THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL

 

Official video for The Little Matchgirl (© Michael Custance/HTV/Picture Base International – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for reproduction purposes only)

Exactly a year ago today, on Boxing Day 2019, I had just finished watching a chance discovery on YouTube that was both festive and thoroughly charming, yet, tragically, is all but forgotten nowadays. Indeed, although I'd heard of it. I never expected to ever see it.

I refer to The Little Matchgirl (aka The Little Match Girl), directed by Michael Custance, the 1986 TV film version of Jeremy Paul and Leslie Stewart's 1975 stage musical Scraps, which resets Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale in a Dickensian Christmas where the action and songs all take place in and around a London square. Yet despite starring such luminaries as Sir Michael Hordern (who introduces the movie) and Stratford Johns (as the Rich Man), The Who's lead singer/actor Roger Daltrey (Jebb Macklin, the little matchgirl's widowed father), model-turned-actress Twiggy (singer Josie Roberts), and veteran British comedian Jimmy Jewel (the Rich Man's butler), as well as introducing Natalie Morse in the title role, if known at all today it is due entirely to one particular song featured in it.

For when this song was brought to the attention of a certain Cliff Richard in 1988, it was instantly recorded by him (albeit with somewhat altered, more religious lyrics), and became not only the UK's Christmas #1 single for that year but also the bestselling single in the UK for that entire year. The song? 'Mistletoe and Wine'.

As for the movie, this is both moving and entertaining, and special mention must go to Russell Lee Nash, who plays the little matchgirl's slightly older friend Arthur with delightful Cockney charm. Equally, plaudits are due to Roger Daltrey, who plays her father, once quite the dandy but now, as described in the title of a song sung by him in the movie, reduced to a ragged man, near-penniless and an alcoholic, on account of his continued grief at the death of his wife, the matchgirl's mother.

Anyone who has read the original fairy story knows what a poignant tale 'The Little Matchgirl' is, and that it does not end happily (although a brief upbeat finale has been tagged onto it here in this movie musical), and the film retains this semi-tragic quality throughout. However, it is interspersed with several joyful and magical musical segments, and deserves very much to be revived on television, to become as much a festive favourite as The Snowman and The Wizard of Oz.

I am very happy indeed to have discovered The Little Matchgirl, a veritable gem of a film musical that was even nominated for an International Emmy in 1987, and so will you be if you watch it. So here is a clickable link to the entire movie as currently viewable for free on YouTube. I have since succeeded in purchasing it on DVD – it was earlier released on video too, as seen in this review's opening picture – so that even if it suddenly vanishes from YouTube, I shall still be able to rewatch it whenever I choose.) Finally: beginning at 43 min 53 sec into the movie is the original version of 'Mistletoe and Wine', featuring this song's nowadays rarely-heard, rather more secular lyrics than those in Cliff's modified version.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!