When the idea of making a television series about Worzel Gummidge was first brought up, its chances of success seemed about as substantial as the straw which fills his dilapidated old body. Jon Pertwee had set his heart on playing the rascally rogue, but had failed to raise enough backers to finance a cinema film, and then saw his idea tossed on the scrapheap by the BBC - for whom he had played Dr Who - and a couple of ITV companies. Then Southern Television, who had a reputation for the high quality of their children’s programmes, decided to take a chance on the show...although it was two years after the initial discussions with Jon that they actually began filming.

If that didn’t sound like a very auspicious and confidence inspiring start, there was worse to come. The director of the series was to be someone who had never ever heard of Worzel Gummidge! James Hill, who had previously directed the legendary ‘Avengers’ television series, as well as making the classic films ‘Born Free’, ‘The Belstone Fox’ and ‘Black Beauty’, certainly had the experience for the job, but he didn’t know what he was letting himself in for until the scripts arrived on his desk. “I had been talking to Southern Television about another project when they offered me ‘Worzel’, and although the books had been great children’s favourites, to my great shame, I had never read them and so knew nothing about him. However, when I read the scripts by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, I was laughing out loud at them. I had never met Jon Pertwee, either, but of course I knew his work. We clicked immediately when we met - we are both Cancerians, although I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.”

Once work began on the series in 1978, it became apparent to all those involved that they had a hit on their hands, as Jon explained; “Worzel is a loveable rogue, and those characters always seem to find a place in the public’s heart. Worzel’s appeal is that he says and does all the things that all of us would like to do, but are too shy or self-conscious and respectful to. Being rude to those in authority, being selfish . . . There is something of Worzel in all of us” Yet when the first series of Worzel adventures was show on screen, it passed almost without notice—but even before series two had been completed Worzel had become a cult. “It was astonishing,” recalled Jon. “There had only been seven episodes, and we never made the top ratings, yet something about it had caught the public’s imagination. Wherever we went filming the second series we were drawing huge crowds who just came to watch, newspapers and magazines were writing about him and manufacturers wanted to produce Worzel products.”

Famous actors and actresses were queuing up to play guest parts in Worzel adventures, and the role of honour includes Lorraine Chase, Barbara Windsor, Connie Booth, Beryl Reid, Bill Maynard, Billy Connolly, Bernard Cribbins, John Le Mesurier and Mike Reid. Filming a series of scarecrow misdemeanours takes several months of the year, because an average day’s work on location will produce between three and five minutes worth of usable material. On the face of it, that sounds excessive, but the situation is the same on any film set, where so much preparation has to be done before the camera can roll. Once the precise location is established, the camera crew and the director must decide on the best angle from which to shoot the scene. Then they have to wait for the right light, so that the weather conditions are the same as in the other scenes of the episode. It would look silly if Worzel was seen in the sun telling John and Sue that he was going to go into the village, and the shots of him in the village were taken in the pouring rain! Make-up and scenery have to be carefully reproduced for every day of shooting, so that the continuity of sequence is maintained, and to ensure that no mistakes are made, every setting is photographed, and everyone’s make up is recorded by an instamatic camera, so that it can be repeated exactly on the following days. That insistence on perfection causes a lot of problems when weather conditions change, or if costumes and props are damaged.

A couple of years ago, (1979), during the ITV strike, filming of Worzel was held up with only half a series completed. Work stopped in the summer and began again in October– when all the leaves had come off the trees, harvests had been gathered in and foals, lambs and calves had grown into large animals.

Each morning before shooting began, a team of men had to sweep up all the fallen leaves, and director James Hill had to find backgrounds with evergreen plants and trees, to create the illusion of summer. As November arrived the men’s first task was to melt the frost and ice - and there was one particularly bitterly cold day in which five fishermen had to tumble in the river as the result of Worzel’s naughtiness, (A Fishy Tale). The actors all wore wet suits under their clothes, and the ice on the river had to be broken up so that they could fall in.

Whenever scenes like that are being shot, or any which involve cake throwing, mudslinging or getting dirty, extra sets of costumes– and props like cakes- are on hand just in case the first attempt at the stunt does not work properly. If a scene has to be repeated several times before everyone is satisfied that they have filmed it in the best way, a number of ‘spongers’ are on hand to clean up faces and costumes. So a massive amount of work, and an army of people with specialised tasks, combine to create the comedy which makes Worzel so popular. But there is just as much comedy behind the scenes which we never get to see…….