Trivia: At the undertaker's, the Doctor remarks on the strange behaviour of the gas light and Charles Dickens says "What the Shakespeare is going on?" This is a joke on Dickens' name, the expression "What the dickens...?" being a euphemism for "What the devil...?", making out that the phrase wasn't in use in Dickens' time and came from his name. In fact, "What the dickens...?" is much older than Dickens himself and has been in use since the sixteenth century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
paolog
10th Jul 2018