Working at home, I tend to have the telly on - for news, sport, Jeremy Kyle ! Over the past couple of days I have noticed that the Charles Dickens classic has been 'done to death'.
First one I saw was the Kelsey Grammer ' all singing, all dancing ' version. Now, I like the bloke in Cheers and his spin -off 'Frasier' but he can't sing!
He couldn't even get away with the Rex Harrison ' talking and singing thing' that he did in, well, all of the films he did that required singing. Story was fine and a few good one-liners. there was also a bit of 'star watching' as a fair few of the cast were familiar faces to the British TV screen. But, and this is the point where I couldn't have sat and watched it, EVERYTHING was sung! get right on your nerves after about 15 minutes.
Next, on the same day I have you, Patrick Stewart in almost a word-for-word version of Christmas Carol. this was well worth a watch -even when you expected him to say: "computer, pause hologram". Not that I am an expert on Dickens or even this story, but I did like the way it kept close to the feeling of the book. I know this because I downloaded the book to my new tablet FOC as a try out and started to read it.
Missed the Muppet's Christmas - although I did catch Alan Shearer on MOTD with more hair on his chin than his head along side ' that bloke who was an average footballer who danced a bit and has become a BBC favourite' name escapes me. Probably doesn't count!
Not long before the classic Alistair Sim version of the story ( Christmas Caroll not MOTD).
That one has all the atmosphere and great acting but the one I am looking forward to is the Bill Murray version, which, if you have ever worked in the media (Mirror group take note) the characters are all too familiar!
Anyway, enjoy the festivities and I will write a bit more in 2013 as I have a nice few 'things' coming up. as they say: WATCH THIS SPACE
