After spending a lifetime watching Charles Dickens, I settled long ago on Clive Donner’s 1984 version with the best Ebenezer Scrooge of all, George C. Scott.

First of all, it was the best television production we’ve ever seen.

Scott has all the requisite physical gnarls and attitudes to convey the loathing the public has for this classical monster, except for the standard Patton accent he brought with him from that great film.

This production is directed by Donner, with costumes beautifully designed by Evangeline Harrison and all the perfect touches along the way with Roger Murray-Leach’s impeccably dark and murky skies that are all with snow filled, shadowy and haunting streets for Scrooge to stalk, from the first shots of the talking door knocker to the last moments of joy.

Donner and company never miss a step and give us three heart stopping ghosts to taunt the resistant Scrooge. Edward Woodward’s Ghost of Christmas Present, is a flamboyant masterpiece presented in velvet and ermine robes.

The central classic and beleaguered Bob Cratchit is tenderly done by David Warner and cuddled by his Mrs. Cratchit played by Susannah York, who hides her beauty as she holds her ailing Tiny Tim (Anthony Walters) who alone will break your heart.

Roger Rees will delight moviegoers for years to come as Scrooge’s kind and Christmas-loving nephew.

Enter a chain rattling Marley (comic actor Frank Finlay 1973’s “Three Musketeer’s”) who appears in ghostly gray burial clothes and iron chains to scare the popcorn out of all of us, and wonderfully steals the scene from under Scott’s classic nose. You’ll want to keep sliding back to watch him again and again.

Angela Pleasance, daughter of the late great British actor Donald Pleasance, is the Ghost of Christmas Past.

We will miss the late Tony Imi who was the cinematographer (“International Velvet” 1978) and the genius who created the moods, the fog and the teeth-rattling images for this magnificent television production.

Much is owed here to the formidable Scott who bellowed through “Patton” and whispered through Robert Rossen’s “The Hustler.”

He will be remembered for “Patton” above all, but his “Scrooge” will never be topped.

“A Christmas Carol” can be see on Prime Video.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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