Other Work

Okay, so I hear prequels are in fashion at the moment and, if they’re good enough for George Lucas, then they’re good enough for me.

Seeing as Obsession has been selling well I started scribbling down a few ideas for a sequel.  But once a few ideas had come together, I figured I needed to do a bit more back story for the reader to understand.

So, Three Little Boys is a return to the wonderful world of Doug Morrell, albeit when he was a teenager and his school years.

Expect the true sequel to Obsession to follow Three Little Boys.

I sometimes get the impression most writers are fascinated with the idea of serial killers, or is it just the fact that mass murderers are a bankable commodity?

Either way, I thought I’d give it a go.  Seeing as most serial killers seem to be depicted as mask-wearing, machete-wielding (possibly undead) maniacs, I thought I’d go for a different approach.

I guess one of my inspirations for Dark Halves would be American Psycho by Brett Eastern Ellis.  I loved the way Patrick Bateman was largely regarded as just another normal guy (normal guy in his rich American yuppie social circles at least) and no one suspected him.

Dark Halves is about two serial killers, a man and a woman, who are basically the people next door.  I often look at the person sitting opposite me on a train and wonder who and what they really are behind their air of alleged normalness.  However, even though these two are embarking on a meticulously planned murderous rampage, they only dispatch selected targets.

For a while it seems like they might just get away with everything and even live happily ever after, was it not for an annoying detective who literally moves in next door to one of them and takes an unhealthy interest in their activities.

Originally called "Diary of the Dead" (damn you George Romero!  We had that title first!), this is another TV show me and Andrew came up with: one series of six half hour comedy documentaries (or should that be “mockumentaries?”) about the trials and tribulations of every day monsters and beasties living and working in modern Britain.

Here's what we had to say about it...

Imagine what it would be like if the horror stories that entertained us suddenly became common-place in Middle-England.  How would we, as an educated civilised country deal with serial killers rising from the grave (yet again!), or a town infested by zombies?  We would of course send in a documentary film crew wouldn’t we?

Blending social commentary with some conventional horror themes (The Exorcist, Friday 13th, Dawn of the Dead), “Diary of the Dead” is a collection of six half hour black-comedy/documentaries featuring “what actually happened” when Britain came under the grip of supernatural phenomenons.

Come with us as we find out how low vampires stoop when completely hooked on blood, or spend an evening with a loveable old medium who becomes somewhat of a celebrity after finding she can communicate with the dead via text messages on her mobile phone.  Plus follow an ambitious MP as he flies in to a quarantined town with the promise of giving the town’s fifty per cent zombie population the vote.