Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by two further spirits on Christmas morning, but will this be enough to help him see the error of his ways?

When the Ghost of Christmas Past revealed the awful abuse that Scrooge suffered as a child, we started to feel sorry for him, but this was immediately swept aside as we saw the indecent proposal that he made to Mrs Cratchit. Even worse, he degrades and toys with her by sending her on her way, her dignity in tatters. She leaves, muttering a curse under her breath, presumably kicking off the supernatural events that follow.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is his sister, showing Ebenezer that while the Cratchits are poor in money, they make up for it in love, though there’s still a deep, dark secret just beneath the surface. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future is a sinister Jason Flemyng, lips sewn up, and revealing an awful moment as Tiny Tim drowns beneath the ice. It’s a shocking moment, the cracks in Scrooge’s frozen heart finally leading to his redemption.

Verdict: Doing the seemingly impossible, a new version of Dickens’ classic actually manages to present the tale in a different way. You wouldn’t want every adaptation to be this grim, and this may be a bitter pill for many to swallow at a time of goodwill, but if you can handle the adult material it’s rewarding in its own nihilistic way. 8/10

Nick Joy