Simon Callow

One of the extraordinary things about Dickens is that although he seems in some ways quintessentially English in other ways he's so fundamentally anti-establishment. He's always embraced by people that have reason not to like the English. He was hugely successful in Dublin. Same with Australia. There's a curious sense that Dickens is the best of England.

His stories are examples of what I suppose one could call the higher sentimentality…… in that they break your heart, but in a terrific kind of way. They're fantastic pieces of storytelling that are designed precisely to make you laugh and cry. I suspect he was the greatest storyteller that ever lived.