6 December 2011 Last updated at 14:55

What the Dickens?

By Rumeana Jahangir BBC Ariel

Johnny Vegas and Robert Webb star in spoof The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff

In London there are three significant clocks, according to new BBC Two comedy The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff.

There's Big Ben of course, but also Massive Morris and Tiny Terry.

It's this unashamed silliness that has attracted loyal fans to BOSS predecessor Bleak Expectations. But, while the latter will air its fifth and possibly final run on Radio 4 next year, programme-makers say the two Dickensian spoofs are different.

'It's almost as if Bleak Expectations is one Charles Dickens' novel and The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff is another,' says producer Gareth Edwards, 'so you've got a whole different cast of characters.'

However, having worked on both shows with writer Mark Evans, he adds that they share the 'same comic sensibility'.

Dickens season

The four-part tv series will air during the BBC's bicentenary celebrations of Dickens' birth, drawing inspiration from Little Dorrit, The Old Curiosity Shop and, naturally, Bleak House.

But the in-house production is not just a mickey-take of his Victorian tales.

'If it was just lots of jokes making fun of Dickens, that would run out of steam quite quickly,' explains Edwards.

'We're trying to take a leaf out of Dickens' books in terms of his story-telling and amazing galaxy of characters.

Terrence Hardiman and David Mitchell in the hour-long Christmas special

'But we'll also be making fun of the Dickensian frame of reference, in the same way that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy makes fun of lots of science-fiction novels, but is also in itself a pretty good science-fiction novel.'

Impressive cast

The new comedy centres on evocatively-named Jedrington Secret-Past (Robert Webb), purveyor of notable products such as tinned dodo-wings, who apparently sinks his family into debt and thus the macabre prison that is The Skint.

Webb is joined by 'my all-time hero David Mitchell' in an impressive ensemble including Celia Imrie, Katherine Parkinson and Terrence Hardiman - the latter sporting a goose as headgear.

Former Blackadder stalwarts Stephen Fry and Tim McInnerny also pop up as ne'er-do-wells but before comparisons are made with that 'comic touchstone', as Edwards describes it, the producer is keen to illustrate that BOSS has a different tone.

'It's being something really, really daft with a really, really straight face… in Blackadder, there's more of a sense that the performances are slightly bigger than what we'd do in this.'

Radio input

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff is the latest in radio-to-TV comedy transfers, following Goodness Gracious Me, Little Britain and, coming in 2012, Just A Minute.

Speaking to Ariel in October, head of in-house Comedy Mark Freeland asserted that the radio comedy unit was a strong department in its own right and many radio comedies would remain as audio content. In other words, 'radio comedy is not there as a training ground for TV'.

Stephen Fry stars in the new series

'But it usually produces amazing comedy producers through history,' he added, 'and some shows like Alan Partridge and The League of Gentlemen arrive on screen perfect, because the people who've done them for a decade know the characters or jokes, know how to do it, and that replaces many, many pilots. It arrives well-formed.'

Due to DQF plans, Freeland is anticipating the location of radio and TV comedy in one site in the next few years (the former is in London W1, the latter at TVC). 'I know geography isn't everything but if we can get those two areas sitting in the same room, it would be just transformational.

'If I can get more things like The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff then it would be tremendous.'

Comedic escapism

BOSS producer Edwards also believes the show is breaking new ground for UK tv comedy by using CGI for exterior scenes, although some location shooting took place at Berkshire's Dorney Court. 'We're using a lot of CGI because it's more like a comedy budget than a period drama one, so we're having to be quite clever about how we make it.'

But the production team are still aiming for a costume drama feel.

'Some of the action happens in big sinister Victorian buildings, which we want to have the power to design ourselves, and it's much more controllable doing it all on sound stage, because it's set in crowded London streets,' said Edwards.

It would be an understatement to say there is huge anticipation for The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. Edwards reckons the show 'could go on indefinitely' and, as the country faces enough financial woes to fill a Dickensian melodrama, an appetite for comedic escapism means it could be readily lapped up.

The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff, BBC Two, Monday 19th December, 8.30pm.