Some people cowered in fear when they saw Mackenzie Crook don terrifying make-up for last year’s reboot of Worzel Gummidge.
Like a sentient turnip come to exact revenge on the farmer who plucked his neep pals from a field, his Worzel looked as if he’d shambled from a Hammer Horror movie set in the Cotswolds.
I too shrank away from the new Worzel but then I remembered being utterly terrified of the classic series, too.
Especially when he swapped heads. What was that about? Did his new head retain memories? Did all the heads get a shot at driving Worzel’s body?
Still, you couldn’t help but tune in to see Worzel every week because it was so compelling. And so is Mackenzie Crook’s modern version, which has the same bucolic appeal he brought to sublime sitcom The Detectorists.
This time Worzel chances upon Saucy Nancy, his old pal who is the carved figurehead of a ship, languishing in a scrapyard. The sea maiden is a little foul-mouthed, but thankfully these curses are mostly of the nodwipe and son of a clotheshorse variety of gibberish – this is a family adventure after all.
In a meandering plot, Worzel and pals take Nancy back to the coast.
The best thing about this tale, when we’re all mostly locked up, is getting outdoors. And that itself was a turnip for the books.
Worzel Gummidge is available to watch on BBC iPlayer
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe