Scrooge

Alastair Sim’s best known performance, as Dickens’ notorious curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge.

One of the best-known adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic, Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 film stars Alastair Sim as the notorious curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the ghosts of Christmas past.

Although the film is stolen by Sim, for whom it would be become his most famous role, he’s supported by a fine cast of British talent including Michael Hordern, Kathleen Harrison, Patrick Macnee and George Cole as Scrooge in his younger days. While the film may lack the cinematic flair of David Lean’s famous adaptations from a few years earlier (Oliver Twist, Great Expectations), Sim’s delicious characterisation ensures a lively and memorable adaptation that will remain a mainstay of Christmas viewing for generations to come.