Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥 – Details, episodes & analysis

Dominic is joined today by the inimitable Professor Ian Haywood, of the Centre for Inclusive Humanities at the University of Roehampton.
Together they delve into the astonishing 'Riots of Eighty' that gripped London for a week and were brought thrillingly to life in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge ...

Ian is a specialist in the radical politics and visual culture of the period of 1750-1850, and has published extensively on that period in books such as Bloody Romanticism: Spectacular Violence and The Politics of Representation and Queen Caroline and the Power of Caricature in Georgian England (for Palgrave); and appropriately for today The Gordon Riots: Politics, Culture and Insurrection in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain (for Cambridge University Press) …

Reading the following excerpts in this episode is wonderful actress Hollie Hales:

1, 2 & 16. Barnaby Rudge (C. 68 Dickens)
3. Sketches of Popular Tumults (Craik)
4, 5, 6, 11 & 13.  The Scots Magazine (June 1780)
7 & 10. Narrative of the late Riots and Disturbances ... (Holcroft)
8. The Riot Act
9. Kentish Gazette (June 1780)
11. (Source to be inserted!)
12. King's Proclamation
14. Northampton Mercury (July 1780)
15. Oxford Journal (August 1780)

The sound of crowds, gunshots & horses in this episode were used with permission from Epidemic Sound

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If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

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Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic is joined again by the inimitable Dr. Pete Orford for Part II of his examination of The Mystery of Edwin Drood ...

Pete’s book Edwin Drood: Charles Dickens’ Unfinished Novel And Our Endless Attempts To End It … (Pen & Sword books) is our guide throughout. It is a hugely entertaining read where scholarly citations and tomfoolery combine with vibrant illustrations by Alys Jones … there is a link purchase this in the description.

And reading extracts today, it is an honour to welcome the fantastic actors Joseph Chance and Dan Wheeler together they are part of a quartet known as The Apocalypse Players: an award-winning podcast where role-playing and improvisation combine to create immersive stories for eager listeners each week.

Dominic also asks  AI to try and write an ending to Edwin Drood with some truly hilarious results!

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

The wonderful actor Chris Nayak reads the from the First Branch of The Holly-Tree Inn - one of Dickens' rarer Christmas stories … 

Packed with self-deprecating humour, a fantastic snowy atmosphere, this a very pleasing festive narrative. 

Chris’ stage credits include King Duncan in Macbeth at the Globe this year, and previously the RSC and West End. His screen work includes Coronation Street and We Hunt Together …

So sit back an enjoy this opening  excerpt from The Holly Tree Inn 

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic is joined by the wonderful award winning food historian Pen Vogler who returns to the podcast to talk about Dickensian Christmas Dinners ...

Focusing on Dickens' five Christmas books - A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life  and The Haunted Man  -  Pen explores what the characters eat and why.

From the Cratchit children 'basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion'; Trotty and Meg sharing a dish of a tripe outside on the steps; Edward and May’s wedding; Dr. Jeddler’s breakfast out in the orchard; and the Tetterby family’s knucklebone of pork and pease pudding.

Pen's books - such as Dinner With Dickens  and Stuffed are available to buy here: https://thesohoagency.co.uk/authors/pen-vogler

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Award-winning actress, comedian, and satirist Rosie Holt returns to the series to read the opening of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on the 180th anniversary of its publication today in 1843 ...

Rosie makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 4 and as a satirist her work is so powerful that half the country seem to think she’s an actual Conservative Member of Parliament. This is both hilarious and deeply worrying. Her podcast, NONCENSORED with Eshaan Akbar and Brendan Murphy, was nominated for an ARIA this year, and her show That’s Politainment  will tour in the Spring of 2024.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic’s guest today is the inimitable Emma Rutherford who recalls her time working on the rediscovery of a lost portrait of Dickens, painted by Margaret Gillies in 1843, and lost for over a century until its serendipitous reappearance at a South African auction. A pivotal snapshot of Dickens' life, the portrait's story hints at the profound bond between Gillies and Dickens, a bond that may have helped shape A Christmas Carol

Emma is an art historian, with a specialisation in portrait miniatures and silhouettes. Emma began her career at London’s Victoria & Albert Musuem, and then for 15 years established and ran the Portrait and Miniatures Consultancy at Philip Mould’s  & Company

This year she has set up The Limner Company

Her publications include Without Hands The Art of Sarah Biffin … a topic for a future episode!

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Light up your holiday season with the enchanting narration of our guest, the brilliant Gina Beck as she transports us to the charm and warmth of a festive journey from Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers in a way that is sure to stir the Christmas spirit in you.

Gina has been a star of London’s West End for nearly two decades playing the leads in Matlida, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked & Les Miserables. Right now she can be seen in the current season of The Crown on Netflix.

Reading adapted from Chapter 28 of the Pickwick Papers by Dominic Gerrard …

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

The award-winning actor and writer Patterson Joseph takes the listener on a  fascinating journey into the captivating life of Charles Ignatius Sancho, an African man who found favour among the highest reaches of 18th-century British society,  and who had a front-row seat to the infamous Gordon Riots of 1780 ...

Sharing the inspiration behind his thrilling novel -The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho-Paterson shares his unique writing processes, heavily influenced by Dickens' immersive character development, and his uncanny knack for sensory detail

Here is also a link to Paterson reading the audiobook of Sancho:
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Secret-Diaries-of-Charles-Ignatius-Sancho-Audiobook/B09TD1SGLZ

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Celeste Callen returns to share her insights on how Henri  Bergson's theories of the 'superficial self' and the 'mechanical man' permeate through Dickens' novels such as The Signal-Man,  Bleak House,  Hard Times, The Chimes,  and Master Humphrey's Clock

Celeste Callen holds a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from King's College London and an MSc in Enlightenment, Romantic and Victorian Literature from the University of Edinburgh. She is a third year PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research explores subjective temporal experience in Dickens’ fiction,  through the lens of Henri Bergson’s philosophy of time. Her other areas of interest include representations of selfhood, memory, subjectivity and temporality, as well as reflections on the novel and the philosophy of time more broadly.

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!

Dominic is joined by the inimitable James Swanton  who is performing A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and Haunted Man in person this year at the Dickens Museum. And for those of you listening outside the UK you can watch a live stream of his Haunted Man - filmed inside number 48 Doughty Street - on the 11th December.

James read English at Selwyn College Cambridge. Since graduating his acting credits include Sikes and Nancy at London’s Trafalgar Studios, Irving Undead and this years’ upcoming BBC Ghost Story for Christmas Lot No.249

His inspirations are far ranging, and a brilliant English teacher by the name of Mr Crisp who took James under his wing when he was at secondary school and set him on the path that he still treads today …

Support the show

If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard

Thank you so much!

Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

Thank you for listening!