The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff

A Victorian comedy adventure in the style of Charles Dickens. Jedrington Secret-Past (Robert Webb) is a happy family man with a successful business until on Christmas Eve Malifax Skulkingworm (Stephen Fry) a lawyer with a flinty heart and an evil hat tells him he owes a massive debt he never knew of, and imprisons his family and shop in London’s most notorious debtors’ prison, The Skint! What is behind Skulkingworm’s sinister plan? Will Jedrington rescue his family in time for Christmas? And is there more to the name of Secret-Past than meets the eye? All will be revealed in a tale of hidden wills, brave urchins, giant clocks, misery, joy and treacle.

Jedrington teams up with a charming new business partner, but is Harmswell Grimstone all he seems, or is he actually massively evil? And what is the awful secret behind the cryptic letter that has disturbed Jedrington's wife Conceptiva so greatly that she has made her way to End-It-All Dock? As the Secret-Past family's fortunes rise and rise it turns out that the foundations of their happiness are far from sound.

Stricken with grief at the apparent death of his wife, Jedrington begins to question the morality of his business empire until on Easter Eve he is visited by three terrifying ghostly rabbits who drive him over the edge of despair. Meanwhile at the hands of Miss Primly Tightclench the governess and Mr Wackville, headmaster of St Nasty's the Secret-Past children suffer the worst extremes of Victorian education until Victor goes missing in a suspicious accident with an automatic caning machine. But who is the mysterious amnesiac woman wandering the East End?

Reduced to poverty and gin addiction Jedrington is at his lowest ebb, until his loyal and true servant Servegood restores him to sobriety by the gentle application of a massive cudgel. Reunited with Conceptiva, the two take the evil Mr Grimstone to court to demand the return of the business and their daughter. But when the judge turns out to be Grimstone's uncle Harshmore the case seems hopeless. Will the family ever be whole again? Victor's enigmatic chum Smalcolm may hold the key to everyone's happiness.