British Council announces global celebration of Charles Dickens
06 October 2011
Spanning over 50 countries, the British Council’s programme for Dickens 2012 will feature major UK writers including Claire Tomalin, David Nicholls, Louise Doughty, Toby Litt, DJ Taylor, Denise Mina, John Burnside and Philip Hensher as well as work by immersive theatre company Punchdrunk in Pakistan.
Dickens themed English language teaching materials will be distributed across the British Council’s global English teaching network and schools in the UK will be linked with their peers overseas to explore Dickens’ work.
Dickens 2012 is a major programme of events and activities to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, who was born on 7 February 1812. The British Council – the UK’s cultural relations body – is working with partners including the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London to develop global activity that will include brand new film adaptations, art exhibitions, public readings, immersive theatre, educational events and creative workshops.
Beginning in October and running until spring 2012, the programme will explore one of the UK’s most renowned and popular authors, engaging audiences overseas both with Charles Dickens and with the best of contemporary British creative talent. Participating countries include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Brazil, Burma, China, Columbia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Events and activities include:
- Over 14 literature festivals worldwide (including Galle Literature Festival in Sri Lanka, Jaipur Festival in India, L’Viv Festival in Ukraine and Hay Festivals in Segovia and Cartagena) will include talks and debates about Charles Dickens. The Walberberg Festival (in partnership with Bertelsmann) in Berlin in January will see the question ‘What Would Dickens Write Today?’ explored by writers including Claire Tomalin, David Nicholls, Louise Doughty, Toby Litt, Denise Mina and Philip Hensher.
- Punchdrunk’s enrichment department, in collaboration with the Arcola theatre, will create work inspired their recent community production The Uncommercial Traveller, a work based on little-known journalistic writings by Dickens. Working with local artists, they will create an audio guide adapted to reflect individual memories and stories of city life in contemporary Pakistan.
- Dickens 2012 will feed directly into the British Council’s English objective to ensure that each of the 11 million teachers and every one of the two billion learners of English around the world should have access to the skills, ideas and materials they need. Dickens-themed English language teaching materials will be distributed including monthly lesson plans as well as short films exploring ‘Heroes’ and ‘Villains’ in Dickens’s novels. An English language teaching event in London will include a performance by Jeremy Harmer and Steve Bingham rounding off a day of workshops.
- 12 films will be screened across 20 countries. Selected with the help of Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London, these will include a range of classic adaptations of Dickens’ work including David Lean’s productions of Oliver Twist (1948) and Great Expectations (1946), and a chance to compare one of the earliest known Dickens adaptations, an 8 minute fragment of the silent David Copperfield from 1913, with the acclaimed BBC series of David Copperfield which stars a young Daniel Radcliffe.
- As an emerging writer, Dickens made his name and developed his skills through the sketch: a short narrative depicting a distinctive character that emerges from the hubbub of the city. Using these early sketches as inspiration, the British Council will coordinate Sketches by Boz: Sketching the City - a worldwide call for aspiring writers, illustrators and photographers to respond to their city today. UK writers and artists will be linked up with their counterparts overseas to run workshops with the resulting work showcased online and shown in local exhibitions.
- British Council Schools Online will link schools in the UK with their peers overseas to explore themes in Dickens’ work including cliff-hangers, illustrations, writing about everyday life and industrialisation. A series of project ideas for schools to use as a focus for their joint curriculum work (including Dickens and London: Dickens' fogs; Dickens and factories) will also be provided alongside an online forum ‘Schools Online’ for sharing ideas.
- Global Dickens, a bi-monthly blog where contemporary writers and others involved globally in Dickens 2012 will consider how and why Dickens is relevant and significant on a national, but more importantly, international scale.
Susie Nicklin, Director Literature, British Council said: “Dickens has found an audience in almost every country on the globe. To this day, the images of the UK held by thousands of people worldwide are of fog on the Thames, top hats and street urchins. Our Dickens 2012 project will work on many levels, stimulating intellectual debate about Dickens’ international legacy but - equally importantly- engaging new audiences both with Charles Dickens and with the best of contemporary Britain’s artistic talent. We will help people to connect these images from the past to the current reality of the UK through performance, creative writing, film and debate whilst celebrating our most famous novelist.”
Graham Sheffield, Director Arts, British Council said: "Dickens is a fascinating writer who lives on as an inspirational figure in English literature. This project innovatively re-imagines him for the 21st century and we are working with great partners to ensure the programme will have truly global reach. It demonstrates the engagement with this canonical writer worldwide and how much Dickens’ critique and vision of his society still resonates for us all today"
Dr Florian Schweizer, Director The Charles Dickens Museum and Dickens 2012, said: “Charles Dickens deserves to be commemorated as one of the greatest storytellers, entertainers and philanthropists in history, and that is precisely what we will do in 2012. The programme put together by Dickens 2012 in the UK and by the British Council around the world reflects the vast cultural impact and relevance of the man and his works. Dickens’ popularity today is just as great as during his lifetime, so we are extremely fortunate to have a very large and passionate audience for our planned activities. Dickens 2012 will consolidate Dickens’ iconic status as one of the world’s greatest writers.”
Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London, Coordinating Partners of Dickens 2012, said: “Dickens’ stories have inspired films, plays, television dramas and musicals and he is undoubtedly one of the world’s most adapted authors of all time. Arguably no other novelist matches Dickens in terms of global cultural influence. I am particularly pleased to be involved in the most comprehensive presentation of film and TV adaptations ever staged, some of which will be seen all over the world thanks to the British Council’s extensive activity.”
Dickens 2012 is an international celebration of the cultural and educational significance of the life and work of Charles Dickens to mark the bicentenary of his birth. Dickens-related activity will take place all over the world under the Dickens 2012 banner to celebrate one of the world’s most inspiring authors and provide a legacy for future generations. Dickens 2012 has an expanding list of supporters, which includes names such as Simon Callow CBE, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Peter Ackroyd CBE, and is backed by the Mayor of London as a cultural highlight in 2012. Dickens 2012 is co-ordinated by the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London in association with the Dickens Fellowship.
Other partners include: BFI, BBC, Penguin, Arcola Theatre, Museum of London, the Royal Mint, the Mayor of London and the City of Portsmouth.
For information visit: http://literature.britishcouncil.org/projects/2011/dickens-2012 or www.dickens2012.org
For enquiries from UK national & international media, contact:
Alex Bratt
+44 (0) 207 389 4872
alex.bratt@britishcouncil.org
Notes to Editors
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We work in over 100 countries in the arts, education and English and in 2010/11 we engaged face to face with 30 million people and reached 578 million. We have 6,800 staff worldwide. Our total turnover in 2010/11 was £693 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was £190 million. The remainder was generated through trading activities such as English language teaching. For every £1 of taxpayer money invested we earn £2.65 in additional income. www.britishcouncil.org
About Charles Dickens Museum
In addition to being a co-ordinating partner of Dickens 2012, the Charles Dickens Museum is planning a redevelopment programme which will see the Museum opening a new learning and visitor centre by 2012 as one of the key legacy projects of the bicentenary. The Museum at Dickens’s former home in London will launch a new exhibition and interpretation concept on 7 February 2012. It works with a wide range of local, national and international partners to deliver the most comprehensive Dickens outreach programme ever staged.
About Film London
Film London, as the capital’s film and media agency, aims to ensure London has a thriving film sector that enriches the city’s businesses and its people. The agency works with all the screen industries to sustain, promote and develop London as a major international production and film cultural capital, and it supports the development of the city’s new and emerging film-making talent. Film London is funded by the Mayor of London, the National Lottery through the BFI, and receives significant support from Arts Council England and Skillset. www.filmlondon.org.uk
Film London also manages the British Film Commission through a public/private partnership which is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through the BFI. www.britishfilmcommission.org.uk
