A Christmas Carol (FX US/BBC) Stephen Knight/Tom Hardy Production

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Taboo & Peaky Blinders, Stephen Knight, is again teaming up with Tom Hardy, to develop a show is based on the work of Charles Dickens and it will adapt his classic stories.

The first season of the series will start with A Christmas Carol. The classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge will be told in three hour-long episodes and Ridley Scott's Scott Free London production company will be producing.

Knight:
"Any question about narrative storytelling is answered by Dickens. To have the chance to revisit the text and interpret in a new way is the greatest privilege. We need luck and wisdom to do this justice."


BBC Drama head Piers Wenger:
"Steven's unique ability to reimagine the past and to turn it into must-see drama make him the perfect writer to reinvent Dickens' most famous works for a new generation."


Ridley Scott:
"It’s terrific to be continuing the creative partnership of Scott Free London with Tom and Steve that started with Taboo and continues with this exciting and ambitious anthology of British classics."

Tom Hardy Reteams With 'Peaky Blinders' Creator, BBC for Charles Dickens Series
 
Get ready with the subtitles button to be able to understand more Hardy mumbling :D
 
I'm always up for retelling of the novels by Charles Dickens. Hopefully David Copperfield will be one of them, Uriah Heep has to be one of the best literary characters ever.
 
BBC production will being pressing ahead shortly, with a late-spring shoot being confirmed.

Ridley Scott’s ‘Scott Free London’ company and Hardy’s own ‘Hardy, Son And Baker’ production company are both working on the project, with a view to making three 50-minute episodes.


I'm always up for retelling of the novels by Charles Dickens. Hopefully David Copperfield will be one of them, Uriah Heep has to be one of the best literary characters ever.

yes

Stephen Knight:
“What I’m planning to do is adapt five Dickens books—A Christmas Carol plus four novels—and do it over a period of six or seven years and have a repertory of actors, and I think we’ll get the best actors in the world, hopefully, to take part because the Dickens characters are so great. And just do like [David] Copperfield and Oliver Twist and Great Expectations and do them in a modern way. Not really in a Taboo way, but sort of like that.”
 
First Look at Steven Knight’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Miniseries Starring Guy Pearce and Andy Serkis
A Christmas Carol premieres this December.

a-christmas-carol-guy-pearce-600x400.jpg
 

A Christmas Carol is set to premiere on December 19 at 7:30 pm ET/PT and will replay on December 22 at 7:30pm ET/PT with an encore immediately following. It will also air on December 24 at 8 pm ET/PT and December 25 at 4 pm ET/PT — just in time to celebrate the holidays

Read the character descriptions below and watch the trailer above.

Guy Pearce as “Ebenezer Scrooge”
On Christmas Eve we meet Scrooge. A skinflint, isolated, begrudging, resentful of the world. He is aloof and miserable, always testing humanity to find the worst in people and to ratify his own confirmation bias. All the friendships that he had in the world he has lost, and the hopes/optimism he had as a child have been shattered by a brutal upbringing. Can the advent of his business partner Marley and three ghosts reinvigorate the spirit/joys/hopes of a once-lost boy?

Andy Serkis as “Ghost of Christmas Past”
The Spirit of Christmas Past is jaded. He’s been sent to make lost souls repent before, why should Scrooge be any different to the last? He prods and pokes where it hurts, transforming himself into those known to his charge, finding place of pain, shame, and self-knowledge. But can he get Scrooge to recognise himself, and repent?

Stephen Graham as “Jacob Marley”
Jacob Marley sits in his coffin and regrets. He regrets his miserliness, the risks he took, the penny-pinching that resulted in his factories being run down, his workforce pushed to the brink, ensuring accidents and calamities, lives lost, communities crushed. His guilt haunts him. He wishes to repent. He is sent on a journey of the soul – but to guarantee the safety of his – he must also save Scrooge’s.

Charlotte Riley as “Lottie/ Ghost of Christmas Present”
Lottie was Scrooge’s elder sister. Was, because she is dead. Or was dead, because now she has sent herself back to the world of the living to try her turn at saving Scrooge’s hardened soul. With fire and love and anger in her heart she will force Scrooge to see difficult truths.

Joe Alwyn as “Bob Cratchit”
Bob Cratchit works constantly for Scrooge on little pay and even less recognition. His loyalty is not rewarded, and yet he persists at Scrooge’s, wryly returning banter with his boss and letting things lie, until the stakes get much, much higher. And he won’t take any more.

Vinette Robinson as “Mary Cratchit”
Mary Cratchit is a resilient and hardworking woman, diligent, thoughtful, careful. Vengeful. She loves her husband and her children and would do anything for them. Anything.

Jason Flemyng as “Ghost of Christmas Future”
A menacing figure, the Spirit of Christmas Future is tall, hooded and silent. His mouth is stitched tightly together. He cannot change the future, he can only show what may come to pass. The night is dark and foreboding and he holds the key to Scrooge’s nightmares.

Kayvan Novak as “Ali Baba”
The physical embodiment of Scrooge’s childhood dreams, Ali Baba emerges as one of Scrooge’s oldest friends and comforting escape from the pages of his earliest favorite book, One Thousand and One Nights. He has been with Scrooge through dark times and will show them to him again.

Tiarna Williams as “Belinda Cratchit”
Belinda Cratchit is feisty and loving. She’s always ready with a quip and retort and is active and fast of foot when needs be.

Lenny Rush as “Tim Cratchit”
The well-loved youngest of the Cratchit children, Tim Cratchit’s dreams are bigger than the stars, and he’s encouraged by his family to seek them out. Undaunted by the world, Tim is determined to try everything, even when it puts everything at risk.

Johnny Harris as “Franklin Scrooge”
Scrooge has been estranged from his father since he was a child, but his domineering and brutal presence still haunts him. Tyrannical, single-minded and cruel, Franklin spent more care tending his failing businesses than his children, except to remind them of their reliance on him. His determination that Scrooge realize the cold heartlessness of the world has been a lesson Scrooge never let go of.
 
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I was at the Picturehouse Central on Tuesday (to watch Honey Boy - brilliant film by the way) and there was an event going on for this. Saw Stephen Graham being interviewed by press people as I headed up the escalator to the screen.
 
I just hope it is better than War of the Worlds which was a real damp squib.

I'm looking forward to this.
wotw was a bore
but this being made by totally different personal. At least Tom Hardy is not starring, he mumbled through Taboo. Guy Pierce is a better actor to lead this.
 
completed, enjoyable :laugh:
 
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"Reinventing" and" reimagining" will no doubt mean that this story will be nothing like the one that Dickens wrote. I also understand that (so-called) adult language will be used on occasion, and so I for one will give this a wide berth!!
 
#1

Humbug, enjoyed that, Guy and Stephen were different but good
 
Was really looking forward to this, and overall I liked it. I thought it was a good mixture of traditional story with a twist. My only gripe, the swearing! Was it necessary?
 
I enjoyed and will watch the next 2. As for the swearing, there was only 2 F-bombs said as I remember.
 
It was crap. Should stick to the original story. Typical of modern tv trying to put a new spin on an old story.
 
Quite enjoyed it, including the additions to the story

Doesn’t bother me, just a bit puzzled. Are Tiny Tim and his ginger sister adopted or from previous marriages or relationships? Maybe it will or become clear when we learn more about the mysterious uncle in America”

Cheers,

Nigel
 
It was crap. Should stick to the original story. Typical of modern tv trying to put a new spin on an old story.

I can understand how people will not take to this adaptation but it is an adaptation. They're not rewriting Dickens classic at the ministry of Newspeak. Yes it has scenes that are not in the original and black characters that simply did not exist in Dickension London, not to mention an occasional f bomb but as an adaption it is entertaining.
 
I thought the first episode was great. The best thing about it for me was how it was shot and the mood that was created. Crikey, it was bleak. If the next two episodes are as good as the first I think it will be up there along with Chernobyl and The Marriage Story as my favourites of 2019.

The only negative comment I would make about it was Stephen Graham, not sure he is right in the role and there were a couple of times when his scouse accent crept in and took me out of the film.

Looking forward to the next 2 episodes. In fact now I've seen the first I might wait and watch all three episodes back to back.
 
The bit where Marley
pops his jaw back into his head
was very creepy.
 

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