Damien Renaldo

Damien Renaldo, ruthless and legally dubious Property Developer, wants to buy up Wolvercote Youth Club and its surroundings and turn it into a luxury hotel complex.

Originally, Damien was a Football Club Manager, and wanted to build a football stadium on top of Wolvercote, but his character changed in the writing process because:

• A Property Developer was more plausible
• Building a football stadium on Wolvercote might be kind of cool

Damien dresses flashy, in trainers and a bright red tracksuit, with plenty of bling to show he's the man with the money.

Mr Baccadi, candidate for Wolvercote (corrupt)

The key to Damien's plan is Mr Baccadi, who has promised to smooth Damien's acquisition of the Youth Centre site if he gets into power.

Mr Baccadi's election message is very simple: "Business opportunities for all!" ... but he really means business opportunities for himself and friends of his, like Damien Renaldo.

Baccadi is a candidate in the upcoming Wolvercote by-election, but with strong opposition from The People's Candidate, he's not sure that his rousing speeches (and a little bribery of the electorate by Damien) will be enough to win him the election.

When it looks like his safe seat is in danger, he conspires with Damien to take drastic action!

The People's Candidate

Working from a makeshift office in the Local Youth Centre, the People's Candidate wants to be a hard-working Councillor who aims to get the best for all of her constituents.

She firmly believes that the underhand methods and bribery that her opponent is suspected of will do him no good, and that the people will vote for the candidate who has their best interests at heart.

And, with the help of Mike the Youth worker and the Young Person who Knows (who are helping to run her election campaign) she's confident of victory.

But little does she suspect what lengths Damien and Mr Baccadi will go to in order to win this by-election!

The Young Person who Knows

Working part-time in a local pub and helping the People's Candidate to organise her election campaign, it's astonishing that this Young Person finds time to fit in volunteering at his local Youth Club!

When he overhears Damien and Mr Baccadi conspiring in the pub where he works, he takes the news straight back to the People's Candidate, but what will she do?

At first, we were going to shoot the "overhearing the conspiracy" scene in the back garden of a local pub, but time ran out and we shot them inside the Youth Club instead, using props that were to hand.

For each scene, the group made up a prop list, but they also took inspiration from what they could find to hand in the Youth Centre.

Mike the Youth Worker

All the young people involved wanted their Youth Worker, Mike, to play a prominent role in the film, and they had lots of exciting ideas about what to do with him. But equally important was fitting him into the story.

By basing the People's Candidate at the Youth Centre and by having him helping with her campaigning, Mike became a serious obstacle to Baccadi's attempts to win the election

He is also in charge of the Youth Centre, the very place Damien Renaldo is keen to tear down and replace with a luxury hotel. When the election begins to go against Mr Baccadi, Damien, as usual, tries to buy support from Mike.

But when Mike turns down Damien's attempts at bribery, things go terribly wrong.

The undercover police officers

Though Damien and Mr Baccadi think they're getting away with subverting the election, they are in fact already under surveillance by police officers who reckon something fishy is going on in the Wolvercote by-election.

Two young police women have gone undercover in the local Youth Centre to gather intelligence about both candidates, but after Damien tries to buy their vote at a campaign meeting for Mr Baccadi, the police are pretty sure who is getting up to no good here.

When things take a turn for the worse, they already know who is likely to be at the bottom of things, and have a pretty good idea about where to start looking.

Props for the police officers included handcuffs, truncheons and helmets.

The Newsreader

He's the first on the scene and he knows what's going on; the newsreader was the character with the most lines, and who communicated the most plot!

He passes on the information that The People's Candidate is likely to win the election, which sparks Damien and Baccadi to act, and later reports their arrest.

He also reports the results of the election on a Television special, although if you look closely you might see that it's not actually him on the television!.

Newsreaders are a great way of getting across a lot of information in a short time, especially for current affairs stories like this one.