Claim OwnershipCharles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥
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© 2026 Dominic Gerrard
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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 🔥
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 🔥
98 Episodes
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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 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:...
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 alb...
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 Artwork: Léna Gibert Origin...
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,...
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 step...
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 dream...
Dominic is joined by the inimitable Harry Christophers CBE , founder and conductor of The Sixteen, one of the worlds most revered choral ensembles. With thanks to CORO for these stunning Christmas excerpts: Carol of the Bells Apple / Spotify Pilgrim Jesus Apple / Spotify Of a Rose Apple / Spotify This Have I Done ... Apple / Spotify Lo, How a Rose e'er Blooming Apple / Spotify O Radix Jesse Apple / Spotify Past Three a Clock Apple / Spotify For unto us .....
*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’ com...
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 ...
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...
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 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: Domin...
Dominic is joined again by the inimitable Professor Robert Douglas Fairhurst who returns to this series to explore Dickens' five iconic Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life & The Haunted Man ... Robert's latest book Metamorphosis: A Life in Pieces is available to order here HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!! This Episode was originally broadcast on 12th December 2022 Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of prod...
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 Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy ...
Dominic is joined by the wonderful Dr. Claire Wood again for a special Christmas episode on Charles Dickens' The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton; A Christmas Carol and The Chimes ... Reading extracts from these stories is the brilliant actor Tom Andrews ... HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! This episode was originally broadcast on 21st December 2022 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.buymeacof...
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...
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! 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/dominicge...
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 minia...
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 & Alic...
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...
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 skepti...
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