A duty manager at East Finchley's Phoenix cinema has won the prestigious Oscar Moore Scriptwriting Award.
Marcus Lloyd was presented with the £10,000 prize by Emma Thompson at a fundraising event for the Oscar Moore Foundation.
A panel of well-respected film producers including Duncan Kenworthy, who made Four Weddings and A Funeral, chose Marcus's script, Cuckoo, from 250 entries of first-draft thriller screenplays.
Other stars at the event included Four Weddings star Hugh Grant and comedian David Baddiel.
"It's a big thrill to have won it," said Marcus, 36, from Crouch End. "I first started writing it about two years ago, and left it in a drawer. When I heard about the competition I got it out again and improved it.
"Cuckoo's about a Harley Street doctor who seduces a homeless girl. He's manipulating her to use her body as a kind of unwitting surrogate mother for a baby."
He described it as a psychological thriller with 'twists and turns and dark bits'.
Michelle Connery, co-ordinator of the Oscar Moore Foundation, said: "This year the scripts were of such great quality and there's been more buzz than previous winners about Marcus' script. A couple of production companies have called me about Marcus. Hopefully something of his will get taken."
Mr Lloyd said he has been writing scripts for as long as he can remember.
"It's only in the last five or six years that I have had any success. I won a Bbc competition about six years ago."
His script, A Relative Stranger, was produced by the BBC2 for their Double Exposure strand in 1995. He has also written a play called Dead Certain, which was produced in Windsor in 1999 and published this year, and had a radio play made from another script.
"There are certainly some doors open now and I hope that they stay open. You just can't tell," he said.
- The Oscar Moore Foundation was set up in 1997 in memory of Totteridge journalist Oscar Moore who died in 1996.
Moore wrote a celebrated Guardian column, PWA (Person with Aids), and was editor-in-chief of Screen International, the film trade magazine.
December 17, 2001 14:02
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article