On December the 24th, 1836 in the year of our Lord, one of London's most successful, if reviled

businessman named Jacob Marley died.

It's hard to imagine a world in which Christmas didn't include Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchett, or the Ghost of Christmas Past. But people who celebrated Christmas prior to the mid-19th century didn't have to imagine such a world.

That was simply their reality. But in 1843,

during a time when Christmas was rapidly changing, on both sides of the Atlantic, due in large

part to some very influential works of literature, Charles Dickens published what would become

among the most famous works of Christmas fiction, a Christmas Carol. Now, if we're

being pedantic, and why shouldn't we, the actual title of that novella was a Christmas

Carol in prose being a ghost story of Christmas. And those of you familiar with the text

will know that Dickens opens the story with that iconic line, Marley was dead, to begin

with.

What we just heard a moment to go, though, is a telling of a Christmas carol that's not in prose,

but rather dramatized for a full cast.

Not text on a page, but rather brought to life in resplendent, immersive audio.

Not a line-for-line recitation, but updated and imagined in some ways,

while also remaining true to the story's familiar core.

Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, is a four-part audio drama podcast presentation from Hope Media

and Compassion International, with an all-star cast including Sean Astin as Ebenezer Scrooge,

and the voice we just heard, John Rees Davies, as the narrator.

You know him, of course, as Gimley from the Lord of the Rings trilogy,

Sala from the Indiana Jones movies, and countless other roles,

including another turn as Dickens' narrator,

...