SYNOPSIS:

Philip Fenton is a young mute man who struggles to communicate verbally unless it’s sung, rapped, or accompanying background music. We are introduced to him as he flees his parents’ house for the woods after his father beats up and threatens his mother because the father lost his job. While hiding in the woods, child protection services captures Fenton to send him back home only to then witness his parents dead during a brutal domestic violence dispute. Soon, his childhood and adolescence collapses into chaos as he’s then sent to a Catholic orphanage run by abusive nuns and a comprehensive school full of bullies that mock and beat Fenton because of his speech impediment. At around age sixteen, his life becomes so unbearable that he attempts to kill the bullies and nuns by slitting their throats mercilessly. His actions cost him his freedom and sanity and soon goes to prison for several years. At the time, he would witness sexual assault, guardsman/warden brutality, and manipulation. On parole after doing five plus years imprisonment, he’s forced to engage in community work for the council cleaning up suburban bins daily but yet is forced to homelessness at the same time. With the intense poverty and excessive police presence that threatens Fenton’s vagrant life, he misses one day from the workfare he needs to do and is kicked out. Soon, the lack of opportunities and oppressive climate he’s surrounded by hits him hard to the point he sings about his predicament and jumps off a bridge. Eventually, someone rescues him out-of-nowhere, a struggling artist-and-repertoire agent named Harvey Gordy-Epstein (a reference to Berry Gordy- head of Motown Records, and Brian Epstein- Beatles manager) in hopes he can boost his career dealing with intriguing talent rather than wannabe Stormzys and Slowthais. Gordy-Epstein sends him to hospital and lets him stay at his flat/apartment for the time being to study and exploit his true potential as something of a “shock jock.” What Gordy-Epstein doesn’t know is that Fenton finds his apartment worth full of microphones, synthesisers, drum machines, and old records will help the tormented young man find hope again making music and not be punished for it by an orphanage, bullies, or impeded by abusive, violent parents. Eventually, Gordy-Epstein takes him along a journey where Fenton can thrive upon his craft singing, rapping, and scatting at the most random moments; often than not, exploiting situations that display Great Britain in a decaying, unstable state. Whether it be Falklands War veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, ASBOs/chavs, the Met Police, and wannabe suicide bombers from Grimsby and Scunthorpe desperate for a reality television programme on Channel 4, Fenton raps about the subjects’ ridiculous nature and their rantings by being more ridiculous than them. Often than not, this helps garner viewership and notoriety for both Fenton and Gordy-Epstein equally. With news items circulating about Fenton, infamous for attempting suicide (“Suicide Boy”) and still alive, teaching others not to be weak and wake up and smell the coffee, the two see success unfathomable to them weeks ago. Fenton’s success and willingness to exploit a situation (even to the point police give him honorary privileges to patrol London) leads Fenton eventually to encounter other famous names in the music industry to work alongside to see his potential. Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn of the Sleaford Mods, Kate Tempest, Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal, Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays and Black Grape, Snoop Dogg, and even a Police Constable who was saved during a terror attack by Fenton himself, whether they want to appear as cast members, cameos, or the team can get impersonators that look and sound like those musicians and rappers, all want a slice of Fenton’s pie as they travel across Britain and Europe rapping and singing about social ills with humour and panache. In the process of Fenton’s successful albeit notorious career singing about exploitation of the working-classes, racism, rape culture, feminism, drug abuse, corporate media, nostalgia, and colonialism, his moral conscience gradually collapses as he becomes increasingly involved in cocaine combined with a frequent and unstable diet consisting of Red Stripe and cannabis. What once was speaking on issues of the day now becomes a playground for him to act like a drug-addled, oftentimes violent and perverted clown onstage and amongst prostitutes, sound mixers, and the press (e.g. BBC, NME, Rolling Stone, Zane Lowe). His demise eventually ends once he tours across Europe, particularly Amsterdam, after he makes an announcement of running for Prime Minister and then getting four men of marginalised backgrounds (e.g. Indigenous Australian, Palestinian, West African, Native American) to kill off white, rich men onstage to make a statement. Amplified by heavy cocaine use and a penchant for violence, Gordy-Epstein and the Police Constable (whom both have a secret love affair), try escorting him out of Europe to avoid criminal charges. However, once they head over to the port city of Dover, they’re eventually discovered. Gordy-Epstein and the P.C. are gunned down and Fenton’s taken into custody then criminally charged and imprisoned for more than ten years on several offences, including the encouragement of terrorist activity and tax evasion. His career eventually dies down as he becomes more civilised and finds solace reading reports and conducting the prison radio station. After years of good behaviour and sobriety, Fenton’s released on parole. He drives a Saab he bought during the height of his fame to tour around his hometown years after his parents died to get in-touch with a more positive view of his childhood. Nostalgia hits him so hard visiting some of the shops, eating the local food near the beach, and buying a CD he owned by lost because the nuns burnt and confiscated his music collection. Eventually, Fenton’s at peace and soon commits suicide driving his Saab off a cliff.