Mackenzie Crook re-invents Barbara Euphan Todd’s walking scarecrow for a post-credit-crunch countryside where kids John and Susan arrive at rundown Scatterbrook Farm and meet the hay-stuffed optimist who can swap heads but can’t quite grasp human logic. Shot in Hertfordshire winter light and scored by The Unthanks, the four 45-minute films feel like Edwardiana viewed through a cracked mobile-phone screen: Peg the marsh witch (Vanessa Redgrave) offers riddles beside a flooded caravan, Aunt Sally (Vicki Pepperdine) is a cracked porcelain fairground prize, and The Green Man (Michael Palin) dozes under motorway flyovers. Crook directs himself in grey-green lichen make-up and a turnip nose, pitching the tone somewhere between ghost story and gardening programme.
The BBC quietly cancelled further outings after the 2021 Christmas Eve and New Year’s instalments, leaving only six episodes in total. Filming had already been disrupted once when COVID halted the fourth special; the final two were shot eighteen months later with the same children visibly taller beside the unchanging scarecrow. No series arc ever materialised, just self-contained countryside myths about lost harvests, polluted rivers and the small mercies of strangers. Children watch for talking birds and mud pies; adults notice the economic ruins in the background of almost every frame.
Production Details
BBC One / 2 Seasons / 5 Episodes / 2019
Created by: Barbara Euphan Todd
Showrunner(s): Joey Attawia, Lisa Thomas, Kristian Smith
Writer(s): Mackenzie Crook
Producer(s): Georgie Fallon
Main Cast
Mackenzie Crook as Worzel
India Brown as Susan
Thierry Wickens as John
Steve Pemberton as Mr Braithwaite
Rosie Cavaliero as Mrs Braithwaite
Vicki Pepperdine as Aunt Sally
Francesca Mills as Earthy Mangold
Andrew James Spooner as Flat Alistair
Phil Hulford as Hannah Harrow
Christopher-Robert Barlow as Rag Bag
Charlie Mayhew as Rustle Sprouter
Ben Langley as Driver
