Monday, April 16 at 10 p.m. – Dickens’ Secret Lover
(Rochester, NY) – When 19th century British novelist Charles Dickens was 45 years old and married with nine children, he met Nelly Ternan, an 18-year-old actress with whom he fell hopelessly in love. Thus began an ongoing clandestine relationship that he kept secret for the rest of his life. Dickens’ Secret Lover, airing Monday, April 16 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV/HD (DT21.1/cable 1011 and 11), reveals how this very public figure kept his private life secret via Byzantine financial arrangements, meticulously planned railway journeys, networks of safe-houses and the burning of personal papers and private letters. Ultimately, the strain of his double life resulted in a premature death for the highly gifted yet deeply troubled artist.
The program revisits surviving locations where Dickens conducted his romance in near-total secrecy, piecing together the pieces of evidence that testify to their love. Interviews with experts, aficionados and descendants of the great man explore the effect the affair had on Dickens and his legacy.
Photo credit: Flame Television Production Ltd.
Pictured: David Haig as Charles Dickens
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