Charles Dickens; The Mystery of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, beloved 19th century literary genius and creator of a panoply of timeless fictional figures--including Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr. Micawber, Wackford Squeers, and Uriah Heep--was not, according to biographer Peter Ackroyd, a happy camper in his personal life. Many are familiar with the stories of Dickens' traumatic boyhood experiences working in a blacking factory, and suffering the shame of his father's internment in a debtor's prison; less know that Dickens evicted his wife of 22 years after a temporary measure--a brick wall that the author had erected between the couple's living quarters--failed to prove separation enough. As Ackroyd intones in Uncovering the Real Dickens, a three-hour BBC-aired epic bundled in the boxed set Charles Dickens (which also includes the Masterpiece Theatre version of David Copperfield [VL-11/02], and a film of actor Anton Lesser in character as Dickens, reading--in its entirety--A Christmas Carol), “Dickens…filled his work with the secrets of his own life.” And it is precisely that juncture, where the living Dickens meets the characters and situations on the page, which host and narrator Ackroyd explores in this unusual biopic combining “interviews” with Dickens' parents, contemporaries (including the dismissive William Makepeace Thackeray), and the man himself (played by Lesser, who does indeed look the part), together with film clips from assorted adaptations of Dickens' works. Although touching on various periods of Dickens' life, the program devotes an inordinate amount of time to the relationship between the writer and a young actress named Ellen Ternan, with whom he may have fathered a child. Consistently interesting and entertaining, if rather questionable as biography, this program, which also includes a “making of” documentary and a selection of Victorian-era alehouse songs is recommended, overall--especially given the added bonus of the two additional standalone programs. Aud: J, H, C, P. The Mystery of Charles Dickens, a stage play also written by Ackroyd, features a tour de force one-man performance by actor Simon Callow, who not only serves as narrator but also assumes the persona of Dickens and various Dickensian characters. Filmed at London's Albery Theatre in 2000, and offering a more compressed--and more exhilarating--account of the writer's life, the play includes many passages that are virtually identical to those found in Uncovering the Real Dickens, but by spending far less time in conjecture on the Dickens/Ternan relationship, this much tighter production also squeezes in some real gems. Referring to the author's fondness for orphans, Callow admits, “it has been said that when the fire of one of Dickens' novels was threatening to grow dim, he would throw on a child to stoke up the flames.” One of the most notable moments, however, comes near the end, when after talking about the toll Dickens' violently emotional public readings took on both the author and his audience, Callow proceeds to reenact Bill Sikes' murder of Nancy from Oliver Twist with such intensity (and not a drop of blood, real or fake) that the viewer is left breathless. A grand marriage of biography and theatre, anchored by a stunning performance, this is highly recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)