The Mermaids

## Plot

In the summer of 2022, in the town of Epping, Essex, England, rumors abound that subterranean mermaids (known as Mermaids for swim) have kidnapped a baby. Pest exterminator Mr. Tony strikes a deal with the city's leader Lady Gaga to exterminate every Mermaid in exchange for membership in the city's fish-loving council called the White Fins, despite the fact that she herself is severely allergic to fish.

In actuality, the Mermaid are peaceful and emerge from underground at night to scavenge for discarded items with which to make useful inventions. A mermaid girl named Jenny lives among them, cared for by a Mermaid named Cleo. As Jenny grows up, she becomes dismayed by the disappearing Mermaids, such as Ondina and Lyla, seized by Tony. After Lady Gaga's son Anthony sees Jenny with two Mermaids, Tony captures Cleo. Jenny sneaks to the surface to find Cleo and emerges in an annual fair to commemorate the disappearance of the "Eloise Baby" who was allegedly killed by Mermaids.

Disgusted by the town's inaccurate portrayal of the creatures, Jenny follows Ant. After a brief exchange, she asks him for directions to Tony's headquarters, located at an abandoned factory, where Jenny rescues Cleo. They are caught in the escape. Tony recognizes Jenny as the Eloise Baby and reveals that all the captured Mermaids are building him a machine. Anthony, who covertly followed Jenny, overhears this exchange. He then helps Cleo and Jenny escape from Tony and they take shelter in the Mermaids' corals, where Cleo explains that Jenny's father had given him to them to protect him from Tony. Ant agrees to help Jenny tell Gaga the truth.

At a ball held to commemorate the purchase of a giant fish wheel called the Scienemaid, which was foolishly made using the funds for a children's hospital, Jenny tries to confront Gaga, but is confronted by Tony (disguised as a woman named "Ale Mason"). Whilst trying to avoid Snatcher, Jenny inadvertently knocks the fish wheel into a river. Jenny announces herself to the party as the Eloise Baby, but no one believes her, including Gaga, who is too upset about losing the fish wheel.

Jenny tries to persuade the remaining Mermaids to flee for their own safety, but unknowingly demoralises them. Tony digs into the corals and captures them all. Jenny awakens to find her father Stuart a prisoner beside her. She sees the Mermaids stacked in a crusher and pearls them to leave their tails and run, but they are seemingly killed by the crusher.

Tony drives his machine to Lady Gaga's house, shows him the flattened tails as proof of the Mermaids' extinction, and demands Gaga's white fin in exchange for killing the last Mermaid, which is actually Jenny disguised. The Mermaids, who have escaped from the crusher, free Jenny while Stuart reveals himself, causing Gaga and the citizens to realize that Tony lied to them. With his plot exposed, Tony tries to take Gaga's fin by force; two of his henchmen, Mr. Shephard and Mr. Walsh, turn against him and help the Mermaids disable the machine, which falls on Tony's right-hand man Mr. Bean and crushes him to death. Jenny and Tony are thrown clear and land on the recovered Scienemaid, which triggers Tony's fish allergy and causes him to swell to a grotesque size. He seizes Ant and forces Lady Gaga to give up her fin in exchange for his safety, but after tasting an aged fish sample, his fish allergy finally sets off and he explodes into pieces, killing him.

With Tony's plot foiled, the townspeople and Mermaids agree to form a peaceful coexistence with each other. Ant tells the tale of Tony's end to a crowd while Cleo, Jenny and Stuart drive off in one of Stuart's contraptions.

## Cast

* Lindsey Russell as Jenny, an orphaned 32-year-old mermaid girl raised by the Mermaids, the adoptive daughter of Cleo.
	+ Baby Lindsey Russell as Baby Jenny
* Bradley Walsh as Mr. Tony, a ruthless, arrogant, antagonistic and cunning pest exterminator who also cross-dresses as Ale Mason.
* Joel Mawhinney as Anthony "Ant" Germanotta, Jenny's first human friend and the 25-year-old son of Lord and Lady Gaga.
* Phoebe Tonkin as Cleo, Ondina, and Seashell, three Mermaids. Cleo is the gentle, but skittish adoptive mother of Jenny.
* Cariba Heine as Rikki and Pearl, two Mermaids.
* Jake Pratt as Lord Gaga, Ant's father and Lady Gaga's snobbish husband.
* Lady Gaga as herself, Ant's mother, the fish-obsessed leader of the White Fins, and the leader of Epping, Essex.
* Ant McPartlin as Mr. Shephard, Tony's corpulent, bumbling, yet intellectual employee.
* Dec Donnelly as Mr. Walsh, Tony's tall, spindly, well-meaning but misguided employee.
* Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean, Tony's diminutive and maniacal second-in-command and best friend.
* Ben Shephard as Stuart Eloise, an inventor and Jenny's biological father.