With many TV shows you know exactly what kind of episode that your going to be getting just from the genre of the show in question. Well Worzel Gummidge the opposite is true as one episode might be a funny one and then the very next episode might be a really scary one and the one after that might be a sad one all of of which make it really hard to predict what episode of the show your going to be getting from week to week with the episode that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today being a really funny episode and so then join me as I review the episode that really is just pure fun to watch with the episode in question being called simply just "Captain Worzel" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is when his discovers that his beloved Aunt Sally is going to be sold of to a museum Worzel sets of with Saucy Nancy to stop the sale from happening and have fun along the way. Now then interms of what Im 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 being really good with the plot of the episode being just as fun as you'd both expect and want from this classic series and yet at the same time it's also a plot that's also really mature and doesn't really talk down to it's kid target audience which is something that it would have been very easy to do given what the plot of the episode even is in the first place with the plot of the episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Jon Pertwee as Worzel Gummidge , Michael Ripper as Mr. Shepherd and Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally. Also starring in this episode is the late Dame Barbara Windsor as Saucy Nancy , Blake Butler as The Boatyard owner as Kate David as The Cashier , Laurence Harrington as Cyril , Norman Mitchell as P.C. Parsons , Keith Smith as Mr. Pursglove and Geoffrey Bayldon as The Crowman.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us n this very episode well then 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 is always nothing new for this show as this show has alot of really good actors starring in it with all of this episodes cast turning in some really wonderful and funny performances with the same thing also being true for the actors that only show up in this episode as they do leave mark on us the audience this is despite them only being in one scene which is a testament to how good of a director that this shows shows director James Hill really was as he knew how to get a good performance out all of his cast members with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script was so good that all the cast of this have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
In a rather shocking move this episode sees Mr. Shepherd be given a much more larger role then being that of a side character. As the character would usually be seen as more of a side character who would only appear in a few scenes in any given episodes and yet in this episode he plays a bigger role in the episode then The Crowman who here is given more of a cameo role only appearing near the beginning and near the end of the episode and to the episodes credit the episode does take this chance to expand a little bit on the character of Mr. Shepherd by explaining a little bit about his family history with him saying that several members of his family all worked on ships which was a small piece of information but it's still better then nothing and it's something that does play a part in the episode as Mr. Shepherd himself a piloting a small boat but at the same time he is a rather one note character that being someone who is a grumpy person and that isn't enough to make him a major character in any episode of this show which is something that the makers of this episode chose not to fix for some rather unknown and really strange reason.
This episode is a very good example of just how fun that this series can be as this episode is exactly that it's fun. With apart of what makes the episode being the banter between Aunt Sally and Saucy Nancy with the two of them just hurling insults at each other at every possible chance that they get but that's not the only thing that makes the episode as Jon Pertwee gives us alot of really good and funny faces during some of the episodes more comedic moments which does go to the show that he really did know how to get a laugh out of any situation as on paper the three of them talking in a barge shouldn't be that fun and even the premise of the episode really doesn't allow it self for alot of really fun moments and yet that's exactly what we get with the episode being just pure fun to watch and it being clear as day that all of the cast had a blast working on this episode as they got to be silly and be payed for it and heck even Mr. Shepherd gets to have some really fun moments in this episode as well which is something that very rarely if ever happens in alot of the other episodes of this show.
While yes this episode does follow the series four by having alot of focus on Aunt Sally which would normally be a bad thing as she's not that likable of a character. Here it's something that oddly works with her anger being quite clearly justified as it's Worzel that ruins her chance to go out and see the world all because he thought that she was in danger when in fact she was only being taken to a potential buyer but at the same time his actions came from a kind hearted place as he does care for Aunt Sally even tho it gets him into quite alot of trouble alot of the time and even tho she abuses him both physically and mentally all of the time he still adores and would still do anything for her with the fact that Worzel wanting to be rescue her being something that could have been avoided all by having Aunt Sally explain to Worzel very early on what's actually happening but the fact that she didn't do that could be boiled down to the fact that there both naive.
We do get a scene where apart of Worzel's body does indeed fall of but instead of being the big incident that ends the episode it's instead something that leads us into the episodes third act. Which both does and doesn't work for the episode it does work in that it does go against expectations as something like that at this point in the shows run would usually be used to end the episodes storyline but at the same time it doesn't work in this episodes favor as the actual incident that ends the episode just isn't as impactful as the actual ending incident is Worzel throwing a rope on Aunt Sally and speeding away with her with Saucy Nancy driving the sped boat that the pair are riding on which does work as a way to have Worzel end the episode but Worzel having his arm ripped off really works better as it would teach Worzel not to get involved in something that doesn't involve him as was really happening in this episode but for some strange reason the episode doesn't do that as the maker of this episode chose to give a really fairly weak learning then what they quite possibly could have had if they chose to have Worzel learn a life lesson of some sort.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly twenty six minuets. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for this episode show to have and to the episodes credit it does make the most of that running time but at the same time tho the episode could have used a little bit longer of a running time just because of the fact that the episode really was just that fun to watch but at the same time tho the episode doesn't have alot of plot anyway to begin with and as a result of this is that by giving the episodes a longer running time even by five minuets then the episode really would be stretching the plot of the episode really fairly thinner then what it already is but with a longer running time the episode really could have delved more into Mr. Shepherd as a character tho but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have 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 really good. With the episode having alot of really good and painfully moments in it with alot of this episodes best and most funniest moments being alot of the faces that Jon Pertwee makes during alot of the episodes more slapstick comedy moments and the fact that Jon Pertwee tried and fails to do an Australian accent but he's not the only one that gets alot of laughs as alot of the episodes cast get alot of really funny moments with the banter between Aunt Sally and Saucy Nancy being a good example about that as alot of the insults that they throw at each other whilst childish perfectly fits in with there characters as any character from this show would use very childlike insults and alot of them frequently really do more often then not to some really painfully funny results in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while this episode is indeed a really good example of what this show can be like when it's a really fun episode of the show it's also an episode that does have alot of flaws to it alot of which really are some very major issues that should have been fixed at the script writing or even filming stage of this episodes production in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 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 this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great and really legendary Google Images simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this episode and are really of course on Google Images are all really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.