A Christmas Carol. It’s the consummate yuletide tale. It has spirits for fans of traditional ghost stories, a moral message and a heart-warming ending guaranteed to have you tossing mince pies with excitement… unless you’re a bit of a Scrooge.
It also has Jim Broadbent, if you’re coming to see it in London’s West End this festive season. The acclaimed performer will indeed be a bit of a Scrooge. Well, a lot of a Scrooge really, seeing as he’s playing the world’s favourite snow-covered miser.
The cast surrounding him – which includes Samantha Spiro, Amelia Bullmore, Keir Charles and Adeel Akhtar – is a surprisingly small one for playing the array of characters featured in Charles Dickens’ festive favourite. There’s barely enough of them to make up old Fezziwig’s famous Christmas party. So we were as intrigued as a small salivating boy at the frosted window of a Victorian butcher’s shop, to see what has been going on in rehearsals.
A Christmas Carol plays at London’s Noël Coward Theatre from 30 November to 30 January.