User reviews

The Christmas classic with Derek Jacobi as Scrooge! Who wouldn't be thrilled at the idea? A player of such ability that he can disappear into any role! Well, not the Mischief Theater (masquerading as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society) banned from the BBC since they ruined PETER PAN the previous year. So they knock out Jacobi, have Diana Rigg, the aunt of one of their performers, do the narration and hey, presto! It's a disaster.

And a very funny one, with performers who don't know their lines, performers covered in glue and stuck to their props, performers caught offsides when the green-screen software goes down.... a wondrous, silly, slapstick affair that kept me laughing throughout, as their inept production gets merged with their 'real' lives. If you've got an hour to spare and not enough laughs, this is a good way to fix that shortage.

My partner and I watch this one every year. We're both theatre people, so we love seeing everything going wrong through the production while knowing that everyone is actually safe. The amount of rehearsal and technical know-how needed to safely execute any "goes wrong" production is incredibly impressive, and my hat goes off to everyone involved.

The only reason I knock points off is that, in agreement with some of the other reviews here, some of the gags are drawn out longer than they need no be. It's surprising, as every other "gone wrong" production has their comedic timing down to a T. Still though, this is worth a watch.

After the wonderful Peter Pan Goes Wrong, I was excited to see their take on a Christmas Carol. It isn't terrible, but it's not especially good either.

The premise appears to be that after being banned from the BBC, an acting troupe takes over a BBC production of A Christmas Carol.

I say this appears to be the premise because I only know that from reading it elsewhere. While watching I just saw them burst in and take over and I didn't see or hear any actual explanation of what was happening.

The humor retains much of the silliness of Peter Pan Goes Wrong and honestly, some very similar gags. But it is considerably less inspired. The only laugh out loud bits involve an actor who cannot read his lines and so has them written all over the set (including individual words on a bunch of grapes). It's very funny and clever, but 90% of the funniness and cleverness seems to have been expended on that 10-15 minutes worth of material.

While there are some good gags, nothing builds on anything else, so you get a moment of amusement and then it dies off, instead of each gag building on the next. I mean, there are a few callbacks, some pretty good, but overall the show just ... fails to launch.

Watchable but easy to ignore.

I have watch Peter Pan Goes Wrong(Movie), The Goes Wrong Show, and have The Play That Goes Wrong(Broadway) 3 times and loved all of them. This one does not disappoint either.

While the jokes and "fails" may be repetitive as they are the same as in the others, this is not a problem at all. These are fails that a lot of us in theatre worry about or what may happen during rehearsals or even the shows. What makes these different is the story of the show that is being put on. Same fails, but different settings.

As someone who has worked backstage in theatre for 11 years, mostly in set construction and lighting design, many of the fails are things we joke and worry about such as set safety. I know actors worry a lot about missing lines, messing up, etc. I have even had actors faint during shows and costumes completely fall apart. Besides the comedy part, it is very inspirational and encouraging about pushing through in a show no matter what happens.

Sadly though, these jokes are sometimes not as funny to those who have not done tech or acting before.

All very good but Peter Pan Goes Wrong is marginally better I really don't know why I was on the flour I laughed so much this really will brighten your day

This is the first "Gone Wrong" episode I have ever seen and laughed from start to finish. "A Christmas Carol" is being staged by a group of totally inept actors and stage hands. Actors must go on with the show even when props fail, characters don't show up, stage hands are visible, people fall out windows or through floors, etc.

Derek Jacobi does an excellent job as Scrooge keeping it all together or all not together. Henry Lewis plays a 200-pound Tiny Tim after he accidently crushes the smaller actor who was Tiny Tim with a stage prop. There also was a modern party scene that I totally did not understand, but maybe I needed to watch the other "Gone Wrong" episodes first.

People REALLY need to understand that they are making mistakes , and they are professional enough NOT to laugh making it, there was great humour to it, in life, we must not always think they are meant to be doing a SERIOUS production, things are MEANT to go wrong, certainly gets you away from ALL the fake in normal tv production, where scenes are continually cut until an overpaid actor gets their words right .. WELL done, i am still trying to find out HOW to get this on DVD

As much as I liked their take on Peter Pan I think is where they seemed to run out of ideas.

I want to like it: the pieces all seem to be there but it lacks that X factor Peter Pan had. Some of it is funny and some of it just feels rehashed and contrived.

They go way too far with a lot of gags and put too much emphasis on the actors personal lives.

I'm not saying avoid it but go in knowing that the best of this franchise is behind it.

The Mischief Theatre, also known as 'The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society' is a group of comedians who have made a variety of BBC specials as well as a regular series. I have not seen any of these shows other than "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong' because I live in the States and only just discovered their work. I hope their other productions are as good as this one.

The premise is that a group of mostly untalented people want to hijack a BBC broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" starring Derek Jacobi. After taking Jacobi out of the picture and holding the crew captive, the group put on their own version...which is mostly a giant disaster. A few of the problems are problematic green screens, a Bob Cratchit who knows none of his lines, an actor who wants to play the lead and keeps attacking the new Scrooge, a niece who gets glued to practically everything and much more. It's all very stupid...but fun.

If this had been a longer film, it probably would have become tedious. As is, the 51 minute version is quite enjoyable thanks to the dopiness of the show...and this IS meant as a compliment! Well worth seeing, and I found a copy on YouTube.

After last year's pratfalls with Peter Pan, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society have been banished from the BBC, who have decided to use professional actors for their recreation of A Christmas Carol starring Derek Jacobi.

However the inept amateur dramatic society ambushed the BBC production and staged their own version with Dame Diana Rigg providing the narration. She is the aunt of one of the members of the drama society.

Again the production was a shambolic travesty with actors having trouble remembering the lines, props not working, stage hands walking into shot and an actor trying to sabotage the production so he can play the lead role of Scrooge.

The trouble is this was dreadful (unintentionally.) I did not laugh once. It is clear that the joke has worn thin after last year's production.

I thought this might be good for my daughter to watch as light relief since she is studying it for her GCSE, but I have never seen such an appalling attempt to be funny. All it consisted of was awfully contrived slapstick, and badly conceived attempts to make it 'ironically' funny.

What made it obscene was the hideous canned laughter which was designed to let the unintelligent audience know when they should be laughing, which was nothing more than patronising and offensive.

I am surprised that such greats as Diana Rigg and Derek Jacob had anything to do with iti

The only saving grace was that it was moderately short.

We started to watch this because of Diana Rigg and Derek Jacobi. We managed fifteen minutes. Completely unfunny. Terrible canned laughter, you could see the joke (for want of a better word) coming ten minutes before it arrived. Complete waste of time.

Could people who like this drivel kindly not inform me that I don't know what I'm talking about or have misunderstood something - I haven't thank you, I hate it, it's BAD.

Also it's very strange that all the negative reviews are almost entirely disagreed with in the 'Helpful' Yes/ No area, I've never seen 0/19 before. So It would be nice if the BBC production team & the friends & family could go and do something else, rather than defending the indefensible.

If you can listen to more than 5 minutes of this cancer-inducing canned laughter, combined with actual audience laughter (I think), then you really need medical attention.

A Christmas Carol is never wrong, this show is.

'Peter Pan Goes Wrong' was a treat for Christmas 2016, so you can imagine the BBC were keen to try and repeat the trick the following year.

Sadly they fail. From having seen some of Mischief Theatre's work on stage it largely works because that's what it is - live.

In translation some of that gets lost on TV. While the budget and calibre of the guest stars is clearly greater, the charm goes by the wayside.

It's like seeing a panto you've looked forward to all Christmas, only to find it's rubbish.

A disappointment.