Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥

Dominic Gerrard
  • 4.9 (35)
  • Books

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 🔥 

  1. 6d ago

    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 Weller, and the books he would later read voraciously … Expect to meet Demons, Vampires, the much overlooked Headless Horseman and - one of the greatest literary creations of all time - Ichabod Crane! Sounds of horses, dutch folk dances, eerie whistling and windy gusts on a mountain side were used provided under license by Epidemic Sound Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd  / Original cover headshot of Kirstin Mills © Kirstin Mills / Painted backdrop of The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane by John Quidor (1858) has been sourced through Wikipedia and is in the public domain This episode was originally broadcast on 5th November 2025 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!

    Headless Horsemen & Morphean Space: with Kirstin Mills

  2. 6d ago

    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 Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd  / Original cover headshot of Emily Middleton © Dustin Smith, Skywall Photography / Background detail of Gornergrat Railway and Matterhorn, Valais, Alps of, Switzerland (1890-1900) Photochrom Print Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This episode was originally broadcast on 8th November 2025 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!

    TO BE READ AT DUSK 📚: with Emily Middleton

  3. 6d ago

    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 ... Original cover headshot of Jonathan Broadbent © Thumb Over The Lens  / Original Dickens illustrations sourced from Michael John Goodman's incredible Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery This reading was originally broadcast on 31st October 2025 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!

    The Lawyer and The Ghost: Read by Jonathan Broadbent

  4. 6d ago

    THE SIGNAL-MAN 📚: with John Bowen

    Dominic is joined by the inimitable Professor John Bowen who returns to this series to explore the hidden depths beneath the pages of one of Dickens' most iconic ghost stories -The Signal-Man Written only a year after Dickens  survived the Staplehurst Rail Crash, The Signal-Man finds an author grappling with trauma and the conflicted feelings of fear and wonder at the new railways, mixed with a desperate yearning to know in advance where danger lies … Reading excerpts from the haunting tale is the fantastic actor and director Oliver Dimsdale Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd / Original cover headshot of John Bowen © Paul Shields / Illustration "The Signal-Man" (1894) by an unknown author Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This episode was originally broadcast on 27th October 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: Dominic Gerrard Series Artwork: Léna Gibert Original Music: Dominic Gerrard Thank you for listening!

    THE SIGNAL-MAN 📚: with John Bowen

  5. 6d ago

    The C**k 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 C**k Lane Ghost set the stage for an earnest debate between Anglicans and Methodists - the former skeptical the latter credulous towards a spirit realm - where the dead can seek out the living and communicate with them. The alleged haunting in C**k Lane quickly spiralled in the first months of 1762, with many great figures of the age Samuel Johnson, Horace Walpole and Prince Edward, Duke of York attending seances to cross examine the ghost. At the heart of the controversy lay the very serious charge of murder that the ghost - known as ‘Scratching Fanny’ - was trying to convince her hearers of, and the very real possibility of the man accused being sent to the gallows. It will come as no surprise to you that Dickens loved this story! Mentioning it not only in articles but in three of his novels - through Mrs Nickleby’s flighty imagination, the disgruntled temper of Mrs Pipchin, and as Prologue to the madness and terror that engulfs A Tale of Two Cities … Joining us to bring to life the real characters from this story - in the form of articles, letters and transcripts - are the fantastic actors Peter Bray and Rachel Winters. Additional Sound Effects in this episode have been used under license from Epidemic Sounds Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd / Original cover headshot of Emma Clery © Emma Clery / Background Drawing detail of Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism (1762) by William Hogarth, sourced by Wikimedia Commons This episode was originally broadcast on 17th November 2025 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!

    The C**k Lane Ghost: with Emma Clery

  6. 6d ago

    THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES 📚: with Dr. Emily Bell

    Dominic is joined by the inimitable Dr. Emily Bell who guides the listener through the rollercoaster that is Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins' Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices  - a unique blend of travel writing and ghost stories seen through the eyes of the quintessentially British  characters of Francis Goodchild and Thomas Idle, who amusingly mirror their creators, Dickens and Collins This eccentric collection contains within its pages two fantastic ghosts stories - The Dead Hand & The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber - and other dark flights of fancy that crash in on the everyday. It is a work full of both silliness and mystery and (in spite of its title) the action hardly ever gives in to any idleness ... Reading the excerpts in this episode is the fantastic actor Adam Cunis Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd  / Original cover headshot of Emily Middleton (née Bell) © Dustin Smith, Skywall Photography / Original artwork of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices by A. J. Goodman (from the 1905 Chapman and Hall edition of The Works of Charles Dickens, Vol. 28) sourced by Project Gutenberg This episode was originally broadcast on 20th October 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: Dominic Gerrard Series Artwork: Léna Gibert Original Music: Dominic Gerrard Thank you for listening!

    THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES 📚: with Dr. Emily Bell

  7. 6d ago

    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 unfolds the man - a newly qualified doctor - is compelled to leave his cheerful parlour and head towards a derelict house in an isolated spot, to face whatever is waiting for him there … Returning to the series to read excerpts from Dickens, Radcliffe, Walpole & Thackeray is the brilliant actress: Rebecca Tanwen The 'harpsichord swirl' at the start of the Castle of Otranto reading has been used under license from EPIDEMIC SOUND. All other music and sound has been created by Dominic Gerrard Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd / Original cover headshot of Andrew Smith © Andrew Smith / Original Dickens illustrations sourced from Michael John Goodman's incredible Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery This episode was originally broadcast on 31st October 2025 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!

    THE BLACK VEIL 📚: with Andrew Smith

  8. 6d ago

    HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! 🎃

    Host Dominic announces a new series of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! and shares some of his own personal stories of haunting  HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! Original cover headshot of Dominic Gerrard © Jane Lloyd (Background image based on photo of pumpkins © Dominic Gerrard 2017) 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!

    HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! 🎃
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4.9
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

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 🔥 

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