Catweazle
Encyclopedia
Catweazle was a British
television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence
for London Weekend Television
under the LWI (London Weekend International) banner, and screened in the UK on ITV
in 1970 and 1971. There were two series, both with 13 episodes at 25 minutes each.
The series was broadcast in Ireland, Britain, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, and Nicaragua.
as the title character, an eccentric, dishevelled and smelly (but lovable) old 11th century wizard who accidentally travels through time
to the year 1969 and befriends a young red-headed boy, nicknamed Carrot (Robin Davies
), who spends most of the rest of the series attempting to hide Catweazle from his father and farmhand Sam. Meanwhile Catweazle searches for a way to return to his own time whilst hiding out in 'Castle Saburac', a disused water tower, with his familiar
, a toad
called Touchwood.
The second series featured a 12-part riddle
which Catweazle, once more transported to 1970s England
, attempts to solve one clue per episode, with the solution (as he thinks) being revealed in the 13th.
Catweazle mistakes all modern technology
for powerful magic
(see also Clarke's third law
), particularly 'elec-trickery' (electricity
) and the 'telling bone' (telephone
).
The entire series was shot on 16mm. The first series was mostly shot on location
at Home Farm, East Clandon
, near Guildford in Surrey, England in 1969. The second series around the Bayford/Brickendon area in Hertfordshire in 1970.
There are two novelisations by Carpenter, one for each series: Catweazle and Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac. A comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus P. Allan and printed in TV comic Look-In
. It inspired the Boo Radleys song, Catweazle.
The series won the Writer's Guild
award for Best Children's TV Drama Script in 1971.
The first series was released on Region 2 DVD
on 23 May 2005, with a short reunion documentary "Brothers in Magic" and audio commentaries
on selected episodes by Carpenter, Bayldon, Davies and Executive Producer Joy Whitby. The second series was released on 29 August 2005. A third series was in the works and was to be set again on the Bennet's farm, but was never put past draft stage.
In Australia, Catweazle: The Complete Series was released on Friday, 18 May 2007 and distributed through Shock. On Wednesday, 01 June 2011, Catweazle: Season One and Catweazle: Season Two were released in Region 4 and were also distributed through Shock.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence
Quentin Lawrence
-Selected filmography:* The Trollenberg Terror * Cash on Demand * The Man Who Finally Died * We Shall See * The Secret of Blood Island...
for London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
under the LWI (London Weekend International) banner, and screened in the UK on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 1970 and 1971. There were two series, both with 13 episodes at 25 minutes each.
The series was broadcast in Ireland, Britain, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, and Nicaragua.
Summary
The series featured Geoffrey BayldonGeoffrey Bayldon
Geoffrey Bayldon is a British actor. After playing roles in many dramas including Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle , after turning down the opportunity to play both the First and Second Doctors in the long-running BBC science fiction...
as the title character, an eccentric, dishevelled and smelly (but lovable) old 11th century wizard who accidentally travels through time
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
to the year 1969 and befriends a young red-headed boy, nicknamed Carrot (Robin Davies
Robin Davies
Robin Davies was a Welsh television and film actor.-Early life:Robert Richard Davies was born in Tywyn, Wales and was educated at Gladstone Park School. He trained to be an actor at the Ada Foster Stage School....
), who spends most of the rest of the series attempting to hide Catweazle from his father and farmhand Sam. Meanwhile Catweazle searches for a way to return to his own time whilst hiding out in 'Castle Saburac', a disused water tower, with his familiar
Familiar spirit
In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...
, a toad
Toad
A toad is any of a number of species of amphibians in the order Anura characterized by dry, leathery skin , short legs, and snoat-like parotoid glands...
called Touchwood.
The second series featured a 12-part riddle
Riddle
A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...
which Catweazle, once more transported to 1970s England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, attempts to solve one clue per episode, with the solution (as he thinks) being revealed in the 13th.
Catweazle mistakes all modern technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
for powerful magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
(see also Clarke's third law
Clarke's three laws
Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke. They are:# When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right...
), particularly 'elec-trickery' (electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
) and the 'telling bone' (telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
).
The entire series was shot on 16mm. The first series was mostly shot on location
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
at Home Farm, East Clandon
East Clandon
East Clandon is a village and parish in Surrey, England on the A246 between the towns of Guildford to the west and Leatherhead to the east. Neighbouring villages include West Clandon and West Horsley....
, near Guildford in Surrey, England in 1969. The second series around the Bayford/Brickendon area in Hertfordshire in 1970.
There are two novelisations by Carpenter, one for each series: Catweazle and Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac. A comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus P. Allan and printed in TV comic Look-In
Look-in
Look-in was a long running children's magazine centred around ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior TVTimes". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994...
. It inspired the Boo Radleys song, Catweazle.
The series won the Writer's Guild
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
award for Best Children's TV Drama Script in 1971.
The first series was released on Region 2 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on 23 May 2005, with a short reunion documentary "Brothers in Magic" and audio commentaries
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
on selected episodes by Carpenter, Bayldon, Davies and Executive Producer Joy Whitby. The second series was released on 29 August 2005. A third series was in the works and was to be set again on the Bennet's farm, but was never put past draft stage.
In Australia, Catweazle: The Complete Series was released on Friday, 18 May 2007 and distributed through Shock. On Wednesday, 01 June 2011, Catweazle: Season One and Catweazle: Season Two were released in Region 4 and were also distributed through Shock.
Actors
- Catweazle: Geoffrey BayldonGeoffrey BayldonGeoffrey Bayldon is a British actor. After playing roles in many dramas including Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle , after turning down the opportunity to play both the First and Second Doctors in the long-running BBC science fiction...
- Edward Bennet ('Carrot'): Robin DaviesRobin DaviesRobin Davies was a Welsh television and film actor.-Early life:Robert Richard Davies was born in Tywyn, Wales and was educated at Gladstone Park School. He trained to be an actor at the Ada Foster Stage School....
- Mr. Bennet: Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
- Sam Woodyard: Neil McCarthy
Episodes
- The Sun in a Bottle
- Castle Saburac
- The Curse of Rapkyn
- The Witching Hour
- The Eye of Time
- The Magic Face
- The Telling Bone
- The Power of Adamcos
- The Demi Devil
- The House of the Sorcerer
- The Flying Broomsticks
- The Wisdom of Solomon
- The Trickery Lantern
Actors
- Catweazle: Geoffrey BayldonGeoffrey BayldonGeoffrey Bayldon is a British actor. After playing roles in many dramas including Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle , after turning down the opportunity to play both the First and Second Doctors in the long-running BBC science fiction...
- Cedric Collingford (A.K.A. Owlface): Gary WarrenGary WarrenGary Warren was an English child actor, best remembered for his role as Peter in the 1970 film The Railway Children. He also played Cedric in the TV series Catweazle , and in the sitcom Alexander the Greatest .Warren is now retired from acting...
- Lord Collingford: Moray WatsonMoray WatsonMoray Watson is an English actor.Watson's father was killed in Belgium in World War II. He was educated at Eton College and made his first appearance on stage whilst still a student at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art at a matinee performance in memory of Ellen Terry at Hythe, Kent...
- Lady Collingford: Elspet GrayElspet GrayElspeth Jean Gray, Baroness Rix is a Scottish actress, known for her work on British television in the 1970s and '80s...
- Groome: Peter ButterworthPeter ButterworthPeter William Shorrocks Butterworth was an English comedy actor and comedian, best known for his appearances in the Carry On series of films. He was also a regular on children's television and radio and appeared in seven early episodes of Doctor Who in 1965 as the 'The Meddling Monk'...
- Mrs Gowdie: Gwen Nelson
- Boris: Roger HammondRoger Hammond (actor)Roger Hammond is an English character actor who has appeared in many films and television series.Hammond attended Cambridge University, and appeared extensively in their drama program, alongside actors such as Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, and John Wood. Following that, he attended the Royal Academy...
Episodes
- The Magic Riddle
- Duck Halt
- The Heavenly Twins
- The Sign of the Crab
- The Black Wheels
- The Wogle Stone
- The Enchanted King
- The Familiar Spirit
- The Ghost Hunters
- The Walking Trees
- The Battle of the Giants
- The Magic Circle
- The Thirteenth Sign