Reece Dinsdale returns to Leeds Playhouse to play Scrooge

Reece Dinsdale is Yorkshire acting royalty and is once again back at his spiritual home Leeds Playhouse taking on the iconic role of Ebenezer Scrooge in their festive version of A Christmas Carol.

The Normanton born actor played Jack Rover in what was then the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s very first production when they opened with Wild Oats, and since then he has starred in eight more shows at the Leeds theatre.

Away from the stage, where he also worked at the National Theatre, Reece began his successful TV career opposite John Thaw in the hit sitcom Home to Roost. He’s also appeared in Threads, Spooks, Life on Mars, Murder on Mind, Silent Witness and Ahead of the Class with Julie Walters. He has the rare distinction of being killed off in both Corrie and Emmerdale, but both soaps have welcomed him back to direct episodes.

A Christmas Carol was last performed at Leeds Playhouse as a socially distanced production in 2020 as the theatre world battled with the pandemic and is once again directed by Playhouse Deputy Artistic Director Amy Leach, with an adaption by another Corrie alumni Deborah McAndrew.

Paul Clarke caught up with Reece to find out how he intends to make the old miser his own on the massive Quarry stage where he has played so many times.

The role of Scrooge is so iconic, and ingrained, in our culture through films and TV shows, so what’s your history with this Dickens festive favourite?

You won’t believe this, but I got a head start in that I hadn’t read it until they offered me it. I know it’s ingrained as everybody knows who Scrooge is, even if you’ve not seen the movies, and you know the story. For one reason or another I hadn’t got around to seeing the films, or a production of A Christmas Carol. In some ways I think that’s for the best because I’m not living up to anybody else’s expectations of the character.

Lots of great actors from Alastair Sims to Micheal Caine and local lad Patrick Stewart have had a crack at Scrooge so how do you make him your own?

I can’t even worry myself about that. As an actor if I were to just ape other people’s performances, I’d probably fall short because it wouldn’t have any truth to it, I’m not really paying heed to anybody else. I’m taking Debbie McAndrew’s terrific adaptation, instructions from our director Amy, and my own Instinct. I’m running with that.

Given that you’re almost a Scrooge virgin, how are you finding your way into this incredibly complicated character?

As an actor you get a text that’s the blueprint for what you’re going to do. If it is well constructed, and uses a lot of the Dickens original stuff, you should be able to fight your way through it and find the truth of the thing.

The Playhouse has had a few goes at A Christmas Carol so what’s different this time?

When it was sold to me as a project, they said they’ve taken one liberty and taken it out of Dickensian London and placed it in the mills of late Victorian Yorkshire. So already we have this slightly different Scrooge from the one that was originally penned. We have a rich mill owner, and I have to make sense of him within that world.

What are you enjoying about inhibiting the miser who is scared half to death by three ghosts?

What I find fascinating about the role as much as anything is not the cliché here’s Scrooge, he’s a miser, and he’s got a screwed up face, and then he transforms into this bundle of joy and laughter. You’ve got to find how can a man become so full of joy and laughter, and be so generous, if there isn’t a kernel of something deep, deep, deep down in his past, in his psyche, that will allow that. He’s fertile ground for changing and the ghosts enable that.

Where is that kernel that unlocks Ebeneezer?

I’m nearly working backwards in that I’m discovering what journey he goes on. We go and see things in his early life, like his school life, his time as an apprentice, the love of his life. I’m seeing who he was, which is then going to feed into the man I am at the beginning.

The epic Playhouse shows have become one of the highlights of the Yorkshire Festive scene and are especially popular with families. So, will Scrooge young and old enjoy this show?

I’m basing it all in as much in truth as I possibly can, but there are rules within the game where there’s comedy in all that as well. You’re not going to get some deep Play For Today version of Scrooge, so you’re still going to get all the trimmings, and all the fun and joy. The pleasure for me is to move really quickly from this miserable old git, who is mean as a day is long, to playing with funny things, even poking fun at himself within the character.

Clearly Scrooge is not King Lear, but his tortured journey through this past and future does offer actors of a certain vintage a layered and rich role that will still push them.

It’s a fabulous role. I was doing a play about a guy with dementia in the summer at the Playhouse. Amy had seen all my Richard III and Master Builders, but said to me I know you can do all that. It’s only when I saw you playing the guy in Through It All Together that I did see you’ve got great empathy and a flair for comedy, and you could break our hearts with it. I jumped on it straight away as there’s something in there that speaks about mankind that I just had to do it.

Nine major roles at the Playhouse may be a record for one actor, so what keeps drawing you back?

I love this place. It was an honour for me back in 1990 to be asked to play the leading role in the very first production.  In fact, I remember asking my dad saying they’ve asked me to open this brand new theatre in Leeds, what do you think? He said: ‘get it done son, it’ll be like opening the batting for Yorkshire’.

A Christmas Carol is at Leeds Playhouse until Saturday 17th January 2026. To book www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk or 0113 2137700.