Screen on, but backlight off (or at absolute minimum)

[Guest Dr Who]

Is there any way to enable having the screen on, but with the backlight at an absolute minimum? I am currently using the stock T-Mobile ROM (pre-Decemer) until I get a chance to play in the next few days but the only options are to reduce the brightness to minimum (which isn't very dim) and turning screen timout to never, but what I want is for the screen to go very dim (but not black) after a set period and to go to the lock screen as normal - in otherwords for the lock screen to be permanently visible (also can one display upcoming events on the lock screen). I haven't investigated apps yet but any pointers to one that will do this would be cool.