Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥
Actor Dominic Gerrard hosts an exciting new series that explores the Life and Times of Charles Dickens: his extraordinary novels, who he was as a person, his career as a performer, and his activism. Guests include: Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Armando Iannucci, Alice Loxton, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Lucinda Hawksley, John Mullan, Pen Vogler, Andrew Davies, Rosie Holt, Bernard Cornwell .... and many more academics, writers, actors, directors and descendants of the great man himself! Along side these interviews there are special Dickens readings from across his works ...Thank you for listening 🔥
A TALE OF TWO CITIES 📚: with Céline Prest
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Dr. Céline Prest who guides today's discussion on A Tale of Two Cities - one of the most gripping, exciting and heart-rending stories that Dickens ever wrote.
Céline completed her Phd at the Sorbonne University in 2016. Her doctoral research was awarded the André Topia Prize by the Chancellerie des Universitiés de Paris, and the Robert B. Partlow Jr prize by the Dickens Society. In 2019 she published a new edition of The Pickwick Papers for Gallimard. And in 2023 she published a monograph Le Spectre du document dans l’œuvre...
(Encore!) Copperfeld, Chuzzlewit ... Partridge? : with Armando Iannucci
Ahead of a new series this month Dominic re-shares his popular interview with the inimitable Armando Iannucci!
Armando is one of the leading comedy writers and political satirists of our time - where we delve into his literary passions and influences.
This lively conversation peels back the layers of Armando's lifelong love of Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit in particular -and his interest in John Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost and how these literary giants have left an indelible mark on his work. How he would later go on to write, produce...
NEW EPISODES for 2026 !!! 📚
Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! will return in the summer ...
In the meantime there are nearly 100 Episodes to enjoy with guests such as: Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Armando Iannucci, Andrew Davies, Alice Loxton, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Lucinda Hawksley, John Bowen, John Mullan, Rosie Holt, Steven Knight …. And many more!
And if you’d like to make a small donation to cover the costs of researching, recording and producing this series, wherever and whenever you listening to this you can follow the link below and buy a coffee! ☕️
Also - if you fee...
Look Closer: with Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Dominic welcomes back one of the most celebrated guests of this series Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst ...
Robert’s latest book Look Closer: How to get more out of reading (published by Penguin) is an invitation to all of us to go deeper into our reading, and find greater joy and meaning in the works of great writers from all ages and backgrounds. With examples from Dickens (of course!) but also George Eliot, Shakespeare, Margaret Attwood, Samuel Becket, Jane Austen and many more …
Since they last spoke Robert has also published Metamorphosis: A Life i...
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Excerpt) : Read by Dominic Gerrard
Dominic shares an excerpt from his upcoming audiobook of A Christmas Carol which will be released in the New Year ...
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!
This content is not available for AI training or scraping. All rights reserved. Recording and Artwork owned by Dominic Gerrard
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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
Thank you so much!
Host: Dominic Gerrard
<...
The Muppet Christmas Carol: with Meredith Braun
This Christmas Eve ... Dominic is joined by the inimitable Meredith Braun, who played Scrooge's love interest Belle - opposite Michael Caine (and Fozziwig!) - in Brian Henson's The Muppet Christmas Carol ...
Meredith shares her memories of filming the role, whilst simultaneously playing Eponine in the iconic West End production of Les Miserables ...
A special thank you to Tim Hutton at Stage Door Records for allowing the use of the recording of When Love is Gone from Meredith's 2017 album of the same name ...
When Love is Gone is a...
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH 📚 : with Lydia Craig
Dominic is joined again by the inimitable Dr. Lydia Craig where they dive into Dickens' third Christmas Book, with readings from the award-winning actress Penelope Rawlins
The Cricket On The Hearth - published 180 years ago this year - explodes into life from the very start and hardly pauses for breath until the very end. Its unrelenting pace sweeps its characters along whether they be human, animal, insect or household object …
Centred around that fabled victorian fireside. Where dreams and visions appear happy in the glowing light but depressed in the...
Three MORE Dickensian Christmases! Read by Rebecca Tanwen, Tom Andrews & Chris Nayak
Dominic takes three more Dickensian Christmas Readings from the archives:
The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain & The Holly-Tree
Read by Rebecca Tanwen, Tom Andrews and Chris Nayak
HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!!
These readings were first published separately in December 2023
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Three Dickensian Christmases: Read by Gina Beck, Carlyss Peer & Tom Bennett
Dominic dips into the Christmas archives to bring you three Dickensian Christmas Readings from The Pickwick Papers, The Chimes & The Cricket on the Hearth ...
Published here in one episode for the first time. Our cast of readers include Gina Beck, Carlyss Peer and Tom Bennett …
HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!!
These readings were originally published separately during the Christmas of 2023
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Dickens' Carol Manuscript : with Philip Palmer
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Dr. Philip Palmer: Robert H. Taylor Curator & Department Head of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum and custodian of Charles Dickens' one and only handwritten manuscript of A Christmas Carol ...
Here Philip shares many of the secrets of the manuscript, such as the ideas and phrases that Dickens struck from his story (that can still be seen in the crossings out), and the expert care that goes into its preservation.
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"Master Humphrey's Christmas": Read by Dominic Gerrard
Dominic reads a quietly enchanting festive episode from “Master Humphrey’s Clock” by Charles Dickens.
Master Humphrey is wandering the snowy streets, one 25th December, and casually walks into a tavern. A decision that will change his life forever ...
A MERRY CHRISTMAS to all you listeners, wherever in the world you are!
Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd & Original Dickens illustrations sourced from Michael John Goodman's incredible Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery
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CHRISTMAS IS COMING !!! ☃️🎩⛓️🎄👻
Welcome to CHRISTMAS at Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥
The very first of our special Festive will go live shortly ...
And If you’re new to this series, there are some incredible episodes already waiting for you to listen to. Interviews with leading actors, academics, writers, historians, and descendants of the great man him self!
Guests such as: Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes, Armando Iannucci, Rosie Holt, John Mullan, Lucinda Hawksley, Robert Douglas Fairhurst, Andrew Davies & Alice Loxton … and many many more!
I hope you have as much fu...
What Matters in Jane Austen & Charles Dickens? : with John Mullan
Dominic is joined by returning guest, the inimitable Professor John Mullan: author of What Matters in Jane Austen? (now released in a 250th Birthday Edition) and The Artful Dickens - both published by Bloomsbury Press
In a lively chat, John sheds light on the tricks, devices and styles of these two incredible writers: Jane Austen and Charles Dickens ...
And in case you haven’t heard John's previous conversation on Great Expectations we thoroughly recommend you scroll back to Episode 5 of this series also!
Original cover headshot of John Mullan © P...
The Cock Lane Ghost: with Emma Clery
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Prof. Emma Clery - author of The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762-1800 and Professor of English Literature at Uppsala University, Sweden. They continue this month’s theme of the supernatural, taking you on a journey into the heart of an event that caused a sensation in Georgian London, and would inspire Dickens decades later …
The real life story of The Cock Lane Ghost set the stage for an earnest debate between Anglicans and Methodists - the former skeptical the latter credulous towa...
TO BE READ AT DUSK 📚: with Emily Middleton
The ghostly episodes continue as Dominic welcomes back the inimitable Dr. Emily Middleton who helps piece together the scattered psychological fragments that create Dickens' To Be Read at Dusk ...
Five couriers sit high up watching the sun set over snowy peaks of the St Bernard's Pass, their minds flitting from one strange unsettling anecdote to another. Ideas of premonition, mesmerism, and the powerful telepathy that can exist between twins, abound in this story ...
Additional sound effects of the ghostly mountain have been used, with permission, from Epidemic Sound...
Headless Horsemen & Morphean Space: with Kirstin Mills
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Dr. Kirstin Mills Senior Lecturer and Director of the Master of Research & Graduate Diploma of Research in the Faculty of Arts, at Macquarie University. Kirstin's recent articles include the chapter "Morphean Space and the Metaphysics of Nightmare ..." published in Gothic Dreams and Nightmares for Manchester University Press.
Their conversation flits and tumbles through the realms of 19th Century dreams and nightmares. Many of which are sure to have visited the young Charles Dickens, thanks to the bedtime stories told to him by Mary W...
The Lawyer and The Ghost: Read by Jonathan Broadbent
This Halloween ... actor Jonathan Broadbent reads one of the interpolated ghost stories, from The Pickwick Papers
In The Lawyer and The Ghost a somewhat disreputable young Lawyer has retired to his meagre lodgings one night and is forced to debate with something not of this world ...
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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
Se...
THE BLACK VEIL 📚: with Andrew Smith
This Halloween Dominic is joined by the inimitable Prof. Andrew Smith who guides us through Dickens' The Black Veil and his latest book Dickens and the Gothic (for Cambridge University Press)
Perhaps calling to mind Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black … The Black Veil begins with a young man sitting by the fire one winter’s night, with cosy thoughts of Christmas. Out of the corner of his eye the veiled figure of a lady dressed in mourning appears, standing motionless, with eyes fixed on him.
As the story unfo...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! 🎃
Dominic announces a new series of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire!🔥 and share some personal stories of haunting ...
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!
NEW EPISODES COMING!
Dominic checks in with his listeners to announce that exciting NEW EPISODES of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥 will arrive at the end of October ...
You can support the costs of recording and producing these episodes below: ☕☕☕☕
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
<...
The War of the Worlds: with Jeff Wayne
Dominic now to Jeff Wayne about the creation of his masterpiece The Musical Version of The War of the Worlds ...
At time of recording this multiplatinum album has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and is currently running as an Immersive Experience in London.
It features searing performances from Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott as the crazed Parson Nathaniel, and David Essex’s swaggering and delusional Artilleryman, with Julie Covington as Beth bringing real humanity into their performance.
While underpinning every scene and driving the story onwards, is the...
Two Cities: with Jeff Wayne
Dominic speaks to the award-winning composer Jeff Wayne about Two Cities (his Musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities) that opened at the Palace Theatre, in London's West End, on 27th February 1969
Despite a run of just 44 performances, Two Cities was Nominated for Best Musical at the Evening Standard Awards - with its star Edward Woodward also winning the Best Male Performance for a Musical category for his portrayal of Sydney Carton. Audiences and critics alike also praised Elizabeth Power’s performance as Lucie Manette ...
All musical ex...
PICTURES FROM ITALY 📚: with Pete Orford
In the July of 1844 Dickens, his wife Catherine, their five children, his sister-in-law Georgina - plus three servants and their dog Timber - left London for Italy. What followed was an extraordinary adventure for them all.
Returning to the series to talk to Dominic about his new Oxford University Press edition of Pictures From Italy is the inimitable Dr. Pete Orford also returning to read excerpts from the book is the brilliant actor Tom Andrews ...
The recording Vivaldi's Four Seasons has been granted under license from Epidemic Sound<...
The Manuscript at Staplehurst: with Leon Litvack
Bonus Episode!
In which Dr. Leon Litvack recounts Dickens' dramatic retrieval of Part 16 of the Manuscript of Our Mutual Friend from the swaying carriage at Staplehurst; and reveals, here for the first time, a key discovery he has made; plus the cut sections he has restored in his new Oxford University Press Edition of the novel ...
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OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 📚: with Leon Litvack
Dominic is joined by Dr. Leon Litvack whose new edition of Our Mutual Friend for Oxford University Press will be published in November
Leon is a reader at Queen’s University Belfast, and is an expert analyst of Dickens’ letters, manuscripts & handwriting. As well as being the Principal Editor of the Dickens Letters Project and Joint General Editor of the Oxford Edition of Charles Dickens, he sits on the Advisory Council for the UK’s National Records and Archives…
And returning to the series t...
Vincent Van Gogh: with Carol Jacobi
Vincent Van Gogh was an avid reader of Dickens. Throughout his life Dickens' works provided not only a mental 'scaffold' that helped him to believe in his own mission as an artist, but also pull himself out of deep depressions ...
Here to talk to Dominic today about the powerful connection between Dickens and Van Gogh is the inimitable Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art (1850-1915) at Tate Britain where her many exhibitions included the celebrated Van Gogh in Britain …
Here are links to paintings discussed in the episode:
Mi...
The Verse of Charles Dickens: with Lydia Craig & Emily Middleton
Dickens' genius as a novelist is acknowledged the world over ... but what was he like as a poet?
Joining Dominic today to find out are the inimitable Dr. Lydia Craig & Dr. Emily Middleton who have just co-authored The Verse of Charles Dickens (Edinburgh University Press)
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
(Encore!) BLEAK HOUSE 📚: with Stephen Fry
Ahead of a new series Dominic re-shares the most popular episode of this show so far! Bleak House with the inimitable Stephen Fry who takes the listener on an intricate journey through the fog and mystery of Dickens' thrilling masterpiece.
And reading extracts from Esther's narrative is the brilliant Sally Scott
And here is a link to Miriam Margolyes' unabridged audiobook of Bleak House mentioned in the episode
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GEORGE SILVERMAN'S EXPLANATION 📚: with Emily Middleton
Hot on the heels of Dominic's audiobook of George Silverman's Explanation comes the discussion with Dr. Emily Middleton (formerly Bell) … who we’ve met before in the episodes on Oliver Twist and The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices …
Emily is working on George Silverman, and other rarer Dickens stories for Oxford University Press, and has just published The Verse of Charles of Dickens for Edinburgh University Press which she has co-authored with Dr Lydia Craig. ( There is a joint episode on this with Emily and Lydia already waiting in the wings...
George Silverman's Explanation (Audiobook): Read by Dominic Gerrard
Dominic reads George Silverman's Explanation - one of Dickens' rarer short stories - ahead of an upcoming discussion with Dr. Emily Middleton ...
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
Pickwick's Legacy ...
Here are two fragments that didn't make the cut in the previous episode on THE PICKWICK PAPERS ...
Prof. Hugo Bowles talks about the afterlife of Pickwick & Gina Beck reads an extract where Pickwick is observed from a window by a Scientific Gentleman!
Original cover headshot of Hugo Bowles © Luca Bowles / Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd & Original Dickens illustrations sourced from Michael John Goodman's incredible Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery
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THE PICKWICK PAPERS 📚 : with Hugo Bowles
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Prof. Hugo Bowles who is currently working the OUP edition of The Pickwick Papers to guide us through this riot of a novel - if it is a novel?
Hugo is an alumnus of both Oxford and Cambridge where he read English, Classics and Applied Linguistics. For over three decades he lectured at four Italian Universities and is the author of Dickens and Stenographic Mind (published by Edinburgh University Press). We last caught up with Hugo in his joint episodes with Dr. Claire Wood as th...
A Tour of 48 Doughty Street: with Jordan Evans-Hill
Today’s episode is A Tale of Two Podcasts where Dominic teams up with Jordan Evans-Hill: creator and host of the Charles Dickens Museum’s Inimitable podcast.
Here Jordan takes the listener on a tour inside number 48 Doughty St - the house where Dickens lived and worked as he completed Pickwick, wrote the entirety of Oliver Twist & Nicholas Nickleby and began Barnaby Rudge …
Jordan is a former footman from the Royal Household where he served the late Queen Elizabeth II. He is also a writer, having recently comple...
A Jane Austen Year ...
Dominic has helped create a sister podcast to mark the 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen's birth!
A Jane Austen Year is told by the people that work at Jane Austen’s House - the idyllic Hampshire cottage, in the south of England, where Jane Austen wrote her world famous novels.
On the first of every month a new episode of letters, scenes from the novels, recipes & talks about the objects in the house, will be published.
And every sound you hear - including the birds - w...
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Part Two) 📚 : with John Bowen
Welcome to Part Two of Dominic and John Bowen's journey through A Christmas Carol ...
With readings again from Hollie Hales and violin parts performed by Alexis Bennett.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!!
This episode was first broadcast on December 28, 2024
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 A...
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Part One) 📚 : with John Bowen
It’s Christmas Eve, and Dominic takes a deep dive with you all through A Christmas Carol. Returning to the series is the inimitable Prof. John Bowen (who recently worked on David Edgar’s Carol adaptation for the RSC) and who like many of us, re-reads this ghostly little book every Christmas and has pondered its power and meaning for decades.
The Carol Philosophy that Dickens expresses so generously in this story is truly universal: everyone has a chance to change and not be fixed, or branded, as the worst version of t...
‘What Brutal Hand …?': with Lydia Craig
*This episode focuses on the theme of domestic violence*
Dominic shares a bonus fragment from his last interview with Dr. Lydia Craig on The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain ...
It is a moment in the story where Redlaw comes across ‘a woman sitting on the stairs, either asleep or forlorn’ and ‘whose head’ is ‘bent down on her hands and knees.’ Redlaw sees that her arms are ‘black, her face cut, and her bosom bruised.’
It’s a deeply powerful, moment in the story, that reveals Dickens’ compassion not only for the poo...
THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN 📚 : with Lydia Craig
Today’s episode is on Dickens’ final Christmas Book The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. A deeply powerful story, where the chemist, Stephen Redlaw is offered the chance to forget all his painful memories by a Phantom who is a ghastly copy of himself drawn from the shadows in his study. Redlaw accepts the ghost’s bargain … but then faces a desperate struggle to have this spell lifted again, when to his horror he discovers that his new gift has a 'King Midas' quality of infecting everyone he meets (or nearly everyone) with the same curse of forgetting...
The Christmas Illustrations: with Lucinda Hawksley
This episode marks the 3rd birthday of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥
In this first Christmas episode for 2024 Dominic is joined again by the critically acclaimed author, broadcaster, and art-historian Lucinda Hawksley. And as they return to Dickens’ Christmas books their focus this time is on the illustrations found in each of them.
Many of you will of course be familiar with the name of John Leech, who’s images for A Christmas Carol are now inseparable from Scrooge’s story, and how we picture it, but as we move on...
(rough) GEORGE SILVERMAN'S EXPLANATION 📚: with Emily Bell
Ever wondered how Charles Dickens, one of the most celebrated writers in the English language, managed to portray such profound insights about poverty and psychological trauma in a much lesser-known work? Emily and I are diving into that seldom-explored territory as we dissect George Silverman's Explanation and how Dickens' own experiences color the narrative. We also discuss the intriguing proto-modernist opening of the story and its impact on our understanding of the plot.
From the young protagonist's moral dilemmas, the gothic farmhouse setting, to the fascinating character of Brother Hawkeyard, we bring to light the lesser-known Dickensian themes...
