Ralph's Cool School Project

Ralph Munchkin, is a pupil at St Ethelbert’s Junior School, where he is to discover for himself that a little white lie can become the fuse that ignites the primer, which detonates the charge, causing all kinds of mayhem and potential disaster, when he sets to work on his school project. Having come up with an idea for his Cool School Project, his teacher Mr. Barker, advises him that; although he has a good idea for his project, in order for it to be the big success Ralph was hoping for, he would need to spark the interest of someone important in the community, then others may be encouraged to get involved. Taking his teachers advice, Ralph writes a letter to the most famous person he has heard of to seek her support – Her Majesty the Queen, for in Ralph’s opinion, she was his Queen too. The strangely worded letter from Ralph is a source of greatly amused to the Queen, cheering her up just when she needed it. To show her gratitude, Ralph and his parents are invited to Buckingham Palace for tea. Unfortunately, when the letter and invitation arrives, Ralph is grounded by his dad for a whole month, and it was clear his dad would not back down from this punishment. Ralph telephones the palace and speaks with the Queens secretary Sir Alexander St John Blowhard, who due to a bad line, thinks he is speaking with Mr. Peter Munchkin, Ralph’s dad. Realising this, Ralph quickly deepens his voice and arrangements are made for their visit. The first lie is told. Still grounded, Ralph’s is given permission by his mum for a quick meet with his friends to discuss his project, so Ferret, Karrish, Simone and Rachel, and Ralph meet at their hide at the bottom of Karrish’s garden. They come up with a plan to disguise themselves as Ralph’s parents by enlisting, with a further lie, the help of Ferret’s Aunt Mandy, a talented theatrical makeup artist who lives in a very strange and crazy ever-changing themed house. Simone and Karrish, dressed as Mr and Mrs. Munchkin on stilts, accompany Ralph to his appointment with the Queen at Buckingham Palace; while Ralph discusses his project with the Queen, Simone and Karrish as Mr and Mrs. Munchkin go walking in the palace gardens with some of the Queens dogs. They are introduced to a gardener named Jeromiah Twigg, witnessing his kindness when one of the dogs called Regal is seen burying some jewellery in one of the flowerbeds, they see him dig up and return the jewellery, learning that Jeromiah is constantly doing this without anyone knowing in order to keep Regal out of trouble. With the visit over, they return home and are convinced they had succeeded with the deception, but are disappointed that they cannot tell anyone about it, so they get on with their lives. Ralph finds his moral compass has become skewed, causing him to become lost in a situation that does not sit comfortably with him. He is riddled with guilt and regret that he has affected and disappointed others through his lies. Some weeks later, Rachel and Simone are chilling out, when Simone catches an item on the news, “Mr. Jeromiah Twigg has been arrested for stealing jewellery from Buckingham Palace. Twigg claims that one of the dogs were responsible, but expert testimony confirms that it is impossible for a dog to do this and that Twigg was a lying thief!” Gathering their friends together at the hide, Simone explains and the children face a huge dilemma, either they admit what they had done or let an innocent man go to jail. The children agreed between them, to tell the truth, and with that in mind, they all nervously walk to Police Station to see their school’s officer P.C. Evans. Back at Buckingham Palace, the Queen on hearing the news is very disappointed, Ralph seemed to be such a nice boy, but was he? The Queen hatches an idea, to find out the truth about Ralph Munchkin and his friends, are they nasty, horrible children or was her instinct about Ralph correct all along?