It is some time since I last read Robert Noonan's classic story of working life, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists , so I made sure I caught the first episode in a new dramatisation of the book on BBC Radio Four at the weekend.

The story relates the experiences of a group of craftsmen and labourers in the fictional town of Mugsborough as they work on the renovation of a house, employed by a firm of builders and decorators.