Stanley Pitts is a filing clerk in the Admiralty, a small man in stature, ambition and achievement. He's devoted to his hobby of photography and his latest failure with the Civil Service Selection Board matters not one whit to him. He's happy where he is. But it matters to his wife, Beryl - social climber and mistress of their Crocketts Green house...with its garden gnomes, wall-to-wall carpet and a fridge full of Oven-Fresh Old Style Farm House Cornish Pasties; Beryl, mother of little Marleen with her flaxen ringlets, prospective winner of the Under-Twelves Ballroom Dancing Championship; Beryl, the archetype South London housewife. When Stanley's photographic study Hoarfrost On Wimbledon Common wins the Admiralty Division Photographic Competition on the eve of his expected promotion, never has the future looked brighter - so how then does he end up in the dock of No. 1 Court at the Old Bailey? Why is the sentence such a savage one? And what part did Mr. Cheevers, crime reporter of the Sunday Sun, play in all this?  A very sly social observation at several levels.