Simon Callow's wonderful account of the author who's very presence he has channelled on more than one occasion. He has appeared in Doctor Who as the character a couple of times and makes it appear so effortless one cannot help but wonder if he is in touch with something beyond our kin(actually I would imagine he would do something as casual as grocery shopping with a degree of otherworldliness.)Yet this book is written with a degree of authority and earned knowledge on the subject matter and if it is possible for prose to twinkle then this does.twinkle like a starry starry night.
(A beautiful shot from the BBC archives from the episode.)
Callow keeps the spirit of the great man alive.He writes with sympathy and wit and I would love to hear him perform a reading of this work in much the same way Dickens himself entertained his audiences. Keeping them enthralled as though wondering through a world of Dickensian characterisation and insight, funny,moving,scary and the absolute full gamut of life;Dickensland.
The Unquiet Dead is a great doctor Who story which epitomises everything which is good about the show.The storytelling, the acting and the craft that went into its execution.display a creative energy that is akin to catching lightning in a bottle(or measuring artron energy with a screwdriver.)It was written by Mark Gatiss and was only the third televised outing for the newly regenerated and much missed television show.It was Rose' first journey into the past and approaches even the notion with a charm and sensitivity I have not really seen since.Yet it is Somon Callow's Dickens whose is at the heart of this wonderful story.A traveller unable to find rest in his own skin.A man troubled by growing older with a fear of the future and a sense of futility that s pell in the Doctor's company soon dispenses...Just look at that strut as he walks through the snowy streets of Victorian Cardiff.
That is the dander of a man reborn.
