The "Real" 1931 Broadcast!

Having beaten the "Mystery Broadcast" of "A Christmas Carol" into the ground, I thought it appropriate to talk about what we know of the real BBC broadcast of December 24, 1931.

Here's the listing from the December 188, 1931 issue of "Radio Times":

So, what we know is that there was a "Christmas Eve" show that ran for about an hour and part of said show was an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" titled "Scrooge" with Malcolm Keen in the Scrooge part.

This is exactly how I want my early 1930s British actors to look!

Things get extremely intriguing with Malcolm Keen, as he was apparently featured in two early TV adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" as well!

The first was an episode of "Fireside Theatre" from December 25, 1951 in which Mr. Keen portrayed Marley's Ghost opposite Ralph Richardson as Scrooge!

The next year on December 24, 1952 Keen played the part of Scrooge himself on an episode of the "Kraft Theatre" series!

I don't know if either of those TV versions are still out there, but I'd love to see them!

Back to the 1931 broadcast, it's interesting that the adaptation itself is called "Scrooge," which seem so British, as the 1935 Sir Seymour Hicks, the 1951 Alastair Sim and the 1970 Albert Finney movies were all named "Scrooge."

Of further note, the narrator on the Mystery Broadcast does not refer to that adaptation as "Scrooge" per se, so that's another strike!

On the other hand, the 1931 broadcast and the Mystery Broadcast both have a character named Alice. Hmmm...

I think we need that time machine to ever have a chance to hear the 1931 broadcast!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 3

So, the 1990 BBC Radio adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" runs for an extremely generous 90 minutes, so they can get just about every story element in there, but do they stay faithful to the source or do they take some wacky liberties?

Oh, they take some liberties, and they are wacky!

On the whole, the adaptation is pretty faithful, with a lot of narration taken largely verbatim from the book. The dialogue is also about the same, with a few little changes here and there. The beginning seems so faithful that you're lulled into thinking this will be strictly "by the book," if you will.

A couple of things caught my ear early on, such as Fred calling Scrooge "Uncle Scrooge" when he drops by the office and Bob Cratchit scoffing when the charity collector mentions Marley's "liberality!"

A couple of other things ae thrown in for more of an audio experience, I think, such as Scrooge moaning and groaning in the background a lot and Marley's Ghost really moaning when appearing in Scrooge's knocker.

When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on his journey, things start veering away from the book.

An odd change is giving the schoolmaster a number of lines. When he comes to tell young Ebenezer that he has a visitor (Fan), he accuses Scrooge of hiding and it's implied that Ebenezer is abused. Not sure what they're going for there, but it's unpleasant.

At Fezziwig's party, Fezziwig gets quite a few extra lines and he also calls the fiddler by name (John Jackson) and talks about said fiddler a bit.

The first really big change comes next, and it's the old standby of having Belle show up at Fezziwig's party. This then takes the more unusual, but not unheard of step of Belle breaking up with Ebenezer at the party.

What is different is that Belle namedrops Jacob Marley, as in Ebenezer going into business with Marley is the last straw!

That's a little different, but not too wacky. The extreme wackiness comes when we next encounter Belle as a married woman. She's. Married. To... (SPOILER) Dick Wilkins! Oh, snap! Who saw that coming? That's a new one on me, but I love a good twist!

In the Christmas Present sequence, the usual things happen with a couple of minor type changes.

Mrs. Cratchit calls one of the kids "Charlotte," which keeps the tradition of naming one or both of those mystery Cratchit kids.

The other change is siemthung I don't care for... Topper is given a pronoynced stutter. I guess it's supposed to be for comedic effect and it's not funny and comes off to me as unsympathetic towrd people who have actual speech issues. It seems odd for soemthng from 1990 to be so isnsnitive.

Anyway, the Christas Yet to COme seunce goes more or less as expetecd, but it's perhaps woth noting that Mrs. Dilber is dientifed as the charwoman, but we all know she's the laundress!

Another fun little twist comes during the "present" when Scrooge is out and about on Christmas morning. He runs into the charity collector, who reveals himself to us as the narrator! Kind of a fun little thing.

The ending here is changed and it follows another common variation with Scrooge going to Bob Cratchit's house on Christmas morning. This is found in almost as many versions as the idea of Belle being at Fezziwig's party.

As is usually the case, he runs into Fred and his wife along the way and accepts their dinner invitation. He mentions Topper and Fred's wife's sister, which puzzles Fred's wife. This shows, however, that this version does not imply that Scrooge dreamt the whole thing.

Since this version attempts to keep a lot of the original dialogue, yet changes some things, we wind up with some awkwardness at times. Specifically, Scrooge tells Bob that they'll discuss his affairs that afternoon over the mandatory Christmas bowl of you-know-what. Fine, except that dialogue was meant for December 26, not December 25. That afternoon Bob will be eating a ginormous turkey and Scrooge will be at Fred's house. Picky, I know!

In any event, an interesting script. It's sort of faithful, sort of not.

SO many versions have Belle at Fezzwig's and Scrooge visiting the Cratchits on Christmas morning, that a casual listener to this program wouldn't think they changed a thing!

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!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 1

"A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990)

BBC Radio

Director: Janet Whitaker

Scrooge: Michael Gough

We next take a look at another audio adaptation of "A Christmas Caro," this one broadcast on the BBC on December 22, 1990, with Michael Gough as Scrooge and Freddie Jones as the narrator.

You can give it a listen here.

A Christmas Carol starring Michael Gough

Next: Let's discuss!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (1965) - Ralph Richardson - Part 2

If you got a chance to listen to the BBC Radio adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from December 25, 1965 starring Ralph Richardson, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a faithful, entertaining version of the story.

The feel is similar to the 1960 studio recording for Caedmon Records and not just because both feature Sir Ralph as Scrooge.

This radio broadcast is also extremely faithful to the book, with a lot of narration and most of the incidents from the book. The main difference is that Ralph Richardson is both the narrator and Scrooge, although the character of Scrooge is not narrating.

I can't dig up an awful lot of information on this show, but it was originally broadcast over the BBC on December 25, 1965. It must have had some sort of opening announcement, but the audio sources floating around just start with some music and go right into the narration.

This adaptation really doesn't add anything that was not included in the book, but it does have to omit a few things, despite the generous running time of about an hour. I'll just highlight a few interesting things.

The opening scenes feature just one gentleman collecting for charity and the description about the preparations for the Lord Mayor's Christmas dinner.

Marley's Ghost comes and goes pretty quickly, but we have the sequence of Scrooge waiting for the first spirit to appear.

In the Christmas Past sequence, we do have the scene where Fan comes to get young Ebenezer, which was not included on the 1960 album. We have Fezziwig's party and the breakup with Belle, but we don't see Belle happily married.

The Christmas Present sequence starts with a long description of all the shops and food and whatnot. It's fun to hear this, as it's usually skipped in most adaptations.

At Fred's house, it just seems to be Fed and his wife, although in the present, the narrator says the plump sister looked the same. That's a bit awkward, as we hadn't heard about the plump sister previously.

The Ghost of Christmas Present disappears suddenly without any mention of Ignorance and Want.

With the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, we get just two other businessmen and just the charwoman selling the bed curtains to Old Joe. We skip the Cratchit house and go straight tot he graveyard after hearing about Scrooge's unattended body.

The Christmas morning sequence is longer than usual with Scrooge jumping around and shaving and all that. He meets that charity collector and says out loud that he will donate 200 guineas. In the book he whispers the amount and we never know what the sum is, so that's a bit different.

The rest of the story is as expected and we're done with anther faithful audio adaptation with a lot of not-often-heard detail from the book!

Sir Ralph Richardson does a great job with the narration here and also provides another solid Scrooge.

I do wonder how that 1951 television version is. I don't think Ralph Richardson looks Scroogey on the whole. Someday I'll see it, though!

I'm not familiar with the rest of the cast of this 1965 radio broadcast, but a very interesting note is that Frederick Treves, who plays Bob Cratchit here, played Fred on that 1960 album. I think this counts as a promotion!

Who had the better autograph?

The name Frederick Treves is familiar as that of the eminent British doctor associated with John Merrick, known as "The Elephant Man." Dr. Treves was played by Anthony Hopkins in the famous 1980 movie.

End of sidetrack, back to Sir Ralph Richardson. Good job!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (1965) - Ralph Richardson - Part 1

"A Christmas Carol" (1965)
BBC Radio
Scrooge: Ralph Richardson

We go from the 1960 Caedmon Records LP adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Ralph Richardson as Scrooge to this 1965 BBC radio adaptation also starring Ralph Richardson as Scrooge!

Sir Ralph also serves as the narrator here, rather than Paul Scofield or another actor.

It makes an interesting comp to the earlier recording.

Give it a listen:

A Christmas Carol - Alec Guinness (1950) - Part 3

With only a quick half-hour to tell the tale, the BBC radio adaptation of a "A Christmas Carol" starring Alec Guinness can't include everything. But what it does include is fascinating.

The story starts with the narrator reading some lines directly from the text to set the scene. We then hear people bustling about with their Christmas activities.

The action in Scrooge's office gets going when (I think) just one charity solicitor comes in. Scrooge dismisses him in the usual manner.

Then Scrooge argues with Bob Cratchit about the coal. As he's berating Bob by saying how he can afford to waste coal because he doesn't pay for it, I'm thinking, "Where have I heard that before?" I know it's not in the original text, but it's very familiar. Then it struck me that it's what Seymour Hicks said to Donald Calthrop in "Scrooge" from 1935!

In fact, the whole beginning part is straight out of that movie, including the order of things. In the book, Fred comes in before the charity solicitors, but in this radio show, as in the movie, the order is reversed.

So, you wonder if this whole thing will be a shortened version of the Seymour Hicks film.

Nope, not at all!

Scrooge goes right home, doesn't see Marley's face in the knocker, but he does see it repeatedly in his fireplace, a seldom used detail from the book.

Marley makes a quick visit and interestingly tells Scrooge that the other three spirits will be the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come!

After Marley leaves, Scrooge tosses and turns for a bit before the first spirit arrives. It's funny that they would use precious time for this.

In any event, we only get the chance for one scene from Christmas Past and it's different from any other I've heard or seen. Quite a bit, in fact!

It's Fezziwig's Christmas party, but the details are so different. Fezziwig himself is cracking some jokes before he has Dick Wilkins and Ebenezer clear away for the party and the fiddler comes in. Fine, but then Mrs. Fezziwig comes in with two daughters and Fezziwig pairs them up with the apprentices. Ebenezer gets Charlotte and Dick gets Sophia (Sofia? Pronounced "So-FIE-ya")! Scrooge used to be an operator!

Even wackier, they play musical chairs and Ebenezer is the life of the party! Fezziwig says, "Ebenezer knows how to enjoy himself." What happened to him? We don't know, because right after this, he's back in his bed!

It's different, but it's fun!

While waiting for the next ghost, Scrooge is doubting whether there'll even be one. He says, "Jacob Marley said three spirits. Bah! Three fiddlesticks!"

Scrooge sees the light under the door and meets the Ghost of Christmas Present. The spirit talks about Bob Cratchit and says because Bob keeps Christmas better than Scrooge, he's the better man for it.

We then visit Bob's house and it's a lot of fun as the family enjoys their Christmas. Martha hides when Bob comes in making horse sounds because he's carrying Tiny Tim (a nod to the book calling Bob Tim's blood horse) and the boys chant when they bring in the goose. The narrator talks a bit about the goose and the pudding.

Scrooge notices Tiny Tim and asks the spirit about his future. He is extremely remorseful when the spirit throws the "surplus population" remark back at him. Perhaps the most powerful moment of this production.

We do have time to visit Fred's party as well, and that's also fun. When they play Yes and No, Fred's sister-in-law guesses the answer, and says, "It's your Uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!" just like in the book!

Marley said he'd be coming so no surprise to us or Scrooge that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is up next.

They visit the Cratchit house where they learn of Tiny Tim's death and then go the graveyard where Scrooge sees his own neglected tombstone. Oddly, Scrooge reads out the letters to spell his name. I dig it though, because he calls the Z "zed" in a moment of British awesomeness!

Scrooge begs for a chance to make things right and finds himself back in his room on Christmas morning. One thing of note is that Scrooge still thinks it was all a dream.

Things get extremely wacky now!

He calls out the window to a boy, as usual. The "boy" sounds kind of old, though. I looked up the actor, Leslie Crowther, and he was 17 at the time. He apparently had a long career in England after this, so fans of his would probably enjoy hearing him at the beginning of his career.

Anyway, the wacky part is that the kid knows Bob Cratchit, so he'll have no problem delivering the turkey.

Even wackier is when Scrooge hears a knock at his door. Who is it? Bob Cratchit! What? And he says he was sent by Fred to ask Scrooge to reconsider his dinner invitation! Huh?

It's unclear whether Scrooge had given Bob the day off to celebrate Christmas, so maybe Bob was on his way to the office?

Whatever the case, we get the chance for Scrooge to raise Bob's salary and indicate that he is going to Fred's for dinner without having to leave home.

Another wacky thing is that when Scrooge is telling Bob how he'll help him and his family, when he mentions Tiny Tim, he says, "He's not dead, is he?" Hey, he just reformed, so he needs to work on his tact!

All in all, I enjoyed this show. It's got enough different little things to keep it interesting. I wouldn't want the same thing over and over.

I like the voice that Alec Guinness uses for Scrooge. He's not over the top at the beginning or the end. I think it's a well modulated performance.

I'm not familiar with any of the other actors, but they seem like solid professionals, which I'm sure they were.

And I think the music "composed by Hal Evans and condicted by Trevor Harvey" is really good and adds a lot.

Solid job and worth a listen!

A Christmas Carol - Alec Guinness (1950) - Part 2

The BBC radio broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" from 1950 starring Alec Guinness as Scrooge is an interesting little thing.

This is another one of those half-hourish adaptations, so there's not time for everything. I usually look at these as presenting highlights of the story, with the audience's knowledge of the complete story filling on the gaps.

If you never heard/read/saw any other version of "A Christmas Carol," this would leave you scratching your head. But if you do know the story, it's fun!

One thing you may have noticed from those links to the show is that the year(s) listed is all over the place.

But, the "Radio Times" listing definitely puts the year as 1950. I understand it was rebroadcast in subsequent years, but 1950 was the first time.

One thing I like about this version is that it seems so British, which, naturally, fits the source material. So many versions are American with a bit of a British twist. Since this is from the BBC, I feel like we Americans are getting a sneak peek at a real British production!

An interesting contrast is that the narrator, Keith Pyott, uses the original text to set the scene in a very stiff upper lip voice, whereas, say, on Basil Rathbone's version, narrator Harlow Wilcox uses his very American voice with original material. And this narrator is a million times drier than Richard Hale on Lionel Barrymore's studio recording.

Even at the very beginning, the announcer says, "The BBC presents a famous actor in a radio adaptation of a famous story." Wow, those British announcers sure are tight-lipped!

So, what did they include in this version anyway? Let's see...

A Christmas Carol - Alec Guinness (1950) - Part 1

A Christmas Carol (1950)
Producer: Cleland Finn
Scrooge: Alec Guinness

We stay in the department of famous British actors taking a swing at playing Ebenezer Scrooge with Alec Guinness in a BBC radio broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" from 1950.

Alec Guinness seems to me to be the one actor who should have played Scrooge in a movie but didn't get the chance.

He established his reputation as a screen actor with his first two movies, which were David Lean's adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist," so that's a good Dickens pedigree. I figure David Lean must have thought about keeping the Dickens thing going with a big screen adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" and he subsequently worked with Alec Guinness on four more movies, so he would have been considered for the lead role of Scrooge. And based on his penchant for makeup and different voices, he could easily have slipped into the role.

But the 1951 movie "Scrooge" starring Alastair Sim would've ended such plans if they had ever existed. That 1951 movie is great, so no squawks here!

Of course, 20 years later, Alec Guinness did famously play Marley's Ghost opposite Albert Finney's Scrooge.

Whatever the case, this half-hour radio drama gives us the chance to hear Alec Guinness play Scrooge and he does have his own take.

You can listen to it with this video:

Or here with better quality sound:

Alec Guinness - A Christmas Carol