A Dream Destination

Stuart Earling - Father

Nick Farley - Newsreader

Mark Rail - Stranger

**A Dream Destination** is the first episode of the first series of animated-drama series *Secrets du Fort*, a spin-off from the UK version of the game show *Fort Boyard*. It first aired on Toffa on 13 January 2019 on the same night Fort Boyard was revived on Toffa, with it preceding this. It later aired again on 24 February 2019 which was then followed by the rest of the series. It was written by Myles Thompson and directed by Durhan Carey.

## Synopsis

Fort Boyard: a place of mystery, a place of wonder, a place of adventure and a place of living. Yet no-one seemed to have stepped foot on it for decades, not since battle took place. But with no sign of any war, for the time being, a young, keen French scientist is determined to explore his star-striking place. No-one can stop him; not even his parents.

## Plot

A brief re-enactment of the true history behind Fort Boyard throughout the 18th century from building the fort to the invasion battles as the camera centres around the fort as it slowly becomes ruins.

Then we're in the 1930s; we’re at a beach; many families soaking up the sun, children splashing each other; having fun. Everyone enjoying themselves basically. A family of five, including the mother, father, as well as two brothers and a sister as walk towards the beach; setting themselves up. The mother and father just lie in the sand, sunbathing as the children head towards the sea. One of the brothers, Meinrad Leopold Maria Friedrich Christian Ferdinand Albert Prinz von Hohenzollern-Emden challenges his brother to a splash fight as their sister, Princess Maria Alix just watches in glee. They jump in the sea splashing each other constantly as they giggle. As they do so, the Professor looks ahead. He knows that he’s expected to go back but what sight met his eyes was his prize. Fort Boyard of course. He yells it out as Meinrad looks at it as well. He is interested in it, but of course nowhere near as the Professor. It’s almost like he wants to live there; have a child-like moment of just having fun around a fort. He then says “I want to live there. Now, now now!” He goes back towards Maria to tell her, but she barely cares and goes to his parents to tell them as well. Naturally, they think he is just being ridiculous and blatantly refuse, instead, telling him to just play with Meinrad.

Disappointed, he goes but the mother immediately shouts for them to come together to move somewhere else. The Professor freezes, looking to his family and then at the fort. He is told “Come on!” and very slowly makes his way to the family before sprinting off away to the sea to try and get to the fort. Only a moment later did the family realise that he’s gone missing and try to track him down. Cut to him already in the sea just ahead of those in there, making his way towards the fort as he starts to swim. Sort of. He can’t swim, and it’s that where he is spotted by his family as they yell at him to come back.

The father goes to get him, swimming towards him as the Professor is determined to reach his destination. The rest of the family quickly find a sailboat and head onwards. They inch closer towards him as he tries desperately to get away from them. They’re in between the sea and roughly halfway through the long journey. Unfortunately for the Professor, he loses as his father catches him and the family go back together, both looking happy and angry towards him. After a while, many people stare at the family in astonishment and as they pass by they carry on with their activities. The mother tells the Professor’s siblings to play around the hut as he gets a big telling from her and their father. Of course, it’s about never to do anything like that again and how worried they were about him. The Professor plays it cool; just agreeing without care to his words but still determined to reach the fort one of these days.

That evening, in their house, the Professor in his room as a punishment whilst the radio is played downstairs. The news comes on about the exact moments as the family just listen silently in disbelief. The reporter then goes on to tell facts about the Fort which immediately gets his hopes up. Sadly, he is distracted by the family as they just talk over whilst the facts are delivered. He sneaks out from his room, in the hope to get any information out of it and recoils that the Fort may need saving after the damage that had been done during the First World War as planes flew by it, occasionally dropping a bomb, causing a bit of damage. The family then decide to go to bed for an early night ahead of trying for a fresh start tomorrow morning. The Professor reluctantly decides to try to sleep to prevent more trouble. He had his plans…

A few hours later, it’s around 2:30am and he wakes up, he can’t sleep. He can’t stop thinking about the Fort. That’s the only thing on his mind. So he gets out of bed, checking that everyone else is asleep without getting caught, which he is successful. The next few moments then see him get changed, packing his belongings and leaving his house through his bedroom window. It’s rather intense for such a simple motion, to not cause any noise and especially being upstairs and finding a safe and silent landing spot. Eventually, he drops his bag out to the garden and climbs his way out of the window. He’s slightly worried about falling as he inches down and about halfway down he risks the jump which causes a bang. Not a big one and thankfully prevents any awakenings as we cut to each room upstairs. No immediate reaction. The Professor, fearing this, climbs out the back of the garden onto the path saying, “Goodbye home!” and makes an escape.

Then it’s 4:00am and by now he tries to find the nearest area of the sea by looking on the map. It’s quite a distance and he’s tired but refuses to give in as we find him in a little-known place called Boyardville. Not related to the fort, but it’s a sign he is almost near. A man approaches him asking what he is doing at this time of night, the Professor replied to go to Fort Boyard. He laughs in a jokey manner replying “As if a little kid like you would ever get there on foot. Good luck swimming!” Clearly the last sentence hit the Professor hard but quickly retreats and asks the same question he was asked first. The man replies that he is bored and wants to go for nighttime at the beach. He then says “Come along if you think you’re up for it.” At that, the Professor follows the stranger as we get an overhead shot of outside Boyardville closing in on the beach.