A Patch of Fog

A famous author, Sandy Duffy (Conleth Hill), wrote his well-known and only novel, "A Patch of Fog" nearly 25 years ago. Present day, Sandy is a university lecturer and talk-show personality with co-host Lucy (Lara Pulver), who is also Sandy's girlfriend. Still riding the success of his only publication, Sandy has developed a shoplifting addiction and gets caught by a security guard, Robert Green (Stephen Graham).

Robert detains Sandy, shows him the CCTV footage, and threatens to call the police. Sandy pleads with Robert, and Robert agrees not to call the police if Sandy goes for a drink with him. They force an awkward conversation. As Sandy gets ready to leave, Robert reminds him that he still has the copy of the shoplifting footage. They agree to meet again at the weekend for another drink and to exchange the video disk.

After lecturing at university, Sandy tells his colleague about Robert, calling him a "sad little man." Robert walks into the classroom, having apparently eavesdropped on the conversation. Robert leads Sandy to some railroad tracks and gives him a coin and keeps the other for himself as a symbol of their new friendship.

Sandy becomes increasing concerned with Robert's behaviour and apparent obsession with him. Sandy offers to meet Robert at the pub and they get into an argument. Sandy threatens to tell the police, and Robert threatens him back; they walk to the police station together. As they are approaching the service window, Robert reveals that he has copies of Sandy's other shoplifting incidents. Sandy apologies for threatening him, and they leave the police station.

Sandy invites Robert to his house and gives him a tour. During the tour, Sandy explains that he doesn't have a copy of his famous novel, but has the original manuscript around the house somewhere. Sandy gets Robert high, offering him a marijuana cigarette, and pretends to connect with Robert. Sandy asks Robert to give him the disks, but Robert refuses.

At a loss, Sandy takes more extreme measures. He invites Robert to attend a lecture at university. When Robert arrives, the lecturer informs him that Sandy called in sick. Meanwhile, Sandy drives to Robert's apartment, and breaks in through a back window. Sandy finds the disks and destroys the apartment, and then throws the disks into a river.

Feeling relieved, Sandy resumes his life teaching university classes and speaking on the talk show. Just when everything is looking better, Sandy gets a video message from Robert depicting security footage from Robert's flat, which clearly shows Sandy's crime. Sandy then drives to Robert's flat, begging for forgiveness. Robert shows up at the train tracks, visibly distraught over Sandy's behavior because he genuinely thought that Sandy was his friend. He then steps in front of an oncoming train, but Sandy tackles Robert and saves him.

On Robert's next shift at the store, he recognizes Lucy from Sandy's talk show. He introduces himself to Lucy and her daughter, Phoebe. Phoebe drops something and Robert picks it up; he is enraged to discover that it is the coin he gave to Sandy. Later that evening, Robert sees Sandy with Lucy and her daughter. Robert becomes angry and jealous, and smashes their car windows.

The next day when Robert gets home, Sandy is waiting for him. The living room is empty except for the couch. Sandy explains that he had the delivery men remove all of Robert's furniture and that he ordered an entire new living room set. Sandy invites him to attend his university lecture that same evening. At the lecture, Sandy assigns the class a new project. He shows the class the video recording of him vandalizing Robert's flat, telling the class it is performance art and he will email all the students the vide. After the lecture, Sandy tells Robert that his living room is now unrecognizable to the video, and he could have got the video from the email, meaning Robert no longer has anything he can use as blackmail. He tells Robert to stay away from him, that he always despised him and is happy to have Robert out of his life.

Robert breaks into Sandy's house and begins searching the house. Eventually, he finds Sandy's original handwritten manuscript of "A Patch of Fog," which is shown to be written by his father. Robert then understands that Sandy's father wrote the book and that Sandy has been a fraud his whole life.

Sandy gets home and demands that Robert return the manuscript, but Robert refuses and instead says that he will move in with Sandy to help him write his own book. Sandy gets angry and puts Robert in a headlock but slips and falls, breaking his neck and accidentally killing him.

Sandy loads Robert's body into his boot, and drives to a lake. Sandy dumps Robert's body over the edge of the boat. However, a rope gets wrapped around Sandy's ankle and pulls him overboard. He gets dragged down with Robert, sinking, and drowns.

• Stephen Graham as Robert Green
• Conleth Hill as Sandy Duffy
• Lara Pulver as Lucy Walsh
• Ian McElhinney as Freddie Clarke
• Arsher Ali as Troy Griffin
• Stuart Graham as Tom Breslin

• A Patch of Fog at IMDb
• A Patch of Fog at Rotten Tomatoes