Dickensblog

Snippets of 'Spirited'

Thanks to the Frock Flicks blog for sharing some social media clips and photos from the filming of Spirited, the upcoming Christmas Carol adaptation with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell. And thanks to Rachel McMillan for the tip!

Olivia Colman to star in BBC 'Great Expectations'

As promised, the team behind the BBC/FX A Christmas Carol are working on their next Dickens project, a six-part adaptation of Great Expectations. Oscar winner Olivia Colman is the latest actress to tackle the role of Miss Havisham, with Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) playing Pip. Click here for more casting news.

As one who wasn't a big fan of Steven Knight & company's Christmas Carol, I just hope that they manage to make this one a little less dour!

(Thanks to Karen Swallow Prior for the tip.)

Keeping Christmas all the year

Even though it's no longer the Christmas season, my friend Hannah Long has some inspiring thoughts to share about why "'A Christmas Carol' offers a road map for change far more effectively than any New Year’s Eve film could." 

Stream the Goodman's 'A Christmas Carol'

The bad news is, Chicago's Goodman Theatre was forced to end its annual run of A Christmas Carol early because of COVID-19. The good news is, they've made it available to stream online through January 14! Go here to purchase a $25 ticket. 

Finding our role in 'A Christmas Carol'

Merry Christmas! This year, I thought I'd share this piece by actress Jennifer Vosters on her time playing the Ghost of Christmas Present both before and during the pandemic, and what it has meant to her. A sample:

"While not overtly religious, A Christmas Carol draws on Gospel themes: the dangers of greed, the blessings of community, the obligation for generosity, the need for redemption. It reminds us how easy it is to find ourselves fettered like Scrooge and Marley: cloistered in a mindset of scarcity, hoarding our resources, ignoring our neighbors, shunning vulnerability and connection, blaming others for problems we have the power to fix.

"But we can cast ourselves in a different role. We can be Present, pointing out the potential of every moment, every day. We can be Fred, who never gives up his optimism and never gives up on his uncle. Or better yet, we can be Scrooge on Christmas morning, who claims his chance at a better version of himself, who acknowledges his sins and immediately does the work to make amends, who gives freely and laughs readily and forges community wherever he goes."

How to listen to the 'Carol'

Book Riot has a helpful rundown of some of the best audio versions, with readers/narrators ranging from Orson Welles to Kathleen Turner!

'This coddling nonsense'

Over at Jane Austen's Wastebasket (great name!), Amy Colleen takes a humorous look at how the London business community might have seen Scrooge's redemption.

Jewish perspectives on 'A Christmas Carol'

Seth Rogovoy at Forward offers an intriguing survey of different Jewish interpretations of Dickens's story. 

Touched by an angel

Could Dickens have had some angelic pushback on his Carol? James Cary's witty article in the Church Times speculates on the possibility!

Spotlight on 'The Cricket'

The Dickens Museum is displaying some of John Leech's sketches for The Cricket on the Hearth, to remind visitors that Dickens wrote more than one Christmas book! The Guardian has an article about the exhibit and the book, with quotes from Lucinda Dickens Hawksley about this and her ancestor's other Christmas books.