A new, freely available filmed study-guide to A Christmas Carol — created with support from the Dickens Fellowship — aims to give GCSE students fresh insight into Dickens’s craft and social purpose, blending scholarship, vivid visuals and accessible analysis

A newly produced filmed study-guide to A Christmas Carol is set to become freely available for schools and students, offering fresh insight into Dickens’s enduring seasonal classic. Titled Dickens and the Art of Activist Story-telling, the hour-long resource is designed specifically to support learners preparing for their English GCSE.

The film is presented by Professor Malcolm Andrews, a long-established Dickens scholar with extensive experience of teaching A Christmas Carol. Sponsored by the Dickens Fellowship — the international organisation founded in 1902 to promote the author’s legacy — the study-guide combines lecture-style commentary with a rich array of slides, primary textual material and historical-contextual illustrations. Its aim is to illuminate both the literary artistry and the social urgency that shaped Dickens’s most famous Christmas tale.

The film is freely available on YouTube. By removing cost barriers, the Fellowship hopes the resource will reach as many students, teachers and home learners as possible.

Professor Andrews has approached NATE to help raise awareness of the film among schools currently teaching the text as a GCSE set work. With its blend of scholarship, accessible explanation and visual engagement, Dickens and the Art of Activist Story-telling promises to become a valuable tool for teachers seeking high-quality supplementary material — and for students hoping to deepen their understanding of a text that remains both culturally significant and powerfully relevant. 

Contact the Dickens Fellowship online with any questions about the film, A Christmas Carol or the organisation at https://dickensfellowship.org/index.php/about-charles-dickens

View the film at https://youtu.be/UbJym4h-fz8?si=G5HKwiW8tMDXSDHB