Bleak Expectations
Encyclopedia
Bleak Expectations is a Radio 4
comedy series, whose first series premiered in August 2007. It is a pastiche
of the works of Charles Dickens
– such as Bleak House
and Great Expectations
, from which it derives its name – and costume drama
s set in the same period, and parodies several of their plot devices (such as cruel guardians, idyllic childhoods interrupted, lifelong friendships, earnest young people), whilst simultaneously tending toward a highly surreal humour along the lines of The Goon Show
. The series has also demonstrated a fondness for allusions to and parodies of the films of Alec Guinness
, particularly the Victorian satire Kind Hearts and Coronets
.
It is written by Mark Evans
, who plays minor characters in most episodes, and produced by Gareth Edwards
. Its opening and closing theme is the main theme from the Mazurka from Three Characteristic Pieces by Edward Elgar
.
The plot of the first series revolves around Philip "Pip" Bin, inventor of the Bin, and his two sisters, Poppy and Pippa, whose seemingly ideal life is disrupted by the death of their father and the madness of their mother. They are then locked away by their guardian, Mr. Gently Benevolent (who, despite his name, is actually the main villain of the piece), in St. Bastard's, the most vicious boarding school
in England, and St. Bitch's, a nearby convent. Pip and his sisters attempt to free themselves of their guardian with the help of Harry Biscuit, whose father invented the biscuit
. It is narrated by Pip as an old man to the journalist (and his eventual son-in-law) Sourquill, who brings various useless inventions to assist in recording the events.
website gave it its "British Comedy Guide Editors' Award" for 2008. A third series was recorded at the Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House, on 7, 14 and 28 June 2009, the first episode of which was broadcast on Radio 4 on 29 October 2009. The third series won a Bronze Sony Award in the Comedy category in 2010. Recordings for the fourth six-part series began on 11 September 2010, again at the BBC Radio Theatre, and transmission began on 11 November 2010.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
comedy series, whose first series premiered in August 2007. It is a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of the works of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
– such as Bleak House
Bleak House
Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon...
and Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
, from which it derives its name – and costume drama
Costume drama
A costume drama or period drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era.The term is usually used in the context of film and television...
s set in the same period, and parodies several of their plot devices (such as cruel guardians, idyllic childhoods interrupted, lifelong friendships, earnest young people), whilst simultaneously tending toward a highly surreal humour along the lines of The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
. The series has also demonstrated a fondness for allusions to and parodies of the films of Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
, particularly the Victorian satire Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy feature film. The plot is loosely based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, with the screenplay written by Robert Hamer and John Dighton and the film directed by Hamer...
.
It is written by Mark Evans
Mark Evans (comedian/writer)
Mark Evans is a Welsh comedian, actor, and writer.He has written for many U.K. radio and television programmes, including That Mitchell and Webb Look , The Late Edition , That Mitchell and Webb Sound , Popetown , and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway...
, who plays minor characters in most episodes, and produced by Gareth Edwards
Gareth Edwards (producer)
Gareth Edwards is a radio and television producer and writer. He is the great-grandson of Hollywood pioneer Albert E. Smith, founder of Vitagraph Studios.TV and Radio Career...
. Its opening and closing theme is the main theme from the Mazurka from Three Characteristic Pieces by Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
.
The plot of the first series revolves around Philip "Pip" Bin, inventor of the Bin, and his two sisters, Poppy and Pippa, whose seemingly ideal life is disrupted by the death of their father and the madness of their mother. They are then locked away by their guardian, Mr. Gently Benevolent (who, despite his name, is actually the main villain of the piece), in St. Bastard's, the most vicious boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in England, and St. Bitch's, a nearby convent. Pip and his sisters attempt to free themselves of their guardian with the help of Harry Biscuit, whose father invented the biscuit
Biscuit
A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
. It is narrated by Pip as an old man to the journalist (and his eventual son-in-law) Sourquill, who brings various useless inventions to assist in recording the events.
Production and broadcast history
The pilot episode was recorded in March 2006. The first series was broadcast at 11.30am on Wednesdays from 15 August 2007, with the first series repeated on Radio 4 from 9 January 2008 and subsequently on BBC 7. A second series was commissioned in late 2007, and was recorded on 18, 23 and 26 May 2008 at the BBC Radio Theatre. The British Comedy GuideBritish Comedy Guide
The British Comedy Guide or BCG is a British website covering all forms of British comedy, across all media. At the time of writing, the BCG has published guides to more than 1,200 individual British comedies - primarily TV and radio situation comedy, sketch shows, comedy dramas, satire, variety...
website gave it its "British Comedy Guide Editors' Award" for 2008. A third series was recorded at the Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House, on 7, 14 and 28 June 2009, the first episode of which was broadcast on Radio 4 on 29 October 2009. The third series won a Bronze Sony Award in the Comedy category in 2010. Recordings for the fourth six-part series began on 11 September 2010, again at the BBC Radio Theatre, and transmission began on 11 November 2010.
Pilot episode
- Richard JohnsonRichard Johnson (actor)Richard Johnson is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career. He most recently appeared in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.-Life and career:...
- Sir Philip ("Pip") Bin - Tom AllenTom Allen (comedian)Tom Allen is an English stand up comedian actor and writer.At the age of 22 Allen won the UK's most prestigious comedy newcomer award So You Think You're Funny in 2005. The same year he won the BBC New Comedy Awards...
- Young Pip - Joanna PageJoanna PageJoanna Louise Page is a Welsh actress, best known for playing Stacey in the television series, Gavin and Stacey.-Early and personal life:...
- Pippa Bin, Pip's sister - Kellie BrightKellie BrightKellie Bright is an actress who is known for her roles as a child actress on British television in the late 1980s and the 1990s, and later in Bad Girls and The Archers.-Early career:...
- Poppy Bin, Pip's sister - Kim WallKim WallKim Wall is an American Actress. She is probably best known for starring in the 1988 sequel Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.-Career:...
- Thomas Bin, their father (impersonating Martin Jarvis) - Sophie ThompsonSophie ThompsonSophie Thompson is an award-winning English actress, best known for playing Stella Crawford in EastEnders.-Early life:...
- Agnes Bin, their mother - Tom HollanderTom HollanderThomas Anthony "Tom" Hollander is a British actor who has appeared in productions such as Enigma, Gosford Park, Cambridge Spies, Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean, In the Loop, Valkyrie and Hanna.-Early life:Tom Hollander was born in Bristol and raised in Oxford, Oxfordshire, the son...
- Mr Gently Benevolent "who was, ironically, a complete bastard"; his descendant the journalist Sourquill - James BachmanJames BachmanJames Bachman is an English comedian, actor and writer.He has written for many U.K. radio and television programmes, including That Mitchell and Webb Look , That Mitchell and Webb Sound , Popetown , and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway...
- Servewell, Sir Philip's servant; Harry Biscuit (parodying Alec Guinness's portrayal of Herbert Pocket in the film of Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations (1946 film)Great Expectations is a 1946 British film which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three others...
) - Laurence HowarthLaurence HowarthLaurence Howarth is an English comic actor and writer. He has appeared in one episode each of the TV series After You've Gone , Hyperdrive , Blessed , The Robinsons , My Hero and Dark Ages...
- Mr Skinflint Parsimonious, who is - contrary to his name - very generous - Geoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey Whitehead is an English actor. He has appeared in a huge range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at the Shakespeare Globe, St...
- Mr Hardthrasher (a parody of Wackford Squeers and Mr BumbleOliver TwistOliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
)
Series 1, 2, 3 and 4
- Richard JohnsonRichard Johnson (actor)Richard Johnson is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career. He most recently appeared in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.-Life and career:...
- Sir Philip ("Pip") Bin - Tom AllenTom Allen (comedian)Tom Allen is an English stand up comedian actor and writer.At the age of 22 Allen won the UK's most prestigious comedy newcomer award So You Think You're Funny in 2005. The same year he won the BBC New Comedy Awards...
- Young Pip - Susy KaneSusy KaneSusy Kane is an English actress, comedy writer and musician.-Personal life:She is the daughter of opera singer Alison Warner and actor and writer John Kane, and the younger sister of comedy writer and actor Simon Kane...
- Pippa Bin, Pip's sister and later Harry's wife - Anthony HeadAnthony HeadAnthony Stewart Head , usually credited as Anthony Head, is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend , and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in...
- Mr Gently Benevolent (full name Gently Lovely Kissy Nice-Nice Benevolent); Jeremy Sourquill - James BachmanJames BachmanJames Bachman is an English comedian, actor and writer.He has written for many U.K. radio and television programmes, including That Mitchell and Webb Look , That Mitchell and Webb Sound , Popetown , and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway...
- Harry Biscuit, always eager to assist his friend Pip, but usually with impracticable schemes. Dies tragically in the penultimate episode of series three, but is brought back to life in the next episode by Benevolent for his evil undead army. - Laurence HowarthLaurence HowarthLaurence Howarth is an English comic actor and writer. He has appeared in one episode each of the TV series After You've Gone , Hyperdrive , Blessed , The Robinsons , My Hero and Dark Ages...
- Mr Skinflint Parsimonious (Series 1 and 2) - Mark EvansMark Evans (comedian/writer)Mark Evans is a Welsh comedian, actor, and writer.He has written for many U.K. radio and television programmes, including That Mitchell and Webb Look , The Late Edition , That Mitchell and Webb Sound , Popetown , and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway...
- Mr Wyckham-Post-Forburton...., Thomas' lawyer whose full name took 20 minutes to say and to whom - since he charged by the hour - "his name was his greatest asset"; Revd Supermarket; Waiter; Dr Cure-Some-By-Chance; sundry boys, gentlemen and chavvies - Sarah HadlandSarah HadlandSarah Hadland is an English actress who has a career spanning theatre, film, and television and as a voice-over artist.-Early life and education:...
- Lily, Sir Phillip's daughter; Ripely Fecund, Pip's third wife (series 2); Miss Christmasham, Sweetly's guardian, parodying Miss HavishamMiss HavishamMiss Havisham is a significant character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations . She is a wealthy spinster, who lives in her ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella, whom she has sent to France, while she herself is described as looking like "the witch of the place."Although she...
(series 3) - Geoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey WhiteheadGeoffrey Whitehead is an English actor. He has appeared in a huge range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at the Shakespeare Globe, St...
- the entire dynasty of various evil families with equally unpleasant names. In the first series, he is the Hardthrasher clan; Jeremiah (Headmaster), Obadiah (Doctor), Ezekiel (Beadle), Hasdrubal (Admiral), Chastity (Governess) and Buford T (Judge). In the second series, he plays the six Sternbeater brothers; Francis N (Scientist), Emmett (Railway Magnate), Jedrington (Speaker), Avarice (Money-Lender), Pushington (Opium Dealer) and George S (General). In series 3 the family name is Whackwallop. In series 4, the family name is Grimpunch. This was inspired by the film Kind Hearts and CoronetsKind Hearts and CoronetsKind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy feature film. The plot is loosely based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, with the screenplay written by Robert Hamer and John Dighton and the film directed by Hamer...
, in which Alec GuinnessAlec GuinnessSir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
played multiple members of the same family, all of whom died one way or another during the course of the picture. In similar fashion, Geoffrey Whitehead's characters have similarly short shelf-lives, and get bumped off in various gruesome ways during the series, usually one per episode, although occasionally one will run into the next episode, giving Geoffrey Whitehead an unequalled tally of comedy deaths as different characters. In the penultimate episode of the third series it is revealed that the father of each of these three sets of brothers was one of Benevolent's evil stepfathers. His Stepsiblings were his natural allies. The only good one was General George S. Sternbeater (the black sheep of the family), who is disintegrated while battling against the Martians, although his ghost appears at the end of the episode. In the final episode of Series 3, a Mr Harshsmacker appears briefly at the end, who claims to be the cousin of Bishop Whackwallop. Throughout Series 4 Whitehead plays the Grimpunch brothers, who don't imply that they're in any way related to the other families, and some of whom aid Pip in attempting to defeat Mr Benevolent.
Series 1 only
- Perdita WeeksPerdita WeeksPerdita Weeks is a British actress.-Biography:Perdita was born in South Glamorgan and studied art history at the Courtauld Institute.-Acting career:...
- Poppy Bin, Pip's sister - Celia ImrieCelia ImrieCelia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
- Agnes Bin, Pip's mother; Aunt Lily, Pip's aunt - Martha Howe-DouglasMartha Howe-DouglasMartha Howe-Douglas is an English actress, best known for playing the receptionist Donna Parmar in the BBC One daytime soap, Doctors. She has appeared in the children's series Horrible Histories, and as Lady Anne in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom "The Castle"....
- Flora Dies-Early, Pip's first wife - Mark PerryMark Perry (impressionist)Mark Perry is a British impressionist and his notable impressions include; David Dickinson, John Prescott and the late Robin Cook. Perry is known for playing various public figures in Dead Ringers and 2DTV. In 2007 he appeared in the radio comedy Bleak Expectations...
- Thomas Bin; Benevolent's henchman; town crierTown crierA town crier, or bellman, is an officer of the court who makes public pronouncements as required by the court . The crier can also be used to make public announcements in the streets...
; Flora's father; King George IV
Series 2 and 4 only
- David MitchellDavid Mitchell (actor)David James Stuart Mitchell is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb, whom he met at Cambridge University. There they were both part of the Cambridge Footlights, of which Mitchell became President. Together the duo star in the...
- Ripely's father, the Reverend Godly Fecund
Series 3 only
- Jane AsherJane AsherJane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
- Lovely Benevolent (née Malevolent), Gently's mother - Raquel CassidyRaquel CassidyRaquel Josephine Dominic Cassidy is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her television roles as Susan Gately in Teachers , the Home Office Junior Minister Jo Porter in Party Animals, and Mel in Lead Balloon, as well as her various stage works.-Filmography:-Selected...
- Miss Sweetly Delightful, Gently's first and only love, parodying Estella HavishamEstella HavishamEstella Havisham is a significant character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations....
from Great ExpectationsGreat ExpectationsGreat Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
Series 1
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Series 2
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Series 3
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Series 4
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