A Dickens Christmas - John Rhys-Davies and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

good evening one and all 170 years ago Charles Dickens wrote a little book immortalizing the holiday we know and love as Christmas but the true story of that book and how it came to be is as interesting as the book itself step back with me now to 1843 it was to borrow Dickens own words the worst of times here is Dickens in his prime average height smooth face looking as he did before the beard and the unruly hair that you've seen in the pictures at 31 he was already the most successful and best loved novelist of his day having produced such works as Oliver Twist Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers but installments of his current novel weren't selling as expected and his publisher was nervous but I don't understand mr. Dickens let me be clear if people don't start buying your latest book we shall have to reduce your weekly bar but this is my finest work and there were other troubles for years Dickens had used his money to support worthy causes and needy family members come now brother what's 20 pounds to you you have more than you could ever need Alfred our situation is desperate soon we'll have nothing left oats Harley to make matters worse dickens wife catherine was expecting child hate my dear please try to understand that in three months we may not even have the semblance of a proper house with a heavy mortgage mounting bills and the custom maintaining his public presence Dickens was on the brink of bankruptcy my love what will become of us what will become of our children that autumn Dickens walked the streets of London night after night mile after mile he looked into the faces of London's poor and he saw the spectre of what might be passing dingy basement windows caked in soot and dripping with condensation he was haunted by a memory from his own impoverished childhood his father was dragged off to debtors prison and twelve year old Charles was taken from school and required to labor in the dismal dungeon of a boot blacking factory shrinking from his father's fate Dickens closed his heart his mind and his purse as he walked the narrow alleyways and empty Park lanes alone depressed hands and his pockets his mind worked on his problem as his problem worked on him what could I write quickly a brief tale one volume finished in time for a holiday gift yes let me see with each step an idea began to take shape in Dickens mind why not bring all of this to life the story of a man so preoccupied with money that he cannot appreciate the joy of family and friends a man's so fearful of ignorance and want he cannot embrace the abundant beauties of life emboldened by his idea Dickens sequestered himself in his study and began to write the central character a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone Scrooge magnate with a dead business partner who regrets his own miserly ways Jacob Marley I wear the chain I forged and a clerk Bob Cratchit his wife his family's sickly son and nephew and a whole myriad of debtors all of them suffering because Scrooge sees only himself and his own needs how to give Scrooge a new vision of his life and the people around him a vision that will change his heart he would need a help a guide and Dickens provided one by reviving a character he had originally created for another story a ghost though he was far from ghoulish a jolly giant with a sparkling iron genial face open hand joyful air what does an author learn from the characters he's inventing how might a genial ghost changed the way Dickens sees the world this is where I come in Charles what is it who are you come in come in and know me better man I am the ghost of Christmas present yes let me get this down does out it away look at yourself day after day you hold on to your pen touching tightly to the world as you know it afraid to leave it behind for something better afraid yes and yet here you are approaching the season when hope and abundance for failure are you mean Christmas indeed at least you've not forgotten that oh I always see Christmas as a wonder sir what with all its many mminton you've seen practically nothing no you have to look out there I can't see anything well of course you can't from where you are there's nothing to see but yourself follows of my Road come on now please this is no wonder seeing things as they really are look look at the city from here yes and what you see my let's see houses and houses so many houses because there are so many people people yes had all of them buying books no it's not see the people chance with their lives lives and troubles like you look at the lights yes had the river oh yes the houses of parliament Big Ben had the Abbey yes much is familiar but come what haven't you seen before it's all so very still yes beautiful indeed now look look out there Charles it's a place where miners live who labor in the bowels of the earth and yet with all their won't they know me they know Christmas they do doc a cheerful company's assembled round the fire an old man and woman with their children and their children's children all decked out gaily in their best attire singing a Christmas Carol they are so poor they have at anything at all but each other it's true now go on Charles fly on there's more for you to see and see for yourself huh we're leaving behind the land and the rocky crag the water look a lighthouse see within the loophole of a thick stone wall that ray of brightness on this office I see a man and his wife rough hands face is scarred by the hard whether they to sing a Carol how happy they seem to be are now you're beginning to get a glimpse of it on you go across the black conceiving see far away from any shore warship yes you see the helmsman at the wheel the lookout in the bow the officers in the watch every man among them hums a Christmas carol or has a Christmas thought and speaks below his breath of Christmas with whole word hopes Christmas in their hearts and it's enough for them yes yes now on on London again ha the Marble Arch Kensington Gardens look the terms what you see Charles what do you really see ah then I see an orphanage a workhouse yard with so many poor miserable orphans so pitiful in there in their wretched condition singing yes Charles even then I come on now man see everyone oh I do it's my business to see you know had to write about it like that gentleman walking there with such great expectations and the seamstress and the lame boy and that gentleman walking in the street there yes yes what about him hands in his pockets head bowed low he's not singing I could tell you look again look closely cows it can't be it's me it is and what are you doing down there I'm walking scheming plotting thinking that money could solve my problem convincing myself that publishing a little Christmas book could relieve all my woe and Garrett no not finally not forever but you can you have I yes Christmas now here in the present good spirit I see now I do see come them let us go home I must do more that simply writes of Scrooge and Cratchit and Tiny Tim I must learn what they learn and live it I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year sir I cannot thank you enough it's not too late for Scrooge then it's not too late for you off you go now man hmm you have a little book to finish yes yes had you'll be in it let me see how did it go come in exclaimed the ghosts come in and know me better man that autumn of 1843 is Dickens dipped his pen and filled his paper something happened to him his little story which he had intended as a means to reclaim his wealth turned out to be the instrument for recovering his faith in others and his hope in the future each morning he awoke eager to begin the day's work to fill his story with the Christmas spirit he had discovered a new he poured out all of his experience all of himself into the writing I was reluctant to lay the manuscript aside even for a moment I wept laughed and wept again in time Dickens fortunes were reversed and he went on to write among the most notable works of his career but nothing would equal the literary artifact of his own Christmas awakening whether by ghost or no there on the streets of London in the midst of insecurity and confusion and fear Charles Dickens discovered the Christmas spirit for himself the words of Scrooge's nephew are his own I am sure I've always thought of Christmas time when it comes round as a kind forgiving charitable present time the only time I know of when men and women seem by one consent to open their shutup hearts freely and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow travelers to the grave and bjaaland and and though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket I believe it has done me good and will do me good and I say God bless it to which we aren't

Channel: The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square

Views: 43,658

Rating: 4.9178081 out of 5

Keywords: Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Mormon Tab Choir, Mormon, LDS, motab, mo-tab, Orchestra at Temple Square, Music and the Spoken Word, A Dickens Christmas, John Rhys-Davies, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Mack Wilberg, David Warner, guest artist

Id: XZe-hLewU80

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2015