SusieJ's Advent Calendar December 11, 2012

Patrick Stewart reads A Christmas Carol

How, you ask, can anyone write 24 book reviews, and not review the classics of Christmas literature, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Christmas Carol? Well, I say, why bother reviewing the classics, when everyone has already read or seen them every Christmas for a lifetime?

That said, if you have any fondness for A Christmas Carol, if you are even lukewarm to the story, or desensitized through repeated re-tellings, give Patrick Stewart's dramatic reading a chance. You will understand the power behind the story, and why Stewart is one of the top actors working today.

As Scrooge, Stewart is mean, and miserable, and self-satisfied. We all know Scrooge is a bad man, but Stewart makes us understand truly how cold to and uncaring of humanity Scrooge is at the start of the tale, and how terrified of changing, yet compelled to change, Scrooge is at the end. His disdain for his nephew's invitation is clear, as is Scrooge's fear of rejection when he accepts the invitation and hangs back nervously before introducing himself to Fred's wife.

Stewart later made a television movie of A Christmas Carol with TNT, but the reading is better. He brings a clarity to Dickens's words that can be lost in (another) dramatisation.

Stewart recorded A Christmas Carol after repeated tours of live readings. My close friend, Jim Panetta, worked stage crew for at least one of the readings in California, and says that not only were the live readings even more wonderful than the recording, but that Stewart was a pleasure to work with — he lived up to his reputation for professionalism and niceness.