Bleak Expectations is a BBC Radio 4 comedy series that premiered in August 2007. It is a parody of the works of Charles Dickens such as Bleak House and Great Expectations, from which it derives its name, including adventure, science fiction, and costume dramas set in the same period. Bleak Expectations parodies several of their plot devices whilst simultaneously tending toward surreal humour along the lines of The Goon Show. The series also demonstrated a fondness for allusions to parodies of the films of Alec Guinness, particularly the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Bleak Expectations is written by Mark Evans who plays minor characters in most episodes, and is produced by Gareth Edwards. Its opening and closing theme are the main theme of the Mazurka from Three Characteristic Pieces by Edward Elgar.
The plot revolves around Philip "Pip" Bin, the fictitious inventor of the bin, and his various fantastic adventures as he attempts to thwart the machinations of his evil ex-guardian, Mr. Gently Benevolent. Pip narrates it 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 11.30 am 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 Guide 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 Radio Academy Award in the Comedy category in 2010. The fourth six-part series premiered on 11 November 2010.
Mark Evans tweeted on 20 Dec 2011 that a fifth series of the show would be made in 2012 for broadcast on Radio 4. The first of the six episodes of this fifth series, titled "A Pleasant Yet Dull Life Re-Evilled", was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 6.30 pm on 20 November 2012.
The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, a televisual spiritual successor to Bleak Expectations, written and produced by the same crew, was first broadcast on BBC Two on 19 December 2011.
Bleak Expectations, a novelization of the first series, written by Mark Evans was published in November 2012 by Constable & Robinson. A theatrical adaptation of the show ran at the Watermill Theatre in summer 2022, and transferred to the West End at the Criterion Theatre from 3 May to 13 August 2023.
Cast
Richard Johnson – Sir Philip Put-that-in-the Bin – The richest man in England, the inventor of the rubbish bin, England's most celebrated author, and our narrator. He spends the series describing his youthful adventures to his daughter Lily, whom he adores, and the journalist (later his son-in-law) Jeremy Sourquill, whom he despises. An irascible, temperamental old man, he spends much time protesting the newfangled ideals of the late Victorian era, such as women's voting and women's thinking, as well as the various devices brought along by Sourquill. Tom Allen – Pip Bin – Sir Philip as a young man, and our hero. Naïve, idealistic, and true, Pip's dramatic rising and falling in fortune, safety, and security (mostly at the hand of the evil Mr Benevolent) are the subject of Sir Philip's story. Anthony Head – Mr Gently Benevolent – Pip's former guardian and his personal nemesis. The evilest man in the world, his massively complicated evil plans are designed both to conquer the world and to personally make Pip as miserable as possible. His plots often include very transparent disguises that Pip somehow never manages to see through. His evilness is the product of a combination of a family curse (he is descended from the accountant to Judas Iscariot) and a traumatic childhood at the hands of a mother secretly plotting to make him evil and a series of sadistic stepfathers. His full name is Gently Lovely Kissy Nice-Nice Benevolent. Though Benevolent has been killed and resurrected multiple times, and even briefly de-eviled by marriage to his childhood sweetheart, he has always returned to ruin Pip's life, in an obsession that occasionally verges on a love affair. Jeremy Sourquill, a bumbling journalist transcribing Sir Philip's story for serial publication. He meets, falls in love with, and marries Lily, Sir Philip's daughter, over the course of the first series, becoming Sir Philip's son-in-law. This does not endear him to Sir Philip, who already despises him for his constant lateness (with a different ridiculous reason in each episode) and for his reliance on a series of ludicrously complex steampunk devices designed to help him write his articles (such as a steam-powered typewriter, a horse-drawn pencil, a carrier cheetah and an iWax phonographic recorder). During the third series, the devices he brings with him are intended to assist in baby care rather than writing. It is not until the final episode of the series, where he stands up to Sir Philip, that he earns his father-in-law's respect. He is revealed, at the end of the first series, to be Mr. Benevolent's grandson. After Lily proposes to him, he renounces a plan to kill Sir Philip to avenge his grandfather and this connection is never mentioned again. James Bachman – Harry Biscuit – Pip's best friend and, later, brother-in-law. Harry is impressively loyal, impulsively brave, and irrepressibly cheerful, but also incurably dim. The son of the man who invented the biscuit, Harry is anxious to prove himself as an inventor in his own right. His attempts to aid Pip usually occur in the form of pointlessly complicated devices, most of which are inspired by his obsession with cake, swans, or both. Harry is a parody of the loyal, happy-go-lucky Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations. Servewell, Sir Philip's loyal servant. Susy Kane – Pippa Swing-top Wheelie Bin (Later Biscuit), Pip's sister and eventually Harry's wife. An intelligent and passionate woman constrained by a time period that considers her ambitions silly at best and illegal at worst, Pippa channels her energies into era-appropriate pursuits such as charities, social causes, and bearing as many children as possible. Her marriage with Harry has had many dramatic ups and downs, including the loss and regaining of their twenty-three children, Harry's temporary death, and Pippa's season-long dalliance with evil (and Mr. Benevolent). Sarah Hadland – Lady Lily Bin (Later Sourquill), Sir Philip's beloved daughter listens intently as her father narrates her life story. Sweet and intelligent, Lily shows an interest in women's rights issues (such as voting and trouser-wearing) that irritates her father. She falls in love with and marries Jeremy Sourquill, and she gives birth to their first child in the second series finale. Ripely Deliciously Temptingly Fecund (Later Bin), Pip's third(ish) wife (series 2–5); The daughter of a reverend, Ripely was raised to believe she was horrifically ugly since being disfigured in a buffet accident when she was three years old. However, her disfigurement was actually bits of buffet food stuck to her face, and once removed she was revealed to be quite beautiful. She was the eldest of seventeen daughters, her younger sisters being hexadecimuplets (whose births resulted in the death of their mother). Her marriage with Pip is marked by her insatiable libido and poorly hidden obsession with shirtless cavalry officers. As she ages, she develops into something of a snob and becomes the most overtly sarcastic of the cast's heroes. Miss Christmasham, Sweetly's eccentric, shut-in guardian, a parody of Miss Havisham who sits in her home after being stood up by relatives she had invited for a Christmas Day dinner. She dies in a prolonged series of household accidents that result in Benevolent missing Sweetly Delightful's wedding and becoming evil. (series 3 only) Juanita Hotchilli (Uncredited, Series 4 only) An incredibly attractive Mexican woman, one of ninety-three women Harry marries in an overcomplicated plan to avoid being abandoned after Pippa leaves him for Mr. Benevolent. The other ninety-two wives are all elderly women named Doris, and they all, including Juanita, leave Harry for Mr. Benevolent seconds after he boasts that Benevolent cannot possibly steal all of his wives. Eventually, she and the other wives have their brains placed in the bodies of dinosaurs as part of Mr. Benevolent's evil plans, a transformation that does not at all diminish Juanita's attractiveness. She became Mr Benevolent's evil consort after he left Pippa. She is never mentioned again after the last episode of series four. Hadland also plays, uncredited, a number of small and supporting roles throughout the series, including perpetually dying chimney sweep Jo Sentimental-Overload, river Thames scavenger Mrs. Scrunge, and various small children and animals. Geoffrey Whitehead – The Hardthrashers/Sternbeaters/Whackwallops/Grimpunches/Clampvultures – The entire dynasty of various evil families with equally unpleasant names, who serve as accomplices to the evil Mr. Benevolent. His characters 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. This is inspired by the film Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which Alec Guinness played multiple members of the same family, all of whom were killed off in different ways over the course of the film. In the first series, he is the Hardthrasher siblings; Jeremiah (headmaster – crushed by an anvil), Obadiah (doctor – crushed by a guillotine), Ezekiel (beadle – crushed by a wall inscribed with Bible passages), Hasdrubal (admiral – set on fire, then drowned), Chastity (governess – poisoned) and Buford T (judge – struck on the head by one of Harry's kidneys travelling at high velocity). In the second series, he plays the six Sternbeater brothers, cousins of the Hardthrashers; Francis Norman 'Frank N.' (mad scientist – thrown off a roof then impaled), Emmett (railway magnate – crushed by a falling train), Jedrington (Speaker of the House of Commons – set on fire then exploded), Avarice (money-lender – stabbed), Pushington (opium dealer – given an overdose then shot) and George S (general – disintegrated by Martians). General George S. Sternbeater was the black sheep of the family, and therefore the only good one. In series 3 the family name is Whackwallop: Inspector Whackwallop (from Scotland Yard – exsanguinated by Mr Benevolent), Caduceus (Psychiatrist – pelted with soup tins by Harry), Grinder (Factory Manager – pulled apart by factory workers), Barker (Freak Show proprietor – killed by his freaks), and Righteous (Bishop – impaled by a church spire but made undead). Their father was also Mr Benevolent's stepfather and the first person he killed after becoming evil. In the final episode of Series 3, a Mr Harshsmacker appears briefly at the end, and claims that he and his five brothers were cousins of Bishop Whackwallop; the Harshsmackers do not appear in subsequent episodes.