If life imitates art, a vandal in the English countryside may be haunted by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Police in the town of Shrewsbury are investigating how a tombstone that marked the fictitious grave of Ebenezer Scrooge was destroyed. The film prop used in the 1984 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was kept in place and became a tourist attraction.
Town Clerk Helen Ball said the town is discussing what should be done to fix or replace the stone that is “hugely popular” with residents and visitors. This time of year, organised tours of locations used in the film visit the grounds of St Chad’s Church to see the marker.
“There’s not much to see other than broken bits of the gravestone,” Ball said. “You can’t see that it says Ebenezer Scrooge at the moment because it’s so damaged. It’s hugely disrespectful.”
A Christmas Carol (1984) – Scrooge’s grave
The film, one of dozens of adaptations of the Charles Dickens’ classic, starred George C Scott as the cold-hearted curmudgeon. After going to sleep on Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of past, present and future and shown the error of his ways to become a kinder, more generous person.