Saturday 28 December 2019

No.271 : Worzel Gummidge (TV) (2019)




Look out scruffy kids - you’ll be getting a new nickname at school in the new year!

I always liked the creepy Jon Pertwee adaptation of the classic children’s books featuring the lively scarecrow, so I was interested to see were this reboot would go. Overall it was a good effort, but some elements had been sanitised and a few modern issues had been added in, in a not so subtle manner.

I’ve only seen the first episode which aired on Boxing Day 2019 with one more standalone story to follow. That one features Michael Palin as The Green Man, so that may be the pick of the litter.

Anyway, we open with two inner city kids heading into the countryside. We learn that they are foster children heading to a new home. It seemed a bit strange that they were travelling alone and that their new ‘parents’ weren’t exactly welcoming, but I guess twenty minutes of a social worker filling in forms and going through the house’s drawers would slow the narrative somewhat.

On the way in the boy, John, captures a scarecrow waving at him from a field on his phone - of course, his older sister Susan doesn’t believe him. On arrival they are met by grumpy foster Dad Steve Pemberton and his slightly nicer wife whom you’ll recognise off ‘Peep Show’, ‘Mid-Morning Matters’ etc. Farmer Pemberton says ‘Look what they sent us’ making us immediately wonder if he’s a big racist. Don’t worry, he’s only moaning about their weediness, meaning he’s in to child slave labour, which is seemingly OK.

The kids head off to Ten Acre Field where they encounter Worzel, played by Gareth from ‘The Office’. Worzel shouldn’t be talking to humans but he takes to the kids and lets them know he’s worried about the environment - the crops haven’t ripened as expected and the family of robins in his jacket are overdue their flight from the nest.

They establish from Aunt Sally that a key is needed to unlock the season and, after massing all of the local scarecrows, Worzel tries to save the day with the additional help of his erstwhile enemies, the crows.

This was good family fun with no real peril and a heavy handed message about saving the environment. To be honest I preferred the creepier Jon Pertwee version who was horny for Aunt Sally and who could change his turnip heads to suit his moods.

Gareth's Worzel was a bit more humble and naive and I think he could have done with being a bit more bombastic - I didn’t get the sense that scaring a crow was within his powers. The two kids were decent but didn’t really convey the wonder that a real life scarecrow would inevitably bring.

I did like the summoning of the other scarecrows and felt that this could have been developed more. Some of their designs were fun but we didn’t really meet any characters amongst them.

There was a long side quest were Worzel had to enlist the help of crows to gets some carrier bags out of a tree that was too heavy handed. As the twentieth bag was pushed by a bird into a recycling bin, even the most pissed up Christmas hangover induced viewer would be shouting ‘I get the message’ - I knew I was!

The design, music and feel of the show was reminiscent of ‘Detectorists’ which is no bad thing. I just wish they’d added a bit of edge or humour to make this more than just an educating outing for pre-teens.

Best Bit : Scarecrows Assemble!
W Rating 15/23

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