To Be Frank

A controversial journalist, his estranged daughter in a crime syndicate, and a reformed thug with a dark past collide in Edinburgh’s underworld. As they navigate family secrets, redemption, and betrayal, their hidden truths threaten to destroy them. A darkly comic crime thriller blending journalism, ageing, addiction, and organised crime. Fifty-something newspaper columnist, Frank Savage, pens a controversial piece calling for dogs and babies to be banned from cafés as his swansong to journalism. Instead of being dismissed, the column catapults him to stardom — and into further trouble. On a night out, Frank spots his arch-enemy, Brewster, 56 — an apparently reformed racist, homophobic football hooligan turned drug dealer, now a respected figure in the local community — whom he blames for his brother’s death. This coincides with the arrival of his eldest daughter, Naomi, whom Frank hasn’t seen for years. A genius with numbers, she works for an organised crime syndicate in London, headed by the Wise One, but is desperate to break free and go straight. The Syndicate places Naomi in the seaside town of Portobello, Edinburgh, to work alongside Brewster, overseeing their money laundering operation. As Naomi and Frank grow closer and begin to heal old wounds, neither realises they are both hiding secrets that would devastate the other.