Mark Evans

Last August a six-part comedy series began on Radio 4 that captivated most of those who heard it - and the people who didn't like it were just plain wrong. Written by Mark Evans, Bleak Expectations was a wonderful pastiche of Dickens - the two novels cannibalised for the programme title for a start - as well as other Victorian costume dramas, spiced with surrealistic devices such as underwater squirrels and a raft made up of trained tuna. Evans worked on the admirable principle of throwing so many jokes at the listener that even if they missed, some most would get through and, at times, listening to it was exhausting.

And now it's back. One doesn't want to spoil the tension by detailing any aspect of the plot but those who feared that we had seen the last of Gently Benevolent because Anthony Head, who played him, had more glamorous parts to play on TV need fear no longer. Richard Johnson again plays the elderly Sir Philip Bin, and Tom Allen his younger, accident and grief-prone self, while Geoffrey Whitehead plays all six members of the sinister Sternbeater family.

Chapter Three, incidentally, even has a guest star - David Mitchell. When the greats of modern comedy queue up to take part in your show in any capacity, however small, you know you're up there with The Muppets and Extras.

Chris Campling, The Times, 2nd August 2008

Written in the style of Dickens after one too many gins, Mark Evans's lively parody, starring Anthony Head and Celia Imrie, sends up the Victorian novelist. We are amused.

James Rampton, The Independent, 11th August 2007