It Could Be You

 
As the drama opens we meet Tony and Lorna Hewitt and their ten year old daughter Tina. The family seems to be going through a bit of a hard time as money worries lead to snappy arguments and a man from a Repossession Agency rings up to demand either £100 or the return of their television and stereo. The Lottery Draw Live then turns up on that very television.

The tension mounts as Tony gradually realises that he has four of the winning numbers. He doesn’t know about the other two as he plays the same four numbers plus two different ones every week. No worries though, the ticket is in his other trousers. A pitiful Tina confesses that she has donated the trousers to a school project on behalf of the charity Oxfam. The family go in search of the lost trousers. The Repo Man is also on their trail.

A visit to the Oxfam shop reveals that the trousers have been sent for dry cleaning. At the dry cleaning shop an unhelpful assistant tells them that they have been cleaned and returned to Oxfam. Back at the Oxfam shop they find a pair of trousers identical to Dad’s. In the pockets they find a Bookmaker’s docket and a lottery ticket with 4 correct numbers. Suddenly Tina realises that these are not her Dad’s trousers and the race is on again to find the right trousers. At this point the assistant tells them that the missing pants have already been sold.

They tear off to the house of the buyer and try to persuade her to sell the trousers. She will only part with them for £100 so Dad’s winnings on the 4 correct numbers are already spent. At last Tina and her Dad are holding the right pair of trousers. They find the lottery ticket in the pocket. Has Dad won the lottery or not?
 

 
Repossession Agency; Repo Man; at random; coincidence; bookmaker’s docket.
 

• Did the children enjoy the story? Yes/no Why?
• Why is this kind of story called a ‘nail-biter’?
• Do the class think the writer was clever in the way he kept us in suspense for twenty minutes?
• Can you spot how the writer kept us on the edge of our seats?

 
First he introduced the characters and made us feel sorry for Dad who has money troubles and is being leaned on by the horrible Repo Man. We also feel sorry for Tina who is being nagged for using the phone too much and has just given away her Dad’s trousers complete with possible million pound prize.

We have to care what happens to the characters to be interested in what happens to them.

Once the characters are established and the ‘situation’ of the lost lottery ticket is set up then the chase begins.

Does the class think that the story is like a bad dream when you’re searching for something, which is always somewhere else?

Talk through the sequence of events with the children. Can they remember what happened next?

The tension rises as Dad and Tina arrive at the Oxfam shop. They bang on the door and then frantically search through dozens of pairs of trousers. There is a big anticlimax when they fail to find Dad’s trousers. The tension starts to mount again when the assistant tells them the trousers have been sent to the dry cleaner. They rush off there to find that the trousers have in the mean time been cleaned and returned to Oxfam.

They return to the Oxfam shop and search frantically once more and there’s a climax when they think they’ve found the right trousers and the lottery ticket but anticlimax there are only 4 correct numbers. This seems like a dead end.

But then, the assistant remembers who bought the trousers. Another chase to the woman’s house. A further obstacle is encountered when she refuses to sell the trousers. She finally agrees to part with them for £100.

Dad and Tina find the lottery ticket in the pocket.

The writer keeps us in suspense for one final scene until it finally dawns on us that Dad has indeed won the lottery and the Repo Man is now working for him as his body-guard.
 

 
It might be useful for the children to discuss this first in small groups before starting to write.

Invent one more twist for the story before the happy conclusion.

Here are a few possible scenarios;

The woman’s husband was wearing the trousers and had gone off to do something like hang-gliding.

Remember the lottery ticket could always end up out of the trouser pocket at this point in the story and they could end up chasing a piece of paper in an unlikely setting.

Do the class think they would have enjoyed the story so much if Dad hadn’t won the lottery in the end. Writers play with our emotions. If you lead your audience through all those ups and downs is it important to give them the pay- off or feel-good factor at the end?

Talk about soap operas on television. The writers have to continue story lines for weeks and weeks on different characters and make sure there are lots of ups and downs. How do the soap-writers make sure we turn on for the next episode?

(Pupil Pages need to be suitable to print out and be used as worksheets in the classroom or used by pupils on screen where they can key in their own text and print out their work)
 

 
ENGLISH/LITERACY

Talking and Listening

Pupils should have opportunities for:

• listening and responding to live media presentations for a specific purpose and discussing these with the teacher.
• listening and responding to a range of fiction, including drama for example, discuss the behaviour and attitudes of a character in a story.

Writing

Writing will arise from a variety of experience and contexts, including: for example, drama, radio

Pupils should have opportunities to:

• Write in different forms and to develop control of the different conventions demanded by these forms.
• Their writing should include; stories creative and imaginative writing dialogues.

 
WORKSHEETS

 
Click on the arrow below to download the worksheet for this programme.