The British Council is celebrating the genius of Charles Dickens with the Dickens 2012 programme spanning over 50 countries.

With his strong narrative skills and his wonderfully woven cliff-hangers, Dickens’ works prove a natural spring of inspiration for screenwriters, actors and film directors

Dickens 2012 is an international celebration of the cultural and educational significance of the life and work of Dickens to mark the bicentenary of his birth. Dickens-related activities will take place all over the world to celebrate one of the world’s most inspiring authors and provide a legacy for future generations.

In Malta, the British Council will celebrate the legacy of Dickens with a film festival at St James Cavalier Centre, Valletta, starting this month to December and a special event at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa in February.

The season kicks off at St James on Wednesday with Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton in the 1958 version of A Tale of Two Cities.

With a cast that also boasts Dorothy Tutin, Cecil Parker and Christopher Lee, this is a faithful retelling of a novel which begins with probably the best opening of any novel in the English language: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”

On February 7, 200 years ago Elizabeth Dickens gave birth to the second of eight children in her home in Portsea near Portsmouth, England.

Her husband John was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. The boy’s early idyllic life spent reading in the countryside of Kent was to end abruptly when his family suddenly faced financial difficulties.

In 1924 John Dickens was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison in Southwark,London. Shortly afterwards the rest of his family moved away to join him – except for the 12-year-old Charles, who was to be boarded with family friends.

The next few years were hard for the young Dickens but were to prove an immense inspiration when he grew to become one of Britain’s most loved novelists, afervent campaigner against injustice and a prolific creator of some of the most memorable characters in English literature.

From Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, to Pip and Mrs Havisham in Great Expectations, from the bumbling Mr Pickwick in the Posthumous Paper of the Pickwick Club to the self-sacrificing Sydney Carton, these are characters that come alive, burning with great intensity in the reader’s imagination.

Is it any wonder then thatDickens has seen his novels transferred to film and television more times than any other novelist?

With his strong narrative skills, his wonderfully woven cliff-hangers (his novels were, after all, virtually all serialised before being published in book form) and his eye for people and places, his works prove a natural spring of inspiration for screenwriters, actors and film directors.

Even those who have never read a Dickens novel have become familiar with his works through the mediums of film and television. Around 400 films and TV series have been made so far.

On February 28 the British Council, in association with Heritage Malta, will present a Victorian Night that will include tour of the museum, Victorian food tasting, and a lecture about Dickens and a Maltese seaman. The evening will also feature a short excerpt from the first silent version of David Copperfield, filmed in 1913.

March sees a musical interpretation of Dickens in the Lionel Bart version of Oliver!, brimming with classic songs such as Consider yourself, Where Is Love? and Who Will Buy?

The first part of the season ends with David Lean’s masterpiece Great Expectations, for some, the best Dickens’ film ever made.

The season takes a rest for the summer months but returns in October with three great films: the 1958 version of The Pickwick Papers, the other great David Lean masterpiece Oliver Twist, with an impressive Alec Guinness as Fagan, and finally the inimitable Alastair Sims’ definitive performance of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1951).

All films will be screened at St James Cavalier and admission is free.

Book your place by visiting www.sjcav.org.

For the event at the Maritime Museum, tickets at €3 are available at all Heritage Malta sites.

www.britishcouncil.org/malta