Guy Lines (Scout master)

Character description for programme: The cheerful, helpful and

friendly Scout Master, Guy Lines, comes prepared for anything; anything
that is, that Maddy tells him to do.
Motive: Guy, more than anybody, knows what losing the baking
competition is doing to his poor wife Maddy. Although they may not
have any romance in their marriage, Guy would protect her and defend
her to the last, and when Tracy admits, laughingly, to him that she is
winning the baking competition through foul means he has to put a stop
to her behaviour once and for all.
Background:
You joined the Scouts when you were of age and have never left them.
You liked (and still do) the way the group runs and when you were too
old to take part as a Boy Scout, you joined as a leader and after a few
years you took full responsibility for running it. The Scouts are
something of a passion of yours.
You are in your late 40s/early 50s now and are the longsuffering
husband of Maddy Lines. You have been dominated by her ever since
you married in 1976. You never had children. You so rarely had any
intimacy with Maddy (such a frosty woman) it was hardly surprising, but
she blames you anyway, she always does!
To be honest sex was never something you were good at (you dont win a
badge for it - so you never learned how!) so the lack of intimacy has
never bothered you. You have always been more interested in the
practical side of the relationship and Maddy certainly knows how to run a
house. Everything is exactly where it should be. Dinner is on the table at
5.15 precisely and all your shirts and trousers and creased precisely, even
your scouting shorts.
Maddy understands that the scouts are your life, and fully supports you,
even if your obsession sometimes drives her a little mad. (She has her
W.I. to keep her occupied anyway).

Character Background Guy Lines

Professionally you work for a bank. You like order and positively thrive
on schedules and planners and precise time keeping. As well as the
scouts you are also on the church roof fund committee and the committee
for organising the local fte. Like the scouting motto you are always
prepared, and in order to help with your preparedness you ensure you
have lists and do everything in set routines. People might say you are
almost obsessive compulsive about your planning, but you enjoy it and
you make things work.
You grew up in the village and stayed with your parents until you married
Maddy. Both your parents are now dead from natural causes (they were
both old). Your mother ran a tight ship, very like Maddy does actually
and in fairness Maddy acts more like your mother than a wife, but you
loved your mum, and you love Maddy in the same way, not romantically
as such, but very strongly.
There is only one bone of contention in the Lines household and that is
Maddys snoring. She will never admit it to you, or anyone, that she
does, but it is dreadful. Just like a foghorn at close quarters and
impossible to sleep through, even with ear plugs. You used to have
occasional business trips with the bank, where you stayed away from
home overnight and this actually gave you an idea for keeping everything
running on an even keel at home.
In order to get enough sleep you now have one night away from home
each week. You tell Maddy you are on a business trip, but actually you
have just booked yourself into the local hotel. She doesnt know, or
suspect that is what you are doing. A decent nights sleep once a week is
enough to enable you to deal with life, and Maddys stray cats. (You hate
cats which she knows you do, but she takes them in anyway for the rescue
centre until they are rehomed!)
You met Tracy Rounder in the hotel last week and sat down to breakfast
together. You have no idea why she was there, but you enjoyed her
company and had a very pleasant breakfast together. She was easy to talk
to and you talked about life at home and what Maddy was like. She
listened and laughed in all the right places, but there was nothing
romantic going on. It was just a pleasant conversation over breakfast,
you both knew it.
Character Background Guy Lines

At the end of the meal she broke down and cried on your shoulder. Said
she hadnt had such a normal conversation with anyone since her husband
Al died of cancer. You gave her a hug and handed her your hanky to
wipe her tears.
Your Disposition
You are a happy, smiley, slightly portly and inoffensive man, with mild
obsessive compulsive tendencies. Your clothes are pressed precisely,
your hair combed precisely etc, but that doesnt stop you helping others
and mucking in when that is required though you tidy yourself up
afterwards, wouldnt do to have the leader of the scouts looking unsightly
you are supposed to be setting an example. You are fanatical about the
scouts and wax lyrical on anything they have done and what a good club
it is etc. You are also keen to make sure everyone has a good time at the
fte / show / fair regardless of the murder.
You are friendly and amiable, quite a contrast to your domineering wife,
but you defend her to the last. She is your wife, and family means a lot to
you, even if it doesnt to other people these days.
You are happy to chatter, but you dont gossip. If you are forced, you
will say things about other people, but always qualify any statements by
how nice the person is and how you couldnt believe it could be them.
Your relationship to other characters:
You are married (happily it has to be said despite what people might
think) to Maddy. She is a wife in a million and very supportive of all you
do. Yes she might snore, but that is her only fault well that and her
interest in felines which you simply cant stand. You know how much
her failure to win the baking competition has gutted her year on year for
the last seven years. You have been sampling all her try outs which
hasnt done a lot for your waistline but a few more hikes will soon walk
it off.
Ollie and May Day live opposite you. Maddy says they arent getting on
very well and you think you know why. Youve seen Ollies business
account at work and it doesnt make for good reading. May has been
getting some odd payments into her personal account as well. You arent
Character Background Guy Lines

sure what is going on there, but you recall that Tracy Rounder has been a
good friend to Ollie and May for a while. You think they were close in
school.
Lee Sorsales business however is booming. He has loads of money
swimming around in his business account and seems to be making deals
all over the place with construction firms and various wealthy people.
You know he has his eye on one of the housing estates near you to
demolish it, and with the land behind it, turn the area into some very posh
self contained detached mansions in their own grounds for the rich and
famous.
You sit and listen to Rev. Neil Duprais sermons every week and go to
him for names for Scout Job week. He is totally obsessed by the leaking
church roof, and you have been finding his sermons on digging deeply
into ones pockets and the evils of money a little monotonous. Especially
as you already help him out on the church roof fund committee.
Winona Cases has made a lot of money doing her soliciting work. She is
very popular now among the criminal courts as she usually manages to
get her clients off. She must be very good at what she does (lying) as you
know many of her clients are guilty, guilty, guilty!
What you were doing this morning.
As you have done every year, you arrived early to the ground with Maddy
to help set up stalls. Your car is always full on fte days with various
essential supplies and you made several trips to empty the car, under
Maddys direction. She always knows what order to bring things in to
make best use of time.
On the first trip you brought your Scouting mallets and spare pegs. Stall
holders invariably forget some pegs or mallets and so you have these on
hand (you are always prepared) to lend around. You took them to May
Day who co-ordinates things from the loud hailer microphones all day.
Anyway, after doing that you brought all the rest of the loads for Maddy,
flowers, cakes, competition entries and then you left her to it and went out
to help the rest of the stall holders.
Character Background Guy Lines

You started off by helping Tracy with her stall. She does a charitable
stall for Empirical cancer research, probably because her husband died of
cancer. She isnt very practically minded in fact you were very
surprised she keeps winning the baking competition. She thanked you
profusely for your conversation at the hotel the other morning and you
told her to keep it a secret from Maddy. She just smiled and grinned in a
knowing sort of way. You think she thought you were having an affair!
You then went off to help other people, Ollie first, and then Winona. You
then went back to May Day and checked she had the programme all
organised for when the scouts were doing their bit, and then went back to
see how Maddy was getting on.
As you approached the tent Tracy called you over and asked you to help
her with her tent. Apparently the pegs had come undone at the back.
There was a terrible blood stain on the rear of the tent and Tracy herself
looked as though she had been in the wars. She had a swelling on her
head and a terrible puncture wound on her arm where she had fallen on to
one of the tent pegs. Tracy always was a little clumsy!
Anyway, you had your mallet with you (be prepared and all that) and so
you started knocking her pegs back in, but then she pinched your bottom!
Well! You didnt know what to do with yourself. You turned around and
told her in no uncertain terms you werent interested in that sort of thing
and she just grinned inanely at you, and then winked knowingly and said
your secret was safe with her.
She then said shed let you in on her own secret and showed you her
baking competition entry it was a boxed cake! You couldnt believe it!
How unsporting! And to think what it had been doing to Maddy all these
years! You were shocked!
Well you realised you had to do something and told her you were going
to report her to the judges, but she just laughed and said that you wouldnt
do such a thing.
After she laughed at you she pulled you into an embrace. You were
horrified! You were a married man! You pulled away and again she
winked at you knowingly and then laughed again but (the following
Character Background Guy Lines

information you must not reveal to anyone) this time something in you
just snapped and you clonked her on the head with your mallet.
You know enough about first aid and resuscitation from your scouting
badges to know you killed her instantly. (You must have put more power
into the swing than you thought.) You dropped the mallet in fright on the
front of the stall ( you can say you realised you were late to assemble
your scouts for their duties today and so left the mallet with her to let her
finish off herself) and then fled to your scouts which were already
beginning to assemble for their duties today. You intended to tell the
judges later today about her cheating, but as she is dead she will be
disqualified anyway.
What other people will be saying about you.
Most saw you enter the ground this morning with a handful of mallets,
and you know several people saw you helping Tracy with her stall. Some
might even have seen her flirting with you which could be embarrassing.
Everyone knows you are the Scout Master, and also that you work as a
bank manager. Some might think you are dominated by your wife, which
you are, so no surprises there. You know people think you have a bit of a
split personality, but you are just able to compartmentalise your life a bit
better than most people.

Character Background Guy Lines