BORN KILLER – SHOOTING SCRIPT

S02 – E03: BREAKTHROUGH

FLORA STARLING: ‘I like to think she was trying to help Connor from beyond the grave, because that box must have been sitting in that cupboard for, oh, I don’t know, a decade, maybe more? Then the very day he loses his appeal, I decide to open it. The photo was right near the top, and I knew right away it was him. He was this skinny thing back then and his hair looked different – there was a lot more of it for a start – but I could tell it was him, and it all began to make sense.’

CUT TO: A colour photograph of a young couple in their early twenties, sitting within a triangle of sunlight in a park, their legs entangled. His hair is parted into curtains, and he has an arm flung around her shoulders. She’s wearing a strappy vest top and combat trousers. While she smiles and looks at the camera, his head is turned towards hers. He gazes at her adoringly.

ON-SCREEN TEXT: Holly Starling & John Dalton, 1989

DS JOHN DALTON: ‘Holly Starling? Sure, I knew her. I grew up in the area. I knew lots of people.’

LESLEY POWELL (Connor’s maternal grandmother): ‘They were together for about a year, maybe longer. She was nineteen and he was a little older – this was about the time he joined the police. They were quite the happy couple for a while, but then things went wrong, as they often do. I think he wanted to settle down, get married and have children, but she wasn’t ready for that. She was a free spirit. It was a bad break up and he took it hard, wouldn’t accept that she didn’t want to be with him. I remember he used to come to the house, late at night, park up outside and just sit there, watching. Soon after she met Jake Starling. He was … different. The total opposite to John – I can’t say I thought much of him, but he seemed to make her happy. I think there was some sort of rivalry there, between Jake and John. I think they even came to blows at one point. Jake was a big lad, though. He could take care of himself.’

FLORA STARLING: ‘Holly chose Jake over him. I think that’s why Dalton was always causing trouble, first for Jake, then later on, when Holly and Jake weren’t around no more, for Connor. And when he saw a chance to really mess Connor’s life up, he took it. It was his way of getting even.’

DS JOHN DALTON: ‘Romantically involved? No, I wouldn’t say that. I knew her, and we were … sort of friends, you might say. Maybe we went out on a few dates? To be honest, I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.’