Product Description

In CHARLES DICKENS'S ENGLAND , Derek Jacobi takes the viewer around the most important places, towns and cities that were the inspiration to some of the most famous settings in literature. The DVD features Cooling Church in Kent, used by the author in the opening chapter of Great Expectations; Miss Havisham's house in Rochester; the almost forgotten London Roman Baths used by David Copperfield; Joe Gargey's cottage in Chalk, the notorious Bowes Academy, the harshest of the Yorkshire schools and now known to the world as Dotheboys Hall. From Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight and then on to numerous London locations; from Chatham to Broadstairs; from Folkestone to Barnard Castle and then to St George's Hall in Liverpool.

Well over 100 locations are featured. Many of these, such as 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields where Dickens first read in public, the All The Year Round offices in Covent Garden where he lived and worked and Gad's Hill in Kent, the last in a very long list of his homes, are not open to the public and their interiors have rarely been filmed.

Extras

The Making Of Documentary

Deleted Scenes:

• Portsmouth Section
• London Montage
• Gravesend
• Intro to Nicholas Nickleby
• Rotting Hulks

Interview Sections:

• Derek Jacobi Interview
• Dr Florian Schweitzer Interview
• Dr Tony Williams Interview
• Thelma Grove Interview
• Adrian Wootton on Dickens on film

Extended Interview Sections (from film):

• Thelma Grove at the Leather Bottle
• Dr Tony Williams at the George & Vulture
• Dr Tony Williams at the Charles Dickens Museum
• Lee Ault at the Albion Hotel, Broadstairs
• Thelma Grove at Restoration House
• Roy Hattersley at The Houses of Parliament

Derek Jacobi extra readings:

• Sketches by Boz
• A Tale of Two Cities
• The Uncommercial Traveller
• A Dinner At Poplar Walk
• Seven Dials
• Bleak House
• Oliver Twist
• Nicholas Nickleby

Trailer

Running Time: Disc 1 film 120 mins. Disc 2 Extras 170 mins.

This DVD is also available on the North America / Japanese format NTSC.

Writers: Charles Dickens, David Nicholas Wilkinson, Emlyn Price

Producer: David Nicholas Wilkinson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2143 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-10-05
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 290 minutes

Synopsis
One of Britain's most distinguished stage performers, Sir Derek Jacobi, invites you on a unique journey through some of England's most impressive locales, made all the more fascinating for once inspiring the works of Charles Dickens. The series brings to life over 100 literary locations --from Miss Havisham's house in Rochester, to the Roman Baths used by David Copperfield in London-- and explores how these backdrops helped shape Dickens' characters and stories.

Review
Thank goodness for Charles Dickens's England. This combination of documentary of literary travelogue has no pretensions at all, merely a mad, endearing, Dickensian innocence. --Financial Times

Review
Engaging documentary.cracking pace.Derek Jacobi does an expert job in relating how Dickens stories exposed the iniquities and injustices of Victorian England. --David Parkinson Radio Times

Customer Reviews

A Dicken's tour
A highly intelligent and evocative account of Dicken's life, told by Actor Derek Jacobi who effortlessly engages and invites the viewer into his personal exploration and journey through the history of one our greatest Writers.
David Nicolas Wilkinson has chosen to summerise and represent Dickens life through the places throughout England significant to Dicken's. The places in which afterall held such inspiration for Dicken's himself. A psychogeographical tour. Like in Patrick Keiller's `Robinson in space' or more famously `London' for the duration of the film somewhat still and mundane yet highly beautiful images are shown to co inside with the ongoing narration. Like holiday snapshots collected together and bought into an album adding consistency and narrative throughout. Telling it apart from Keiller's type new wave psychogeograghy art film, is it's factual narration. Jacobi adds a warmer and more personal touch to this film. "The sectors of a city...are decipherable, but the personal meaning they have for us is incommunicable, as is the secrecy of private life in general, regarding which we possess nothing but pitiful documents". We are lucky enough to be let in on this secret places, Dickens getaways and inspirations. The images acting simply as documentation for these places, but it is Jacobi through his own enthusiasm that communicates the meaning of each place to the viewer. A new meaning is given to these places, whether its their blue plaques informing us that Dickens lived there or the knowledge that he has spent some of his great life there that new meaning is immediately given, it in turn becomes a place in which we can remember and appreciate one of our greatest inspirations. The film manages to perfectly communicate to us the essence of Dickins life through such a personal thing as where he spent his time. Exploring A home, a house, a building or a studio give us such a great insight into someone's characteristics, their thoughts, feelings and tastes. A beautiful atmospheric account and a highly enjoyable film.

150 years in the making
It took something of a radical visionary to document, through his novels, the life and times of ordinary, mid-19th century men, women and children. Equally talented, early 21st century visionaries have captured, for the first time, the true essence of Charles Dickens' England, presenting, through print and picture, a veritable feast to be devoured, scoffed or savoured, according to taste.

In a sense, the book and film have been more than 150 years in the making. Combined, they deliver a timeless, "gold standard", Dickensian travelogue for generations to come.

It's very easy to read a book, look at pictures, watch a film and pass judgement without considering the sheer effort that so many people have put into the project. To each and every one of them - well done. Without YOU (and Charles Dickens of course) none of this could have happened. Thank you.

A must for Dickens Fans
A great series that showed where Charles Dickens had lived and the kind of England that shaped his creativity in all his works. Encouraged to purchase with the book which provided extra information that was not shown on the DVD.