In 2014 I was commissioned to improve the production quality of ‘This is Our Street’, a film and illustrated comic series explaining changes to the way in which local health and social care services were being provided.

With a strong brief from the client, the approach was straightforward enough. I simply applied the same principals learned from my many years’ experience writing screenplays and made sure to create memorable characters with a problem to solve.

The first care service my client wanted to explain to local people was ‘Care closer to home’, through the character of “Doris”, a woman in her 80s whose health is deteriorating.

My draft script/story told the story of how Doris came to need an ambulance call-out, and introduced two other Our Street families.

Our Street – Episode 1 – Prologue

This accompanying document explains the motivation behind each story decision.

Anatomomy of a scene – Our Street – Episode 1 – Prologue

Developing Our Street

The ‘Our Street’ campaign continued for a number of episodes, introducing new characters with different health and social care-related issues, backed up by a website combining the comic strips and videos with more detailed explanations of the changes happening to local services.