At the funeral service of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey in 1888 the Very Rev Dean Stanley pronounced A Christmas Carol to be the finest Charity Sermon in the English language.
The present adaptation is written by Patrick Barlow. The director is Phelim McDermott. Their Pollock’s Toy Theatre pantomime approach, with its cut-out scenery, fake snow and Tiny Tim played by a tiny puppet, is much lighter than Dickens’s.
The genial Jim Broadbent has recently played Father Christmas on film in Get Santa, a role for which he is far more suited. You feel he is only play-acting at being Scrooge. He is already redeemed. The production, nevertheless, has considerable charm and Broadbent’s performance is part of that charm.