It promises to be the funniest disaster this Christmas (yes, even funnier than your ‘genius’ cracker joke): after last year’s hilarious Peter Pan Goes Wrong, the Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre Company, the brains behind the hugely successful The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery in the West End, will return to the small screen with their take on Dickens’ famous festive fable, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, on BBC One.
Despite rumours of blacklisting after their… errr… ‘unique’ take on Peter Pan, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society have announced that they will be forcing themselves back on the BBC, by hijacking the jewel of the Christmas schedule, a ‘live’ production of A Christmas Carol, staged by a professional cast.
The following hour finds the Cornley gang trying to make the show work on ‘live’ television as they soon realise they are completely out of their depth with no idea how to direct a live studio or handle special effects and are having their own internal rivalries revealed on television. Plus, there’s an angry professional cast trying to get back into the studio.
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong will be produced by BBC Studios and will feature soon to be announced guest stars and the Mischief Theatre Company, fresh from their Tony Award-winning Broadway triumph with The Play That Goes Wrong.
Chris Sussman, Head of Comedy, BBC Studios, says: “It’s going to be terrible. I can’t wait to see it.”
Mischief Theatre Artistic Director, Henry Lewis, says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be back on the BBC this Christmas, but it is regrettable the BBC don’t know it yet”. Company Director, Jonathan Sayer, says: “I didn’t know we were doing this? Do you know when it is filming?”
The Mischief Theatre cast are David Hearn, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill and Nancy Zamit, many of whom can be seen in the West End this Christmas improvising movies from your suggestions in the upcoming comedy Mischief Movie Night.
A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, creators of the award-winning stage comedy The Play That Goes Wrong. All ‘Goes Wrong’ productions are renowned for their highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned farce and Buster Keaton-inspired slapstick delivered with split-second timing.