In this episode, dyslexic Sir Jeremy Toogood struggles to read Sir Walter Scott's The Red Gauntlet. The Queen's Own Kamikaze Highlanders go into training, with only one candidate surviving. A man from the No Time to Lose Advice Center tries to sell a used phrase.
Terry Gilliam offers a 60-second animated remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Part II of "Frontiers of Medicine" reveals that penguins are more intelligent than BBC program planners. The sole surviving Scottish Kamikaze fails to explode upon hitting the Kremlin, resulting in a nail-biting visit from the Unexploded Scotsman Disposal Squad. The viewer is invited to "Spot the Looney" during an adaptation of
Ivanhoe. And two documentary narrators duke it out over claiming rights to a discussion of Sir Walter Scott. The show ends (almost) with coming attractions of such BBC series as "Dad's Poovies" and "Limestone, Dear Limestone." "A Book at Bedtime" was originally telecast January 11, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide