Dead Man's Cards

Modern-day thriller set in the unforgiving underworld of Liverpool's gangster-run clubland.

Ex-boxer Tom (James McMartin) is on the ropes: his once promising fight career is long over thanks to an eye injury, his marriage is on the rocks and he is broke.

When a chance encounter at the gym leads to the offer of work as a doorman at a run-down nightclub, the jury is out on whether he has taken a step on the road to redemption or finally hit the self-destruct button.

The volatile head doorman Paul (Paul Barber) - knuckle-duster ever at the ready - is a battle-hardened veteran from the old school.

Recognising Tom for the fighter that he once was, Paul takes him under his wing, and guides him through the ins and outs of life as a clubland 'peacekeeper'.

Tom does his best to fit in and play the hard man, but soon strikes up a friendship with Mary (Lisa Parry), the world-weary barmaid who recognises that there is something more to the down-on-his-luck fighter than meets the eye.

Dealing with a smack on the nose and a drunk with a broken bottle proves to be nothing for Tom compared with his inadequacy at dealing with a broken heart...