The Split

‘The Split’ – Logline & Full Pitch

By

Nicola Green

Logline

Britain has a long lineage of outlaw folk heroes, the story of one of them has been hidden. Until now.

‘The Split’ tells the story of three lives unknowingly intertwined over a span of fifty years; Squire ‘Split’ Waterman a sporting hero turned gold thief, sick child Jenny and a grieving daughter, Emma. Determined to uncover her family’s hidden past, Emma discovers a dark secret and a long-hidden legacy that binds the three lives together.

Full Pitch

Inspired by true events, ‘The Split’ tells the story of the dramatic life of an ambitious man, his fame, crimes, love, capture and escape told through the narrative of a niece he barely knew. It is also a story with a backdrop of grief and atonement; of a daughter understanding her mother’s motives only after her death.

Squire ‘Split’ Waterman was a household name in 1960’s London, a champion and hero of the British motorcycle speedway circuit at the height of its popularity, attracting crowds as large as at any of today’s biggest sports arenas. But his fame and ensuing lifestyle led him into a life of crime and a perilous path of descent. He was drawn into London’s gangland underworld and became a party to a number of brazen and highly publicised bullion robberies, culminating in the infamous Clerkenwell bullion heist of 1967.

Between robberies, using the metal working skills he perfected during his motorcycle racing years, he toiled over a furnace, expertly melting down the stolen bullion and forging it into counterfeit gold coins. He smuggled guns from South Africa and became armourer to the infamous Kray twins, Ron and Reggie. Squire was ultimately caught by a police sting operation at Newhaven Docks, with a hoard of guns and gold hidden in compartments welded into the chassis of his car.

Emma Brown, Squire’s niece, was born in the year of his capture and conviction. She grew up hearing occasional fragments of this story from her mother, Squire’s sister, Paula. Emma had always known her mother kept secrets of those years, apparently holding a mixture of shame, that her family had been drawn into such crimes, and fear that the ghosts of Squire’s crime years could be awakened if she spoke of them.

When Paula, elderly and living alone, dies suddenly, a heartbroken Emma is left with the harrowing task of sorting and clearing her mother’s possessions from the council-owned house that she had lived in for fifty years.

The story of ‘The Split’ unfolds as Emma discovers a series of clues to her uncle’s and her mother’s past – old photographs, newspaper cuttings, the neighbour’s anecdotes and, most mysteriously, a series of receipts hidden in the house. As Emma sorts her mother’s long-forgotten keepsakes, her curiosity grows with each clue she finds. Finally, a chance to uncover the hidden secrets of her family’s past.

Alternating between the past and the present, each clue that Emma finds – an old photograph, a newspaper cutting, a triggered memory – takes us back to the 1960s and the unfolding of Squire’s incredible story of passion and success, followed by decline, desperation, downfall and finally resurrection.

In the early 1960s, Squire was riding high. He was also riding fast. Very fast. Fast enough to have taken him to the very top of international motorcycle speedway. When he rode at events in stadiums in London, crowds of up to 100,000 adoring fans would attend. His feats on the track, combined with his dashing good looks and rumours of his consorting with London’s most notorious underworld characters had gained him a reputation as a ‘gentleman gangster’. This was an intoxicating mix of characteristics for many fans. Most adoring of them all was Avril Preston. A refined young lady from a wealthy family from the home counties, Avril did not belong in this world – speedway was the sport of the working classes. But to her, Squire was Errol Flynn; a handsome rogue; a rebel made good; her Romeo. Unknown to him, she had followed his ascent to the top of his sport. She was smitten, intoxicated, determined to make him her own.

Avril ultimately captures her man on the dance floor of Soho’s most celebrated nightclub. Love falls quickly for them and Avril becomes Squire’s constant companion – trackside at all his races, celebrating all his successes. For a while they lived a life of pace, passion, style and fashion, a power couple among London’s socialites. Such a charmed life couldn’t possibly last long. A downfall was bound to strike sooner or later. It chose sooner.

As Emma uncovers these stories of her celebrated uncle, she starts to understand a little more of her family’s past and the motives of her secretive mother. Meanwhile, over the days Emma spends in Paula’s old house, sorting and clearing, she encounters the neighbourhood and the neighbours that her mother had lived amongst. Through them, she becomes aware that, although Squire had been absent from her and her mother’s lives for decades, a legacy of his crime was still alive in the present day. An indiscretion, as told by Paula’s nosy neighbour – cantankerous, chain-smoking Margaret – hints that the lifelong suffering of nearby neighbour Carol was rooted in the misdeeds of Emma’s now notorious uncle. Even worse, Carol’s life has recently gone from bad to worse as her precious young daughter, Jenny, is seriously ill and Carol is struggling to cover the cost of her treatment.

The first stage in Squire’s downfall comes with a crash, in front of Avril and 40,000 horrified speedway fans. A tense exchange between Avril and doctors in the hospital emergency ward results in Squire avoiding a leg amputation, but the injury is so severe it ends his speedway career.

Squire finds himself broken and desperate to rebuild his life, increasingly fearful of losing ‘his love’ to eager suitors who hover around her. Reluctantly, he accepts an offer of lucrative work from local organised crime identity, Connor Reed.

Reed is a brutal and powerful gangster with strong connections throughout the underworld and a loyal band of criminal staff. He recruits Squire for his ability to work with metal; skills gained from war years as a mechanic in the RAF and from scrupulously maintaining every part of his racing motorbikes. Specifically, Reed’s task for Squire was to turn the spoils of a series of high-profile gold bullion robberies into more saleable counterfeit gold Sovereigns and Krugerrands.

Recognising Squire’s task-oriented reliability and ability to stay calm under pressure, Reed draws Squire further into his gang and even assigns him a mission to meet a criminal connection in South Africa. Squire brings back a cache of weapons and two Krugerrand forging dies.

While local police, led by Detective Inspector Kelly, are not even close to identifying the perpetrators of the recent spate of gold robberies, Kelly has become aware that Squire is now consorting with Reed’s gang.

Contrary to the advice of close confidants, Squire reluctantly takes a more central role in the gang’s crimes, culminating in ‘the big one’, the Clerkenwell bullion robbery.

Squire assures Avril that this will be the last job he’ll do with Reed. After this, and with his share of the spoils, he promises they will leave England permanently for a quiet life in Spain. What is left unsaid is that as Squire has been working with Reed’s stolen gold, he has been secretly squirreling away a fraction of it, unbeknown to anyone.

The Clerkenwell job, for the whole gang, was expected to be their crowning achievement, but it goes badly wrong. Against Squire’s efforts to stop him, Reed shoots a security guard. The gang flees the scene, in vehicles and on foot. A roadside witness recognises Squire in a vehicle speeding from the scene of the heist. This is the clue; the connection Kelly has been seeking. He dispatches his team of constables, ordering them to round up all the known members of Reed’s gang, including one Squire ‘Split’ Waterman.

Emma’s intrigue increases. So much of her mother’s life seems to have been hidden from her. Emma discovers that her mother had been regularly visiting an elderly, charismatic East End jeweller, Reuben, for years. Emma has no idea why and when she visits his shop, Reuben is guarded and unforthcoming.

Emma discovers her near neighbour Carol Barber is the daughter of the security guard shot during the Clerkenwell robbery. This is what nosy neighbour Margaret had meant when she teased that Emma should know very well already about the hardship that Carol had suffered all her life. Emma is horrified. The thought that her own uncle had a role in devastating Carol’s family; that she had to grow up in a tough neighbourhood without a father.

Fleeing the bungled robbery, Squire knows he has to make a break straight away. He collects Avril and they hastily prepare to leave the country. They collect the car Squire has recently restored, knowing it has no known links to the robbery or the gang.

Reed, realising that Squire has cut and run, is suspicious. Returning to his gangland lock-up he starts to weigh his cache of gold bullion and the coins that Squire has forged. He checks his accounts – how much came in, how much has already been sold on. Reed’s suspicion is confirmed, “That bastard’s been skimming me”. He races to Squire’s home, site of a police raid earlier in the day. He enters easily through the broken front door and lies in wait.

A violent fight erupts between Reed and Squire. Squire prevails and he and Avril set off for the coast to catch a ferry to France. Reed is arrested and gives the police evidence on Squire.

Squire and Avril arrive at the port after nightfall. As they sit in the car, queueing for the ferry, DI Kelly steps out of the darkness. They are caught. On searching the car, the police find two guns and dozens of gold Krugerrands hidden in metal compartments welded to the chassis of the car.

Squire is tried and convicted for his part in the robberies. He serves four years. Reed is sentenced to 25 years for his part and for the shooting of the security guard.

But the story does not end here.

Squire and Avril are married in a service in the prison chapel and she is waiting at the prison gate on the day of his release. Within a week they had packed again and set off for the continent.

DI Kelly however, is not done yet with this case either. Aware that all the stolen gold had not been recovered, and having interviewed Reed a number of times, he is convinced that Squire still has his split of the bounty hidden away somewhere. Hearing of Squire’s release Kelly pursues him and Avril to the ferry port, convinced they are loaded up again with stolen gold. He catches up with them at the port but is too late to stop them boarding the ferry. He impounds their car before it too is loaded and instructs his officers to search it, then to start tearing it apart, desperately seeking the gold he is convinced is hidden in it. They find nothing.

Back to present day; as Emma finalises the clearing of her mother’s house, she has removalists there, loading furniture into a truck. Emma is tackling the clearing-out of one last wardrobe remaining in an upstairs bedroom. On a high shelf, she finds a bag that appears to be fixed to the shelf. She pulls and yanks at the handle of the bag until finally it comes away and she falls backwards and the contents of the bag fall all over her: dozens and dozens of counterfeit gold Krugerrands. There is a lovely tension as Emma (in the present day) finds the gold, Kelly and his team (in yesteryear) rip the car apart and find nothing.

After a day of inner turmoil, and consulting with her sister, Emma knows what she must do with Squire’s hoard of loot. She pays a visit to Reuben the jeweller. It all makes sense now; he had been buying the gold coins, one at a time from her mother for years and posting the money off to her brother in Spain. Emma now makes a trade with Reuben. The following morning, before dawn, she rises and walks purposefully from the house, carrying a holdall full of money. She leaves it on the doorstop of Carol’s house, rings the doorbell and leaves. A circle complete, she walks away. The fortune that Squire has hidden away, had burdened his sister with, keeping her trapped in her house for 50 years was now returned to the family that had suffered the most from its theft all those years ago.

link to first 10 pages of THE SPLIT - https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:8414fe79-728d-3db9-9287-34939e47109c