THE Royal Shakespeare Company’s festive offering this year will have a truly Christmas feeling about it.

Casting has just been announced for the RSC’s new adaptation - by David Edgar - of Charles Dickens’ ever-popular tale about Scrooge, Christmas Past, and Future, the Cratchits and Tiny Tim - A Christmas Carol.

The play will open at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre on November 27 and run through to February 4 next year.

This is Edgar’s first Dickens adaptation since the multi-award winning production of Nicholas Nickleby in the 1980s.

Popular television star Phil Davis plays Ebenezer Scrooge, known for his extensive TV credits, which most recently include Riviera, Poldark and Whitechapel and numerous roles in police series.

He has a long association with Mike Leigh, one of his most well-known parts being Stanley in the award-winning Vera Drake.

Further casting includes Nicholas Bishop (Charles Dickens); Tom Byrne (Slingshot); Gerard Carey (Bob Cratchit); Sally Cheng (Katherine/Belinda Cratchit); A Christmas Carol is directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis with lighting by Tim Mitchell. Music is by Catherine Jayes and sound by Fergus O’Hare. Movement is by Georgina Lamb.