What the Dickens! is a 1963 recording by Johnny Dankworth, accompanied by his orchestra and guests, some of the leading UK jazz musicians of the day. It is a suite based on characters and scenarios associated with Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

. It was recorded in London on July 29 and 31, August 7, October 4 1963 and released as a vinyl album.

Track listing

1. "Prologue" (2:26)
2. "Weller Never Did" (1:58)
3. "Little Nell" (2:51)
4. "The Infant Phenomenon" (2:12)
5. "Demdest Little Fascinator" (3:09)
6. "Dotheboys Hall" (4:24)
7. "Ghosts" (2:23)
8. "David and the Bloaters" (2:57)
9. "Please Sir, I Want Some More" (2:01)
10. "The Artful Dodger" (1:39)
11. "Waiting for Something to Turn Up" (2:46)
12. "Dodson and Fogg" (1:55)
13. "The Pickwick Club" (3:15)
14. "Serjeant Buzfuz" (2:15)
15. "Finale" (2:29)

Guests

• Tubby Hayes
  Tubby Hayes
  Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...
  
   – tenor sax
• Ronnie Ross
  Ronnie Ross
  Albert Ronald "Ronnie" Ross was a jazz baritone saxophonist.Ross moved to England in 1946 and began playing tenor saxophone in the 1950s with Tony Kinsey, Ted Heath, and Don Rendell. During his tenure with Rendell he switched to baritone saxophone...
  
   - baritone sax
• Ronnie Scott
  Ronnie Scott
  Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...
  
   - tenor sax
• Dick Morrissey
  Dick Morrissey
  Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
  
   – tenor sax
• Jimmy Deuchar
  Jimmy Deuchar
  James "Jimmy" Deuchar was a jazz trumpeter and big band arranger, born in Dundee, Scotland. He found fame as a performer and arranger in the 1950s and 1960s...
  
   - trumpet
• Ron Stephenson
  Ronnie Stephenson
  Ronnie Stephenson was an English jazz drummer.-Biography:Stephenson was one of the most in-demand drummers on the British jazz scene in the 1960s....
  
   – drums
• Bobby Wellins
  Bobby Wellins
  Robert Coull "Bobby" Wellins is a Scottish tenor saxophonist best known for his collaboration with Stan Tracey on the seminal 1965 British jazz album Under Milk Wood....
  
   – tenor sax
• Ken Napper – bass
• Tony Coe
  Tony Coe
  Anthony George Coe is a composer and jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone.Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band from 1957 to 1962...
  
   - tenor sax, clarinet
• Peter King - tenor sax
• David Snell - harp

Orchestra

• Leader: John Dankworth
• Gus Galbraith - trumpet
• Leon Calvert - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Dickie Hawdon - trumpet, tenor horn
• Kenny Wheeler
  Kenny Wheeler
  Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
  
   - trumpet, tenor horn
• Tony Russell - trombone
• Eddie Harvey - valve trombone
• Ron Snyder - tuba
• Roy East - alto saxophone, flute, clarinet
• John Dankworth - alto saxophone, clarinet
• Vic Ash
  Vic Ash
  Victor "Vic" Ash , is an English jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Ash began playing professionally in 1951 when, together with Tubby Hayes, he joined the band of Kenny Baker, with whom he played until 1953...
  
   - tenor sax, clarinet
• Art Ellefson - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
• Alan Branscombe
  Alan Branscombe
  Alan Branscombe was an English jazz pianist, vibraphonist, and alto saxophonist.Branscombe's father and grandfather were also professional musicians. He played drums with Victor Feldman in a talent show as a child. He began on alto sax at age six, and played in the army with Jeff Clyne in 1954-56...
  
  - vibraphone, xylophone, piano
• Spike Heatley - basses
• Johnny Butts - drums
• Roy Webster - percussion