Jo

Jo is a penniless crossing-sweeper who lives on the streets of London with nothing to his name, not even much idea of who he is. He sweeps mud for passing pennies, sleeps rough, and answers questions with a weary refrain of not knowing anything — yet he holds, without realising it, a thread that runs through everyone else's secrets.

Dickens built Jo as the novel's conscience, the boy everyone steps over on their way to grander plots, and Harry Eden plays him without a trace of sentimentality — watchful, exhausted, quietly funny in his evasions. He makes the city's indifference visible simply by standing in it, which is exactly the point Dickens is making.