A Christmas Carol

by R.D. Carstairs (Adapter), Charles Dickens, Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

'If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!'

Charles Dickens' ghostly tale of sour and stingy miser Ebenezer Scrooge has captivated readers, listeners and audiences for over 150 years. This Christmas, Audible Studios brings this story to life in an audio drama featuring an all-star cast.

Starring: Sir Derek Jacobi as Dickens, Kenneth Cranham as Ebenezer Scrooge, Roger Allam as Jacob Marley, Brendan Coyle as The Ghost Of Christmas Past, Miriam Margolyes as The Ghost Of Christmas Present, Tim Mcinnerny as The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come, Jamie Glover as Bob Cratchit, Emily Bruni as Mrs. Cratchit, Jenna Coleman as Belle, Joshua James as Young Scrooge And Hugh Skinner as Fred

Genres: Classics, Audiobook, Fiction, Christmas, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Holiday

100 pages, Audible Audio

Published December 9, 2016

Reviews

[Cora Tea Party Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

#SundayYAthon
5 Words:

[Maria Hill AKA MH Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite production of this classic - it was far too sweet.
This is not to be confused with my review of the book itself, which is still five stars.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Spirits of Christmas...

It's been my habit for many years to revisit Dickens' best known Christmas story over the festive season each year. Sometimes this will be for a re-read but in recent years I've been enjoying some of the many adaptations of it in film or on audio. This year I went for Audible's full cast dramatisation, having enjoyed several of their other productions in recent months. I knew going in that it had some great competition to beat – Patrick Stewart's abridged narration has been my go-to for years, and Tom Baker's unabridged version is up there at the same standard. But this one has Derek Jacobi as Dickens/the narrator, and anyone who's read my reviews will know I am a huge fan of his audio narrations...

This follows the pattern Audible have been using for their Original Drama series of being part narration, part dramatisation. I love this approach. The dramatised elements make it a livelier listen which holds my attention better than even excellent straight narrations sometimes do, while the narrated bits allow for the depth and background that sometimes gets lost when a book is reduced to only dialogue in a full-scale dramatisation. It allows the listener to hear the author's voice come through in the writing which, especially when the author is as brilliant as Dickens, is an essential.

Jacobi is undoubtedly the star of this production, having by far the biggest role as narrator of the linking pieces between the relatively sparse dialogue. He is excellent, of course, but not having the chance to create any of the wonderfully larger-than-life characters meant I felt his talents were a tiny bit wasted. Personally I'd have preferred him to be performing Scrooge, especially since I felt Kenneth Cranham's performance in the role was a little too understated for my taste. However that's purely a subjective opinion – I love the big, booming, overblown performances of Stewart and Baker, but Cranham's quieter interpretation may work better for many people. The division between narrator and main character in this dramatisation leaves Cranham with a far smaller role than either Stewart or Baker, since they have the fun of creating their own dramatic interpretation of the non-dialogue parts too.

All the other performances are good, with no weak links in the chain. The standouts for me are Jamie Glover as Bob Cratchit and Miriam Margolyes as The Ghost of Christmas Present. Glover's Cratchit is less down-trodden than he is sometimes portrayed, somehow – I can't quite put my finger on why, exactly, since as far as my not always reliable memory could confirm there were no changes to the words Dickens gives him. But Glover's performance conveyed him to me as a strong, good-humoured man, limited by his poverty, but not broken by his miserly, bullying boss or the circumstances of his life. I enjoyed him very much.

Margolyes is an old hand at Dickens, not just appearing in many of the BBC serialisations over the decades, but also having performed in her one-woman show, Dickens' Women, for some years (a wonderful performance that's also available on audio and which I highly recommend). So she 'gets' him, and is not afraid to exploit the huge emotional range he allows to those who perform his work. For me, a successful Dickens performance is when I can imagine it might be done as he himself would have delivered it at one of his famous readings, and Margolyes is one of those actors who always achieves this. She frightened me and moved me – when she talked of Ignorance and Want I believed utterly that she meant every terrible, warning word, sadly as relevant today as when Dickens wrote them.

"They are Man’s," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!"

If the adaptation by RD Carstairs is abridged at all, it must be very lightly. I noticed nothing missing and the running time is similar to an unabridged narration. It may be that there are minor changes to the order of some parts – there's quite a lot of quick cutting between Jacobi's narration and Scrooge's inner thoughts as delivered by Cranham that worked very effectively to bring the two parts together. But there are certainly no significant changes to either tone or meaning and all the words, I think, are Dickens' own.

So, in conclusion, a hugely enjoyable dramatisation which, while it might not quite have replaced Stewart or Baker as my favourite audio version, is certainly up there in contention with them. Highly recommended. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

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[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am ashamed to say this is my first Charles Dickens novella. I have his complete works on my kindle but I was always scared they would be to wordy.

A Christmas Carol was this years Christmas present from Audible so I thought I would give it a try. I have seen stage and film adaptations of A Christmas Carol but this recording was so much better. The writing was superb, a powerful fable about the true meaning of Christmas. Something maybe we should all take notice of.

In the words of Tiny Tim- 'God bless us everyone'.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a while, I followed a tradition of visiting Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol each holiday season. And while that tradition fell to the wayside the last few years, I decided that 2020 seemed like as good a time as any to revive it.

This year's visit is a full-cast adaptation by R.D. Carstairs. Featuring a solid cast that includes Derek Jacoby as the narrator/Dickens, this version of the Carol hit all the right notes. The cast is solid, the adaptation is good, and I even found myself picking up a few highlights or notes that I hadn't before.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free | Over-produced | For the past few years I've enjoyed listening to a different audio recording of A Christmas Carol each December, and decided to try this audio dramatization this year. I enjoyed Jacobi as narrator, but the rest was a let-down. It was so focused on being an AUDIO drama that it leaned too hard on effects, to the detriment of the narrative. I don't need to listen to just the sound of labored breathing for long stretches, or eating, or random moments of light music inserted between sections when the narrative does a perfectly good job of transitioning scenes. It's also exactly the same length (to the minute) as the Tim Curry reading (which is excellent) but has unnecessary additions like singing and background conversations that don't appear in Dickens' tale, so other things were edited out to give us these less than stellar moments.

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

So very fortunate to listen to this book on Christmas Day, a real Christmas treat, how splendid

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

delightful rendition for a Christmas re read

[Alice Foulis · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the 10th time

[Katharine Willard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad Audible had this for free over Christmas, I don't think I would've considered it otherwise. I love the film Scrooged, but for some reason I never put two and two together that A Christmas Carol is the story of Scrooge also.

I loved the cast, a whole cast for an audiobook! Genius. Derek Jacobi as Dickens was wonderful. He's so flamboyant and squeaky voiced, it almost feels like a children's story.

The story - obviously - is great. The four ghosts were equally comedic, terrifying and kind. The sound effects helped greatly with this, especially when Jacob Marley makes his first appearance - really creepy!

I think I'm going to read this every Christmas now. It really gets down to what Christmas is all about and I want it to be a reminder each year that we should be thankful for our families and loved ones.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen the movies. But hearing the story read (or in this case, dramatized for Audible) is enriching. Dickens knew how to write, how to weave a tale, and to catch the heart. This is going to be an annual listen for as long as Audible has it available through their Channels.

For anyone who has Amazon Prime, you have access to Audible Channels via the Audible app. It's well worth searching it out. If you have an Audible account, you can download the Channel content to your device. I have done this with A Christmas Carol because I do plan to listen to it each year at Christmas and to share it with my kids as well.

Well done, all around. And thank you, Audible.com, for such a gift. God bless us, everyone, indeed!

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to read this before Christmas this year so I picked up the audioook and listened to it while wrapping presents and doing some Christmas cooking. This was first time ever reading something written by Dickens and I loved it! The story, though short, was impactful and me travel through a whole spectrum of emotions!

The audiobook was fantastic! There was a whole cast of actors and as it was an adaptation of the book there were plenty of sound effects and it worked really well! I think I will be making reading this before Christmas a bit of a tradition but I think next year I might read the book in print format for a bit of a different experience.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

BBC Big Read Top 100 - No 47

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb performance of the classic Charles Dickens Christmas story.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely version

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dramatised version of A Christmas Carol and even though I’m still waiting to find a version narrated by Simon Callow, Derek Jacobi did an excellent job. He brought a rather fresh feeling to words and sentences that I’ve heard hundreds of times over the years.

And the rest of the cast did an excellent rendition of their characters as well, Miriam Margoyles as the Ghost of Christmas Present was a bit of a surprise but a welcome one. And it makes sense in my mind as well.

While I said all the cast did well I should say all except the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, mainly because I didn’t like the adaptation of giving that spirit a voice. In my mind that ghost has and will always be the looming shadow as described in the original text. But I know that can be a bit awkward when Scrooge has spoken to every other ghost. So while I understand why it was given a voice, it just felt unnecessary as well.

And even though I’ve seen/listened to it so many times, I still got a bit teary eyed during the dinner scene in the future segment.

[Darrell McCauley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrooge and Marley, Est. 1843 at 17 Thames St, London. Which do you want to be?

Beloved tale of selfishness, regret, and repentance, but also one of judgement. Scrooge received forgiveness; his partner Jacob Marley did not.

Marley's ghost was transparent, a reference to him missing "the bowels of compassion" (1 John 3:17). In the 21st century, people refer to feelings emanating from the heart (one exception is the eponym for courage: guts). Hundreds and thousands of years earlier, people more commonly referred to feelings originating from other parts of our core.

Regardless, here's a more modern translation of the principle behind Dickens' classic: "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" Scrooge saw the error of his ways and turned his life around.

So, instead of "don't be a Scrooge," we should say, "don't be a Marley."

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Audible, for making this free for its members. For starters, I've seen a couple of movie adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but I don't have a clear memory of reading the book itself. This is why I couldn't help but anticipate how the scenes were really written by Charles Dickens. While all movies have same plot, being adaptations, I think that the book remains the best version. I really love the ending with Scrooge and Cratchit. It really was heartwarming

Why only 4 stars?
Well, as much as I love the production, the narration, and the effects, I find the narration volume of some characters too soft at the first scenes during the First Stave. The narrator's and Scrooge's volumes were okay, but the visitors in the counting house had low volume. It was good though that the next scenes had normal volume, so I had a good time listening to it.

[Engrossed Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read this book in a while so looked forward to this full audio adaptation. It was a good retelling but I don't remember Scrooge being so contrite early on in the proceedings.

Great to finish just before Christmas as a reminder of the Christmas spirit, to be grateful for what you have because others have it worse than you do, to be content with what you have, and the love of family can warm you in ways that materialism can not. And for Scrooge, his reminder is there is no need to remove joy and relationships from life, to promote frugality and the pursuit of wealth there is a purpose for both.

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[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never actually read A Christmas Carol, so didn't know the full story. I really enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook, especially Audible's dramatisation of it!

It's a short audiobook so it only takes a couple of sittings, if not one, and it's such an easy listen. I'll probably put it on again if I fancy something short. I'll probably also listen to it each Christmas. The cast made it so fun to listen to, and the way that they turned it into a proper audio drama with sound effects and a proper script, rather than just one narrator, was amazing. It's made me want to listen to more Audible dramas.

Thanks Audible!

[Macky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewing the Audible part narration/part cast drama production. A Christmas freebie at the time of purchase.

This is my most favourite Christmas story ever, but Kenneth Cranham never got the downright miserly, “Bah Humbug” crotchety nature of Ebenezer Scrooge quite right for me so this particular version lost a little ‘something’ in the rendition; hence four stars instead of five this time. But the superb narration from Derek Jacobi, and the rest of the supporting cast (inc the fab Miriam Margoyles ) still made this a very nostalgic, heart warming seasonal listen.

[Hannah Bergstrom de Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly can't remember the last time I read this book, but it was an absolute delight to listen to this rendition on Audible and hear the story anew this December. I was once again blown away by the relevance of this story first published in 1843 and still so poignant today. Always a great reminder of what's important not just at Christmas but throughout our lives.

[Karin Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having seen a few film and TV versions I thought I'd go back to the book and enjoyed getting the full picture. The audible production was excellent with top actors like Derek Jacobi and Miriam Margoles reading the parts. Very seasonal!

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to this thru audible and loved it! Normally not a full cast fan but this was great. It’s also the first time I’ve read this particular Christmas tale. I’ve seen the plays and the movies but his was so much more. I sense a new tradition for myself.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant the cast narrated this familiar tale brilliantly in particular Kenneth Cranham as Scrooge, Drek Jacobi as Scrooge and Miriam Margoyles as the Second Ghost or the Ghost of Christmas Present

[Tim Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this production of Charles Dicken's classic Christmas tale. Always heartwarming and this cast made it seem like a play rather than just a book. I listen to a different version of A Christmas Carol every year and this is among my very favorites.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nicely performed audiobook, but Dickens' prose doesn't do much for me. I enjoyed the story- makes me want to rewatch the Blackadder version!

[Kylie Falconer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 stars

[Bonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this version of A Christmas Carol. Next up, the Tim Curry audio version (or maybe some more Roger Allam ...)

[MaggiCat Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and easy listen during the holidays.