Worzel Gummidge is a celebration of the days when children could play out all day, carefree
The BBC’s offering for children this Christmas is so poor – whoever programmed the Christmas Eve triple bill of Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda Holiday and Kung Fu Panda 3 really needs to explain themselves – that a new episode of Worzel Gummidge shone out of the schedules. Mackenzie Crook’s revival was the highlight of television last Christmas, and he has returned this year with another episode.
The guest stars were Vanessa Redgrave, as an old woman living in a shipwreck on the beach, and the booming Brian Blessed wittily cast as a tiny scarecrow called Abraham Longshanks. It turned out that Longshanks had once been big, but had been cut down to size over the years. “Recognise your voice, though. Still sound like a giant,” said Worzel.
The plot revolved around the discovery of Saucy Nancy, a potty-mouthed ship’s figurehead, in a reclamation yard. In the 1980s TV series, Nancy was played by Barbara Windsor, and in this new version by Shirley Henderson. Crook clearly had fun devising Nancy’s insults: prepare for your children to be throwing “scabby duckflaps” around for a while.
Children Susan and John (India Brown and Thierry Wickens) were now settled at Scatterbrook Farm with the kindly Braithwaites. They set off on an adventure to the coast, Worzel in tow, to reunite Nancy with her ship. It was a throwback to a time when children could spend a day left to their own devices, with no adults in sight, although Crook did nod to the paranoia of today’s parents as Mr Braithwaite (Steve Pemberton) fretted that it was too dangerous for them to go out alone.
Why didn’t I love it quite as much as last year’s efforts? Perhaps because there was less focus on the countryside, as the plot took the characters away from Scatterbrook. And occasionally it felt as if Crook was being self-indulgent, rather than catering to a young audience: he is a huge fan of The Unthanks and their music is one of the loveliest things about the show, but did we really need a lengthy scene of the band performing in a pub? But you could feel the care and attention that went into crafting the episode, and let’s be grateful that the BBC commissioned this rather than fill the slot with Kung Fu Panda: Paws of Destiny.
