A late-diagnosed undercover police staffer investigates a popular neurodiverse content creator suspected of recruiting his teenage audience into violence inspired by children’s TV. PATIENCE meets TIP TOE meets WEAPONS. 

SYNOPSIS:

In present-day Manchester, an impulsive police chase leads autistic teen ZACH MALLORY (16) to fall to their death.

The police close ranks. The public erupts. And a new cause quietly takes hold...

One year on, conscientious police staffer ROBBIE LAST (30) is a target.

Demoted for not defending colleagues investigated over Mallory’s death, the late-diagnosed autistic former constable navigates gruelling admin, demoralising banter, and growing public mistrust.

Comforted in burnout by a lost joy of piano-playing, Robbie grieves for a mind he wished he’d known sooner.

Until one day, when his mind suddenly becomes an asset.

Sent undercover as volunteer for a neurodiversity peer group to locate missing attendee PATRICK DEACON (16), Robbie investigates the group’s charismatic leader: popular content creator SIMON ‘SIMMS’ TARRY aka GLIMMERS (30s).

Formerly composing remixes of children’s TV music, Simms vanished online last year…only to return with a new direction: neurodiverse self-advocation.

Ingratiating himself with their shared talents, Robbie unearths evidence of Simms’ online correspondence with the lonely Patrick.

Brought in for questioning, Simms’ denial of wrongdoing is dismissed…until Patrick enters the station unharmed.

Blamed for a lack of results, a disenfranchised Robbie is drawn in by Simms’ uncompromising approach, pushing away his chastened parents, lambasting his superiors, and even threatening the public!

But as self-advocation takes hold, Robbie is blindsided by an emerging pattern: Simms’ secret livestreams, mysteriously syncing with teenage attendees committing violent acts against their bullies, teachers, and parents, instigated by Patrick.

Even stranger: they are themed around Simms’ favourite children’s TV theme tunes!

In a twisting climax, Robbie’s investigation reaches a chilling conclusion: Simms holds spiritual abilities developed from occult practice – resentful over neuro-normative social structures causing ableist abuse (including Zach Mallory’s death), the vengeful creator plants subliminal music in his content, telepathically inciting attendees into neuro-supremacist violence to create a ‘new order’…and Robbie is his next cohort!

Torn between justice and weaponised nostalgia, Robbie must race to halt Simms’ final horrific act: an attack on the local police…

Melding the diverse detective drama of Patience, timely subtext of Tip Toe, and slow-burn claustrophobia of Weapons, THEME TUNE frames crime drama and supernatural horror to explore the malignant traumas of neurodiversity in a world reliant on nostalgia to incite and escape from dangerous populist rhetoric.