Written and hosted by leading Dickens biographer Peter Ackroyd, this three-hour series explores the complexity of Charles Dickens' inner life-his relationships, romantic obsessions, creative drive, and ambitious ego-by interweaving contemporary location footage, skillful dramatization, state-of-the-art visual effects, and excerpts from recent television adaptations of Dickens' classic works. Prominent British actors portray the cast of real-life characters who appear as interview subjects, commenting on everything from the writer's childhood of hardship and deprivation to the scandals and peccadilloes of his adult life. Much of the commentary is based on the actual words of Dickens and others-as recorded in private letters-biographical interviews and journals.