Worzel Gummidge (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Worzel and other scarecrows spoke Worzelese, a language where words are spelled out letter-by-letter with 'wor' appended to each; words of three letters or less had 'dip' appended, while longer words ended with 'zel'.
• A stage musical adaptation titled Worzel Gummidge - The Musical premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre for the 1980 Christmas season and later transferred to the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End.
• British Labour Party leader Michael Foot was satirically compared to Worzel Gummidge in the early 1980s as a criticism of his allegedly unkempt appearance.

Outline

The 1978 television series Worzel Gummidge was made by Southern Television for the ITV network. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall wrote the show, which cast Jon Pertwee, known for playing Doctor Who, as the title scarecrow. Una Stubbs played Aunt Sally, a life-sized fairground doll who Worzel loves. This was a major shift from the original books, where Aunt Sally is Worzel’s relative and he is married to Earthy Mangold, a character not included here.

Geoffrey Bayldon, famous for playing Catweazle, took the role of the Crowman, the creator of Worzel and other scarecrows. Many well-known television actors appeared regularly or as guests, including Barbara Windsor, Billy Connolly, Bill Maynard, Joan Sims, John Le Mesurier, Jimmy Jewel, Lorraine Chase, Bernard Cribbins, Connie Booth, Thorley Walters, Jonathan Cecil, David Lodge, Mike Reid, and Beryl Reid. According to Jon Pertwee’s memoirs, the project started as a film idea by Waterhouse and Hall about scarecrows rebelling against farmers, similar to the Peasants’ Revolt.

Producer Gareth Wigan approached Pertwee for the lead. When the film could not get funding, Pertwee suggested making a television pilot instead. His agent pitched it to Shaun Sutton at the BBC, who thought it was “too way out,” and to Philip Jones at Thames Television, who also declined. Pertwee nearly gave up hope, but Lewis Rudd at Southern Television heard about it and eagerly agreed to produce the series.

Storyline

Worzel Gummidge was a living scarecrow who resided in Ten Acre Field and made regular trips to the nearby hamlet of Scatterbrook. He counted two local children, John and Sue Peters, as his friends; they were siblings who spent much of their time sorting out the trouble he caused. Instead of a single head, Worzel kept a set of interchangeable ones carved from turnips, mangelwurzels, and swedes, swapping them depending on the situation or task at hand.

He had his own private language, Worzelese, and was known for saying things like "A cup o' tea an' a slice o' cake," "I'll be bum-swizzled," and "Bozzy MCoo." His great love was Aunt Sally, a fairground coconut-shy doll who was both vain and cruel. She thought herself far above a mere scarecrow and frequently used Worzel for her own benefit—once, she offered to marry him if he rescued her from a washing machine in a junkshop, though she never meant to keep that promise.

The Crowman once explained that Aunt Sallys come in both good and bad varieties. When the series moved to New Zealand, the story went that a museum curator bought Aunt Sally, and Worzel followed her through a luggage chute.

Episode list

The first episode, "Worzel's Washing Day" (25 February 1979), introduces the Peters family moving into a caravan on Scatterbrook Farm, where John and Sue meet Worzel Gummidge. In "A Home Fit for Scarecrows" (4 March 1979), John and Sue offer Worzel a proper chair if he teaches them Worzelese, leading him to steal furniture from villagers. "Aunt Sally" (11 March 1979) sees Worzel visiting the village fête to see his intended, Aunt Sally, who persuades him to exchange places so she can escape being sold to a museum.

"The Crowman" (18 March 1979) has Worzel begging his creator for a handsome head to get a wife, learning that inner beauty matters more. "A Little Learning" (25 March 1979) involves Worzel searching for his Clever Head and being mistaken for a genius at school. "Worzel Pays a Visit" (1 April 1979) features Worzel calling on Aunt Sally, who pretends to be the lady of the house. "The Scarecrow Hop" (8 April 1979) has Worzel asking Aunt Sally to a charity ball after she is sacked.

In "Worzel and the Saucy Nancy" (6 January 1980), Worzel stows away to the seaside, meets a ship's figurehead named Saucy Nancy, and rescues Aunt Sally from a fairground. "Worzel's Nephew" (13 January 1980) introduces Pickles Bramble, Worzel's delinquent nephew who bullies him into doing farm work.

Home media releases

Several DVD and Blu-ray releases exist, including a Region 4 box set of Series 1–4 and the Christmas Special, and Region 2 UK sets combining Series 1–4, the Christmas Special, and Down Under. In 2018, the original film negatives were located and catalogued by researchers Richard Latto and Stuart Manning, having been thought lost for many years. The Christmas Special "A Cup o' Tea and a Slice o' Cake" was restored from these negatives and released on DVD. A fully restored Blu-ray of Series 1–4 was released on 26 December 2022 in Region B, followed by a restored edition of Down Under on 23 November 2023, and a combined harvest edition on the same date.