Former Fleet Street Journo Debuts Newspaper Comedy

Although the title of Tony Flood's newsroom comedy script is Hacking It, the movie is not about the recent scandal that shuttered London's scandalous News of the World and, presumably, led Rupert Murdoch to take to Twitter in this new year to try and repair his PR image. Rather, this group of UK journalists gain legitimate access to a deathbed confession, but then make a total mess of the resulting scoop.

The movie premieres on Sunday, January 15th in Eastbourne, along with a short documentary about its making. The cast consists mainly of actors from the Seaford Little Theatre, with proceeds from tomorrow's screening going to the The Friends of the Devonshire Park Theatre.

The director of Hacking It, Alan Baker, was once an actor featured in various London West End shows, while co-cameraman Harry Lederman is also Chairman of the above-referenced Devonshire organization. Flood meanwhile was recently a controller at BSkyB and now runs a book publishing company. On his LinkedIn page, here's how he describes his sideline creative efforts:

I am now the author of two books and a scriptwriter. The first book is The Secret Potion, a fantasy adventure story which has been recommended by actress June Whitfield and fellow authors as an ideal follow up to Harry Potter. The second book, My Life with the Stars--Best, Ali and Keys in Panties, is being published shortly and is packed with revelations and anecdotes about stars I have interviewed including Muhammad Ali, George Best, Bobby Charlton, Kenny Dalglish, Frankie Howerd, Petula Clark, Patsy Kensit, Britt Ekland and Erin Boag, who invited me to put my hand on her bare thigh!

Flood envisioned Hacking It as a sitcom pilot, with the intention of submitting it for consideration to both the BBC and Channel 4.