A Christmas Carol (BBC One / FX, 2019), with Guy Pearce
Steven Knight’s version for adults, with Guy Pearce as Scrooge.
Take the ghosts seriously and the redemption is harder to earn, which is the point.
You have seen the cosy versions and you want one written for adults, that unsettles you.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits and the three spirits.
Changes: the tone and the plot. It is a darker version written for an adult audience, with new history for Scrooge and the Cratchits, and Andy Serkis as Christmas Past.
Whose story is it?
Scrooge’s, and Mary Cratchit’s, whose part is much larger than in the book.
How much time does it ask?
Three episodes, first shown on BBC One in December 2019; FX in the US showed them together as one film.
Guy Pearce, Andy Serkis, Stephen Graham as Marley, Joe Alwyn. Written by Steven Knight.
Where to find it
Buy the episodes — Prime Video
Other ways to get it: Find where it’s streaming — JustWatch
More Christmas Carols: A Christmas Carol (MGM, 1938) · Scrooge (1951), with Alastair Sim · A Christmas Carol (1984), with George C. Scott