Harumble! I have spent the past few days listening to all of the wonderful Radio 4 comedy series Bleak Expectations. As the title might suggest, it starts off as a Dickens parody, and also makes reference to similar period dramas and their plot clichés, but also throws in surreal supernatural elements along the way.

The series is narrated by Sir Phillip Bin who is telling his story to the journalist (and later his son-in-law) Sourquill. He relates incidences from his life, starting with the death of his father and his banishment to the boarding school St Bastard’s by his guardian Mr Gently Benevolent (ironically a cruel and evil man). In later episodes he must further battle his nemesis, in increasingly surreal plots (Martian armies, undead enemies, possessed pigeons, cake-craving monsters, dinosaurs and so on).

The young Pip Bin is aided by his friend Harry Biscuit (a useless inventor, whose father invented the biscuit) and his sister Pippa (who later becomes Harry’s wife, and then turns to evil). Inevitably present are the allies of Mr Benevolent, who all come from families with evil names such as the Hardthrashers or the Sternbeaters, and who die at a rate of about one per episode.

The show is just fantastic, brilliantly silly and fun, and wonderfully funny. It is not just the plot, but the characters and acting too (Anthony Head obviously has a lot of fun hamming it up as Gently Benevolent), and the dialogue which is so full of one liners and great puns and word play, and several nice running gags. The post could easily have just been a long list of quotations from the show. It really is fantastic.

It took me ages to get around to listening to it, even though friends had recommended it to me before, and I am so glad that I finally listened to it all. There are four series so far, and I really hope that there will be more. It is definitely one of the best comedies I’ve experienced lately, not just radio but television as well. I cannot recommend it highly enough.