Boxing Day at Pledge's Purer Pickles. The factory is quite. The last consingnment of special gift-wrapped gherkins for Christmas has long gone. Nellie and Eli find time to spend a few peaceful hours with the family. It is a small family circle these days and the Pledge's are left with Lily and Walter, affectionately known - by Eli at least - as the Christmas Fairy and King Rat. But is it a good idea to hold a séance to try to get in touch with old Joshua Pledge who has been dead these two years? Is Lily really a medium? Can the ghosts of picklers long departed really roam the factory? Is dad trying to get in touch with Nellie from that great pickle factory in the sky? And, for that matter, what was that noise? It couldn't be the sound of phantom clog-steps…could it?

• Vince Powell

• Jimmy Jewel
• Joe Gladwin
• Madge Hindle