Anthony Hopkins
(Charles Dickens)
Sybil Thorndike
(Elizabeth Ball Dickens)
Gladys Cooper
(Mrs. Ternan)
Joan Greenwood
(Maria Beadnell)
Stanley Holloway
(Mr. Vuffin)
Michael Wilding
(Dolby)
Mona Washbourne
(Mrs. Jarley)
Gordon Jackson
(The Narrator (voice))
Arthur Lowe
(John Dickens)
Vivian Pickles
(Mrs. Dickens)
Nora Nicholson
(Rosa Emma Drummond)
Dandy Nichols
(Mrs. Gamp)
Freddie Jones
(William Shaw)
Patrick Cargill
(Macready)
Jenny Agutter
(Young Maria Beadnall/Mary Hogarth/Ellen Ternan)
Dorothy Reynolds
(Mrs. Roylance/Mrs. Hogarth/Mrs. Prigg/Lady Holland)
Gordon Rollings
(Codlin/Mould/Ramsay)
Jeffry Wickham
(Lammert/Whitmore/John Black)
Rhoda Lewis
(Georgina Hogarth)
Ken Wynne
(Mr. Ellis)
Jocelyn Britton
(Kate Dickens (as Jocelyn Birdsall))
Gregory Phillips
(Smike)
Roland Pickering
(Charles Dickens (as a child))