The Story

30 years ago Milton Morris sold his soul to the Tar Men. He had no choice, the road will run here, they said, there was no other option and here’s some cash to make it easier. Lots of cash. And then they came, the cars and lorries, a trickle at first, then gushing, until now, 6 lanes of non stop roaring, spewing traffic every day and all night. Right outside the front door of Whisper Cottage, built 1885.

It’s enough to drive you mad. And it has. Milton is obsessed with counting cars… and lorries… and vans… and motorcycles. He counts them all and marks them in his notebooks, hundreds of them, years of work. Because if he doesn’t, the Tar Men will come. They took away his mother, they took away his father, they took away his grandpa, they even took away his dog and one day, they said, they’ll take him away too!

But then there’s Merry, Dream Girl Merry, the post lady. Milton fell in love with her the moment he saw her, helping her mother deliver the mail, so many years ago. Their eyes met from behind their respective mother’s skirts, the moment burned into his consciousness - and hers. But in 30 years they’ve never spoken. Two people very much in love, too frightened to speak to one another.

Then one day the traffic stops. Not a car in sight. The motorway is deserted. A deafening silence. Not a whisper in Whisper Cottage. This is the best, and the worst, that could happen to Milton. He’s devastated. His life collapses and he feels somehow responsible for the world disappearing. Milton hated the traffic but knows he can’t live without it. Then his worst fears come true, the Tar Men come back to claim him but Milton only just escapes.

The following morning Milton sits, alone and desperate, on the deserted motorway. When, out of the distant heat haze, something approaches. It’s Merry, in the fast lane of the empty motorway, on a squeaky bicycle. And she has a package for him. Milton opens the package to reveal a collection of old car keys. Who they’ve come from and why they’ve been sent, Milton doesn’t know.

Milton & Merry, together after all these years, work to unlock his life. She has a plan; if Milton cures himself of his obsessions the traffic will surely return. What a dilemma; an obsessive-compulsive, obsessed with counting cars he hates, has to cure himself so the cars he hates can return and he can continue with his life!

Perhaps this might work? But just when it looks as if they’re winning, the Tar Men strike again, Merry disappears and Milton is left alone again and homeless.

It’s now down to him and a collection of old car keys. Only he can rescue Merry and save her from tarry oblivion. Only he can defeat the Tar Men and get the traffic back. And only Milton Morris can unlock the mind of Milton Morris.

© 2012 Amulet Films Limited.