Following the successful TV broadcast of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, the Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre Company returns to the small screen with its unique take on a Dickens classic December 30.
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is broadcast on BBC One at 7 PM London time; check local listings.
“Blacklisted by the BBC after ruining Peter Pan,” press notes state, “the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society are not taking their ban lying down and force themselves back on the BBC by hijacking the jewel of the Christmas schedule, a ‘live’ production of A Christmas Carol staged by a professional cast.
“The following hour finds the Cornley gang trying to make the show work on ‘live’ television as they soon realize they are completely out of their depth with no idea how to direct a live studio or handle special effects and are having their own internal rivalries revealed on television. Plus, there’s an angry professional cast trying to get back into the studio.”
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong features the Mischief Theatre Company—David Hearn, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, and Nancy Zamit—fresh from their Broadway triumph in The Play That Goes Wrong, which continues with an American company at the Lyceum Theatre.
BBC Controller, Comedy Commissioning, Shane Allen said in an earlier statement, “This promises to be a viewing treat for all the family as the Dickens classic gets the full Mischief treatment. Expect chaos and a shambles from start to finish, a bit like most people’s experience of Christmas itself.”
Chris Sussman, head of Comedy, BBC Studios, added, “It's going to be terrible. I can't wait to see it.”
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong was written by Lewis, Sayer, and Shields; executive producers are Steven Canny for BBC Studios and Kenny Wax Ltd. and Stage Presence Ltd. The producer is Alex Walsh-Taylor, and the director is Richard Boden.
