Harry Styles Impersonator

Harry Styles Impersonator

Harry Styles Impersonator is a dark comedy-drama that tackles the perils of fame and driving to attain it, celeb culture, and how the media treats people in the limelight.

Timothy Dalgleish spends his life attending the birthday parties of teenagers and young people (predominately women), hen parties, and visiting sick kids in hospitals and charity events. He makes appearances as Harry Styles (a member of the pop group, One Direction, who is currently having a successful career as a solo artist.) While at work, he is the life and the soul and plays the part so well, but beneath the light veneer is a deeply troubled individual.

Theme Music - Music for a Sushi Restaurant by Harry Styles (the upbeat and carefree sound would be a nice juxtaposition to the dark feel of the show)

The Characters

Tim Dalgleish - Tim was first touched by fame and the celeb lifestyle when he was 11 years old and starred in a series of commercials. The public loved his adorableness. A fact of life, though, is that you grow up. There was no call for a lanky, still handsome young man in commercials for breakfast cereals.

Fortunately, he was blessed (or cursed, as the show progresses, we see that it is more of a curse than a blessing) by looking like Harry Styles. He needed work and initially enjoyed the attention.

We meet Tim at a point in his life when he has worked solidly as the top Harry Styles lookalike in the UK for a number of years. He has become disenchanted, dejected and is a real mess of a man. The opposite of how he is when he is "performing as Harry." He still holds onto his dreams of being a star in his own right but resents living in the shadow of Harry Styles' shadow.

People regularly mistake him for the real Harry Styles, making him feel even more bitter.

Alex Dawkins - Tim's agent. Alex is basically one of Tim's closest friends and his agent. Runs Creme de la Cream Lookalike Agency (that is not a typo...well could be, but Alex maintains it is not). Despite being his most in-demand client, Tim is Alex's most troublesome client. He has heard all the cries and moans about Tim wanting to leave the lookalike game.

Pav Patel - Tim's rival in many ways. He is the foremost Zayn Malick lookalike (a former One Direction member who left to go solo and is not nearly as successful as Harry Styles). The two never really get on because of some undisclosed incident that both blame the other for (this will potentially be revealed in the first season finale)

Mandie McIntosh - is a Scottish woman and Tim's closest friend that is the most in-demand lookalike for Caroline Flack (the late TV presenter of Love Island and other shows, who was once a girlfriend of Harry Styles when he appeared on The X-Factor - yes, it was controversial) She committed suicide, and yet, Mandie still gets work as Ms. Flack's lookalike. This will be one of the many sources of darker and more reflective moments in the show, commenting on how the media capitalises on celebrities when they commit suicide. (The aim of this is not to make fun of suicide but to satirically question the media's lack of responsibility when covering stories related to celeb suicide.) Mandie is generally a rather bubbly and feisty girl. The Scottish-Italian heritage makes her bold. She is fond of Tim and feels the same disenchantment. She can sing but keeps it hidden because she is scared to pursue a difficult career in the cutthroat music industry and limelight. It's slowly revealed that, despite him always seeming annoyed at everything, Tim cares deeply about Mandie.

Rick Astley - not a lookalike...just the actual Rick Astley, 80's singer responsible for Never Gonna Give You Up. Works or eats at a local greasy spoon cafe and offers profound and often cutting comments and advice on Tim's life. These are called RickRolls (as a reference to the internet craze). Example - You've just been Rickrolled. He starts his advice by saying things like, "You know, when Never Gonna hit it big, and all eyes were on me..." Considers himself a sage mentor for Tim.

Episode One - The Sickest Kids of London Town

The show kicks off as it will always, with Tim having a meeting at Alex's office where they discuss his schedule for the week. The big job of the week is to visit what Alex calls "The Sickest Kids in London." It is a mitigated disaster because, unbeknownst to Tim, the hospital actually believes he is the real Harry Styles, and he has been sent there on behalf of Make a Wish. The visit initially goes well, Tim plays his part as well as he can, and the kids seem to milk it up. Which only serves to aggravate and depress Tim more.

He tells the kids he needs to take a break but will be back - instead, Tim goes off to try and steal some pills to sort his mood and raging hangover and is seen by one of the kids.

Tim doesn't realise he was spotted and finishes the visit more than a little high.

The brown stuff hits the fan when Tim wakes up the next day to some loud voicemail and several messages from Alex in all capitals suggesting that he look at the news. He looks at the news and is shocked to read that a headline on the BBC website says Harry Out of Style in Drug-Addled Hospital Appearance. A voice from behind him says, "Harry...last night was amazing, you made my wish come true!" and it's one of the nurses from the hospital - who also evidently believes Tim is Harry.

End of Episode.

Note - if this was a success, it could be adapted to revolve around a region-appropriate celeb.

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Thanks for reading!

This is one and probably my only entry for the Pitch Your Pilot challenge. You can find out more about it here:

You can also check out the rest of my work here.