The Portal - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens Producent: Tove Jonstoi Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens It's more than 150 years since the poor boy Oliver Twist run away and walked for seven days to get to London. He was so poor he could carry everything he owned in a small bag. And the money he had was only enough to buy him some bread once in that whole week. In those days, London was crowded with poor people LONDON 1800-TALSATM0 + - but wait a minute - wait MODERN TRAFFIC... in those days I said... London may look different today but there are still people who can carry everything they own in a bag. And there are still people who are starving. Some of them only eat once in a week, just like Oliver. We will come back to this later in the program, but first we are going to hear a few pages from the beginning of Charles Dickens' famous story Oliver Twist: MICHAEL GARNER reads from the book (chapter 8): Oliver walked twenty miles that day; and all that time tasted nothing but the crust of dry bread, and some water, that he begged at the cottage-doors by the road-side. When the night came, he turned into a meadow. He felt frightened at first, for the wind moaned above the empty fields: and he was cold and hungry, and more alone than he had ever felt before. Being very tired with his walk, however, he soon fell asleep and forgot his troubles. He felt cold and stiff, when he got up next morning, and so hungry that he had to exchange the only penny he had for a small loaf, in the very first village through which he passed. He had walked no more than twelve miles, when
night closed in again. His feet were sore, and his legs so weak that they trembled. Early on the seventh morning, Oliver limped slowly into the little town of Barnet. The sun was rising in all its splendid beauty; but the light only served to show the boy his own lonesomeness, as he sat, with bleeding feet and covered with dust, upon a door-step. He had been sitting on the step for some time, when he saw a boy looking at him from the opposite side of the way. The boy crossed over; and, said: 'Hello! What's the trouble?' The boy was about his own age: but one of the queerest looking boys that Oliver had even seen. He was a dirty boy; but he had about him all the manners of a man. He was short for his age: with sharp, ugly little eyes. He wore a man's coat, which reached nearly to his heels. What s the trouble?' said this strange young gentleman to Oliver. 'I am very hungry and tired,' replied Oliver: the tears standing in his eyes as he spoke. 'I have walked a long way. I have been walking these seven days.' Soundclip from Roman Polanski s film Oliver Twist: Hello young man 'I ve been walking seven days Seven days?... God! MICHAEL GARNER : Walking for seven days!' said the young gentleman. 'Oh, I see 'Going to London?' said the strange boy. 'Yes.' 'Got anywhere to stay?' 'No.' 'Money?' 'No.' The strange boy whistled; and put his arms into his pockets. 'Do you live in London?' asked Oliver. 'Yes. I do, when I'm at home,' replied the boy. 'I suppose you want some place
to sleep tonight, don't you?' 'I do, indeed,' answered Oliver. 'I have not slept under a roof since I left the country.' 'Don't cry,' said the young gentleman. 'I've got to be in London tonight; and I know a 'spectable old gentleman who lives there, and he ll give you a bed for nothing, if any gentleman he knows introduces you. And don't he know me? Oh, no! Not in the least! By no means. Certainly not!' The young gentleman smiled. This unexpected offer of shelter was too tempting to be resisted; especially as it was immediately followed by the assurance that the old gentleman referred to, would provide Oliver with a comfortable job. This led to a more friendly dialogue; from which Oliver discovered that his friend's name was Jack Dawkins, but among his close friends he was called The Artful Dodger. Oliver and The Artful Dodger become friends. We will hear more from the book later on, but now we'll fast forward ourselves to today s London... Trafalgar square, 11 o'clock in the morning. Above the famous fountain there is a big white tent filled with bread, water and pots and pans with hot food. Soon 5000 meals are going to be served here, to anyone who wants a free lunch. The action is called Feeding the 5000. LISA: "Hello, come around! Come closer everybody! If you re gonna be helping in the serving tent." This is Lisa Stockton. She is going to explain to the about 30 volunteers in front of her how they can help to serve the food. LISA: "Can everyone hear me? Cool. Right. Everyone here? Cool! Hi! OK. So, I believe you re helping in the food service tent. I m Lisa, this is Carrie hello! We are the people to ask if there are any problems, if there are any emergencies, speak to us. Basically, there s going to be three food pots. The idea is that people are going to be coming around this way. We will be serving them onto these bowls. There will be bread and butter as well. So, can I have seven people..."
By noon hundreds of people have gathered around the tent. They form a queue. Some are homeless, some are tourists, some are on their lunch break. One at a time everyone gets a plate of hot food. TOVE REPORTS: - Can I ask, what are you eating? - I m eating a vegetable curry, which is produced by vegetables that would otherwise have been thrown out, lovely! - Do you enjoy it? - Yes very much, I think it s just common sense and justice Closer to the fountain there are mountains of fruit piled up. In the middle of all the apples and bananas stands Rachel. She works for an organisation that collects fruit from stores and makes free smoothies, made from fruit that would have been just thrown away. What will you serve here? We re serving free smoothies. We ve got connection with a wholesale market up in north London and we ve picked up all their surplus fruit that would have gone otherwise to landfill. So we ve got pineapples and bananas, things that have come right away across the world just to get thrown into the bin, here. We ve blended a thousand litres of smoothies, so that s gonna be delivered, hopefully, in the next half an hour and we re gonna be giving it out in Trafalgar square today. Are there hungry people in London? Oh, there are a lot of hungry people in London, and there are a lot of hungry people in the Trafalgar square. They ll hopefully come and get some free food as well
One of the organisations at Trafalgar square today is called FareShare. They serve 30 000 free meals every day all over England, meals that are made with waste food from stores. 6000 of the people eating their meals haven t had anything to eat in a week. Hamira works for the organisation Action Aid. She wants to fight poverty all over the world. HAMIRA: Well I m part of Action Aid because I ve always believed in ending poverty. I think that lots of young people in the world who are unnecessarily dying, and they are dying mostly because of hunger, some of them cause they don t have access to basic things like education, or qualities of life, some of them have lost their parent. So, what the Action Aid does is helping to bring people together, and make sure that they have access to these resources, have an opportunity to go to school, make sure that those who don t have parents have a family who can look after them. So, that s what we are doing. So, today, especially, we re here just raising awareness about people going hungry, because there is so much food going to waste around the world, which is so unnecessary, and there is enough food in this country to feed people, ten times over This Is Rubbish, is another of the organisations serving free smoothies today. Calvin Jones works for them. He cares about the environment. CALVIN: "Well, This Is Rubbish, is a campaign group, which is focusing on the issue of waste in the UK, how much food gets thrown out. And, then, looking at the fact that, in Europe for example, up to half of the food, which is either imported or produced, is thrown out. Wasting food is a terrible thing for the environment and for society."
Back in our book. Oliver Twist follows his new friend, The Artful Dodger, to London. MICHAEL GARNER : A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy and the air was full of filthy odours. There were good many small shops; but the only stock in trade appeared to be heaps of children, who even at that time of night, we re crawling in and out of doors or screaming from the inside. Oliver was just thinking that he maybe had better run away, when the Dodger pushed open a door, and drawing him into the passage, closed it behind him. Now, then, cried a voice from below, in reply to a whistle from the Dodger. There s two on you, said the voice. Who s the t other one? A new friend, replied Jack Dawkins, is Fagin upstairs? Yes, he s a sortin the handkerchiefs. Up with you! Oliver, feeling his way with one hand, and having the other firmly grasped by his companion, climbed the dark and broken stairs. The Dodger threw open the door of a back-room and drew Oliver in after him. The walls and ceiling of the room were completely black with age and dirt. There was a table before the fire: upon which were a candle, stuck in a beer bottle, two or three cups, a loaf and butter, and a plate. In a frying pan, which was on the fire, and which was secured to the man the mantelshelf by a string, some sausages were cooking; and standing over them, was a very old man. Several rough beds, made of old sacks, were laid side by side on the floor. Seated round the table were four or five boys, none older than the Dodger, smoking long clay pipes, and drinking spirits with the air of middle-aged men. This is him, Fagin, said Jack Dawkins; my friend Oliver Twist. The old man smiled; and making a low bow to Oliver, took him by the hand, and hoped he should have the honour of his friendship. Upon this, the young gentleman with the pipes came round him, and shook both his hands very hard especially the one in which he held his few clothes.
We are very glad to see you, Oliver, very, said the old man. Dodger, take off the sausages; and draw a tub near the fire for Oliver. Ah, you re a-staring at the pocket- handkerchiefs! eh, my dear? There are a good many of em, ain t there? We ve just looked em out, ready for the wash; that s all, Oliver; that s all. Ha! ha! ha! The latter part of this speech was greeted with laughter by all the pupils of the merry gentleman. Oliver ate his share of the supper, and the old man mixed him a glass of hot ginand-water: telling him he must drink it off directly, because another gentleman wanted the glass. Oliver did as he was desired. Immediately afterwards he felt himself gently lifted on to one of the sacks; and then he sunk into a deep sleep If you want to know what happens to Oliver you can read the book or one its many easyreader versions. There are also some good films based on the book - and a famous musical called Oliver. Some of the sound clips in this program were borrowed from Roman Polanski s film, Oliver Twist. Michael Garner read from the book. Our reporter at Trafalgar square was Tove Jonstoij and my name is Elliot Broadley. Check out our website: ur.se/look for The Portal.