Watching and reviewing film and television adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
Title: Carry On Christmas Format: Pre-recorded colour videotaped Christmas television comedy special Country: UK Production company: Thames Television Year: 1969 – transmitted on the ITV network on December 24 that year Length: 50 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: I strongly suspect that if you are the type of person who is interested in reading a blog like this, then you’re more than likely…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Live television drama Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 1950 – broadcast twice, both as live performances by the same cast; first at 9pm on Christmas Day, and then again in the For the Children slot at 5pm on Wednesday the 27 th . Length: Approximately 90 minutes. That was the scheduled slot, although live dramas could occasionally over- or…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Live action feature film Country: UK Production company: Frith Street Films Year: 2020 Length: 96 minutes Setting: Fantasy Victorian Background: This is, I feel reasonably certain of saying, a unique version of the Carol . There is a framing set-up at the start and end which is conventionally acted and performed, of some children putting on a kind of puppet show…
Title: Scrooge, or A Christmas Carol Sarah Format: Multi-camera studio VT children’s comedy Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 1990 – transmitted on BBC One on December 29 that year Length: 41 minutes Setting: Contemporary Background: Going Live! was the BBC’s live Saturday morning children’s television programme from 1987 to 1993, one of the best-known shows from a tradition of…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Illustrated reading Country: UK Production company: Anglia Television, for the ITV network Year: 1970 – shown at various points by several different ITV regional companies that Christmas season Length: 48 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: Anglia Television , based in the city of Norwich, were the East of England regional contractors for the ITV network in the…
Title: Scrooge Format: Black-and-white feature film Country: United Kingdom Production company: George Minter Productions Year: 1951 Length: 87 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: The first major British version of A Christmas Carol since 1935’s Scrooge , this version from sixteen years later appears to be influenced by the 1930s effort, and not simply through having the same title. There are…
Title: Scrooge Format: Colour musical feature film Country: UK (although made with American money) Production company: Westbury Films, for Cinema Centre Productions Year: 1970 Length: 113 minutes Setting: Victorian – specifically, 1860 Background: In 1968, Dickens’s work had seen enormous success on the big screen with the release of Oliver! , a literally all-singing, all-dancing colour…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Single camera one-man performance Country: UK Production company: That’s My Cue Productions Year: 2019 Length: 57 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: Martin Prest first performed a one-man-show version of A Christmas Carol on-stage in Cambridge in 2012, and has continued to tour the performance ever since. This recorded version was released straight-to-DVD in…
Title: Christmas Night Format: Live television ballet performance Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 1946 (broadcast live on the BBC Television Service at 9pm on December 25 th that year) Length: 60 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: Ten years after what ought to have been the very first television adaptation of A Christmas Carol in Britain – and, indeed, the world – had…
Title: Scrooge Format: Scheduled but never broadcast live performed reading for television Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 1936 – it was due to be broadcast live on the BBC Television service twice, both on December 24 th that year Length: Somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, approximately Setting: Unknown, but probably Victorian Background: This is a very lost Carol . On…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Short online animation Country: Turkey Production company: Adisebaba Year: 2017 – first posted on YouTube on December 25 th that year Length: 11 minutes Setting: Victorian-ish! Background: I came across this on YouTube when searching for a short version I could review today because I was a couple of Carol s short on this year’s schedule – due to ones I’d planned to…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Digitally-released feature film for online streaming Country: UK Production company: Zoghogg Studios Year: 2018 Length: 75 minutes Setting: Contemporary Scotland Background: Another straight-to-streaming effort of the kind we’re seeing with increasing frequency, this was released direct to Amazon Prime’s video service in 2018, although according to its IMDb page it…
Title: Mickey’s Christmas Carol Format: Animated short film Country: USA Production company: Walt Disney Pictures Year: 1983 Length: 26 minutes Setting: Fantasy Victorian Background: By the 1980s the idea of making short animated features for theatrical release had almost entirely disappeared. Even cartoon feature films were not at their height at this period, a few years away from the Disney…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Digitally-released feature film for online streaming Country: USA Production company: Salgado Studios Year: 2019 Length: 73 minutes Setting: Contemporary Miami Background: Like many of the low-budget versions made available direct to online streaming services, this seems to have been made due to the driving force of one person – in this case, director and…
Title: A CBeebies Christmas Carol Format: Pre-recorded Christmas pantomime special, shot on multi-camera HD video Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 2013 (first shown on the CBeebies channel in the UK on December 20 th that year) Length: 40 minutes Setting: Fantasy Victorian Background: The BBC has a long and proud tradition of high-quality children’s television, and the…
Title: The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol Format: Animated straight-to-DVD short film Country: USA Production company: Sony Pictures Imageworks and Duck Studios, for Sony Pictures Animation Year: 2011 Length: 22 minutes Setting: Fantasy Background: The titular Smurfs have a long history in the popular cultures of many countries around the world, having been created as comic book characters by the…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Digitally released short-ish feature film for online streaming Country: UK Production company: Acclaim Video Year: 2019 Length: 40 minutes Setting: Contemporary (sort of) Background: 2019 seems to have been a bit a year for Carol adaptations. As well as the high-profile – and, in my view, fairly appalling – television version , there were also several…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Live online streaming relay of stage play Country: UK Production company: The Old Vic Year: 2020 Length: 2 hours approximately, including a 15-minute interval Setting: Victorian Background: Into the twenties! This is the first review on this blog of a Carol from the 2020s, although the text of this particular version actually pre-dates this. This theatrical…
Title: A Sesame Street Christmas Carol Format: Multi-camera studio video direct-to-DVD special Country: USA Production company: Sesame Workshop Year: 2006 (released on DVD in the US on November 14 th that year) Length: 46 minutes Setting: A fantasy version of a contemporary urban American city street Background: Sesame Street is one of the most famous television programmes ever made in the English…
Title: Brer Rabbit’s Christmas Carol Format: Straight-to-video animated special Country: USA Production company: Magic Shadows Year: 1992 Length: 56 minutes Setting: Fantasy Background: Brer Rabbit (or more correctly it perhaps ought to be Br’er Rabbit) is a character from African-American folklore – a trickster who uses his wits to survive, with the writer John Chandler Harris later writing…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: One-man performance with illustrations, on multi-camera studio video Country: UK Production company: BBC Television Year: 1982 (first broadcast on BBC Two in the UK from December 21 st -24 th that year) Length: 4 episodes, each of approximately 15 minutes Setting: Victorian Background: Done in the style of the famous children’s series Jackanory , with an actor…
Title: The Right to Be Happy (also released as Scrooge the Skinflint in the UK) Format: Silent film Country: United States Production company: Bluebird Photo Plays Year: 1916 (released in the USA on December 25 th that year) Length: 50 minutes (approximately) Setting: Not definitely known, but almost certainly Victorian Background: Another version of the Carol which does not appear to have…
Title: A Christmas Carol Format: Digitally-released feature film for online streaming Country: Ireland Production company: Sallybrook Productions Limited Year: 2019 (premiered at Fermoy in Ireland in December, although released online in 2020) Length: 77 minutes Setting: London, 1795 (for no apparent reason, and despite everyone having Irish accents) Background: Only a couple of days ago we had…
Title: Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol Format: Short segment of an animated television special Country: USA Production company: DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, for Warner Brothers Television and CBS Year: 1979 (first broadcast on the CBS network in the USA on November 27 th that year) Length: 8 minutes Setting: Fantasy Victorian Background: Bug Bunny is, of course one of the most famous American cartoon…
Title: The Stingiest Man in Town Format: Animated television special Country: USA / Japan Production company: Rankin/Bass Productions and Topcraft, for NBC Year: 1978 (first shown on the NBC network in the USA on December 23 rd that year) Length: 50 minutes Setting: Fantasy Victorian – a London where talking and singing animals are unremarkable, and everyone speaks with American accents…