History Radio / BleakExpectations

** Gently Benevolent will inevitably say "Goodbye, Pip Bin!" whenever he's about to kill Pip.

* TalkativeLoon: Pip's mother during the first series, after her husband dies. [[spoiler:At the end of the first series, when her husban proves to be alive, she turns out to have been [[ObfuscatingInsanity simulating all along]].]]

** Gently Benevolent will invaritably say "Goodbye, Pip Bin!" whenever he's about to kill Pip.

** Undead Harry.

* FoeYay: Pip for Mister Benevolent
--> '''Pip''': Oh there's ''hardly any'' attraction there

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Ripely's opinion of Sweetly Delightful.

* AChristmasCarol: The Spirit of Harvest Festival Past/Present/Future appears to Pip in a blatant plot by Mr Benevolent. {{Subverted}} in details such as "Massive Tim", then DoubleSubverted with "Miniscule Michael".

* BlatantLies: Gently Benevolent's mother's explanations for why her husbands keep dying.

* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Pippa, as Mr Benevolents 'evil consort' in series 4. He explicitly cites this as a reason for dumping her in episode 5, pointing out she seems to keep confusing 'bad' with 'evil':

--> I met a puppy and ''didn't pet for very long!''

* RefugeInAudacity: Poverty so extreme people survive on communion wafers, kidnapping a school by harnessing it to horses, underwater carnivorous squirrels, tides of sewage that sweep over London.

* RunningGag: The lawyer's name, Mr Skinflint Parsimonious's obsession with giving people things, Pippa's anvil (season 1), Mr Gently Benevolent's nose (season 2), [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood the bizarre methods of childcare]] employed by Sir Philip's daughter and Sourquill (season 3), Lily's various evening classes, Harry Biscuit's obsession with cake (season 4) amongst others.

* ShoutOut: Several, but particularly worth noting is when Pip, Harry and Benevolent are blasted into space, and repeat several lines from Davie Bowie's ''Space Oddity''.

* StartOfDarkness: An Evil Life Sort Of Explained

* MeaningfulName: Subverted with Mr Skinflint Parsimonious and Mr Gently Benevolent, both of whom have names that are the exact opposite of their personalities (Benevolent's full name is revealed to be 'Gently Lovely Kissy Nice-Nice Benevolent'). Done straight with the Hardthrashers, who run St Bastards, and their cousins, the Sternbeaters and Whackwhallops. Also played straight with the love interests Ripely Fecund and Sweetly Delightful, not to mention the parody of Dora Spenlow in ''DavidCopperfield'': Flora Dies-Early.

* BunglingInventor: Harry Biscuit builds a lot of brilliant machines, none of which work as intended. [[spoiler: Gently Benevolent's XanatosGambit in the season three finale actually relies on this.]]

* [[IncrediblyLamePun Agonisingly Lame Pun]]: quite often, leading to at least one CollectiveGroan.
-->'''Harry Biscuit''': It's a new sweet for sheep; I call it the "Baa Humbug".

''Bleak Expectations'' is a [[TheBBC BBC]] Radio 4 comedy series, parodying the works of [[CharlesDickens Dickens]], and Radio 4's own adaptations of them. (The third season was broadcast concurrent with a straight dramatisation of ''Our Mutual Friend'', and a listener wrote to Radio 4's ''Feedback'' to say it was difficult to tell them apart.)

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Mr Gently Benevolent has Pip at his mercy:

** "Ah... but does it not say in the Bible... ''Leave me alone, I'm miserable!''" Harry Biscuit, refusing to let Pip cheer him up after [[spoiler: Pippa has left him to be Mr Gently Benevolent's "evil consort."]]

* ChekhovsGun: Mr Bin returns with gifts for his children, bizarrely giving Pippa an anvil. It comes in handy surprisingly often. Often some absurd detail sporting a {{lampshade}} will come back later.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Harry Biscuit, often coming with some [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering non sequitur.]]
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment:

* FoeYay: Pip for Mister Benevolent

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: The brothers Hardthrasher. And the Whackwallops, Sternbeaters and Grimpunches; the entire family is voiced by Geoffrey Whitehead.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: The steam engine and the telegraph, both in episode 4.

* MiseryLit: Mr Benevolent tortures Ripely by forcing her to read such books. Furthermore, the premise of the whole series is Sir Philip narrating the tragic and unfortunate events of his life to a journalist for serialisation.

* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Cake?]]: Quoted, subverted and parodied by Harry Biscuit, who isn't ''afraid'' of cake, but simply loves it ''too much.''

--> "For example, washing up badly is not the same as washing up evily. It is merely unhygenic. Evil washing up involves crying children, smashed plates and [[KickTheDog at least two dead dogs.]]"

** Until finally he was [[CompleteMonster ''cheeseboarded'']].

* ParodyNames: It's a Dickens parody, after all, and Dickens' names are ridiculous enough to start with...

* GonnaFlyNowMontage: In episode 6, complete with "Gonna Fly Now".

** and before she was apparently KilledOffForReal, Aunt Lily was the queen of this trope, returning in increasingly unlikely ways from seeming demises.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Mr Gently Benevolent sounds a lot like Giles from ''{{Buffy}}'', being voiced by AnthonyHead.

* [=~Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering~=]: Harry Biscuit is rarely on the same page as everyone else.

* [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]: Mr Bin returns with gifts for his children, bizarrely giving Pippa an anvil. It comes in handy surprisingly often. Often some absurd detail sporting a {{lampshade}} will come back later.

* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Mr Gently Benevolent sounds a lot like Giles from ''{{Buffy}}'', being voiced by Anthony Head.

* [=~I'm Cold... So Cold...~=]: Played straight until becomes parody.

A SpiritualSuccessor, ''The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff'', was broadcast on BBC 2 in 2011.

!!''BleakExpectations'' has examples of: