Accidental Guru: Comedy Pilot Fundraiser 2nd shoot

Accidental Guru is a rags to riches story of self-help ‘Guru’ Kelly and her Team, as they attempt to realise Kelly’s ambition to host her own TV show. She truly wants to “Make millions of people’s dreams come true through the power of positivity!”. The only thing standing in their way is Kelly herself.

How can you help? Please see update below 14/09/2022.

Why should you help? Hopefully, because you want to support our industry and help to preserve creative arts and professional talent? You may be a TV fan? Or a fan of one or many of our cast? You may want a freebie? Scroll to the bottom for those! You may want to see your name or business in the credits? Whatever your reason for helping us, Thank You! See full details of below!

Special thanks to the wonderful Oliver Crocker of ‘The Bill Podcast’ fame - soundcloud.com/thebillpodcast - who interviewed co-creator of Accidental Guru, Kerry Peers, and produced this video for us xxx

What is it?

Accidental Guru is the rags to riches story of self-help ‘Guru’ Kelly and her Team, as they attempt to ‘manifest’ their way to realising Kelly’s ambition to host her own TV show because she truly wants “to make millions of people’s dreams come true”. Kelly is brilliant at selling positive thinking, has a heart of gold and truly believes that it’s her mission to help people – and she does! But despite her ambitions, she’s shy of the spotlight, and her theatre tours, massive YouTube following, and Insta-celebrity is a burden that sometimes brings out the worst in her. Despite the success she has in realising her own dreams and the dreams of her followers, she is, after all, just a mere mortal who can’t always practice what she preaches. She’s prone to micro-managing and self-sabotage and it’s up to her devoted Team to keep her adoring fans from discovering that their hero has a dark side!

Why help?

Hello lovely people, so, why should you help us? Well, we’re a bunch of actors who’ve been mates for decades, who like so many people over the last 18 months, have been hit pretty hard by Covid. Our industry shut down and it was terrifying not knowing how we were going to pay the bills; we know many of you can relate to that too. The only advice being offered to us after a lifetime in the entertainment industry was to retrain! Not an easy thing to hear with families to support. But, give us lemons and our instinct is to shout "let's make lemonade!" So, we got on with creating! And now after a year of developing characters and writing stories, we’d love you to help us bring the product of that creativity to the screen. We're planning to shoot the pilot episode in mid-September, with the aim of bringing our new feel-good comedy series into your homes! So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any support you can offer. To quote the Accidental Guru: “Dreams really can come true, if you let them”... with a little help from your friends x x x

Who are we?

The journey so far...

For those of us in the entertainment industry, the C-word meant a complete shut down with no prospect of work. Kerry decided to use this ‘dark time' to study for an MA in Drama, with a view to creating a one-woman show. The character of Kelly was born, a well-meaning but flawed self-help guru, and quickly the idea expanded to include other main characters. Kerry drew on the impressive talents of her actor friends to flesh out the characters and storyline, using zoom hot-seat interviews and improvisation.

A script emerged: a pilot for a TV series, which is a character-led examination of the popular culture of self-help celebrity, and the tasty tension between hypocrisy and altruism - with flashes of genuine magic! It’s neither a critique nor an endorsement, but an honest look at that world and the questions it raises.

The core cast is made up of drama school buddies from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a few friends stretching even further back to the ‘Clwyd Youth Theatre’; all seasoned professionals in the industry who are very excited to come together for this project.

We are also thrilled to have award-winning Director of Photography, Luke Palmer, to make it all look wonderful - you can check out his work here: http://www.luke-palmer.com - And the fabulous Ken Mizutani will be coming on board to edit our pilot. Director, Eric Loren, has worked with Ken, and Luke on numerous occasions and is delighted to be teaming up with them once again. So, we are poised and ready to film the pilot in September.

But we need you too!

We have gathered an impressive cast and crew who are keen and prepared to offer their skills and time for free. We are very grateful to have made a wonderful start with our fundraising, receiving an initial investment of £3k from a generous industry donor. We need a further £7k to cover the essential costs of location and equipment hire; set, costume and props; covid safety provisions and insurance; and of course travel expenses, catering and accommodation for our unpaid cast and crew.

So...

With your kind help, dear friends, we hope to reach our target of £10k and produce a quality pilot that grabs the attention of production companies, with a view to having a series commissioned. We hope this will bring us the opportunity to employ an abundance of industry talent, as well as bringing a little joy into your lives.

All donations, large or small, are hugely appreciated and every penny will be spent on bringing our concept to life so that we can share it with you. You can also help by sharing this page! Go on, just do it!

Perks and offers:

£10 - all named donations will get a thank you on the credits of course - but we're offering much more than that!

Fan Donations:

£15 - you can get a personalised signed photo from one of our cast, or a signed group photo of the cast.

£20 - Kerry can offer signed original 'The Bill' photos of WDC Suzi Croft, with a personalised message.

£21 - Eric is offering a limited-edition personalised signed and very cool photo of him as The Human Dalek in Dr Who. Dr Who fans need to grab these fast as they are really exclusive!

£22 - Eric is offering a personalised signed Kurtis Trent pic from Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness. Numbers are limited so first come first served!

£25 - you can have a 'Special Thanks' in the credits on our pilot episode, an original The Bill Christmas card (unused!) which were produced at The Bill studios in Merton, exclusively for The Bill employees, plus a personalised signed WDC Suzi Croft photo. There are only 18 cards, so first come first served!

£30 - you can have a 'Special Thanks' in the credits on our pilot episode, an original The Bill badge (red, green, blue unit) fans 'in the know' will know what that's about! These are limited, there are only 15 badges available, so first come first served! And a signed WDC Suzi Croft photo.

£35 - you can get a video message from one of the cast, for you, or for someone you nominate.

£45 - you can choose a signed limited edition 'Accidental Guru' T-shirt or a signed limited edition'Kelly's Heroes' T-shirt.

£150 - you can get an 'Associate producer' credit on our pilot episode.

£200 - you can get an exclusive invite to our sneak-peek online screening, which includes a post-show Q&A with the team. Places are limited, so grab a spot fast!

£250 - you can be an extra in our pilot. But this offer is limited to a small number of people, so be quick to grab your spot! Please note: You have to be able to get yourself to North Wales, be double vaccinated with the card to prove it and be prepared to be very very well behaved on set! However, providing you can tick all those boxes, we will feed and water you, take photos of you on set with the cast and generally be very nice to you!

£300 - you can get an 'Executive Producer' credit on our pilot episode, plus a 15 minute one on one zoom Q&A with Kerry and/or Eric. And everything offered in the above mentioned online screening,

For larger donations, we're open to requests - providing they are respectful requests, naturally!

OR For The Whole £7K you can become a Production Partner. We look forward to hearing from you!

A member of our team will contact you via email should your selected perk require more info.

The Cast:

Thomas Astbury has quite literally been dragged into the project by Kerry – his mum – to play Tom the IT guy and was cast at birth!

Jon Atkins has toured extensively, playing in Twelfth Night, Blue Remembered Hills and My Night with Reg. Film work includes Anazapta for CF1 Films and Brittanic for Regent Entertainment.

Julie Barclay has appeared extensively in theatre, film and TV, including Coronation Street, Broadchurch, The Witcher, Brassic, Tess of the D'Urbervilles for BBC, and the stellar film Pride.

Eric Loren is Dr Who's Human Dalek/Mr Diagoras and is also Kurtis Trent in Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness. Other work includes Houdini, A Quiet Passion, Baghdad Central, and The Power.

Cecilia Noble is a multi-award-winning actress, who starred in The Lady in The Van, Danny and The Human Zoo, ‘Small Axe’ and Killing Eve, as well as many notable theatre productions.

Olivia Onyehara roles include Shuck’n’Jive at SoHo Theatre and many appearances at the Rose Theatre, York, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night.

Kerry Peers is an award-winning actress with an extensive career, but is probably best known as WDC Suzi Croft in The Bill, Helen Carey in Brookside, and most recently, Marion Logan in Coronation Street.

Carol Starks has an extensive career in theatre, film and TV. Appearances include Save Me Too, Wallander, Shameless, Dustbin Baby, Reckless, Inspector Morse, and Tanya Woods in Family Affairs.

Sara Stewart is Batman’s mum! She's appeared in many films, plays and TV shows, including Stella in Sugar Rush, Fresh Meat, Touch of Frost, Dr Foster, Unforgotten and Amenebar’s La Fortuna.

Alex Russell is making her professional debut in our pilot! Welcome on board Alex!

Thank you from all of us x x x

More Story! Still reading or want to be that special investor? OK then, here's a glimpse of the episode one storyline....

Kelly McKenna - bestselling author and self-styled ‘Accidental Guru’ - needs to take a leaf out of her own book.

Having escaped a controlling marriage by ‘visualising’ for herself the kind of life she always dreamed of living, and ‘attracting’ to herself the kind of people who could make that dream a reality, Kelly built up a business as a self-help practitioner across various social media platforms, and by having her own touring show which played to sold-out venues across the country, cheered on by a large fanbase known as ‘Kelly’s Heroes’, all collectively and individually ‘visualising’ the life of their dreams and a better world for everyone. Their mantra being: ‘Dreams really do come true, if you just allow them to!’

Kelly’s own visualisations included being reunited with Phil, her true love from way back (tick), a cottage in the country (tick), and her own TV show (pending).

We meet up with Kelly and her team, made up of old friends and family members, at their local theatre in North Wales, on the last night of a sold-out tour. The nerves kick in prior to curtain up, but Kelly smashes the show, despite her mum's best attempts at sabotage. Little does Kelly know, however, that seated in the audience tonight is TV producer (Rick Henderson), who's come with the express offer to Kelly of her own show. However, at the after-show party, she practically blanks Rick, leaving him feeling exposed in front of everyone.

Will this prove to be the moment when Kelly’s famous self-saboteur kicks in big-time? Or will a few timely words from Phil prevent Kelly from scuppering her boats entirely? Or will it be up to (the so organised) Karen and (the so perfect) Rebecca to save the day while Phil and Tom try to save Kelly from herself?

Will they all make it to the country cottage and get to meet the formidable, towering figure of their prospective neighbour, Marcia? Will we ever find out what happened to that missing crate of champagne? Will we ever get to know why Kelly calls Jacky ‘mum’ when they are obviously sisters?

That really is it! For now anyway x x x

P.S All the character and storyline information in the video and on this page is owned exclusively by the creators and may not be copied or otherwise used without our permission. But do share the page and please donate if you can!