Charles Dickens and the Train Crash
History's Heroes
BBC
4.8 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June 1865, the writer Charles Dickens was sitting in the first-class carriage of a train when it crashed outside of Kent. The horrific accident would require all his courage and threaten to reveal his most closely guarded secret.
Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.
A BBC Studios production.
Producer: Michael LaPointe Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann Executive Producer: Paul Smith Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.2 | Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | I like when a manager wears a suit and tides, you know what I mean? |
| 0:09.7 | In 2025, we were here for the football. |
| 0:13.0 | The Wayne Rooney Show |
| 0:14.0 | As a manager, you're making decisions on what you're seeing on the pitch. |
| 0:16.9 | Sometimes it doesn't always pay off. |
| 0:18.3 | Football daily. |
| 0:19.4 | Loyalty in football. Does it still exist? |
| 0:22.0 | There is no loyalty in football. Antuny and Russo. Do you feel like the pressure actually helps you play the best football? |
| 0:28.4 | We've prepared ourselves to step out onto the pitch at the end of the day. Get the best of 2025 with podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.7 | You're about to listen to a brand new series of History's Heroes. |
| 0:41.0 | New episodes will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:44.6 | But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes a week early, first, on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:51.9 | In a novel, every detail counts. A decision, a coincidence, a mistake, everything |
| 0:59.3 | contributes to the shape of the story. The same can be true of a disaster. I find that |
| 1:06.2 | aspect quite extraordinary, how many, many differing things all came together to create this absolutely |
| 1:13.2 | tragic moment. |
| 1:15.0 | The 9th of June 1865, Stapleshurst, Kent. |
| 1:20.4 | For ten weeks, workmen had been replacing the rotten timber beams of the railway bridges |
| 1:25.5 | over the marshland. |
| 1:26.7 | Which meant taking the rails off, taking the metal troughs off, |
... |
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