Worth More Dead

Derek Mandrill, a low status English lecturer, realises he is worth more dead than alive and wants nothing more than to impress his long suffering and hard up wife. He has his chequebook stolen on a shopping trip during his summer holiday. He discovers the man who has stolen his chequebook - incidentally Terry’s lookalike – in a bank, cashing a cheque in his name. In the ensuing chase and fracas, the thief is killed (Terry chases him until the man has a fatal seizure on the bonnet of his own car). Terry fakes his own death by switching clothes and personal effects with the dead man and assumes his identity.

He attends his own funeral and is spotted by an ex girlfriend, an enemy of Terry’s wife’s, who becomes his confidante. The police officer in charge of the investigation into Terry’s ‘death’ becomes much too friendly with his grieving wife and gets his feet under the table.

The series would revolve around Terry’s ill-fated attempts to keep up another’s identity, the increasingly obsessive surveillance of his wife and his attempts to contact her about the life assurance and other policies which she knew nothing about. At every point, his efforts are thwarted by the omnipresent and ever suspicious policeman who senses a scam and always forces Terry to flee or withdraw. It would also explore the relationship between Terry and his ex girlfriend who is unhappily married and the security guard who ends up shielding him in a department store from the net that is closing in on him.