Charles Dickens never suffered fools gladly. Imagine the great man’s surprise when, over a century after his death in 1870, he hears that a Welsh school teacher, Elwyn Gradgrind, has written in his English literature thesis that the great novelist had grown his beard because he had a weak chin. Dickens was not pleased; his annoyance worsened when he realized this chap had the surname of one of his finest creations. Imagine Elwyn’s surprise when Clare Hawkins, one of the girls in his class, who has just finished reading “Oliver Twist”, tells him she saw Charles Dickens shaking his head as Elwyn marked exam papers. Elwyn’s problems start to mount as Dickens challenges him to his facts in the thesis he wrote all those years ago. With Melanie, Elwyn’s wife, noticing his strange behaviour, and the headmistress of the school, not believing her eyes, when she sees Elwyn being held in an invisible headlock as he walks down the corridor, Elwyn’s problems multiply when Dickens sets the school’s rare first edition of a Harry Potter book on fire because he didn’t like it. Who is going to help Elwyn Gradgrind out of his predicament? 

A comedy for children.