Television

This marriage of the highs and lows of life brings us to the most mainstream manifestations of Rossetti’s carol today: its appearances in BBC television (spoiler warning!). “In the bleak mid-winter” becomes a recurring theme in Peaky Blinders, a period drama revolving around a 1910s Birmingham gang. In the pilot episode, Tommy, the protagonist, recites the first line of the poem immediately before shooting another man in the head. In moments of near-death throughout the series, Tommy and other main characters recite the same line. By contrast, the first verse of the song is performed by a small boy’s choir at Tommy’s wedding. It’s a joyful moment, but in the context of the rest of the show, the carol draws attention to the contrast of light and darkness in Tommy’s life. In the fourth season, Tommy finally explains why he always recites this carol. During World War I, having watched other soldiers die before their eyes, Tommy and his companions had found themselves "cut off from the retreat, no bullets left, waiting for the Prussian calvary to come and finish us off. And while we waited Jeremiah said we should sing 'In the bleak mid-winter.'" Tommy remarks, “But we were spared. The enemy never came. And we all agreed that everything after that was extra.” So “In the bleak mid-winter” comes to mean memento mori, an awareness of one’s own mortality and an expression of gratitude for life, even if in the case of Tommy and his peers, such an awareness is complicated by crime and guilt.

The Crown’s usage of “In the bleak mid-winter” is perhaps more conventional, but still as affecting. In one of the first few episodes, carollers gather to perform “In the bleak mid-winter” for the royal family. There is a pause during the performance, and a young girl steps forward to give a paper crown to the gravely-ill King George VI, who earlier in the episode had been short-tempered and perturbed. As a soprano begins the final verse, King George places the paper crown on his head and joins the carollers in song. When the carol ends he begins to cry and offers his thanks to the singers. He knows that this will be his last Christmas, but the carol is a source of comfort that also brings him into fellowship with the people who sing it. As in Peaky Blinders, the carol is a reminder of one’s mortality, but here the carol is sung in full and the glory of its message is conveyed. Rather than brooding over his affliction or using it as justification to harm others, King George is inspired to find peace in the present moment, especially through the gift of community. The scene’s final image of George surrounded by loved ones reflects Holst’s design for his setting: “In the bleak mid-winter” unifies those who sing it.