The christmas season is now upon us and that means that alot of TV shows are gearing up to release their christmas specials. As such it was only about right that as i've been taking a look back at the classic Worzel Gummidge TV series that I now take a look at the shows only christmas special which also has the honor of being the final time that a few side characters appear in the show and so then join me as I review the episode that is the franchises only hour long episode with the episode in question being called simply just "A Cup O' Tea And A Slice O' Cake" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when Worzel goes to ask Aunt Sally out to a scarecrow ball he gets more then he bargained for after getting on The Crowman's last nerve. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really fun and was a good example of just how fun a Worzel Gummidge plot can be whilst also being a nice and very well written christmas special that doesn't take itself far to seriously with this episodes plot also being really rather entertaining , fun and engaging as well which made the episode feel all the more epic in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Jon Pertwee as Worzel Gummidge , Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally and Jeremy Austin as John Peters. Also starring in this episode is Geoffrey Bayldon as The Crowman , Mike Berry as Mr. Peters , Norman Bird as Mr. Braithwaite , Charlotte Coleman as Sue Peters , Billy Connolly as Bogle McNeep , Laurence Harrington as Cyril , Megs Jenkins as Mrs. Braithwaite , Frank Marlborough as Atkins , Bill Maynard as Sgt Beetroot , Norman Mitchell as P.C. Parsons , Wayne Norman as Pickles Brambles , Bill Pertwee as A Lorry Driver , Michael Ripper as Mr. Shepherd , Thorley Walters as Colonel Bloodstock and Dame Barbara Windsor as Saucy Nancy.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well the in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought '/ felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which for this show isn't really all that new as this show has always had good acting in it with the same thing also being true for the series lesser episodes and alot of that comes down to the fact that the makers of this show treated this show as if they were working on a film and that means getting good acting out of your cast members and it's also due to the fact that the shows cast are bunch of really good actors and it's also due to the fact that the script for this episode is also really well written and so all the cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them really naturally.
What was shocking to find out is the fact that this special had a scene filmed when filming for the shows second series as the special was meant to air after the shows second series. With this special for some strange reason being held back a year with the only scene that was filmed during that time being the first scene in the barn with Worzel and children and even then you can't really tell that it was filed a year before the rest of the episode was even shot as the kids don't look like that they've aged at all and the makeup for Worzel is still good the only telling piece of evidence is the fact that the scarf that Jon's wearing goes from long to short and that's really it as it really does look like it was all filmed at the exact same time with both of the scenes blending together really well and matching up together really well as well.
Speaking of Jon there is one part of a scene in this episode was a pure accident and that's the fact that we do see Jon really fall when running to Worzel near the end of the episode. However director and producer James Hill liked it so much that it was kept it and it's easy to see why as it does make the scene more lighthearted and it makes the scene in question feel more human on top of giving us a more natural reaction from both Charlotte Coleman and Jeremy Austin which is just something that you can't replicate and it just goes to show you that sometimes you can get gold not by planning it all out to the very last accident but sometimes it happens just by accident as is the case with the scene in this episode and it's scene that really does work well but what would have made the scene even more special would have been if either Worzel Gummidge , Aunt Sally or Sue ad-libbed a,line mentioning the fact that Jon just fell over.
While you can quite clearly tell from the first shot of the episode that this episode had a much more bigger budget then the rest of the series. The show also doesn't use it's many more guest stars all that well with them just popping in for one scene with Jon Pertwee and then leaving which does make the episode feel like that it's on repeat mode alot of the time as all we see is Worzel bumbling his way from situation to the next with the loose story thread of him trying to get Aunt Sally but always getting distracting along the way which does make the episode feel a tad bit boring as alot of those scenes could have cut down quite alot or just straight up cut put of the episode as they really add nothing to the overall plot of the episode and while the added budget does give us some more amazing looking scarecrows to look at for the guest stars alot of them just don't really add anything to the plot episode despite there designs having a tone of character to them.
Despite looking everywhere on both the episodes end title credits and on various IMDB pages I cannot find out whom wrote the sings for this episode. As for some strange reason this episode is the only one that's a musical which is a shame as alot of the shows cast can sing and this episode does have some really good songs for the must part with Worzel's opening song "Christmas Isn't Christmas" being a nice slow ballad song but while it is a nice song it's not the type of song that you'd want to be the first musical number in your episode as it's a bit two slow to really get people excited for the rest of the episode and Aunt Sally's song while funny doesn't really advance the plot of the episode with the same thing kind of also being true for Saucy Nancy's song as well with the best song in the whole entire episode being "A Cup O'Tea And A Slice O' Cake" as that song really is just a fun filled song that is the perfect song to end the episode on.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes running time even was I do know for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly fifty two minuets. Which does make this episode the longest episode of the classic Worzel Gummidge series and to this episodes it does have more then enough interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running and while the episodes story does feel a little bit thin at times there's not really much padding to the story to make it stretch for this extra long running time which they very easily could have done and while I would have liked it if the songs where a bit more spaced out it's understandable that they had to fit them all in before they got to the big finale song but alot of them are played so close to each other that we the audience don't really get a chanced to catch our breathes before the next song has already started playing and to this episode credit tho it really does have some really good pacing to it.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I gave to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episode having some really cute and funny moments however the main focus of this episode isn't the comedy it's giving us a really solid Christmas message about how sometimes it's the simple things that are the best things and how Christmas is all about family and friends but with that that said it would have been better if we did get some more jokes in it just to make the message hit home even harder as what little jokes we do get are really funny and are a good example of just how funny that this episode can be when it's at it's absolutely best in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall not only do I highly recommend this episode to everyone but I also recommend this series as well as both this episode and this series are just really that good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the god and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 9 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . UK , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.