BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 2

If you got a chance to listen to the BBC broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" from December 22, 1990, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a nice production.

Starring as Scrooge is Michael Gough, veteran British actor with a long list of credits in movies, TV and theater over a 60-something year career. He passed away in 2011 at age 94!

That's a lot of Bruce Waynes to keep straight!

I'd say he found his greatest fame, at least with American audiences, with his role as "Alfred" in the four Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher "Batman" movies. He provided a solid presence even as the movies kind of went off the deep end!

He does a solid job as Scrooge, but I don't think he elbows any of his predecessors out of the way.

Michael Gough (center) is now BFFs with George C. Scott!

Michael Gough's cred extends to his appearance in George C. Scott's famous 1984 TV-movie version of "A Christmas Carol" in which he plays the main charity collector (named "Poole" there)!

The narrator is Freddie Jones, another British actor with a long career. He just passed away last year (2019) at age 91, so those cats had good runs!

 

The two of them are in tons of British movies, some of which made their way "across the pond" and some other international productions, but neither were overly well-known to American audiences.

Consequently, I don't know either actor's voice all that well and they kind of sound alike to me!

There's a lot of narration and a lot of Scrooge and it reminds me of one of those versions where the same actor narrates and plays Scrooge, say maybe Ralph Richardson in another BBC show from 25 years earlier.

I don't think I recognize the names any of the supporting actors and I don't know how familiar any of them would be to British listeners.

British actors of the 1990s? Not my meat! British actors from way before I was born? All over it!

My old-school sensibilities kick in a bit when listening to this show as the sound quality is so good that it throws me off! I'm used to radio shows without quite that level of fidelity!

But, it's a good listen.

Next, there are a couple of wacky changes to the original text that need to be discussed!