CHARLES DICKENS’S ENGLAND

On October 4th and 11th 2009, Sky Arts will screen the engaging documentary Charles Dickens’s England, presented and narrated by Derek Jacob. The documentary takes viewers on a fascinating, informative and hugely enjoyable journey visiting the locations, towns and cities that became the settings and inspiration for some of the most famous and best-loved stories in English literature – the works of Charles Dickens. A DVD of the programme will be available to buy from 5th October 2009 featuring extended footage, not seen on TV, with a further two hours worth of extras. Too coincide with the series, a 272 page book featuring 633 photographs and illustrations will be published, bringing together for the very first time all of the most important places, towns and cities that were the inspiration to some of the most famous settings in literature.

Russell Burden’s sumptuous photographs show 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 Bath’s used by David Copperfield; Joe Gargey’s cottage in Chalk, the notorious Bowes Academy, the harshest of the Yorkshire schools, now know to the world as Dotheboys Hall. From Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight, Rochester & Chatham to Broadstairs, Folkestone, Bury St Edmonds, Barnard Castle on to St George’s Hall in Liverpool, as well as rich abundance throughout London, well over 50 locations are featured. Many of the sites – such as the interiors of 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, his childhood home in Chatham and Gad’s Hill in Kent – this, the last in the very long list of homes – are simply not open to the public and have rarely been photographed. For further information on the book and the DVD, please contact Lisa Richards @ The Associates - lisarichards@the-associates.co.uk