A Cup O' Tea An' A Slice O' Cake

A Cup O' Tea An' A Slice O' Cake

The BBC and ITV schedues for 27th December 1980 make little allowance for you to switch from one to the other, with shows overlapping all night, so if you started on the BBC with 'Basil's Christmas Cruise', you probably stuck around for 'It's A Christmas Knockout', 'Bugsy Malone' and 'The Dick Emery Christmas Show'.

But if ITV's 'Search For A Star', 'The Prince And The Pauper' and 'The Professionals : It's Only A Beautiful Picture' were your shows of choice that evening, then you were probably lured in by 'A Cup O' Tea An' A Slice O' Cake'...

The 'TV Times' blurb describes it as an 'all-singing, all-dancing 'Worzel Gummidge' special' though that's not strictly true as there's at least a partial plot and even a few touching moments for good measure.

It's got an absolutely wonderful cast (even if 'TV Times' do seem to get a trifle confused when it comes to telling the difference between Una Stubbs and Barbara Windsor) and Billy Connolly's appearance even manages to shed some light on what happens when scarecrows accidentally swap heads.

I honestly can't remember if I watched it in 1980, and I'm not even sure if I've seen it all the way through before today, but we thoroughly enjoyed this festive reminder of how fantastic a series 'Worzel Gummidge' is.

And if you were living in Lymington when it was filmed, rest assured that all that inconvenience with the fake snow that wouldn't go away was well worth it!

Our video about 'A Cup O' Tea An' A Slice O' Cake' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)