One of the finest Carols you'll ever hear

Charles Dickens' most popular tale has seen so many incarnations on big and small screens, stage, radio and any other media platform you can think of that it's hard to imagine any new version bringing much to it but dreary over-reverence or wild departures. Amazingly, this truly superb reading by Tom Baker seems to manage the trick, bringing a freshness that makes it seem shining new. What it brings is what is always lost in its dramatic adaptations, the wonderfully wry humour of Dickens' prose, whether it's describing the badly-located hovel he lives in as having played hide and seek when a young house and never been found by the other houses or speculating that a group of spirits chained together must have been a bad government. And in Tom Baker, AudioGo have made a truly inspired choice of reader. While you might be expecting some of the ripe, grandiose showmanship that's so often his stock in trade, he's surprisingly subtle here, never losing the throwaway wit without playing it up and at the same time never losing sight of the story and its humanity. It's a wonderful performance with a rich, diverse variety of tones and character voices that surprise and delight in a truly splendid rendition that deserves to become a Christmas tradition in itself. Truly wonderful!