A Christmas Carol

[AlecOrAlonzo]

They're mumbling.

Ffs.

They can hear it three houses away. The telly is up at 11. Still can't hear a damn thing.

Is this what pay my tv licence fee for?!

I’ve gone back and checked and although the relationship isn’t clarified Martha is definitely not their daughter in this adaptation. In the book she is the eldest, and already out at work. The adaptation has also dispensed with Peter Cratchit and the ‘smallest Cratchits’ of unspecified number from the novel.

Yes, as I mentioned upthread, the ubiquitous little Cratchits (there are definitely two of them. Not sure why Belinda gets kept!!

I think Martha makes an important contribution to the novella as a cipher for child exploitation. Much of the nuances of the book were missed, I thought.

And I'm pretty sure they hadn't thought of putting the clocks back an hour in wintertime in those days.

Clocks don't go back an hour in winter. Winter is GMT, and the clocks go forward to BST in summer.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable, yes you're right. I was trying to work out whether the light in the mornings was anachronistic. Can you shed any light on that?

I thought his accent was weird, he seemed to be channeling Chris Packham!

I was trying to work out whether the light in the mornings was anachronistic. Can you shed any light on that?

Daylight Saving Time (BST) wasn't introduced until WW1, so it would've been getting light around 0730.

I am just catching up with this. Guy Pearce is very good, unsurprisingly, but I spent far too much time thinking "Taylor Swift's boyfriend is actually a pretty good actor!" which I'm sure is not how Joe Alwyn wants to be known

Found the age gap between him and the actor playing Mrs Cratchit a bit jarring and I can't put my finger on why - they didn't work particularly well as a couple although individually both turned in great performances.

The frequent use of "fucking" also jarred, and I'm no prude - Peaky Blinders, Taboo, I've watched and loved but here it just seemed weirdly out of place - as if it was just in to say, "Hey, look at us doing something different with Dickens! Aren't we daring?!"

GMT was in the process of being adopted around the time that this was set, and the story is set in London (GMT was known as 'London time' initially), so I think the light at 7am mist be incorrect... happy to be corrected though!

I quite like Guy Pearce/Mike from Neighbours and he's a decent actor but I thought he was way too young and good looking to be Scrooge. Scrooge should be an old man with white wispy hair and a big beaky nose! I don't think the audience is supposed to fancy Scrooge but I did in this adaptation.

Well, actually, Fred is his nephew and is early 20s, I expect. Guy Pearce is 52. This is entirely consistent, age wise, I'd say.

The best bit was having his sister's spirit visit him. Then he was more himself and human. That was really well done.

I just caught up with this today and I really liked it. Wasn't sure about the first episode, but I loved the last one. I am a big fan of the novel and usually prefer a closer adaptation, but I enjoyed the tone and style of this one. Guy Pearce was amazing!