Arguably the best and funniest feel-good Christmas film of all time celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

The Muppet Christmas Carol, starring Michael Caine, hit our screens in 1992, two years after the death of Muppet creator Jim Henson.

American puppeteer and animator Jim lived in Devonshire Hill and created adored characters including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, before his death aged 53 in 1990.

He moved to Hampstead in 1979 after The Muppet Show was commissioned for British television and liked it so much he stayed.

In 1976 The Muppet Show, filmed at Elstree Studios, was racking up around 14 million viewers.

It went on to be broadcast in more than 100 countries and dubbed in five languages, with around 235 million people a week watching the show.

In 2021 Henson was immortalised in Hampstead history with a blue plaque outside his former Downshire Hill home.

The Muppet Christmas Carol, directed by his son Brian Henson, is a heartwarming magical musical comedy based around Charles Dickens' classic 1843 novella.

Caine plays miserable old miser Ebenezer Scrooge who on Christmas Eve is visited by the ghosts of his former business partners, Jacob and Robert Marley, played by Statler and Waldorf, who beg him to change his ways.

Gonzo the Great plays Dickens, Kermit is Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy his long-suffering wife, Emily.

Mr Fezziwig, Scrooge's mentor in the book is changed to Fozziwig in the film and is played by Fozzie Bear in a wig.

Jim's son Brian Henson, who directed the film told the Huffington Post: “I was terrified. Honestly, I didn’t even want to direct it. 

"I wanted Frank Oz [the performer behind Muppets characters like Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Sam Eagle] to direct it. 

"And he wouldn’t! But he said he would be on set with me all the way through, and he was.

“It was a pretty quick shoot, but Frank was enormously helpful and supportive. When Frank said, ‘I think this is good’, that meant a lot – because Frank is not somebody who easily says that."

In honour of its 30th anniversary, a restored version of the film is hitting the streaming service Disney+, including the previously-absent musical number When Love Is Gone, restored in high-definition for the first time.

Those who don't have a Disney + subscription can catch screenings at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square.