This year I have not done anything Charles Dickens related work for Christmas preferring instead to spend this year simply as a fan. It is only his Christmas books that I am interested in really so I don't claim to be an authority on the body of work. People overlook the other Christmas stories focusing instead on A Christmas Carol when in fact Dickens was something of a one man Victorian version of Morecambe and Wise. While on holiday last week we watched a version from 2000 set in the modern day (or the modern day back in 2000, there is one element to this film that dates it - people are smoking in the pub) starring Ross Kemp as a council estate loan shark called Eddie Scrooge. Updating the story somewhat, Marley had previously been shot and Scrooge knew why and who did it but kept it a secret because it wouldn't be good for business. Aside from the ghostly visits there was no real commitment to the original story but it worked for one simple reason, it is exactly the script that Dickens himself would have written had he lived these days. 

The themes touched upon by Charles Dickens in his work dealt with the social injustices of the time. His own father had ended up in a debtor's prison and he had to leave school to work in a rat infested blacking factory and a slight autobiographical thread ran through the writing. Victorian life was a time of a divide between the rich and poor with no middle class, the rich had it all and the poor had nothing. Street crime, gangs, vicious money lenders, low wages and dirty dangerous conditions, slum housing, alcoholism, drugs and homelessness were all prevalent then, as they are now. This is why the 2000 reworking was a master-stroke of writing. If Dickens was around today save for a few tweaks A Christmas Carol wouldn't be too far removed. Ebenezer Scrooge would have a high street shop offering payday loans that were friendly enough to begin with until you were strapped and had to miss a payment and Bob Cratchitt would be a baliff who came round and threatened you for it. He would be on minimum wage and live in a shitty part of the town where you daren't venture out after dark because there are still problems with street crime, drugs and everything else. The workhouse might not exist anymore but people are still forced to work in retail and turn up early to open up for the Boxing Day sale when they should be at home with their families. I'm sure Dickens would take some satisfaction in knowing that his work was still popular 145 years after his death, but he'd be disappointed that his passionate social commentary had changed nothing.

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