A play by an actress and writer from the Dundee area has been picked up by a film production company to be turned into a television drama.
While Lisa Nicoll will also play the lead role in Touched, producers at Gloucester-based Thursday Film hope to attract a “name” to the project to play her mother.
The company’s previous work includes Pictures, a drama about fabricated or induced illness (often known as Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy) starring singer and actress Andrea Corr and television favourite Neil Pearson.
Lisa’s play was originally commissioned by NHS Lothian. It centres on a young woman with everything going for her who is also HIV positive.
After travelling to see a performance of Touched in Livingston, the film company was keen to work with her on the project, said Lisa, who started acting at Carnoustie Theatre Club.
“We obviously have to adapt it from the stage to the screen so we came up with an outline and we have now written about half of it.”
Sharing the writing credits is a first for Lisa. She has enjoyed working on the adaptation with her co-author P. D. Blake, who will also direct the film. Shooting is expected to start in February.
“I just feel so lucky that we gelled so quickly,” she added.
The move to the small screen with the 30-minute drama comes at a particularly exciting time for Lisa both professionally and personally. She is working on another one-woman play, Home Run, which will premiere in November and go on tour next year.
Lisa has also been commissioned to create a further four short films, following her success in her first venture in the medium, Truth Or Dare, which was filmed in west Lothian using young actors from the area.
Lisa, whose family live in Kingennie, has also been busy organising her wedding to fiance Raymond at Strathmartine Church in Dundee in September.