Bleak Expectations

A radio comedy aptly described as "a gloriously daft Victorian romp in the style of Charles Dickens after too much gin."

Volume 1: The sitcom follows the remarkable adventures of young Sir Philip 'Pip' Bin as he struggles to rescue himself and his sisters from the schemes of his evil and ironically-named guardian Mr Gently Benevolent.

Volume 2: The comic Victorian epic tells the further extraordinary adventures of Pip Bin and his trusty friend Harry Biscuit as they battle against the evil Mr Gently Benevolent, returned from the dead specifically to destroy all that is good and pure and true. Wince at the cruel vengeance of the Sternbeater cousins! Weep at the squalor of the opium den! Wonder at the engineering of the world's first beef and pastry railway!

Volume 3: All seems well in the life of Pip Bin. His evil guardian Mr Gently Benevolent has been killed (again) and he has found true love with his wife Ripely and true happiness with his beloved family and friends. Everything is properly splendid, and surely for the duration of the series it will continue that way, won't it? No! Because in a ghastly incident at a seance the spirit of the evil Mr Benevolent reappears to wreak more havoc on everything that is noble, Victorian and English!

Volume 4: Shipwrecks, time-machines, the Wild West, volcanoes, the underworld and a sinister new kind of cake abound appear in Series 4.

Hero Pip sees his former nemesis - the badly named Gently Benevolent - thwarted and locked up in a prison within a jail (within a gaol spelled the other way), and apparently repentant of his crimes. But late one foggy night when Pip is attacked with a bowl of sinister custard he realises a new form of evil is stalking the streets of London, and he is obliged to ask for help from his erstwhile foe.

Meanwhile, Pip's wife Ripely has become obsessed with cutlery, and the purchase of some diamond-handled dodo knives looks likely to force Pip into bankruptcy. His best friend, Harry Biscuit, claims to be having terrible problems with an angry badger, but is all as it seems?

Volume 5: Pip Bin is beginning to miss the conflict with his absent evil nemesis Mr Gently Benevolent, when he receives an intriguing invitation to a house party with Britain's poshest man. The series sees Pip, Gently and Co visit India, Antarctica and other interesting locations.