JAGO

Jago and Demelza find the lizard

As if the crafty street urchins Jago Quinn and Demelza Cotton aren't in enough trouble from the vicious underworld criminals the Cray twins, their own pickpocket scam has led them to encounter an iridescent, rainbow-colored lizard in their secret hiding place. Little do they know that this moment is the turning point - the moment when this cute, hypnotic animal turns their world upside down. I like this scene because it's where two children whose lives are nothing but dirt and grunge and grey and struggle suddenly find that there's magic and wonder beneath the relentless squalor of their world. It's where the black and white of a Victorian London slum is literally split apart by beauty and color and, eventually, love. And who doesn't yearn for that to be true? It's also the bit where things started to get REALLY weird and I was able to bring to life the wonderfully weird and wacky Adamina Wollondilly and her mysterious Eyeballers. Little-known fact: the ending to JAGO came to me, quite literally, in a dream. I was stuck on the ending and I woke up one morning with it in my head. Of course! You'll never guess it in a million years - unless you dream it too...