Worzel Gummidge

As a child, I found scarecrows a little bit too creepy but by the time I was an adult and watched this show, I soon forgot about the creepy scarecrows you see in fields and enjoyed this show.

The late Jon Pertwee played scarecrow Worzel Gummidge who lived on Scatterbrook Farm (I think that was the name of the farm). Joining him were the likes of Una Stubbs as his girlfriend and Carry On... favourite Barbara Windsor.

The show itself was fun as Worzel got up to all sorts of adventures, scrapes and the like. Jon Pertwee did a great job with Worzel who is probably one of the funniest characters ever.

This is the perfect show for kids today. You can put on a video of this show for your kids and let them watch safe in the knowledge there will be no sex, bad language or violence. Worzel Gummidge didn't need to do it's best to be entertaining-it was just entertaining, period.

This is a fantastic children's TV programme. It's about the title character; a walking, talking, messy, clumsy scarecrow called Worzel who comes to life in Scatterbrook Farm. This programme includes a fine cast including Geoffrey Bayldon, Charlotte Coleman, Mike Berry and Una Stubbs as the ONE AND ONLY Aunt Sally (Worzel's INTENDED!) Fantastic show and a 10/10 job no question!!

No, its not, and it does seem quite old fashioned compared to todays television.

What it hasn't lost though is its very genuine innocent and gentle charm and humour. Worzel Gummidge was hugely popular with all ages, and Worzel's (Jon Pertwee) naive innocence was quite touching. Aunt Sally (Una Stubbs) was excellent, and so was Barbara Windsor in the episodes that she appeared in.

I don't know what Pertwee was like to work with in the series, as apparently when he was Dr Who he was allegedly very difficult. Ah well, its nice to see a perfectionist in whatever role he is playing.

When the series moved to New Zealand I personally felt that was not a good step as it became more darker - I believe a couple of episodes had zombies in them. Oh dear.

As a child I only vaguely remember this show (I was born in '82). About 6 years ago I found a charity shop bundle of VHS videos of this franchise, bought the lot and instantly fell in love with what became a new favourite !

Essentially it's quite a basic plot. 2 kids their single father go to live in a caravan on a farm. The field's scarecrow comes to life in the form of an illiterate but lovable and hilarious character 'Worzel Gummidge'. He is constantly amorously pursuing the local antique 'Aunt Sally', also a living being, alongside his other chief passion of 'A Cup O' Tea And A slice O' Cake' ! Always up to mischief, the kids and Worzel's creator 'The Crowman' have to guide him through his adventures, making sure he doesn't get into trouble !

As well as highly comical, the show is also highly aesthetically beautiful and culturally idyllic. Set in rural Kent, the intimacy of tender fields and garden-like countryside, alongside a score of gentle, easy instrumental music gives the show a natural, traditional, serene and idyllic cultural bliss - there's next to no reference to contemporary popular culture.

The cast are quite notable too. The late Jon Pertwee plays the clumsy scatterbrained Worzel, Una Stubbs as the arrogant, deluded, greedy but charming Aunt Sally, the late Charlotte Coleman (an unrecognisable, dark featured 'Scarlet' from 4 weddings...) as young Sue, and Jeremy Austen as her brother John (otherwise only known for a brief role in Red Dwarf !) Guest appearances include Barbara Windsor, Anthony Sharpe + Connie Booth.

Overall, this show, both entertaining and cultural, is an often overlooked gem that should be seen by today's kids amidst a sea of internet degeneracy and apologies for shows. Not to forget the late-80s spin-off series, 'Worzel Gummidge Down Under', which I think I remember vaguely seeing back in the day !

Far from being a cosy 'kids in the country' piece, this is a show with a dark heart; not evil, but dark like the stress and strangeness of childhood. As a kid I found it a little bit scary; I'm not sure that was the intention, but it's the result of the intense performances. Worzel is no Stan Laurel type, accident-prone but basically benign; he's a demon of chaos like Harpo Marx, intent on his own desires and not caring about anything else. He's like a young child, not understanding the world, inside a big, unwieldy and weird-looking adult's body, His terror of the shamanic Crow Man makes the latter seem frightening; his emotional torture at the hands of Aunt Sally makes her seem positively malevolent. But really she doesn't need any help; Una Stubbs makes her the most witheringly, ferociously scornful character ever to appear on screen. If the Crow Man is a shaman, she's an evil witch - and yet she, too, is simply someone who has never had bounds set to her selfishness.

It's a sad symptom of the times that the new Mackenzie Crook version has taken all these darker elements out. Increasingly we live in a Dorian Gray world, getting nastier and nastier - but we can't face the nastiness, which is kept anonymous and out of sight, while the more visible aspects of popular culture become completely sanitised.

As a grown-up, though, I can better appreciate the fun support playing by an excellent cast including the likes of Mike Berry, Bill Maynard and Joan Sims, and the comic mayhem which is like those classic pre-war comedies. And in the middle of all that there's also the sense that the scarecrows are of the soil, Green Men, representatives of an England that is now gone.

As for the kids: once the set-up is over, they're hardly in it!