During the preparation of the TV movie, Ottavio Rosati (who played the role of Charles Dickens) dressed for eight months a nineteenth century costume with a cape and a top hat. He moved in Trastevere carrying on his shoulders the two parrots Cacatoa, Teto and Iside, with the approval of Don Matteo Zuppi, parish priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere, who had authorized him to move freely in all the spaces of the Basilica.
The producers of TV Rai Sat, a few days before the registration of the socioplay, decided (for economic reasons) to shoot the event in the "Teatro del Gusto" of Rai Sat Gambero Rosso instead of in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Ottavio Rosati, who until then had never made a television socioplay in a studio, objected. He knew that a commercial location would damage the spontaneity of the work from both the directorial and the psychodramatic point of view. A conflict arose that excluded Ottavio from post-production.
Rai Sat has broadcast the Dickens Christmas Carol socioplay four times a day from 24 to 27 December.
The Basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere is a large and artistic space that can be walked in all directions: at Christmas it offers a lunch for poor people before the Altar. It was the perfect space for the Dickens socioplay. But suddenly the berlusconian director of Gambero Rosso Channel obliged Rosati to transfer everything in "Il Teatro del Gusto" a luxury restaurant with the form of a small amphitheater full of tables and chairs where actors and cameramen moved with difficulty (in front there was a kitchen-stage for the First Chef; behind there was a large, perfectly equipped kitchen). This decision expressed the conflict between the world of greed of Epulone/Marley to the Spirit of Christmas that at the end of the story conquers Scrooge.
Despite the great success of critics and public of the Rai 3 "Da Storia Nasce Storia" in which Rosati in Turin had made 23 psychodramas without any script, the executive producers of Rai Sat were terrified by the lack of a precise shooting structure. The fact that the director gave importance to the spontaneous play, for some collaborator was a source of anxiety and fear.