His most famous character was the alcoholic 'Coupeau' in Charles Reade's melodrama Drink (based on Émile Zola's novel, L'Assommoir), a part that the actor performed many times during his career.

Lickford had secured a position as a "utilitarian" actor in a theatre company under the management of James Rogers, based in the provincial town of Hanley in Staffordshire.

The company of actors worked "the Hanley, Leicester, Lichfield, and Worcester circuit", performing dramas such as The Castle Spectre and The Mysteries of Paris.

[4] In 1866 Warner was engaged for a three-year period by F. B. Chatterton at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in London, performing in Shakesperean revivals with Samuel Phelps.

[7] In 1878 Warner was engaged at the Princess' Theatre by Walter Gooch, where he opened as 'Tom Robinson' in a revival of Charles Reade's It's Never Too Late to Mend, a production which played "for nearly 300 nights".

The drama was described as being mounted "with all the scenery and surprising effects" that characterised the production of the original French play at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique in Paris.

[4] It was said that the final scene in Drink was so "exceedingly exacting" for the actor that Warner "would totter off the stage to his dressing-room, trembling, shaken as by a palsy, and bathed in perspiration".

At about the same time the renowned American Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth announced his intention to appear in London and Gooch also engaged him for six months.

Rather than face the prospect of being "shelved for several months", Warner joined the company at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, in the Clerkenwell district of central London.

In a summary of the actor's career, written in 1882, the writer George Wilman commented on Warner's ability to "play the hero of a classical piece one night, and turn the next to a character demanding all the sprightliness, wit and buoyancy of manner that are the indispensable attainments of a refined low comedian".

[29] A farewell matinee benefit for Charles Warner was held at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane on 9 December 1887, on the occasion of his impending departure for Australia.

During the trip various amusements (such as "fancy dress balls, concerts, negro minstrelsy, tableaux vivants, athletic sports, and histrionic entertainments") were organised by the passengers "to make their time pass merrily, and sometimes instructively".

[33] On Saturday, 18 February 1888, Charles Warner made his début on the Australian stage at Melbourne's Theatre Royal in Drink, the play "in which he achieved his great London success nearly nine years ago".

[27] He later remarked that the production of Drink in Melbourne was staged "as lavishly as in London" and he paid "a warm tribute to the discriminating enthusiasm of the typical colonial audience".

In June 1888 Warner wrote: "Since my arrival the few spare moments that I have been able to snatch from rehearsals I have devoted to the kindly invitations of my many new friends in Melbourne, and I say it from my heart, that a more congenial, delightful, and hospitable people it would be impossible to encounter".

[48] In August 1889 a popular English actress named Jennie Lee, who had been engaged by Williamson, Garner and Musgrove, was performing in The Grasshopper at Melbourne's Princess' Theatre.

[49] Miss Lee was diagnosed with "a severe bronchial attack", which placed her management in a dilemma, as it was impractical for her understudy to replace the popular actress for the required period of recovery.

[53] Despite all the elaborate arrangements, the staging of Captain Swift at the Princess' Theatre in Melbourne proved to be a "financial failure" due to poor attendances during the fortnight.

[54] In early September 1889 Warner and his company played a short season at the Royal Princess Theatre in Sandhurst (Bendigo), performing productions such as Hands Across the Sea, Drink, Dora, the comedy The Barrister and The Lady of Lyons.

[62] In late-June 1890 Warner and his daughter Gracie featured in three farewell performances of Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Adelaide, supported by the MacMahon Dramatic Company.

[63][64] Warner had been initially engaged for a six-week tour of Australia, soon afterwards extended to sixteen weeks, but he ended up remaining in the country for two years and six months.

[65][4] After his return to England Warner performed in A Million of Money at Drury Lane, a spectacular melodrama by Augustus Harris and Henry Pettitt described as "an incoherent nightmare of former Drury-lane dramas".

[71] In December 1904 Warner played the role of 'Canio' in a dramatic version by Charles Brookfield of Leoncavallo's opera, Pagliacci, at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End.

A reviewer for The Times praised Warner's melodramatic performance, remarking that "he was bold enough and wise enough to play the part 'for all it was worth', risking now and then the danger of being ridiculous for the sake of being effective".

Warner's performance as "the genial, capable, cruel and yet kind Kleschna" was described as "an extraordinary bit of work", the reviewer commenting on "the intense interest which this actor takes in the minutest detail of his part".

[4] He had left a "rambling message" that began with "I am hounded to my death by thieves, blackmailers and liars", and concluded with: "God bless you all... O dear one, O my beloved, Good-by!".

Friends and acquaintances who were interviewed regarding the actor's last days, spoke of Warner "brooding in the Lambs Club", occasionally complaining of "being swindled by unspecified conspirators".

[65] It was reported that Warner's friends had begun to notice "peculiarities in his demeanour" and "are of opinion that the exciting parts he has played, and the force he put into them, unhinged his mind".

The principal narrative of A Drunkard's Reformation is that of "a husband, father and breadwinner sliding into chronic inebriation and the threat to marriage, family and security which intemperance implies".

[81] In its advertising directed to exhibitors, Biograph drew attention to the intended connection with Drink and its powerful message: "The play [within the film] happens to be a dramatization of Emile Zola's L'Assommoir, 'Drink'.