I Watch TV: Worzel Gummidge

Worzel Gummidge

Last year Mackenzie Crook created two episodes of genuinely magical kids TV for this. They planned to make another two for this Christmas but apparently covid stopped that so we only get one.

The kids and Worzel come across Saucy Nancy, a former ship’s figurehead in a reclamation warehouse and she claims she can hear her ship. So they go off on an adventure to try and take her to the coast at Seashell (apparently three miles away). The bus timetable seems very modern (“The next bus? Wednesday.”) The bus itself is an open-topped double-decker routemaster in white, with a conductor, which is somewhat less modern. Nancy herself swears a lot though its not actual swearwords but kids TV insults using not-really-rude obscure dictionary words, and there are a couple of moments when she is drowned out by machinery.

If this doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first two, what it does manage is to create a similar magical experience with a minor story, something less large scale than putting the seasons right or discussing the state of the world with the Green Man. Or to put it another way, this seems in safe hands with Mackenzie Crook.

Watch This: For some cool kids TV
Don’t Watch This: Maybe next year there will be 4 or even 5 episodes in total and we can finally commit to it