Another Case of Heart Trouble: Transcription
EXT. Street - Night
Subtitle - 'Somewhere in the bakery district'
A dark street lit by a single street lamp. Ossie is walking home late at night - a little nervous. There is a squeaking sound. An old lady is wheeling a tartan shopping trolley with a squeaky wheel and knitting needles sticking out of it. She is eating a cream pie.
Ossie has smelled something nice and wanders down an alley to investigate. He finds a bakery and goes inside.
INT. Bakery - Night
Production of a variety of breads and cakes is in full swing.
A young man is driving a forklift truck, transporting a tray full of cream pies from the oven to a cooling shelf. Suddenly he collapses at the controls. His head hits a button and the forklift speeds up. It is heading straight for Ossie.
Back against the wall, he braces for the inevitable collision and screams.
FREEZE
The forklift stops in its tracks - the perfectly baked cream pies motionless on their tray.
Ossie too is frozen - his mouth mid-scream. Only his eyes are moving.
A voice speaks out.
VOICE
I know what you are thinking, kid. What happened here?
Ossie moves his eyes around but can't see anyone talking.
VOICE (CONT'D)
A fit, healthy young man. Why would he just collapse like that? Well, maybe we can find out.
Ossie has no idea what is going on. Suddenly a second Ossie, like a spirit or ghost, peels off from Ossie's body. Both Ossies look shocked and confused. Ghost Ossie is wearing a fedora hat. He flies off, controlled by some external force. He starts to shrink as he flies towards the man who is slumped in the seat of the fork lift.
He yells as he plunges into the man's chest - through skin, bone and muscle. He continues to shrink until he is inside the nucleus of an individual cell and sliding down a double-helix of DNA.
VOICE (CONT'D)
The thing is, see, John here has something wrong with his DNA
Ossie hears a noise behind his head, looks back and sees a molecular engine splitting the DNA he is on in half. He yells and dives off to the side just in time to avoid the machine. RNA polymerase starts to read the DNA.
VOICE (CONT'D)
Like one in five hundred of us, he has a small flaw in one of a set of genes recognised as causing a condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or HCM
Ossie's arm catches on the chain of RNA as it flies off to the edge of the nucleus.
VOICE (CONT'D)
a thickening of the heart muscle that can lead to Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Heart trouble, kid, always heart trouble. Mind your head.
Ossie looks the wrong way and bangs his head as the RNA squeezes out of a nuclear pore complex and settles on a ribosome molecular factory.
Molecular machines carrying amino acids begin to attach to the RNA - making their way up the chain towards Ossie.
VOICE (CONT'D)
But how exactly does it work? The flaw in the gene leads to a misplaced amino acid in the protein it produces...
Panicked, Ossie struggles to free his arm. He pulls it free just before a molecular machine crunches down on the bit of RNA it was attached to. Ossie lands on a chain of amino acids that is starting to form a protein.
VOICE (CONT'D)
...which, in turn, causes the protein to fold into the wrong shape and malfunction. Your leg, kid.
Ossie looks the wrong way and fails to notice the protein fold and trap his leg - he yells. Another molecular machine picks up the protein that Ossie is trapped on and speeds it off towards a heart in the distance.
VOICE (CONT'D)
The faulty proteins form the different parts of the molecular motor that makes the muscle of the heart pump.
The molecular machine plunges Ossie and his protein into the muscle of the heart.
His protein binds with other myocin proteins to form a myocin filament.
Above the myocin filament sits an actin filament. Ossie is trapped in the head section of his myocin protein. It bends to bind to an actin molecule.
VOICE (CONT'D)
Latest theories...
'From Oxford' flashes up on the screen.
The head of Ossie's protein bends further, moving the actin along. Ossie looks worried.
VOICE (CONT'D)
...suggest that malfunctioning heart proteins cause the heart muscle to work inefficiently and use up too many of the little power- packs it relies on, known as ATPs
There is a little packet labelled ATP next to the filaments.
Suddenly the head of Ossie's protein releases its grip on the actin. The packet of ATP disappears and Ossie is catapulted free and splats into into another myocin filament where he remains stuck.
VOICE (CONT'D)
Running out of ATP causes the heart to fall into a fast, chaotic rhythm which reduces the supply of oxygen to the brain. Lights Out.
Brief shot of John collapsing on the forklift.
Back inside John, Ossie and everything he is attached to slump sideways. Ossie tries to free himself from the filament but all four of his limbs are stuck.
VOICE (CONT'D)
Mystery solved. Case closed. Luckily for John, the fact that such complications have genetic origins means that they can be tracked through families.
Cut to John's family tree - John and his grandparents.
VOICE (CONT'D)
John and his family were tested after his cousin collapsed playing soccer.
John's cousin (holding a ball) appears on the tree.
VOICE (CONT'D)
John’s father and aunt were found to be affected but not in danger.
John’s father, mother, aunt and uncle join the tree.
VOICE (CONT'D)
His sister and his two other cousins weren't affected...
The sister and cousins join the tree.
VOICE (CONT'D)
...but John was diagnosed as being at high risk so was fitted with his own internal defibrillator.
Back to Ossie, still stuck in the heart muscle. Out of the corner of his eye he can see one of the electrodes of the defibrillator. He looks panicked.
VOICE (CONT'D)
It should be delivering an electric shock to restart his heart in 5, 4, 3, 2...
Ossie struggles as hard as he can but can't get free. He yells as both he and the heart are given a large electric shock.
VOICE (CONT'D)
Watch out for the cream pies, kid
INT. BAKERY - NIGHT
Ossie opens his eyes, unfrozen.
The forklift is moving towards him, faster than ever.
John jolts to life and manages to slam on the brakes.
Ossie sighs with relief.
The tray of custard pies tips over and the pies fly towards Ossie.
Freeze on Ozzie's shocked expression. He screams. Sound effect of five pies splatting into him.
