A Christmas Carol

Synopsis: Ebenezer Scrooge is unimpressed by Christmas. He has no time for festivities or goodwill toward his fellow men and is only interested in money. Then, on the night of Christmas Eve, his life is changed by a series of ghostly visitations that show him some bitter truths about his choices. "A Christmas Carol" is Dickens' most influential book and a funny, clever and hugely enjoyable story.

Review: Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Scrooge, I annually dose myself up with a good dollop of Dickens starting with the book and meandering through several film versions. I love them all but especially the Albert Finney musical (particularly a pleasure because my Dad worked on it .. albeit as a humble scene painter), Alistair Simms version (again, probably because Dad thinks it is the definitive Scrooge) and the Muppet Christmas Carol (who would have thought that would work as well as it did?) I also saw the new 3D Jim Carey version at the cinema last December and thought it was fantastic. I've always thought that to do justice to the book, the ghost scenes are going to have to be CGI, and though I think there's still room for improvement (and am always hoping that either Tim Burton or Peter Jackson will have a go sooner or later) I thought they managed to get the atmosphere of the books over really well. I was disappointed to see that the film is only showing this year in 2D and then only on specific days .. bah humbug!

I have several different book versions and this year I thought I'd read the beautiful edition illustrated by P.J. Lynch, it's gorgeous and it just adds that extra something to the tale. There's probably nobody out there that doesn't know the story of old skinflint Scrooge .. 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner' .. who is visited one night by his former partner Jacob Marley in ghostly form and then by three ghosts, all sent to show him the error of his ways.

The part that I love the most is probably the Cratchit family Christmas which seems, despite all their poverty and worry, idyllic. They are just truly happy at being together for the day and I just love the description of their dinner with it's hissing gravy, gushing sage and onion and steaming pudding. In fact I'd love to re-create the dinner by having a goose instead of a turkey but I'm too worried there won't be enough leftovers and I'm far too fond of a turkey, ripe tomato and black pepper sandwich to give it up. Not to mention the worrying tales, I've heard from friends, with regards to the amount of fat that comes out of it, apparently you end up being thoroughly basted in it yourself. The story is beautifully written, Dickens was said to have single handedly reinvented Christmas with this tale and Thackeray called it 'a national benefit' ... it's him at his absolute best.