1267: Saturday Matinee: Charles Dickens Ghost Stories

Summary

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History Daily Episode 1267: Saturday Matinee – Charles Dickens Ghost Stories

Date: December 13, 2025
Host: Lindsay Graham for History Daily
Special Feature: First episode of Noiser's "Charles Dickens Ghost Stories" narrated by David Suchet – "A Christmas Carol, Part 1"

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Episode Overview

This episode of History Daily departs from its usual “on this day in history” format to offer a special Saturday Matinee. The spotlight is on the enduring holiday classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens—presented as the first installment in the Noiser podcast series “Charles Dickens Ghost Stories,” performed by acclaimed narrator David Suchet.

The main theme explores how Dickens interwove ghost stories with Christmas celebrations, and why A Christmas Carol stands as one of the world’s great and surprisingly spectral holiday tales.

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Key Discussion Points and Dramatic Highlights

Dickens’ Christmas: Not Just Cheer, But Chills

• [01:08] Host Lindsay Graham opens by noting that A Christmas Carol is both a Christmas tradition and “one of the most famous ghost stories of all time” – a fact often overlooked.
• [01:27] David Suchet emphasizes: “It is, though. There are lots of ghosts. At least four of them, in fact.”

Scene Setting: Victorian London, 1843

• [05:48] David Suchet transports listeners to Boxing Day 1843 at Dickens’ home, describing a lively party with new holiday traditions (Christmas cards, trees) and Dickens’ charisma as both writer and entertainer.
• Dickens, reflecting on his just-released novella, ponders: “Will these new things last? Time will show that Christmas cards and Christmas trees are here to stay. As is the new book that Dickens himself has just published. It’s a ghost story, but with this message of redemption and hope, it’s also a ghostly reflection of the human soul.” ([07:09])

The Abridged "Christmas Carol" – Dickens’ Own Version

• Suchet notes he is performing Dickens’s own abridged version, which the author brought to the stage “to rave reviews” in Britain and America. Suchet refers to it as “the original and best Christmas ghost story, as the author loved to tell it.” ([08:20])

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Dramatic Reading Highlights: "A Christmas Carol, Part 1"

The Opening: Marley’s Death and Scrooge Introduced

• [11:19] The infamous opening:
  • “Marley was dead to begin with. There’s no doubt whatever about that.”
  • Scrooge described as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.” ([11:21])
• Dickens humor and tone zing through: “Old Molly was as dead as a doornail… Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge’s name was a good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to.”

Scrooge’s Nephew Advocates for Christmas

• [14:31-18:21] Scrooge’s nephew argues for the spirit of Christmas:
  • Nephew: “…Christmas time… a good, kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time… when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely…” ([15:37])
  • Scrooge’s classic retort: “If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding…” ([14:54])
  • Nephew leaves in sadness: “But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So a Merry Christmas, Uncle.” ([18:12])

The Charity Collectors

• [18:21-20:37]
  • Charity collector: “Many thousands are in want of common necessaries…”
  • Scrooge’s chilling reply: “Are there no prisons?... I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.”
  • When told many would "rather die": “If they would rather die, they better do it and decrease the surplus population.” ([20:37])

Evening: Scrooge’s Haunted House

• [24:25-31:07]
  • Scrooge retires to his solitary home, sees Marley’s face in the door knocker.
  • Sinister atmosphere: “It was not angry or ferocious, but it looked as Scrooge as Marley used to look, with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly forehead…” ([25:19])
  • The house fills with supernatural clangor: “A clanking noise deep down below… some person were dragging a heavy chain…”

First Ghostly Encounter: Marley’s Warning

• [31:07-37:23]
  • Marley’s spirit materializes: “Marley’s ghost. The same face, the very same. Marley, in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots. His body was transparent…” ([31:07])
  • Eerie humor: Scrooge, still skeptical, says Marley might be “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you…” ([33:03])
  • Marley’s regret: “Mankind was my business… The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business…” ([36:09])
  • Marley’s prophecy: “You will be haunted by three spirits.” ([37:10])

The Ghost of Christmas Past

• [42:57-45:19]
  • Arrival of “a strange figure. Like a child, yet not so like a child as like an old man… its hair white as if with age, but its face without a wrinkle.”
  • “I am the Ghost of Christmas Past… your past. The things you will see with me are shadows of the things that have been.” ([44:52])

Visiting Scrooge’s Memories

• [46:23-47:08]
  • Scenes from Scrooge’s apprenticeship at Fezziwig’s joyous Christmas party.
  • “Ay, it’s old Fezziwig. Oh, bless his heart, it’s Fezziwig alive again.” ([47:08])
  • The warmth and happiness under Fezziwig’s roof stand in contrast to Scrooge’s own parsimony as an employer.
  • Scrooge’s realization: “…he has the power to render us happy or unhappy, to make our service light or burdensome… The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” ([54:11])

Romance Lost: A Former Fiancée

• [55:14-57:17]
  • Young Scrooge, once engaged, is released by his beloved.
  • Fiancée: “Another idol has displaced me… a golden one. Oh, you fear the world too much… The master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.”
  • Scrooge pleads: “Remove me from this place. I cannot bear it… Haunt me no longer.” ([57:17-57:39])

End of Part 1

• Scrooge, overwhelmed by memories and the ghost’s revelations, collapses into a heavy sleep, setting the stage for visits from more spirits in the next episode.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Christmas as a ghost story:
  • Host: “A Christmas Carol might be one of the most famous ghost stories of all time, but we don’t really think of it as a ghost story, do we?” ([01:08])
• On charity and responsibility:
  • Marley: “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business.” ([36:09])
• On empathy and kindness (Scrooge’s nephew):
  • “The only time… when men and women… open their shut up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow travellers to the grave…” ([15:37])
• Dickensian humor (Scrooge):
  • “If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” ([14:54])
• Scrooge’s late realization (Fezziwig memory):
  • “He has the power to render us happy or unhappy… The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” ([54:11])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:08] – Framing A Christmas Carol as a ghost story
• [05:48] – Immersive 1843 Boxing Day introduction
• [11:19] – Scrooge’s characterization and first encounter with nephew
• [18:21] – Charity collectors and Scrooge’s infamy
• [24:25] – Evening at Scrooge’s home, Marley’s spectral visitation
• [31:07] – Marley’s ghost and his warning
• [42:57] – First visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past
• [47:08] – Fezziwig’s Christmas party and Scrooge’s reflection
• [55:14] – Scene of lost love
• [57:43] – Scrooge succumbs to exhaustion, ending Part 1

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Tone and Language

The episode is imbued with Dickens’ characteristic wit, vivid description, and emotional resonance, expertly voiced by David Suchet. The language fluctuates between somber (Marley’s regret, Scrooge’s bitterness) and jovial (Fezziwig’s party, the nephew’s cheer), maintaining both the original’s Victorian cadence and a dramatic, engaging delivery.

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Conclusion

This Saturday Matinee episode of History Daily offers a beautifully narrated, abridged version of A Christmas Carol, inviting listeners to experience the chilling and redemptive power of Dickens's storytelling as holiday ghost story and timeless moral fable. The episode sets the stage for Scrooge’s full transformation, to be continued in the next part of the Noiser series “Charles Dickens Ghost Stories.”

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Transcript

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[Podcast Host]

Did you know that one of the world's most significant, most enduring, most revered ghost stories of all time has nothing to do with Halloween and everything to do with Christmas? That's right, Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol might be one of the most famous ghost stories of all time, but we don't really think of it as a ghost story, do we?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

It is, though.

[Podcast Host]

There are lots of ghosts. At least four of them, in fact. The Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Ghost of Christmas yet to Come, and the spirit of Jacob Marley, the former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. Poor old Scrooge gets the fright of his life in this classic tale. And on today's Saturday matinee, we're bringing you the first episode of a brand new telling of A Christmas Carol from the excellent Noiser podcast, Charles Dickens Ghost Stories. I hope you enjoy. While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Charles Dickens ghost Stories. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

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[Narrator (David Suchet)]

It's Boxing Day 1843 and at an elegant townhouse in London, a party is in full swing. Smartly dressed Victorian revellers nibble on mince pies. That's pies containing genuine minced meat as well as candied orange peel and spices. They chink glasses of hot negus and smoking bishop, elaborate mulled wine variants made from sweet strong port. At one end of the cozy candle lit living room, a group of children sit cross legged on the floor, utterly entranced by what they're seeing. A charismatic magician is working through a well rehearsed routine, pulling coins from behind their ears, baking a plum pudding out of raw eggs and flour in his top hat, even magicking a live guinea pig out of thin air before letting it scurry across the floor. This magician is the host of the party this evening and it's not the first time that he's transfixed an audience, though usually it's through another kind of magic entirely. At 31 years old, he is, after all, the most successful writer of the era. His name is Charles Dickens. Show over. Dickens puts down his magician's props. He picks up a glass of smoking bishop and settles into an armchair. He looks around the room, surveying his guests. Apparently there's a new way of sending festive greetings this year in the form of Christmas cards. How novel. He takes in the men in frock coats gathered around the tall pine tree in the corner, decorated with candles. These festive furs are another relatively recent development inspired by Queen Victoria's German husband Albert Dickens smiles to himself. Will these new things last? He wonders. Time will show that Christmas cards and Christmas trees are here to stay. As is the new book that Dickens himself has just published. His gaze is drawn to a copy lying on the mantelpiece. It's a ghost story, but with this message of redemption and hope, it's also a ghostly reflection of the human soul. It sold out its first print run 2 days ago, less than a week after it was released. It's called A Christmas Carol. It'll go on to become a festive tradition all of its own, as successive generations gather close to listen in the flickering candlelight. And it's the first in a selection of remarkable ghost stories written by Dickens that I'll be reading to you in the coming weeks. I'm David Suchet and from the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Charles Dickens Ghost Stories. The version of A Christmas Carol that I'll be reading today isn't quite the same as the one Dickens wrote in the winter of 1843. It's a version that he personally abridged and performed on stage to rave reviews. And so wildly successful were his live performances in Britain and America that this almost became the true Christmas Carol as Dickens saw it. The original and best Christmas ghost story, as the author loved to tell it. So let's begin. This Is A Christmas Carol, Part 1. Marley was dead to begin with. There's no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it and Scrooge's name was a good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Molly was as dead as a doornail. Scrooge knew he was dead, of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however, there it yet stood, years afterwards above the warehouse door. Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes Marley. He answered to both names. I was all the same to him.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Oh, but he was.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

A tight fisted hand at the grindstone was Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth could warm, no cold could chill him, no wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often came down handsomely and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say with gladsome looks, my dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me? No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle. No children asked him what it was, a clock. No man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts and then would wag their tails as though they said, oh, no eye at all is better than an evil ey, dark master. But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance was what the knowing ones call nuts to Scrooge. Once upon a time, of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas Eve, old Scrooge sat busy in his counting house. It was cold, bleak, biting, foggy weather, and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already. The door of Scrooge's counting house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room. And so, surely, as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter and tried to warm himself at the candle, in which effort, not being a man of strong imagination, he failed. A merry Christmas, Uncle.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

God save you.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. Said Scrooge, Humbug, Christmas. A humbug, uncle, you don't mean that. I'm sure I do.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Out upon merry Christmas. What's Christmas time to you but a time of paying bills without money? A time for finding yourself a year older and not an hour richer? A time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round dozen months presented dead against you. If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a steak of holly through his heart. He shout, uncle Deaf, you keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mind.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Keep it, but you don't keep it.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you. Much good as it ever.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Well, there are many things from which I might have derived good by which I am not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time when it has come round. Apart from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belong to it could be apart from that as a good time. A kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time. The only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow travellers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it's never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me good. And I say, God bless it. The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Gah. Let me hear another sound from you, said Scrooge, and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation. You're quite a powerful speaker, sir, he.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Added, turning to his nephew, I wonder.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

You don't go into Parliament.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Oh, don't be angry, Uncle. Come, dine with us tomorrow. Scrooge said that he would see him. Yes, indeed he did. He went the whole length of the expression and said that he would see him in that extremity first.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

But why?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Cried Scrooge's nephew. Why?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Why did you get married?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Because I fell in love.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Because you fell in love, growled Scrooge.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

As if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a Merry Christmas.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Good afternoon.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Nay, Uncle. But you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it a reason for not coming now.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Good afternoon.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

But look, I want nothing from you. I ask nothing of you. Why cannot we be friends?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Good afternoon.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

I'm sorry with all my heart to find you so resolute. We've never had Any quarrel to which I've been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So, a Merry Christmas, Uncle.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Good afternoon.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

And a happy New Year.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Good afternoon.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

His nephew left the room without an angry word. Notwithstanding, the clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood with their hats off in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their hands and bowed to him. Scrooge and Marleys, I believe, said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago this very night.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Oh, well, at this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, said the gentleman, taking up a pen, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly at this present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries. Hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts. Sir.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Are there no prisons?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Plenty of prisons. But under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the unoffending multitude. A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time because it is a time of all others when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Nothing.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Ah, you wish to be anonymous.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the prisons and the workhouses. They cost enough, and those who are badly off must go there.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Well, many can't go there there and many would rather die.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

If they would rather die, they better do it and decrease the surplus population.

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A lot of the nutrients just aren't there anymore.

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[Narrator (David Suchet)]

I was truly amazed how fast it worked.

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One of the most noticeable things is.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Her coat doesn't have the itching. It doesn't shed as much. It wasn't even two weeks that I saw a drastic improvement.

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[Narrator (David Suchet)]

At length, the hour of shutting up the counting house arrived with an ill will. Scrooge, dismounting from his stool, tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

If quite convenient, sir.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

It's not convenient and it's not fair. If I was to stop half a crowd for it. You think yourself mightily ill used, I'll be bound.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Oh, yes, sir.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

And yet you don't think me ill used when I pay a day's wages for no work?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Well, it's only once a year, sir.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December. Yeah, but I suppose you must have the whole day, be here all the earlier. Next morning.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

The clerk promised that he would, and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comfort dangling below his waist, for he boasted, no great coat, went down a sly at the end of a lane of boys 20 times in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home as hard as he could pelt to play at blind man's buff. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern, and, having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms in a lowering pile of buildings up a yard. The building was old enough now and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices. Now it is A fact that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door of this house, except that it was very large. Also that Scrooge had seen it night and morning during his whole residence in that place. Also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London. And yet Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face. Marley's face, with a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but it looked as Scrooge as Marley used to look, with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly forehead. As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again he said, pooh, poof, and closed the door with a bang. The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above and every cask in the wine merchant's cellar below appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door and walked across the hall and up the stairs slowly, too, trimming his candle as he went. Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for its being very dark, while darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that. Sitting room, bedroom, lumber room, all as they should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa, a small fire in the grate, spoon and basin ready, and the little saucepan of gruel, while Scrooge had a cold in his head upon the hob. Nobody under the bed, nobody in the closet, nobody in his dressing gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Lumber room, as usual, old fire guard, old shoes, two fish baskets, washing stand on three legs and a poker. Quite satisfied, he closed his door and locked himself in. I double locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off his cravat, put on his dressing gown and slippers and his nightcap, and sat down before the very low fire to take his gruel. As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell that hung in the room and communicated, for some purpose not forgotten, with a chamber in the highest story of the building. It was with great astonishment and with a strange inexplicable dread that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. Soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. This was succeeded by a clanking noise deep down below, as if some. Some person were dragging a heavy chain over casks in the wine merchant's cellar. Then he heard the noise, much louder on the floors below, then coming up the stairs, then coming straight towards his door. It came on through the heavy door and a small spectre passed into the room before his eyes. And upon its coming in, the dying flame leapt up as though it cried, I know you.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Marley's ghost.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

The same face, the very same Marley. In his pigtail usual waistcoat, tights and boots. His body was transparent, so that Scrooge, observing him and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he'd never believed it until now. No, nor did he believe it even now, though he looked the phantom through and through and saw it standing before him. Though he felt the chilling influence of its death cold eyes and noticed the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, he was still incredulous. How dull, said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

What do you want with me?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Much. Marley's voice, no doubt about it.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Who are you?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Ask me who I was.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Well, who were you then?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

In life, I was your partner. Jacob Marley.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Can you. Can you sit down?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

I can.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Do it.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Then Scrooge asked the question because he didn't know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in the condition to take a chair, and felt that in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace as if he were quite used to it. You don't believe in me.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

I don't.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

I don't know.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Well, why do you doubt your senses?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish. Then the truth is that he tried to be smart as a means of distracting his own attention. And keeping down his horror. But how much greater was his horror when the phantom, taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Mercy, dreadful apparition. Why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men and travel far and wide. And if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. I cannot tell you all I would. A very little more is permitted to me. I cannot rest. I cannot stay. I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting house. Mark me. In life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money changing hole. And weary journeys lie before me.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Seven years dead and traveling all the time.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

You travel fast on the wings of the wind.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Well, you might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Oh, blind man. Blind man. Not to know that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible. Is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit, working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life. Life's opportunities misused. Yet I was like this man. I once was like this man.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

But you were always a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge, who now.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Began to apply this to himself. Business. Cried the ghost wringing its hands again. Mankind was my business.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Business.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business. Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate and began to quake exceedingly. Hear me. My time is nearly gone.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

I, I, I will, but. But don't be hard upon me. Don't be flowery, Jacob. Pray.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

I'm here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

But you were always a good friend to me. Thanky.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

You will be haunted by three spirits.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Is that the chance and hope you mention, Jacob? But I think I'd rather not.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Without their visits. You cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first tomorrow night when the bell tolls 1. Expect the second on the next night, at the same hour, the third upon the next night, when the last stroke of 12 has ceased to vibrate, look to see me no more, and look that for your own sake you remember what has passed between us. It walked backward from him, and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the apparition reached was wide open, the spectre floated out upon the bleak dark night. Scrooge closed the window and examined the door by which the ghost had entered. It was double locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge tried to say humbug, but stopped at the first syllable, and being from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpses of the invisible world, or the dull conversation of the ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose, he went straight to bed without undressing, and fell asleep on the instant.

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[Narrator (David Suchet)]

When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark that looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber. Until suddenly the church clock told the deep, dull, hollow melancholy.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

One.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn aside by a strange figure. Like a child, yet not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age, and yet the face had not, not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand, and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright, clear jet of light by which all this was visible, and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold? Me, I am. Who and what are you?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

I am, Will.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

The Ghost of Christmas Past. Long past. No, your past. The things that you will see with me are shadows of the things that have been.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

They will have no consciousness of us. Scrooge then made bold to inquire what business brought him here.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Your welfare. Rise and walk with me.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes, that bed was warm and the thermometer a long way below freezing, that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing gown and nightcap, and that he had a cold upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not to be resisted. He rose, but finding that the spirit made toward the window clasped its robe in supplication.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

I'm a mortal and liable to fall. Bear but a touch of my hand.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

There, said the spirit, laying it upon.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Its heart, and you shall be upheld in more than this.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall. And stood in the busy thoroughfares of a city. It was made plain enough by the dressing of the shop that here, too, it was Christmas time. The ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door and asked Scrooge if he knew.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

It know it was I apprenticed here.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

They went in at sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig sitting behind such a high desk that if he had been two inches taller, he must have knocked his head against the ceiling. Scrooge cried in great excitement.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Ay, it's old Fezziwig. Oh, bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive again.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Old Fezziwig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands, adjusted his capacious waistcoat, laughed all over himself. From his shoes to his organ of benevolence and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice, yo ho there, Ebenezer Dick. A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former self. A young man came briskly in, accompanied by his fellow prentice, Dick Wilkins, to be sure, said Scrooge to the ghost.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

My old fellow prentice. Bless me. Yes, there he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Oh, poor Dick. Dear, dear.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Yo ho, my boys, said Fezziwig. No more work tonight. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer, let's have the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson. Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here. Clear away. There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away or couldn't have cleared away with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every moveable was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore. The floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire, and the warehouse was as snug and warm and dry and bright a ballroom as you would desire to see upon a winter's night. In came a fiddler with a music book and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like 50 stomach aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast, substantial smile. In came the three Ms. Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid with her cousin the baker. In came the cook with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In they all came, one after another, some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling. In they all came anyhow, and everyhow. Away they all went, 20 couples at once, hands half round and back again the other way, down the middle and up again, round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping. Old top couple always turning up in the wrong place. New top couple starting off again as soon as they got there.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

All top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

And when this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, well done. And the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter especially provided for that purpose. There were more dances and there were forfeits and more dances, and there was cake and there was negus, and there was a great piece of cold roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled and There were mince pies and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled when the fiddler struck up Sir Roger de Coverley. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them. 3 or 4. And 20 pair of partners, people who were not to be trifled with, people who would dance and had no notion of walking. But if they had been twice as many, four times as many, old Fezziwig would have been a match for them. And so would Mrs. Fezziwig, as to her. Ah, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. A positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance. You couldn't have predicted at any given time what would become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance, advance and retire. Turn your partner, bow and curtsey.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Corkscrew.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Thread the needle and back again to your place. Fezziwig.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Cut. Oh, cut so deftly that he appeared.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

To wink with his leg. When the clock struck 11, this domestic ball broke up. Mr. And Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and shaking hands with every person in individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two prentices, they did the same to them. And thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads were left to their beds, which were under account. Counter in the back shop.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Said the ghost, to make these silly folks so full of gratitude, he has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money. Three or four, perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

It isn't that, said Scrooge, heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously, like his former, not his latter, self.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

It isn't that spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy, to make our service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks, in things so slight and insignificant that it's impossible to add and count them up. What then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

He felt the spirit's glance and stopped.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

What is the matter? Nothing particular. Something I think don't. No. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That's all.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

My time grows short, observed the spirit.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Quick.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

This was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see. But it produced an immediate effect, for again he saw himself. He was older now, a man in the prime of life. He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a black dress, in whose eyes there were tears. It matters little, she said softly, to Scrooge's former self. To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me, and if it can comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve. But what idol has displaced you? A golden one. Oh, you fear the world too much. I've seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master passion gain engrosses you. Have I not? What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I'm not changed towards you? Have I ever sought release from our engagement in words?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Never.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

In what then? In a changed nature? In an altered spirit, in another atmosphere of life, another hope, as its great end. If you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would not choose a dowerless girl? Or choosing her, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do. And I release you with a full heart for the love of him. You once what spirit?

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Remove me from this place. I told you these were shadows of.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

The things that have been said.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

The ghost that they are what they are, do not blame me. Remove me.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

Scrooge exclaimed. I cannot bear it.

[Ebenezer Scrooge]

Leave me. Take me back. Haunt me no longer.

[Narrator (David Suchet)]

As he struggled with the spirit, he was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness. And further, of being in his own bedroom. He had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep. In the next episode. In the second and final part of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is visited by two more spirits. The ghosts of Christmas Present. Christmas yet to come. But as the old miser comes face to face with his own mortality, is it too late for him to mend his ways and seek redemption? That's next time on Charles Dickens Ghost Stories. Foreign.

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