I'VE NEVER SEEN WORZEL GUMMIDGE!

I saw this in a Charity shop this week, a Worzel Gummidge four DVD Box Set so I took a snap. Jon Pertwee's face is instantly recognisable! 

It says twelve episodes on top of the box. I wonder how they picked just twelve from the 31 made, according to Wiki, as well as Christmas Specials and a series set in New Zealand? This set must be just a taster.

I never watched Worzel Gummidge and wondered why. I had to look up the dates, which explained it. 1979 to 1981. My true teenage years! I was 18 in 1979, out drinking, playing in a band and generally not being in my flat much at all. 1980 was pretty much the same  and then I left my home town that October, for good as it turned out, moving abroad in 1981. I just didn't watch TV during those years so Worzel is a mystery, although collectables like this box set always intrigue me as I know the series has a loyal following.

There's a lot of collectables on Ebay as we speak, including toys, rare pencil toppers and old books like these by the original author, Barbara Euphan Todd.

I had to look up the author, a name completely new to me. Amazingly she was born just 13 miles from Moonbase in a hamlet of Doncaster called Arksey, although its more likely to be the Home Counties countryside, where she grew up, that influenced Worzel.

Todd went on to write tons of Worzel radio plays, a 1953 TV series and Jackanory stories in the 60's, long before the late Seventies TV series.

Amazing!

Are you a Worzel fan readers?