Bleak Expectations Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tom Allen

Tom Allen is a very talented young comedian who has also written and starred in the Radio 4 comedy series 'The Correspondent'. David Mitchell is a familiar voice on Radio 4, hosting the long-running panel show 'The Unbelievable Truth' and starring, along with his comedy partner Robert Webb, in their self-titled comedy sketch show 'That Mitchell and Webb Sound'. John Finnemore writes and stars in the hit Radio 4 series 'Cabin Pressure' as well as his own self-titled comedy sketch show 'John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme'. Tim Key is a comedy actor and poet who has appeared in the sitcoms 'Party' and 'Hard To Tell' as well as appearing alongside Mark Watson in a number of his Radio 4 series.

Answer: Pippa and Poppy

Poppy Bin (played by Perdita Weeks) dies in a workhouse in series 1 but Pippa Bin (Susy Kane) remains an important character throughout the rest of the five series.

Answer: Jeremy Sourquill

Sourquill continuously annoys Sir Philip by his constant tardiness and insistence on trying out his latest devices such as a steam-powered typewriter, carrier cheetah and morse-code horse, none of which ever work as intended. Sourquill becomes engaged to Sir Philip's daughter, Lily, at the end of series 1 and at the beginning of series 2 Lily announces that she is pregnant, she gives birth in the last episode of series 2 meaning that, in series 3, Sourquill's disastrous gadgets are mostly baby-related such as an automatic cradle rocker and an extremely elaborate baby monitor.

Answer: Anthony Head

The ironically named Gently Benevolent is played as a parody of the conventional Dickensian villain in series 1, arranging the death of Pip's father before sending him and his sisters off to excessively cruel boarding schools and planning to marry their mother and inherit their family fortune.

Although he dies at the end of series 1, he is resurrected at the beginning of series 2 and the (now undead) Mr. Benevolent turns his evil attentions to world domination, though he still spends an inordinate amount of time attempting to kill Pip Bin. During the five series of 'Bleak Expectations', Gently Benevolent adopts a number of cunning disguises which always seem to fool Pip Bin completely, despite Benevolent frequently forgetting to keep up his accent or having an important part of his disguise like a wig fall off. One would think that Pip Bin would have grown suspicious of mysterious strangers having been caught out by Mr. Benevolent so often, but this never seems to be the case.

Answer: Harshthwacker

The Whackwallops and Clampvultures also worked for Mr. Benevolent. Jeffrey Whitehead's portrayal of all 29 henchmen and one henchwoman, is an homage to the performance of Alec Guinness in the film 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', in which he plays several members of the same family.

Answer: Harry Biscuit

Harry often feels inadequate compared to his father and best friend (who have invented the biscuit and bin respectively) and spends a great deal of time fruitlessly attempting to come up with an invention of his own. Unfortunately Harry's inventions, which often involve his favourite things, swans and cake, are rarely a success, though they do occasionally and completely accidentally, save the day. Harry marries Pip's sister Pippa and the pair have 23 children and remain mostly happily married, apart from a brief period when Harry dies and is brought back to life and when Pippa leaves him to become Mr. Gently Benevolent's evil consort.

Answer: Miss Christmasham

Pip marries his first wife, Flora Dies-Early (played by Martha Howe-Douglas), after falling in love with her at first sight, failing to take a clue from her name and realise their union was not going to last long, in fact, Flora had died before the end of the same episode in which they met and married.

Her death parodies the early death of David Copperfield's first wife Dora. In series 2 Pip marries an American heiress, Miss Talulah Not-A-Man (again the clue is in the name!), who, after the couple have said their vows, reveals herself to be a cunningly disguised Mr. Gently Benevolent.

After he realises that he has been tricked Pip Bin finally realises that he is really in love with Miss Ripely Fecund, who, up until that point, he thought of as a sister, this again parodies David Copperfield's feelings for his second wife Agnes. Pip and Ripely (played by Sarah Hadland who also plays Pip and Ripely's daughter Lily) marry at the end of series 2 and remain relatively happily married for the rest of the five series, excluding much of series 4 when Ripely loses her memory and can remember nothing about her life, including Pip, and much of series 5 where she believes (not without reason) that Pip may be in love with Mr. Benevolent.

Answer: Miss Sweetly Delightful

In series 3, Pip, Harry, and Ripely set out to track down Miss Sweetly Delightful as they believe that her love may be capable of reforming Mr. Benevolent. Unfortunately, although they succeed in reuniting the childhood sweethearts, Sweetly ends up turning to the dark side after realising how much fun evil looks.

Answer: Fifty Shades of Hay

'Fifty Shades of Hay' is an erotic novel that Ripely writes when she is trying to prove to Pip that anyone can write a best-selling novel, it immediately becomes the fastest selling book of all time. 'Our Mutual Fiend' and 'Old Shop of Stuff' (which partially gave its name to the short-lived TV adaptation of 'Bleak Expectations') are obvious Dickensian parodies of 'Our Mutual Friend' and 'Old Curiosity Shop' respectively.

In series 1 Sir Philip tells Sourquill that most of his novels are autobiographical with the exception of 'Lustful Killer Bees from Mars', which, he admits, is entirely fictitious.

Answer: David Mitchell

Godly Fecund first appears in series 2 when he and his daughter Ripely rescue a seriously ill Pip Bin and nurse him back to help. Now Pip Bin's father-in-law, the Reverend turns up again in series 4 where he helps to defeat Mr. Benevolent's undead army with a holy water cannon, sacrificing himself in the process.