THE humbug will be flowing thick and fast when a brand-new production of A Christmas Carol comes to Hedingham Castle tonight.

The critically-acclaimed Pantaloons Theatre Company are putting their spin on Charles Dickens’ fantastical festive fable.

Cold-hearted, cantankerous, Christmas-hating curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge is feeling meaner than ever as the big day approaches.

He's been shunning his only living relative, underpaying his clerk and refusing to recognise the plight of the poor on Christmas Eve.

Scrooge is in for a rude awakening as timely visits from the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future try to show him the error of his ways.

But can the mean-fisted miser change before it's too late?

The Pantaloons are an anarchic theatre company who draw on a wide variety of popular theatre traditions, ranging from Italian commedia dell’arte comedy and pantomime to stand-up and silent movies.

Adapter and co-artistic director Mark Hayward said he wants the show to be moving as well as amusing.

“This new adaptation is very faithful to the text, but also very funny," he said.

"The trick to not undermining the heart of a book is to try to avoid sending up the text itself and instead focus on lampooning theatrical conventions.

“For this reason we have invented a troupe called the Pantaloons Penny Circus – a ragtag group of Victorian showpeople who, with very limited means, are attempting to stage the Dickens classic – with varied results!”

A Christmas Carol is at Hedingham Castle on Friday, December 6, at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £14 (£12.5 over-65s, £10 under-18s, under-fives free). There is a ten per cent discount on online bookings at hedinghamcastle.co.uk.