A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - BBC One

It was filmed in front of a live studio audience!

You mean that wasn't a laughter track?! I was disappointed and gave up on this, can believe live it would have been funnier and I would have enjoyed more though as somewhat a challenge to get to laugh out loud I may not have been their ideal audience.

I've recorded this to watch later - I rather liked 'Peter Pan' on TV last year, but I do wish they'd drop the 'provincial polytechnic' thing. It comes across as so bloody snooty, especially in an era where theatre is looking increasingly like a public school, London upper-middle-class medium.

It made me smile a lot and laugh a few times, so a success for me !

Just terrible.
Old jokes used in their other shows.
Most of the gags are stock jokes and not character based on the narrative.

Having seen it during the studio recording and then the TV broadcast I can offer a different perspective on things.

In the studio, I was one of those who were laughing a lot at the show - especially on second takes (which is why there was a lot of anticipatory laughs, as often bits were done a second time around - which is the norm with studio comedy). At the time i wondered if the format was going to stifle it, and i feel it probably did.

Watching on TV initially I found it rather flat. I think the immediacy of it didn't come across. I then watched it a second time and found it much funnier (possibly as I wasn't looking for the joins!).

I can also confirm there were a lot of bits cut - there was a lot of Diana Rigg commentary (with Sandra holding up her phone in all kinds of places) which had been lost, and there was also a "it's in the small box on the kitchen table" type line from Sandra asking Diana to (we later find out) bring the ring. Plus some footage of Anne/Dennis running around writing words everywhere and all kinds of other bits.

As I also remarked at the time, having some of the emphasis on the characters rather than the plot may have caused issues for the "casual" viewer - but it is tricky for me to put myself into the shoes of someone who hasn't followed these characters for several years.

I would say they can make the TV format work - they'll reflect on this and learn a lot from it. Just like it took Play a couple of attempts to ground itself and grow, it'll take them a couple of "goes" at TV to make it fully work. Hopefully they do get the TV series they are clamoring for (the fact I learnt about this from the Radio Times in an interview with them suggests it probably is firmly in the pipeline) - as it will allow them the time to get this format right.

As Noises Off shows, it is extremely hard to make farce work when recorded. Noises Off on stage is brilliant, but the film felt incredibly flat - precisely due to the "lack of risk".

The one thing which wasn't ever seen on screen however I enjoyed in the studio was one of the shops being named as "Perkins'" (also a kid in the audience asked during a break if Winston was found and why he wasn't in this show.. the fact this didn't get a reaction suggested most of the studio audience were fairly new to Mischief)

Have just watched it and have laughed a lot - especially at the sequence involving the ghost of Christmas yet to come. It was never going to be as funny as being on stage, but for the most part it was easy to imagine it as a stage production. I think it helped being familiar with mischief theatre’s work and how the characters interact.

I think you’ve also got to remember that this was rumoured to be a last minute commission to replace the canned Ed Westwick drama. Hence why it was recorded so close to transmission. Perhaps they didn’t have a lot of time to create the set pieces we saw in Peter Pan.

Thanks. I missed that last week.


Thanks for the confirmation. That was pretty much what I was expecting.


It couldn't have been that last minute because they were tweeting about a mystery new project back in August/September when they were still in New York which must have been referring to ACCGW because there was a picture of a script & obviously MMN doesn't have one.


Yes, for me it was finding out what was happening to the Cornley Poly characters that was what I was most excited & nervous about in ACCGW, as it was a 4 year wait. If they do do a series I really hope it's character-driven rather than just everything Going Wrong. It was interesting that, as I think someone's already mentioned somewhere up thread, the Cornley characters seen as themselves in the birthday party videos seem to be rather more "normal" and less exaggerated than their stage counterparts. I wonder if this is deliberate in preparation for a possible series?