Original subtitles

When it comes to Christmas.

I wonder if I am a bit of a Scrooge.

Well, I don't wonder.

I am.

I never celebrate Christmas.

I think it's become far too expensive and horribly stressful.

I can't even get the hands around it. Oh,

but of course, I know people who absolutely adore it.

Well, you have gone to town, including my all time literary hero, Charles Dickens.

My whole life has been enriched by the work of this man.

And through a Christmas, Carol Dickens

helped create so many of our Christmas traditions.

Mrs. Cratchit entered,

flushed, but smiling proudly.

I'm going to immerse myself wow in a truly Dickensian Christmas

to see if I can discover its magic.

Even though I can't cook, I'm not sure I

can't decorate.

How could you? Sorry.

Oh, Duncan Dickens.

And I can't bear all this season of good cheer.

Nonsense. Again, again, again.

I'm going to get you

back to get to that sense.

See cruelty work.

But maybe, just maybe, my Mr.

Dickens can help me uncover why that special festive spirit.

I have always said Christmas.

Bah humbug.

Ooh. Let's see if he can mend my being.

Scrooge

and what irritates me

about Christmas is the hypocrisy.

There's such a compulsion to celebrate with hollow gestures.

People buying presents for people they don't like with money

they don't have.

It used to be about goodwill to all men, but now

we're more interested in Christmas jumpers and John Lewis adverts.

I just bake that.

Nobody ever gives me a candle.

Even though I grew up in a Jewish household.

We did have a Christmas of sorts.

My mother cooked a turkey and invited people to lunch,

but my father loathed the idea of a tree in the house.

He would

certainly have balked at where I'm headed now.

Thank you very much.

One of London's most famous festive emporiums,

which first opened its doors in 1707.

Well, this is the pudding section.

But Dickens was smitten,

describing it as beautiful and astonishing,

filled with the gourmand dicing pleasures of the whole world.

He's a man I admire,

but I wonder if he's right.

Hello, love. Welcome.

I'm Miriam. Lovely to meet you.

I'm Emma Hawkins, the Christmas buyer here For the Christmas buyer, Mrs.

Christmas says.

People say they're actually. Yeah.

What do you.

You've been buying, haven't you?

We have.

Okay, so now what's here?

So it's a slave

on the table.

They're really, really popular. Who buys them?

Somebody really wants

that kind of traditional piece in the home that they'll keep every single year.

How much is that home? £775.

Oh, quite a purchase.

It's.

I took my breath away. 775.

Of course, they don't have to be so expensive.

But still,

I hope nobody will buy anything for me.

Like it's.

Why would anyone want to buy up all these knickknacks

just to pack them away again in a couple of weeks?

Where's the fun in that?

These are beautiful Christmas crackers.

They are beautiful.

But can we Sterlings?

Well, yes. No, I'll do it.

I can't even you found it.

Oh, what have we got?

The Fortnum Mason waiter's friend.

So it's a bottle opener.

Oh, can I keep course

I present to this day the price.

No, I do do.

95. Nearly 300 quid latterly.

So is this one cost the same as that one.

Nice.

For that one.

Retails for 595

and I top top end presented in the wicker hamper.

And this is £1,000.

£1,000.

Yeah very very special.

I can't get my head around that.

Thank you for sharing that and thank you for this.

You can take the set.

No, I know when to stop.

Few would believe that, but I do.

Wonderful.

I don't know.

I feel a bit

conflicted about it all coming here because I know that Christmas

is for joy and fun and celebration,

but needn't be so expensive.

What about all those that just really don't

have that much?

To me,

it feels like we're constantly being pressured to spend more than we can afford

in a continual merry go round of excess.

It's an obscene selling extravaganza,

and I feel sure that Dickens was trying to show us something else.

I want to find out what

the spirit of Christmas really is,

because it certainly eluded me, but it hasn't eluded Dickens.

And I think this is a journey of knowledge and understanding to me.

Maybe at the end of it I'll know what Christmas really is about.

In 1843, he wrote one of the

most successful Christmas books ever, A Christmas Carol.

This little book was an instant hit.

Within weeks, it had been adapted for the stage and there have been hundreds

of versions since, including an opera and even The Muppet

Christmas Carol.

But more remarkably, it's helped revolutionize Christmas from a boozy,

bawdy Georgian feast into a celebration with family at its very hard.

So I'm going to be using it as my guide

to see if I can uncover Dickens true Christmas message.

Right.

Roll credits.

I'm going to watch Scrooge, which is the 1951

film, A Christmas Carol.

I'm greatly looking forward to this.

I haven't seen this film.

Oh, gosh, since I was a little girl.

Oh, my God.

It was as dead as a door.

Now, this must be distinctly understood.

Nothing wonderful can come of the story.

I am going to relate.

For me outstrips all the subsequent

Christmas carols that have stretched through the years.

You couldn't not see the quality of the work.

Looking.

That is Scrooge, the pent up rage, disappointment,

venom towards people.

You want the whole day of movies but is quite convenient, so convenient

and it's not there.

And it's a marvelous story of a businessman, rather

a menial businessman is visited by three spirits,

the greatest of Christmas cards,

and they take him back through his life

and he realizes he's

sacrificed everything in the name of money.

And the next morning, Andrew's elegant.

He has become a different man.

The magic of this story is a nasty person who is redeemed,

and it means that every single one of us

could do the same.

I think of myself as a very generous person,

but I know I'm not really,

and he makes me face that

and deal with it

rather like Scrooge.

I've shut Christmas out of my life, but to discover

the real meaning, I'm prepared to embrace it in all its shining glory

and I've decided to

throw a Christmas party for the first time in years.

Of course, food will be playing a crucial role and we've got Mr.

Dickens to thank for our most famous tradition.

Goose had always been the festive bird of choice,

but this changed forever when Scrooge sent his clerk, Bob Cratchit,

a turkey on Christmas morning.

Do you know whether they've sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there?

Not the little prize turkey.

The big one.

Well, the boat is bigger than me.

The Ted, the boy.

What a delightful boy, said Scrooge.

It's a pleasure to talk to you.

Yes, I. But.

Oh, off, isn't it?

Let's.

He conjures up such magic.

But if I'm going to have any chance of hosting a feast in the spirit

of Dickens, it's clear I'm going to need a lot of help.

Let's start with this.

So I've enlisted the support of food historian Dr.

Annie Gray.

She's by Maria Clutterbuck.

Oh, yes.

What a lot of people don't know

is that Dickens wife, Catherine was also a successful author

under the pseudonym of Lady Mariah Clutterbuck.

She wrote a popular cookbook, which we're going to use

to find out what a Dickens family feast would have looked like.

The good bit is actually the menus at the front here.

Scotch, mutton broth, cold pigeon.

I that's definitely whetted my appetite.

That's a really kind of Christmasy menu.

But I really want to get some more inspiration for my Christmas gathering.

Am I supposed to do anything?

Oh, well, I mean, I can.

I can.

I could shop and I could. Chris Excellent.

I'll go and get the central ingredient for the first dish in that case.

Okay.

Yum, yum.

What is that?

This is for one of the most quintessential

winter recipes for the bourgeois Victorian such as Charles Dickens.

And it is mock turtle soup.

Mock out of soup isn't based on a turtle.

It is based on

calf's head

limey.

Oh, it's revolting.

That veal was really prestigious in the Victorian period

because you were killing a cow before it reached maturity.

So obviously you've got a level of expense involved which was so screamingly

middle class Victorian that I don't think your Christmas dinner

really can happen without it.

Frankly.

Mock turtle soup might

well have been a Dickens family favorite, but if this is the best

Andy's got to offer, I might just cancel

my Christmas party.

This is just a signal to say, Wait, it

is a Victorian dinnigan?

Yes, exactly.

To decide what I might like to cook for my Christmas feast,

I'm making a Dickens family favorite

with food historian Dr.

Annie Gray.

This is a mock turtle soup,

and he's trying to win me round to the pleasures of a Victorian banquet.

But mock turtle soup made from calves head and tongue

doesn't appeal one bit.

We also have some meatballs.

Very much.

It's been simmering for 4 hours.

Thank you. That's enough.

So I'm intrigued to find out what it tastes like

right.

Will it earn a place on my Christmas table,

or is it better left in Mrs.

Dickens cookbook?

What do you think for Christmas Day starter?

I. I honestly don't think that

this is quite up to snuff.

No, I didn't. I'll tell you what. I will try

a meatball

just.

Just to show Willie.

I don't like.

Don't just.

Just do that.

Thank you for going to so much trouble.

You're very welcome, ma'am.

And he's not giving up so easily and has yet to play a trump card.

Her all time favorite Christmas dish.

You could be an elf.

Or possibly is be the queen bee.

The queen.

Tied up with stringy

Christmas pudding time. Wow.

Annie's Christmas pudding is based on a recipe

that would have been very familiar to Mrs.

Dickens.

Victorian recipes for Christmas pudding are much lighter

and much less over the top.

The modern ones, really.

Thank you very much.

Now you can make like Bob Cratchit,

especially with the wine sauce in it.

Plum pudding has become an integral part of our Christmas Day tradition.

Well, it tastes very nice.

Oh, a wonderful pudding.

Bob Cratchit said.

And so did Miriam McKinney's.

And calmly to that,

he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs.

Cratchit since their marriage.

But one decent Christmas pud amongst

a whole sea of mock turtle soup

isn't going to change my antipathy

to Christmas.

However, I do want to try and step

into the magical world that Dickens created.

He knew what the message of Christmas was, and so I'm going to his old house to see

if I can find out what he's been trying to tell me all these years.

Extraordinary things took place

in this room.

Charles Dickens wrote Oliver

Twist in this role.

And that gives me real goose bumps.

Makes me

it just thrills me more than I can tell you.

Because Oliver Twist was the very first Dickens book that I ever read.

I was 11,

and it just grabbed me by the throat.

And from that time, from my Oliver Twist

moment, I was hooked.

And so when I see this

slightly grubby old piece of furniture,

why does it make me cry?

Because my whole life

has been irradiated, delighted,

and enriched by the work of this man.

Dickens was just 25 when he and his wife Catherine, moved

into what he described as a frightfully first class mansion.

They'd only been married a year and would go on to have two daughters here.

I'm lucky enough

to be friends with his great, great, great granddaughter, Lucinda Hawksley.

Miriam, we're going into the drawing room and I've got something really,

really special to show you in here.

Who knows all about her

distinguished relative.

So you were a great big fan of Dickens?

I am. But you don't like Christmas.

That is so.

And yet this book probably is most famous book.

This is not a first edition.

Yeah.

Crikey,

that is exciting. Wow.

This nearly bankrupted him because the publishers.

But it was uncommercial for Archbishop at Christmas,

and so he partially self-published a Christmas Carol,

having to pay for things like the illustrations

and of course, the illustrations are brilliant.

You know, when you see that physically born,

I mean, your your heart dances along with them.

Scrooge was an apprentice when he was working for Mr.

Physique, who every Christmas threw a party

for all his employees.

Would you have liked to have gone to 50 weeks?

Well, I mean, we can see. Oh, yes.

I'm just not completely

relaxed about being identified

as a Christmas freak.

I don't think will ever turn you into a Christmas freak.

I mean, this is the dining room.

Oh, yes.

Dickens loved all the drama of Christmas,

and it's exciting to think that this is where he would have carved his turkey.

But Lucinda's got a unique insight she wants to share with me.

When Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, of course, he was frustrated

by how Christmas had become all about feasting, the smart dresses, the parties.

So even in those days, Christmas

had lost the original message?

Absolutely.

That's why Christmas Carol

was really believed to have kind of brought about a renaissance in Christmas,

because it was set at Christmas and become too commercial.

And this was in the 1830 and early 1850s.

Just what people say today.

And yet when we look back at that time, actually

the volume of presents and things was nothing like people would get today.

Fortunately for us,

Lucinda's brought a memoir of Dickens written by his daughter

Mamie

in our childish days.

My father used to take us every 24th day of December

to a toy shop in Hoban,

where we were allowed to select our Christmas presents.

Although I believe we were offered an hour or more in the shop,

he never showed the least impatience.

In fact, maybe talks in this book about the one president

that they got when the boys came home for the holidays.

They were constant rehearsals for the Christmas and New Year's parties.

How nice.

It is really lovely.

I love the idea of rehearsals for a party.

It was a big party.

I don't necessarily mean a big party in terms of lots of people,

but something that the family really made a great deal of.

But there had to be a piano because for Dickens,

it wasn't a party without music, without the singsong.

I'm on the hunt

for some old fashioned fun for my party,

computer games and gadgets will be banned.

I want to know more about home entertainment, Victorian style.

But what I am looking forward to

is going to see something

very much like what Dickens himself

would have seen, bought and enjoyed

at Christmas

Pollack's Toy Theater.

Now you talk.

I can't stand the way that we're all glued to our screens at Christmas.

Hello? Hello.

But don't look away from yours just yet,

because I've come to meet Jack, the owner of the shop,

to see if Victorian toy theaters still hold any of their old magic.

It's amazing, Jack.

Still making these beautiful toy theaters with the original copper plates

that the very first Mr.

Pollack would have used in Dickens Day.

So we've got here this plate.

This is the title page for Oliver Twist.

This dates from about 1850.

And you've got a little model figures that you would

then cut down and mount them onto sticks.

Oh, I see. Then do your performance.

It's the equivalent of Harry Potter model of Dumbledore.

Yeah, exactly.

And Dickens definitely played with one and had one.

They're a huge part of London life.

All the hit plays were reproduced as toy theaters.

That's going to go over the top.

So this was like buying a DVD.

But in Victorian times you can reveal the Oliver

Twist one.

Oh, how gorgeous.

Well, I think it's time

to breathe some life into these miniature theaters.

Hi there. Hi.

So we're going to act out a classic Victorian melodrama.

Mary, the maid of the in.

Got to show you a few scenes that you're going to be able to join in.

With the help of Philip, a theater

impresario on the set, the waves go.

I want to see if I can coax these children to imagine another world

who would like to be the smuggler

as they're performing their parts.

The storm

raging in Rio Brierley.

The fact is against the rocks.

You're terrified out of your life.

You're going to drown. It with a bit of feeling

is quite spatters against the rock.

That's it.

I think Mary rushes across the stage shouting.

No one helped to save an innocent man.

I'm not getting any emotion.

No. Begging someone to save him.

Do it.

Well, no one helped save an innocent man.

Yes, that's emotion.

That's what we want.

And then finally, Richard sends us the cook.

Let this night not be forgotten.

When I.

Richard, a poor excuse for a man was rescued by Mary.

True brave Mary.

Did anybody enjoy it?

Yeah, you did.

Well, I think that might just be a victory for imagination

over screens and technology

and it's a genuine re-experiencing of what

Dickens himself would have played with.

Saw encouraged his children to use.

I want that spirit of fun and entertainment

to be at my Christmas party.

Oh. Oh.

This year, I'm having

my very first festive party in a long time,

but I'm shunning the excessive Christmas and looking to my hero,

Charles Dickens, to see how he would have celebrated the occasion.

He loved, Happy, Happy Christmas.

The Cannes winners back to the delusions of our childish days

that can recall to the old man

the pleasures of his youth.

I'd love to know how the Dickens family

would have decorated for their famous parties.

But making decorations is certainly not my forte,

and this

will be the first time I've ever tried.

I am totally outside my comfort zone and I'm cack handed.

So Victorian crafts expert Ruth Goodman is here.

Hello, Ruth.

To show me how it's done.

How good your sewing.

Oh, don't be ridiculous.

You have some glue.

Yeah, well, show me how I glue it, which is sticking them to cover the paper.

I can see I'm going to make a dog's dinner of this, but I will try.

I will try.

Christmas decorations can be traced as far back as the Romans.

But crafting didn't take off here until after the 1850s.

Ivy is the Victorian Leaf.

Instead, British festivities had a slightly different custom.

I mean, there is an old tradition that was before Victorian,

and that's about eating lots,

drinking lots and hanging out with your mates,

which they traditionally done for centuries.

I don't know if you've ever seen the earliest Christmas card.

It's got a lovely image and all it is is loads of people drinking.

Well, some

things never change then.

The first mass produced Christmas card was published in 1843,

and it wasn't long before they'd become a popular part of our festive season.

But if you look at the sort of Victorian explosion

of interest in Christmas, it grows exponentially.

Well, they were great inventors, great inventors.

One year after the invention of the electric light bulb,

there are fairy lights

as quick as that.

The very first fairy lights were on, a fairy on stage at the Savoy.

Oh, that's why they're called fairy lights.

And then you could buy them for your house or for your tree.

Within months, virtually, of that first outing of the fairy life.

So it's really the Victorians we have to thank for so many

of our favorite traditions, such as crackers,

cards and Christmas trees.

Oh, that looks beautiful.

The sewing is better because it holds.

I can see that it holds.

No need to be nice.

Now, would you

say that this is pretty darn good?

Look at it.

I never thought I'd

enjoy becoming Miriam Margolyes crafts woman.

My goodness.

So maybe there's a chance Dickens is changing me

from being a bah humbug Christmas cynic.

I think it looks fecund and festive.

Yeah, that's a lovely word.

It is a second.

Nice.

But before I get carried

away, Dickens descendent, Lucinda, has unearthed

something she thinks is pivotal to my understanding of a Christmas Carol.

I'm going to show you now, Miriam, something really special

that I don't think you've actually seen before.

This is what is known as the lost Portrait.

What Dickens looked like at the exact time

he was writing A Christmas Carol.

He looks incredibly

feminine.

He does look like. Yes.

But look at those eyes.

It was exhibited in London in 1844,

and then it wasn't seen for nearly 175 years.

Right. I remember reading about this.

And where was it?

Well, it was discovered in 2018,

in South Africa, in a box of junk.

And we still don't know how it got there.

Who who painted that?

This was painted by a remarkable woman, a Scottish woman

called Margaret Gillies.

Gillies wasn't only a portrait painter.

She illustrated a damning royal commission

reporting on child labor.

It laid bare the truth about children working in mines and factories

of Victorian Britain, the most common age for boys to be taken to Labor

in the coal mines of this district is at seven, eight or nine.

But in the mountain mines or smaller collieries,

they will go as early as six, five or even four years of age.

Some are so young, they go in their bed gowns.

Margaret Gillies told

Dickens about this when she was painting his portrait,

which inspired him to write A Christmas Carol.

And reading the report had really broken his heart.

He, of course,

had been a poor child himself, and Dickens never, ever forgotten.

Never.

What it was like to live in poverty.

That's his great strength.

Dickens was only 12 years old when he was forced to work in a blacking factory.

He never forgot this painful experience,

and he wanted a Christmas Carol to be a warning about greed and avarice,

which he delivered with all the might of his pen

through the character of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to come.

No doubt.

Yeah, exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and the girl

yellow need the ragged, scowling,

wolfish Scrooge started back appalled.

Having them show to him in this way.

He tried to say they were fine children,

but the words choked themselves

rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

This boy is ignorant.

This girl is one.

Don't you shiver

when you read that?

I do.

Dickens wanted Christmas

to be about more than feasting and merriment.

He couldn't enjoy himself if he knew there were children outside

who were starving and cold.

This might explain why what was called

the Hospital for Sick Children was so close to his aunt.

Oh, my.

It's quite an unexpected chap, isn't it?

I've come to meet Jim Linthicum, the chaplain, to find out

what Dickens involvement was with Great Ormond Street.

What a beautiful

church. Chapel.

Church chapel.

Quite glorious.

Dickens was a passionate champion of the hospital, supporting it

from the moment it was founded in 1852.

Tell me what Charles Dickens

actually did to help a hospital.

He did a lot publicizing it to raise the profile of this place.

He wrote a wonderful

article called Drooping Birds

of this Great City of London,

which until a few weeks ago contained no hospital.

Where in to treat and study the diseases of children.

More than a third of the whole population

perishes in infancy and childhood.

24 in 100 die

during the first two years of life.

I love the way he's so specific.

Spins you down.

You can't get away from this.

Listen to these figures.

He just makes it sound like we can do something about it.

Did he raise money for it?

Did he?

Yes. What did he do?

Back then, we had no NHS.

So in order to actually get

professional medical staff in, you had to raise the charitable funds.

And he was sort of the rolling Stones of his day.

And if you can imagine the Rolling Stones doing a benefit for one institution,

he did a dramatic reading of A Christmas Carol and was a huge fundraiser

for the hospital, and it almost enabled it to double in size.

That's an achievement. Yes.

He took it to a whole new level

through his public readings.

He raised over £3,000, nearly half a million in today's money,

enabling the hospital to expand dramatically and buy the building

next door at number 48, Great Ormond Street.

What a wonderful legacy.

But what I really admire is that he never stopped

supporting the hospital throughout his life,

as I've traveled alongside Charles Dickens.

He's opened my eyes to what Christmas should really be about.

It's more than fun and festivities and

he insists that the less fortunate also deserve our compassion.

I'm so moved by this I now know

exactly how to host my party.

People feel special about Christmas.

And maybe this year.

So do I.

Oh, my first guest

has a laugh.

I'm looking forward to the friends and the food.

And that's for me, what a celebration is all about.

I'm determined to channel my inner dickens

and not be a bah humbug host.

I've invited three of Dickens

relatives, Marian and Gerald.

Is somebody coming?

Yeah. Oh, hello.

And, of course, my good friend Lucinda.

Come on in.

And joining my festive feast luncheon the next year.

Welcome back.

So you gave

crucially drinks.

Historian Jared is in charge of the booze.

Jared,

This is the moment when you water

everybody down or gin them up.

I want every aspect of my party to be authentically Dickensian,

drawing inspiration from his brilliant Christmas Carol.

We'll start with the punch that Bob Cratchit served his family,

which was normally called Gin Twist.

So we're going to add some gin.

Luckily, gin is my favorite tipple, so we're off to a very good start.

And then this is simple sirup,

lemon juice,

and we just drop in a twist.

Then we just need a bit of fruit

before central heating.

Drinking hot punch was a great way to keep warm

and Jared is making it the Victorian way.

When are we going to be able to drink?

Have you got a red hot vodka?

Sounds brewed.

Ask a mountain that not the microwaves back then to get a drink.

Hot and cold

and ridiculous.

You like doing this? You

is great.

Happy Christmas, Carol.

Yeah.

Oh, I like that genre. The classic. Here.

Thanks, Blazing.

Enjoy.

Really?

Yeah.

Well, it's going well at the moment, but it could all go horribly wrong.

My gosh.

I know Dickens much enjoyed a supposedly fun parlor game on DAX.

So we're having a go at a Victorian version of Jenga bullet pudding.

Here we go. Nice little easy was.

The aim of the game is to slice away the flower.

Oh, my gosh. All so great.

And whoever topples the grape has to pick it up with just their mouth.

Oh, this is what I

call antisemitism.

Oh. Oh, oh, I

heard behind you.

Now I'm going to get the credit for.

Ow, ow, ow, ow,

ow, ow! Wow.

Very good. Welcome.

You are a monster.

Well, my guests all seem to be enjoying themselves,

and we're nearly ready to tuck into my Victorian feast.

Well, everybody, I am completely intoxicated now from this wonderful.

A gin twist.

But the point of it is to welcome you all to my Christmas dinner.

Thanks to Mr.

Dickens, we're having Christmas together.

Unsurprisingly, mock turtle

soup doesn't feature in my Christmas menu,

and I have to admit to a bit of cheating

when it comes to the cookie.

I know this is going to be good because it hasn't been cooked by me.

This has been cooked by the wonderful, amazing Leona

who loves the roof

tiles, everybody.

Now I know I've got help and we're not eating turkey,

but there's a reason why I think Dickens would approve.

There's one very special thing about all this food.

It's been done by an amazing charity called

the Felix Project, and I would like Leon to tell you about it.

So all the food you have today is made out of surplus food.

So food which would normally go to landfill.

We didn't buy one single ingredient for this lunch.

Amazing.

It's incredible that we raised all this food and, you know, 400,000

children in London every day don't have the proper meal.

As well as cooking three and a half thousand meals a day for Londoners

who would otherwise go hungry, Leon provides a catering service

and using it has allowed me to help fund his charity a very tiny way.

Yeah, we're going to enjoy it.

We are hungry.

I'm absolutely starving.

Dickens

believed Christmas should include fun.

Mr. Dickens. God bless.

But crucially, also involves caring for others.

I hope I remain true to his message.

I love you so.

At the beginning, I was rather dreading the idea of a party

solution. Yeah.

Will not approve, but it's turned out to be

a Dickensian triumph.

When I was little,

we did have a Christmas celebration.

But it was Mummy inviting all the lonely people

who were always very boring.

So it wasn't very interesting having me.

But they were something.

Lame ducks, you know.

However, I have to say,

I have loved today.

I've really enjoyed all your companies.

And the gin twist.

I like that.

I think Dickens might have had the right idea all along.

Merry Christmas, Bob,

said Scrooge, as he locked him on the back.

A merry Christmas, Bob.

My good fellow that I've given you so many a year,

I raise your salary and endeavor to assist your struggling family,

but make up the fires

and buy another coal scuttle there for you.

Daft another I, Bob Cratchit.

So that

just leaves one last Christmas tradition

but never fails to raise your spirits.

One Give it to me by the very title of the book

I Live A Christmas Carol

and Nothing is My Way.

But I

was born on Christmas.

This tired old Christmas fairy has had a lovely time.

Oh, much nicer

than I actually expected.

I've always been a bit anti Christmas because I felt that it was insincere.

But I'm not sure I'm

right about that from God,

because the real Christmas message,

which is the one that Dickens

wrote about in A Christmas Carol, it's

a message of hope and redemption.

And above all, be kind to

happy Christmas to all tidings of concerns.

I enjoy conversation, joy.

Otherwise it's all gone.

And you can get more of Miriam as she explores

some Dickensian swear words with our pal Susie Dent on Channel Fours

YouTube and Susie's here Friday and the ten souls everywhere

in a brand new each over ten cats does Countdown Christmas special from nine

next to one that's not so new.