Miriam Margolyes on Charles Dickens

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The great Miriam Margolyes chooses Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol.

"He's the man in my life. He's tugged me into his world and never let me go. He writes better prose than anyone who's ever lived. He's told the most interesting stories, invented 2000 of the best characters, and because he was a wicked man."

Miriam Margolyes is author of Oh Miriam! Helping the award-winning actor and chat show terror explore the wicked life of Charles Dickens is Professor Kathryn Hughes, author of Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum. Programme includes archive of Simon Callow and Armando Iannucci.

Future episodes include Reginald D Hunter on Eugene V Debs, five times socialist candidate for the US presidency; Dr Hannah Critchlow on Colin Blakemore; director Julien Temple on Christopher Marlowe, and Zing Tsjeng on Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter who was virtually unknown throughout the twentieth century. Her recent Paintings for the Future show at the Guggenheim was the most visited in their history. Also Conn Iggulden on the Emperor Nero, and comedian Jo Brand picks the American blues singer Bessie Smith.

PLUS!

AN Wilson on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Anneka Rice on the largely forgotten wife of William Morris; and Ekow Eshun on Britain’s first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu

The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC studios is Miles Warde who launched the series over twenty years ago in Bristol.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:39.0	Today's guest is someone we've been pursuing for a very long time.
0:44.3	Miriam Margulies, award-winning actor, writer, chat show terror.
0:49.2	Miriam, welcome to great lives.
0:51.7	Whom have you picked and why?
0:53.6	Thank you for a lovely introduction. I pick Charles Dickens because he's the man in my life.
0:59.6	Why?
1:00.6	I love him because he's tugged me into his world and never let me go. I love him because he
1:07.0	writes better prose than anyone who ever lived, because he's told the most interesting stories, invented 2,000 of the best characters, and because
1:17.4	he was a wicked man.
1:19.8	It was the best of times, it was the worst of times wasn't he a great phrase maker oh totally
1:26.0	original I think he's done more for us than Shakespeare I do have to
1:30.0	oh my goodness lay my cards on the table there and his joy in writing was so wonderful that he would
	...

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