Painkiller Paul

PAUL lives in a dead-end small town in Britain. He was once a promising gymnast, but is now crippled and addicted to painkillers after a terrible car accident that killed his best friend, JOHNNO. He's haunted by guilt over what happened - and by visions of Johnno's decaying corpse, which keeps popping up to taunt him, refusing to let him move on. When Paul takes his pills he receives a precious respite from the unforgiving world, sinking into a glorious temporary coma. He doesn't have to think about the loss of his career, or the fact that he now needs a crutch to get around, or that he has no skills and lives in the middle of nowhere - in the god-awful 90s, no less. But most importantly, he doesn't have to think about Johnno and the night of the accident, about how Johnno tried to kiss him... Paul's girlfriend CHARLOTTE is desperate for Paul to get clean. She used to go out with the town's golden boy and now she's dating someone who can't get it up and has no interest in going outside. She's looked after him all this time because she loves him, but it's painfully apparent to everyone else that Paul doesn't love her back. Meanwhile Paul is getting his meds from a Polish drug dealor called LUKAS. Although fueling his addiction, Lukas sees in Paul a fellow tortured soul, and thinks he might know something that Paul hasn't quite come to terms with about himself... the key to his inability to move on. 'PAINKILLER PAUL' is a dark comedy-drama about letting go of the past and taking charge of the future, inspired by the so-called wonder drug revolution of the 90s, which resulted in so much chronic opioid abuse. PS a couple of minor formatting issues with the script, apologies if there are one or two double ups!