Lucia and the Tramp: Based on E. F. Benson's Stories of Mapp and Lucia

In Tilling, the natives are becoming restless. It has been a quiet year so far, and everyone is looking for the 'next thing'. Elizabeth Mapp-Flint wants to bring motion pictures to Tilling. Lucia Pillson says, "Over my-no, make that-over your dead body!" Major Benjy just wants a peaceful life, and to play golf everyday of that life. The thought of having a motion-picture palace in Tilling fills him with dread. The Padre will vote "nay" to the likes of Mary Pickford and Tom Mix if it includes Sunday showings. Georgie Pillson sits on the sidelines taking it all in whilst desperately guarding his new fawn-coloured trousers from errant tea stains. Who, he wonders, as he watches Mapp and Lucia duel for prominence, will be first to emulate Shakespeare's Mark Antony and "Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war?" Adding to Georgie's excitement, two newcomers are abroad in Tilling: the first, Mr Charles Spencer, buys the late Captain Puffin's cottage across the street from Mallards House; the second is a mysterious tramp who appears, seemingly from nowhere, and just as mysteriously disappears. Quaint Irene is ready to challenge the first newcomer to a duel with wet paintbrushes. Diva Plaistow is more concerned with winning 'Best in Show' for her cabbages at the Annual Tilling Garden Fête. For the Wyses, disaster looms: owing to street closures caused by Lucia's garden fête, Susan Wyse will have to walk an additional eight feet to reach her front door after exiting her Royce. Algernon Wyse is so upset by the 'goings-on', he twice forgets to bow to the person he is about to address. Olga Bracely is on hand, determined to see to it that the balance of power in Tilling remains as it was; to that end, she reads the riot act to the new owner of Captain Puffin's cottage, to the mysterious tramp. But who, exactly, is this tramp, and why do all in Tilling, except Lucia and Olga, refuse to believe he even exists?