Dickens' Secret Lover   Starring: Charles Dance, David Haig and Amy Shiels Acorn Media UK RRP: £16.99 AV9737 Certificate: 12 Available 04 January 2010

In 1857, Charles Dickens was probably the most famous and beloved Englishman alive. Not only was he the bestselling English author of his time and a driven social reformer, but he almost single handedly created the Victorian concept of happy and devoted family life. In reality however, he had abandoned his wife and was in the midst of a torrid and desperately secret affair with Nelly Ternan, an actress young enough to be his daughter. It would change his artistic outlook as well as his life...

Originally broadcast on Channel 4 in 2009, Charles Dance presents an investigation into the secret life - and love - of Charles Dickens. While this DVD is an interesting look into the secret love affair which Charles Dickens conducted at the height of his fame, I did have quite a few issues with it.

The biggest problems I had with this programme were the fact that the producers attempted to make an interesting story where there was none and the fact that they use Charles Dance as a sort of investigative reporter, when it's obvious that all his scenes were shot over a brief period of time - possibly well after the main programme had finished being recorded.

The dramatisation side of this release is fantastic - with both David Haig (as Dickens) and Amy Shiels (as Nelly Ternan) putting in incredibly performances. I just felt that the very fake Charles Dance segments insulted the intelligence of the viewer.

I also thought the RRP of £17 was a little cheeky (thankfully most of the online retailers seem to think that the RRP is £13 and are discounting it for under £10) for a 48 minute DVD.

The only extras are the text-based Charles Dickens Biography and Charles Dickens Bibliography.

So an interesting, but over priced, dramatisation.

7

Darren Rea