Worzel Gummidge Down Under - All Of Series 2 (DVD)

...and have never heard of Worzel Gummidge let me explain…(or check out my reviews about the early series…plug,…plug)

He is a simple scarecrow who was made by a rather magical Crowman in 1979 (ish).
Worzel first spent most of his early years living in a small village in Hampshire, intentionally made to scare the crows from Scatterbrook farm, but his curious nature makes him neglect his 'scaring' duties and is the reason for many ...
...story of the life of Worzel Gummidge, the lovable but very daft scarecrow who seems to find trouble where ever he goes.

* Anyway, back to the review at hand…


This two disc package contains 12 half hour episodes of the walking, talking scarecrow and his crazy, mischievous attitude to life
Mickey and Manu are still his young companions, (taking the place of Sue and John in the original 79-81 series) and ... more

Creators: Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
Directors: James Hill and Graham McLean
Writers: Willis Hall, Keith Waterhouse, Barbera Euphan Todd and Fran Walsh.

** MAIN STARS…* Jon Pertwee as Wozel Gummidge

• Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally
• Bruce Phillips as the Crowman
• Jonathon Marks as Mickey
• Olivia Ihimaera-Smiler as Manu

** Firstly…for those that have been living on Mars and have never heard of Worzel Gummidge let me explain…(or check out my reviews about the early series…plug,…plug)

He is a simple scarecrow who was made by a rather magical Crowman in 1979 (ish).
Worzel first spent most of his early years living in a small village in Hampshire, intentionally made to scare the crows from Scatterbrook farm, but his curious nature makes him neglect his 'scaring' duties and is the reason for many of his troubles.
He has several changes of heads, made from Turnips and Swedes, which he changes depending on what he has to do that day… such as a thinking head for thinking, a counting head for counting, a brave head for bravery and so on…
He has many 'friend' on and around Scatterbrook farm, such Dolly Clothes peg, (Lorraine Chase), Saucy Nancy, (Barbara Windsor), Sergeant Beetroot, (Bill Maynard) and his two young followers Sue, (Charlotte Coleman) and John (Jeremy Austin)…
Living on Scatterbrook farm is never quite so simple for the daft bag of straw as he is so besotted with an Aunt Sally…a wooden target used in fairgrounds…although she simply thinks of him as a scruffy flea infested sack of straw and a bit of a slave for her every whim, but regardless of how horrible she is to him he still chooses to follow her to the other side of the world… namely New Zealand, ( or Zoo Nealand as he calls it), and this is where this second 'Worzel Down Under' series continues…

Well, that's the basic story of the life of Worzel Gummidge, the lovable but very daft scarecrow who seems to find trouble where ever he goes.

* Anyway, back to the review at hand…

This two disc package contains 12 half hour episodes of the walking, talking scarecrow and his crazy, mischievous attitude to life
Mickey and Manu are still his young companions, (taking the place of Sue and John in the original 79-81 series) and Bruce Phillips continues as the New Zealand Crowman… (replacing Geoffrey Bayldons in the earlier shows)

BRIEF STORY….

This second and final in the ' Down Under' series, starring the lovable magical scarecrow, was released in 1989 and given a U certificate, as all Worzels should have been given.
It continues to follow the exploits of the scruffy and very daft Worzel as he persists in his ambitions to marry the love of his life, the very proud, and very wooden, Aunt Sally.

Aunt Sally had been bought by an antiques dealer and sent to a museum near Piwikawaka, a small village in New Zealand, (or Zoo Nealand as Worzel calls it..?), Worzel packed up his bags and followed the love of his life.
With the bumbling pair now stuck on the other side of the world the troubles continue to flow throughout the entire series…

** DOWN UNDER SERIES 2.…

* Brief rundown of what's on these DVDs…

* 1... Stage struck….
When Worzel tries to charm Aut Sally with bunches of flowers he is soon in trouble when the owner of the flowers catches him in the act, but things get even worse for him when Aunt Sally wants him to get some fertiliser with the promise of a kiss.

* 2... A red sky in't morning…
It's the end of the world, according to Worzel, when he wakes up to find a red sky in the morning..?

* 3... Them Thar Hills…
An American prospector, (played by David Telford), comes to town and takes Worzel hostage… unfortunately, things don't go right when worzel is left in charge of making the pancakes.

* 4... The Beauty contest…
Aunt Sally persuades some of the towns people to help her prepare for a beauty contest which she has entered… unfortunately the contest is not quite what she thought it would be..?

* 5... Bulbous cauliflower…
The Crowman gets Worzel to look after Bulbous Cauliflower, (played by David Weatherley), in the hope that he can make Bulbous remember what he was actually made for… to scare crows.

* 6... Weevily swede…
There's relationship trouble for Worzel when the 'handsome' Weevily Swede, (played by Peter Rowley), turns up and begins to charm Aunt Sally… much to the horror of the daft bag of straw.

* 7... Elementary my dear worty…
The crowman is far from happy when someone steals his treasured 'Golden Turnip' award

* 8... Dreams of Avarish…
Aunt Sally is her usual greedy self again when villainous scarecrow Bully Hayes, (played by Ian Watkin), turns up to search for some buried treasure.

* 9... Runaway train…
When Worzel and his new friend Blighty Tater, (played by Danny Mulheron) are caught eating all the strawberries the crowman has no option but to punish them both in the best way he knows how.

* 10... Aunt sally R.A. …
Worzel paints a picture which turns out to be quite impressive, son Aunt Sally does what she does best and steels it to claim it as her own work.

* 11... Water heart brush…
The local convent are battling hard againt an infestation of birds so they call on the crowman to make a special scarecrow, only Worzel has other ideas when he meets the new model after another rejection from Aunt Sally.

* 12... The bestest scarecrow…
The Crowman is in a hurry to build 3 scarecrows for the governor general but Worzel is being his usual irritating self

** Sadly, there are no extras on these DVDs but the episodes are enough to keep you happy.

*IN CONCLUSION…

Every time I watch this show I am soon thinking back to the late seventies/early eighties when the scruffy scarecrow first hit our screens, and although my eldest daughter wasn't even born then, (in fact she wasn't even a twinkle in my eye), she soon got into watching the entire series a few years ago when she happened upon her first DVD… she has not looked back since and I can hear her giggling as she watches this in her room…

This series is a brilliant finale to what is a harmless family entertaining show.
When Worzel Gummidge first came to the small screen in 1979 he soon became a popular household name for the two years he was on air. So when the makers decided to film a 'Down Under' series they realised that the audience wanted the old format to remain the same… sticking with Pertwee as the lovable but very dim witted scarecrow and Stubbs as the arrogant and rich-man seeking companion…( I feel changing these charactors would have made this 'down under' series fall flat on its face…).
Also, staying with the original format, they had introduced a couple of young kids, Manu and Mickey, who know of Worzel and Aunt Sally's ability to walk and talk but have to keep it secret… (Sue and John in the original)… and then there's the New Zealand Crowman who watches over the scarecrows and becomes instantly irritated by Worzels actions.

This final series is as good as any other with some cracking stories which will be enjoyed by all the family.
Each episode is as comically stupid as the last, my particular favourite from this series is between the Beauty contest as it really gives Una Stubbs a chance to show what she can do… and she does it so well… and 'Water heart brush' with the comical nuns and the 'big' chase scene..? But every episode is worth watching.

Worzel is still not totally Politically Correct, in fact he's not PC at all with many of his comments, but hey, he's a scarecrow with a turnip for a head, and at the end of the day he's a fictional character created to make people laugh and has never been intended to offend anyone, (apart form Aunt Sally of course).

Although this final series is, I fear, the end of the brilliant Worzel Gummidge as I know and begrudgingly admire, I am glad that my daughter insisted on completing the collection so I can watch which ever episode I want whenever I want.

In all, a brilliant finale to what is a very entertaining comedy indeed and is worth watching.
If you're interested then this series is available on www.amazon.co.uk for less than £8.00... (and check out the other DVDs starring the lovable, but very ugly, scarecrow). 

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