Some shows have alot of very important episodes be they important because they add something to the shows lore or important because they take away from the shows lore or important because the shows key creative left the show. There are a ton of reasons why a show could have important episodes and while Worzel Gummidge never really had that many important episodes during it's four series run it's it's continuation series Worzel Gummidge Down Under that has a very important episode and so the join me as I review that sees the old writers be replaced by a rotation of New Zealand based writers with the episode in question being called simply just "Stage Struck" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when the Ballet comes to town Aunt Sally finds herself being invited to watch them rehearse the show and Worzel has to try and get something to help Aunt Sally's flowers grow in her garden. 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 bad as the episodes plot was really thin at best with it being really hard to tell what the actual plot of the episode was even meant to be in the first place outside of the really brief synopsis as that's just how thin this episodes plot really was with the plot of the episode not really rather being all that entertaining and nor was it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Jon Pertwee as Worzel Gummidge , Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally and Jonathan Marks as Mickey. Also starring in this episode is Stuart Devenie as Jeremy Carp , Maria James as Eloise , Ross Jolly as P.C. Peacock , Brian Sergent as Terence , Aaron Taylor as Robert Mahoney , Glenis Levestam as Lady 1 , Anne Chamberlain as Guest 2 , Kevin Wilson as Guest 1 and Sue Wilson as Lady 2.
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 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 not that bad. As this episodes cast are a bunch of really good actors and alot of the have been playing there characters for years at this point in time and so they would of course no how best to play there character and what kind of performance would best suit there respective characters in any given scene with the show always having some really good acting in it even in some of there bad episodes however the acting in this episode really isn't helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this films episodes cast nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place.
This episode is a really important episode in the shows history as it's first episode not to be written by series creators and writers Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. With the episode instead being written by oddly enough the co-writer of The Lord Of The Rings films Fran Walsh and you can really tell that they lost the main writers with this second series of the show as the dip in script quality is evident from the first scene onward as there are alot of things that either aren't explained or just don't make sense alot of which also oddly enough revolve around Aunt Sally as she is seen living in a caravan in this episode something that she wouldn't be cought dead doing and if somebody was to catch her living there she would make up a lie and say that it's not her place and for some reason she's she's given a human love interest which is something that also doesn't make sense either as she wouldn't settle for someone who directs the ballet as she would always want someone who is of royal blood and nothing less then that would do for her.
In a rather refreshing move this episode lets Una Stubbs dance as she was actually a trained dancer before she turned to acting. With her dancing in this episode being something that perfectly fitted the character of Aunt Sally as she would actually dance like how she does in this episode because she doesn't know any better and of course she would always stay at the centre of the stage because she wants to be the centre of attention but at the same time tho it would have been more better if the makers of this episode had her dance really well as that would be something that would take us the audience of guard and yet for some reason they don't do that they instead just go the stereotypical route which while it is something that works well enough for a kids TV show it is also something that is dull and boring as you know exactly what that character is going to do and as a result of that it would have been better if the makers of this episode had Aunt Sally be a genuinely good dancer.
For a show called Worzel Gummidge Worzel himself really has next to nothing to do in this episode with Aunt Sally being more of a main character. Which really shouldn't be the case as the show isn't named after her it's named after Worzel and while Aunt Sally works well enough as a minor recurring character she doesn't work all that well as a main character as due to the previous series we know that she really is horrible to Worzel something which now has be toned down because she's the episodes main character which means that she alot of the time has to act out of character if the makers of this show wanted to make her more kind then fine do that but do it in a way that doesn't go against what we the audience know the character to act like and don't do it by taking screen time away from the title character as that's the character that the audience keeps on coming back to see and are not coming to see Aunt Sally constantly flirt with Worzel just to break his heart and get what she wants by the end of the episode.
For some reason they chose to introduce a new character in this episode with them not including Manu for no reason whatsoever. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that they bring Manu back in the very next episode and if they gave this new kid character a personality as the only personality that they give her is that she's a girl and that's it which doesn't make her a fun character as all it does is make her a rather dull and boring character with Mickey being left to try and make the scenes that the two characters share together watchable and as much as the Mickey character can be a fun character he just can't help to make this character seem fully formed and that is of course of no fault of her actress as it's rather a fault of the episodes writer and it's something that should have been fixed especially as she's meant to be a new recurring character who may or may not be in future episodes of the show and yet the makers of this episode go out of their to make her a dull and boring character.
Now then whilst I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes running tie even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly twenty four minuets. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for this sequel series to have but this episode really doesn't have alot there interms of plot to cover that large amount of running time as the plot of episode is so weak that it just comes and goes whenever it wants which is something that wouldn't be that much of an issue if not only the episode was better written but the episode also had a much more shorter running time as the plot of this episode would have been fine if the episode was ten minuets long but as the episode in almost twenty five minuets long the plot really should have been alot more stronger then what it actually was but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
Son 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 bad as there really was nothing that was all that funny in this episode as while the show always has more cute funny moments in it then straight up laugh loud funny moments in it in this episode they don't have jokes that are really alot more cutely funny they just have the type of jokes where you know what the punchline of the joke will be before there even done with the set up for the joke and as a result of that all your really doing is watching characters that you love get butchered by a terrible script that really is lacking in jokes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode is quite easily up there with A Little Learning as one of the episodes in this franchises history but while that episode had the excuse of them still trying the tone of the show this one really doesn't have that as an excuse as they got rid of two people who really did know what the tone of the show was and those are the two that really should have stayed on to make more episodes of this show 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 means that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5.5 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 episodes that I used in this very review being the really great and really legendary Google Images due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this episodes 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.