In 1992 John T. Davis had the notion of making a film about his uncle, John McBride Neill. McBride Neill started as a cinema architect in the cinema boom of the thirties and his signature can be found on practically every cinema in Northern Ireland.

It was the burning, by persons unknown, of Jack's masterpiece, the Tonic in Bangor, Co. Down, that set John T. Davis off on his quest for the lost story of his uncle Jack, a man who ended his days broken and confused.

The advent of TV forced him into early retirement in 1957 and, still a young man, he retreated into a world of obsessive hobbies. The only regular companion from the outside world was the young John T. Davis, the only child of his sister, Kay.