Episodes

Nov. 22, 2023

Interlopers Part 1 by Thomas Hardy

On a dark night, Farmer Charles Darton and his friend Japheth Johns are riding on their way to The Knap to meet Sally Hall, Charles' bride-to-be. Losing their way is the prelude to a series of unexpected arrivals and events...

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Oct. 19, 2023

Crudely, Badly, Cheaply Part 2

Having ended Part 1 with his business plan "in the air", Jimmy 'Skiver' McIver at last gets the backing and support of his old school friend and businessman Roger Soul and Denise, Roger's glamorous PA. They launch the dry cle...

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June 20, 2023

Crudely, Badly, Cheaply Part 1

Jimmy ‘Skiver’ McIver is back! Last heard from in “Ashes to Ashford”* sunning himself on a Caribbean beach, “Crudely, Badly, Cheaply” takes us back 15 years to less lucky times for our feckless Cockney wheeler-dealer. In Part...

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Sept. 30, 2022

The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy

On a dark, stormy Victorian night atop a Wessex hill, Shepherd and Mrs Fennel are holding a christening party at their cottage for a second-born child. Proceedings are interrupted by the consecutive arrival of three strangers...

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Aug. 17, 2022

The Plagues of Egypt

There 's nothing like a good biblical story...and this is NOTHING like a good biblical story! Mary Poppins jokes aside, this is a short story relating how Pharoah Contraraoh fared whilst trying to Make Egypt Great Again (MEGA...

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June 28, 2022

Institute, Destitute, Substitute Part 2

Talking humanity creeps into the chance encounter at the Women's Institute between uptight Lydia and the educated but impoverished itinerant Colin. Then external reality intervenes: the WI guest speaker cannot make it. Shakes...

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May 18, 2022

Institute, Destitute, Substitute Part 1

Taking shelter from the rain in a village hall somewhere in England, an educated, homeless man is confronted by Lydia, a "formidable" member of the local Women's Institute. Under threat of expulsion, he engages with the lady ...

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April 15, 2022

Somebody's Luggage Part 7 by Charles Dickens

In this final part of the series, called "His Wonderful End", our waitering hero Mr Christopher returns - and he is a worried man. He has successfully sold the stories discovered in Somebody's luggage to a publisher. Now he w...

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March 18, 2022

Somebody's Luggage Part 6 by Julia Cecilia Stretton

In the second and final part of "Discovered in his Portmanteau (The Tale of the Obliging Mr Blorage)", Dick Blorage is still not on board with the revelatory properties of Lady Verita's magical Chair of Truth. There is a hars...

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Feb. 9, 2022

Somebody's Luggage Part 5 by Julia Cecilia Stretton

"Discovered in his Portmanteau (The Tale of the Obliging Mr Blorage)" is the amusing contribution of female Victorian writer Julia Cecilia Stretton to Dickens' "Somebody's Luggage" short story compendium. In two parts, Part 1...

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Jan. 7, 2022

Somebody's Luggage Part 4 by Charles Dickens

Thomas is not just an artist, but a Fine Artist in Victorian London. He is a riddler. He is highly strung. He has a friend who is quickly lost. He acquires a girlfriend who decides to leave him. Both object …

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Dec. 11, 2021

The Gravedigger & The Goblin Queen (Remastered) by Charles Dickens

This is the third of our short-story adaptations from Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" and his first Yuletide supernatural tale. It tells of Gabriel Grub, a morose, lonely and drunken gravedigger who hates people, part...

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Dec. 11, 2021

A Christmas Carol Part 1 (Remastered) by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens' classic Yuletide tale is presented in a two-part adaptation that gives you more of the story, focusing particularly on the corrosive effects of early Victorian capitalism. In Part 1, we see Scrooge in all his...

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Dec. 11, 2021

A Christmas Carol Part 2 (Remastered) by Charles Dickens

Having seen off the first ghost, Scrooge's education in the current lives of others during the festive season proceeds to the houses of the Cratchit family and his nephew, courtesy of a jolly Ghost of Christmas Present. With...

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Nov. 19, 2021

Somebody's Luggage Part 3 by Arthur Locker

The Story of the Iceberg Shipwreck (Discovered in his Dressing Case) is an exciting and ironic tale of disaster and derring-do on the high seas. Its narrator Monkhouse tells of the sinking of the good ship Golden Dream around...

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Oct. 22, 2021

Somebody's Luggage Part 2 by Charles Dickens

Discovered by head waiter Mr Christopher in Somebody’s boots, “The Story of Mr The Englishman Abroad” tells of Langley, a buttoned-up, hypercritical Englishman living alone in a French town. Estranged from his daughter in Eng...

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Sept. 24, 2021

Somebody's Luggage Part 1 by Charles Dickens

Mister Christopher is a Victorian waiter who has many OPINIONS - on what is (and is not) a waiter, good and bad waitering, customers and their foibles, coffee houses, and much more. In this first part of the Somebody's Luggag...

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Sept. 3, 2021

Cottoning On - The War Years

A bonus story from the life and times of Geoffrey Banks - British teacher, writer, broadcaster, and soap opera actor. Geoffrey goes up to Cambridge University in 1940 - just as World War 2 starts. Working as a navigator in …

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Aug. 13, 2021

Mrs Lirriper's Legacy Part 3 by Charles Dickens

In the French town of Sens, the mystery of Emma Lirriper’s dying benefactor is revealed as, on his deathbed, he opens his eyes. The dastardly Mr Edson is given Christian care by our heroine, and the chance to meet before …

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July 16, 2021

Mrs Lirriper's Legacy Part 2 by Charles Dickens

Mrs Emma Lirriper again encounters her arch lodging house rival Miss Wozenham - but in very different circumstances and with a surprisingly new outcome. After an intriguing visit from the French Consul, Emma learns of an unk...

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July 2, 2021

Mrs Lirriper's Legacy Part 1 by Charles Dickens

Our favourite Victorian London landlady returns for another series of events and escapades, centred around a legacy that has been left to Emma Lirriper by an unknown person. But before the mystery of this legacy begins, we he...

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June 18, 2021

The Longer Road Part 4

For this last episode, the meaning of The Longer Road is finally revealed, beginning with a "Fab Four" truth-telling game. In this is the fraught love and child-complex relationship between Rebecca and Dan, and the real impor...

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June 2, 2021

The Longer Road Part 3

Dan describes his epiphany of near drowning in the Ballycastle rock pool as Jimmy and American Elle play a sad guessing game around the details of the fraught and tragic relationship with her fiancé. Rebecca gives Jimmy a po...

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May 19, 2021

The Longer Road Part 2

Off to Antrim for a music festival final day-out, the “fab four” divert to Ballycastle by the sea amid disagreements about the future of the community centre, openness between group members…and then a fatal collision with a d...

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