Big Bad Mouse

About the show

The action takes place in the sleepy factory office of the fictitious Chunkibix Ltd. The office is run by the domineering and pompous Mr Price-Hargreaves, whose assistant, the shy and downtrodden Mr Bloome, is under his thumb and generally treated badly. This continues until a flasher and stalker chases a young woman across Wandsworth Common (changed to a prominent local park when the show toured); Bloome is accused of being the flasher by the victim and a police detective. Surprisingly (and distinctly dubiously by any standards of modern morality), the female workers in the office, to whom Bloome had previously been all but invisible, suddenly find him sexually interesting, and almost a hero figure. Their flirtatious attentions have the effect of bolstering Bloome's ego; he quickly grows in confidence and stature, finally answering back to Price-Hargreaves, and even suggesting revolutionary improvements that greatly increase sales, thus drawing the attention of Chunkibix company owner, Lady Chesapeake. So satisfying is Bloome's transformation and newly found confidence that when the young victim discovers she had made a mistake in identifying him incorrectly as her assailant, Bloome becomes increasingly desperate to keep her quiet.