"And that you knocked off my 'at with a potato! How d'you plead?"

"And that you knocked off my 'at with a potato! How d'you plead?"

Having done this blog for a while now, I've started to devote more thought to the screencaps, and going through 'The Trial Of Worzel Gummidge' (first transmitted 27th January 1980) again to search for individual images highlights just how good a production it is.

With the show now well into its second series, director James Hill is pulling out all the stops and rightly pushing it towards the horror and general spookiness that make the original books so memorable from my childhood.

When the Crowman summons his creations to stand trial over poor old Worzel, the way it is shot clearly implies that the walking dead are on the march. The tolling bell on the soundtrack, the lurching, shambling creatures that creak and clank... If this was done as night filming, you'd have a full scale zombie film on your hands.

Geoffrey Bayldon is an incredibly powerful figure here - Worzel is rightly terrified at the prospect of being dug into the compost heap.

In a brief cutaway shot, even the normally heartless Aunt Sally seems to think that with this sentence, maybe things have gone too far...

An amusing turn from Bill Maynard as the straw-shedding Sergeant Beetroot helps to lighten the mood a bit, but as we say in our article in Episode Ten, when it comes to Horror per minute, 'The Trial Of Worzel Gummidge' knocks 'The Trial Of A Time Lord' into a cocked hat.

It's interesting how many young viewers at the time were scared by 'Worzel Gummidge' and 'Trial' (along with such figures as Frank Malborough's grotesque Dafthead) is a fine example of nightmare fuel.

So hurrah for Jon Pertwee and his portrayal of Ten Acre Field's finest, but hurrah also to the production team. It might have been shown at 5.30, but this isn't just kids' stuff.

Pleasant dreams, everyone!


(By Andrew Trowbridge)

PS: And don't forget... Worzel says never, ever talk to a stranger...