Worzel Gummidge began life as a 1936 children's book called Worzel Gummidge or The Scarecrow of Scatterbrook by British author Barabara Euphan Todd. It tells the story of two kids who are staying at a farm in the country and meet Worzel Gummidge, the farm's scarecrow who can come to life. Nine other books were written by Todd; she later penned a radio show featuring the character and a 4-episode TV show for The BBC in 1953.
The character's biggest success would come several years after Todd's death, in a live-action TV series starring former Doctor and childhood fan of the original books, Jon Pertwee. The show lasted four seasons in the UK and an additional two were made in New Zealand. The Pertwee series had many radical changes from Todd's original stories, such as eliminating his wife, a scarecrow named Earthy Mangold and making another supporting character, Aunt Sally, who was his real Aunt in books, his one-sided love interest, and adding the Crow Man, Worzel's creator. Worzel would become more identified with Pertwee than even the Doctor, to the point where when the Holy Spirit received his body at Putney Vale Cemetery following his death in 1996, a Worzel figurine went with him.
A new series closer to the original books was made in 2019 with Mackenzie Crook starring in the lead role and two episodes were produced, followed by a third in 2020. A fourth episode was also set to air in 2020, but production was halted due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The episode, along with two more, were broadcasted in 2021.
Worzel Gummidge provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Worzel is this to Aunt Sally.
- Accidental Misnaming: Mr Peters calls Aunt Sally "Auntie Annie", then "Auntie Nancy".
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the books, Worzel was married to Earthy Mangold, while Aunt Sally was his aunt. The series makes Aunt Sally his love interest and omits Earthy alltogether.
- Adapted Out: Worzel's wife Earthy Mangold doesn't appear in the series.
- Adults Are Useless: Downplayed. While the Braithwaites, Harry, Mr Peters and other such adults aren't generally much help, sometimes they can be, and the Crow Man is often very useful.
- Alliterative Name:
- Apparently, Mrs Braithwaite's first name is Betty.
- Worzel once meets a Jolly Jack.
- Several background scarecrows: Scratty Swedehead, Anna Arrow, etc.
- Ambiguously Human: The Crow Man. He seems to have magical powers and Worzel claims he's hundreds of years old, but he could easily be a human with powers and Worzel can't count (unless he's wearing his arithmetic head) and often makes things up, so the Crow Man might not be hundreds of years old.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Lots of scarecrows, a wooden doll and two figureheads who can all walk and talk.
- Babysitting Episode: In "Worzel's Nephew", Worzel tries to babysit his demanding nephew.
- Bathroom Control: Subverted in "Worzel's Washing Day", where John Peters needs to pee while on the way to the farm. His father initially tells him to wait, but when John says, "I can't wait!", Mr. Peters lets him pee behind a hedge.
- Beach Episode: In Saucy Nancy's debut episode, Worzel sneaks aboard a bus on an old folks' outing to the seashore, or "see-saw" as he calls it.
- Better Partner Assertion: In one episode, Worzel can't decide if he wants to marry Aunt Sally or Dolly Clothespeg, since he's equally in love with both. Each woman tries to claim she's better because she can do something (bake a cake, stand like a mannequin, etc.) only for the other woman to claim the same.
- Betty and Veronica: In "The Return Of Dolly Clothespeg", Worzel is the Archie to Dolly Clothespeg's Betty and Aunt Sally's Veronica.
- Big Eater: Worzel, Aunt Sally, and Worzel's nephew Pickles Bramble all seem to be able to eat huge amounts of food.
- Birthday Episode: Worzel has a birthday for each body part that changes whenever a body part gets replaced. "Worzel's Birthday" focuses on his main head's birthday and the birth of a scarecrow named Saggy Tatersack.
- Black Cap of Death: In the episode of "The Trial of Worzel Gummidge", after Worzel is found "very guilty" the Crow-Man, acting as a judge, solemnly places a black top hat on his head before sentencing Worzel to be thrown on the compost heap (the death penalty for a scarecrow). Somewhat undercutting the solemness of the scene is that the Crow-Man always wears a black top hat, he just changed his usual one for a different one explicitly for the sentence.
- Book Dumb: Applies to both Worzel (unless he's wearing his Thinking Head) and Aunt Sally, who are both very uneducated. Aunt Sally thinks she's educated, but she's not.
- Bratty Half-Pint:
- Downplayed for John and Sue, who are a bit snippy but not outright brats.
- Played straight for Worzel's nephew Pickles Bramble, who is very rude, likes to slingshot people, and even threatens to throw Worzel onto the compost heap.
- British Brevity: The original show managed 30 episodes across 4 series, with an additional Christmas Special, along with a New Zealand continuation consisting of 22 episodes. Especially in play for the revival, which thus far consists of six episodes released around three years.
- Catchphrase:
- Sue's go-to insult is telling people they're "horrible". Also, she says, "Poor Worzel" fairly often.
- Worzel has several made-up exclamations like "Bozzy Macoo!" and "Well I'll be bomswizzled!".
- Aunt Sally has "Disgusting", "Stupid scarecrow" and "Don't you know anything about anything?!".
- Catch Your Death of Cold: Sue thinks Worzel will catch pneumonia after he falls into a duck pond...of course, not only can you not catch pneumonia this way, scarecrows can't catch pneumonia at all.
- Character Title: The main show is Worzel's name, some episodes have characters in their names.
- Clothes for Christmas Cringe: In "Muvver's Day", Sarah Pigswill (a walking scarecrow) gives an old boot to her "son" Worzel as a gift to celebrate their reunion. He doesn't like the gift (although that's somewhat justified since even though he doesn't mind wearing worn clothing, a single boot isn't much use) but pretends to be excited to be polite.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Sometimes, Aunt Sally ends up upside-down and you can see her bloomers.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: The majority of "The Scarecrow Wedding" is just as comedic as most of the series, but when Aunt Sally changes her mind about marrying Worzel, he cries. He then has a philosophical discussion with the Crow Man about how he's able to be sad despite wearing his "happy head", even wanting a "miserable head".
- Cool Old Guy: The Crow Man. He is the one who made Worzel and he is very wise and helpful.
- Courtroom Episode: Worzel gets put in a scarecrow court in one episode for throwing a potato at the Crow Man (but not on purpose).
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Sarah Pigswill eats rocks and dirt and tries to feed them to Worzel.
- Embarrassing Pyjamas: In an episode of the new series, Soggy "Harley Davidson" Bogart is teased for wearing pyjamas of his ex-favourite book character Teddy Bodkin despite being a pseudo-tough wannabe biker.
- Ending Theme: A tune plays at the end of each episode that's similar, but different, to the main theme.
- Extreme Omnivore: Worzel's "mother" Sarah Pigswill eats rocks and dirt and believes that all scarecrows do.
- Eyelash Fluttering: Aunt Sally starts fluttering her eyelashes (which rattle when she does so) at a circus strongman named the Great Orlando, who she finds attractive. This makes Worzel, who has a one-sided crush on Sally, jealous.
- Games of the Elderly: Downplayed. Elderly Mrs. Braithwaite plays bingo, but so does Mr. Peters, who's in his thirties. Mr. Braithwaite doesn't play bingo, but only because he considers it gambling.
- Genius Ditz: Worzel may be uneducated and naive, but he can think up some pretty cunning schemes.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Worzel doesn't understand why Aunt Sally would be jealous of Dolly Clothes Peg and not love him.
- Grumpy Old Man:
- Mr Shepherd is very grumpy, even sometimes threatening to kick people.
- Downplayed for the Crow Man, who sometimes tells Worzel off, but isn't too grumpy.
- Haughty Help: Sue defines a butler as "a person who serves drinks on trays and looks down his nose".
- Heroes Gone Fishing: Of course Worzel completely misses the point about 'Wangling'.
- Hoarding the Profits: In one episode, Worzel and Aunt Sally enter a dance contest, where the prize is sixteen pounds. Sally takes advantage of Worzel's inability to count by giving him three pounds and keeping the rest for herself, knowing he doesn't know that three is less than half of sixteen.
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: In one episode, Pickles Bramble fires a slingshot at Mrs. Bloomsbury-Barton's butt, and she claims that she's been "Molested! Assaulted! Shot!".
- I Am Not Weasel:
- In the fishing episode, Enid mistakes Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton's tropical fish for goldfish.
- In Saucy Nancy's first episode, Worzel mistakes a parrot for a seagull.
- Injured Limb Episode: In "Worzel's Nephew", Harry the farm servant sprains his ankle falling off the roof.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: The theme doesn't have words.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Worzel is cheeky and mischievous, but a good sort.
- John and Sue are a bit mouthy, but friendly.
- Aunt Sally is quite jerkish and arrogant, but not all bad.
- Kangaroo Court: Worzel's subjected to one in "The Trial of Worzel Gummidge".
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: In Aunt Sally's debut episode, she puts on Mr Peters's suits and is mistaken for a man.
- Leitmotif:
- The crowman seems to have a theme.
- There's this one jaunty tune that seems to equal "fun party atmosphere" and is also the music for the Scarecrow Hop.
- Limited Wardrobe: Worzel normally wears the same tatty coat, shoes and pants, and Aunt Sally normally wears the same blue dress and straw bonnet, although their have been exceptions.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: In "Worzel's Nephew", Pickles slingshots Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton in the butt.
- Literal-Minded:
- "Seeing a man about a dog" is just a phrase for when a person has been away for a while and doesn't want to specify what they've been doing. In one episode, John wonders where the man is that his dad went in to see about a dog.
- When Aunt Sally says that she "wouldn't be caught dead" at Worzel's birthday party, he tells her that she shouldn't show up to the party dead.
- Sue once points out that Worzel is a "scarecrow, not a scarestarling" when Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton wants him to scare starlings. John also once says that pigeons are not afraid of scarecrows, because otherwise they'd be "scarepigeons".
- Loophole Abuse: In "Worzel's Wager", the Crow Man and then Worzel think that gambling isn't really gambling if you know (or are pretty sure of) the outcome.
- Lost Voice Plot: Mr Peters apparently gets laryngitis in one episode, but he gets better in time for the choir.
- Loud Sleeper Gag: Discussed in the first episode, when siblings John and Sue are arguing over whether John had fallen asleep.John: I wasn't sleeping!Sue: You were snoring, I believe. Horrible!John: I don't snore!
- Malaproper: Worzel does this a lot.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In the 2019 series, sweet old Peg who lives by the seaside is strongly implied, but never quite confirmed, to be Mother Carey
. - Meaningful Name:
- Worzel's name comes from "mangoldwurzel", which is a type of turnip, and his head is a turnip.
- Aunt Sally is called that due to the fact that it's the type of doll she is.
- Messy Hair: All the scarecrows (with the exception of Dolly Clothespeg and Worzel's "handsome" head) have messy hair, and so does the Crow Man.
- Mistaken for Bad Vision: In "The Fair Old Pullover", Mrs. Braithwaite sees Worzel (who's a scarecrow that, unbeknownst to her, is sentient) in the shop window. Initially, she thinks it's because she needs a new pair of reading glasses, but then she decides that "[her] eyesight's good enough to know a scarecrow when [she] see[s] one."
- Mistaken for Thief: In "Very Good Worzel", Aunt Sally eats all the mini sausages and claims Worzel did.
- Mistaken for Transformed: In one episode, John and Sue are looking for Worzel when they find a rabbit sitting under his hat - leaving Sue with the impression that Worzel has been turned into a rabbit.
- Mister Strangenoun: A lot of the scarecrows have words in their name: Mildew Sheepdip, Sarah Pigswill, Pickles Bramble...
- Mondegreen Gag: Dafthead thinks "Old McDonald Had a Farm" goes "Old McDonald is a farm."
- Nature Tinkling: John meets Worzel while peeing on a bush.
- "No Peeking!" Request: In the first episode, John tells his sister Sue, "No looking" when he goes off to pee behind a hedge.Sue: I wouldn't dream of it!
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In one episode, John and Sue can tell that Aunt Sally is an impostor when she says, "Thank you", since Sally is normally very rude.
- Personalized Pledge: In episode "The Trial of Worzel Gummidge", Worzel accidentally throws a potato at the Crow Man (the guy who built him) and is put on trial to determine if he threw it on purpose. At one point, he swears on the life of his pet robin that he didn't do it on purpose.
- Pie in the Face: Throwing food seems to be a hobby for the scarecrows and Aunt Sally, including at other people, so they have gotten many foods in their faces, including pies.
- Potty Emergency: John has to pee in the first episode, and according to him, it's urgent.
- Psychic Powers:
- Apparently, Worzel always knows where the Crow Man is. When asked about it, he says that he "get[s] a sort of tickling in [his] head and this tickling tells [him] where the Crow Man is."
- In one episode, Worzel asks the Crow Man why he (Worzel) is not allowed to gamble when the Crow Man is. The Crow Man says that he was not gambling because he was betting on the fact that there will be snow on the Town Hall roof on Christmas and he actually knows that. Judging by that (white Christmases in England were far from certain in the 1970s), it's possible that he can predict the future.
- The Crow Man always knows where his scarecrows are, and which of them committed misdemeanours such as knocking his hat off.
- Running Gag:
- Mr Peters not knowing about agriculture and making mistakes.
- Worzel, Aunt Sally and others eating and throwing desserts.
- Aunt Sally sharing them unequally in her favor.
- Worzel being naive/uneducated.
- Mr Peters treating gambling like it's important and the kids asking for lemonade and crisps when he gambles.
- Aunt Sally boasting and having no idea what she's boasting about. She also seems to have a fascination with Egypt, Bulgaria and Romania for some reason and wants to marry their royalty, but is ignorant both of the actual titles that their royalty held and of the fact that all those countries had abolished their monarchies decades earlier.
- Worzel wanting to marry Aunt Sally.
- Worzel thinking other humanlike things are scarecrows (sometimes even humans).
- Saw a Woman in Half: Gender-inverted when they are thinking of ideas for a play and Aunt Sally wants to saw Worzel in half, but Sue says no because Sally doesn't know how to do the trick and it might hurt Worzel.
- Scary Scarecrows
- Many adults who remembered the Pertwee series as children.
- Not so accidental in the New Zealand seasons with a full-blown supernatural villain and Demonic Possession.
- Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: A stage musical adaptation, titled Worzel Gummidge - The Musical, was created by the TV series creators Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall with music by Denis King and featuring the original TV principal cast Jon Pertwee, Una Stubbs and Geoffrey Bayldon. The musical first premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre for the 1980 Christmas season before receiving rave reviews and transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End from 22 December 1981 and extending to 27 February 1982. The Original London 1981 Cast Album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios; It featured 15 songs and 4 bonus tracks titled The Worzel Gummidge Christmas Maxi Single.
- Secret-Keeper
- Sibling Rivalry: John and Sue quibble a lot of the time, but they also make a team.
- Slapstick: Many slapstick gags, including throwing food, falling into ponds, etc.
- Snobby Hobbies: One episode has a wealthy guy named Colonel Bloodstock, who hunts and owns several animal skins.
- The Strongman: One episode has Aunt Sally develope a crush on a strongman called the Great Orlando.
- Sweet Tooth: Worzel, Aunt Sally, the kids, and seemingly all the other scarecrows, seem to have extreme appetites for sweet things.
- Technical Euphemism:
- In "The Scarecrow Wedding", Aunt Sally is lodged upside-down in an old washing machine. Worzel asks her why, but Aunt Sally, being too arrogant to admit her situation, says, "It is not an old washing machine. For your information, I am lodged in a domestic cleaning appliance!".
- In one episode, Worzel (a sentient scarecrow) is in danger of being put on a bonfire. Worzel is so scared of fire that he disallows anyone to mention the terms "fire" and "bonfire", so the Crow Man uses the terms "conflagration" and "pyrotechnics".
- Theme Tune: A jaunty little tune plays at the beginning of each episode.
- Tongue-Out Insult: In "Worzel the Clever", when Worzel the walking, talking scarecrow has his "thinking head" on that makes him very clever, he responds to trivia questions by answering, sticking out his tongue, and saying, "Ask me another!".
- Too Proud for Lowly Work: In one episode, Worzel and Aunt Sally have a Food Fight and then argue over who will clean up the resulting mess. Worzel insists chores are for women, but Aunt Sally insists she's too dignified to clean.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: In one episode, Aunt Sally gets fired and when Worzel offers her acorns to eat, she says, "I don't want acorns. I don't want anything. I'm so miserable!".
- The Unreveal: In the episode with the pullover, the Crow Man has a potion that can cure chickens, fix cars and heal stiff necks. He changes the story of its origin every time and at one point, he says that it was handed down by a person of royal blood. He then says, "In fact, it was no less a person—" and whispers something inaudible. We never find out what he said or where the tonic comes from.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Nothing can induce Worzel to stop crushing on Aunt Sally, no matter how often she rebuffs his advances, though she is not above leading him on when she can get something out of it.
- Vacation Episode:
- In two episodes, the Braithwaites and the Peterses go on holiday, so Worzel and Aunt Sally take over Scatterbrook.
- In "Worzel's Nephew", the Peterses go on holiday to Watford.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Worzel is afraid of electricity, fire, and compost heaps. He gets scared even if people mention them.
- You Are Fat: Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton is often called fat. Not usually to her face, but at one point, Mr Peters says, "That's for sure" when she says that she "carries a lot of weight in the county".
