A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a BBC schools radio series from the 2000s and 2010s, covering Literature for primary school pupils.
A 9-part abridgement of the classic Charles Dickens seasonal ghost story, in which miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The series became the mainstay of the final decade of school radio broadcasting: heard through the autumn term in all but one of the final 11 years of school radio (and in the missing year, heard in the spring term instead!)
It was read by Alan Smith, who was also a continuity announcer for school radio broadcasts and would often introduce himself reading it ("read by me, Alan Smith").
Episode List
All 9 episodes can be heard online at the BBC School Radio website.
| # | Title | Broadcast | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Marley's Ghost | 21 Sep 2007 | |
| 2. | Meeting with Marley | 28 Sep 2007 | |
| 3. | The First of the Three Spirits | 5 Oct 2007 | |
| 4. | Master Fezziwig | 12 Oct 2007 | |
| 5. | The Second of the Three Spirits | 19 Oct 2007 | |
| 6. | Scrooge's Nephew | 2 Nov 2007 | |
| 7. | The Last of the Spirits | 9 Nov 2007 | |
| 8. | An End to the Haunting | 16 Nov 2007 | |
| 9. | The End of It... | 23 Nov 2007 |
Music
Listen on YouTube. Martin Medina has shared his atmospheric title music from the series.
Credits
| Reader | Alan Smith |
| Original music | Martin Medina |
| Director | Lyn Carter |
| Editor | Alan Barnes |
Resources
The series was originally broadcast in 2007 accompanied by some basic notes about its relevance to the curriculum.
Teacher's notes written by Caroline Garland were added in 2010, distributed as a PDF file through the BBC School Radio website.
A revised version of the notes with direct links to listen to the episodes and cosmetic changes was published in 2016, again distributed as a PDF file through the BBC School Radio website
Broadcasts
The series was broadcast regularly for a decade as part of the school radio broadcasts on Radio 4 Digital, and continued to be available online after schools radio broadcasts ceased in 2018.
Generally it was broadcast in the autumn term leading up to Christmas, but there were also some unseasonal broadcasts in the earlier years. As the series has 9 episodes and the autumn term generally has 10 weeks of broadcasting, the A Christmas Carol timeslot in the 10th week would be taken up with another programme or filler such as clips of songs or extracts from the term's programmes.
- Autumn 2007: Fridays, 3am
- Summer 2008: Thursdays, 3:35am
- Spring 2009: Fridays, 3:30am
- Autumn 2009: Fridays, 3:15am
- Autumn 2010: Thursdays, 3:40am
- Autumn 2011: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2012: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2013: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2014: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2015: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2016: Fridays, 3:45am
- Autumn 2017: Fridays, 3:45am
Links
- BBC Programmes page for A Christmas Carol
- BBC School Radio website for A Christmas CarolAs of 2021, this now resolves to the same place as the BBC Programmes website
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