
Being a loooong time fan of Robert Webb (of Mitchell & Webb fame) and Katherine Parkinson (of IT Crowd fame), I only recently discovered that they had a limited-run series over a decade ago, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (2011), which I somehow entirely missed until it recently came up in some other random search I was doing for something totally unrelated. This is always one of those things that annoys me but also causes me so much delight. On the one hand, how could I have missed this? On the other, YAY! A NEWLY DISCOVERED HISTORICAL COMEDY SERIES TO BINGE!
Also, not being a regular BBC Radio listener, IMDB informs me that this show is a continuation of the radio programme, Bleak Expectations, so I guess I need to drag myself away from all those Pinterest recipes and insomnia-fueled Reddit lurking and do a little branching out.
If you didn’t already infer from the name of the show, it’s a riff on two Dickens novels, The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House, and it’s accordingly set in what we lovingly call here at Frock Flicks, YE OLDE TIMEY TIMES, which usually falls somewhere in the mid-to-latter half of the 19th century. In addition to Webb and Parkinson, the series also features the talents of Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny, Terrence Hardiman, Celia Imrie, and Phyllida Law.
After watching the entire series, I have to say … it’s largely “eh.” But I’ve watched worse for this blog, so…






What did you think of The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (2011)? Tell us in the comments!
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Bleak Expectations is just glorious, in a way BBC Radio 4 does so well (Cabin Pressure is another work of genius you should seek out.) – the villain, played by Tony Head, (Giles from Buffy, King Uther from Merlin) is deliciously evil. It’s all very silly, and full of in-jokes for fans of Dickens and general Victorian fiction, but really well-done.
I remember being disappointed they didn’t take the TV series further – it had unrealised potential; you only have to look at that cast to see what could have been done with it!
Omg, thank you! Having the same, “how did I not know about this?…..wait….new series to binge!” moment!