Bleak Expectations is a BBC Radio 4 comedy series that premiered in August 2007. It is a pastiche of the works of Charles Dickens – such as Bleak House and Great Expectations, from which it derives its name – as well as adventure, science fiction and costume dramas set in the same period. Bleak Expectations parodies several of their plot devices whilst simultaneously tending toward a surreal humor along the lines of The Goon Show. The series has also demonstrated a fondness for allusions to and parodies of the films of Alec Guinness, particularly the Edwardian satire Kind Hearts and Coronets.