Catweazle (one for the teenagers)

[GoochDogHigh5s]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyyqwQLuNFw

One of the pleasures of convalescing after a shitty illness, is the ability to  sit down all day and watch a load of stuff from when I was younger  Just finished watching all episodes of Catweazle.

Catweazle was a show that ran for 26 episodes from 1970 to 1971. It starred Geoffrey Bayldon as a medieval wizard called Catweazle, from the 11th Century, messes up a spell and ends up being transported to 1969.

In the first series, he befriends a young lad known as Carrot who works on a farm with his old man and a dopey fuckwit farmhand called Sam.

The premise of the series is that Catweazle attempts to find a way back to his time whilst Carrot attempts to keep his old man and the dopey farmhand from seeing the old buffer.
In the end he escapes back to his own time.

In the second series he gets transported back to 1970 (as you do) after fleeing from some Norman Guards. This time he befriends a posh kid whose parents are a Lord and a Lady. The premise of this series is he thinks he has to solve a riddle based in the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

He ends up flying in a balloon going God knows where and I can only assume the reason for the open end, was because they were going to do a third series where it seems he was going to go back to the farm again. This never happened as Bayldon was getting fed up with the slsapstick of the 2nd series, which Jumped The Shark around episode 7, despite the best intentions of Peter Butterworth who switched between being hilarious to being boring and predictable.

I remember watching the show as a kid and everyone at school was using Catweazle's catchphrases 'Telling Bone' and 'elec-trickery'

There were guest stars galore especially in series 2 including Paul Edington, Pervy looking Ronald Lacy (Harris from Porridge)  Kenneth Cope and Graham Crowden.

I am not sure it would be made in the same way today in Post Savile times. The idea of a trampy old man hanging around with 12 year old(ish) boys.

I had forgotten the ending of the second series and was pissed off by the ending in a Prisoneresque way.

What are/were other old bastard Verbwhores view on the show?

[Don_Preston]

He was good as the lighthouse keeping wizard-type, not typecast then, in the halcyon Grantham era of Fort Boyard.

[Jemble Fred]

The whole set-up of Catweazle always seemed designed for me, being a nut for time travel, druidry, historical comedy etc. But, being born nearly a decade after it was made, and with the show never being repeated in my lifetime, it took me a long time to actually get to watch any of it... and I'm afraid I'd had enough before the end of the first episode. Not sure why, it just felt lightweight and never grabbed me at all, without the familiar comfort of it being part of my childhood.

That said, the fact that Geoffrey Bayldon is still alive in 2013 is one of those little nuggets of information that can make you smile at any time of the day you need to.

[GoochDogHigh5s]

He was good as the lighthouse keeping wizard-type, not typecast then, in the halcyon Grantham era of Fort Boyard.

And The Crowman in Worzel Gummidge

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Belting theme tune!

Right up there with;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eunAH5LaRY

[Ray Le Otter]

And The Crowman in Worzel Gummidge

And as frontman for the Stereo MC's in the 90's.*




_{*"joke" courtesy Rob Newman 1992.}

[GoochDogHigh5s]

Belting theme tune!

Right up there with;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eunAH5LaRY

I always have an urge to punch the air when ever I hear that tune . Dunno why.

Being a sad bastard, I have been looking into Bayldon a bit more on the internet and it seems that he turned down the offer to play the first and second Dr Who's on the grounds that he was fed up with 'aging up'

[NoSleep]

There can be only one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mSrl1IDxyU

[trotsky assortment]

Haven't seen 'Catweazle' since it was repeated in the early 80s, but having really enjoyed other 70s kids' shows over the past couple of years ('Sky', 'Children of the Stones', 'King of the Castle'), it's on my "to do" list.

I'm especially keen to revisit the show since it was written by Richard Carpenter, who also wrote other kids/family shows 'The Ghosts of Motley Hall' and 'Dick Turpin', both of which are worth investigating if you've not already done so.

[SetToStun]

Haven't seen 'Catweazle' since it was repeated in the early 80s, but having really enjoyed other 70s kids' shows over the past couple of years ('Sky', 'Children of the Stones', 'King of the Castle'), it's on my "to do" list.

The Tomorrow People[nb]The 70s original; the 90s ripoff can get to fuck.[/nb] or GTFO.

[Glebe]

"Touchwood!" Catweazle, fucking nostalgia central. We can probably thank the drug-fueled 60s/70s for all the incredible, psychedelic 'back to nature' kids shows of the 70s/early 80s.

[Jake Thingray]

I love this series, genuinely. My Australian chums used to go to the annual meet-ups of where the location filming was done, and met Bayldon, as well as two who've sadly since died, Carpenter and Robin Davies, who played Carrot. Another chum once met Bayldon and suggested my writing a biography of him, this came to nowt but I did get a signed photo, with the inscription "Much Magic!"

Regarding Carpenter, in years gone past people often got The Ghosts of Motley Hall mixed up with Rentaghost, which was inferior IMHO.