Worzel Gummidge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Worzel Gummidge | |
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| Genre | Children's television series |
| Creator(s) | Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, based on characters created by Barbara Euphan Todd |
| Starring | See cast below |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom (1979-81), New Zealand (1987-89) |
| No. of episodes | 30 plus one Christmas Special (UK); 22 (New Zealand) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Southern Television for ITV (1979-81); Toti Productions for Channel 4 (1987); Creative Arts for Channel 4 (1989) |
| Original run | 1979 – 1989 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Worzel Gummidge is a British children's character, a walking, talking scarecrow, who originally appeared in a series of books by Barbara Euphan Todd. Worzel first showed up in 1947 on the BBC's Children's Hour with Worzel played by veteran radio actor Philip Wade, John by John Clark, Susan by Rosamund Barnes, and Earthy Mangold by Mabel Constanduros. Later, Worzel came to be played by the late Denis Folwell, who was to find fame as Jack Archer in the BBC's perennial soap opera The Archers.
A television adaptation of Worzel Gummidge was produced by Southern Television for ITV, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, and starring Jon Pertwee as Worzel and Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally, a life-size fairground doll. The Crowman, who made Worzel and some of his other scarecrow friends, is played by Geoffrey Bayldon (better known for his starring role as the title character of Catweazle). Occasional guest appearances were made by Barbara Windsor as Saucy Nancy, a ship's figurehead and Lorraine Chase as Dolly Clothes-peg a shop window mannequin. Four series totalling 30 episodes and one extended Christmas special, were made between 1979 and 1981, when Southern lost its franchise. The new franchise-holder, TVS, was not interested in renewing the show (despite a massive press campaign led by the Daily Star) and a deal with HTV fell through. Pertwee and Stubbs also starred in the musical 'Worzel Gummidge' in 1981 at the Birmingham Rep.
The programme remained in limbo until Television New Zealand commissioned Worzel Gummidge Down Under in 1987, which was shot in New Zealand and ran for two series totalling a further 22 episodes. Only Pertwee and Stubbs remained from the original cast, with Bruce Phillips joining the cast as the Crowman (Geoffrey Bayldon declined to re-create the role, partly because he didn't want to be type-cast in the part, but partly because he didn't want to work so far away from home) and Olivia Ihimaera-Smiler, daughter of prominent Maori author Witi Ihimaera joining as one of the children.
Series two of Worzel Gummidge Down Under was written by a rotation of New Zealand writers, while everything that had gone before was entirely the work of Waterhouse and Hall. Jon Pertwee was unhappy with the scripts for the sequel, which he stated did not have "the underlying morality" of the originals. Aunt Sally found herself a human boyfriend in this new series, which infuriated Pertwee - he considered this beneath the series[citation needed]. These are interesting comments given that, in series 3 of the original Worzel Gummidge, Aunt Sally goes on a dinner date with the strong man at the fairground where both she and Worzel are working! Although trying to laugh the programme's deficiencies off, Pertwee was not happy and said that when Michael Grade, newly appointed head of Channel 4 which co-financed the programme, ordered its axing "...I was dry eyed."[citation needed]
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[edit] Storyline
Worzel Gummidge is a scarecrow who gets bored standing at his post in Ten Acre Field and often wanders into the village of Scatterbrook to see what's going on - and to see what mischief he can get up to! In the first episode he befriends a pair of children, John and Sue Peters, who spend most of the next four series trying to clear up the messes he creates. Charlotte Coleman (Sue) went on to secure considerable achievements in the acting profession. Mystery surrounds Austin's current whereabouts, but he went on to play Humphrey in the BBC children's drama Jonny Briggs.
Worzel's gimmick was a set of interchangeable turnip heads (the idea of Jon Pertwee, it is said), each head allowing Worzel to perform a certain skill or to suit a particular occasion. Should Worzel be required to sing, for example, he would put on his singing head. Worzel's catchphrase is "A cup o’ tea an’ a slice o’ cake”, two things he will never refuse if offered! He is madly in love with Aunt Sally, a cruel-hearted fairground doll who considers herself a lady and far too good for a common scarecrow such as Worzel. The reality is Aunt Sally has no more intelligence than Worzel, and won't hesitate to exploit him for her own ends (in one episode, promising to marry him if he frees her from a junkshop washing machine, but she never has any intention of going through with it and jilts him at the "altar").
The subtext of the move to New Zealand in Down Under was that Aunt Sally is purchased by an antiques dealer visiting from New Zealand. At the airport, Worzel spots Aunt Sally going down the luggage chute and throws himself in after her; they make the long journey to Wellington together in the plane's hold!
A good deal of the show's entertainment value came from the interaction between Worzel and Sally, played with relish by Pertwee and Stubbs. Pertwee is virtually unrecognisable due to the make-up that was applied to him in a gruelling six hour process every day - and the audience is invited to cry along as much with Worzel as laugh as him. It's not for nothing that he has often been referred to as "the tragi-comic scarecrow." Upon Pertwee's death in 1996, Una was to comment "He was a big man in every way."
[edit] Cast
| Jon Pertwee - Worzel |
| Una Stubbs - Aunt Sally |
| Geoffrey Bayldon - The Crowman |
| Jeremy Austin - John |
| Charlotte Coleman - Sue |
| Mike Berry - Mr Peters |
| Norman Bird - Mr Braithwaite |
| Megs Jenkins - Mrs Braithwaite |
| Joan Sims - Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton (series 1 and 2) |
| Michael Ripper - Mr Shepherd |
| Barbara Windsor - Saucy Nancy |
| Lorraine Chase - Dolly Clothes-Peg |
| Billy Connolly - Bogle McNeep (Christmas special) |
| Bernard Cribbins - Jolly Jack |
| Thorley Walters - Colonel Bloodstock (series 3 and 4) |
| Bruce Phillips - The Crowman (Down Under) |
| Jonathan Marks - Mickey (Down Under) |
| Olivia Ihimaera-Smiler - Manu (Down Under) |
| Wi Kuki Kaa - Travelling Scarecrow Maker (Down Under) |
| Maria James - Eloise (Down Under; alternated role in series 2 with Olivia Ihimaera-Smiler as Manu) |
[edit] Episode list
[edit] WORZEL GUMMIDGE (1979-1981)
[edit] Series One
- Worzel's Washing Day
- A Home Fit For Scarecrows
- Aunt Sally
- The Crowman
- A Little Learning
- Worzel Pays A Visit
- The Scarecrow Hop
[edit] Series Two
- Worzel and the Saucy Nancy
- Worzel's Nephew
- A Fishy Tale
- The Trial of Worzel Gummidge
- Very Good Worzel
- Worzel In The Limelight
- Fire Drill
- The Scarecrow Wedding
[edit] Series Three
- Moving On
- Dolly Clothes-Peg
- A Fair Old Pullover
- Worzel The Brave
- Worzel's Wager
- The Return of Dafthead
- Captain Worzel
- Choir Practice
[edit] Christmas Special
A Cup O'Tea and a Slice Of Cake (27/12/1980, repeated 25/12/1981)
[edit] Series Four
- Muvver's Day
- The Golden Hind
- Will The Real Aunt Sally..?
- The Jumbly Sale
- The Return Of Dolly Clothes-Peg
- Worzel In Revolt
- Worzel's Birthday
[edit] WORZEL GUMMIDGE DOWN UNDER
[edit] Series One (1987)
- As The Scarecrow Flies
- The Sleeping Beauty
- Full Employment
- Worzel's Handicap
- King of the Scarecrows
- Worzel to the Rescue
- Slave Scarecrow
- The Traveller Unmasked
- A Friend In Need
[edit] Series Two (1989)
- Stage Struck
- A Red Sky In T'Morning
- Them Thar Hills
- The Beauty Contest
- Balbous Cauliflower
- Weevily Swede
- Elementary My Dear Worty
- Dreams Of Avarish
- The Runaway Train
- Aunt Sally, R.A.
- Wattle Hearthbrush
- The Bestest Scarecrow
[edit] Trivia
- There was dreadful inconsistency in Worzel's ability or non-ability to pronounce certain words. He would often struggle with "bonfire" or "compost heap" (though for perhaps understandable reasons), yet when he meets Aunt Sally he protests: "I ain't snivellin'! It's me rheumaticky eyes what's waterin'!"
- Aunt Sally's final appearance in Down Under was two episodes before the end, and her appearances this series were less than previously.
- Worzel's Song, sung by Jon Pertwee, was released at the height of the original series' popularity. Less remembered is Worzel's second single, warning children about the danger of strangers, released in 1987.
- Jon Pertwee's final TV appearance as Worzel was in 1995, to celebrate 40 years of CITV.
- The prologue of Worzel Gummidge Down Under, where Worzel is apparently still in England and follows Aunt Sally to the airport, was actually shot in New Zealand with the rest of the series. NZ actors play the "English" characters, but lip service is played to Aunt Sally's former owner, Mr Shepherd, and Worzel's old standing ground Ten-Acre Field.
