''Charles Dickens's England'' is a feature documentary written and produced by David Nicholas Wilkinson, directed by
Julian Richards and presented by
Derek Jacobi. Other participants include
Roy Hattersley, Adrian Wootton, Tony Williams, Thelma Grove, Lee Ault and Tony Pointon.
Synopsis
''Charles Dickens's England'' takes the viewer on a journey of important places, towns and cities that were the inspiration to some of the most famous settings in literature; Cooling Church in
Kent used by Dickens in the opening chapter of ''
Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...
'';
Miss Havisham’s house in
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
; the London Roman Baths used by ''
David Copperfield''; Joe Gargery’s cottage in Chalk; the notorious Bowes Academy, the harshest of the Yorkshire schools now known to the world as Dotheboys Hall in ''
Nicholas Nickleby''.
Over 100 locations are featured including from
Portsmouth to the
Isle of Wight, numerous London locations, from
Chatham to
Broadstairs
Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of ...
, to
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, to
Barnard Castle, and to St George's Hall in
Liverpool. Many of the locations, such as the interior of 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Dickens first read in public, the ''
All the Year Round'' offices in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
where he lived and worked, and
Gads Hill Place in Kent, are not open to the public and have rarely been filmed.
Theatrical Release
In 2009, ''Charles Dickens's England'' was released in UK cinemas by Guerilla Films.
DVD release
In 2009, an extended version of ''Charles Dickens's England'' was released on DVD in the UK by Guerilla Films.
In October 2009, ''Charles Dickens's England'' was broadcast in the UK by
Sky Television on their channel
Sky Arts.
Critical reaction
Reviews of the film were largely mixed to negative, earning it a 25% fresh rating on
Rotten Tomatoes.
Rotten Tomatoes — Charles Dickens' England
Mark Kermode
Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
called it a "waste (of) two hours of my life...". Critics derided the uncinematic quality of the filmmaking and the ineptitude of Jacobi as a presenter.
'' The Financial Times'' wrote: "Thank goodness for Charles Dickens's England...endearing Dickensian innocence". ''Empire'' magazine wrote "decidedly charming documentary".
References
External links
*
Charles Dickens's England
' at the Internet Movie Database
2009 documentary films
2009 films
British documentary films
Works about Charles Dickens
Documentary films about writers
Documentary films about England
2000s British films
{{UK-documentary-film-stub