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The phone rang.

Jerome Armquist picked it up.

“Armquist Productions?”

The accent was strange. He couldn’t place it. American? No. English?

“Yes.”

“I’m looking for Jerome Armquist?”

“Speaking.”

“I see.” There was a note of surprise.

“My secretary is out, I was just leaving as the phone rang, so I picked it up. I was expecting someone else,” he lied. Armquist Productions consisted solely of Jerome.

“Oh, I see,” the voice said. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, not at all,” Jerome said easily, he leaned back in his chair. “What’s up?”

“My name is Terry Nation of TN Productions...”

A pause, as if he should recognise the name. He didn’t.

“We’re working with a consortium that includes Millennium from England, and Sunrise Films from Canada...”

“Yes?” Jerome jotted down the names. He hadn’t heard of any of these companies, but it was no surprise. Production companies came and went like mayflies. Thankfully there was no pause, as if he should have recognized any of these.

“We are working on a project, ‘The New Doctor’ and we’re looking for a co-production partner. We contacted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and they informed us they didn’t do that sort of thing.”

Actually, ABC did, but to reputable parties, not strangers that rung up out of the blue.

“But they did provide us with a list of people we might approach, and your name was at the top of it.”

Jerome paused with his pencil, and chewed it thoughtfully. ABC wasn’t getting directly involved, but if they were making referrals, that told him it was a serious project, and it also told him that ABC intended to buy in. He wasn’t sure why they’d referred him though.

In truth, what no one knew, was that Jerome would normally have been far far down any realistic list. But the secretary who had typed it up and faxed the list to North America, had done it in alphabetical order. Nation had just called the first name on the list.

“That’s very flattering,” Jerome said. “Tell me about this project, and what you need?”

He listened patiently as Nation outlined the project, and discussed the financial requirements.

He’d never heard of The New Doctor, or Doctor Who. Frankly, it all sounded like dire rubbish to him. He had never been interested in sci fi, too fantastical for his tastes.

Jerome sketched out numbers with his pencil. The revenue from likely sale to ABC, contributions from the Australian Film Commission, the Television fund. The New South Wales fund and tax credits. He liked the way the numbers were shaping up. He added Queensland into the equation. Even better.

“Yes,” he told Nation. “We can definitely help you out. Why don’t I talk to my partner. In the meantime, send me your information, we’ll send you back a proposal, and if it meets your needs, you can fly down to Sydney, and we’ll sort it out....”

After the call ended, Jerome sat, staring at his notes.

Jerome wasn’t an actual producer. Not in the sense of hiring and shooting and all that bother. Rather, he had a very specific niche in the community. He was one of those people who helped to put money together. People hired him for projects, he made the paperwork come together, and he took a fee. It was a decent living.

Nation and company very definitely needed that. Every production needed funding, and someone who could help pull it together.

But this was rather different than his usual wicket. This was an outright co-production. That meant that for the money, there’d have to be an investment in Australian actors, creators, crew, location shooting. None of that was what he did. Typically, all that was worked out and in place and he didn’t need to bother with it.

Which meant, he needed to find a real producer, and hand the project over to them, at which point he’d resume his usual role, take his usual fee, and see the lion’s share of money walk off.

Or...

Or, he could keep the project for himself, find a production manager to do all the bothersome stuff, hire cheap, and pad the expenses everywhere, and literally make out like a bandit, squeezing every last dollar and penny from his end of the project, as if through a wringer.

He could make quite a bit of money, if he did this right.