Tag: Scrooge

Scroogy

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A friend just came round to see how I was. I’d just finished watching the George C Scott version of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, so I was happy to ask her in. She’s a lovely person but a bit excitable and overwhelming.

Anyway she started tidying up the kitchen and put some things in the recycling bin. I heard her moving things and came in to find she was mixing up the types of waste. Not only that she had put my refillable olive oil bottle in the bin. I had to ask her to stop and pulled it back out again. Then she went in the bathroom and managed to break a bit off the tap, (it just needed screwing back in place).

I know how my stuff works and she could have asked instead of coming in like a bull in a China shop. I appreciated her concern for me but please let me do things my own way.

By the time we had chatted for half an hour I was feeling fraught. Thats why I feel a bit grumpy/scroogy. I’ve got used to my own company, I like doing things my own way and I was getting frustrated by her trying to take over. She’s gone now and so has my almost Migraine. It’s left me feeling  like a bad host!

Carol cast cartoon

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A celebratory cartoon of the cast of A Christmas Carol by Glenn Martin who did a brilliant job playing Scrooge. We had a blow up turkey suit so the person playing the turkey was much bigger than tiny Tim. I only played one part today. We were due to perform outside, but freezing rain, and members of the cast with or getting this horrible cold meant that we performed inside the guildhall in Newcastle-under-Lyme instead. We were accompanied by a brilliant school choir and my hubby really got into his role of ‘the ghost of Christmas present’. I was due to play Mrs Cratchett but the lurgy had knocked me sideways. The audience appreciated the show. But what was upsetting was that one of the casts phones was taken. Very upsetting, spoiled the fun.

Christmas Present

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One of the characters in A Christmas Carol is the ghost of Christmas Present. A big, jolly fellow in his robe and Holly crown, he leads Ebenezer Scrooge through the lives of his contemporary characters, we see Scrooges nephew and family enjoying Christmas merriment and wishing his uncle well. Then there is a scene with the Cratchett family, settling down to enjoy a meagre but happy Christmas meal. We see Tiny Tim, there little boy who is possibly destined to die because of the families poverty despite Cratchett working for Scrooge. When Scrooge asks what will happen to the boy Christmas Present says that unless there is a change in their circumstances there will be an empty chair where the boy now sits. He throws Scrooge’s words back at him saying if he is to die then it should happen sooner rather than later and decrease the surplus population!

Victorian stove?

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This is the Cratchetts stove, a bit of painting I’ve done for the ‘a Christmas Carol’ performance this weekend. It’s a little bit splodgy, but the surface of the foam board was strange to paint on. Plus I’m very tired after not sleeping last night then getting up early because the gas engineer was coming round to service out gas boiler. Weird that I’m painting an old heating system at the same time as getting ours checked out. Serendipity? Maybe.

Favourite A Christmas Carol film

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There are lots of film versions of A Christmas Carol by Charles Darwin. Of them there are several that I really enjoyed. One with Sir Patrick Stewart starring in it, and also Micheal Caine in Muppet Christmas Carol. But my favourite is Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim.

Made in Black and White in 1951, it tells the story of the transformation of the miser, Scrooge, following his haunting by first, his deceased partner Jacob Martley, and then the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

Over the course of the film Scrooge learns that his ideas of how people should live are cruel, uncharitable and miserly. He suddenly realises that he can change.

Alistair Sim’s portrayal of Scrooge is a revaluation. He goes from mean and grim to happy (and giggling). His face shows his emotions, you can see what he is thinking. It’s a wonderful piece of acting.

Christmas Carol re-written

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I’ve just seen the third and final episode of a Christmas Carol, adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens, but with much more details and ‘plot twists’.

Gone is the vaguely cute Scrooge of the original, who is somehow not that nasty, at least compared with this Scrooge. But there is more back story about what caused his intransigence and avarice. There is also much more about what he and Jacob Marley did to his employees, the evil actions that harmed them.

On the whole this was a much more adult adaptation, including swear words and sexual exploitation. Once I got over the fact that it was more of a rewrite than an adaptation I actually enjoyed it. Scrooge does not end up gloriously happy (spoiler alert), but he is changed and his attitude to others is improved. It feels like there might even be a sequel!