Worzel fans incase you didn't know a new miniseries based on the classic children's character has just finished airing and since I did my first impressions of of the series it was only right that I deliver on my promise and review the series. I'll full on admit that this series was alot better then what it had any right to be and like alot of people I was excited to see this show and so then here is my review of Worzel Gummidge 2019.
The premise of this miniseries is John and Sue are orphans sent to live with The Braithwaites and while there they get up adventures with a walking talking scarecrow called Worzel Gummidge. This premise is honestly timeless it worked back in the John Pertwee series and it works here. I have to say that it's premise because there's no real plot to the show which in this case I do think works because Worzel Gummidge doesn't really need a plot it just needs a basic set up.
Starring in the show is writer / producer and director Mackenzie Crook as Worzel Gummidge , India Brown as Susan , Thierry Wickens as John , Zoe Wanamaker as Lady Bloomsbury Barton , Rosie Cavaliero as Mrs Braithwaite , Steve Pemberton as Mr Braithwaite , Vicki Pepperdine as Aunt Sally , Monty Python and travelling legend Sir Michael Palin as The Green Man and Francesca Mills as Earthly Mangold.
I said this in my first impressions and I would like to say it again because sadly it is still true the acting from the child actors sadly isn't that now I have no doubt that they will improve with age but here they just didn't do that good of a job. The adult actors tho I honestly felt were really good I really liked Mackenzie Crook as Worzel he's not going to top Jon Pertwee and he's not trying to he's making the character his own and it works for this version of the character.
One thing which I really don't get is that they chose to make Micheal Palin's character basically The Crow Man. He's The Crow Man in every way except the name instead he's called The Green Man for some reason so why didn't they just call him The Crow man since that what his character boils down to being and while Micheal is indeed great in the role he does not suit having dreadlocks they just look bad on him.
Now since I covered this in my first impressions i'm not going to mention the makeup in this review because honestly i'd just be hitting the same point. I will say tho that the make up in these two episodes is better then the makeup used for Worzel in the original series which I know means i've put a target on my own back but it's also something that's true and like I said in my first impressions how Worzel looks here is closer to how he's described in the actual books.
One of the issues that I had with the first episode was that it wasn't scary well the second episode actually does have a creepy moment in it. From the above picture you can pretty much guess what that creepy moment is because yeah those designs are pretty creepy and I loved it for that because the Jon Pertwee show did have some scary moments in it and so in my eyes any Worzel Gummidge adaptation needs to be a little bit scary.
I think that anyone who's seen this miniseries regardless on if they liked it or not can agree on the fact there are some really pretty shots. There where alot of times during these two episodes were I found my self saying "oh that's a pretty shot" because there are alot of shots in this series that honestly look beautiful and almost cinematic and it was something that I honestly really did like about the show because it shows that there was a lot of care put into making the show visually appealing.
For some strange reason the BBC chose not to promote this series at all in fact I don't even think that they released a trailer on TV for it. There was a trailer released but it wasn't by the BBC and it wasn't released via official BBC channels so I have to wonder why the BBC chose to hardly promote this series since this was pretty much one of there crowns in their Christmas schedule it just makes no sense to me what so ever maybe they were banking on the name alone but you still need to promote something that you've put time and money into making.
I did enjoy the new show and as such I actually wouldn't mind if this miniseries became a yearly thing. It could be something that aired over the Christmas holidays every year since it's great children's entertainment and to them this is there version of Worzel Gummidge just like the Jon Pertwee was the version that many of us consider to be the definitive version of the character and since this is after all a children's show there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion as long as you keep the core of the character the same it would work.
Now then since this is a comedy that does mean that we have to talk about the comedy that's in the show itself. I honestly feel that the comedy is very hit and miss there are jokes in both episodes which do work and are very funny but then there are jokes in both episodes which don't work with perhaps the worst offender being the fact that they include a fart joke which I hate because there just not funny at all.
Overall I really did enjoy this series it's not a perfect miniseries by any stretch of the imagination but it could have been so much worse. I'm glad that this version does exist because it means that a new generation of Worzel fans are being formed right as we speak and guess what those fans will want to do they'll want to go back and check out the Jon Pertwee version if only for curiosity sake and like I said this miniseries isn't good but it's also not bad and so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.