A Christmas Carol (1984 TV Movie)

Edward Woodward: Ghost of Christmas Present

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [on Tiny Tim]  Tell me, Spirit... Will he live?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : I see a vacant place at this table. I see a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : No. Say he'll be spared.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my species will find him here. But if he is to die, then let him die and decrease the surplus population.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : You use my own words against me?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Yes. So perhaps, in the future, you will hold your tongue until you have discovered what the surplus population is and where it is. It may well be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [after Present shows him a starving homeless family]  Why do you show me this? What has it to do with me?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Are they not of the human race? Look here, beneath my robe!

  [opens his robe to reveal two filthy, ashen, corpse-like children standing where his legs should be] 

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Look upon these!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [stupefied with horror]  What are they?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : They are your children! They are the children of all who walk the earth unseen! Their names are Ignorance and Want! Beware of them, for upon their brow is written the word "doom"! They spell the downfall of you and all who deny their existence!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Have they no refuge, no resource?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : [smiles, mocking him from an earlier conversation]  "Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?"

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [looks down at the children]  Cover them. I do not wish to see them.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : I thought as much.

  [Present closes his robe to conceal the children] 

  Ghost of Christmas Present : They are hidden... but they live... oh, they live...

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [looking at the Cratchit's feast]  It's such a small goose.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : [leaning in Scrooge's face]  It's all Bob Cratchit can afford.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : Where are we now? I'm sure I don't know this place.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : The name would mean nothing to you. It's a place, like many in this world.

  Meg : Do we have enough wood for the night?

  Ben : Ah, it'll last through the night. At least there's one thing still free in this country.

  Meg : [Checking the food the children are cooking over the fire]  Mary, Peter they're cooked.

  Peter (their son) : They're too hot.

  Meg : They'll be cold soon enough.

  Mary (their daughter) : Where did you get these father?

  Ben : I didn't steal them, if that's what you say.

  Meg : She didn't say you stole them.

  Ben : She should have some respect.

  Meg : Don't berate the girl.

  [Speaking to Mary] 

  Meg : They fell from a cart into the road.

  Ben : You're father's not a thief girl. Not yet.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Why are these people out here? Men and women in rags. Children eating scraps! There are institutions.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Have you visited any of them? These institutions you speak of?

  Ebenezer Scrooge : No! I am taxed for them. Isn't that enough?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Is it?

  Meg : Ben, come back to the fire.

  Ben : Look at these hands, Meg. They're hard hands; they've done hard work. I want to work. I want to have bread for my children. It's not right that there's no work.

  Meg : We're together Ben. That's the important thing.

  Ben : I love you Meg. I love the children. Tomorrow take the children and go to the parish poorhouse.

  Meg : No! No. I'd rather we all drown in the river than go to one of those places and be separated forever.

  Ben : Until I get work?

  Meg : No! Ben, we're a family. We stay together. Come. Come back to the fire. Come.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Why do you show me this? What does it have to do with me?

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Are they not of the human race!

• Fred Holywell : [on his Uncle Ebenezer]  ... His wealth is quite useless to him, really. He doesn't do any good with it; he doesn't even make HIMSELF comfortable with it.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : [whom nobody else can see or hear]  I haven't SQUANDERED it, if that's what you mean by "making myself comfortable!"

  Ghost of Christmas Present : You mustn't argue with those we visit. It's useless, and even tactless.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : Tact is a quality I despise.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : *That* I can see.

• Ebenezer Scrooge : [to a "simile" player at the Hollywell's party, who's just been eliminated from the proceedings]  ... "Quick as a WINK," you idiot!

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Ebenezer! Shhhh!

  Ebenezer Scrooge : You said they could neither see nor hear us.

  Ghost of Christmas Present : Oh, yes... that's right. Well, even I forget the regulations sometimes; after all, I don't come back very often.

  Ebenezer Scrooge : SHHHH... I'm trying to listen to the game!