ThE BBC’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol clearly wasn’t for everyone, but it’s interesting how many people are angry that it was not family-friendly.
In fact, it was broadcast after the 9pm watershed and there was a warning before it started that it contained strong language and scenes some viewers might find upsetting. It may be a beloved Christmas tale, but it’s also a ghost story. Charles Dickens gave it a happy ending, but he was not writing feel-good literature. No dramatisation has an obligation to follow a book exactly and any adaptation worth its salt must do more than convey A Christmas Carol’s warmth and the frivolity of this festive time.
It must demonstrate the gloom of Ebenezer Scrooge’s life and explore the social and moral issues central to Dickens’ fiction: Poverty, miserliness, guilt and redemption.
Emilie Lamplough
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