In the old wintry tradition of roaming ghosts and eerie firelit tales, a new promotional animation for the BBC podcast The Sleeping Forecast offers a stop-motion take on Charles Dickens’ classic novel A Christmas Carol.
Director Joseph Wallace (Salvation Has No Name, The Sparks Brothers) was enlisted to capture this blend of seasonal chills and yuletide cheer, which is narrated by British actress Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts, Fresh Meat, You).
Wallace designed the Christmas short, which is crafted in his trademark textural, painterly stop-motion style, and features puppets by Adeena Grubb (The Marshalls, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared) and cinematography by Daniel Morgan.
The promo brings to life the Dickensian scene in which miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the first of four ghosts — his old colleague, Jacob Marley. In the animated version, Scrooge is pictured sympathetically as a lonely and frightened old man.
“Spooky Victorian houses are my happy place,” says Wallace. “I had a great time bringing this scene from A Christmas Carol to life, mixing ghostly apparitions with festive fun!”
The spot was produced and creative directed by Yoav Segal at Atime Works and shot at Studio Linguini.
“The BBC got in touch as they’d seen a spooky miniature set I’d made on my Insta,” noted Segal, “and witnessing it become this stunning animation that Joseph and the brilliant team have created, has been a real joy!”
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