Are you the type of person who likes watching the stimulating highlights over the real thing? Do you always want to get straight into the filthy action without any of the messing around? Do you like people going on and on about Charles Dicken’s no matter how incompetently?

Well Ultra Culture has recently solved your Christmas wishes with some red hot footage of Derek Jacobi’s exploits in one of the worst documentaries ever made; Charles Dickens’ England. And since it’s Christmas I think it’s high time you discovered it.

Throughout his ponderous whistle-stop and then stop some more tour of Charles Dickens’ life (featuring visits to London and numerous country idylls) our man Derek often comes off about as bumbling and inarticulate as Boris Johnson in a blender. Spending most of the running time wandering around with the forlorn bewilderment of a man who has recently misplaced his nipples one has to wonder how the hell this film ever got made, let alone released. You also have to wonder if Jacobi was having some sort of prolonged seizure throughout, that or a grievous miscarriage of judgement.

Watch as he watches things. Look as he looks at things. Laugh as he laughs. Gasp as he gasps. Gawp as he gawps. Read a biography of Dickens instead of watching this pile of self indulgent arse. It’s like watching Jacobi taking a nice warm soak in Dickens’ reflected glory whilst covered in the bubblebath of late career insanity. So the question is; why is it so funny?

If anyone was in any doubt as to why Charles Dicken’s England is often considered one of the worst films of the last few years here is the evidence. It’s plodding, it’s awkward, it’s self-satisfied, it’s quite frankly terrible, but d’you know what? It’s hilarious. And I wouldn’t have it any other way:

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmk_jXF29iE’]