The Muppet Christmas Carol: A festive classic's dark backdrop

The Muppet Christmas Carol was first released on 11 December 1992. Gregory Wakeman finds out how grief and addiction helped shape a film that still has a huge following 30 years on.

When Brian Henson was hired to direct The Muppet Christmas Carol, he was terrified.

"I didn't want to do it," Henson its to BBC Culture. He had good reason, too. Not only was this his feature film debut as a director, but he was stepping into the shoes of his father Jim Henson, the puppeteer and filmmaker who had created the Muppets and turned them into pop culture icons, before tragically dying at the age of 53 in May 1990.

"We'd lost Jim. We were all really still mourning," says Steve Whitmire, who, like Brian, was tasked with replacing Jim Henson in The Muppet Christmas Carol, this time by voicing and puppeteering Kermit the Frog. "We were also just trying to move forward. We were not completely sure whether we would. That's one of the most interesting things about the film on the inside, it was really a bit of a test. Could we continue without Jim">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });