He's the college English professor you wished you had - the one who transforms the life and works of an author into a lecture as entertaining as it is educational. Grandly hammy Simon Callow narrates and plays Charles Dickens, a bunch of Dickens' most colorful characters, and Dickens playing those characters. He justifies his over-the-topness by reminding us that this is probably how Dickens played Micawber, Gamp and Heep when he embarked on the reading tours that thrilled but ultimately killed him.
If The Mystery of Charles Dickens drags when Callow puts Dickens' bio on hold to indulge in one too many reenactments from the author's books, it nevertheless creates an energetic, rounded portrait of the eccentric genius, warts and all.