Bah, humbug!

I don't feel it's Christmas unless I've watched or listened to or read a version of A Christmas Carol (if not the original). 

Having starred as the scary, silent, black-clad Ghost of Christmas Future in my primary school days and memorably tripping over Scrooge's bed, I feel very close to the story. 

This year I watched the classic Alastair (Campbell) Sim version where the (spin doctor) miser Scrooge scowled and later danced a jig in black and white, as superbly as ever. 

(His performance is admirably consistent, year in and year out, despite being dead these one-and-forty years. Now that's acting!). 

Tiny Tim and Mrs Cratchit 

From reading Twitter and the comments at Biased BBC, it's clear that the social media wing of the TV-viewing public was split last night. 

The majority view seems to have gone heavily with me though - namely that BBC One's A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong was very funny.

I don't think I've laughed so loudly at any BBC comedy since last year's Peter Pan Goes Wrong (which I enthused about here at the time). 

Now, yes, this one wasn't as funny as the last one, but still...it was very funny. 

The BBC perhaps ought to go to non-BBC theatre companies (like the Mischief Theatre Company) more often, rather than relying on its samey-samey in-house 'talent' so much.