But such material is balanced by a moving account of the how the young Dickens was scarred by the memory of his mother insisting that he should continue working at a shoe-blackening factory while his sister was studying at a musical academy. Carefully chosen excerpts from a broad range of Dickens’ writing show how these real life experiences found their way into his novels.

Though the significance of this kind of literary detective work is put in perspective by a telling description of Dickens’ encounter with a dwarf chiropodist, who objected to the way she was portrayed in David Copperfield. Dickens responded to her objections by writing a more realistic portrayal of the woman that was so dull Margolyes declined to present it. Her performance is a virtuoso display of theatrical skill and vocal prowess.

Her ability to make lightening-quick character transformations is highlighted by a hilarious enactment of a seduction scene from Oliver Twist in which subtle gesture and facial expressions signify the character changes without a word being spoken.

Margolyes has the audience spellbound as she describes Miss Havisham in her bridal chamber and she finds a poignant echo of this scene in a monologue from Bleak House in which the eccentric Miss Flite is waiting in vain for a judgment from the Chancery Courts.