Three And Out

The film opens as tube driver, Paul Callow (Mackenzie Crook), accidentally runs someone down with his train. A few days later, he has the misfortune to have another ‘one-under’. His colleagues tell him about a little known ‘rule’ at London Underground. The one no-one talks about. THREE ‘under’ within a month, and you’re OUT... earning yourself 10 years’ salary in one lump sum. This is an attractive proposition for someone with heavy debts and a yearning to escape the stresses of the big city to write a novel.

Paul sets about trying to find someone prepared to die under his train – by Monday morning.

Not easy. But the search he embarks on is both hilarious – and emotional.

How do you approach a complete stranger and ask him if he fancies dying under your train!?

After many failed and excruciatingly embarrassing approaches; he comes across Tommy Cassidy (Colm Meaney) attempting to jump off Holborn Viaduct.

To Paul’s amazement, Tommy agrees to his outrageous proposal. The incentive? Enough money for a last weekend to tie up the loose ends of his life. Once it’s agreed, Tommy is determined to go through with it: “A Deal is a Deal”.

With a new suit and a hired car, Tommy travels to the Lake District via Liverpool so that he can try and reconcile things with his wife, Rosemary (Imelda Staunton) whom he walked out on 8 years ago, and his feisty daughter Frankie (Gemma Arterton). And Paul tags along to protect his investment.

We encounter a host of other characters on the way including the Callaghans, (Annette Badland and Gary Lewis), who have something that Tommy needs which leads to a very slippery situation; Mary, (Kerry Katona) an angry mistress; Vic (Mark Benton) a fellow tube-driver and expert on the Three and Out Rule; and Maurice, (Sir Antony Sher) a French chef with culinary designs of a very unusual nature.

As the film progresses, Paul and Tommy each find something that has eluded them both for years – true friendship. Tommy also has to deal with the inevitable wrath of his wife, who for the past 8 years thought he was dead; as well as his daughter Frankie who wishes he was!

It’s a life-changing weekend for all concerned.

On Monday morning, they are back to the reality of the deal they struck. And “a Deal is a Deal”.

But can they go through with it?