A Christmas Carol

[bobinho]

There have been many variations over the years of this utterly fantastic story, and some have been very good indeed. Last night we had the Suranne Jones version, Christmas Carole.
Charles Dickens masterpiece is the one and only reason Xmas isn’t a complete waste of time, searching thru the tellybox forecast to see what rendition we are getting this year…

Alastair Simm as the old miser Scrooge is still the benchmark for me though….

[Commy]

I prefer the George C Scott version. I have it on DVD and it comes out at Christmas .

[Longford Claret]

Scrooge 1935 with Seymour Hicks was on a couple of days ago, and A Christmas Carol 1938 , with Reginald Owen was on a couple of weeks ago. Both were on Talking Pictures. Love them both. A Christmas Carol , 1984 with George C Scott was also on the other day.

[Bosscat]

The Muppets Christmas Carol ...

[Volvoclaret]

Bah humbug.

[Gerry Hattrick]

.

[Stalbansclaret]

As you say it’s a fantastic story and never fails to make feel emotional and reflect on how I can be more generous in life..
I went to a production of it on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway a couple of weeks ago. What a tremendous night. The beginning and end portions were acted out in the beautifully trimmed-up engine shed at Oxenhope with Scrooge’s journey with the three spirits acted out on a steam train which took the audience to Keighley and back.
The acting and inventiveness was off the scale …the whole event lasted about 2 hours and at a cost of £35 each. It was superb immersive theatre which I reckon people in London would happily pay £200 or so for.

[eastanglianclaret]

The audio book read by Daniel Massey is fantastic and one that I always listen to in the car. I like to believe that this is how Dickens himself would have narrated it.

[elwaclaret]

The Muppets Christmas Carol ...

Absolutely. While studying Dickens doing 19c studies this was the Scrooge rendition of choice for our final day before breaking for Christmas.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

Scrooged is currently on channel 4

[AlargeClaret]

George C Scot version for me too , great cast inc the late great David Warner as Bob Cratchit. Honourable mention for the Patrick Stewart version and Muppets CC was actually a very credible effort .

On audiobook last yr listened to a surprisingly splendid Hugh Grant ( he’s matured like a fine wine ) narrating this wonderful tale . The great man reluctantly wrote many Xmas stories as he was contracted to, but A Christmas Carol remains his finest and I’d say top 5 in his entire canon .

[Rowls]

The story is so good theres barely a bad version out there. The plot carries everything.

[eastanglianclaret]

The story is so good theres barely a bad version out there. The plot carries everything.

Agreed Rowls, it is a classic work of literature with a timeless message, but there's at least one bad one in my view.....the BBC adaptation with Guy Pearce is an absolute blasphemy. A morbidly dark version with some daft character changes. It made me angry watching it! Obviously not what the story is supposed to do!!!

George C Scott and Patrick Stewart versions stand out for me, particularly the latter where Richard E Grant performs a magnificent Bob Cratchit.
In the words of Tiny Tim : " God bless us, every one."

[Ric_C]

Went to see The Muppets Christmas Carol in concert at the Bridgewater hall the other week, it was amazing.

Apparently it is the version with the most quotes from the actual book, which surprised me.