From a tiny, run-down office above a Soho strip club, the Alcock Group of Companies encompasses such household names as Captain Sotheby's Racing Service and Alcock Economy Coach Tours, while supplying an eager world with the likes of the Alcock Swiss Elixir and Artistic Books.

With the company came Ernest, the oldest office boy in the world, while Marigold's new business partner is the misguidedly ambitious Richard Gander; as a man who has barely survived an Alcock Coach Tour, Marigold thinks it cheaper to hire him than to offer him a refund...