A Christmas Carol

The other day, sheltering in a tube carriage from London's first unexpectedly biting and wet snow of the season, a colleague disabused me of a popular misconception.

'It's true!' she said. 'Our whole notion of a white Christmas and snowy English winters is based on a few random freakish winters that Dickens spent here. We have a completely mistaken idea of this beautiful snowy English winter as a result! Dickens pretty much popularised the false notion of a white Christmas!'

As I stand and stare out the window at the beautiful illusion of snow I think there is something pretty wonderful about certain fictions.

And if Dickens used his random experience to popularise a pleasant story about London and utilised that narrative to convey some timeless truths about the human experience and the importance of how we use our time here in this life, I do not mind standing by some illusions and allowing myself to be seduced every year, even with the power of a misconception.

And that is essentially what The Old Vic is doing so successfully annually in creating a very immersive, festive three (and in some cases four, given the smells of fruit and mince pies in the air since they're being given out by actors just before the opening moments) dimensional experience for all involved, based on Jack Thorne's cleverly adapted script of Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol.

The 2024 Christmas season, with veteran star of British television staples like Doctor Who and Life on Mars John Simm taking his turn behind the desk of Scrooge and Marley, grunting out his humbugs and scowling curmudgeonly bitterness, is quite possibly the best one yet in the eight years this show has been running.

Being a devout Whovian, I was skeptical about Simm's rightness for the part of the most famous redemptive arc in all of literature. But those doubts were allayed within minutes of him taking to the stage and glaring down his first visit and enduring with no small amount of vitriol the first few bars of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. He captures the perfect mixture of dark and sinister, bitter and twisted almost to the core, but with a redeemable center of pure moral fiber, and that goodness that allows his character to see his neighbors as 'fellow passengers to the grave.'

Has Jack Thorn's script started to feel a bit stale after seven years of running in The Old Vic? After all, I have seen such illustrious and well regarded thespians as Paterson Joseph, Rhys Ifans, and Christopher Eccleston don that Victorian overcoat and portray the transformation to sprightly uncular angel by the final stave. How can they keep the magic going year in, year out?

And yet part of the magic is seeing what new and unique energy each actor injects into this part and it cannot be denied, John Simm is not just The Master as a Timelord. He brings a certain magnificence to the stage and captures Scrooge's journey flawlessly, from a 'covetous old sinner' secretly regretful of paths not taken progressively made meek by a confrontation with his past, present and future to a changed man, effusively embodying the spirit of the season.

A Christmas Carol is simply the perfect antidote for all the election weariness with which we find ourselves burdened, emotional baggage rattling around like Marley's chains. Prepare to be liberated and feel lighter through tears of joy at this epiphany of theater.

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