There's a discreet chance it might have originated over Gloria Hendry's cruel demise by a remote controlled scarecrow in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), but if ever a medium administered unexpected formidophobia to a young, urban audience then it would have undoubtedly been the children's television series Worzel Gummidge. Based upon Barbara Euphan Todd's children's books, the show about Worzel, an endearing dim-witted scarecrow, played by ex-Doctor Who Jon Pertwee, would wind up in a series of scrapes and adventures during its original run.
It was bad enough having to witness the constant beratement by his object of desire, Aunt Sally (Una Stubbs), an uppity and rude, life-sized fairground doll; but seeing him endlessly disembowled and headless during many altercations, or wearing one of his alternate creepy looking heads was positively frightening for a young whippersnapper like me back in the day.
Worzel and Sally weren't the only inanimate humanoid creations come to life, there was an ensemble of other characters who would appear on the show, including personal favourites: ship's figurehead Saucy Nancy (Barbara Windsor); Worzel's Sid Vicious inspired nephew Pickles Bramble; and Jolly Jack (Bernard Cribbins), a fish and chip shop figurehead. Those were the ones that looked half normal; the rest of Worzel's fear mongering kind were a motley bunch who resembled something between Edward Lionheart's mob of meths drinkers in Theatre of Blood (1973) and the typical crumbly rotten variety in Lucio Fulci's zombie films. Pure terror.
The series eventually wound up on the otherside of the world when it was relaunched and filmed in New Zealand as Worzel Gummidge Down Under (1987 - 1989), which I have no memory of. It was resurrected once more, this time by the BBC in 2019 with that scrawny bloke Mackenzie Crook from The Office. No idea if it was any good, though.
Coincidentally, around the same time as the original series, the classic television movie, Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) came along. Sadly it spawned a sequel earlier this year. Is nothing sacred?
The reboot is pretty good tbf. Crook makes a good scarecrow.
ReplyDeleteThe first toy I ever remember having was the mini Worzel Gummidge with the 3 detachable heads.
Ha! I had that toy too. I think it cost £5 in Argos.
ReplyDeleteThe Gen X toy arc: from Worzel Gummidge to Star Wars to Action Force.
ReplyDeleteAKA the Red Shadows equivalent of Captain Black.
ReplyDeleteI was obsessed with Action Force because it had the best tie-in comic and the best villains with Baron Ironblood & his Red Shadows.
Was the comic any good? I know a bunch of legendary British comicbook writers and artists worked on Battle / Action Force, but I was only ever familiar with their works via 2000AD. Been casually checking for any trade paperback reprints whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteThe comics were great. The story where Baron Ironblood became Cobra Commander after the Action Force and G.I Joe toy lines merged in the U.K was iconic for me ��
ReplyDeleteAll the comics are archived here:
http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/comics/baf/index.html
Cheers for the link.
ReplyDeleteG.I. Joe came a bit too late for me, but I always appreciated just how cool some of the characters looked, like Destro and Snake Eyes.
I always wondered if Destro was inspired by Caliban in Star Fleet?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't surprise me if it were.
ReplyDeleteAnother American toy company at the time, Mattel, got in a legal dispute over copyright infringement relating to the Conan and Kull I.Ps. They surprisingly won. Looked obvious to me, though.
You are not wrong there.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of a movie called Doppelgänger1969). All the recent Gerry Anderson related talk, along with its cast, piqued my curiosity for the film.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of it, but it looks good dunnit?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. A Gerry Anderson produced sci-fi adventure with Ian Hendry and Patrick Wymark starring in it, is very promising. Gonna have to check it out.
ReplyDelete