:00:09. > :00:12.media celebrity? Robert Hall has been investigating.
:00:12. > :00:22.The bells of London's Southwark Cathedral are pealing to honour a
:00:22. > :00:23.
:00:23. > :00:26.literate hero. A man whose books have never gone out of print.
:00:26. > :00:30.is a human being writing these books and you feel that you are in
:00:30. > :00:36.his presence. The ordinary people of England felt that he was writing
:00:36. > :00:43.for them. That has continued to be the case. He was a rock-star, the
:00:43. > :00:53.most famous man in the world. who has inspired plays, films and
:00:53. > :00:58.
:00:58. > :01:01.musicals. His stories tugged at the heart strings. We love that sort of
:01:01. > :01:07.thing. For two centuries, Charles Dickens has been a constant
:01:07. > :01:10.presence. But what of the man behind the public face? What
:01:10. > :01:20.produced the ingredients that have combined to create that lasting
:01:20. > :01:49.
:01:49. > :01:52.Royal visitors to a modest terrace house in central London. Here to
:01:52. > :01:55.celebrate a birthday in the rooms where Charles Dickens raised his
:01:55. > :02:01.family, reflected on his childhood and wrote one of his most famous
:02:01. > :02:04.stories, Oliver Twist. Today, this street is home to the Dickens
:02:04. > :02:14.Museum, crowned with reminders of his books and characters, of the
:02:14. > :02:15.
:02:15. > :02:19.places that were still so vivid in his mind. The heritage that Dickens
:02:19. > :02:22.saw and created is surrounding us. There are dozens of trails in
:02:22. > :02:30.London, Kent, other parts of the country where people can follow in
:02:30. > :02:34.his footsteps. 200 years after the day he was born, Charles Dickens
:02:34. > :02:37.would barely recognise these streets. And yet, he and his
:02:37. > :02:47.characters are all around us - in our book shops, theatres and even
:02:47. > :02:50.
:02:51. > :02:55.on our street signs. What is it about this man that fascinates us?
:02:55. > :03:05.Pickwick Papers. Little Dorrit. Great Expectations. David
:03:05. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:20.Copperfield. Bleak House. Oliver The books we all know so well are
:03:20. > :03:30.the starting point of a journey that takes us down the old
:03:30. > :03:31.
:03:31. > :03:39.stagecoach road to the towns of Chatham and Rochester. This is
:03:40. > :03:43.Ordnance Terrace, perched above the naval dockyard. It is where Charles
:03:43. > :03:47.Dickens's father worked and a starting point for the walks
:03:47. > :03:54.through town and countryside that made such a deep impression on his
:03:54. > :03:57.son. He wrote about what he knew. He knew about the different
:03:57. > :04:01.buildings. Sometimes he wrote of them exactly as they were.
:04:01. > :04:07.Sometimes he disguised them. Often, you will find that a building in
:04:07. > :04:10.Rochester becomes a building in Chatham or the other way around.
:04:10. > :04:20.Dickens grew up, his walks strayed further from the noisy streets
:04:20. > :04:20.
:04:21. > :04:30.around his home. To the desolate windswept marshes bordering the
:04:31. > :04:32.
:04:32. > :04:42.Thames Estuary. They would later provide the setting for Pip's early
:04:42. > :04:49.
:04:49. > :04:59.life in Great Expectations. An afternoon funeral helped to inspire
:04:59. > :05:14.
:05:14. > :05:17.this dramatic encounter. Do you not want it? I will have it. Some of
:05:17. > :05:20.the strongest surviving links between Charles Dickens' past and
:05:20. > :05:28.his present can be found in the city of Rochester, this hotel where
:05:28. > :05:33.he stayed and were Mr Pickwick and his friends partied into the night.
:05:33. > :05:37.The Guild Hall where he serves as an apprentice. And this house
:05:37. > :05:47.features in the same story. It is where Charles Dickens imagined Pip
:05:47. > :05:49.
:05:49. > :05:56.walking the dusty corridors to meet Miss Havisham. You are the boy from
:05:56. > :05:59.the forge. Yes, madam. Those who created the latest version of the
:05:59. > :06:05.story found themselves drawn into the past and into Charles Dickens'
:06:05. > :06:10.imagination. He was so specific about the human condition of the
:06:10. > :06:14.time. His descriptions of characters and the state of being
:06:14. > :06:24.at that time in England, they are part of our historical record of
:06:24. > :06:30.
:06:30. > :06:39.what it was like back then. From the Medway towns, the Dickens trail
:06:39. > :06:42.goes upstream to a 21st century capital.
:06:42. > :06:48.But look closer and you will find tiny fragments of its Victorian
:06:48. > :06:55.past. The cobbled streets where a small boy explored a crowded and
:06:55. > :06:58.unfamiliar world. There are still paths through London you can take
:06:58. > :07:02.where you get an incredible sense of the place Charles Dickens lived
:07:02. > :07:09.in and that he experienced. There is an incredible amount of
:07:09. > :07:12.information and images that survive from the Victorian period. One
:07:12. > :07:15.thing that I have taken to heart was looking at the photographs of
:07:15. > :07:22.Victorian London when Charles Dickens was alive in a new way
:07:22. > :07:29.alongside the text that he is writing. We also have fantastic
:07:29. > :07:32.photographs of London. But in the end, you return to the description.
:07:32. > :07:37.This is the Dickensian world captured by the photos and drawings
:07:37. > :07:40.brought together by the Museum of London. It is a mix of wealth and
:07:40. > :07:49.extreme poverty. It attracted and repelled the man determined to
:07:49. > :07:55.bring it to life through his characters. He walked the streets
:07:55. > :08:00.of London night and day, every nook and cranny. And he hated it, I
:08:01. > :08:07.think. It was dirty, corrupt, so full of crime. He hated the social
:08:07. > :08:17.divisions. He found the houses of the rich unpleasant and the places
:08:17. > :08:20.
:08:20. > :08:23.where the poor lived, absolutely horrible. But also fascinating.
:08:23. > :08:27.That fascination runs like a thread through the dramas unfolding in
:08:27. > :08:30.these pages. We learned a great deal about the dark side of
:08:30. > :08:40.Victorian society and Charles Dickens' anger at the plight of the
:08:40. > :08:45.
:08:45. > :08:48.poor. A Christmas Carol - a ghost story of Christmas.
:08:48. > :08:53.Anger that's all too clear on a rainy night in today's Manchester
:08:53. > :08:56.suburbs where a familiar story is unfolding. Like so many before them,
:08:56. > :09:02.the Charlton Players are telling a seasonal tale with a clear a moral
:09:02. > :09:12.message. What I like is about the bankers being very rich, the poor
:09:12. > :09:19.
:09:19. > :09:27.being very poor. I like the parallels with today's society.
:09:27. > :09:31.What do you want with me? You don't believe in me! Why do you
:09:31. > :09:34.doubt your senses? He had thought of writing a pamphlet about the
:09:34. > :09:37.lack of education being offered to children in England, poor children,
:09:37. > :09:47.and instead he decided to write a Christmas Carol, which brings in
:09:47. > :09:48.
:09:48. > :09:58.these children. He makes a tremendous point through his
:09:58. > :09:59.
:09:59. > :10:02.fiction. Charles Dickens walked up to 20 miles per day in search of
:10:02. > :10:08.the cast who would eventually populate his stories and the plays
:10:08. > :10:11.that followed within months of publication. He began his writing
:10:11. > :10:21.career as a journalist and social commentator but fiction brought
:10:21. > :10:24.real fame. This was the platform he could use to bring about change.
:10:24. > :10:29.was entirely driven by his sense of outrage against the injustice of
:10:29. > :10:36.life for some people. He took up the cause of the disadvantaged from
:10:36. > :10:38.his very earliest writings as a journalist and then in his novels.
:10:38. > :10:48.He was always speaking for the oppressed and the socially rejected,
:10:48. > :10:51.the economically unviable. He was always trying to heal society. He
:10:51. > :10:59.wrote about it with such passion and compassion because of his own
:10:59. > :11:03.experiences as a boy. Experiences which can be glimpsed in the London
:11:03. > :11:06.borough of Southwark. At the George Inn, final destination of the
:11:06. > :11:08.stagecoach that brought the Dickens family from Kent, and in the
:11:08. > :11:11.churchyard once overshadowed by another infamous London landmark,
:11:11. > :11:21.it is still possible to find traces of the world which inspired his
:11:21. > :11:23.
:11:23. > :11:26.writing. This is the old site of the prison. At the age of 12,
:11:26. > :11:32.Charles Dickens saw his father locked up for debt. He began to
:11:32. > :11:35.understand what it was like to pay the price for disadvantage. Dickens
:11:35. > :11:45.spent time in this factory on the banks of the Thames river to boost
:11:45. > :11:48.
:11:48. > :11:53.the family income. My whole nature was penetrated with grief and
:11:54. > :11:58.humiliation. When he gained the opportunity to intervene, Charles
:11:58. > :12:08.Dickens seized it with his customary enthusiasm. This is the
:12:08. > :12:11.
:12:11. > :12:14.Victorian chapel of Great Ormond Street. A children's hospital which
:12:14. > :12:22.owes its existence to his generosity. It was an area of
:12:22. > :12:25.London that he knew really well. He did this special reading of A
:12:25. > :12:29.Christmas Carol. He raised an enormous sum of money for the
:12:29. > :12:33.hospital. Great Ormond Street as we know it today must say a great big
:12:33. > :12:39.thank you to Charles Dickens for what he did. Charles Dickens was
:12:39. > :12:46.the first media celebrity. The public devoured every word he wrote
:12:46. > :12:50.and packed his public performances. His daughter tells us that when he
:12:50. > :12:54.was writing his books, he would look up and look in the mirror and
:12:54. > :12:58.check the expression on his face and write it down. Because it was a
:12:58. > :13:08.performance for him. He was being those characters in the same way
:13:08. > :13:08.
:13:08. > :13:13.that an active becomes characters. -- actor does. He was reaching out
:13:13. > :13:17.to you as the narrator. He catches you with his glinting eye, climbs
:13:17. > :13:23.on to your lapel and tells you his story. That voice runs all the way
:13:23. > :13:28.through the novels. Charles Dickens gave his final
:13:28. > :13:35.public reading in March, 1870. His health was failing and he sent off
:13:35. > :13:45.to Kent to work on his last novel, the Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was
:13:45. > :13:53.
:13:53. > :13:59.never completed. He died a few It has turned very dark, sir? Is
:13:59. > :14:05.there any light coming? It is coming fast, fast, the cart is
:14:05. > :14:11.shaken altarpieces and the rugged road is there any are its own --
:14:11. > :14:14.end. This month, in Poets corner at Westminster Abbey, beneath the
:14:14. > :14:22.memorials to Britain's great literary figures, the words written
:14:22. > :14:25.in another era rang out once more. Dead, right reference and wrong
:14:25. > :14:35.reverence of every order, dead, men and women born with heavenly
:14:35. > :14:37.
:14:37. > :14:43.compassion in your hearts and dying this around us. Every day. An actor
:14:43. > :14:46.and director who will play Dickens himself in a forthcoming film.
:14:46. > :14:51.Ralph Fiennes paid his tribute surrounded by a tribute --
:14:51. > :14:57.surrounded by a congregation which included the largest number of
:14:57. > :15:03.Dickens descendants ever assembled. And yet the author never envisaged
:15:03. > :15:07.public honour. Charles Dickens would be somewhat surprised to
:15:07. > :15:11.remember him -- to find himself remembered in this way in
:15:11. > :15:14.Westminster Abbey. He had asked to be buried in Rochester. Such was
:15:14. > :15:19.the public demand that he be treated as a great national figure
:15:19. > :15:22.that it was decided alternative plan would have to be made. A quite
:15:22. > :15:27.a number of the people who are buried here did not actually expect
:15:27. > :15:31.that would happen. The same is true with Charles Darwin. He is here. He
:15:31. > :15:36.expected to be buried in his local churchyard. Dickens expected to be
:15:36. > :15:41.buried locally, where he died, at Gads Hill. The Dean intervened and
:15:41. > :15:47.said no, he is a great man, we must have him here. Amongst other great
:15:47. > :15:52.writers, as a great poets. -- others great poets. Charles Dickens
:15:52. > :16:02.wrote his last words that Gads Hill, the home in Kent which he had first
:16:02. > :16:02.
:16:02. > :16:07.seen as a child. Today, it rings with the young voices of the School
:16:07. > :16:12.rehearsing its own anniversary tribute. Dickens was one of the
:16:12. > :16:18.greatest writers in British history and he is brilliant at -- when you
:16:18. > :16:21.read his books. It comes across in the play, he is really good to
:16:21. > :16:26.listen to this has stopped everyone enjoys his books when they have
:16:26. > :16:28.read them. I have heard a lot of people who have read his books and
:16:28. > :16:34.enjoyed them and I keep thinking these are going to keep on going
:16:34. > :16:37.forever, books like Anthony Horowitz, this will keep on going.
:16:37. > :16:41.I think Dickens has got something that everyone can relate to. People
:16:41. > :16:46.have done so many different adaptations, different movies,
:16:46. > :16:50.plays, and it makes it more interesting and makes it come alive.
:16:50. > :16:55.And that is what makes Charles Dickens a survivor, even as he
:16:55. > :16:59.worked in his study at Gads Hill others were taking his stories to
:16:59. > :17:05.new audiences. Before he had finished a story it was dramatised
:17:05. > :17:08.and all over England there were theatres and small theatre
:17:08. > :17:13.companies come a travelling theatre companies, and if you look at the
:17:13. > :17:18.theatre bills you will see the plays were done in all sorts of
:17:18. > :17:23.versions all over the British Isles so that people, even illiterate
:17:23. > :17:30.people who could not read stories, knew about them and knew about the
:17:31. > :17:37.characters. What was that clanking noise? It seemed to come from in
:17:37. > :17:44.the cellar. As if a person would dragging heavy chains across stones,
:17:44. > :17:47.up it came come up on what and upward. It is to do first of all
:17:47. > :17:53.with his genius for creating these characters, these unforgettable
:17:53. > :17:57.characters. We refer to a person as a Scrooge or a Mrs CAB or Pecksniff
:17:57. > :18:05.or Uriah Heep, you know. It is to do with his fantastic genius for
:18:05. > :18:10.narrative, storytelling. His fantasy in language, his
:18:10. > :18:18.extraordinary metaphorical genius, his bewitching, magical way with
:18:18. > :18:21.words, with language. But even as theatre audiences flocked to the
:18:21. > :18:28.Dickens experience in towns and cities all over the UK, technology
:18:28. > :18:33.was about to take his stories and his drama worldwide. These
:18:33. > :18:37.remarkable images, compiled by the British Film Institute to mark the
:18:37. > :18:43.bicentenary, showed the first attempts to capture the essence of
:18:43. > :18:48.Dickens on silent film. Film-makers and actors absolutely loved Dickens
:18:48. > :18:53.and one to continually reinvent and interpreter and adapt his work and
:18:53. > :18:58.we want to be able to reflect the long history of Dickens in film and
:18:58. > :19:01.television, right from the very beginnings of film. More and more
:19:01. > :19:05.people around the country and around the world really got in
:19:05. > :19:11.touch with us and said that they wanted to be part of it and it has
:19:11. > :19:17.become a very global celebration of Dickens and his enduring legacy.
:19:17. > :19:27.Ten seconds to get back into the workhouse tableaux. Ten, nine,
:19:27. > :19:30.eight... A legacy which flourishes at every level. These are the
:19:30. > :19:34.children's of Manchester's All Saints Primary, tapping into
:19:34. > :19:38.Dickens for his sense of history and a spur to their own imagination.
:19:38. > :19:42.I think they have all seen things on television about Dickens but
:19:42. > :19:46.when they actually live as a Dickens child would do, it makes it
:19:46. > :19:50.more pertinent to them so we have them acting out how it would be in
:19:51. > :19:55.a workhouse or how it would be in a kitchen and they love it because
:19:55. > :20:03.they feel that they are learning. Christmas Carol was published,
:20:03. > :20:06.excellent. It is best -- better than most books that are out now
:20:06. > :20:11.and I'd definitely would reader Charles Dickens's book than a book
:20:11. > :20:17.that is out now because they are better and more dramatic and they
:20:17. > :20:21.have twists in them. They are good, yes, really good. I think he is a
:20:21. > :20:25.very good author and when you read his books, when you stop at a
:20:25. > :20:32.certain part you want to read more, you don't want to stop. His books
:20:32. > :20:38.are really interesting and not boring. When I have books at home I
:20:38. > :20:42.want to read more and more of them because they are so interesting.
:20:42. > :20:47.But away from the classroom can we still have a connection with
:20:47. > :20:51.Dickens? Where better to find out than in the county where he grew up.
:20:51. > :20:56.We would like to hear your experience of living on the estate,
:20:56. > :20:59.or wherever, now. At community centre on Gravesend -- Gravesend
:20:59. > :21:05.Dickens Estate, a group of interested volunteers are looking
:21:05. > :21:10.back into history. The real question is does Dickens matter
:21:10. > :21:15.today? See him up there, you're going to go and pick pocket him.
:21:15. > :21:24.How many people have been picked pocketed or had their bags stolen?
:21:24. > :21:30.They took everything, all my money, my case with jury and something I
:21:30. > :21:35.had sent to Ireland, they took the lot. A Dickens was not just a story,
:21:35. > :21:39.it is a permanent reality. What do you mean by this? What do you mean
:21:39. > :21:46.by burn my body? Suddenly Charles Dickens was no longer just a figure
:21:46. > :21:50.from the past. It was all down to earth, but is what I like. Look at
:21:50. > :21:56.the beauty in your eyes, you were wonderful and special. Those of us
:21:56. > :22:01.who live here can breathe it, smell it and walk it. Three cheers for
:22:01. > :22:07.that great man, Charles Dickens. Hip hip. Hooray. Of course it all
:22:07. > :22:15.began set Dickens's' birthplace in Portsmouth but the celebrations
:22:15. > :22:20.have extended to virtually every continent. -- Dickens' birthplace.
:22:20. > :22:25.New books have jostled for space on our bookshelf, authors bisecting
:22:25. > :22:30.him in all his faults. I think the way he was able to write for the
:22:30. > :22:40.modern film so perfectly the period drama, you can't do anything about
:22:40. > :22:41.
:22:41. > :22:46.it, his description is so amazing. That brings it alive. Action.
:22:46. > :22:50.wonder film-makers are finding new ways to tell the stories, even
:22:50. > :22:55.those Dickens could not complete. Like him I am a Kentish writer. I
:22:56. > :22:59.really hoped I would not be the second Kentish writer died halfway
:22:59. > :23:04.through The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, because it was really difficult, a
:23:04. > :23:09.mountain to climb. The thing I love is his characters are so vivid. He
:23:09. > :23:13.had given me a bunch of vivid, fantastic, exciting characters, so
:23:13. > :23:19.I put them in the back of the bus and took them on the journey and
:23:19. > :23:23.completed it. But at the beginning and the Emma Baugh Trail is a man
:23:23. > :23:28.whose observation and imagination created the characters of the
:23:28. > :23:33.scenes that still holders in their grasp. At the heart of the tallest
:23:33. > :23:38.this massive compassion, this massive feeling of combating
:23:38. > :23:42.injustice -- at the heart of it all is this massive compassion. It is
:23:42. > :23:47.shocking to report that many of his targets are still with us. We still
:23:47. > :23:53.have this ridiculous discrepancy between the rich and the poor.
:23:53. > :24:03.People still feel, as people did in his time, that Charles Dickens
:24:03. > :24:04.
:24:04. > :24:11.speaks for us. Please. Please, sir, I want some more. What? What?
:24:11. > :24:16.asked for more. We are human beings and the level of sadness and
:24:16. > :24:21.tragedy loss which played out so much in his novels are still things
:24:22. > :24:27.that we can identify with today and his characters are so complex and
:24:27. > :24:37.strange and fantastic. His stories tug at the heartstrings and we love
:24:37. > :24:51.
:24:52. > :24:57.things that to put our hearts. -- HE SCREAMS. Keep still or I will
:24:57. > :25:03.cut your throat. It is the life in his books, the raging, torrential
:25:03. > :25:10.gusts of comedy and terrible black, black tragedy in his books. It is
:25:10. > :25:13.that dynamism that I think, it really is like you open a Dickens
:25:13. > :25:20.novel almost anywhere and the energy is pouring off the page at