that any attempt to withhold company funds is a very serious offence. Jenny Burgess, her resignation accepted at the AGM on 7 June 2007, was no longer entitled to transact company business and this had been notified to Companies House. Brebners no longer held any company office. They had been informed, in writing, several times and the Institute of Chartered Accountants had been notified of the company decision.

I was informed subsequent to this that the cheque had cleared through Brebners account. However, no information was provided to inform me of the amount or the detail as to where the payment ended up, who had spent the money and on what? It belonged to the company and decisions about where it should be applied rested with the officers of the company, not with a team of accountants who had been dismissed because of their bad faith activities towards the company or a director who had resigned and who had made it © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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clear to everyone her wish was to close up the company and move on.

The company may yet be entitled to prosecute for this. I would call this an act of theft regardless of what the persons involved chose to spend the monetary sum upon. At the time of writing, the company has never actually seen the statement that Coastal Productions had provided. Company lawyers had been requested to write to the company to inform it that Circle Multimedia had changed its registered office address and that all future statements should be sent to this new location. It had taken no notice of this advice and continued to use the old Wardour Street address where Brebners were resident.

On the day following the hearing, I wrote to the Company Secretary to ask him to inform Companies House that the lawyers had brought this action to our attention. As it was raised in court and was now a documented point of public record that the 288 form, being incorrectly filled out and should not have been registered. Companies House seem to have failed to notice that the form contained discrepancies, namely that the authority for Jenny Burgess‟s appointment to the board was not authorised by any board member or authorised signatory. Jenny had authorised her own appointment depite the fact that she was no longer an employee of the company and therefore not empowered to authorise on behalf of the company. Companies House had registered its receipt of the form anyway.

The instructions the company received much later from Companies House Fraud Officer in response to a general complaint, was that directors should report such matters to the police. The last thing I wanted to do was to bring that sort of trouble down on my business partner of so many years. However, her behaviour was having severe detrimental effects on the running of the business and had cost a considerable amount of money in legal fees, dealing with it. Therefore, if it was known that a crime had been committed then I was duty bound to report it. Owing to my continuing health problems taking their toll, it took some time before I got back to check emails and found the Companies House replies and before its advice could be acted on.

For the time being, I decided that it was more important to concentrate on sorting the 244

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court order for security and the settlement of those costs it had levied against the company. My years in charity work had taught me how to raise finance. My extended family were mainly professionals who may well be able to meet the cost and some had given me their undertaking to assist. I had been shown a statement to evidence that the funds were ready in a building society account to cover the immediate needs to keep the company solvent and to pay lawyers to prepare the case for trial. I emailed the company lawyers at the earliest opportunity, to tell them that I had sourced the costs and I would arrange for the transfers to be made as quickly as I could. It would require several people going to the building society together in order to make the withdrawals and deposits necessary after which I would be able to make the transfers electronically. The advice had been to make the payments direct to save loss of time.

Whilst we were trying to organise the financing arrangements, I was called over to assist with an emergency, at the home of my elderly parents who are both in their eighties. On arrival I discovered the front wall that surrounds their property, in pieces on the lawn and a vehicle was half embedded in the rubble.... nearby a police car was parked up and they left a crime reference number for the insurance claim.

At that moment, I was more concerned with my parents health. I found them inside vomiting. My husband immediately arranged for the ambulance to take them to A&E at the local hospital, while I tried to take direct care of them and then I called my sister to relay the sorry news. She had only just got home from the last episode. She made her way over again and we spent the next few days in terror.

Quite how we all came through the ordeal, I am not sure but we did and we arranged that we would go to the building society the next banking day all being well. There was still clearance time left if we wanted to meet the court deadline. In the morning as I was about to leave, to make my way to town to the building society, I had a call from my father‟s carer telling me further to his previous problems, he had had a heart attack and the doctors were in the process of resuscitating him and asked me to come immediately.

I called my sister to break the news. She was upset. I knew she would be. I hated having to relay bad news to her. She had always been very close to her father. I knew it would © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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hit her very badly and the last thing a person needs coming off a double night shift is a sixty mile dash to hospital followed by yet another 24 hours with no sleep. Meanwhile I hurriedly sorted my overnight bag and dashed across town to take care of my mother who was confused and not too sure quite what was happening. I needed to get her to Dad‟s hospital bedside. I knew we were in for a long haul and my sister text a message, informing the company legal team of the situation without too much graphic detail. We were only five days towards the first deadline set by the court. What else could I do? I had no alternative but to support my family and for the time being. Naturally, I had to forget about the claim and go back to the hospital to await news. I could not think about anything other than my father‟s health at that point. My father was in a terrible state, and had been out for some time according to the report which I had received.

They had had to work on him for some time to bring him back from the brink. I had inherited my father‟s tenacious disposition so I knew he would fight as hard as he could but this was not his first heart attack. Would it be his last? Did he have the strength to survive it? I wondered when we might get a break in this relentless nightmare!

With only a few days to go, it looked less and less likely that we would be able to meet the deadline on the financial transactions ordered by the court as both I and my sister were mounting a round the clock vigil at our father‟s bedside while at the same time, we were taking care of our mother who requires constant care. We emailed the lawyers to inform them of the situation and they wrote to advise both defendants of our predicament stating that I would make the settlement of court costs as soon as possible but at present I had to tend my father who was gravely ill and my mother who could not be left consequently it was just impossible to meet the requirements in time. Some while later the lawyer replied to let me know that to their surprise Coastal‟s law firm had just not replied at all which they reported they could not understand. Davenport Lyons had responded to say that they understood and would accept later settlement. Accepted or not, there was little we could do about it because I had to have the other signatures to withdraw the funds and under the circumstances it was impossible even if we were willing to prioritise court requirements over those of our duty to our elderly relatives. I had already put my own health care on hold in order to mount the case. I 246

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could not take such a cavalier attitude with the lives of others. The deadline date arrived and I had no choice but to admit that I was physically unable to make the costs payment in time simply because I could not get the people to the bank since we were all at the hospital. As far as the security bond is concerned, I was of the opinion that the court should consider that this is covered by the first count, the payment of the sale & leaseback monies which equates to the same amount. This money had been withheld for over five years so the amount that Coastal owed my company was even more than the sum specified if the interest earned was taken into account.

Since Coastal was no longer putting up a defence to the claim, then as Davenport Lyons had always asserted, this should be a summary judgement. At the end of the day, I believe that no matter which way you view the situation Circle Multimedia has a right to be paid its share of the profits in the exploitation of the production, for which it was wholly responsible for activating and strategising the production of Wire In The Blood.

Somehow and against all the odds, my 84 year old father managed to pull through his ordeal and was eventually discharged from hospital, albeit in a very frail condition, late in the afternoon on 13 March 2008, by which time I had missed the first court deadline. The predicament of my parents failing health, the case, and the constant battle to rectify the mess caused by my fellow director had left me exhausted. I am in very poor health myself, still with tumour and, I had returned to my home in a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Still, I was happy that remarkably enough we still had our parents with us a while longer.

It was long after business hours on Friday when I finally left to return home so there was no way I could contact the company lawyers until Monday. What a blessing, I would have to take the weekend off – that would be no hardship! I certainly needed the sleep. And that is what I did all weekend – sleep.

Monday rolled around soon enough and I made sure I got into town before 8 am. I had been away so long that provisions were at rock bottom and the banking had not been attended to for a month. With my poor mobility, everything took me twice as long to achieve as it used to do. The plan was to get those chores done and out of the way as © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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early as I possible so that I could phone the lawyers and get the details to arrange the transfer of the costs monies for both defendants.

Feeling somewhat disorientated by the recent events and my inability to access the email box, I was curious to find out how things were progressing. I had had no internet connection available and my daily routine over the past weeks had moved from the hospital; to the snack bar; to the hospital; to the bed - although there was hardly much opportunity for a decent rest. I knew that I was a month behind schedule but the circumstances were extenuating and I had had no choice. Clearly I had made sure the defendants knew the situation prior to the deadline date set by the court which was to be paid by 13 March 2008.

I had given details of the contacting solicitor to the company law firm and if my integrity was called into question I thought - my work record should surely be evidence enough. I do not have piles of debt surrounding my name which must say something about my integrity in today‟s financial climate. The fact was, it showed I took personal responsibility – I did so for more than just myself and my own family but for the company and the charity and its membership too.

There was no way to dispute the fact that Circle Multimedia had been issued with a bill for costs however, each of these companies owed us a great deal more than the measly £20k levied against our company covering the cost of their attempt to stifle a genuine claim which ran into the millions.

It was more by chance than intention that I opened the mail before making that phone call. Even then, I almost discarded the letters as junk - when something in the reference line of one just caught my eye and I took a second look. The opening line stated: „An application to wind up Circle Multimedia Limited issued by Coastal Productions Limited is due to be heard in the Royal Courts of Justice on 4 June 2008‟

So Robson Green had played his trump card! Of course, with Circle Multimedia out of the way, there would be no obstacle to hinder the growth of his burgeoning empire. Now he had the proverbial knife in, he may as well give it that final twist! There was a kind of 248

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irony in the fact that here was an actor best known for his roles in tracking down those evil criminals, who preyed on the most vulnerable of victims. But in real life, Robson Green was not like his character. The real life situation was quite the reverse. The date the application had been lodged with court was said to be 13 March 2008, at 10 am. It was the date of the deadline set by the court for paying the costs. At that time I was still with my father in the hospital. No summons had been served at the company‟s Registered Office. Some weeks later I learned that the registered address, lodged at Companies House, had been changed back to 180 Wardour Street W1F 8LB. Nobody, authorised to make such changes to the registered address, had signed any notices or authorised any alteration.

At the time of writing, I do not know on whose authority Companies House made the change back to Wardour Street. This was where the notice had been served but the company had nothing to do with that address any more and nobody from Brebners has ever made me aware that any mail had arrived. My attempts to have the mail redirected to overcome the problem were thwarted, even though I paid for 6 months in advance. All my protestation to Royal Mail yielded, was an insulting offer of two books of first class stamps by way of compensation. Only three pieces of junk mail were redirected.

Right now I cannot say whether there will be a further chapter to this story ... There is a need to find £250,000 to post surety and less than half raised of the requisite cover for the legal costs of mounting the case. In late May 2008, I engaged Mastmore to mount the appropriate objections to the winding up of Circle Multimedia to gain an adjournment. Time was needed to consider the situation and the best course of action and it is a large amount of money to source. But, if fate decides that it is not in Circle Multimedia‟s destiny to locate the surety, I can rest my case in the clear knowledge that though my company may not have won its rightful share of the project which is underpinned by a contract that bears my signature and licensed by a broadcast agreement which comprises our company‟s synopsis and treatment by Jenny Burgess, (which in written evidence was the influential factor which persuaded Robson Green to become involved in the beginning), I did not compromise my moral code. I did nothing to injure any other parties, took nothing which did not © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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belong to me. I did not lie to or cheat anybody to get ahead. I used no mean or disrespectful tactics to overpower anyone; I did not embezzle, I did not steal. All matters were dealt with honestly and in a spirit of open collaboration - all of which was something more than most of my partners could boast.

It sickens me to think that the money that was rightfully due us as originators of the project, to fund worthy charitable initiatives, which had such desperate need, had been embezzled away to line the personal pockets of an actor who has announced to the world that he is a godless individual ........ ...... „touching evil‟ Robson Green‟s credits truly speak for themselves. I am appalled to find how easy it has been for Coastal Productions to operate its scam and how poorly the legal framework that we all live under has provided for the restoration of our rights.

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Chapter 22

CLAIM - First Defendant: Coastal Productions Limited is in breach of contract. The very first clause of the agreement signed on 6 April 2001 states that it was the intention of the companies to work together: “A. Coastal intends to produce the Programme (defined below) with Circle; and C. Circle has entered into an Option (defined below) with the Author (defined below) dated 1 March 2000 whereby the author granted Circle the exclusive option to purchase the right to adapt the Work (defined below) as a film for cinema or television or television series.”

(This is a direct quote from the opening paragraph of the agreement and the core understanding upon which the whole venture was based signed on 6 April 2001)

Breaches (In direct breach of two signed contracts.) 1) The omission of Circle Multimedia‟s name from the tripartite contract (2947) agreement signed by ITV, Coastal and the Licensee, on 5 March 2002 2) Despite clauses affording us the right to consultation, attachments to the production were made and announced to us. Not that we would have felt any need to have altered those decisions made but there was no opportunity made available to us. 3) A written request to Circle on 5 September 2001 not to participate further in casting. 4) No final budget submitted Coastal‟s re-evaluation of the contractual terms was used thereafter to defraud the company out of most of its rightful returns on the series 1. 5) Financial breaches: profits withheld including Sale & leaseback early April 2002. 6) Subsequent series 2 – 7 saw no budget, statements of accounts, no consultation, no payments whatsoever and both corporate and individual credits foiled. ______________________________________________________________________ Remedy – Rectification/damages: Contract to reflect intentions of Parties at the outset. Grounds for rectification: Contract should reflect The Parties‟ intent prior 6 April 2001 _______________________________________________________________________

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Extant Agreement - signed by both parties 6 April 2001 Option/Assignment The Wire In The Blood by Val McDermid [sequels/Prequels covered] 16 pp

Extant Agreement - signed by both parties 12 October 2000 The Property is the literary novel THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD by Val McDermid 1. Coastal Productions Ltd shall be engaged as The Producer 2. Coastal Productions Ltd shall negotiate the commission with ITV 3. Coastal Productions Ltd shall contract the writer Caleb Ranson 4. Coastal Productions Ltd will hold a 50% share on the copyright 5. Coastal Productions Ltd will receive a 50% share of net receipts of UK Worldwide sales 6. Intrigue Productions Ltd will receive a 50% share of net receipts of UK Worldwide sales 7. Coastal Productions Ltd shall pay to Intrigue Productions 1% Production Budget 8. Coastal Productions Ltd shall have creative control over the production 9. Coastal Productions Ltd shall shall raise required production development/ production finance* 10. Credits: Produced by Coastal Productions/ Intrigue Productions 11. Coastal Productions Ltd shall issue a copy of writer‟s contract to Intrigue Productions

*At a fair market rate Intrigue Production/Circle Multimedia reserves the right to propose an alternative lender if our accountant deems the % is too high.

1.

Profits Split = 50 : 50

To: [Janet Ives, Jenny Burgess; Phillip Shaw; Carole Burgess] Intrigue Productions * From: Sandra Jobling on behalf Coastal Productions Ltd [Letter] Date: 22 October 1999 Re; Wire In The Blood Please accept this letter as my confirmation that we would like to enter into a co-production arrangement for the above, we have agreed that this venture will involve a 50-50 split and exact terms and conditions can be ironed out in a longer form agreement (if you so wish). I see it very simply that we split everything down the middle between the two companies and have joint approval over all matters both creative and business, this would then extend to personnel.

* Circle Multimedia Ltd held the intellectual property rights and sheltered development of those productions through their set up stage [Intrigue Productions:Wire In The Blood] The terms formed the eleven point agreement signed by both parties 12 October 2000 2.

Rights Split = 50 : 50

To: Davenport Lyons [Richard Moxon] From: Sandra Jobling on behalf Coastal Productions Ltd [Letter] Date: 27 February 2001

rights would be assigned jointly to both companies, Circle and Coastal. Sandra wrote: “This would mean we would both jointly hold the rights and the option.” “ For clarity we agreed that both companies would hold the copyright to the work” 252

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_______________________________________________________________________ 3. Subsequent Series : same deal terms To: Davenport Lyons [Richard Moxon] From: Janet Ives on behalf Circle Multimedia Ltd [Letter] Date: 23 February 2001

“Our priorities are maintenance of the rights with an automatic right to any successive series based on the Tony Hill character and the financial return ….”

_______________________________________________________________________ 4. Rights = Protection To: Davenport Lyons [Richard Moxon] From: Janet Ives on behalf Circle Multimedia Ltd [Email] Date: 22 March 2001

I query whether the rights protection would not be better served by: “any work that features the character „Tony Hill‟ in case it is changed or turns into an ITV franchise.” Sandra Jobling referred to the project under the generic title of „Tony Hills‟

Financial settlement :

The total loss to Circle Multimedia has been assessed by an

independent party to be in the region of £200 million.

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Looking back across all the evidence laid out in date sequence, I realise that Davenport Lyons messed the whole deal up for us. They did not do what we had engaged them to do which was to provide a co-production contract between Intrigue Productions and Coastal Productions and a joint assignment from Circle Multimedia to the co-production joint venture. It would be so much easier to rectify if they had just followed instructions and that company was in existence. I decided to simplify the situation by incorporating the company called Intrigue Productions Limited for which Hamlins had prepared memorandum and articles documents that were still on file and it still contained the reference to its origins with Arcadia.

I had checked the availability of the name at the time we were negotiating the agreement in 2001 and there was no company incorporated using that title. I decided to now check again, maybe there had been a company already in existence that I had missed. Giving Davenport Lyons the benefit of doubt as to the reason it had steered us on a totally different route.

There was no company registered according to the dissolved list but it was a surprise to discover that Intrigue LLP had been opened on 7 July 2007 with its registered office listed at 12 Coombe Glen Lane, Up Hatherley, Cheltenham, Gloscestershire Gl51 5LE incorporated on 18 July 2007. Its directors were domiciled in Gloucestershire a location which did not fit with any other elements. Who had opened the company just one month before the claim was served? The listing showed it was not a regular limited company but an LLP– this was the type of construction normally used by a board of partners such as the type of incorporation used by a law firm and not one I would expect a production company to use. It had to have been done by one of the client law firms. I considered the two alternatives:

1.

Beachcroft LLP who represented Davenport Lyons. I tossed it over in my

mind what possible benefit there might be to Davenport Lyons if the case were to be lost against Coastal Productions since it would be liable under its negligence insurance. Unless that law firm was actually serving another master, there was no benefit to be gained by blocking this off, although it would be proof perfect that what they had been instructed to contract would have better served the client‟s 254

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needs and more effectively protected its rights. The conclusion I came to was the incorporation of Intrigue Productions LLP was unlikely to have been their work.

2.

Muckle LLP was an other alternative. Its client Coastal Productions Ltd

had a far greater amount to lose by that company‟s existence as its client stood to lose half of all the project‟s profits as a signed agreement was in existence with the original group of individuals who intended to incorporate as Intrigue Productions.

The main problem was that in the event that Circle Multimedia should win the case against Coastal and Robson Green, one consequence would be that any others who had knowingly aided in the breach taking place would then be in a vulnerable position to a claim for damages next, among these ITV features in the highest position. Davenport Lyons may well represent ITV and possibly other clients who would be thus affected.

Somebody was actively working to prevent our opening Intrigue Productions Ltd but as our documentation was in the name of Circle Multimedia with the original persons and correspondence confirms the company was set up as the holding company to transact the rights. It had always been the intention to open dedicated companies for each production. Thus the Wire In The Blood project development was managed by a division within Circle Multimedia called Intrigue Productions with the intention that the company would be incorporated when lawyers indicated the time was right. The website for Intrigue Productions was an obvious sham cobbled together in order to give the incorporation some validity. No returns were ever submitted and the status of the company was dissolved, as an application for striking had been lodged just on 13 September 2007 and was currently on its second notification to strike. The company was listed as dissolved and would be struck from the register no less than three months after the second notice. The date of the second notice was 22 February 2008. The earliest date the company listing would be removed was by 22 May 2008. Until that date, no other use of that name was permitted.

Intrigue Productions was incorporated on 18 July 2007. Some 57 days later it lodged what I assume to be a voluntary wind up order on 13 September 2007. Exactly one month later this was acknowledged by the authorities and the first notice was issued that © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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is listed on Companies House website to warn the company of striking Intrigue Productions, dated 19 October 2007 and the 2nd notification to strike 126 days after incorporation, dated 22 February 2008.

Striking the company from the register would mean the name was available for use. There was a possibility that they could resubmit documents to begin the process all over again? I doubted that this would be done as there was a protective period in force before the authority took the listing off the register. I could see no other reason in this case why there should be any objection to the further use of that name. The company had not traded and therefore there could be no claim that another incorporated body could declare any goodwill from its previous activities because there were none. Would CH consider that the current listing would serve as enough of a deterrent to prevent our considering it as an option. It may be instructive to discover what Companies House party line was on applications for incorporation using a name currently listed as a dissolved company.

I wondered what could happen if I opened the company on behalf of the four named persons in the original agreement. Effectively, to do the job which Davenport Lyons was engaged to perform. There is a contract between the parties which has not been tested in court and that agreement is not based on any conditions. The Statute of Limitation dictates that we do not have endless right to hound debtors to pay up. We have six years from the date of the first breach. That date had to be 22 June 2002 when Coastal should have reported the profit on the sale & leaseback deal to us. That six year period would be expended on 22 June 2008. I was not sure at what point a dissolved company title became available for use. I had the paperwork ready to incorporate which had been supplied by Hamlins.

Although, it has to be assumed the previous incorporators were sufficiently aware of the danger in leaving the opportunity open for the signatories to incorporate a company that being the motivating force behind their action to register the company and set up a de facto web presence. Surely they would now re-incorporate to further preserve the title. I considered how the situation possibly arose. Coastal‟s law firm would have arranged the registration using a company specialised in the field. They would not be watching 256

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progress because now it was ancient history. As there was only a week between the date of striking and the date of the hearing to wind Circle Multimedia Limited then Muckle, Coastal law firm, would probably just chance that they were safe, knowing that the name would remain visible on Companies House website discouraging any other registrations. I had to incorporate Intrigue Productions. I decided not to reveal my intentions in this regard to the Burgesses as their actions over the past few years, had been so disruptive that I was sure they would breach security and inform Brebners, who would then urge it was in their best interests, to obstruct my actions.

At what point in the process might I be able to break into that procedure? How would Companies House react to an application from another board wishing to use the title? I checked the ruling on dissolved companies that were given two written warnings of an intent to strike from the register. The first notice had been sent last year and the date recorded for the sending of the second notice to strike was 22 February 2008. I learned that the registration would be removed from the Companies House listing no sooner than three months after this date. I calculated this would be by the end of May 2008. On 23 May checked the availability on the name and learned it was available.

I downloaded the forms to register for incorporation, getting a local legal firm to act as witness. The Memorandum and Articles of Association that Hamlins had prepared for Arcadia was still on file. The document had been constructed based on the Companies Act 1985, so two directors were required to act as signatories to the memorandum. I did consider contacting Jenny Burgess but as she had been so obstructive I decided against it. My son having graduated from Redroofs Theatre School had just completed a tertiary year of Media Studies and was unsure what his next move might be. Whatever pathway he chose from here, he had established long ago that he wanted a career in media and he agreed to take the other directorship.

We engaged a solicitor to arrange the assignments of properties across to Intrigue Productions I sent the paperwork and forms off express delivery to Cardiff without realising the witness had failed to sign one of the forms and the whole lot came back in 24 hours. So, another trip to town to amend the errors and despatch the corrected papers back to Cardiff as quickly as possible to get the name Intrigue Productions Limited © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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incorporated with Companies House. On the day of incorporation, a certificate was despatched by Companies House. I emailed the company solicitors to inform them that I had engaged Mastmore to mount an adjournment bid on the winding up petition but notwithstanding; I had incorporated Intrigue Productions Limited and discussed with a local solicitor the assignment of all rights and title across from Circle Multimedia to that new company. I also gave an assurance that any debt would be carried across. There were no outstanding bills on the company. I had ensured that they were all settled, however I was pretty sure the law firm had held back some of its charges to keep invoices within my budgetary limits. We all have to balance our books. I was also keeping the right to call Davenport Lyons to book over its poor service.

Assigning the title to Intrigue Productions would mean there was an unbroken chain of title and thus Coastal Productions should not be able to claim protection under Statute of Limitation rulings which are only applicable counted from the first breach of contract. The company had not been informed that the claim had been disallowed. Now it should be possible to invoice Coastal under this company name and if the bill was not settled then we would call the company to book under the Insolvency Acts.

I did not care if the money was paid directly to the charity rather than into the company, provided the cost invoices were settled first. I did not work for so many years without salary to make Robson Green and Sandra Jobling wealthy. Jenny and I did it because we were aiming to provide funding for projects where the mission was to help animals in need. This was our aim and our driving force. We provided to Coastal Productions according to our word and as co-production partners, our company should have received the appropriate revenues.

That is not to say that we wanted to forego being paid a salary for ever. We wanted to provide for our families but the acquisition of personal property was never a driving force for either of us. We did expect eventually to personally benefit financially from our work. We expected a fair salary for the work we did but we would not jeopardise the cash flow of any the projects by pulling a salary where there were insufficient funds to meet it without putting our bigger mission in jeopardy. Our mission was very much centred on the funding of charitable works. 258

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The demand for a statement of profits the first of which should have been prepared in June 2002 was made upon Robson Green via his Coastal Productions office and delivery recorded. A copy of the letter sent is on the next page. The date this should have been accounted for was detailed in the Assignment document which clearly specifies that statements should be prepared within three months of the date of signing [6 April 2001]. That meant that Coastal should have accounted for the sale & leaseback profit by the very latest before 6 July 2002. Coastal had, however, informed us that the accounting date had been set as the 22nd of each quarter month. Thus we should have expected the account on 23rd – 30th June 2002. Clearly the fact that sending off the demand dated 2 June 2008 meant we were inside the six year limitation period so I wondered what the excuse would be this time. Would the company re-instate its bogus precedent, now its barrister had revealed in court that it no longer maintained any validity. I doubted the letter would yield any positive response so I hope that enough interest is sparked by the appearance of this book among the viewing public, to drive sales and enable me to meet our commitment of providing the charity with a base of operations.

Attending numerous AHS events, over the years, I know that the general public feel strongly about these issues. I am not alone in wanting to live in a world where all lifeforms are respected and where our treatment of others is such that we can still respect ourselves.

In practical terms, I also know that cruelty and neglect are not going to be conquered over night but it would be a step in the right direction.

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Intrigue Productions Ltd Russell Gardens, Ley Street London IG2 7BY

2 June 2008

Robson Green and Sandra Jobling Coastal Productions Limited 25b Broad Chare Quayside Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3DQ

Dear Robson Green: Re: Wire In The Blood Television series Under the terms of the agreement signed by both parties on 12 October 2000, Coastal is required to declare a statement of Net receipts in order for Intrigue Productions to invoice for:6 7

Intrigue Productions Ltd will receive a 50% share of net receipts of UK Worldwide sales Coastal Productions Ltd shall pay to Intrigue Productions 1% Production Budget

Would you please issue a statement of the Net receipts from world wide sales for all series 1 to 7 immediately. Under the terms of Agreement on behalf of Coastal Productions [12 October 2000] signed by Sandra Jobling, Intrigue Productions is owed 1% total budget and 50% of the worldwide sales. . I also understand that a sale & leaseback transaction which netted a profit of 12.75% has been completed which should have been accounted for in the statement of June 2002. Intrigue is entitled to 50% profit on this deal. In view of your recent actions and your constant refusal to account properly, I am prepared to allow you 7 days to respond. Failure to respond positively with statements will result in immediate court action. I look forward to your reply. Sincerely,

Janet Ives Janet R Ives Director Intrigue Productions Limited

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The winding up hearing was to be heard two days later at the Royal Courts of Justice. I had been mail-shot by a few companies, specialising in insolvency law. I engaged one of these companies named Mastmore and paid it £700+ to arrange for an adjournment application to be submitted. They reported back that it had been successful and we had another 42 days to put together a proposal. Mastmore were not able to assist further and recommended I engage the services of a specialist in this area Hamilton Steele to assist with putting the proposal together. This company was paid £1,500 retainer. They sent me a questionnaire to fill in and upon the information I supplied, they would work out a solution which could be presented to the court.

The only debts that Circle Multimedia had outstanding were the court cost awarded to both defendants by Master Fontein in January. The company had no other creditor bad debts and there were extenuating circumstances to explain the reason why I was unable to meet the deadline. The sum that had been awarded to both defendants amounted to around £20,000. By way of contrast, a quick thumbnail tally of what we were owed by the company that was bringing the action was over 250 times those costs. Despite this and the fact that I had been settling the company‟s outstanding invoices, the court decided to close the company? I phoned Hamilton Steele to tried to speak with the person I had engaged but he was unavailable for comment. I sent emails but none were responded to. Frustrated, I contacted the court to order a transcript be sent to me.. The admin office told me that it would cost me £140 per hour for it to be typed up for me. I thought that the transcript would be a public record that we could access. Apart from one email to advise me of the court verdict, there has been no communication from this company or its individuals.

Somebody, or something had interfered with lines of communication into my home from the time the Particulars of Claim was served until the day after the trial when - suddenly as they had gone down, they reinstated themselves. The broadband connection was the first to be affected, then the phone and satellite TV service. Finally, my charity helpline went down and the service provider told me I would not have the same number when it was reconnected. I demanded that the charity number be re-connected immediately and that I suspected foul play. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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On 14 June came the reply from Robson Green‟s solicitor Muckle. Basically, it took two pages of hard-hitting legalese to attempt to dissuade me from publishing this book. The solicitor attached a pre-typed letter of retraction which I was expected to sign. “We wish to make it quite clear to you that, we will not hesitate to refer your letter and enclosures to the police, for them to pursue an investigation under Section 21 of the Theft Act 1968. You should be aware that a person guilty of blackmail is liable to a sentence of imprisonment for a period not exceeding 14 years.”

Since when has demanding a statement for a product in which you have a 50% profit share deemed to be blackmail? Since when has invoicing been construed as blackmail? So, having taken our production, our credits and our money, with an ongoing petition to close our company, Robson Green was now determined to have my liberty as well.

None of this made any sense to me. What on earth was driving this company to act in this manner and to dishonour every agreement made with us. The understanding that had formed the basis of the letters and signed agreements had always been a fair split 50:50. I wondered at what point Robson Green and Sandra Jobling had changed their minds or had they not been totally honest at the outset.

Regardless of that, we had signed contracts that should hold up in court. We had engaged the services of a leading firm of London solicitors specialist in media work, to author the agreement. If the agreement did not protect our rights then I would query why we had been charged a fee because the instructions had clearly stated that the contract should protect the rights and the profit share. What I chose to spend those profits on is really up to me.

It is difficult not to dwell on the announcement printed in an Australian Broadsheet last year, “.What Green has in common with Hill .... their acceptance of evil.” (Sydney Morning Herald printed on 17 September 2007). The invoice on the following page is the demands made on Coastal to honour the promises made by its directors and is followed by the reply I sent back to Muckle by return. 262

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Intrigue Productions Ltd [email protected] Russell Gardens Ley Street London IG2 7BY

10 June 2008 Coastal Productions Limited

Ref: WITB 001

25b Broad Chare Quayside Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3DQ

INVOICE

Wire In The Blood Television series 1 Coastal Productions Ltd shall pay to Intrigue Productions a % Total Production Budget [Assuming total production budget as specified in ITV contract]

Total:

£40,500.00

Please remit immediately

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Intrigue Productions Ltd [email protected] 17 June 2008 Muckle LLP Time Central 32 Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4BF Dear Sirs: Re: Wire In The Blood The heavy handed intimidations, used in your letter of 13 June 2008, serve to persuade me that your client is beginning to realise what a mess he has got himself into! The material sent was merely to draw your client‟ s attention to the vulnerable position in which his actions have placed him. The wording of paragraphs detailed in your letter has long since been discarded. The threat you caution me with, (bringing in the Police), would almost certainly work counter to your ascribed intent escalating press and public interest, by attracting detailed media coverage. Whether the result of that would be wholly to your client‟s advantage remains to be seen. Public perception of the facts may well be influenced by an actor‟s articulate delivery but journalists are trained to probe and they will ask awkward questions. When your client has to create his script on the hoof skilled journalistic inquisitors will quickly get behind a shallow façade and uncover the real story. So what are the facts, since your client now threatens my liberty? – Not satisfied with the permanent deprivation of my production, my accreditation, my money, my company, my charity helpline, my partnership and to a degree my health, the aim is now to impose a 14 year jail sentence and to silence my voice completely. How fortunate for me that society no longer tolerates its citizens being burned at the stake! Your client may need an expensive legal team to eke out a plausible sounding argument, to convince a court that the person before it, who has spent 15 years working with no personal gain, for the benefit of others, is now to be viewed as such a public menace that she must be incarcerated to reduce the dangerous risk her liberty poses to society. A tough call when contrasted with your client who has publicly announced, his own acceptance of evil I could not have put it better myself - No amount of rewording is going to sanctify the narrative when the behaviour it reports on was designed to thwart the continuation of our good works. Your client has dishonoured those who have delivered him, and his company, a prize property. Your clients have dishonoured the individuals and their representative companies through which the profits would be fed with a portion of the funds to go towards declared charitable endeavours. This is not a fantasy. This had been our modus operandi for over one and a half decades. The evidence abounds. I am unfamiliar with any sections of the Theft Act 1968 including that cited in your letter, however, I do know that the definition of the crime of theft is “to permanently deprive”. I am uncertain quite how the facts could be so twisted in your minds that you believe such an accusation could be validly levied? However, it could be argued on our part, that with signed agreements entitling us to a 50% profit share, the withholding of the co-producer‟s share of profit on a sale & leaseback deal and all revenues from seven subsequent series is tantamount to a whole range of permanent deprivations. That is what I would call serial theft! If, whilst upholding the terms of prior agreements made with Janet Ives, Jenny Burgess and Phil Shaw your client feels able to justify his company‟s action to a viewing public, many of whom are self proclaimed animal lovers, then he has nothing to worry about. I have certainly not fabricated anything.......I do not need to and my aim is not specifically designed to injure any of your clients. Contrary to your erroneous assertion, my demand is solely for your client‟s compliance with its contractual obligations. I have issued no threats. In a free society, I reserve my right to freedom of speech in publishing my own autobiographic work. Thus I shall be offering no apologies. I am offended by your clients‟ actions and their many breaches of promise. I have on file a full history of the dishonoured agreements. As for the costs you demand – by all means, once we have been properly paid our Wire In The Blood profits, you may advise of costs. Yours faithfully, Janet Ives

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Cc: Company Secretary/ Legal Dept

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Chapter 23

As bad as Robson Green‟s actions had been, driven by sheer greed, I have to say I am equally as disappointed by those of my business partner of 17 years whom I had supported and trusted. I had expected that she would have done the same for me.

Apart from the misfortune of falling ill at just the wrong time, [well, is there a right time to take ill?] I have done nothing to deserve the treatment I received at the hands of my fellow director and I consider her recent behaviour so out of character that it left me somewhat perplexed. Over the years we have worked together harmoniously and I cannot remember ever having a row between us in all that time. True, we did not always see exactly eye to eye on everything and we would make our individual feelings known but it was always harmonious.

There are occasions where a director inevitably finds opportunity presenting, e.g. bereavement. Such situations present themselves throughout life and particularly in business. It is a measure of an individual‟s integrity whether one is able to rise above base temptation of using a partner‟s misfortune to advance one‟s own position such as appears to have been done. To do so I feel shows very low moral fibre and a core of dishonesty and I do not believe that the person I worked with for so long could have hidden traits like that for all those years. Jenny was never secretive.

I do believe that Jenny has worked against her own conscience and that is the main reason she will not face me to discuss anything. Either something or somebody had caused Jenny to shift her loyalties quite drastically. Never strong on maths, Jenny‟s expenditure was always an issue but her commitment to the core objectives of the Arcadia Network had never been in doubt. We kept a fairly tight reign on personal outgoings and I would keep tally, always ensuring that our spending was controlled.

Because Coastal had cheated us withholding due profit shares, we had agreed that some company spending had to be covered out of personal funds to be reclaimed when revenues allowed or to be added to the director‟s loan accounts. It was documented in © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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the last board minutes in April 2005 before I was signed off work.

Bona fide expenditure would be met on a 50:50 basis normally, but we each had our areas of expertise and as such where the expense was driven by our individual remits then we would cover those bills ourselves but always with the understanding that it would be refunded at the point of first drawdown. Thus Jenny with Carole and Tony‟s help had cash flowed the Conqueror development, on the agreed terms that the company would be liable to refund the sum with interest on first day of principal photography.

On the same accepted terms I provided the publicity material to support the job of attracting finance. The printing of the boxes of Conqueror prospectus [each 40 pages /colour covers] and - production notes booklets [each 10 pages /colour covers]. I had taken care of the printing for years, box loads of scripts, and Alchymist‟s Cat bibles, altogether it easily matched in value. However, as Jenny was never in a position which required her to print buy, other than the odd photocopy, she had not the faintest idea of the cost of bound colour booklets. Her suggestion to close the company would have left those debts unsatisfied. In fact they have never yet been acknowledged or invoiced for. What should have been apparent, after working with me throughout those long years is that I am not dishonest and I have a strong sense of fair play – whether anybody is looking over my shoulder or not. My drive to improve the general and specific treatment of animals fuelled all my efforts was shared by Jenny, who operated by the same code. All her actions and communications had suggested that she did. If she was no longer of that persuasion now, I feel the only explanation is that a massive external pressure has been brought to bear to cause such an about turn.

Unable to get any financial information directly, I was forced to contact the bank and requisition statements. When the bank information was received regarding transactions through the accounts during the period of my absence, it appeared that the company accounts had been plundered; page after page of personal spending. A company which together we had put all our efforts into building, which we had such hopes for the future of, had been decimated financially yet Jenny was telling me it had done no work over the year, claiming none of the properties had sold and yet I was viewing many of our ideas on screen. Traffic through the email box suggested there was truth in her assertion. 266

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After all those years how could a person change so drastically in six months? Why had the goal suddenly come to forcing the company‟s closure? And, why would she not allow me to take the reins rather than close the company down? Why had she not called to find out how I was? We had worked together for so long that we were almost like family. Even more confusing was her changed attitude to face to face contact. Why was she now so reluctant to meet up? For as long as I had known her, meetings were mandatory with Jenny. She would not do a deal until she had the opportunity to look the person in the eye and always made quite an issue about it. I have not changed so I can only conclude that Jenny has.

The company was left in a healthy financial state to enable it to function in my absence. Since my discharge from hospital, I had arranged for a large settlement of company bills to meet debts which were still outstanding and to get the legal case back on track. Those payments could not be met out of the main accounts because the balance in the account plus all revenues for the 18 months covering the period of my absence in at the point I handed over management into the company made during my absence had, despite a bank mandate and board minuted resolutions to the contrary, been withdrawn by Jenny Burgess with the assistance of Barclays Bank [off mandate] and Brebners of Wardour Street London as a clearing house.

This continued despite requests to all parties to cease such activities. The withholding of information continued until a written complaint to the Institute of Chartered Accountants forced Brebners hand and documentary evidence of financial transactions had to be passed over. This revealed the full story. Barclays has been sent several requests in writing, backed up by phone calls and personal visits to my local branch to speak in person, to ask for the paying in and withdrawal slips for amounts going through the company account during my absence. Not one of these has been sent.

Having expected Jenny to stumble her way through my absence financially, I had taken the precaution of setting aside an amount by which I felt I would be able to correct the situation, however, the scale of the company‟s need had outstripped even my worst fears. Once I discovered the full extent of the requirement, I realised we had to raise a considerable amount extra to cover all the bills. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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At no point was any request made for Jenny Burgess to supply finance. I had undertaken to provide for the settlement of the legal bill understanding that no provision would be made by Jenny Burgess. She was offered her full and rightful portion of the potential settlement, after allowing for the repayment of the financial account which would be providing cash to fund the litigation. Jenny remained suspicious that she was not being dealt a „fair percentage‟ whether the reaction was totally Jenny‟s own or the influence of a biased advisor. The amount Jenny was offered was equivalent to her shareholding.

I had made it clear to all at the outset that I had no desire to deprive anyone of their rightful share of the proceeds of a successful settlement of the case. I expected that having worked together for many years, Jenny Burgess knew that I place great store on my integrity that if she had my undertaking I would keep my word, plus we have signed agreements already in place. I guess we all judge by our own merits. She knew she was not being straight with me, so why would she not expect anyone to do the same to her?

To justify her behaviour in her own mind, she would have to consider that given the circumstances, it was the likely option that any person would adopt. I started to believe that somehow our original mission had been completely forgotten or set aside by both Jenny and Carole Burgess. My stated intent was expressed in writing to my personal solicitors, the company lawyers, the company‟s ex – accountants, Jenny‟s own solicitors, and to Jenny herself. It made no sense why she would not accept that she stood to make the return of her directors loan for doing absolutely nothing except behaving honourably which should be the preferred option anyway.

Aside from the fact that it was a criminal offence, there was something very mean spirited about going back into the company to sideline the last remaining royalty payment which would come through to the company before the case appeared in court. If that hearing went badly there may not be any company to invoice the production further. So intent was Jenny to see the company closed that, she went directly against the lawyer‟s advice and disrupted my witness statement thwarting our case at the hearing.

I had not had access to any of the company accounts since before Easter 2005. Money which was payable was the revenue of Circle Multimedia. I also had an extensive 268

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director‟s loan balance owing to me, swelled by the recent settlement of company debts. My clearing of these debts saved Jenny from having to provide any money to cover the outstanding invoices and kept the company solvent. A company which may pay her yet more returns. Still she wanted the company closed? She had no right to deny me access to the company in which I had been a founder board official and denying the charity initiatives any money was against our original agreements. Something was not right – it just did not add up!

There was some good reason why Jenny Burgess was so reluctant to speak with me. It was certain that I would ask some difficult questions, ones that she did not want to answer and face to face, she knew I would see through any fake responses. Jenny admitted she understood that closing the company she would lose her outstanding directors loan, and was willing to accept the forfeiture. The only reason anyone would refuse money from one quarter, for doing absolutely nothing, was that they were getting it from elsewhere! If that was the case it was obviously not something she wanted to share with me and possibly not with any charities, either. It seemed that my return had interfered with something. There had been a number of active projects on the slate, some of which I had originated and an active script for which we had all, invested a considerable amount. Maybe she had tied a deal for one of those properties but if that was the case, then why would she not just say that was the situation. If anything, Jenny‟s fault had always been, she was too open, letting everyone know what we had in the bag before the deal was thoroughly sewn up. I would have to get her to clamp down on telling everybody the whole story before I had chance to put the contracts together. Jenny was always an open book. Whatever had been happening would be documented because she would not have been able to keep it a secret for more than two minutes. On this basis, I was pretty sure that the files would reveal what had been going on and I knew intuitively there was something afoot. Something she did not want to tell me for whatever reason and there was some reason why she would not meet up with me.

Maybe it was just that nothing had been sold and she could not face up to it but if that had been the case then what was the income being spent on? If there was no work being © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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done there would be no expenditure unless it was being taken as salary. If that was the case then the company should be making National Insurance payments and dealing with the PAYE. Whatever she was up to, I was pretty sure she was acting against her own conscience in some way.

There was money coming in to the company that had gone out somewhere. Jenny never had a very active social life. That money was either going out on project development or it was going to her household. Either way, she did not want to tell me. But 50% of investments and revenue profit was in my name. I had a perfect right to know.

The only reason that a director could wish to close a company that held properties, containing many thousands of pounds of one‟s own and other people‟s investment in those projects, under these conditions is that it could interfere with some other plan for making money if the company stayed in existence. So, what could Circle Multimedia be in a position to interfere with? It would have to be in a position to challenge the rights. I started to work my way through the folders again. I wanted to know what it was that the company could claim a lien over. I knew the answer would be in its property portfolio. There were a large number of properties which Jenny had been trying to package – it could be any one of them.

I started to re-acquaint myself with the slate of properties to see what the company could claim interest or part ownership in? I had lost some chunks of my memory and having the treatments and formats to focus on helped to jog it back again. It was starting to return fast, along with my mobility, my sight and hearing that were coming back more slowly but I still had my powers of deduction working and I was improving every day.

The more I read, the more I remembered of the projects that we had had in development before my admission to hospital. The more I read, the more impressed I became, as I was re-acquainted with our former level of creative achievement. Many of the formats on our slate were very similar to shows which had found their way to broadcast indicating to me that our thinking at the time had been sound. However, all the while this was happening, my incredulity was rising at Jenny‟s claims that she had been unable to sell anything. Nothing at all? With the award winning team we had assembled, it was 270

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almost impossible to believe. Selling is the central task of the Producer - to sell the idea of a project across first to creative personnel and then to financiers and backers and finally to broadcasters or distributors. A quick surf of the television channels shows how often producers are able to sell ideas across to the broadcaster without Bafta winning teams attached. We were aiming at the high end of the market.

Selling was the one skill which Jenny had always prized herself as possessing in great measure. During lean periods she had taken on telesales jobs to bring in extra money. So successful was she at selling that she would normally streak past the targets of the entire sales team. It is true she can make a very persuasive presentation and is skilled at opening lines of dialogue encouraging new business but selling is also about closing a deal successfully. That means where both parties feel they have got what they wanted out of the situation. This was usually my task and was not one of Jenny‟s strengths. It all made absolutely no sense. Something else was blocking that closing deal ... something or somebody....? _______________________________________________________________________ Property Title % investment/interest Co-producers ___________________________________________________(Originator/Writer)_____

Wire In The Blood

= 50% (assignment co-pro)

- Coastal Productions

Mermaids Singing

= 50% co-pro

- Coastal Productions

(Prequels/sequels)

= 30% co-pro

- Coastal Productions

Alchymist‟s Cat

= 70% (screenplay adaptation)

- (Richard Carpenter)

O8

= 50% (treatment only)/ co-pro

- (Large Beast Prods)

Nexus

= Expired option (treatment only)

- (Janet Ives)

Conqueror

= Expired option (treatment only)

- (Janet Ives)

Deckies

= 30% (pilot production made)

- (Andrew Adimides)

Conqueror/1066

= Expired option (script only)

- (Declan O‟Dwyer)

Boadicea

= Expired option (script only)

- (Declan O‟Dwyer)

Play For The Planet

= 100% Arcadia Productions Transfer

- (Arcadia Network)

_______________________________________________________________________ © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Jenny Burgess had signed the official 288 form dated 1 October 1999 appointing herself as a director of Circle Multimedia stating other directorships included DECKIES Ltd. She certainly did not have a directorship in Deckies Ltd in 1999 According to records DECKIES Ltd was only incorporated in January 2007 and Jenny Burgess had in fact

resigned from Circle Multimedia Ltd in April 2007. This was the first inclination I had that a separate company had been opened for any other productions.

Correspondence stated Circle Multimedia owns a 30% production share of DECKIES. Jenny had sent me a copy of the pilot production on CD [All Rights Reserved Spice Factory/Circle Multimedia] and had referred to her intentions in both her emails of September 2006 and December 2006 but since that time she has refused to provide any further update information on the project or developments with Spice in general.

Notwithstanding, requests in January 2008 had been sent to Michael Cowan, Spice Factory director, the co-producer for information pertaining to its development drew a blank, claimed to be out of the country at the time. We have still never received a reply to this request for details. Added to these projects, there was evidence that a public flotation had been planned to provide funds for a television co-venture with Spice Factory in 2007. None of this had been detailed in any of the reports supplied by Jenny Burgess. Enquiries for information as to the results of the flotation and funds raised in this venture were posted to Michael Cowan by Circle Multimedia Company Secretary but never got any response! Request for information regarding broadcast deals was sent to Jenny Burgess and via her solicitor but still no detail has been provided.

Opening the waiting mail - the reply from Companies House, informing the directors of Circle Multimedia that there was nothing that it could do to prevent the bogus filings of forms by individuals appointing themselves as directors of a company without valid authority Is this not the purpose of Companies House? – Totally outrageous!

I am certain that would not be the case if I appointed myself to the board of BP or British Gas. So in fact anybody can appoint themselves to the board of any limited company they wish to join by filling out a 288 form which can be downloaded, free of charge, from its website. It would place Companies House in a very interesting position 272

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if people were to download and complete 288 forms and thus appoint themselves to any companies they wish to join because apparently, according to that authority, there is nothing it can do but register in good faith. I am sure there are large numbers of interested potential directors out there. If a number of people were determined to make mischief they could throw the system into utter chaos very easily.

There was one other envelope. I recognised the handwriting. I knew it belonged to Carole Burgess. Early on, just after I got out of hospital and was trying to make contact with Jenny by phone, I had called Carole‟s number. She answered but I found something very disturbing in her tone and I later mentioned it to Jenny. My intuitive feeling at the time was: she was disappointed I had reappeared. I got an overwhelming feeling that she felt I was going to upset something although I was not sure what that thing was. There was no reason I could think of for her to be that way with me. I had done nothing to cause her hostility, except be ill and one can hardly help that. Even though I had been very ill, I had still not let Jenny or the company down. I had limped on until the bitter end and left all the requisites in place to support Jenny in my absence.

My next contact with Carole Burgess was receiving a curt letter after the company secretary had sent out notices for a board meeting at the end of February 2006. The letter informed me that she would no longer receive company mail for Jenny and anything arriving would be sent to Wardour Street without being opened. This was strange since Jenny was living with her mother. It confirmed that for whatever reason best known to herself, Carole Burgess was angry. I had no way of knowing what had sparked it as there had been no communication since our phone conversation had contained nothing contentious. It really made no sense. Clearly my presence was an irritation to her.

Much more recently, Carole Burgess had requested half of the last royalties cheque which I had already instructed Brebners could be used to offset any outstanding fees still remaining from their last invoice. As no invoices had been raised in my absence, any remaining debt would have been long overdue and Brebners had made it clear they were not prepared to allow it to remain outstanding. I wanted to see the amount settled and had refused Carole‟s request since by my reckoning she had been more than fully refunded. Considerable amounts of company income were unaccounted for and no © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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explanations offered. Where had all that money gone? Who was this creditor? What were these outgoings that had taken priority over every thing else, over all other invoices, ie those of the law firm, the accountants and the directors loan repayments?

Only Jenny had access to the company accounts. Someone or something was influencing Jenny to divert company money and whatever or whoever it was, held more sway over her than the company business plan, longstanding resolutions and a 15 year business relationship with me or our mission for the Arcadia Network initiatives had. The only time I had seen Jenny in two years was in the lawyer‟s board room where she had not spoken to me or looked me in the eye, and could not get out of the room fast enough. Why would she act so against character? Unless somebody was applying pressure for money; somebody she felt unable to resist. Who would have that much influence? .... The only person left in Jenny‟s family was her mother Carole Burgess. She had sheltered Jenny financially for many years and maybe had decided enough was enough. Maybe she had demanded the full return of money she had loaned the development setup. This would have required a redrafting of terms which may not have been attended to accordingly or maybe I had interrupted the process. I thought back to the phone call when I first came out of hospital, how hostile she had been for no apparent reason and the letter she had sent forbidding the use of her address to contact Jenny. There was obviously some anxiety between the two of them and I felt intuitively that, whatever it was, my presence was perceived by them as an obstruction. If this was where the money had been disappearing to, it would all make sense. My reappearance would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. It would also explain why Jenny could not look me in the eye and would not meet up. Without being able to access information, it was impossible to establish.

I slit open the last remaining letter. It was from Carole Burgess. It was handwritten. It was long and its chilling tone could at best be described as unfriendly. As I scanned down the pages - everything started to become crystal clear - my mind cast back to Carole Burgess‟ promise to watch over my children and my charity, in the event that my health failed to hold out. My children had not received a single phone call, during my hospitalisation and my charity was in suspension. Now, I had all the answers I needed. 274

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SQUARING THE CIRCLE ----- the final piece of the jigsaw falls into place -----

Carole Burgess who is now the beneficiary of the late Tony Burgess‟ estate – it informed me had discovered among his papers, that 12 years ago he had paid a small bill for the charity of which I was a trustee. She asked in a very unpleasant manner, if I would personally refund that money in full to her since she was now the beneficiary of his estate. The letter also informed me that she would be writing to the charity‟s bank for her own satisfaction! Whatever she hoped to achieve from doing so, was beyond my understanding?

Since the bank in question, with which I have no current dealings, has suddenly included me on its mailing list to offer ethical investment opportunities, I can only assume that unauthorised Carole Burgess has given them my details. I cannot quite understand what she hoped to gain from doing this. I am not currently seeking investment opportunities – ethical or otherwise!

I object to having my personal details handed out to companies who place me on junk mailing lists. As I see it, there is nothing ethical about wasting a few more trees to provide paper to send me information which I do not want, never asked for and never intend to use.

And so the story ends where it began with charity ... although, it seems we all have a different understanding of the word. By my definition, it was the act of the anonymous donor who gave their last £1.08 to the Bruno fund. Here in contrast, we have somebody asking to be sent a refund of a charitable gift that somebody else made 12 years ago. Not only that, the threat of contacting the bank to satisfy herself – of what I cannot imagine, could be construed as a veiled attempt to employ menaces!!! I am curious to know what has caused this apparent and drastic about turn in

Carole Burgess‟ attitude. Bearing in mind she has been returned her investment capital plus interest, I can not see where this hostility has come from?

No specific amount was mentioned in the Carole Burgess demand but it is a moot point anyhow. By withholding our Wire In The Blood co-producer royalties, Coastal had indirectly denied the charity any income for five years. According to the July 08 bank statement, the Animal Help Society bank balance stood at £22.31 and withdrawing the funds would close the charity‟s account. I can only believe that the radical change is the result of concerted efforts by advisors to persuade Jenny Burgess of the futility in attempting to secure our company‟s rights. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Appendices

The following pages are taken from original bibles for the productions formatted for ITV and BBC prior to Wire In The Blood but both Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 failed to see completion because on both occasions broadcasters pulled out at the eleventh hour.

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Appendix 1

Wire In The Blood ITV

Appendix 2

Play For The Planet ITV

Appendix 3

Alchymist’s Cat BBC

Appendix 4

Case notes Jenny Burgess

Appendix 5

Sumatran Tiger Trust (2 pages)

Appendix 6

Wire Press Cuttings

Declaration

Statement of truth and validity

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Appendix 1 March 2003

Excerpt from Val McDermid‟s web forum referencing Wire In The Blood [ITV series] The filming of the second series of Wire in the Blood is now well under way. This time, it will consist of four ninety-minute episodes. I went up to Newcastle for the readthrough of Episode 1, Still She Cries, written by Alan Whiting, who adapted Wire itself and also wrote the original script for the final story of the first series. Listening to the cast reading the script was an amazing experience; even when you know you've got a good script, it comes alive when the actors take over, and it leaps off the page, creating all sorts of visual images inside the head. I also spent a couple of days with the cast and crew, watching some of the early filming, which was fascinating. Of course, there's always a lot of hanging around on set, which means I get the chance to spend time getting to know the actors better. Both Robson Green and Hermione Norris are thrilled to be back in the saddle, bringing Tony and Carol to life for a second time, and I'm always pleasantly surprised by how welcoming everyone is when I'm around. Most television companies prefer to keep writers at arms' length, but Coastal Productions made it clear right from the start that when it comes to Tony & Carol, I'm the expert, and they want to make full use of that expertise. Which I guess is one of the reasons the series works so well for those of you who have read and enjoyed the books.

Robson Green, according to The Sun 'exclusive' today, has criticised Simon Cowell by accusing him and Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller of using Pop Idol hopefuls to boost their own bank accounts. However, Robson was actually asked at the press launch of the new series of Wire in the Blood on Monday, what he thought of the state of television today, and in particular, the moving of a lesser-watched drama to the "graveyard shift" to make way for a reality TV show. Robson said it was a disgrace and stressed the damage that reality shows could have on the long-term future of quality television because of the networks' zeal for a quick return from a limited investment, and pointed out a few formats, including Pop Idol. He also commented: "When Jerome and I had our deal, we had very good contracts. But I guarantee, not one of those Pop Idol kids will make a penny. The only people who may get a bit are Gareth Gates and Will Young - but I will be amazed if they get more than £100,000. Would-be stars should realise their contracts mean their earning power is next to nothing."

The Sun translation Posted by BillAlpha

Such touching concern – too bad Robson Green does not practise what he preaches! © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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LIES LIES AND MORE LIES

It's hard to begrudge McDermid her success; it wasn't just a stroke of luck or good timing that made her work so widely read. She failed at being a writer once. She was unceremoniously dropped by her agent after becoming an unsuccessful 'accidental playwright'. She was rationalised by her American publisher after 'Mermaids' didn't sell. She went out to the States and did promotion, working the Bouchercon convention and paying for it from her own pocket. She's driven to work all the time. She sends work-related emails from holiday. This manic overachievement can be squarely laid at the door of the evil monster whose name, whisper it in dark corners, is Fife County Council.

In Reply to: Problem posted by Francesca on Mon 09 Feb 2004: Subject: Re: Problem Hi, Francesca. Series two consists of four episodes that are all original storylines using the characters of Tony Hill & Carol Jordan. They're not based on the books, although I have had input as a consultant during the development of storylines and scripts. Hope that makes it clear. best Val Even though it's not based on the books, I was still heavily involved in the development process, and I'm very pleased with the end result. I'm clearly not the only one, since ITV's Network Centre have already commissioned another four episodes for series 3. It's very unusual for them to recommission before a series has been aired - normally they wait to see how the ratings go. So it's a real mark of how highly they rate the quality of the second series - they're confident that it will be even more popular than last year's debut. I'd like to say we're surprised by their decision, but if I'm honest, all of us involved with the project were so convinced we had another winner on our hands that we'd already started script development for the third series regardless. But it's always nice to know you're right. And we got another boost at the press screening of the first episode at the beginning of December. There was a real buzz of excitement, and standing room only in the screening theatre. The journalists I spoke to were all very enthusiastic, which is unusual in that cynical world... Most television companies prefer to keep writers at arms' length, but Coastal Productions made it clear right from the start that when it comes to Tony & Carol, I'm the expert, and they want to make full use of that expertise. Which I guess is one of the reasons the series works so well for those of you who have read and enjoyed the books.

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COASTAL PRODUCTIONS LIMITED

DIRECTOR Occupation Address Country of Origin Date of Birth Appointment Date Other Directorships DIRECTOR Occupation Address Country of Origin Date of Birth Appointment Date Other Directorships SECRETARY Address

SANDRA JOBLING PERSONAL ASSISTANT 16 THE PLANTATIONS , WYNYARD WOODS , BILLINGHAM , TEESIDE , TS22 5SN BRITISH 25/09/1951 05/03/1996 NORTH EAST THEATRE TRUST LIMITED, COURTGROVE LIMITED MR ROBSON GOLIGHTLY GREEN ACTOR LARKSPUR , OAK GRANGE ROAD WEST CLANDON , GUILDFORD , SURREY , GU4 7UD BRITISH 18/12/1964 05/03/1996 CLAPP TRAPP PRODUCTIONS LIMITED SANDRA JOBLING 16 THE PLANTATIONS , WYNYARD WOODS , BILLINGHAM , TEESIDE , TS22 5SN BRITISH 25/09/1951 05/03/1996

Country of Origin Date of Birth Appointment Date Profit and Loss The following figures are shown in units of GBP '000 Number of Weeks Accounts Date Currency

52 28/02/2003 GBP '000

52 28/02/2002 GBP '000

52 28/02/2001 GBP '000

52 29/02/2000 GBP '000

52 28/02/2001 GBP '000 24 24 1,204 16 0 1,188 0

52 29/02/2000 GBP '000 34 34 768 21 0 747 0

Balance Sheet The following figures are shown in units of GBP '000 Number of Weeks Accounts Date Currency TOTAL FIXED ASSETS Tangible Assets TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS Trade Debtors Stocks Other Current Assets Misc Current Assets

52 28/02/2003 GBP '000 24 24 1,348 447 599 302 0

52 28/02/2002 GBP '000 30 30 3,813 211 2,919 683 10

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Cash TOTAL ASSETS TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES Trade creditors WORKING CAPITAL TOTAL LONG TERM LIABS NET ASSETS/(LIABILITIES) SHARE CAPITAL + RESERVES Profit and Loss account SHAREHOLDERS FUNDS CAPITAL EMPLOYED Key Credit Ratios

302 1,372 627 627 721 0 745 745 745 745 745

673 3,843 284 284 3,529 2,958 601 601 601 601 3,559

1,188 1,228 514 514 690 0 714 714 714 714 714

747 802 309 309 459 0 493 493 493 493 493

Accounts Date Current Ratio Quick Ratio T.N.W/Total Assets Equity Gearing

28/02/2003 2.15 1.19 54.30 118.82

28/02/2002 13.43 3.15 15.64 18.54

28/02/2001 2.34 2.34 58.14 138.91

29/02/2000 2.49 2.49 61.47 159.55

Financial Comparison The following figures are shown in units of GBP '000 Number of Weeks Accounts Date Currency Tangible Net Worth(T.N.W) Equity

52 28/02/2003 GBP '000 745 745

52 28/02/2002 GBP '000 601 601

52 28/02/2001 GBP '000 714 714

52 29/02/2000 GBP '000 493 493

Key Industry Sector Trends

Current Ratio

Company Industry Averages 28/02/2003 Lower Median Upper 2.15 0.80 1.36 2.30

This comparison is based on the results of 114 companies in the same industrial sector: 32300 Manufacture of television and radio receivers, sound or video recording or reproducing Financial Summary Working The company's working capital decreased in the period by 80% Capital Net Worth Tangible Net worth increased by 144,000 during the period and now stands at GBP 745,000 Fixed Assets The subjects fixed assets reduced during the period by GBP 6,000 to GBP 24,000 and are now 2% of total assets compared with 1% in the previous period Long Term Long term liabilities are now 0% of total assets compared with 77% in the Liabilities previous period Long Term Long term liabilities are 0% of capital employed a decrease of 83% over the Liabilities previous period

*** End of Report on COASTAL PRODUCTIONS LIMITED *** 280

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Appendix 2

Play For The Planet with the full support and endorsement of

The United Nations Association

The combination of charities/organisations has never before joined forces on a fundraising initiative. Together they represented 7.2 million people in the UK in terms of membership and supporters. Play For The Planet is also inviting other well known mass-membership organisations to join the team as members of the ---

Play For The Planet Foundation The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers The Council for the Preservation of Rural England The Woodland Trust The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust The Royal Society for Nature Conservation

Just these five … number another 3.1 million people nationwide.

By drawing together organisations in this way, Play For The Planet will create the focus and support of many more millions of people … it is estimated that over the past five years, at least half the population, (over 25 million people of all ages in the UK) have become involved in environmental, conservation and animal welfare issues.

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Play For The Planet the crisis affecting everyone - solutions can be fun -

Steering Executive Committee Members

Roger Wilson [Managing Director of Field, ex Vice Chairman Stitching Greenpeace Council] Paul Jones [Chairman Arcadia , Managing Director Greenprint] Bob Wilson [Special Events Co-ordinator, Greenpeace UK] Andrew Mitchell [Deputy Director Earthwatch Europe, ex BBC Natural History Unit] Carole Burgess [Managing Director Arcadia ] Jenny Burgess [Director Arcadia ] John Wilkinson [Director of Business Development, WWF UK] Helen Boothman [Head of overall marketing department, RSPB] Dr Terry Moore [Founder The Earth] Janet Ives [Company Secretary & Director Arcadia] William Travers [Chief Exec Director, Born Free Foundation] Kate Parminter [Head of Campaigns & Events, RSPC] Jonathan Clarke [Director or Fundraising, Friends Of The Earth] Crispin Huntrods [Media Promotions Manager, The Humane Research Trust] Vera Chaney [Founder Green Network] Stephen Leahy [Chairman Action Time] Producer

Play For The Planet AWARENESS

– major issues affecting the planet and its resident life forms

FUNDING

–

SUPPORT

282

for small / medium sized charities to improve environment –

aim to raise a million hours of voluntary labour

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Guard rescues burning performer at festival Guardian & Gazette Newspapers

A BRAVE security guard smothered a fire-eater with blankets after a stunt he was performing at the Glastonbury Festival went horribly wrong. Larry Green, 40, who is Vice President of the Ilford based Animal Help Society, was working at last weekend‟s extravaganza.

I was outside one of the tents I was watching over with my colleague Mark Seddon”, recalled Larry.

“We were watching the fire-eater performing his variety of tricks, which at one point included setting fire to a certain part of his clothing. “But then he doused himself in flammable liquid again and it all went horribly wrong.” His face, hands and T-shirt caught fire and he was running around screaming.” “The ironic thing is most people thought it was part of the act.” “Luckily Larry and Mark, 18, both from Leyton, realised something was very wrong and they put out the flames” “We rushed over to him, threw him to the floor and covered him in blankets.” “He was screaming in agony and we managed to rip his T-shirt off to stop it sticking to his body. “We then applied some basic first aid until proper medical attention could be sought.” “It was a really frightening experience, we‟re just pleased we could find some way of helping.” The young victim was later taken to hospital and treated for minor burns to his face, chest and hands.

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Appendix 3

The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic"

Creative Elements Charles Sturridge [Proposed Director]

BAFTA Awards 2003 Won, BAFTA TV Award Best Drama Serial for Shackleton (2002) Shared With: Selwyn Roberts 2001 Won, BAFTA TV Award Best Drama Serial for Longitude (2000) Shared With: Selwyn Roberts 1998 Won, BAFTA Childrens' Award Best Children's Film for FairyTale: A True Story (1997) Shared With: Wendy Finerman Bruce Davey 1982 Won, BAFTA TV Award Best Drama Series/Serial for Brideshead Revisited (1981) Shared With: Derek Granger, Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Emmy Awards 2002 Nominated, Emmy Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Shackleton (2002) 1996 Nominated, Emmy Outstanding Individual Achievement in Directing for a Miniseries or a Special for Gulliver's Travels (1996) 1982 Nominated, Emmy Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special for Brideshead Revisited (1981) Shared With: Michael Lindsay-Hogg episode I: "Et in Arcadia Ego". [Great Performances]

Cannes Film Festival 1987 Nominated, Golden Palm for Aria (1987) Shared With: Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Julien Temple

2

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic" 1)

2)

3)

Corporate Details Company Name: Registration No.:

Circle Multimedia Ltd 3852063

Address: Postcode:

The Quadrangle [2nd Floor] 180 Wardour St London W1F 8LB

Contact Details Name: Position: Phone: Fax: Mobile: Website: E-mail:

Janet Ives Executive Producer / Company Director 01628 509 501 01243 601 482 07881 686 857 www.circlemultimedia.com (in construction) [email protected]

Project details: Title of Project: Genre: Language(s): Type of Project: Start of Preprod: Start of PP:

4)

The Alchymist‟s Cat [UK] The Alchemist‟s Cat [US] Fantasy English Feature Film [120 mins] 1 November 2005 June 2005

Creative Elements: Key: approached (A), interested (I) or secured (S) Author: Writer: Director: Casting Consult: SFX: PD:

Robin Jarvis [S] Richard Carpenter [S] John Henderson [S] Phil Shaw Associates [S] Men From Mars [S] Simon Holland [S]

5)

Talent Key: approached (A), interested (I) Gary Oldman (Spittle) [I] Christopher Lee (Zachaire) [I]; Simon Callow [I] Sir Derek Jacobi [I]; Robbie Williams [under negotiation with IE Music] [I] (Film Song) Jerry Meehan & Max Beesley – score

6)

Partners involved: (e.g. exec producers, co producers, financiers) Exec Producers: Janet Ives/Jenny Burgess Co Exec Prods: Ray Marshall [Script]; Co-Producer: Laurin Film [Hungary] Line Prod: Chris Courtney [S] Dist/Sales: In talks UK/US distributors Production: Budapest Studios [A] Post Production: Ascent Media [A] © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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CONTINUED: 7)

Funding – European Convention

Total Budget: <$25 million estimated Sources: UK [S&L] 15.5% Gap 20%; Hungary [Tax Rebate] 8% [Equity] 8% US Presale 20%; Post 5% Equity & Sales 23.5% 8)

Contracts or agreements in place : [Law Firm = Harbottle & Lewis UK] a) Option film/tv rights between Circle Multimedia / Robin Jarvis b) Agreement between Circle Multimedia and Festival Film and TV c) Writers Agreement between Circle Multimedia and Richard Carpenter d) Heads of Agreement [Circle Multimedia] with Laurinfilm e) Line Producer Retained / Chris Courtney f) Director Retained / John C Henderson g) Casting Consultant Retained / Phil Shaw Associates h) Music under negotiation with IE Music

9)

Supporting Information Availability Short Synopsis (100 words) Script Draft number: 3 Schedule Budget

-

4

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic"

John Henderson [Director] BAFTA Awards 1994 Won, BAFTA TV Award Best Children's Programme (Fiction/Entertainment) for The Borrowers (1992) Shared With: Grainne Marmion, Richard Carpenter

Moscow International Film Festival 1997 Nominated, Golden St. George Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997)

1993 Won, BAFTA TV Award Best Children's Programme (Fiction) for The Borrowers (1992) Shared With: Grainne Marmion, Richard Carpenter

Oulu International Children's Film Festival 1996 Won, Starboy Award for Loch Ness (1996)

The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2005) Tunnel of Love (2004) (TV) The Water Giant (2003) Suche impotenten Mann für's Leben (2003) ... aka In Search of an Impotent Man Two Men Went to War (2002) "Los Dos Bros" (2001) TV Series Comic Relief: (UK: video title) (1999) Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999) (TV) ... aka Kampf der Kobolde (Germany) ... aka Leprechauns (USA: short title) Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998) (TV) Jack and the Beanstalk (1998) (TV) "How Do You Want Me?" (1998) TV Series Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997) Hospital! (1997) (TV)

Loch Ness (1996) The Last Englishman (1995) (TV) (UK: series title) The Heroes and Villains: Last Englishman The Return of the Borrowers (1993) (TV) Brace Yourself Sydney (1993) (TV) "Bonjour la Classe" (1993) TV Series The Borrowers (1992) (TV) Shall We Gather at the River (1992) (TV) Bunch of Five: Shall We Gather at the River (UK) "The Big One" (1992) TV Series Desperately Seeking Roger (1991) (TV) "Sticky Moments on Tour with Julian Clary" (1990) TV "About Face"(1989) TV Series "Sticky Moments with Julian Clary" (1989) TV Series "Round the Bend" (1988) TV Series "Spitting Image" (1984) TV Series

Writer - filmography

Producer - filmography

Suche impotenten Mann für's Leben (2003) ... aka In Search of an Impotent Man Brace Yourself Sydney (1993) (TV) "Terry and Julian" (1992) TV Series (writer) Desperately Seeking Roger (1991) (TV) "About Face" (1989) TV Series (writer) "Sticky Moments with Julian Clary" (1989) TV Series (writer) "Helping Henry" (1988) TV Series (writer) "Comedy Wavelength" (1987) TV Series

"Terry and Julian" (1992) TV Series (executive producer) About Face" (1989) TV Series (producer) "Round the Bend" (1988) TV Series (producer) "The Befrienders" (1972) TV Series (producer) Actor - filmography Dad's Army (1971) .... Radio shop assistant

"Not the Nine O'Clock News" (1979) (writer)

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic

Production Companies

Circle Multimedia

[UK] Producers: Janet Ives, Jenny Burgess

Circle Multimedia co-produced and originated the ITV drama series Wire In The Blood starring Robson Green, which recently completed its third series and has sold to huge success worldwide. The company has a slate of feature films and three new television series in development. Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess are the originating producers of Alchymist’s Cat

Festival Film & Television [UK] Producer: Ray Marshall Producer/writer of the Cookson adaptations for ITV, including The Black Candle / The Cinder Path/ Tilly Trotter/ A Dinner of Herbs, and The Black Velvet Gown [ Bafta awarded]. Festival’s extensive library are all are selling in several media, worldwide. Ray Marshall’s latest release has its UK premiere screening at Bafta on 23 February 2004. Festival took a co-executive position on the Alchymist’s Cat production focusing on early script development.

Laurinfilm [Hungary]

Producer: Kornel Sipos, Zsofia Kende

Founded in 1993 by Kornel Sipos. Since 1997 he has managed the company with Zsofia Kende. Credits include: Underworld 2002; 2001

I SPY 2001;

Other Producers: BJ Rack [Total Recall, Terminator]

2

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Napoleon

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic"

Creative Elements

1.1 Robin Jarvis [Author] Robin Jarvis was born three weeks late on a sofa in Liverpool in 1963. The youngest of four children, he grew up in Warrington where he spent his school days doodling in sketchbooks and avoiding P.E. Eventually he studied Graphic Design at Newcastle where he discovered that creating stylish logos and being innovative with lead type wasn’t half as much fun as making rubbery monsters. As soon as he left college he landed a job in a gnome factory in darkest Weymouth where he made Christmas grottoes and glued fake fur onto fibreglass reindeer. The allure of tinsel and fairy lights swiftly waned however and he left the gnomes behind to go seek more sensible employment in London. And so his career as a model maker began. He made giant breakfast cereal for commercials, budgies in bovver boots, ailing insects, yoghurt -eating cows, sausage applauding moles and three armed hairy aliens with fibre optic hair. During this period he created in his sketchbooks a series of mouse and rat characters that were the basis for “The Deptford Mice”. The first novel was published in 1989 and was short listed for the prestigious Smarties Book Award. Fifteen titles later, Robin continues to create new fantasy worlds and, after a seven year break from the mice, has returned to write the first of four prequels to the original trilogy. Robin Jarvis currently lives in Greenwich with many rubbery monsters but, unlike them, shows no sign of perishing just yet.

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic"

1.2 Richard Carpenter [Screen Writer] Richard Carpenter trained as an actor at the renowned Old Vic Theatre School to which he won a scholarship. He joined the Company in 1956. Subsequently he worked in the West End and appeared in over 200 television productions. He starred in KNIGHT ERRANT - a long running series, where, he says, he began learning to write. He also appeared in ten feature films. His first writing venture was a 26 episode film series CATWEAZLE, which won the Writers Guild Award and was screened in nearly 60 countries. This was followed by many episodes of THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY, which again won him the Writers Guild Award the following year and was also screened world-wide, including the USA. He then created and wrote three complete series of a situation comedy THE GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL for Granada. This won the Look-in Award in 1977 and again in 1978. Following this he created and wrote two series of DICK TURPIN, which was produced by Gatetarn, a production company formed with Paul Knight and Sidney Cole. With his two partners he created SMUGGLER, a twelve-part film series shown world-wide, and its sequel ADVENTURER, made in New Zealand and again shown world-wide. He has also written three ten-part action adventure serials for the BBC, THE BOY FROM SPACE, CLOUD BURST and THE KING'S DRAGON and cocreated and wrote THE BAKER STREET BOYS. For Polyscope, he worked on the very successful DR SNUGGLES cartoon series for which he wrote the majority of scripts and which won many awards including that of the New York International Television Festival and a special award at Cannes. From 1983 - 1985 he created and wrote three series of the enormously successful ROBIN OF SHERWOOD, which was produced by Paul Knight and Gatetarn in association with HTV and Goldcrest and screened in the USA on ShowTime. Books based on these series are published by Penguin, Methuen, Collins and Corgi. The book of CATWEAZLE is in its 22nd impression. He wrote an episode of PULASKI for BBC TV and two episodes of Thames Television's HANNAY. He also wrote the six-part family puppet series THE WINJIN POM, produced by Spitting Image for Central Television and HIT Communications. Cont'd/….. 4

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic" Continued … Richard wrote the hugely successful dramatisation of Mary Norton's THE BORROWERS for Working Title Television and the BBC, starring Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton, which won Best Children's Drama awards from BAFTA, PACT and the Royal Television Society and also received an International Emmy Nomination. He also scripted the second equally successful series of THE BORROWERS which received the International Children's prize at the 1996 Cable ACE Awards. Richard wrote an original four-part children's drama serial STANLEY'S DRAGON for Central Television in association with Gatetarn Productions. The serial was broadcast on ITV and has subsequently become one of the few original British dramas to be shown on the Disney Channel in the USA. The serial received a BAFTA Nomination in the Best Children's Programme category, together with nominations from the Royal Television Society and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. Richard wrote a six-part adaptation of TRUE TILDA, a novel by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch for Eric Abraham at Portobello Films and Anna Home at BBC Television. He also devised and wrote OUT OF SIGHT an original childrens series for Lewis Rudd and Michael Forte at Carlton UK Television. The second series won Richard the Writer's Guild Award for Best Children's Drama and there was a third series. Richard wrote all six-hours of the first series of the major drama THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL based on the characters created by Baroness Orczy for BBC Television and Arts & Entertainment. He has also adapted THE RAGBOY AND THE MERMAID by Alan Temperley for Scottish Media and two novels by Philip Pullman for BBC TV: CLOCKWORK as a single television film (as yet unproduced) and I WAS A RAT produced as a 6 part serial with Canadian company Catalyst. This won the Prize for Best Children's drama at the Banff Television Festival, and Richard has received a BAFTA Writers Nomination. Richard has adapted THE ALCHYMIST'S CAT from the novel by Robin Jarvis as a feature film for Circle Multimedia/ Festival Films. He has also written a 50' script inspired by the Pied Piper story for BBC Children's TV. Richard is currently adapting the pilot episode for a proposed children's series being developed by Zenith Productions based on THE QUIGLEY'S book written by Simon Mason. Richard received the Writers' Award at the BAFTA Children's 2000 January 2004 © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic" 1.3 Simon Holland [Production Designer] (In Production) 1.

The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2005)

9.

"The Wanderer" (1994/I) TV Series

10. Foreign Field (1993) ... aka We Shall Meet Again

2.

Tunnel of Love (2004) (TV)

3.

The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)

11. Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)

4.

Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (2002) (TV)

12. King Ralph (1991)

5.

The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999) (TV) ... aka Kampf der Kobolde (Germany) ... aka Leprechauns (USA: short title)

13. Nuns on the Run (1990)

6. 7.

8.

Captain Jack (1999) ... aka An Inch Over the Horizon Swept from the Sea (1997) ... aka Balayé par la mer (Canada: French title) Decadence (1994/I)

14. Scandal (1989) 15. Living with Dinosaurs (1989) (TV) 16. Buster (1988) 17. The Believers (1987) 18. Harem (1986) (TV) 19. The Emerald Forest (1985) 20. Quadrophenia (1979) ... aka Quadrophenia: A Way of Life (UK: reissue title)

Filmography as: Production Designer, Art Director Art Department

Art Director - filmography (1980s) (1970s)

8. A War of Children (1972) (TV) 9. Bartleby (1970)

1. Reds (1981)

Filmography 2. Agatha (1979)

as: Production Designer, Art Director, Art Department

3. The Shout (1978)

Art Department filmography

4. Equus (1977) 5. Rosebud (1975) 6. In This House of Brede (1975) (TV)

2. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) (supervising art director)

7. Swallows and Amazons (1974)

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The Alchymist's Cat "Oliver Twist with magic"

Talent View E-mail Message Source

JanetHave you cast the part of "Spittle" yet?. Gary Oldman had some personal reasons for not being able to do this movie that have since gone away. If the part is still open, we would like to talk about the possibility of Gary being in your movie. Please call me tomorrow at 310/288-4545. Best regards, Matt DelPiano

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Appendix 4

Compiled by Janet Ives 28 January 2007

documents referenced to in this file are held in CaseNotesJennyBurgess.doc where relevant quotes have been highlighted in red to facilitate ease of access.

Throughout this document initials are used to denote:- Jenny Burgess JB. Alchymist‟s Cat AC, Michael Burton Accountant MB,

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Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess are equal directors of Circle Multimedia Ltd [CMM] a trading company registered in England No. 03852063 incorporated 1/10/99 [CaseNotes – Page 38] In its first trading year, CMM optioned film & TV rights to a novel entitled The Wire In The Blood by Val McDermid and on 6 April 2001 these rights were assigned to Robson Green‟s company Coastal Productions Ltd in a contract, drawn up by the Mayfair law firm, Davenport Lyons, afforded CMM 2% production fee and 50% profit share. This contract has been breached by the directors of Coastal Productions and the case for rectification and damages has been prepared by another London Law firm, Harbottle & Lewis. [CaseNotes - Pages 1 - 2] By the end of 2001 the first symptoms caused by what is now known to be a large brain tumour, had started to appear, however it was to be some three years later that doctors finally confirmed their diagnosis [CaseNotes - Page 8 ]and even longer to locate a surgeon willing to undertake its removal. During the period in between late 2001 and now, I believe JB took advantage of the fact that I was ill. She has appropriated funds to provide for her mother, assuring me that she was repaying the amounts taken as loans, yet after inspecting the accounts, I cannot find any evidence of a single return payment. [CaseNotes – Page 6] Together with the accountant, JB had Alan Cockayne, the company secretary, re-assign his one share back to the company on the grounds that in a deadlock situation, he held control of the company. I learnt of this in late 2003 on my return from Australia where I had spent a short stay for my father-inlaw‟s funeral. I did lodge my discontent but I was not in a mental state to push my objections, and prevent it. When I am in a position to return this shareholding to AC it is my intention to do so. In early 2004 Harbottle & Lewis invoiced CMM for a £10k retainer. JB having told me that she had 50% of this sum and was applying pressure to me to raise the balance. I was hesitant [CaseNotes – Page 3] however, I did eventually ask my backers and monies were transferred into a chequebook account to cover the requisite balance. When I informed JB that I had the amount covered, I suggested we should each deposit on the same day and then raise a company cheque to be sent to Harbottle & Lewis. Only then did JB reveal that she did not have the other 50%. [CaseNotes – Page 3]. JB attempted to redress this by obtaining a personal bank loan and towards this end she constructed a letter to substantiate her application to Lloyds Bank. [CaseNotes – Page 4]. There was no reality to the likelihood of JB receiving a salary until the next production brought in revenues - the application was unsuccessful. I was reluctant to ask my family to cover the entire amount. JB must have known her financial situation in advance and I felt she had been less than honest. My financier had lost one month‟s interest on his money by transferring funds out of a high interest account unnecessarily and in thinking that we had the full amount covered, I had authorised Harbottle & Lewis to issue a VAT invoice for £10,000. As such the VAT had been declared and had to be paid. I was very angry. JB offered to contact Harbottle & Lewis to explain that her situation had changed unexpectantly, since she had given me the undertaking to provide 50%. This appears to have taken the form of an attempt to re-negotiate a lower amount with Eleen Henderson at Harbottle & Lewis. [CaseNotes – Page 5]. Although they were prepared to accept staged payments, JB refused to provide the requisite funds to cover the bill. Throughout 2004/5 I was suffering severe effects on my health and struggling to hide my illness from family and work colleagues. Most of the year I spent setting up the company‟s next film production based on an optioned property entitled Alchymist‟s Cat [AC] by Robin Jarvis. By early 2005, I had gained the support of two investment banks who agreed to finance the production, and had attached leading personnel. The only job I left incomplete was to secure a UK distribution deal. Barclays of Soho Square, the company bankers, had sanctioned a £10K overdraft facility specifically to lift AC into pre-production [the contractual stage]. It was made abundantly clear to JB that monies in the bank were reserved solely for that one production © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Minutes of meetings evidenced this fact and copies were also sent to our accountants, too. [CaseNotes – Page 10]. JB had accompanied me to the bank meeting when I negotiated the overdraft facility and had a copy of the business plan used to support the application which stressed the point in two separate places. “The directors have agreed to the retention of salaries over the first five years of business in order to avoid the need to borrow monies. It is their intention to continue the same policy until the next film begins shooting in June.” [Business Plan – Page 12] “No expenditure in the first two quarters as the directors have elected for their salaries to be retained by the company, until such time as income can be realised to cover this requirement”. [Business Plan – Page17] In May 2005 £800 [chq 100184] was eventually repaid in August 2005. [CaseNotes – Pages 6 & 7]. August 2005, having discovered that JB had been using the company debit card for personal expenditures, I complained demanding she cease such activity and refund the monies [CaseNotes – Page 10]. The matter of using the company account for personal expenditure had been a fairly regular point of discord. My suggestion had always been that if money was required then a lump sum could be taken as a loan and repaid as quickly as possible, thereby keeping the accounting tidy. In April 2005 JB had £300 [chq 100181] to cover her liabilities whilst off work with flu and she assured me the money was to be returned immediately whenever needed but I cannot find evidence of this happening [CaseNotes – Page 11] JB details in her email 16 Aug 2005 that she has invested considerable amounts to the company in the past. This is true, however, all but £15K of project funding has been returned to her, yet it does not appear to have registered in her mind or been reflected in her directors loan account. Her mathematical abilities are only present for money flowing away from her. [CaseNotes – Page 11] The accountant has systematically allocated the tax free allowance in salaries each year and as CMM has had insufficient income to pay salaries, due to the breach by Coastal Productions, and therefore our directors loan accounts have increased yearly. JB has repeatedly referred to the amount owed her £60K and I feel she actually believes this to be representative of monies she has invested, rather than an accounting device used to increase our ability to extract funds owed us tax free when the company is more solvent. [CaseNotes – Page 11] JB has referred to the outstanding director‟s loan in more recent emails which I will address later, however suffice to say, at this point, her mathematics is questionable. [CaseNotes – Pages 22 & 35] On 1 December 2005, I underwent a 10 hour brain tumour removal. The estimated 10 day stay in hospital, lengthened into six months, as my recovery was exacerbated by persistent infections including MRSA [superbug]. JB visited me once in hospital immediately following my surgery, but had not made contact again since. Upon my discharge from hospital, in late May 2006, I attempted to speak with JB by phone to establish how business was progressing. I left audio messages and emailed but received no replies. In early September, I reached Carole Burgess [JB‟s mother] and felt surprised to detect an air of hostility in her manner [CaseNotes – Page13]. JB‟s failure to secure any distribution for the Alchymist‟s Cat production, after two years, I found fairly inexplicable: the writer/director team were double Bafta winners, both on the top of BBC‟s list of preferred players who were currently engaged on commissioned productions at BBC, the film was based on a Whitbread Prize winning novel. All production finance had been sourced and a line producer attached Chris Courtney has decades of experience and his connections go right to the top.. In addition a Hungarian co-producer was signed who would bring in 20% budget and an Eastern European distribution deal. The cast list included many seasoned artistes such as Dame Judy Dench and Christopher Lee. [CaseNotes – Page14] . Despite this and the fact that it had been agreed that all efforts would be concentrated on the current © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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slate of productions JB saw fit to take on another project “Deckies”. In several messages she refers to 25% which she won for CMM yet Michael Cowan who owned the property offered 30% in his email conversation. I have not seen a formal signed agreement. As far as I am aware, to date this show has not got a broadcast deal either so it is x% of nothing. [CaseNotes – Page15]. Negotiations with Michael Cowan, MD Spice Factory Ltd had begun just before I went into hospital. JB told me that they wanted to join with CMM as a finance co-production partner [Alchymist‟s Cat and other props] and that they had offered to finance a trip to Canada. The purpose of the trip being to tie co-production deals for North American market. Around mid September, my attention was drawn to the company accounts since, out of the blue, I received a call from a supplier asking me to personally cover a direct debit which had been refused by the company bank account. The amount refused was only £21 so, having agreed to pay, I wrote to JB for clarification [CaseNotes – Page19]. Dissatisfied with JB‟s evasive reply, I made enquiries at the local Barclays branch. Though they were sympathetic, but they were not very helpful and my suspicions were aroused. Still unable to get JB on the phone, I emailed her [CaseNotes – Page19]. Recovery after brain surgery is rather like waking up from a dream. It is very difficult to separate fantasy from reality for a while. So I did query my suspicions, but nothing seemed to add up. After two weeks with no reply, I called the company accountant to see if he could shed light on any developments. Despite his claim of ignorance, he did agree to post me the accounts and to ask JB to get in touch. I did not expect the reply I got. The JB reply email [entirely in red] shocked me to the core. My health at this time was still in a very fragile state and it took me eight weeks to overcome. The content was bad enough but worse still was the general tone of the communication which is very aggressive. It was uncalled for and unprofessional in the extreme. I have worked very hard for CMM, originated much of the current slate of projects and taken responsibility for all the legal, financial, printing and business development. In order to keep finances as low as possible, I have not yet invoiced for any format origination /preparation nor have I received any remuneration for this, as of yet. Had I invoiced the company, the director‟s loan accounts would lean the opposite way [CaseNotes – Page 35] JB‟s revelation that she wanted to close down the company began to arouse my suspicion, bearing in mind the level of investment we would stand to lose. It made no sense. [CaseNotes – Page 20 - 23]. Slowly, from that point on I started to unravel the situation. I cannot determine who it was that actually closed down the company accounts it is possible it was the bank who foreclosed. I arranged for copy statements to be sent to me and discovered that allotted funds had largely been spent on personal items [Bank statements – every page] and that all the royalty payments from Wire In The Blood had been withdrawn and in part also applied to JB‟s personal spending. Rather than the late arrival of the royalties cheque being the cause of the accounting problems, as suggested in JB email [CaseNotes – Page 19] I discovered that around £500 had been spent in Canada. I had been assured the trip was being paid for by Spice Factory. This clearly was not the case! [see Bank Statements May/Jun 2006] A folder of email messages to and from the accountant is evident, discussing how JB might go about closing the company, her preference, over his recommendation that dormancy be the better solution. He has assisted JB to clear the latest royalty cheque for over £5K, all of which was removed and, as far as I can establish, has not been put to paying outstanding company debts. I wrote to the accountant to say that I was opposed to allowing JB to fritter the funds and that as a 50% shareholder, I had a right to a say in how the money was applied. This was ignored. [CaseNotes – Page25-26] Despite JB promising to apply a percentage of the funds to clearing the accountants bill, this was not carried through. JB‟s excuse – she had a miscalculation that left her short. I got a similar story from the bank manager who had cleared the previous quarter‟s cheque on same pretext, despite the fact that it © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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requires both signatures to activate a cheque withdrawal and the account was over the limit at the time. The royalty cheques coming in were not used to reduce the excess of the overdraft limit, to reduce the accountants or the lawyers bills.

I informed the accountant that I opposed the closure of CMM and he assured me that this could not be done behind my back. I also spoke with the bank manager who recommended that I call Companies House to check the current status which he said appeared to be OK on the website. Once that was done he told me to call him again and he would arrange to reinstate the bank account. I have followed this advice and all appears to be fine at present with Companies House but the accounts are due to be delivered next week and the accountant was out the office until next week. Finally, I discovered that many of the company‟s documents [eg mins of board meetings] had been removed despite there being 90% space availability remaining. Upon this realisation, I locked the company email box before further damage could be done. It appears that JB is redirecting royalty cheques from Coastal Productions to an undisclosed address, withholding the funds and my property “NEXUS” et al. Information in emails [CaseNotes – Page 12; 13; 14 & 15] indicate the setting up of several productions, based on properties belonging to CMM. There are no formal option agreements over these works and they certainly have not been paid for. JB admits “it is virtually impossible to reach me in the day because I am out for 98% of it ” and the drop in activity in the mailbox would also suggest that, JB ceased working for CMM around the end of the financial year or early Apr 2006. The bank balance at that time was just over £6K o/d. JB‟s personal spending drove the overdraft to over the £10k limit, and all incoming royalties cheques were cleared and funds removed with the help of the accountant and the bank business manager. I do not understand how JB‟s mother could be in such a financial fix with her mortgage. Severe hardship cases qualify for assistance surely. Even so they sold a cottage in Wales, a house and a flat in Richmond and bought one small house in Selsey. In early 2006, Inland Revenue opened a case of investigation, visited our accountants to check documentation and demanded statements from JB regarding the amount of her inheritance from her father‟s estate in 2002/3. Whatever was supplied, they were satisfied enough to issue written clearance statement by end Mar 06. On 18 Dec 2006 I contacted HL and the emails between JB myself and HL are copied in order and do not require further comment. [CaseNotes – Page30 to 41].

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Appendix 5

Sumatran Tigers

Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program

The mission of the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program (STCP) is to assist in securing a future for Sumatran tigers in Indonesia. The program is a collaborative conservation effort between the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA), the Tiger Foundation (Canada) and the Sumatran Tiger Trust (UK) ratified by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the State Secretariat level in 2002 to cover a 5-year initial period of operations. STCP has two primary components: 1) a comprehensive national management project to support PHKA in policy and conservation strategy development related to the Sumatran tiger and 2) field-based conservation management projects in priority tiger habitats of Sumatra. These field projects are currently focused on Way Kambas National Park and the surrounding areas of Lamund province, and in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and the surrounding provinces of Jambi and Riau. Funding will go directly into Tiger Protection Units within Bukit Tigapuluh National Park.

Award: $1,200 Radio Auction VIP Tour Coronation Street Set/hotel and meal

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Robson Green, according to The Sun 'exclusive' today, has criticised Simon Cowell by accusing him and Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller of using Pop Idol hopefuls to boost their own bank accounts. However, Robson was actually asked at the press launch of the new series of Wire in the Blood on Monday, what he thought of the state of television today, and in particular, the moving of a lesserwatched drama to the "graveyard shift" to make way for a reality TV show. Robson said it was a disgrace and stressed the damage that reality shows could have on the long-term future of quality television because of the networks' zeal for a quick return from a limited investment, and pointed out a few formats, including Pop Idol. He also commented: "When Jerome and I had our deal, we had very good contracts. But I guarantee, not one of those Pop Idol kids will make a penny. The only people who may get a bit are Gareth Gates and Will Young - but I will be amazed if they get more than £100,000. Would-be stars should realise their contracts mean their earning power is next to nothing." Read The Sun translation Posted by BillAlpha ::

This is choice – Robson Green having a go at Simon Cowell, [who actually made him a fair bit of money] over the standard of the Pop Idol contracts, warning “their earning power is next to nothing” Compare his assertions along side his own actions over Wire In The Blood and I think the word which springs to mind is “hypocrite!” --

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Circle Multimedia Ltd

Business Plan 2005

Prepared by Janet Ives

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Circle Multimedia Ltd

Index

Overview

3

Company Structure

4

Mangement

5

Properties

6

Media Industry

7

Film Market

8

Film Distribution

9

Company History

10

Business Strategy

11

Financial Strategy

12

Alchymist’s Cat Dev Budget [Feb-Jun 2005] 13 Indiv. Project Development Budget

14

Cashflow Forecast

15

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Overview

Circle Multimedia was born out of a partnership between Janet Ives and Jenny Burgess. This was not a new partnership in that they had already run a successful live events company together, organizing numerous charity events, conferences, film premieres and two royal galas. In 1999 they opened their current operation to extend into multimedia. Janet Ives had 20 years experience in the media. She had majored in Astrophysics and had run a number of media companies and a registered charity so was able to provide the business management skills required. Janet was also classically trained in music and had worked in radio. Jenny Burgess had experience in performance arts. She had trained in opera, singing with the LSO and Philamonia Chorus. Being a graduate in Medieval Studies she had a strong interest in history and drama. Since leaving education, Jenny had worked in marketing applying her skills successfully, for a number of campaigning charities and video sales company. What has made this partnership so successful is that although the skill base is diverse and evenly spread, there is a single corporate vision. A joint decision was taken, early on, to establish the type of projects the company would be willing to pursue. Such projects would obviously reflect the interests of the founding directors but more importantly, it was decided that projects would only be considered for development where there was a strong potential for media cross over and the predicted yield was high. The divisions within the company was driven, from the outset, by the skillset of its directors and although many of the ongoing decisions are taken jointly, Jenny takes care of Development and New Business Relationships whilst Janet leads Production and Business Management. However, both are responsible for originating projects. Having chosen a lead project, efforts were concentrated on this in the early stage of the business plan, in order bring seed funds to the company. Other productions were developed and the company ordered shooting dates. Throughout its early and mid-term stages of development, the company has employed a strict fiscal policy – has avoided borrowings instead financing its growth by retained earnings techniques, family project investment and reinvestment of fees. The company is now moving into the long-term stage of its ten year plan and is on its targets.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Company Structure

Director

Janet R Ives BSc (Hons)

Director

Jenny Burgess BA (Hons)

Company Secretary

Alan Cockayne

Financial:

Simon Cryer FCA,

Legal:

Samantha Phillips Bll

Auditors:

Brebner Allen & Trapp 180 Wardour Street London W1V 8LB

Solicitors:

Harbottle & Lewis 14 Hanover Square London W1S 1HP

Objects 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

To To To To To To

option / purchase intellectual and literary property. develop media properties. develop scripts with outside writers. explore co-production ad co-financing potential for the company. explore distribution and sales potential for media properties. negotiate contracts and agreements related to all the above.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Management The directors of Circle Multimedia have extensive experience in business and in the entertainment industry. Janet Ives, majored in Physics/Astrophysics at London University and holds qualifications in a range of imaging technologies and business management. She spent time attached to the diplomatic corps and travelled the globe working on radio presentations and narration. She has over twenty five years experience in multi-media communications and was the first woman founder of a hi-tech plc one of the first holographic companies. For ten years she was entrusted with the chair of a registered charity. She is married with two children. Jenny Burgess, having majored in English Literature, embarked on a singing career with the English National Opera company and the Royal Philharmonia Chorus. Between her singing engagements, she developed her talent for marketing and worked in video promotions and numerous good causes. For some time she was a trustee of the World Youth Music Foundation, part of the UN initiative for youth. The directors have worked together for the past thirteen years during which time they have applied their skills to a variety of charitable events which include: 1994 1995 1996 1997

Enviro Roadshow [3 marquees] Glastonbury Festival Premiere ‘Congo’ [Paramount Picture] Odeon Leicester Square Royal Gala ‘CATS’ [Macitosh/Lloyd Webber] New London Theatre Royal Gala Mozart Concert at London Festival Hall in aid of AHS

The company is wholly owned by its two directors.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Properties Wire In The Blood - Val MacDermid [3 Books] 2002 This crime thriller, for which the author won the Golden Dagger Award, was secured on an option and a co-production deal struck following an approach to Robson Green’s production company. The property was developed as a [6 x 60’ episodes] for ITV and is now in its third series to be broadcast this season. The company retains a 50% interest in the productions in the series. Alchymist’s Cat - Robin Jarvis [3 Books] 2005 This fantasy novel, for which the author won the Whitbread Prize, was secured on an option and has been fully developed and is set to shoot this Spring 05. Attached: Director, Producer, Writer, Casting, Co-Producer, The company retains 85% interest in the production. [Rights covers Trilogy] Afterlife – The story of the wartime medium Helen Duncan [Book] Although this is a true story and as such is in the public domain, the company has secured an option over the biography written by her contemporary and friend Alan Crossley. Scheduled 2006 Order 8 - ? [script] The full rights to a script was solely owned by Large Beast Production with whom an 50:50 agreement has been signed. The production is in early development. Scheduled 2006 NEXUS - Janet Ives [treatment] Scheduled 2007 Scene breakdown and treatment. This is a TV Series in the fantasy genre project is in early negotiations with a co-producer in New Zealand The company has a full rights option over this work and the pilot is in dev. All Fall Down - Cailin Harris [script] Screeplay [ contemporary plague outbreak] for a feature or TVM. Seeking a co-producer. Scheduled 2007 Conqueror - Declan O’Dwyer [script] Janet Ives [treatment] This project is in early development. Hugh Hudson has been retained to direct the production. The company has a full rights option on properties. Scheduled 2008 161 Atom - David Harris [script] This project was referred by the Film Council, New Cinema Fund. The script is in development and a director has been attached. Scheduled 2008 A number of new productions are currently in rights negotiations.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Media Industry ‘Media-Convergence’, set to take full effect in the next decade, will create a multimedia environment and facilitate use of cross platform entertainments. The companies who understand and prepare for this radical shift will be those who are in the best position to profit from the opportunities it will inevitably afford. The international film industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Hollywood produces some 150 Films a year with budgets ranging from $50m to $100m and spends ten times that on development yet only produces a small number of films compared to Europe, representing only 55% of films on UK screens. UK Cinema attendance has steadily risen over the last decade to 115m, with the peaks occurring in holiday seasons, and yielding a gross annual turnover of $1billion, in a global market worth in excess of $20billion. Growth forecasts prepared by Price Waterhouse and Dodona Research both predict a 7.7% compound annual growth rate, in years up to 2008. This takes into consideration the impact DVD sales/rentals will have on the current situation. Internet facility is changing the nature of delivery and home cinema systems enabling greatly improved playback quality. The first studios have recently made their library catalogues available via streaming across the internet. The electronic games market has doubled in size over the last decade to $8b in the US alone. In one recent report produced by DFC, the strategic market research and consulting firm focused on interactive entertainment and the emerging video game, online game, interactive entertainment and interactive television (ITV) markets [www.dfcint.com] stated: According to Jessica Mulligan, one of the report‟s authors, "online games have been around for years, but now it looks like some of the online games currently on the market are going to generate well over $300 million in lifetime revenues. With high profit margins, these games will be extremely lucrative for their developers." More than ever before, media plays to a global audience. Set-ups, contracts and negotiations are extremely complex and must be planned out well in advance in order that all the different elements of a project’s exploitation knit together and progress smoothly. With competent management, it is possible to net immense profits from single literary property.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Film Market Current worldwide box office totals are estimated to be in excess $20billion. The US market, representing just less than 30% of this total, saw grosses around $6 billion. The international market is responding to this upturn by sinking large investments into the building of multiplex units, increasing the distribution network for the producer. The number of US screens rose by 25% in six years to 26,690 mirrored by a similar jump in the number of films released [29%] Television has become such an important market for movies that some production houses are opting to skip traditional routes, Cannes Film Festival, and sell through MIP-TV instead. Others forego expensive theatrical releases and go straight to video/DVD. The introduction of pay and pay-per-view (PPV) services will increase the general demand for broadcast material. Germany is the most competitive TV market in the world. Analysts predict that the German TV business will grow from its current base of $8.5b in annual revenues to $15b by the year 2005. Prices are set by the market and much of a film’s profit results out of its foreign sales. By manipulating windows producers and distributors are able to extract the maximum value from each film. Strategies are no longer based on old traditions. A film could be premiered on Cable TV with eight showings over 45 days before making a theatrical release and sell-through to video/DVD. The marketing and distribution strategies for films are not usually the domain of the production company, these being the specialist areas controlled by the distributor. However, independent distributors in general work more closely with the producer than the studios do and the trend is for the producer to be much more involved with many of them undertaking the entire job themselves and relying on the sales agent only to make a few last foreign sales.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Film Distribution Distribution is the mechanism which gets the finished film to the audience and there are an increasing number of available options: theatrical, cable, video, PPV, television, no-theatrical [military bases, aeroplanes, ships at sea], CD/DVD and shortly to be – the internet. Having secured the legal use of the film, ie the formal copyright, the producer contractually licenses, or rents, the film to a distributor for a specific length of time. In return the distributor relicenses the film to various media, collects the rental monies or ancillary fees and remits the producer’s share. The distributor charges a fee which can range between 25-40% of the total film rentals and in addition takes the entire fixed cost of the distribution overheads The international cinema market is divided into regions or territories: the domestic [UK] is part of the territory known as Western Europe which include Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Benelux and Scandinavia. The largest territory is US Latin America which often includes Canada. Asia Pacific takes in Japan, Korea Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Phiippines and is a rich territory expanding rapidly as are those of CIS/E Europe, Australia/NZ, India and South Africa . The distribution market is dominated by the major studios who each have their own distribution divisions backed up by foreign offices around the world. These giants deal in large budget films tailored to suit a mainstream audience but do occasionally acquire other films from independent producers when they are satisfied o the film’s commerciality. The advantages of studio linked distribution rests in their ability to put out 1,000 to 2,000 prints of the film in circulation at a time. They have the resources to advertise the film extensively and, through theatre ownership, are able to monopolise the US market and bring considerable pressure to bear in the international arena. Going the independent route, could significantly reduce the number of prints a film’s advertising spend and doubtless the opening grosses. However, when stock is taken over a long enough time base, figures can even out markedly. A good film’s publicity percolates more slowly and can still make its yield on the DVD and ancillary sales.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Company History Circle Multimedia has just moved into its sixth year of trading and is keeping well on targets set in its original business plan. The company’s year is from November – October and was set up on 1 October 1999

1999 - 2000 Option: Wire In The Blood. Seek Co-prods, writers, finance, broadcasters This being the set-up year. Efforts were concentrated on laying secure Foundations and developing our lead production. Negotiations: ITV Engage Brebner Allen & Trapp as company auditors 2000 - 2001 Legals: Wire In The Blood, Option: Alchymist’s Cat. Conqueror(1) Engage Davenport Lyons [Solicitors] to draw up media contracts Having secured co-production and broadcast for Wire, contracts were put in place, budget prepared for Wire [£4,05m] +filming begins 22 October The company moves its attention to its feature Alchymist’s Cat by first securing a investment partner and screen writer. 2001 - 2002 Income fees [Wire]. Legals: Alchymist’s Cat. Option: Afterlife Hollywood visit [2 weeks] Nov-Dec 2001 Director retained: 1066 Wire I The Blood delivered to ITV 5 Mar 02, [S&L 12.5% Ingenious] Co-producer breaches contract on Wire In The Blood. Screenwriter contracted and Scripting of 1st draft Alchymist’s Cat Research begins on Afterlife. VAT registration. 2002 - 2003 Project development Options: Conqueror(2), Nexus, All Fall Down Wire In The Blood I screened January 03 ITV buy Series II Move business to Harbottle & Lewis Visit Spain to discuss co-prod with Jose Cura 2003 - 2004 Project development Seek Production Finance: Alchymist’s Cat Wire In The Blood II screened January 04 ITV buy Series III Visit Australia, Prague, Budapest – to look at studio offers co-prod Secure David Parfitt Prepare budget for Alchymist’s Cat [$20m] Realigned VAT period to coincide with business cycle. 2004 - 2005 Pre-production: Alchymist’s Cat Scheduled Shoot = April – June 2005 Contracted: Co-Producer, Line Producer, Director, Special Effects, Casting 2005 - 2009 See stragegy plans on next 2 pages

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Business Strategy The longterm aim is to lift one or two projects per year. This will be achieved by fully developing projects where the full rights are owned or optioned by CIRCLE MULTIMEDIA LTD. All literary works coming to, or generated by, the directors will be assessed by the in-house development executive. A synopsis will be generated, along with a critical appraisal of its dramatic qualities and multimedia potential. These reports will be discussed at minuted board meetings, each month, where it will be decided whether the company consider it to have profit potential. Successful projects are further scrutinized to assess the level of investment required to cover the development costs, of all media. Each exploitation being individually developed in staggered progression. A development budget is then compiled and an assessment of sources of possible production funding. Only when this has been achieved can the directors decide if and when it is able to move the project into development. Once budget resources have been allocated, the project enters development Above-line personnel will be sought and attached by the agreement of major terms. Contracts, which follow later, will all be in the name of the dedicated company that will be set up for each individual project. This company will usually be titled after the specific literary work. Circle Multimedia will transfer the rights to this company in return for a fee and a Executive Producer credit. Legal counsel will be sought to establish the most expedient device for this transfer. Maybe it will be more advantageous to split the rights, to sell, assign, license or rent. Each project will be assessed on its own specifics.

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Financial Strategy The fee charged must contain an element to cover the various developmental costs incurred which will include option payments, negotiations, admin and travel, hospitality, research, scripting, initial print costs, accountancy, legal work, financial loss of interest in using funds required to develop the work. Added to this it must contain an element to cover man hours. There is an implicit need to maintain accurate records of monies spent per project, in a manner that allows for ease of extraction. As the company grows, it will be easier to set-up better mechanisms to achieve this result than those operating in our current system. Finally, the third element must show a good profit margin for the company’s shareholders. This profit element will be retained in the first few years when the company is in the early stages of growth. However, loans to the company will be paid out in full in the first position. It is a preference of the company to hire consultants rather than to employ personnel to reduce its costs on salaries/tax. However, directors recognize that in the long-term this may not be possible. The company does not have any short-term aims to open expensive premises. Production offices will obviously be the domain of the dedicated company in each case for individual projects. The directors have agreed to the retention of salaries over the first five years of business in order to avoid the need to borrow monies. It is their intention to continue the same policy until the next film begins shooting in June. Financial forecasts show that in addition, there will arise the need for gap financing to cover the three month period immediately prior to the drawdown of production budget, ie the project’s assignment to the dedicated production company. This need was identified in 2003, and discussed with the bank. Highlighted when the company suffered a breech of contract by a co-producer. Resultant losses to the company finances were in the region of £250,000 at that time, and has increase significantly. Added to this figure has been a number of legal costs incurred in the preparation of the case which at the end of the day will probably be settled out of court as at least a major part is considered by several lawyers to be a summary judgement issue. [breeched contract drawn by Davenport Lyons, subsequent case prepared by Harbottle & Lewis]

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Alchymist’s Cat Development Budget [Feb – Jun 2005] Rights: Option payments Scripting:

A.CAT

-

Shooting script

5,000

Print costs:

750

Director’s Prep Budapest:

500

Legal work: Admin: Travel: Local

Total

5,000 Overheads Staff [deferred]

500

Airfares/accom

500

Insurances:

100

Financial costs: Yr 1 x 0.25 @ APR= 14.9%

500

…………………………………..

£ 12,850

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Individual Project Development Budget

Rights: Option payments

Scripting:

1 2 3

2,500 2,500 2,000

Treatment Screenplay for feature Screenplay for TV Scripting for e-game

3,000 15,000 12,000 20,000

Research:

15,000

Hospitality:

5,000

Print costs:

10,000

Accountancy:

3,000

Legal work:

5,000

Admin:

Overheads Staff Consultants

5,000 22,000 5,000

Travel: Local Airfares/accom

5,000 5,000

Insurances:

1,000

Financial costs: Yr 1 @ APR= 14.9% Yr 2 Yr 3

Total

…………………………………..

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

21,300 24,500 28,200

£ 216.000

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Circle Multimedia Ltd Cashflow Forecast

Explanatory Notes Salaries No expenditure in the first two quarters as the directors have elected for their salaries to be retained by the company, until such time as income can be realised to cover this requirement. The scheduled filming of Alchymist’s Cat, around June, will realise income and hence Director’salaries will start @ £50k each. The recruitment of staff will be delayed until the next financial year. Fringes Shows the employers obligation under employment conditions Rent/Rates An allowance is shown for the continuing use of office accommodation in Selsey and in Maidenhead. This rental payment will continue to be deferred, covered by the directors out of private funds, to be reimbursed at the company’s earliest opportunity. Such accommodation will continue to suffice the company for this year. However, following the movement of Alchymist’s Cat into post-production, it is anticipated that the volume of workflow, generally within the company, will be too large to manage within this space. Already stressed to the limit, the directors can delay the setting up of an external office until the last quarter, because a temporary solution will be provided within the film budget and by skilled use of consultants / service providers. In the final quarter, accommodation allowance provides for modest studio space based on quotes taken from Bray. Script Writing The Alchymist’s Cat script will need to be developed into a shooting script during the second quarter. Out of necessity, the directors will negotiate a deferral with the writer to be settled at first day of shooting. Numerous projects are being developed simultaneously. Following completion of the first production, that project furthest advanced will be scripted and a treatment written for the next production in line. Research An allowance of £12k is an estimated allowance to advance from treatment in readiness for scripting. Work will begin in the third quarter and extend to the year end Having identified a director already, whose availability begins 1st July and has expressed a possible wish to write, too. Rights/Option Fee Two small allowances £5k and £2k have been included to provide for long-term rights pickups. Legal Fees / Retainers Lawyers will require a £10k retainer to move Alchymist’s Cat into Pre-production and to open a dedicated production company. This will have to be paid across in the second quarter. The full cost of this work will, however, be paid out of the film budget directly through the dedicated company. In the fourth quarter, a retainer will be required for lawyers to activate the WITB case. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Accountancy/ Bank Charges This will naturally fall due the second quarter. In addition several previous payments have been suspended due to lack of cash-flow resources and the directors would wish to clear this outstanding debt and an additional amount to recompense the many years of generous support received from BAT. Bank charges will be due on overdraft facilities that will be required as a bridging loan estimated to be in the region of £10k Travel / Accomodation The cost of both directors attending a meeting in Central London is £100/day and will incur costs of £100 for stopovers. Out of financial necessity, meetings are held in the capital only once per week. During the first quarter, allowance has been made for both directors to visit Budapest to view the studio facilities and negotiate the co-prod arrangement. It is estimated that one trip will be required to Hungary in the second quarter as the Film director will need to recce in Budapest for a week’s prep and possibly a further trip to Europe to secure investment in the production budget which the company directors will defer claiming these travel / accommodation costs until the accounts can support such payment. In the third and final quarters, it is likely that a trip to Canada and one to Cannes will have to be made in order to ratify co-production agreements, writers and potential broadcast deals. Comms/Phones/Internet Allowances have been based on current consumption rates ie £30 internet charges per month and phone charges for two land lines and mobiles. In the third quarter these charges may decrease as a large volume will be absorbed by the production directly and have not been included here as they will be chargeable on the dedicated company accounts. Postage Owing to the vast majority of work being undertaken via the internet and by direct contact, postal charges are minimal. However, during the second and third quarter, the company will have added expenses due to script circulation. In the final quarter it is predicted to rise due to the increased volumes of work. Printing These costs have been kept to a minimum because of the support of investors. Script printing in the second quarter gives rise to a greatly increased expenditure and third and fourth quarters will require additional amounts to cover company stationery and the settlement of back invoices. Membership/Affilliations Membership fees to Bafta fall due in the third quarter. General costs falling due throughout the year are largely attributable to fees levied by the IMDb which is used as a research tool for up to date industry details. Insurances General public liability cover. Quotations are required to establish other needs such as business interruption and it is recognised that this allowance may need to adjusted upwards.

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Consultants Fees The figure allows for the retention of a line producer, financial and legal consultants. The requirement for consultants is expected to rise mid year due to increasing activity on Afterlife production. Entertainments These costs represent hospitality payments in the pursuit of new business. A new project may take up to four meetings before contracts are finalised. Similarly, the need to present to potential investors has to be met with a degree of hospitality in order to secure a successful conclusion. Not all such sorties will result in a positive ending. It may be necessary to revise this figure upwards but close scrutiny is required also. Expenses Returns This figure represents the repayment of development expenses covered by the directors and their families. The same being recovered by the company on the first day of principal photography out of the production budget. Bank Charges This is the figure incurred by the overdraft interest. Estimated need is £10k over six months. Sundries A contingency admin allowance. Dividend The company will retain some of its profits for development.

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Scheduled corporate promotion at the AFM November 2005 Santa Monica Calif. Jenny Burgess Marketing Report The "Cannes of North America", the AFM is now recognised as the leading event in the world industry for offering a diversity of cultural and corporate opportunities to independent film production companies. 7000 leaders in the motion picture industry including studio executives, film commissioners, independent producers, development executives, agents, financiers, attorneys, directors and writers converge on Santa Monica California for eight days of promotion, deal making and hospitality. Now that the AFM for the first time is merging with the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival this will also incorporate a variety of screenings and star speakers/dinners. Circle Multimedia has been offered a special corporate promotion and hospitalty marquee at the AFM in 2005/06 and every year. We will take advantage of this to co-incide with marketing promotion on our first feature The Alchymist's Cat. Matched funding for costs including flights, hotels and corporate hospitality is available through the AFM sponsopship scheme and the England Media Desk European Media Arts II programme. Registration begins April 2005 and planning is shortly to be undertaken with the British Film Office representative in LA [Susan Finlayson-Sitch]It is indeed shooting in Vancouver. She thinks the reason Screen Gems [the new distributor] opted for BC after Hungary is because Vancouver is just 2hrs from LA and the $ is cheaper and labour costs at 18% for a service production [30% when it is a co-prod with Can content of course] and because the facilities suited the storyline of the sequel which calls for more locations...and the climate is very mild in BC -hot summers and mild winters with snow limited to the Rockies. www.bcfilmcommission.com/news/film_php is a good link

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Appendix 8 The following pages were completed and delivery Registered Post to Hamilton Steele who was representing Circle Multimedia Ltd in court against Coastal Productions Limited winding up petition. Despite this unbalanced situation, the Hamilton Steele representative Jamie Donald, reported that the court had decided that the company should be closed down. Unable to attend the actual hearing, I had telephoned the court to enquire whether I might be able to obtain a transcript. I learned that although that is possible, it would be prohibitively expensive and I could not afford justice at that price. Despite repeated attempts to make contact with Jamie Donald by landline and mobile, I was unable to speak with him. Meanwhile I had sent out to him, the only proof copy of this detailed account. I had registered the postage so I knew the manuscript had been delivered, and I would expect an acknowledgement upon receipt, but still no contact. By this time, I was pretty sure that Hamilton Steele was not impartial in its representation and I made a mental note to watch where the information surfaced. I did not have to wait long. The last week of August on ITV3 was given over to showcasing works of the nominees for the International Author of the Year Award. The five authors nominated included Stieg Larsson [The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo], Jeffery Deaver [The Sleeping Doll], Karin Slaughter [Skin Privilege]. P J Tracy [Snow Blind], and Val McDermid whose work was profiled on ITV by airing nightly episodes of the drama series Wire In The Blood. Interestingly enough, the episodes shown were not actually either created or written by Val McDermid. According to Coastal Productions, this fact was the basis for its claim that all episodes other than 1 – 4 of Series 1 fall outside the terms of the contract signed with the Co-producer. These were followed with a documentary which contained segments of an interview with Robson Green and Sandra Jobling. References made in the documentary by Robson Green, and the manner in which he conveyed the information, suggested to me that he had read the manuscript. Other authors to be showcased by ITV who were interviewed for comment on Val McDermid’s works, included Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, J D James, Lynda LaPlante, and Ruth Rendell. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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COMPANY DETAILS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Circle Multimedia Limited ? Company Registered No 3852063.. Registered Office: Russell Gardens, Ley Street, Ilford IG2 7BY Trading address: as above Contact Phones: 01628 509 501 (landline) or 07810 251 421 (mobile)

A. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 7. 8.

Date of incorporation 1 October 1999 Date of commencement of trading: 1 March 2000 (Literary option contract) 6 April 2001 (Co-production contract); 26 October 2001 (First income) 9. Are the trading premises leasehold/freehold N/A - no trading premises held . 10. Briefly summarise the main causes of the company‟s problems. The severe cashflow problems all stem from a breach of contract by its production partner, Coastal Productions Limited (petitioning creditor). 11. Who provided the initial working capital? the company directors – some has been repaid to Jenny Burgess, no repayments yet made to Janet Ives 12. Who provided subsequent working capital? company directors – partly repaid

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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B. REASONS FOR FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY Circle Multimedia Ltd (CMM) holds a formal option contract (1 March 2000) over literary works (The Wire In The Blood, The Mermaids Singing, et al) of crime fiction writer Val McDermid for exploitation as a film or TV series. Contracts were professionally authored, by Davenport Lyons (DL), to ratify agreements reached with Coastal Productions Ltd (CPL) - to produce together an unknown number of TV series based on those works. All contracts have been breached and the bulk of revenues withheld from CMM by CPL. On 4 August 2007 Particulars of Claim (prepared by Harbottle & Lewis) was served: CPL (defendant 1) and DL (defendant 2) – at hearing 17 January 2008 CPL applied for court to fix a security bond. Held: Bond fixed @ £250,000 (equivalent amount to first count in claim against CPL). The court awarded the defendants costs, too. Finance was quickly sourced to cover the sum (Costs and Security) and notice sent to Harbottle & Lewis but before the transactions could be completed, Janet Ives‟ 84y old father suffered a heart attack and was admitted to hospital– the family was mounting round-the-clock vigil at his bedside whilst mother who has severe Alzheimer‟s had also to be cared for. It was just physically impossible to meet the deadline set by the court. Harbottle & Lewis had informed CPL and DL of the grave situation facing the director and confirmed that the costs were to be met once the crisis was resolved. Before it was possible to comply, ie whilst still at the hospital bedside and unable to attend to company business, CPL responded by applying to have Circle Multimedia Limited wound up. The company has been managed to the best of its directors‟ abilities, under very difficult circumstance. This is evidenced by the fact that it does not have a string of debts created by a reckless management. Its current situation is wholly and totally due to CPL‟s breach of all signed agreements. CMM‟s loss of expected revenue has had a knock on effect to the company‟s business plan and caused several other projects to fail.

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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D. ASSETS YOU MUST INCLUDE FULL DETAILS OF ALL OF THE COMPANY‟S ASSETS REGARDLESS OF VALUE OR WHETHER THE COMPANY WISHES TO RETAIN THEM. Land and Buildings 13. Does the company own freehold premises

YES/NO

If yes go to question 14. If no go to question 18. 14. Full address of property (including postcode)

When was it purchased? (Month and year) How much was it bought for?

£

How was the purchase funded? Directors loans/company borrowings/retained profit How much was the original mortgage?

£

How much is the current mortgage?

£

Name, address and account number of the mortgage company

(Provide an up to date statement for the mortgage)

15. Are there any more amounts secured on the premises?

YES/NO

If so, for each lender, state: The amount originally borrowed

£

The amount now outstanding

£

Name, address and account number (Provide an up to date statement for each chargeholder)

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16. How much are the premises currently worth?

£

(If you have had a valuation within the last six months, enclose it with this questionnaire. If you do not, get an estate agent to value it and enclose it with this questionnaire.) 17. Does the company own any other properties?

YES/NO

If yes, answer all questions 14 -16 above for each property on a separate piece of paper. If no, go to question 18. Chattel Assets 18. Does the company own any plant, machinery, fixtures, fittings, furniture and equipment YES/NO If yes, go to question 19. If no, go to question 20.

19. Full description

Book Value (£)

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

Current value (£)

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Motor Vehicles 20. Does the company own any motor vehicles (on finance or not) YES/NO If yes, go to question 21. If no go to question 22.

21. Insert details below for each vehicle the company owns Make

Model

Amount Registration No. Bought for

Current Value

a) b) c)

For each vehicle, complete the following:

Subject to Finance

Name of finance company

Address of finance company

Agreement Amount Number outstanding

a. YES/NO b. YES/NO c. YES/NO (Provide copies of each finance agreement and any correspondence that may have been received)

Stock 22. Does the company have any stock?

YES/NO

If yes, go to question 23. If no go to question 24. 23. Full description

Purchase Value (£)

Disposal value (£)

Book Debts 24. Is the company owed any money for work done?

YES/NO

If yes, go to question 25. If no go to question 28.

25. List full details below for each debtor © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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Name of debtor

Coastal Productions Ltd Coastal Productions Ltd Coastal Productions Ltd Coastal Productions Ltd

Invoice number Amount due Amount of any Per invoice dispute WITB 0001 WITB 0001 WITB 0002 WITB 0002

£250,000 50% Profit (S1) 2% (series 2) 50% Profit (S2)

>£250,000 >£100,000 >£100,000 >£500,000

The option agreement [1 March 2000] underpinning the TV production of 7 series of Wire In The Blood entitles CMM to 50% profit share and 2% fee based on the total production budget. The total owed CMM for Series (3 -7) @ 2% production budget The total owed CMM for Series (3-7) @ 50% profit share

= > £ 500,000 = > £2,500,000

Business interruption caused by breach of agreement. Losses inc.

= >£ 300,000

Plus interest for period of non payment at standard market rates ~5%

= >£ 200,000 ----------------------------Total = >£ 4,450,000

26. Are debts factored?

YES/NO

If yes, go to question 27. If no go to question 28 27. List full details below for each debtor Amount of invoices they are pursuing

£

Amount the are owed

£

Work in Progress 28. Does the company have any work in progress

YES/NO

If yes, go to question 29. If no go to question 30.

29. Total value of work completed to date presuming contract completed £ 500,000+ Value of goods if no further work carried out

£ NIL

Bank Balance 30. What is the current balance (overdrawn or in credit on each of the company‟s bank accounts? Bank

Account No © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

Balance 35

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No bank accounts held by company

Does any bank have security or a personal guarantee?

YES/NO

If so, enclose a copy of the original charge or guarantee documentation and any correspondence. 31. Does the company you have any other assets or items of value?

YES/NO

If yes, go to question 32. If no go to Section E.

32. Full description

Book Value (£)

50% Screenplay “Alchymist‟s Cat” Adapted from novel by Robin Jarvis written by Richard Carpenter [Co-production partner Festival Film and Television] 30% Screenplay “Deckies” [Co-production partner Spice Factory]

Current value (£)

£15,000

?

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

nil

?

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E. LIABILITIES/CREDITORS The company‟s creditors are people who the company owes money to. This includes credit cards, overdrawn bank accounts, landlord, loans, mortgages and bills for goods and services that have not been paid. It makes no difference to whom the money is owed, be it a bank, financial institution, landlord, HM Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue or trade creditors. Associated creditors include directors or shareholders or other companies who have common directors or shareholders. 33. If there are associated creditors, please complete the following Name Janet Ives

Address SL6 6PE

Relationship

Amount owed

Director

34. Has the company sold, at less than market value, or gifted any of its assets to anyone in the last 5 years? Not to my knowledge If yes, go to question 35. If no, go to question 36. 35. For each sale/gift complete the following, where the value of assets is the market value less the amount of money, if any, actually received. Name

Date of Sale

Relationship

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

Value of assets

37

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Inland Revenue Debt 36. Detail below the amount owed to the Inland Revenue for each type of debt and period PAYE in the last twelve months

£ NIL

National Insurance Contributions in the last twelve months

£ NIL

PAYE over twelve months old

£ NIL

National Insurance Contributions over 12 months old

£ NIL

Corporation Tax in any period

£ NIL

Interest and penalties in any period

£ NIL

Any other taxes (please specify)

£ NIL ________ £_ NIL__

TOTAL DEBT

H M Customs & Excise Debt 37. Detail below the amount owed to HM Customs & Excise for each type if debt and period VAT in the last six months

£ NIL

VAT over six months old

£ NIL

Interest and penalties in any period

£ NIL

Any other HMCE debt (please specify)

£ NIL ________ £_ NIL__

TOTAL DEBT

Company debts in excess of £37,000 have been settled since 1 April 2007 arranged by Janet Ives from private loans and donations. All VAT was paid on those settled invoices but it has not been declared on quarterly return ~ £5,000 or more could be reclaimed from Customs & Excise.

38. Has the company paid any of its creditors more, in proportion, than other creditors in the last 5 years? YES/NO If yes, go to question 39. If no go to question 40.

39. For each payment, complete the following: Name

Date of Payment

Amount Reason for higher payment

Janet Ives has not been repaid any of her outstanding Directors Loan but all other outstanding debts have been settled. Carole Burgess appears to have been overpaid. © All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

Despite requests, records have never been handed over by the previous management and all requests to company accountants, said to be preparing figures for filing to IR, failed to deliver any data. Invoice values requested many times, were finally detailed (in very rough form) but only after an entire year had elapsed and only after a written complaint had been sent to the governing body Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales regarding Brebners non-compliant attitude. Brebners was dismissed as company accountants and forbidden to clear CMM cheques. This instruction was totally disregarded and mail was still intercepted and withheld from the company directors. Despite paying for a mail redirection service, changing the registered office address with Companies House and informing CPL of our new address, it continued to issue statements to the old address. CPL reported that the last statement value had been invoiced for on Brebners own letterhead. The company never saw the statement or the possible cheque. At this point in time, the only person empowered to transact company cheques was Janet Ives. During this period, the company lawyers informed CMM that somebody had forged a change the registered office address notice and the Company Secretary wrote to inform Companies House that this did not have the authority of the company board and was not valid. Inland Revenue informed the company that it had been disregarded by its officers. It is not known who was responsible for this malicious act which I believe was designed to divert the CPL statement out of the reach of the board. If so it succeeded. Brebners also represents the second defendant Davenport Lyons.

40. Has the company ever paid interest on any of its debts over and above normal market rates? YES/NO If yes, go to question 41. If no go to question 42. 41. For each payment, complete the following: Name Amount of Debt Amount of Interest (per year 42. Please confirm whether you wish to dispose of any company assets to help pay the creditors. If not, please state reasons why YES/NO Reasons:

43. Company Voluntary Arrangements are normally for a five year period. Do you agree to the company being bound by the arrangement for five years YES/NO If not, state the period you wish the company to be bound for and the reasons. Arrangements should be no less than three years unless creditors are paid in full and no more than five years. 44. Confirm the amount paid to any consultancy or other firm for work they have carried out on your behalf in relation to this arrangement only. Do not include any other services or past arrangements that they have done. £ 1500

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

39

All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

F. OTHER INSOLVENCIES 45. Have any of the directors or shareholders ever been made bankrupt YES/NO If yes, go to question 46. If no go to question 47. 46. Date of bankruptcy order

/

/

Name of Court Court Reference number

of 19

Please supply a copy of your bankruptcy order and any and all correspondence you have received from the Official Receiver or the Trustee in Bankruptcy

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

47. Have any of the directors or shareholders ever been involved with a company that has been placed into liquidation YES/NO If yes, go to question 48. If no go to question 49. 48. Name of company Company number Type of liquidation Name of liquidator Details of outstanding matters

Please enclose all copy documentation and correspondence relating to the liquidation 49.

Have any of the directors or shareholders ever been involved with a company that has entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement? YES/NO

If yes, go to question 50. If no go to question 51.

50. Name of company Company number Date of commencement of CVA Name of supervisor Did the CVA successfully conclude?

YES/NO

If not, provide details of failure

Please enclose all copy documentation and correspondence relating to CVA

G. GUARANTEES 51. Has anyone promised to pay the company‟s debts or who might be liable for those debts? YES/NO

If yes, go to question 52. If no go to question 53.

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

41

All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

52. If anyone has promised to pay the company‟s debts or who might be liable for those debts, complete the following:

Name Davenport Lyons

Address

Relationship

Amount of debt

(2nd Defendant)

53. Detail any other matters which you feel should be brought to our attention This company was awarded a tax certificate covering the period to 31 Mar 2005 Janet Ives was then signed unfit to work [Brain Tumour] so management passed to the sole remaining director Jenny Burgess. The status quo, at that time, was outlined in detail, in the Business Plan 2005 which is included here. On 25 April 2007 Jenny Burgess wrote repeating her wish (expressed in several earlier correspondences) to resign her director position with Circle Multimedia. At an AGM held on 7 June 2007 her resignation was accepted. The company‟s management passed to Janet Ives who, though still unfit to work, postponed her next operation to try to rectify the company‟s financial situation and protect the shareholders equity stake as well as safeguarding the original intent to support charitable undertakings. Thus funds were sourced to settle outstanding invoices. With all debts paid, a final demand was made to Coastal Productions Ltd to remit Circle Multimedia‟s portion of profit specified in the Agreement signed 6 April 2001. Under this contract CPL owes CMM 50% all profits – Wire In The Blood TV Series. On 4 April 2002 Ingenious Media Ltd arranged a sale & leaseback deal on Series 1.. The company reported that it netted a profit of 12.75% of the total production budget £4,050,000. That sum is greater than £500,000. CPL, having claimed a bogus industry precedent as its basis for not paying, it‟s barrister admitted to the court, at the hearing in January 2007 that the company was setting aside this argument. Yet, in spite of its court declaration, CPL still continued to withhold settlement of the debt that exceeds £250,000. This property [Wire in the Blood] continues to yield profits.

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

Barbed Wire In The Blood

This document contains a total of (115,000+ words) and forms a true and accurate record of events surrounding the fall of Circle Multimedia Ltd, the originating producer of Wire In The Blood [ITV series Robson Green], which suffered from the unscrupulous behaviour of one well known individual and a number of internal and external persons related to the company and who owed it a duty of care. All parts of this document can be backed up by documents in my possession: letters correspondence, emails and signed contracts available to view upon request) ANY PERSON WHO FEELS MISREPRESENTED BY THE CONTENT OF THIS DOCUMENT IS ENTITLED TO TAKE LEGAL REDRESS VIA THE COURT TO CHALLENGE ME AND THIS MAY THEN FINALLY AFFORD ME A WELCOME OPPORTUNITY TO A FAIR AND JUST HEARING WHICH HAS HITHERTO BEEN DENIED ME AND THE COMPANY ON FINANCIAL GROUNDS - A SITUATION WHICH HAS BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT PURELY BY THE CRIMINAL ACTIONS OF THE BREACHING PARTY IN AN AMOUNT EXACTLY EQUIVALENT TO THAT OF THE PENALTY SUM FIXED AS THE COURT BOND.PRECISELY A QUARTER MILLION POUNDS STERLING.

ALL STATEMENTS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT CAN BE SUBSTANTIATED WITH HARD EVIDENCE MUCH OF WHICH CONTAINS THE SIGNATURES OF DEFENDANTS AND THE CLAIMANT REPRESENTATIVES.

I swear this to be a true and accurate record of events:

....................................................................................................................................... Dated: 4 June 2008 Janet Ives [Director Intrigue Productions Ltd and Circle Multimedia Ltd] Composed in Microsoft Office WORD 2003 set in 12 pt Times New Roman face and contains 115,000 words on total 310 Pages

© All Rights reserved Janet Ives 2008

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