Mariella Frostrup returns, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth with a Book Show special dedicated to one of the world's first celebrity authors.

Claire Tomalin, Simon Callow and David Nicholls will join her in the studio and Martina Cole, Clive Anderson and Tristram Hunt will also be discussing the legacy and influence of the great Victorian author and journalist.

Tomalin, who exposed one of Dickens' many carefully closeted mistresses in her ground-breaking 1990 book The Invisible Woman, will be discussing her new and fascinating biography of the tireless walker and father of ten, titled Charles Dickens: A Life.

Meanwhile, Callow will present his new book Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, a study of the influence of the stage on Dickens' life and work. In it he reveals how Dickens spent his childhood as an entertainer in Portsmouth, the thousands of fans he attracted to his readings on both sides of the Atlantic, and how he pointed to a theatre just before his death and declared, "That's what I should have done with my life!"

Mariella will also be talking to One Day and Starter For Ten author David Nicholls, who will be revealing how he whittled Great Expectations down from 500 pages to a 120-minute script for his adaptation of the classic coming-of-age tale. He has penned a new ending to the film, which he claims falls somewhere between Dickens' former bleak ending and the romantic conclusion that he later revised following criticism from Wilkie Collins. The film is released this year and is made by Four Weddings And A Funeral director Mike Newell. It stars Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irvine.

Also, best-selling crime writer Martina Cole offers her take on Dickens' colourful villains, while politician, historian and broadcaster Tristram Hunt considers what Dickens would be writing about if he was alive today, and barrister-turned-comedy writer Clive Anderson takes a look at Dickens and the law.