0:00:07 > 0:00:09Season's greetings to you all.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12I'm travelling as the Victorians would have done
0:00:12 > 0:00:15on the London to Dover express driven by John here - expertly.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18And we're stepping back in time to celebrate a writer
0:00:18 > 0:00:21who many believe invented our traditional Christmas.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24His story of Scrooge has become a family favourite
0:00:24 > 0:00:26since it was written back in 1843.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30And we're gearing ourselves up to the 200th anniversary of his birth.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Who am I talking about? It is, of course, Charles Dickens.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37On this week's Songs Of Praise...
0:00:37 > 0:00:40We're Christmas Carolling, Dickinson style.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44We'll be hearing from his great-great-grandson.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46And finding out more about the writer's faith
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and passion for social justice.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07One of the most important messages of all Dickens' work
0:01:07 > 0:01:10is his frustration with social injustice.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13His Christianity was of a very practical kind.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20He was a great performer - a celebrity, a star on the road.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24Dickens' legacy is the love of humanity,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27which is the keynote of all his works.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33We've come to Kent to the area around Rochester.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35It's a place Dickens knew and loved.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37The happiest years of his childhood
0:01:37 > 0:01:39was spent just down the road in Chatham.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Many of the buildings here in Rochester were mentioned in his novels.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49He referred to this area as the birthplace of his fancy and imagination.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52As a boy, he and his father would go walking.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56And it was on one of these occasions that they came across Gad's Hill Place.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59His father told him, if he worked hard enough,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02he might one day afford the house.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Dickens never forgot this. Years later, he did buy it.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09He spent the last ten years of his life there.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15I'm not sure if Dickens ever visited the church we're off to,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17but he certainly would have known it.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20We're heading to St George's Church in Gravesend. Do you stop there?
0:02:20 > 0:02:21Yes, come on-board.
0:02:25 > 0:02:26Thanking you.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44BELLS RING
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Members of the congregation are gathered, dressed as they would've been in Dickens' day.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Everyone has made a huge effort,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55bringing our Dickensian Christmas to life.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58And we begin with a joyous Advent hymn
0:02:58 > 0:03:01I'm sure the man himself would recognise - Hark, The Glad Sound!
0:04:43 > 0:04:46On public view here at Eastgate House in Rochester
0:04:46 > 0:04:50is Dickens' Swiss chalet. It was originally in his garden at Gad's Hill Place.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52It was given to him as a Christmas present,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55and it actually arrived as a flat-pack.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59Imagine that! Most days, he'd be up there writing away.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I think it's fair to say that it was his best Christmas present ever.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I think one of the reasons that Dickens wrote about Christmas a lot
0:05:18 > 0:05:21was that it was a time of year that he really loved.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24His parents had been very fun-loving people
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and Christmas in their household was presumably very happy -
0:05:27 > 0:05:30they were very sociable, they loved parties.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33When Dickens got married to his wife, Catherine Hogarth,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36from the beginning, Christmas was a real celebration in their family.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43There was an increasing interest during the 19th century
0:05:43 > 0:05:45in Christmas traditions.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Lots of candles and jollity and celebration.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54But what Dickens did through A Christmas Carol in particular
0:05:54 > 0:05:57was to bring the idea of Christian charity as an enormous part
0:05:57 > 0:06:00of what should be happening at Christmas.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06A Christmas Carol was written in 1843,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09the first edition sold out within days.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13In A Christmas Carol,
0:06:13 > 0:06:18the Cratchit family is the ideal Christmas family scene.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21The Cratchits themselves are, as Dickens see it, the perfect family.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23They don't have much money but they have a lot of love
0:06:23 > 0:06:26and they're very considerate to each other.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31People often read A Christmas Carol and see Scrooge saying to Bob Cratchit,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35"You'll want the whole day off tomorrow, I suppose?"
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Bob Cratchit says, "Oh, if it's quite convenient." It's NOT convenient.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43One of the messages he was getting over with the novel was that
0:06:43 > 0:06:45employers really had to think about this.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49It should be automatic that people had Christmas Day off - it was
0:06:49 > 0:06:53a day of prayer, of celebration - a day to be with family.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56- Hello, everyone!- Hello! - Mrs Cratchit.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05A lot of people made quite a secular Bible of A Christmas Carol
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and kept it on a little shelf and read it every Christmas,
0:07:08 > 0:07:13because of its strong teachings of humanity
0:07:13 > 0:07:15and celebrating Christmas in the true sense.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20In many of his books, Dickens creates an image of Christmas,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22which remains familiar to us today.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Perhaps what he did was to introduce almost a cult of celebrating Christmas.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34His first real treatment of Christmas came in Sketches By Boz.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37There's a wonderful essay called A Christmas Dinner.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39That just about describes everything
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and this is really the prototype of the happy Christmases
0:07:43 > 0:07:45that we then see at Dingley Dell
0:07:45 > 0:07:48in The Pickwick Papers and with the Cratchits.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52The ideas of carol singers, the idea of family meals -
0:07:52 > 0:07:54all these things that Dickens wrote about.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Decorating your homes with holly and ivy.
0:07:58 > 0:07:59Merry Christmas!
0:07:59 > 0:08:01One of the most important things that Dickens says
0:08:01 > 0:08:05in his description of the Cratchit family Christmas
0:08:05 > 0:08:11is that they were pleased with one another and contented with the time.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Merry Christmas, my dears! God bless us.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36I think Dickens was a very simple and a very sincere Christian.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40He had a great faith in the teachings of the New Testament.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43It was much to do with love, it was much to do with service
0:11:43 > 0:11:45it was much to do with good works.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48He had very, very severe criticism
0:11:48 > 0:11:53and often very satirical treatment to make of people
0:11:53 > 0:11:57who held to extremely narrow religious positions.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04You think of Mrs Clenham in Bleak House with her very vengeful Christianity -
0:12:04 > 0:12:07you've got the complete contrast there.
0:12:08 > 0:12:14The kind of people Dickens wanted to get at was those who went to church on Sunday,
0:12:14 > 0:12:19but walked past starving children on the streets on their way home and didn't pay any attention to them.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23He did feel that a lot of organised religion had lost its way -
0:12:23 > 0:12:26it wasn't teaching the Bible, it wasn't teaching what
0:12:26 > 0:12:29he felt was the Christian message, which was to treat others
0:12:29 > 0:12:33as you'd have them treat you, or to help the poor and the meek.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44In 1846, when he started to consider it important to give
0:12:44 > 0:12:48some kind of clear statement of religious teaching for his children,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53he wrote a work which later became known as The Life Of Our Lord.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56It's a very, very sweet book. It's really lovely, actually.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59He's got little asides to his children, saying things like,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01"I think you've seen a camel, but if you haven't, let me know
0:13:01 > 0:13:04"and I'll take you to see one - we have them at the zoo."
0:13:04 > 0:13:07He explains what a locust is and writes about the plague of locusts
0:13:07 > 0:13:09and talks about the Bible in general.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13It does re-state the teachings of Christ,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17it does re-state the story of the Gospels.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19The Good News message of the Gospel.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22These were things which were central to him
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and important for him to pass on to his children.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26Everybody ought to know about it...
0:13:26 > 0:13:32It wasn't published until 1934. The reason being that Dickens didn't want anyone else to see it -
0:13:32 > 0:13:36this was just a private thing for him and his family.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39It wasn't published until the last of Dickens's children had died.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44"You can never think what a good place Heaven is without knowing..."
0:13:44 > 0:13:47It gives an insight into Dickens's own religious beliefs,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50which was that kindness is the most important thing.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54He says to his children, when you are grown up, be kind to people.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57It's a really nice way on looking at the Bible without making it
0:13:57 > 0:14:01really full of hellfire and brimstone - but looking at the good messages in there.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47Towards the end of his career,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Dickens made almost 500 public readings of his work.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55He toured the length and breadth of Britain as well as America.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Wherever he went, audiences flocked to see him.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03The performances were incredibly theatrical and dramatic
0:16:03 > 0:16:07and absolutely engaged his audiences in the passion
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and excitement of the stories, which of course they all knew
0:16:10 > 0:16:12so well from the original novels.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Dickens had loved the theatre from childhood.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19He adored the sense of... Well, play acting.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23As a young man, he really almost became an actor. He had an audition
0:16:23 > 0:16:26booked at the Covent Garden theatre... He missed it -
0:16:26 > 0:16:30he was suffering from flu on the day, but it was generally reckoned that if
0:16:30 > 0:16:34he had had that audition, that would have been his career, as an actor.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39So really the readings enabled him to come back to that first love of his.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43Gerald is now following in his great-great grandfather's footsteps.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47"Don't be cross, Uncle," said the nephew.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50"What else can I be?", returned the uncle.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54'Someone came to me with the idea of recreating a reading of A Christmas Carol.'
0:16:54 > 0:16:56I started working through the script
0:16:56 > 0:16:59and putting all my own characters and voices and expressions into it.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I was rather proud - I thought I'd done this rather well.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05After I'd done it, I went and did a little research into Dickens
0:17:05 > 0:17:09and found that I was just recreating exactly what he had done
0:17:09 > 0:17:11with all the voices and expressions and everything!
0:17:11 > 0:17:14"As the good, old city knew..."
0:17:14 > 0:17:18'He has created each and every one of his characters so precisely
0:17:18 > 0:17:22'and he would perform them first in a mirror to himself.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'And he would watch and listen to the character as it came back to him
0:17:26 > 0:17:28'and then he would go and write it down.'
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Part of his success absolutely is that ability to include his readers
0:17:36 > 0:17:41in the scene. Suddenly he describes a scene and you are there.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46If it's a winter scene, you're shivering - if it's a summer scene, you're hot. And it...
0:17:46 > 0:17:52Even today, an image of Dickens's Christmas is a wonderful snowscape with carol singers
0:17:52 > 0:17:57and stagecoaches and you're there, right in the middle of the snow.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59# God rest you merry gentlemen
0:17:59 > 0:18:02# Let nothing you dismay
0:18:02 > 0:18:09# For Jesus Christ our saviour was born upon this day
0:18:09 > 0:18:16# To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray
0:18:16 > 0:18:21# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:18:21 > 0:18:22# Comfort and joy
0:18:22 > 0:18:28# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:18:30 > 0:18:37# From God, our Heavenly Father a blessed angel came
0:18:37 > 0:18:43# And unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same
0:18:43 > 0:18:50# How that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name
0:18:50 > 0:18:54# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:18:54 > 0:18:56# Comfort and joy
0:18:56 > 0:19:02# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:19:04 > 0:19:11# But when to Bethlehem they came where our dear saviour lay
0:19:11 > 0:19:17# They found Him in a manger Where oxen feed on hay
0:19:17 > 0:19:24# His mother Mary kneeling unto the Lord did pray
0:19:24 > 0:19:29# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:19:29 > 0:19:31# Comfort and joy
0:19:31 > 0:19:37# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:19:38 > 0:19:45# Now to the Lord sing praises All you within this place
0:19:45 > 0:19:52# And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace
0:19:52 > 0:19:58# This holy tide of Christmas All others doth deface
0:19:58 > 0:20:04# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
0:20:04 > 0:20:06# Comfort and joy
0:20:06 > 0:20:14# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. #
0:20:20 > 0:20:24All of Dickens's novels engage with important social issues.
0:20:27 > 0:20:33Dickens had a good deal of exposure to social inequality as a child.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37When he moved to London in the 1820s,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41very soon after their arrival,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44his family found themselves descending into
0:20:44 > 0:20:48an ever-worsening spiral of debt, and difficulty - the consequence
0:20:48 > 0:20:52of which was that his father was sent to the Marshalsea Prison.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56He was living in London on his own for several months -
0:20:56 > 0:21:00walking along the streets of London late at night on his way back
0:21:00 > 0:21:01from seeing his family at the prison.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06He would pass terrible scenes. London was a really frightening place -
0:21:06 > 0:21:10there was a lot of social deprivation, a lot of poverty and a lot of crime.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17In order to supplement the family's difficulties with finance,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19he was found a job working at Warren's Blacking
0:21:19 > 0:21:22at Hungerford Stairs near the River Thames,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25pasting labels on pots of shoe blacking.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28For a little boy who had dreamt of being a learned
0:21:28 > 0:21:32and distinguished man, it was the death of all his hopes
0:21:32 > 0:21:37to become a little labouring hind with all these common men and boys.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39He had a very unhappy time.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43And I think this never quite left him.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47This was what really came into his fiction, his journalism.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50The fact that he wanted to do something
0:21:50 > 0:21:53about these people living in terrible circumstances.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Dickens's principal social concern was with the way in which
0:21:57 > 0:22:02society treats its children, because the children are the future.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07He said, "I'm going to write a book that will deliver
0:22:07 > 0:22:10"a hammer-blow in favour of the poor man's child".
0:22:12 > 0:22:15What Dickens does a great deal with A Christmas Carol
0:22:15 > 0:22:18is to talk about how his readers should behave,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22and two of the most important characters are not only Scrooge
0:22:22 > 0:22:26and the ghosts who visit him, but two children named Ignorance and Want.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31The Spirit Of Christmas Present says to Scrooge to beware them both,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34they're both frightening figures.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38But most of all, beware this boy - the boy is Ignorance -
0:22:38 > 0:22:43because if nothing is done to improve the prospects
0:22:43 > 0:22:49of the child, if nothing is done to educate the next generation,
0:22:49 > 0:22:54then the prospects facing all of us are alarming indeed.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59But his main message was to get across to people that Christmas
0:22:59 > 0:23:01wasn't the only time of year
0:23:01 > 0:23:05when people needed to be kind to the poor - but it was a very good start.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17# Hear my prayer
0:23:17 > 0:23:19# Oh, Heavenly Father
0:23:19 > 0:23:26# Ere I lay me down to sleep
0:23:26 > 0:23:32# Bid Thy angels, pure and holy
0:23:32 > 0:23:39# Round my bed their vigil keep
0:23:39 > 0:23:45# Keep me through this night of peril
0:23:45 > 0:23:52# Underneath its boundless shade
0:23:52 > 0:23:58# Take me to Thy rest, I pray Thee
0:23:58 > 0:24:05# When my pilgrimage is made
0:24:05 > 0:24:12# Guide and guard me with Thy blessing
0:24:12 > 0:24:21# Till the angels bid me home. #
0:24:41 > 0:24:47This year marks the 150th anniversary of Dickens's novel Great Expectations.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Once again, it was the area around the River Medway in Kent
0:24:50 > 0:24:51that inspired him.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55The story remains one of Charles Dickens's most dramatised works.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05A new BBC adaptation is set to hit our screens this Christmas.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09One of its stars is Gillian Anderson, who plays Miss Haversham.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12In this day and age, when everything is in your face,
0:25:12 > 0:25:18it's fascinating to see that the same themes ran back then
0:25:18 > 0:25:23and the fact that part of what Dickens was interested in
0:25:23 > 0:25:27is the impact of society on human beings.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30Ray Winstone plays Magwitch.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33I think it's a story that can be told again and again
0:25:33 > 0:25:36and it's relevant to any time it's told in, you know?
0:25:36 > 0:25:41What's different with it? Hopefully not too much, because the story was such a great story anyway.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46Because it was so well written, if you go too far off the text,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I think you'd probably be making a different story.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53That was all right, wasn't it?
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Charles Dickens was working on his final novel -
0:25:59 > 0:26:00The Mystery of Edwin Drood -
0:26:00 > 0:26:04when he was taken ill and collapsed at his home, Gad's Hill Place.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07He died 24 hours later,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09on the 9th of June, 1870.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11He was 58-years-old.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16Dickens left instructions that he was to be buried very simply
0:26:16 > 0:26:21here in Rochester Cathedral, but his final wish wasn't granted.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26The Dean and Chapter of Rochester's Cathedral actually started
0:26:26 > 0:26:28to dig a grave for him there,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32but then the call came out from the Times and Queen Victoria
0:26:32 > 0:26:35that the correct place for Dickens,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39the genius of Dickens, was Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42And so that is where he is buried.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44His body was moved to Westminster Abbey
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and following a private service, as news spread about his death,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49thousands arrived to pay tributes.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52There's a story of a little girl in London who said,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54"Charles Dickens, dead?
0:26:54 > 0:26:58"Will Father Christmas die, too?"
0:26:58 > 0:27:01He wanted his work to provide his legacy
0:27:01 > 0:27:04and it has proved a lasting memorial.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07He remains a master of the language.
0:27:07 > 0:27:14He remains someone who can create for us experiences, people,
0:27:14 > 0:27:19circumstances, of which we have had no direct personal experience.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24But in which we can participate through the words of someone
0:27:24 > 0:27:28who can write as skilfully as he can.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32In his will, Dickens wrote...
0:27:32 > 0:27:38"I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43"And I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves
0:27:43 > 0:27:48"by the teaching of the New Testament in its broad spirit.
0:27:48 > 0:27:54"And to put no faith in any man's narrow construction of its letter, here or there."
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Perhaps the lasting appeal of the book A Christmas Carol
0:29:58 > 0:30:01lies in the fact that we see that the miserable miser Scrooge
0:30:01 > 0:30:04is not beyond redemption after all.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07It's a heart-warming tale full of hope, just like the Christmas story,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11where the birth of Jesus brings us the good news that change is possible.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15And as Bob Cratchit says in A Christmas Carol,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears - God bless us".
0:30:18 > 0:30:20God bless us, everyone.
0:30:24 > 0:30:25Jesus Christ,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27light of the world,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30shine on us as we prepare to celebrate again
0:30:30 > 0:30:32the coming of your birth.
0:30:32 > 0:30:38Help us to follow your example of gentleness, peace and mercy.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40To love our neighbours as ourselves
0:30:40 > 0:30:45and as we are so often reminded by the words of Charles Dickens,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48to try to do the right in everything.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57be among us and remain with us now and always.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00- Amen.- ALL: Amen.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Next week, sumptuous carols by candlelight,
0:33:30 > 0:33:33as Pam introduces the story of the first Christmas,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36as told by the people of Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39And Joe McElderry sings some favourite festive songs.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:33:59 > 0:34:01E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk