Last night at the Odeon West End in London’s Leicester Square, The Times hosted The Perfect Screenplay – a live discussion about creating the ultimate script for the big screen.

Our audience saw talented writers present their screenplay ideas to a panel of experts, including John Madden the director of Shakespeare in Love, Tessa Ross the head of film and drama at Channel Four and The Times Chief Film Critic, James Christopher.

After the pitches, the audience voted for their favourite - sending our winner Lesley Bootiman to the Cannes Film Festival.

Watch Lesley's pitch for her film Not Nearly Dead Yet

Watch runner-up Mark Forsyth pitch for his film Growing Up

Watch runner-up Lance Stanbury's pitch for his film The Sword and the Bow

Sex, drugs, gambling – enough to save the old folks home?

NOT NEARLY DEAD YET by Lesley Bootiman

Over the hill, way past their sell-by seven crumblies go for broke. At stake, the care home where they still live a little They have just two months to raise the money to keep it open or be shunted off to a place where they’ll be nice and safe and treated like other old people.

They need £250,000 - so forget whist drives and cake stalls. It has to be really dodgy scams to raise the stake for a betting coup on an unraced horse.

Title Sequence

Inter-cutting between powerful horses at full gallop and seven pairs of elderly feet following Keep Fit instructions.

Sound track - pounding hooves and ‘If You’re Happy and You Know it Stamp Your Feet.’ Closes on seven pairs of hands giving the V sign.

Major highlights include

High stakes poker – clergy style.

How to outsmart drug dealers (and police).

Setting up a telephone sexline the old fashioned way.

And a race course climax where the zimmers are at least as important as the horses.

It’s the Magnificent Seven flying over the Cuckoo’s Nest; the Lavender Hill Mob let loose at St Trinians … and all because they’re NOT NEARLY DEAD YET!

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