Keeping Mum (aka Bear Necessity)
By James Gould-Bourn
UNDER OPTION with Lime Pictures
Genre: Up-lit, Comedy
Publisher: Trapeze (Orion) (UK), Scribner (Simon & Schuster) (US)
Publication Date: June 2020
Foreign Rights Sales: Germany, Italy, Chinese (Simplified), France, Serbia, Japan, Bulgaria
Danny has lost his wife, his job on a building site, and he is about to lose his home. Worst of all though, he’s losing his son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since his mum died 14 months earlier in a car crash. Danny doesn’t know how to reach him.
After seeing street performers in his local park apparently raking it in, he spends his last fiver on a vomit-ridden animal suit and becomes a dancing panda… until something unexpected happens that makes the humiliation of his terrible rhythm all worth it. When Danny sees Will being bullied, he runs over in the panda outfit to save his son, who in turn then opens up to him like he hasn’t for over a year. But Will doesn’t know it’s his dad in the suit, and Danny is too afraid to tell him the truth in case he spoils everything.
Keeping Mum is a sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes sad, always poignant and ultimately uplifting story of a father and son overcoming their grief in the most unlikely of circumstances.