While not a fan of Dickens in general, I have always liked ‘A Christmas Carol’, so was pleased to be given this movie version of the story some time ago.

It stars Patrick Stewart, who is probably best-known for his role as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s a tribute to his acting that he made an extremely good Scrooge, but I did rather wish he had been given a wig. I could easily believe in him as the ultimate miser in the scenes in his hat, or even his night-cap, but when his head was bare he somehow looked more like the captain of the Enterprise (and I’m no Trekkie) than Dickens’ character.

Still, it’s a minor gripe. My other is that some of the special effects looked extremely dated, but then the film is ten years old and computer graphic effects have improved enormously since 1999.

I haven’t read the book for some years, but from what I recall this film version was pretty true to the book. It worked well, and on the whole I enjoyed it. A nice start to Christmas!