In this episode of Hattie Naylor's lively adaptation, Pepys throws a party to celebrate the third anniversary of his bladder operation. He regales his assembled guests with the gruesome story, telling them how he was bound to his cousin's dining room table so that he could not move, and how a gag was put in his mouth to stop him screaming as he was cut open by the surgeon, Mr Hollier. The stone that was removed from Pepys' bladder was the size of a tennis ball.

Samuel Pepys . . . Kris Marshall
Elizabeth Pepys . . . Katherine Jakeways
Edward Montague, Lord Sandwich . . . Blake Ritson
Captain Ferrers . . . Ewan Bailey
Sir William . . . Richard Mitchley
Lady Batten . . . Marilyn le Conte
Mingo . . . Clifford Lyonette
Alsemero . . . Lee Mengo
Woman in tavern . . . Rebecca Scott
Woman in tavern . . . Siriol Jenkins

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.
Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales Production directed by Kate McAll. Show less