Charles Dickens Searched the Streets of London and Found Inspiration for His Evocative Fiction

A three-part BBC series will examine how real events shaped the 19th-century British author’s writing. The show is part of the National Year of Reading in the U.K.

Ryley Graham | Correspondent

March 31, 2026

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Charles Dickens was an insomniac who wandered London’s streets late into the night. When he was 12, his father was taken to debtors’ prison. He got a job pasting labels on bottles of boot polish. He adored the theater but pursued journalism in lieu of acting as a young man. He kept pet ravens and fathered ten children.

These are the kinds of colorful anecdotes that may feature in an upcoming BBC series about the 19th-century writer. Slated to air later this year, the three-part series will examine the real events that shaped the British author’s work.

The project is part of programming associated with the National Year of Reading, a campaign encouraging reading for pleasure across the United Kingdom.

“During this National Year of Reading, it felt only right to return to one of Britain’s most-read authors and explore the real-world events and creative imagination that came together so brilliantly in his novels,” Suzy Klein, head of arts and classical music TV for the BBC, says in a statement.

The series’ working title is “Dickens,” and it will be set in 19th-century London. During the Industrial Revolution, the city was characterized by stark contrasts: extreme wealth and poverty, architectural feats and dilapidated tenements, advancement and squalor.

“[Dickens] looked at London in a very original way,” Andrew Sanders, author of Charles Dickens’ London, told Smithsonian magazine’s Rebecca Dalzell in 2011. “London is the chief character in his work.”

The image of Victorian London in the popular imagination today is informed by the evocative descriptions in Dickens’ novels, most of which take place in the city.

“It was a Sunday evening in London, gloomy, close and stale,” he wrote in Little Dorrit, which was published serially from 1855 to 1857. “Melancholy streets, in a penitential garb of soot, steeped the souls of the people who were condemned to look at them out of windows, in dire despondency.”

The series will explore how Dickens’ keen observations of the city found their way into his fiction. “Like his French contemporary Victor Hugo, Dickens trained his eye for injustice on encounters with the hard-up and disenfranchised,” Brittany Allen writes in Literary Hub. “Viewers of the new show can expect a familiar biopic device: the good old cause and effect.”

“Dickens” is just one part of the U.K.’s National Year of Reading. With the tagline “Go All In,” the initiative is intended to encourage people of all ages to rediscover their love of reading by indulging in books they’re excited about. The campaign’s website states, “By starting with passions, not pressure, we can create a stronger, more connected reading culture across the U.K.”

When the project launched last year, Cressida Cowell, author of the How to Train Your Dragon series, gave a speech at No. 10 Downing Street. She emphasized the importance of inspiring young readers in a country with such a rich literary history. Cowell also praised the National Year of Reading’s intention to connect individuals from all backgrounds with opportunities for literary enrichment.

“Every child, wherever they are from, is just as smart as every other child. But the opportunities offered to those children are so, so different,” Cowell said in her speech, which was published in the Bookseller. “Books are words, words are power, and you learn them best when you’re enjoying them.”

Ryley Graham | Read More

Ryley Graham is a freelance journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in outlets such as National Geographic, Earth Island Journal and USA Today.