Simon Callow celebrating Dickens

Acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow has written a biography of Charles Dickens, exploring the importance of the theatre to the author.

Dickens was the original "celebrity" author, attracting thousands of adoring fans to his readings in Britain.

Callow says Dickens "was always speaking for the oppressed and the socially rejected".

He spoke to the BBC's Robert Hall about the author and the book, Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World.