Ronnie (Reece Shearsmith) has always tried to do the right thing - guided by Wise Owl, the beloved mascot of a series of public information films. But the past continues to haunt him, and a secret is hiding in his memories.
Tropes
- The Alcoholic: Wilf has been one at least since his children were small.
- All for Nothing: To defend himself from bad PR, Wilf lied about how Joanne died, and blamed Ronnie - causing Ronnie a lifetime of trauma and years spent in hospital. It turned out to be for nothing since her death ended Wilf's career anyway.
- All There in the Script: The ending credits name Ronnie's parents as Wilf and Dinah.
- Animal Motifs: Owls.
- Art Shift: In the final scene, the animation portrays Ronnie as an adult for the first time, signifying him breaking away from Wilf / Wise Owl's influence.
- Balloon of Doom: Ronnie sees a balloon rising up in the early moments of the horror. It's revealed, though, to be much more benevolent than it first seems.
- Big "WHY?!": In one of the animated sequences, Dinah does this in the hospital after Joanne's death, asking Ronnie why he'd play with matches when he knew not to.
- Black Comedy Pet Death: Ronnie's pathetic attempt at stuffing the neighbor's dead rabbit.
- Broken Pedestal: "Wise Owl", after Ronnie regains his memories and realises Wilf used the character to manipulate him.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Ronnie does this at the end of the episode when he decides to tell his mother the truth.
- Character Catchphrase: Wise Owl's catchphrase was "Twit-you."
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Despite Wilf being the star of a public safety campaign, his own daughter wasn't taught not to play with matches, and he abused his own son.
- Continuity Nod: A poster featuring Wise Owl can be seen in the classroom in the episode Mr. King.
- Daddy Didn't Show: Wilf walked out on his family after Joanne's death and his presence has been very sporadic ever since. He wouldn't answer Ronnie's letters for decades on end, and it is mentioned that he hardly ever visits.
- Death of a Child: Joanne's death on her sixth birthday is a major plot point.
- Despair Event Horizon: The fire and Joanne's death were this for Ronnie.
- Died on Their Birthday: Joanne was killed in a fire on her sixth birthday.
- Dog Got Sent to a Farm: Dinah claims that after Joanne died, the family gave Joanne's cat away because Ronnie was scared of him. Ronnie recalls that the cat actually died and was taxidermied by Wilf.
- Driven to Suicide: Ronnie tries this but fails, distracted by thinking he hears Wise Owl's voice over the radio.
- Electrified Bathtub: Ronnie attempts suicide by this method, although he doesn't go ahead with it.
- Exact Words: Wilf thought that since the matches were "safety matches" (meaning they're designed not to ignite accidentally), they must be safe for a child to use. He was tragically wrong.
- Exorcist Head: Ronnie is scared when seeing the human-size owl in the room turn its head all the way around.
- Expy: Wise Owl is an obvious Expy of Charley from the Charley Says public information films, and the owl from the electricity safety film Play Safe.
- Feather Motif: Ronnie believes he sees owl feathers scattered around the house. Later, when Wilf tries to use Wise Owl's voice to manipulate Ronnie, he is covered in feathers from the pillow Ronnie stabbed open.
- Foreshadowing: After Ronnie does a horrifyingly bad job of trying to taxidermy a neighbour's bunny, the neighbour threatens to report him to the police and says that the house's real owner is a man in his seventies. This sets up the later reveal that Wilf is Wise Owl.
- Hard Truth Aesop: The moral works like this in two ways. Wise Owl is portrayed as giving parents and children alike "hard lessons" about the dangers of the real world. However, The Reveal is that in fact, these attitudes about external dangers (namely Stranger Danger) are generally myths that hide the fact that people closest to children are often their biggest dangers, specifically their parents.
- Hate Sink: Wilf has no redeeming qualities. He is an alcoholic, selfish, lazy father who neglected his children and walked out on his family. He also sexually abused his son, caused his daughter's death in a fire, then made everyone think Ronnie was responsible - even deliberately guilt-tripping Ronnie over it. Even in the present day, he thinks of himself above all else and doesn't even seem to care that it is the anniversary of Joanne's death.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Wilf tells Ronnie to "grow some balls, for fuck's sake", causing Joanne to giggle at the word balls.
- Hell Is That Noise: Ronnie tries to go into an upstairs bedroom and is scared off when he hears a horrifying, owl-like screech. It's because this is the room where Wilf abused him.
- Hypocrite: Wilf made films warning children about Stranger Danger while he was sexually abusing his own son. He also allowed his six-year-old daughter to light her birthday cake candles unsupervised despite his films warning against doing things like that.
- The Illegible: Wilf says Ronnie has "shocking" handwriting, making his letters near-impossible to read.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: At the end when Wilf invokes his Wise Owl persona to get Ronnie to keep quiet about everything, the latter makes it clear that he is no longer under Wise Owl's spell.
- Interrupted Suicide: Ronnie's attempt at killing himself in an Electrified Bathtub comes to a halt when the doorbell rings.
- It's All About Me: Wilf is so self-centred that he happily ruined his son's life in order to save his own career by telling everyone he came home to find his house burning down, and heroically saved Ronnie. It's actually his fault the fire started in the first place. He is so wrapped up in himself that he doesn't even remember when Joanne's birthday was, and only ever talks about her death in terms of how it affected his own selfish interests.
- Lethally Stupid: The house fire that killed Joanne started because Wilf thought that safety matches must be safe for children, and let his 6-year-old daughter try to use them on her own.
- Oh, Crap!: Wilf, once he realises that Ronnie remembers what really happened on Joanne's birthday, that he intends to tell Dinah... and that he's no longer cowed by "Wise Owl".
- Ominous Owl: Played with before being played straight. Ronnie seems to love Wise Owl, who is portrayed sympathetically and implied to be all that stops Ronnie from committing suicide. His presence can be sometimes creepy but also comforting. Until The Reveal that Ronnie's father used his Wise Owl persona to molest him and Wise Owl appears to Ronnie in his true intimidating form, which terrifies Ronnie.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Wilf and Dinah have long outlived their daughter Joanne.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Hence "Wise Owl". Wise Owl is depicted as a guardian of children.
- Parental Favoritism: Joanne was seemingly Dinah's favourite child, which Wilf exploited in order to abuse Ronnie.
- Parental Incest: Wilf sexually abused Ronnie as a child.
- Parental Neglect: Implied in a scene that shows that Dinah and Wilf abandoned Ronnie on a beach during a family holiday so they could take Joanne swimming.
- Pastiche: The animations are made to look like real public information films from the 1970s.
- Plot Parallel: The neighbour wanting to hide the death of his daughter's bunny from her echoes how the truth of Joanne's death was kept from Ronnie.
- Public Service Announcement: Wilf voiced Wise Owl in a number of public information films in the 1970s.
- Rape as Backstory: Wilf molested Ronnie as a child.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: In a surprisingly upbeat ending for this show, the ending suggests Ronnie has finally stood up to his father and will tell his mother the truth about Joanne's death.
- Reboot Snark: Wilf scoffs that there was talk of rebooting "Wise Owl" (a 1970s public information film) with CGI, but that "it would have been crap." This is a Take That! at the similar reboots happening with 1970s children's media.
- Reflective Eyes: The owl's eyes reflect the flames coming from the burning house.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Invoked. Wilf lost his role as Wise Owl (and seemingly his acting career) because, after his daughter's death in a preventable accident, he couldn't be taken seriously as the face of a public safety campaign.
- Scars Are Forever: Ronnie suffered lifelong facial scarring in the fire.
- Scream Discretion Shot: Joanne's death is not shown on-screen in the animated sequence. Instead, Wise Owl watches the house burn from outside as we hear her scream.
- Shout-Out:
- Wilf attended an event with "Ray Brooks, Nigel from Pipkins, and one of the Bungles", and mentions that he was once in a play with Jeffrey Holland (of Hi-de-Hi! fame.)
- The doll Joanne gets for her birthday looks like the Grady twins in The Shining.
- Dinah mentions that she is calling Ronnie during the Coronation Street commercial break.
- Stranger Danger: One of the "Wise Owl" segments in the episode relates to this, showing a scene where child Ronnie is almost kidnapped by a stranger on a beach.
- Subverted Kids' Show: The animated segments start off as pastiches of the (themselves often rather unsettling) low-fi animated public safety campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s, in which children would be warned of the dangers of electricity and strangers often with the help of some kind of friendly mascot. But they become increasingly sinister and disturbing in content as Ronnie starts to realise more about his past.
- Survivor Guilt: Ronnie has it, induced by Joanne's death and being made to believe it was his fault.
- Take That!: Wilf says that he was invited to reprise his role as Wise Owl in CGI, which he declined because "it would have been crap." This is a Take That at several attempts to revive characters from 70s public information films in CGI, including Charley Says and Joe and Petunia.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: Aside from the creepiness of taxidermy as mentioned under Taxidermy Terror, Wilf is an amateur taxidermist, a horrible person, and a child molester.
- Taxidermy Terror: Despite ostensibly being a taxidermist, Ronnie is disturbed by the creepy taxidermied animals all over the house. The house actually belongs to Wilf, and the animals are his work; Ronnie likely hasn't seen them before.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Ronnie sees Joanne as this.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Joanne's death, and the fire that caused it, were so traumatic for Ronnie that he has forgotten large parts of his childhood including being abused by Wilf, and the fact that Wilf is the one who really caused the fire by letting Joanne use matches on her own.
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Wilf talks about an old lady who asked him to stuff her dead goat. He comments on this being an unusual pet and wonders whether the owner was a witch.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Wilf said this to Ronnie at Joanne's funeral.
