Sex Life & Scandal of Charles Dickens

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Like it or not, there's no escaping Charles Dickens at this time of year.

But who was the man behind classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and of course, A Christmas Carol?

His life is as rich as many of the characters' stories in one of his books, including a brutal Victorian upbringing and rumours of sex and scandal.

Joining us in this re-run to explore the controversy of the man is Charles Dickens super-fan Miriam Margolyes - a national treasure in her own right.

Having written and starred in the play, Dickens Women, Miriam knows better than most the complicated relationships he had in his life: from his mother who took him out of school to work in a rat-infested blacking factory aged 12, to his wife whom he had a bookcase wall built to separate her from him.

This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.

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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.
0:02.4	If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.
0:16.0	And enjoy a new release every single week.
0:19.8	Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:24.7	Hello, my lovely betwixtners.
0:26.4	It's me, Kate Lister, and a very merry, happy Christmas or whatever the hell it is that you are celebrating to you.
0:33.1	I'm so glad that you could join us once again for this episode of Betwix the Sheets.
0:37.5	But before we can get going, I have to tell you, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults
0:41.3	to other adults about adult things and an adulty way covering a range of adult subjects and you
0:44.3	should be an adult too.
0:45.3	And you feel safer?
0:46.4	I know I feel safer.
0:47.4	Everyone feels safer.
0:48.3	Right, on with the show.
1:06.0	Okay. It is a damp winter morning near the banks of the Thames in 1823. As this bustling city comes to life, throngs of people make their way to another hard day's
1:12.0	work in the factories that line the river. Among them is a shy, 11-year-old Charles Dickens,
1:20.6	who's about to start his first day of work at a blacking factory, having been taken out
1:25.9	of school by his parents to help pay off their debts.
1:30.6	Towards the end of his life, he would describe the rotting building as literally overrun with old grey
1:37.2	rats, whose squeaking and scuffing would come up the stairs at all times. But it's here that the young Dickens is exposed to the
1:46.6	cruelty young children faced in Victorian Britain, and many of the characters here will inspire
	...

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