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"Catweazle
in close-up"
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Source: "Look-in" Magazin 23rd
January 1971
Open article as PDF
LOOK-IN reporter Angus Allan corners
television's confused weaver of spells for an
on-the-spot interview:
"Writer's scribbles, fade away! Salmay, Dalmay,
Adonay!” Catweazle fizzed and fumed, and the
notebook in my hand ought to have turned red hot and
vanished. But it didn't. Well, that's the way with
Catweazle. I suppose someone else's notebook,
probably on the other side of earth, did the
disappearing act. He isn't renowned for getting his
spells right! Maybe he felt a bit out of place,
sitting up in the dressing room of that stately-type
home in Hertfordshire, where the shooting of the
second Catweazle series was taking place. After all,
there was someone else's name on the door -
Geoffrey Bayldon's. And below, the rooms were
crammed with all sorts of camera and lighting
equipment, and men with beards in variety - all of
them a thousand times neater than our favourite
wizard's!
“How,” I asked actor Geoffrey Bayldon, “do you
put up with it? I know who you are. But every time I
ask you a question, the whiskery make-up quivers,
and out comes Catweazle with the answer!” Geoffrey
tried to speak, but as I'd thought, Catweazle
surfaced first. “I live! I live yet in these plaguy
times," he quavered. “This body is a mere vehicle
for me! The glass-screened seeing box upon which I
appear is magic. My magic!”
“He really thinks it is,” said Geoffrey, taking off
the beard and banishing the witch in him for the
moment. “Catweazle
does exist and sometimes I'm terrified that
he's going to take me over for keeps. Do you know, I
find him coming to the surface (he twitched
uncomfortably, as though it was actually happening
at that moment) even when I'm my normal self, and
out of these ragged clothes!"
“Take my cat,” he said. “Now, in the days B.C. -
that means ‘before Catweazle’, of course - I used to
speak to him just like any other normal British
human being would. You know - 'puss puss pussums'
and that sort of thing. Now I find myself hissing
and fizzing at him just like Catweazle would do -
and, believe it or not, I think the cat likes me
better that way!"
Geoffrey Bayldon, despite a sane career in serious
theatre, really does believe in Catweazle. He
sympathises with his bewilderment in this modern
world. “Catweazle has a marvellous time in
the new series,” he told me. “I mean, who wouldn't
like to live in a deserted railway station called
Duck Halt, and baffle the lives out of a hard-up
family of nobility, trying to keep a stately home
together? He has this quest to find the twelve signs
of the zodiac. And there are hilarious
misunderstandings all the way! What about his
transport, too? The old tricycle he finds!" Now the
beard went back on and Catweazle, obviously
irritated at having been kept out so long, burst
back into life.
“Bah! This prattle-head Bayldon is a knave,” he
shouted. “A varlet! Know ye that the toad's-spittle
does not even
believe in the magic of the zodiac?” He
thought for a moment, and then, with narrowed eyes,
he peered at me and fingered Adamcos, the
witch-knife, hanging round his neck. “Believe ye in
the zodiac, writer?”
I left, hurriedly, just in case he cast a spell to
turn me into a companion for Touchwood. Not that I
had any fear that I'd become a toad. But with
his spells, my fate might have been even
worse! (Photographs by Paul Stokes). |
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"A
Magician's Mate!"
An interview with
Catweazle's co-star, actor Gary Warren.
|
 Source: "Look-in" Magazine 13th
March
1971
Open article as PDF
When you're a playmate of that
whiskery 11th-Century wizard Catweazle, a little bit
of the magic seems to rub off.
Just ask sixteen-year old actor Gary Warren, who
appears with him in the current series as Cedric.
For instance, you would think you would need a spot
of old time sorcery to be allowed to leave grammar
school at thirteen. Or to have the grounds of a
stately home in Hertfordshire turned into your own
private learn-to-drive course. But it has happened
for Gary.
“I always wanted to be an actor” he said. “And I was
lucky enough to land a small part as Pinnochio in
the ITV programme
Disney Wonderland when I was twelve. But it
meant I had to have two days off school every week
for rehearsals. Then I started getting parts in
plays and in
Z-Cars which meant I was getting about four
full weeks off each term.
“The headmaster of my grammar school in St. John's
Wood, London, wasn't very keen on my missing out so
much schooling. So I left school officially to go to
the Aida Foster Stage School, where I could combine
general education with dance and stage training.”
Gary graduated two years ago, and has hardly stopped
acting since. He's been a consistent wage earner
since he was twelve, and most of his pocket-money is
spent on pop records. He has a collection of well
over one-hundred albums at his home at Neasden,
North London.
He's also a soccer fan and supports Queen's Park
Rangers..
“I've only missed one home game this season”, he
said. “And when you're on call at the studios as
much as I am, it isn't always easy to dodge away to
watch football."
Working in Catweazle alone meant Gary only
had one day off (officially) in fourteen weeks - and
he has also been busy in the film
The Railway Children.
Small for his age - he's exactly five foot tall -
Gary gets a lot of parts playing boys younger than
himself. “I don't mind as long as the script is
good”, he said. “You don't feel soppy if you can
believe in the words you are saying.” And he doesn't
expect special treatment from his friends because he
appears regularly on television and in films. “They
don't keep on about it”, he said. “I'm just one of
the boys.”
Gary has no serious girl-friends and travels about,
like anyone else, on the bus and tube. “But I'm
looking forward to being able to have my own car,
when I'm old enough to apply for a provisional
license in July”, he said.
“I've managed to get in quite a lot of practice. The
cast in
Catweazle were super; they allowed me to use
their cars in the grounds of the stately Collingford
home in Hertfordshire."
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"De
legendarische tovenaar van de beeldbuis"
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 Source:
"Veronica" No. 13 / December 1971
Open article as PDF
"Thou art overbold in thy ignorance" - "Gij zijt overmoedig in
uwe onwetendheid! Wie had er ooit kunnen denken dat
kinderen (en volwassenen) die bijna in de
eenentwintigste eeuw leven wildenthousiast gemaakt
kunnen worden voor dit taalgebruik? Catweazle, de
skeletachtige magier van onze beeldbuis is erin
geslaagd en dat niet alleen in Engeland, waar de
populaire televisieserie werd vervaardigd, maar ook
in ons land, in Belgie en Japan. Catweazle is nu al
de legendarische tovenaar van onze beeldbuis en hij
wint aan populariteit bij ouderen en de
allerkleinsten. Catweazele heeft voor de ouderen
iets ontwapenends door het spontane onbegrip waarmee
hij, de tovenaar uit de middeleeuwen - in de clinch
ligt met de technische verworvenheden van deze eeuw.
Voor de kinderen - en daar is de serie trenslotte
voor gemaakt - is Catweazle een ontzettend aardig,
maar toch ook wel griezelig schepsel, waar je het
liefst van onder de tafel of vanuit de veilige
beschutting van de familiekring naar kijkt. Een
beetje griezelig vindt ieder kind fijn. ls daarmee
het sukses van Catweazle verklaard? Helemaal niet!
De serie wordt in de meest letterlijke zin van het
woord gedragen door de akteur Geoffrey Bayldon, een
46-jarige, broodmagere Engelse akteur die de figuur
Catweazle fantastisch gestalte weet te geven.
De wereldvreemde tovenaar is zo griezelig
echt, zo overtuigend, dat jong en oud elke
zondaga-vond vroeg aan de buis gekluisterd zit, een
schitterende, vredige inleiding voor het zondags
geweld dat even later door "Sport en Beeld" wordt
uitgezonden. CatweazIe was enkele weken geleden in
ons land. Dat wil zeggen: akteur Geoffrey Bayldon
was enkele dagen hier. "Her is doodjammer" zegt
Geoffrey, "dat in Engeland de serie na tweeenvijftig
afleveringen is stopgezet. Nu wordt ik gevraagd om
hier te komen omdat Catweazle Catweazle is deze
weken druk in de weer met het verzamelen van de
tekens van de dierenriem. Hij heeft het moeilijk met
leeuwen en maagden en ook de weegschalen maken hem
het leven zwaar. De tovenaar struint door ons beeld
met de ontwapenende argeloos-heid van de tuinman die
plotseling achter het schakelpaneel van een
atoomcentrale wordt gezet. De tovenaar woont nu in
een verlaten stationnetje met zijn magische pad en
hij heeft zich in het hoofd gizet alle tekens van de
dierenriem te verzamelen. En daarbij loop je
natuurlijk tegen vreemde dingen op. Neem nou zo'n
grammofoon, die ergens buiten staat te spelen. Dat
is natuurlijk een kast van de duivel en het geluid
wordt voortgebracht door ronde, zwarte wielen, die
Catweazle amper durft vast te pakken. De situatie
wordt voor een middeleeuwse tovenaar natuurlijk
helemaal te dol als me op zijn gebied gaat graven
met een bulldozer een soort dynosaurus, maar ziet
toch kans met behulp van een wichelroede en een
"magic stone" de bijgelovige aannemer van het land
te verdrijven. Een telefoon en de televisie zijn
natuurlijk helemaal te gek voor Catweazle. Als hij
stomverbaasd met een hoorn in zijn hand staat en in
Hendrik VIII-Engels vraagt wat het is, brulden alle
jeugdige supporters: Een telefoon, natuurlijk!"
 Daarin
schuilt de kracht van de Catweazle-serie: het
publiek leeft zich helemaal in. De 52 afleveringen
zijn ook grandioos geschreven. Richard Carpenter is
de geestelijke vader van Catweazle. Hij doorspekt de
afleveringen met geniale vondsten. Neem nu dat
verhaal waarin Catweazle wordt gekonfronteerd met
een televisietoestel. De omroeper zegt net dat er
een duivel is ontsnapt die iedereen in steen kan
veranderen. In paniek rent Catweazle weg en in de
hal van het huis hoort hij een gesprek russen Lord
Collington en een beeldhouwer. die zegt dat hij His
Lordship best in steen kan uitbeelden. Voor
Catweazle is dat het eind van de wereld.
Geoffrey Bayldon is niet te herkennen als de
tovenaar Catweazle. Hij is klein van stuk, mager en
beweeglijk. In Maassluis waar hij enkele weken
geleden samen met een andere "ouwe jongen" -
Sinterklaas - zijn opwachting maakte, herkende de
jeugd hem pas nadat hij enkele van zijn befaamde
sisgeluidjes had losgelaten.
Geoffrey Bayldon was op dat moment voor het eerst in
het buitenland als Catweazle. "Jammer dat de serie
ten einde is" zegt hij ons. "Als ik over het sukses
van Catweazle in Nederland hoor en ik lees de
krantenberichten over de bijval in Engeland nog
eens... In Engeland was het 't suksesvolste
kinderprogramma van de afgelopen jaren. Wat ik zo
belangrijk vind is dat Catweazle zich niet staande
behoefde te houden op een goedkoop soort
populariteit. Populaire programma's zijn vaak zo
ontzettend slecht!"
Geoffrey Bayldon is eigenlijk architekt,
althans hij volgde een bouwkundige opleiding. Vlak
na de oorlog schreef hij in voor de Old Vic Theatre
School. In de jaren vijftig speelde hij in het
Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, maar tien jaar
geleden stapte hij over naar televisie en film. Hij
speelde belangrijke rollen in vier films en in drie
televisieverhalen: The age of the kind. Canterbury
Tales en Nicholas Nickleby van Dickens.
"Ik ben
nu helemaal aan het medium televisie gewend" zegt
Geoffrey. "Vroeger had ik er een ontzettende hekel
aan! Ik dacht dat je op de buis niet creatief genoeg
bezig kon zijn.
Het idee van Catweazle werd geschapen door Richard
Carpenter. Hij reed in 1969 ergens in Engeland rond
toen hij op een bord het woord "Catweazle" zag
staan. Hij vond het een schitterend woord. Carpenter
schiep in gedachten toen de tovenaarsfiguur achter
die naam en werkte zijn gedachten later uit. Het
uiterlijk van de tovenaar, de persoonlijkheid heb ik
zelf geschapen. Make-up-lady Susan Barrowdale heeft
daar ook veel toe bijgedragen.
Aan het begin af aan zijn de troubles van
Catweazle met ouderwetse en hypermoderne demonen een
sukses geweest. De kinderen werden eerst overtuigd,
later volgden de ouderen. "Het is grappig" zegt
Geoffrey, "dat de hippies in Londen zo op Catweazle
vielen. Ze hebben mij tot hun idool gemaakt. Dar is
nu wat over, maar het gaf toch een kick!"
Bayldon verklaart het sukses van Catweazle zelf zeer
simpel: "Er zijn veel mensen die moeite hebben om
zich aan te passen. Kinderen natuurlijk ook, omdat
ze jong, onervaren en vaak eigenwijs zijn. Dat is
hun charme. Die kinderen zien nu plotseling een
figuur die ook alles moet ontdekken, die zich
onzeker beweegt en die een afwijkend taalgebruik
heeft. Het is toch gemakkelijk om je daarmee te
personifieren? Ik krijg fanmail... tot uit
gevangenissen toe. Brieven van mensen met
aanpassingsmoeilijkheden. Iedereen vertrouwt
Catweazle, ondanks zijn uiterlijk. Hij is een kind,
weet je.. onschuldig, argeloos, en hij heeft een
hart van goud. Bovendien heeft hij alle fouten die
kinderen maken. Hij heeft hun angsten en hij wordt
voortdurend gekonfronteerd met dingen die hij
absoluut niet kan verklaren!"
 Geoffrey
Bayldon stelt zich op het standpunt dat een
televisieserie kinderen geen schrik mag aanjagen.
Hij wil perse geen lange pedagogiche en
psychologische verhandelingen ophangen over wat wel
en niet goed voor kinderen zou zijn. "De wereld is
zo wreed" zegt hij "kinderen zien genoeg Ieed. Ik
vind dat er niet met kinderangst gemanipuIeerd mag
worden. Catweazle jaagt niet echt angst aan. Die is
hooguit wat vreemd. En dat is juist goed, omdat het
kind geintrigeerd wordt door alles wat vreemd is.
Maar ze vinden het ook heerlijk om een beetje te
griezelen!" Dat wekelijkse halfuurtje Carweazle
heeft langzamerhand heel jong en oud Nederland in
zijn ban. Wat is en waar ligt het sukses van een
kinderserie. Thijs Chanowski's Fabeltjeskrant veegde
ook alle "Woefs en Lamaars" van de kaart.
Niemand kan stellen dat het taalgebruik in
de Fabeltjeskrant kinderlijk is en er zullen
misschien best pedagogen zijn die zich doodergeren
aan het gesleutel van Ed en Willem Bever; misschien
zijn er wel logopedisten die het spraakje van
Mevrouw Ooievaar afkeuren, maar de serie is
ijzersterk. Er wordt volwassen in gepraat, een
weliswaar afwijkend taalgebruik toegepast, maar de
dieren worden in een reele wereld gesitueerd. Dat is
met Catweazle ook het geval. In deze serie geen
middeleeuwse tovenaar die ronddwaalt in door ijle
nevelen omhulde ruine, met zwarte raven op de kale
boomtakken, maar een vreemde figuur in een moderne
wereld vol onbegrip. Gebruik deze formule echter
voor een nieuwe serie en het wordt gegarandeerd een
flop. Want Catweazle is uniek en dat blijft hij:
thou can count on that!
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"Catweazle
Prive"
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 Source:
"Tros Kompas" Nr. 52 / 25.-31. December 1971
Open article as PDF
Toen ik Catweazle op ging zoeken bij hem thuis,
verwachtte ik een zenuwachtig mannetje te vinden,
dat met zijn uitpuilende ogen om de deur zou gluren
om te zien wie ik was. De werkelijkheid was volkomen
anders: Catweazle is een heel kalme, zachtaardige
man van deze eeuw. Zijn echte naam is Geoffrey
Bayldon en hij werd niet in de elfde eeuw geboren,
maar op 7 januari 1924 en dat is nog niet zo heel
lang geleden.
Hij woont ook niet op een boerderij en niet in een
kasteel, maar in een heel doodgewoon huis aan een
lange straat in Putney, een buitenwijk van Londen.
Ook al niet wat ik verwacht had. En zijn pad
"Touchwood", in Nederland "Tikker" geheten, was
nergens te zien.
FANMAIL
"Ik ben een acteur en ik houd van tegenstellingen",
vertelt Bayldon mij. Met a1 zijn vriendelijkheid en
zachtaardigheid heeft hij er enorm veel plezier in
de rol te spelen van die slordige, gebaarde ondeugd
met zijn tovertrucs. "Het is een prachtige rol voor
een toneelspeler. Je kunt ervan maken wat je wil".
En hij is er inderdaad in geslaagd er iets van te
maken. Hopen fanmail vallen dagelijks in zijn
brievenbus. "En heus niet alleen van kinderen.
Catweazle is typisch 'n familieprogramma geworden.
Het hele gezin kijkt ernaar". Maar op straat wordt
Bayldon maar zelden herkent. "En dat is een groot
voordeel", zegt hij. "Het is erg hinderlijk als je
steeds maar mensen achter je aan krijgt".
 PERFECTIONIST
Het is niet zo vreemd, dat hij incognito kan
blijven. Wie zou verwachten dat achter dat sIuwe
gezicht van Catweazle een glad geschoren, rimpelloos
gelaat schuilt. "Het kost me 90 minuten om me op te
maken", biecht Bayldon op, "en soms nog meer om het
er weer af te krijgen" . Twee hete baden zijn
daarvoor nodig. "Het eerste ziet er uit als een
dikke bruine soep, als ik er uit stap".
Hij geeft toe dat hij een perfectionist is. "Ik werk
heel hard aan iedere episode. We beginnen 's morgens
om zeven uur en werken dan de hele dag door". Hoe
vind hij het om te spelen met kinderen?
"Ik was er altijd bang
voor. Kinderen, die toneelspelen of voor de tv
werken, zijn vaak zulke monsters. Garry Warren, de
jongen die de rol heeft van de jonge aristocraat
Cedric, is echter bijzonder aardig. En Robin Davies,
die in de eerste serie speelde, was al even
prettig".
 PANIEK
OM EEN PAD
En wat denkt hij van zijn pad "Touchwood"?
"Ik vond het in het begin een beetje griezelig. Ik
bad uiteraard nog nooit een pad als mede-acteur
gehad en ze zijn zeker niet de mooiste beesten die
je je kunt voorstellen, maar het viel allemaal erg
mee. Ik had altijd gedacht dat ze slijmerig waren,
maar ze zijn heel droog en koud". Niet al zijn
herinneringen aan zijn pad zijn erg plezierig.
"Tijdens een van de scenes was het bloedheet in de
studio. Ik moest een regenjas dragen in plaats van
mijn gewone tuniek. Ik had er niet aan gedacht dat
er een gat in mijn jaszak zat en stopte de pad er
even in. Toen we bijna klaar waren met de scene,
voelde ik plotseling kleine pootjes over mijn
bezwete buik glibberen. De studio was meteen in
opschudding.
Bayldon houdt ervan voor de tv te werken. Hij heeft
herhaaldelijk meegespeeld in "De Wrekers" en "The
Saint" en speelde onlangs de hoofdrol in een
detectivestuk. "Ik vind het veel natuurlijker dan
toneel. Als ik naar de schouwburg ga, word ik altijd
warm van verlegenheid. Ik begrijp nooit waarom die
mensen op het toneel zo tegen elkaar staan te
schreeuwen". Maar hij zou niet graag voor live-tv
willen werken. "Dat is te vergelijken met wat de
Romeinen met de christenen deden: voor de leeuwen
gooien. Ik houd ervan een scene over te kunnen doen
tot zij perfect is".
 ACROBATISCHE
TOEREN
Natuurlijk heeft hij voor zijn rol een boel fantasie
nodig. "Ik heb allerlei nieuwe geluiden uitgevonden,
sissen, blazen, enzovoorts". En eigenlijk zou hij
ook heel sportief moeten zijn. "Ik val zo vaak in
het water of moet een schoorsteen beklimmen, dat ik
erg graag lenig zou willen zijn, maar helaas is dat
niet waar". Tijdens een van de eerste opnamen
verzwikte hij een enkel, terwijl hij onlangs een
ongelukje met zijn rug had.
Maar Bayldon heeft het ervoor over. Hij houdt ervan
goed geld te verdienen en hij houdt van zijn
populariteit. Dat in Nederland kinderen hem gaan
tekenen, vindt hij geweldig, ook al kan hij zichzelf
in Engeland in bijna alle speelgoedwinkels zien.
London Weekend, de Engelse tv-maat-schappij die de
serie maakt, heeft namelijk stripboeken en puzzels
uitgegeven met Catweazle als thema. Op die manier
hopen ze ook nog wat terug te verdienen van de
f150.000 die de eerste serie van dertien episoden
gekost heeft.
CATWEAZLE IS ANDERS!
Catweazle is het produkt van Richard Carpenter, een
veteraan op het gebied van tv-stukken. Hij heeft er
in totaal 300 geschreven en meegewerkt aan "Z-Cars"
en "Dock Green". Hij vertelde me nog, dat hij het
idee kreeg toen hij naar iets nieuws voor kinderen
zocht. "Er waren zoveel shows op de tv met poppen of
tekeningen, dat ik iets anders wilde. Iets
menselijks, grappig en met aantrekkingskracht voor
kinderen en ouderen". Richard Carpenter is daar
samen met Geoffrey Bayldon zeker in geslaagd. zondag
NED 2:(19.05)
HENRI VAN DER ZEE.
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"Magic
Whiskers"
Another look at the strange old
wizard, Catweazle
|
 Source:
"Look-in Television Annual" 1971
Open article as PDF
"Tchach! Nothing works!" Catweazle flung down
Adamcos the witch-knife so that Touchwood, his toad,
had to scutter nimbly out of the way. Catweazle had
been asked to show us some simple magic, but, as
usual, no amount of spell-binding and muttering had
done the trick. Perhaps it was as well, knowing the
sort of cock-eyed results he usually gets!
And yet, there is real magic about Catweazle.
The magic that happens whenever Geoffrey Bayldon,
who plays the part, puts on the wig and whiskers,
and swathes himself in the revolting old rags that
Catweazle wears.
"It's the sort of magic," Geoffrey points out, "that
made Doctor Jekyll into Mr. Hyde - turned him, in
fact, into a completely different sort of person.
When I look like Catweazle, Geoffrey Bayldon ceases
to exist, and I really become the old witch who's
tumbled forward to the present day from Norman
times."
Forty-six-year-old Geoffrey, who lives a normal life
in a London suburb, with a normal cat that certainly
isn't given to perching on flying broomsticks,
confesses that spells and the like aren't bis cup of
tea.
His career, too, before Catweazle came along, has
been most decidedly normal.  He
trained to be an architect, then joined the Old Vic
Theatre School in 1947. Television appearances and
films - they include 'A Dandy in Aspic' and 'To Sir
With Love' - have been strictly non-magical. "When
we first started out on Catweazle," Geoffrey says,
"We had to carry out a lot of experiments to get the
old beggar's face just right. Eventually, the
make-up people messed about with the wig and those
whiskers, and curled them into the appropriate
shape. And the funny thing was, when I put them on,
I honestly began to feel fizzy and cantankerous !"
At the first filming, the old gown he wore didn't
look right. "So everyone on the set got busy with
scissors and started shredding me about. Then came
ink, mud, and all sorts of muck to make me look as
filthy as possible."
It means two baths for Geoffrey every time a
Catweazle shooting is over, and then it's back to
normality. "You should see those baths," grins
Geoffrey. "By the time I've finished they look like
the sort of cauldrons Catweazle would be simply
delighted with!"
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"Unsichtbar? verschwunden? oder... überall
anwesend?"
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 Source:
"Jamin Junior" Number 2 1972
Open article as PDF
German translation of the original dutch text.
Original title: "Onzichtbaar? verwenen? of... overal
annwezig?".
Der große Zauberer des Mittelalters Catweazle steht
mit großen Augen auf unserer Titelseite. Er
erschreckte sich zu Tode wegen des Blitzlichts
unseres Fotografen, denn Fotoapparate und Blitzlicht
sind Dinge, die es im Mittelalter nicht gab und die
Catweazle deshalb nicht kannte.
Zurzeit vermissen wir Catweazle auf dem
Fernsehbildschirm, aber wenn wir gut informiert
sind, wird das nicht mehr lange dauern. In England
wird wieder fieberhaft an neuen Abenteuern
gearbeitet (und Catweazle erlebt genug!).
In der Zwischenzeit ist unsere Berichterstatterin
Thera Esling in den Wald von Brickendonbury
gefahren, um Catweazle aufzusuchen und ihn zu
befragen. Speziell für Jamin Junior. In
dieser Ausgabe.
 Unsichtbar?
verschwunden? oder... überall anwesend?
Jeden Sonntagabend war
Catweazle im niederländischen Fernsehen zu sehen.
Jetzt ist er verschwunden. Vorübergehend? Endgültig?
Oder lebt er weiter als Herr Geoffrey Bayldon? Oder
ist er wieder zurückgekehrt ins elfte Jahrhundert?
Wie auch immer, zuletzt
wurde er in der Brickendonbury Grafschaft
Hertfordshire gesehen. Dort habe ich ihn, bewaffnet
mit Kugelschreiber und Tonbandgerät, aufgesucht.
Es war eine lange und
mühsame Reise. Quer durch knisterndes Laubwerk,
dornige Sträucher und belaubte Bäume. Ein kleiner
Pfad wies mir fröhlich springend den Weg. Bis ich
schließlich über einen schmalen Schlangenpfad durch
einen Sumpf zu Catweazles geheimes Versteck
durchzudringen vermochte.
Zuerst hatte ich große Angst. Aber er verstand es,
mich zu beruhigen. Mit Catweazle ist es wie mit so
vielen Zauberern, Hexen und Magiern. Man muss ihn
kennen lernen, dann ist er sehr angenehm. Catweazle
bedeutet KATZE - WIESEL. Der Name passt genau zu
ihm, denn er sieht in der Tat aus wie die Kreuzung
zwischen einer Katze und einem Wiesel. Aber mit den
Maßen eines Menschen. "Mein Vater war eine Katze,
meine Mutter war ein Wiesel", so Catweazle. "Das
glauben Sie mir nicht? Im elften Jahrhundert, aus
dem ich stamme, glaubt man es. Deshalb haben sie
mich aus dem elften Jahrhundert vertrieben. Aber es
dauerte so schrecklich lange, bis das Fernsehen
erfunden wurde. Sonst wäre ich schon viel früher im
Fernsehen zu sehen gewesen. Aber ich habe bis zu
diesem Jahrhundert darauf warten müs-sen."
Catweazle spricht eine Mischung aus Sächsisch und
Gotisch mit ab und zu einem Wort Druidisch
dazwischen. Ich kann ihn aber verstehen. Ganz
einfach, weil er den niederländischen Text in großen
weißen Buchstaben aus den Ärmeln seiner bemoosten
Kutte schüttelt. Genau wie die Untertitelung im
Fernsehen. Während er spricht, knattert und glüht
mein Tonbandgerät. Und zu Hause wird sich
herausstellen, dass seine Geschichte wie ein
düsteres Geflüster mit brüllenden Echos in
umgekehrter Reihenfolge auf das Band gekommen ist.
Wirklich ein Spaß für Catweazle. Glücklicherweise
habe ich sicherheitshalber auch Aufzeichnungen
gemacht. Unter dem Schreiben schlugen die Funken der
Spitze meines Kugelschreibers, so dass meine
Aufzeichnungen in das Papier eingebrannt sind. Quer
über elf Notizblockblätter. Fand ich schon eng, aber
man gewöhnt sich daran.
 Gibt
es Catweazle wirklich?
Gibt es Sie wirklich? lautete meine erste Frage an
Catweazle. Hierauf begann er finster zu lachen. "Das
kann ich Sie auch fragen" sagte er, mit Appetit eine
handvoll getrocknete Asseln verzehrend. "Gibt es
Thera Esling? Ihre Eltern, Ihren Bruder, Ihre
Freunde, Ihre Bekannten und jeden, den sie sehen,
können Sie jetzt denken. Aber wer weiß, vielleicht
beruht das auf einer magischen optischen Täuschung."
"Ach
Gunst", sagte ich, ein wenig bestürzt, "ich habe
immer gedacht, dass ich existiere". "Ja-ha! Ha-ha!"
lachte Catweazle, "aber man kann so viel denken. Sie
müssen vorsichtiger mit Ihren Behauptungen sein.
Niemand kann beweisen, dass er wirklich existiert.
Wirklich ist nur die Phantasie, die sich
Wirklichkeit wähnt. Kann ich Ihnen mit einer
Spinngewebesuppe dienen? Oder wollen Sie lieber
einen Kaninchenköttelkeks?"
"He ekliger Kerl. Im Fernsehen isst man immer viel
weniger gruselig." "In der Tat", sagte Catweazle
"Man muss Konzessionen machen. Selbst als Zauberer.
Unser Ruf ist ja nicht der beste. Außer der von
Eurem Nikolaus." "Nikolaus?" fragte ich erstaunt.
"Ja, Nikolaus. Nikolaus ist auch ein Zauberer. Hat
genau wie ich schon seit dem elften Jahrhundert
existiert. Der Unterschied ist nur, Nikolaus kommt
einmal im Jahr und ich einmal die Woche. Es gibt
noch mehr Zauberer. Fred Kaps beispielsweise, der
einmal Weltmeister im Zaubern war. Ja, Sie denken,
dass er ein Gaukler ist, aber in Wirklichkeit ist er
ein Zauberer. Die meisten Zauberweltmeister
übrigens. Sie laufen im Frack herum und tun als ob
sie Menschen sind!" "Junge, junge Catweazle, darauf
wäre ich niemals gekommen".
"Sie können doch wohl nachvollziehen, dass kein
Mensch auf der Welt ein Glas Wasser in ein Glas
Milch verwandeln kann? Wie Fred Kaps es tut! Darum
gibt er sich als Mensch aus. Dann erhält er vielmehr
Anerkennung und eine menschenwürdige Existenz.
Deshalb denke ich intensiv darüber nach, mich in
Kürze in einen Menschen zu verändern. Es hat viele
Nachteile, aber der Schnurrbart, die Kutte und die
Lumpen an meinen Füßen sind auch nicht alles. Ich
habe meinen Pfahlbau gegen einen verlassenen Bahnhof
getauscht. Nachts spuke ich dort herum, tagsüber bin
ich ein bisschen Mensch. Um mich an eine feste
Wohnung zu gewöhnen. Denn letztendlich will ich
einen Bungalow. Als Mensch dann. Aber die
Zaubersprüche wollen noch nicht. Ja was wollen Sie,
ein Gespenst ist auch nur ein Mensch. Ich habe noch
eine Menge Hokuspokus vor dem Bauch."
 Geistersendung
Als Zauberer", so Catweazle, "findet man Geister und
Gespenster meistens gut. Aber die Gespenster
belieben mir nicht mehr. Sie wirken mir entgegen,
wenn ich durch die Jahrhunderte wandern will. Wissen
Sie warum? Einfach aus Neid. Weil ich Erfolg im
Fernsehen habe! Sie
finden, dass man das als Zauberer nicht machen kann.
Darauf pfeife ich! Weil sie selbst zu viel Angst
haben. Denn es sind Tölpel, wissen Sie. So bange wie
ein Wiesel vor dem kleinsten Spalt Tageslicht. Ich
bin ein Katzenwiesel, deshalb habe ich halb so viel
Angst. Natürlich hatte ich Angst vor dem grellen
Licht der Fernsehkamera. Ja was dachten Sie. Aber
ich habe einfach mich selbst beschworen."
Letzte Frage, wann kehren Sie zurück ins
niederländische Fernsehen? " Am elften elften, bei
Vollmond auf Kanal elf. Vorangegangen von einem
Testbild, das das elfte Tierkreiszeichen sein wird",
war die prompte Antwort. Plötzlich begann es zu
stürmen, eine giftgrüne Wolke erschien und dann war
Catweazle verschwunden.
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"The young
stars - Gary Warren" |
 Source:
"Look-in Television Annual" 1972
Open article as PDF
Gary was born
in July, 1954,
 and
started to act when he joined the Aida Foster School
in 1967. There, he combined a general education with
dance and drama. Four-feet-ten-inches-tall Gary is
an only child. He has always been exceptionally
small for his age. This fact, combined with his
acting ability, has put him in great demand, and he
has played leading roles in television, films and
theatre. His first television part, at the age of
twelve, was as Pinnochio in Disney
Wonderland. He also played young
Patrick in Mame, at the Royal Theatre,
Drury Lane. His film appearances include The
Railway Children, Up in the Air, and
Computers in Banking. But Gary is best known
for his role as
Cedric, in Catweazle.Gary has many
hobbies and he's very fond of sport; football,
cricket, table-tennis and bowling are a few of the
games he enjoys. |
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"So,
why does Catweazle want to return to his own time
- he'll only get burnt!"
|
Source: "All Star Television Annual" / 1973
Open article as PDF
"Nothing works!” If you should hear that agonized
cry coming from a lonely wood or a ruined castle,
then keep well clear. For it's a sure sign that
Catweazle is at work - and if you get mixed up with
that wacky wizard's spells you're liable to find
yourself turned into a toad, if nothing worse!
Catweazle, the magician whose spells always go
wrong, made his first television appearance back in
February 1970. Viewers of the first episode saw
Catweazle, a Saxon sorcerer in 11th-century England,
chased by angry Norman soldiers. To escape their
swords, the old wizard mumbled a “flying” spell -
but instead of flying through space, his hocus-pocus
sent him hurtling through time to the 20th century.
And that's when the fun began; Catweazle came from a
time when all the things we take for granted -
electric power, motor-cars, telephones, radio and
television and so on - were undreamed of.
In Catweazle's time, anyone who could light a room
just by throwing a switch would have been recognized
as a very powerful magician indeed - so to poor
Catweazle, the modern world is full of sorcerers who
can perform all kinds of marvels.
And when those who befriend him, and they are few,
try to explain that these modern wonders are not
produced by magic - Catweazle just doesn't believe
them. To him, people like you and me are mighty
enchanters, too jealous of our secrets to share them
with a bumbling, fumbling warlock whose only wish is
to find a spell to take him back to his own time.
Poor old Catweazle!
But were things really that much better for people
like Catweazle back in the 11th century? Catweazle,
remember, is a Saxon - very much a second-class
citizen in an England ruled by the Norman lords who
swarmed across from France after William the
Conqueror's victory over the Saxon King Harold at
Hastings in 1066.
The Norman conquest meant that the Saxons lost
everything. The Saxon lords' castles and lands were
taken away and given to Norman nobles, and the
ordinary Saxons - the labourers, clerks and
merchants - found themselves ruled by proud and
stern men speaking a foreign language.
 Saxon
rule had been fairly easy-going; the Normans
introduced their much harsher laws, laws that meant
a man could be put to death for seeming even to
question his lord's orders, or that a man could have
his hands chopped off and his face branded with a
red-hot iron for daring to set a snare for rabbits
on his lord's land.
And this is where Catweazle, and men and women like
him, made their appearance in history. Armed revolt
against the Normans was useless - the few Saxons who
tried it, like Hereward the Wake, were mercilessly
hunted down and killed - so the superstitious
peasants turned to magic and witchcraft. It was a
little like the French Resistance to the Germans in
World War II, except that instead of blowing up
railway lines and sabotaging factories, the Saxon
peasants cast spells and chanted rituals that, they
hoped, would bring the forces of evil to take
vengeance on the Normans.
One Saxon, a little more learned than the rest (and
remember that very few people could read or write in
those times), would set up as a witch, a term then
applied to both male and female sorcerers. He might
believe that he really could work magic, which most
people believed in at that time, or he might like
the power and respect that his supposed supernatural
knowledge gave him among his fellow Saxons.
Around him, the witch would gather a band of
followers, traditionally thirteen in number and
called a “coven”, who met on certain nights (the
most popular being Midsummer Eve and Walpurgis
Night, October 31, when the forces of evil are said
to be at their strongest) to carry out secret rites,
dances and the chanting of spells, aimed at
persuading the Devil to join them in the fight
against the Normans.
It was the beginning of what historians call
'modern' witchcraft in England. The Norman rulers,
the Church (which had nearly as much power as the
King in those days), and even the few Saxon lords
who retained any power, were all opposed to
witchcraft - for it was a movement that threatened
to stir up the peasants in revolt against the
nobility. Cruel laws were passed against witches and
sorcerers: even to be suspected of witchcraft meant
that a man could be arrested, tortured until he
confessed, and then executed in any one of a number
of unpleasant ways.
In England, between the 11th and 17th centuries,
several thousand people were executed as witches. No
laughing matter: but somehow one can't imagine
Catweazle having much to do with the powers of evil.
If he did try to get in touch with them, he'd most
certainly get a crossed line. And you can settle
back to laugh at his antics, secure in the knowledge
that behind the make-up, the rags and whiskers, is
actor Geoffrey Bayldon, whose “off-stage” activities
include nothing more sinister than collecting old
paintings and gardening.
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"Catweazle
episode index"
|
 Source:
"Starburst" No. 52 / December 1982
Open article as PDF
By Richard Holliss:
This month's column carries a complete episode guide
to the London Weekend Television series Catweazle,
created in 1971 by actor/writer Richard Carpenter.
His original intention was to write a children's
book, but finally decided to try his hand at a 13
part television series. The unusual title came from
a name painted on a country signpost and in the
weeks that followed, Carpenter gradually built up in
his own mind a character to suit the word - an old
man clothed in rags - very eccentric - quick on his
feet - cunning and predictable. The opportunity also
arose to incorporate time travel in to the story. In
tbe first episode Catweazle leaps, using his magic
powers, from Norman times to present day. He had
hoped to discover, through ancient sorcery, a way to
fly so his trip across the centuries was accidental.
Being an 11th Century wizard, he is bewildered by
the incredible machines and invisible energies on
display on the 20th Century.
 Fortunately
he meets up with a 14 year old boy called,
appropriately, Carrot because of his red hair.
Together they share many adventures.
Catweazle is disturbed by everything that modern man
takes for granted, a lightbulb, the telephone,
television and cars. ln this way Carpenter hoped the
series would appeal to children through its funny
script. "In Catweazle there won't be any custard
pies," he said, "I hope the children will be
laughing at the words." Carpenter went on to write a
further 13 episodes and a later tv series entitled
The Ghosts of Motley Hall. In 1971 the Writers
Guild of Great Britain awarded Catweazle the prize
for Best TV Childrens' Drama Script.
Geoffrey
Bayldon, star of numerous films and tv programmes,
portrayed the old wizard and became totally
engrossed in the role, giving an excellent
performance. He was also ably supported by a strong
cast including Robin Davis as Carrot, Charles
Tingwell as Carrot's father Mr Bennet and Neil
McCarthy as farm hand Sam Woodyard.
It is a pity if Catweazle is ignored by the
present ITV audiences. It is an exceptionally well
made series and a worthy example of British
Television fantasy.
(After this article there is a list of all "Catweazle" episodes.)
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"Catweazle's Telling Bones Tales"
|
 Source:
"Fantasy Image" Issue 3 / June 1985
Open article as PDF
An Article by Richard Marson:
Television fantasy is a flawed medium. Few of
the many fantasy series and specials made and
screened over the years can really claim to be
original, dramatic and amusing all of the time.
Some, like the banal American antics of
Battlestar Galactica, are just plain dreadful,
while others remain only fitfully successful.
Catweazle, recently re-screened in most of the
ITV regions, is one of the few fantasy shows that
can legitimately claim to have achieved a consistent
and well-rounded success. Screened in two series of
thirteen and made by London Weekend Television
during 1969 and 1970, it remains an example of pure
imagination winning the fraught battle of children's
television, and like all the best children's shows,
it soon proved itself popular among a wide adult
audience.
Catweazle started life when its creator
and author Richard Carpenter was languishing in
unemployment that is so often part of the life of an
actor. With little in the offing apart from the
occasional school's programme, Carpenter was on the
look out for some way of making a living that would
enable him to stay in his chosen career, as well as
pay the mortgage on his house and keep his family in
corn-flakes! He decided to try and write something
for television, and his first idea came from a visit
he had made to his brother-in-Iaw's house in the
depths of Sussex. Deciding not to travel by the main
road and to use the scenic route instead, Carpenter
soon found himself well and truly lost. Stopping to
look at the map and generally get his bearings, he
happened to glance at an old gate set back in an
overgrown old hedge. On the gate was a sign bearing
the name Catweazle.
The name appealed to Carpenter and kept coming
back to him over the ensuing weeks. Then, on a visit
to the National Gallery, he happened to come across
a painting by the enigmatic medieval artist
Hieronyimous Bosch, entitled "The Crowning of
Thorns". In the far corner of the painting was the
figure of an old, cadaverous man, and, his mind
shooting straight back to that strange signpost,
Carpenter knew he had found the image to go with the
name Catweazle. Going about the complicated process
of creating a television series based around this
character came in stages and the first was inspired
directly by Carpenter's work in school's television.
He had always been a bit perturbed by children's
ready acceptance of all things scientific and he was
worried that they weren't inquisitive enough. He
decided that it would be interesting to explore the
wonders of the modern world through the eyes of
someone who'd never had science or technology before
but who was intrigued and interested, like a child,
and yet not a child.
 Magic
However, this semi-educational slant certainly
didn't appeal in isolation so the character of
Catweazle had to be thought out in more detail.
Carpenter realised that he'd have to allow his
medieval man the chance of accepting and
rationalising this new world, because he just be
frightened if he was without any kind of
psychological defence. Thus came the idea of making
him a magician and of his interpreting science as
the new magic. This basic misunderstanding provided
the basis for the whole of the series as Catweazle
finds himself embroiled with everything from telling
bones (telephones) through to the sun in a bottle
(lightbulbs). The setting for the series, a country
farm, came from the desire to keep the series in the
open air and also because to have plunged a man from
900 years ago into a city or town environment would
have resulted in overkill, and the probable madness
of Catweazle. Indeed, Carpenter argued that it would
never be a good idea to have Catweazle in a big city
like London because it would rapidly become sordid,
serious, and it would take on an air of social
comment. In London, Catweazle would be seen as a
tramp and he'd end up frequenting the cardboard box
world of the slummier areas of the city. The bad,
gloomier side of modern-day life was a kettle of
fish the series could well do without.
In both series Catweazle's constant and put-upon
companions took the form of young boys. This idea
was to reverse the role of father and son with the
boy taking the father role and Cateazle the son's.
In the first series this worked particularly well,
not only because Robin Davies as Carrot was better
than Gary Davies in the second season, but also
because we saw Carrot' s relationship with his
father too. Carpenter based the whole set-up on a
grandfather/grandson situation, in that children
usually spend far more time playing with their
grandfathers than with their fathers, who, more
likely than not, are out at work. Catweazle's one
screen encounter with little girls was not a
success, since they react very badly to the old
man's beloved toad, Touchwood, thereby earning
themselves the magician's instant enmity.
It took the influence of an article to co-ordinate
all Richard Carpenter' s initial inspirations into a
detailed series synopsis. He read the fateful
article in the glossy magazine Vogue, in
which a top television executive was quoted as
saying that there was no such thing as talent not
getting on in showbusiness. Carpenter knew from his
own experience as an actor that this was simply not
the case, as he'd had many talented friends who
never got the opportunities they deserved and, in an
extremely angry mood, he wrote to the executive and
protested at the man's callous and incorrect
assumptions. Realising this was all very well as a
way of relieving his feelings, he recognised that he
now had to act with his ideas and submit
Catweazle to a television company. Having duly
sent the plot outline to Joy Whitby, head of London
Weekend Television's children's department he is
willing to admit he would have left it at that had
he received the expected rejection slip.
 Timing
Timing, however, was on his side. Whitby had
received instructions to find some fresh children's
drama from the concerned IBA, who felt that children
were getting a very raw deal from the Independent
companies. London Weekend was particularly under
scrutiny since it was still a relatively new
station, and as such, was still proving itself.
After a while, Whitby wrote back to Richard
Carpenter and asked him to come and see her.
Carpenter shrewdly took the chance of expounding a
bit more about his concept and Joy Whitby rapidly
got excited and told him to go away and write a
script. Carpenter did exactly that, basing his
script style on the knowledge he had about the
business of writing from his years in acting. He was
then asked to write four more, and just as he was
getting slightly impatient for some kind of monetary
reward for his labours, the decision came through
that LWT had agreed to go ahead and film a first
series of six episodes, planning to show them on
Sunday afternoons as part of a newlook children's
service.
Geoffrey Bayldon's casting
The first major part that Carpenter had written
also became the only part he was ever to cast. The
assembled production team bandied quite a variety of
names about, and were particularly keen to offer it
to Jon Pertwee until they realised he was committed
to becoming the new Doctor Who. Carpenter, on
the other hand, kept suggesting Geoffrey Bayldon, a
character actor who had been through the same drama
training as the series' author, and so, Carpenter
argued could handle the fantastical side of the part
without totally depending on the comedy in the role.
In spite of hesitation, Bayldon was eventually
offered the scripts to look at and he jumped at
them. London Weekend quickly decided to extend the
first series to thirteen and, largely for sales
purposes, agreed to allow the programme to be made
entirely on film. With Bayldon filming the show as
Carpenter was finishing the final scripts, it soon
became evident that he was writing for the actor.
At the first read through it was discussed exactly
how Catweazle should speak. A variety of accents
were tried, including country yokel and cockney,
until Carpenter asked Bayldon to try his own natural
accent, Yorkshire. This impressed everyone,
particularly when it was later discovered that
middle English (the language of the medieval man)
used a lot of the same vowel sounds as the Yorkshire
dialect, so that, without being incomprehensible,
some attempt at authenticity had inadvertently been
made. The rest of the regular cast comprised Robin
Davies as Carrot, who later grew up to act alongside
Wendy Craig in her And Mother Makes Four
series, Neil McCarthy as the simple Sam and Charles
Tingwell as Carrot's father. Added to that a number
of excellent guest stars were contracted to appear
in the series, including Peter Butterworth, Hattie
Jaques and Dorothy Frere, all of whom were
experienced in the field of comedy.
Reaction to the first series was excellent, with
both critics and audience won over by the
charismatic old man, and his amusing antics. It was
not exactly unexpected, then, that a second series
was soon announced and wary critics expected the
format to pall and rapidly get repetitive. They were
to be proved very wrong, though, as Carpenter
totally re-vamped the second season to make the
situation as different from the first as possible
while retaining the programme's recognisable style
and structure. Out went the farm set-up and with it
the regular cast that had been a feature of the
first series. Magic became a more prominent part of
the situation, and the idea of a hunt for hidden
treasure was the
 inspiration
taken for the second set of thirteen episodes. In
spite, of this series apparent success, no more
episodes were made and the show disappeared somewhat
abruptly, never to return.
The reason for Catweazle's cancellation lay within
the arena of television politics. The visual style
of the first series had largely been down to
director Quentin Lawrence, who came into the show
from second unit photography on The Battle of
Britain film. He had been to Stowe school and
his English master there was T.H. Lawrence, author
of The Sword In The Stone, so his grasp for
the fantasy medium was unequalled. He had been a
close friend of Richard Carpenter, and wanted to do
the series as soon as he read it. In fact, the
author puts the success of the whole thing down to
Lawrence, with whom he was later to work on The
Ghosts of Motley Hall. However, after a series
of creative rows with the top brass at LWT, Lawrence
was dropped from the second series. This in itself
would not have caused the demise of the series, but
a further row behind closed doors at London Weekend
did. The head of programmes there, Stella Richmond,
left the company after severe differences of opinion
between herself and the board. Her successor, as is
so often the case, wanted to try out some new ideas
of his own, and in spite of plans for a third run of
Catweazle, axed the show from London
Weekend's planned schedules.
Third Series
The third series would have taken Catweazle back to
the disused water tank in which he lived during the
first series, and which he had named Castle Saburac.
The second series had concluded with the old
magician going off in a hot air balloon and the
third would have started with him still in the
balloon, but ending his journey by cutting the ropes
holding the basket onto the balloon itself. It wouId
have been set at night and as the balloon landed
Catweazle would hear a tremendous booming sound,
like a great gong. Of course it turns out he's
landed on the water tank, which then acts as a base
of operations for his adventures during the season.
Carpenter realised he couldn't have had the same
set-up in the farm, so he was planning to write a
scene where Catweazle visits the farm and finds it
deserted. As he leaves the camera focuses on a For
Sale sign. From this, the series could have had a
succession of people either renting or living in the
farm, and Carpenter was toying with the idea of
giving Catweazle two companions this time round,
with a girl to balance the familiar boy situation.
Unfortunately these plans were never to reach
fruition, although Carpenter has an intriguing
treatment for a Catweazle film, which he
plans to start working on again when the series
rights revert to him this year. The only real
problem with the film is that Carpenter is worried
about opening up the television series too much and
so losing the feel of the original programmes.
Suffice it to say that his idea is rather more
ambitious than the original serial and includes the
disappearance of a whole village, pomp-ous military
and government types, two rather bemused children,
Touchwood the toad becoming something of a hero, and
Catweazle languishing in a police cell.
 Highest
selling series
Internationally, Catweazle has been one of London
Weekend's highest selling series, and it remains
Richard Carpenter's favourite piece of work. On the
basis of its success he was able to give up his
uncertain career as an actor and move into the
richer fields of television writing, a field in
which he has enjoyed considerable acclaim and
satisfaction over the last fifteen years. It started
off his fascination with the whole area of magic and
Catweazle always had an intentional element of 'if
you believe in it strongly enough it will actually
come true'. For children the series was a godsend
and LWT were singled out for praise by the IBA for
this particular network contribution. It has since
been repeated several times, although in the
typically haphazard nature of the ITV networking
system. If one had any real criticism to make of the
series, one could perhaps attack it for being a bit
too whimsical and comic. However, such an attack is
petty and irrelevant when taken in the context of
the concept as a whole, since it was clearly intened
to raise a smile. Perhaps the trouble with many of
the critics, particularly those involved in the
fantasy genre, is that it is precisely their sense
of humour which is lacking and which results in so
few series of this type being thoroughly successful. |
|
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"Richard
Carpenter - An Interview"
|
 Source:
"Time Screen" Spring 1990by Stephen McKay
Richard Carpenter was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk
and grew up in the county. His interest in acting
lead him first to the Old Vic Theatre School and
from there he went on to perform in rep, all over
the country and make (according to his publisher)
over three-hundred appearances on television.
We caught up with Richard Carpenter during a break
at the 1988 Greenwood II Convention. We started by
asking Richard how he came to make the career change
from actor to writer?
"Catweazle"
was my first job as a script writer. I had been an
actor for seventeen years and things were beginning
to get a bit tough. I had changed agents but it
hadn't really worked. I read an article in 'Vogue'
by the head of London Weekend Television saying that
if there was talent about it always got caught in
the net, no talent got lost, which I thought was an
absurd statement because I know a lot of actors who
could be stars today, but they're not. It's the luck
of the game, not that I would have ever been a star,
but I did quite well and had a good run. I was doing
a play in the West End for about a year called
"Wait Until Dark" and I had quite frankly
got fed up with acting.
Annie, my wife, and I went down to my
brother-in-law's turkey farm and on the way back we
got lost so we stopped to try and find out where we
were and there was a gate. On the gate was the word
'Catweazle'. I thought that was a most unusual
name, and I wrote it on a piece of paper. From there
I started writing little things, and I suddenly saw
the character; I had a book of "A Hundred Details
of the National Gallery", and one of them was a
picture by Hieronymous Bosch, "The Crowning of
Thorns". I saw this little old man and said to
myself
'That's Catweazle'. Then it came to me that
he was a magician. I had always been interested in
things concerning the manipulation of time, and I
had never seen a show where someone came from the
past into the present. I thought ‘who could come
from the past to the present and still retain their
sanity, except somebody who could rationalize it’.
And the only person who could make some sort of
sense out of what they saw would be a magician who
believed that he was in a world of new magic. So
from that it began to build up. I was very lucky. It
was the first thing I'd written. It was accepted. I
had a very fine script editor/producer called Joy
Whitby, and a wonderful director/producer called
Quentin Lawrence and we became dear friends. The
show won the Writer's Guild Award for the best
children's television programme and the series
became a bit of a cult. I wrote the little book and
everything else happened and I haven't stopped
writing since. So I owe a lot to "Catweazle".
How did Richard submit the idea of "Catweazle"
to London Weekend ? “It originally started life as a
concept, I then wrote six scripts on spec. Joy
Whitby went off on holiday and lent me her office,
and I wrote them quite fast because I was excited at
the chance of selling to London Weekend. Then I
didn't hear anything for a long time and then they
said, yes, they were going to do six. By the time we
actually got round to starting to shoot the
first one they commissioned another seven, then they
commissioned another thirteen, so we did twenty-six.
There were a series of political changes at London
Weekend which meant that the people who were there
when "Catweazle" started, and who
would have continued the show had left and the new
broom always sweeps clean, they don't want to do an
old show. They wanted to do something new so I'm
afraid it got axed, even though the public wanted
it.”
 Was
Richard Carpenter involved in the casting of
Geoffrey Bayldon for the title role?
“I wasn't just involved, he was my choice. I think
it's the first and last time that I've ever cast the
lead of anything I've written. Funnily enough, first
of all they wanted Jon Pertwee. Jon Pertwee was
flavour of the month, but they couldn't get him or
he'd turned them down or he might even have got the
role of "Doctor Who" by then. So I
said
‘What about my original idea, Geoffrey Bayldon?’
And they got him in, and of course he was so
obviously right as by that time I was writing for
him. Geoffrey was an old friend of mine. We both
trained at the Old Vic theatre school at different
times, but I'd worked with him as an actor on
several plays. He was a good friend and I knew he
could do it and that nobody would be better. He made
the part his own and he brought to the role lots and
lots of qualities which enabled me to make the part
grow. He was wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
“I was also very lucky with the director; it was the
happiest show that I've ever been connected with. I
made a very great personal friend in Quentin
Lawrence. Of course we fought professionally, but we
became very good friends. We then did ‘THE GHOSTS
OF MOTLEY HALL’ together and were going to do
‘MISTRESS MASHAM'S REPOSE’ the T.H. White book.
When he died unfortunately we were planning to do
another show together because we had the same sense
of humour. We did eighteen episodes of ‘THE
GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL’, three sixes and a
special which was a double episode, a Christmas show
called ‘Phantomine’. I pulled stumps on that
particular series. They wanted to do another season
but I told them I was written out, I'd
written everything I could on that particular
subject. At least to keep going I would have had to
have a year off and come back to it afresh. I think
that shows have a life-span of their own, whereas
with CATWEAZLE we could easily have done two
more seasons, I felt by episode nineteen of ‘THE
GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL’ we had exhausted the
show. I was told to write a show with one set and
that is what gave me the idea. It is often very good
for a writer to have constraints because it forces
you back to using ingenuity and artistry. If you are
told ' you've got $40,000,000 budget, do what you
like, you come up with nothing really, nothing
of any artistic value. But if you are told ‘three
people in a single room, an hour and a half play’
then it's got to be in the writing. I always try and
limit the number of characters I use, because the
more you limit it the more you are thrown back into
interrelating those characters in an interesting
way. Ultimately it isn't stories that are important,
it's characters, the way they react and the way that
particular writer scripts that particular situation.
Because all situations are common to drama, there
are millions of the same situation appearing again
and again, but it's the way the writer tackles it
that makes it unique and gives it a stamp of
personality.
What gave Richard the idea of the magic zodiac link
between the stories in season two of ‘CATWEAZLE’?
“I knew I had thirteen episodes to write and I was
trying to think of some theme that could be common
for all thirteen. I thought, ‘I wish it was
twelve then I could do the signs of the Zodiac’.
Why not? Let's have a thirteenth sign and then
people are going to wonder what the thirteenth sign
of the Zodiac is. Actually, what should have
happened, we should have seen the magic circle that
Catweazle had and each week he should have placed
the object on the circle, but because the Americans
- there was a chance we would be selling it to
America - show everything out of sequence except
soap operas they didn't do it, so the tightness that
can be seen in the book was rather lost as a result
of this. It would have been great to have seen all
the objects from the other episodes as the Zodiac
builds up. Kids love that sort of collecting.
After 'CATWEAZLE' I did 'THE ADVENTURES
OF BLACK BEAUTY', originally I was contracted to
do two, but I finished up doing about twenty. That
was when I formed a partnership with Sydney Cole who
used to be the production manager at Ealing when
they made all the famous Ealing Comedies and was a
great friend of Charles Crichton who made 'A FISH
CALLED WANDA'. Charles came and did '..BLACK
BEAUTY's for us and I formed a great friendship
with Charles similar to that I had with Quentin
Lawrence. He was a similar man; educated, cultured,
witty. He also possessed enormous technical ability
and experience. These are the kind of people I like
to work with, people who know their job and, this
might sound snobbish but I don't mean to be, people
who behave like gentlemen and treat you as a human
being and respect your work and you respect them.
You can still have professional disagreements
without being subjective about it.
“After ‘THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY’, I
had formed a partnership with Sydney and with Paul
Knight who is a very, very talented guy. Paul and I
became good friends, again largely because of his
sense of humour, which is very dry and witty. He
reads a lot and has a ‘feel’. Some people
just have an instinct, like you can have an
instinctive actor. They may not be technically very
good, but they just go on and act. Paul, as well as
having all the technical know-how and experience,
has a sort of instinct which tells him that this is
going to work or this won't work and I listen to
him, I listen to that voice. He's not always right,
but neither am I, so it worked very well as a
partnership.
“Then we did ‘DICK TURPIN’ and
‘SMUGGLER’ together. After that we wanted to
do ‘SMUGGLER’ again, to use the same
character, as we had Oliver Tobias. We managed to
sell the idea, ‘ADVENTURER’, to Thames to do
it in New Zealand, then we were sabotaged by Thames
who put the whole series out in about two-and-a-half
weeks in 1987. It was very naughty, it had a lot of
quality. It was the best thing they had done in New
Zealand for a great deal of time, certainly for
children. They spent a lot of money on it. They
cared and they were extremely nice to us. Sydney
went out there and produced it, Chris Bailey, who
was a brilliant young New Zealand director directed
it. We had a very good cast. Only Olly was English,
the rest were New Zealanders. It's all a lot of
nonsense that New Zealand hasn't any actors, we had
a brilliant young Maori who was wonderful and so
were the other two; the Irish guy and the guy who
played the Cockney who had never been to London.
But over here the show was totally sabotaged by
Thames, and you can put that on the record, I don't
care who reads that. In three weeks they showed
twelve episodes of a show that had cost a lot of
money and had taken twenty weeks to make. It
deserved a better crack of the whip than that, it
really did. Thames are saying that they aren't even
going to bother to repeat it because it didn't get a
very good viewing figure. Well how could it get a
good viewing figure when they deliberately swept it
under the carpet? The surprising thing is that it
has been repeated in New Zealand and it has also
been sold world-wide so New Zealand and Thames did
very well out of it thank you very much. I know by
the cheques that we keep getting for repeat fees
that the show can't be that bad. It really annoys me
that Thames should treat what was a co-production
with such a cavalier attitude. They said it was too
violent, and they gave various reasons none of which
held up. I wrote to the programme controller at
Thames, and I don't expect I'll ever work for Thames
again, because I wrote a rather irritated letter
about the way it had been treated. Not so much for
my own sake, because I only wrote the first two and
the last two, but really because if we are going to
do co-productions, particularly in a country with a
developing film industry as they've got in New
Zealand, and because we were showing an aspect of
life in another country with a different
backgrounds, different scenery and different
customs. There are a hundred stories in New Zealand
that people could watch that would be
internationally interesting and if you treat them
like that they're not going to come back to you. I
know that John McCray, whom I got on extremely well
with, was the head of New Zealand's Drama series and
is now the head of the company, is very hurt, and I
don't blame him, by the way he was treated by
Thames. He's a really professional chap who started
off as a floor manager for the BBC, and worked his
way up to classic series and then went back to New
Zealand. “This was before the did
WORZEL GUMMIDGE DOWN UNDER
in New Zealand. I nearly got involved with doing
CATWEAZLE in New Zealand, but I thought better
of it because I saw some of the stuff from the
second season of WORZEL GUMMIDGE and quite
frankly I wasn't too happy about the production
values or the money they were going to spend. It
looked like a sausage machine, and I'm only
interested in producing quality shows. Whilst I can
go on producing quality shows here I don't see why
the hell I should ruin a success like CATWEAZLE
by taking it to New Zealand. Just to do it is not
important. Does Richard think that there is a
theme that runs through Richard's work? “I've always
been interested in the person who is outside society
and in fact if you look at all my stuff from
CATWEAZLE onwards it's all to do with loaners
and people who are outside society. In a sense that
is the hero; the heroic figure is the man who takes
on the world alone. I suppose that's in a sense true
of CATWEAZLE because he has to take the world
on alone because he's in a new world. It wasn't true
of THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY; but that
wasn't my format, that was Ted Willis'. It was
certainly true of DICK TURPIN, it was
certainly true of ROBIN OF SHERWOOD and of
THE SMUGGLER and ADVENTURER
character. And in a sense ghosts themselves are sort
of loaners, out of the mainstream of existence,
they're different people. There's a very good
book about the hero figure by a man called Joseph
Campbell. What he does is to take all the heroes out
of myths and compare them and point out the
similarities between them all. I think that if you
can get a gut reaction from your audience, it's
because deep, deep in their subconscious they are
attracted to this idea of being your own man
particularly in a society where very few people are
'their own man'. You're beset with VAT, parking
meters and mass advertising and all the things that
prevent people from really being individuals. I
think all artists are sort of sub-conscious
anarchists.
I think there is an element of anarchy in all
artists. They have a desire for change and possibly
to pull down the existing order of things. But I
believe in the essential goodness of man and the
eventual redemption of man by himself. Not by gods
and not by prophets that he turns into gods, but by
himself, and when he grows up to the point of
accepting that he is responsible for the world, not
Jehovah, not Jesus Christ, not the local priest
round the corner, but he, himself, is responsible
for the world, then we will advance. I don't mean
materialistically, I mean morally. I wouldn't hold
my breath until it happens, but I believe that it
ultimately would happen, and has to happen or we
will destroy ourselves. I think that the instinct
for self-preservation is so strong that man will
eventually turn round and say “unless we improve
we're not going to survive” and therefore he
will improve. I think the next big advance is going
to be in the evolution of the human brain. I don't
think we need to evolve physically, because we've
got machines that can lift heavy loads, and we've
got machines that can fly so we've got no reason to
grow wings. I think we have still a hell of a way to
go in terms of our relationships with other people,
and that the world is a very tiny speck and that
basically we are all the same. These are my personal
philosophies and it has very little to do with the
programmes I write although obviously it does colour
them in some ways." |
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"Richard
Carpenter - A Catweazle Start..."
|
 Source:
"TV Zone" Issue 46 September 1993
Open article as PDF
Richard Carpenter's most remembered success is
Robin of Sherwood which he created and wrote
most of the episodes for in the mid-Eighties, but he
started his writing career with another Fantasy
favourite, Catweazle. TV Zone joined
Richard Carpenter and his wife, actress Annabel Lee,
two cats and several dogs at his Hertfordshire home
to talk about writing for the small screen.
Richard 'Kip' Carpenter began his professional life
as an actor and acted fairly successfully for
fifteen years, but after that time decided to write.
“I was very lucky how I started because I wrote the
right thing”, he remembers. “I sent the idea to the
right person at the right time. It was something
they were actually looking for and so I didn't have
any rejection slips at all. The very first thing I
wrote was Catweazle.”
 Modern
Magic
Catweazle was the wily magician from Anglo-Norman
England who found himself catapulted forward in Time
to the Twentieth Century where all modern technology
seemed like magic to him. The series starred
Geoffrey Bayldon as the confused magician befriended
by Carrot, the ginger-haired farm-boy.
The inspiration for the series came from, of all
things, a gate. “Annie and I had gone down to see
her sister who's married to a farmer”, Richard
remembers. “We decided to go back home a roundabout
way and got completely lost and passed a gate that
said Catweazle on it and I just thought that was
rather intriguing and wrote it on a piece of paper -
this was before I started writing properly. I just
found this name in my pocket and thought that would
be a wonderful name for a magician.
“Originally the thing
was conceived as sort of an educational programme
for kids, explaining things like electricity and
various other things and then I saw the comic
possibilities in it.”
The idea was sent to LWT
and Richard was asked to write six scripts on spec
by Producer Joy Whitby. He did this in Joy Whitby's
office which she lent to him while she was on
holiday. Because he had no typing ability, Richard
wrote the scripts in long-hand and then dictated
them to an LWT typist.
As he remembers, the
loan of an office was not the only way Joy Whitby
helped the scripts to develop: “[She] was a very
good teacher because I didn't know anything about
scriptwriting at all, but I knew I could write
dialogue, and she taught me the rest - which is
structure, the most important thing of all...
“I had a lot of help from both the Director Quentin
Lawrence and Joy Whitby. And between them, I think,
they taught me how to write television scripts."
 Catweazle
Performance
One of the things which helped captivate the
audience was Geoffrey Bayldon's performance as
Catweazle. It was an inspired piece of casting and
it was the writer's suggestion. “I always wanted him
from the word go. I was doing a thing at the BBC and
he was also working at the BBC and I said, ‘I've
written something for you’ and he said, ‘what is
it?’ and I told him, and I said, ‘I'm hoping to get
it made’. I walked away from him and - he's since
told me this - [he thought to himself], ‘poor
bugger, it'll never happen!’ But it did. He was
ideal and he brought so much to the part. He brought
a particular magic.”
Catweazle's magic was always something that was
elusive. To him, twentieth century ‘electrickery’ or
voices that could be heard through the ‘telling
bone’ were more magical than anything he could
produce. But Catweazle and his magician's lucky
familiar, Touchwood (a toad that lived in his
pocket) kept trying to cast spells with
unpredictable results.
“I think the essence of good magic like the essence
of good writing is if it happens, it happens almost
spontaneously”, says Richard. “I don't like
omnipotent characters, characters that can do
anything, like Superman and these sort of
characters. I find them very boring because they can
always get out of trouble. You see, even Superman
has to have a weakness, so that he is no longer
Superman. In a way, Superman is only interesting
when he becomes human. These super heroes, they
don't interest me at all, it's human weakness that
interests me rather than human strengths.”
Palace Revolution
After the first series was a success, Catweazle
returned, but Carrot and the farm were replaced by
another boy, Cedric, who lived in a grand country
house. “There was a palace revolution at London
Weekend”, Richard remembers. “Various people went
and other people took over - it happens in
television, you know, there's this musical chairs
that they play, they've nothing else to do the
people at the top so they play this game and
Catweazle
suffered as a result of that. They sacked the
Producer/Director who'd made it successful, which is
fairly typical! I think they'd have sacked me and
Geoffrey Bayldon if they could have done. The whole
thing changed as a result. Somebody had the
brilliant idea that a stately home would be more
attractive to the Americans... So I had to go along
with it because I didn't have any clout and I got
talked into doing it. It worked, but not as well as
the farm.
“I wanted to keep the farm and keep the characters
and just keep going, do another series with the same
people. It would have been easy to bring Catweazle
back and for Carrot to have actually forgotten or
have it erased from his mind that he actually saw
Catweazle go back into the Past and then he would
remain believing him just to be an old tramp who was
fooled into thinking he was from the Norman period.
That bit would be erased from his mind by Catweazle
with his magic. However, it didn't happen like
that.”
 Series
Link
The linking theme through the second series were the
twelve signs of the Zodiac. Each episode dealt with
a different sign which lead people to
wonder what was going to happen in episode 13. “I
had no idea at the beginning”, confesses Richard
Carpenter. “It sort of dawned on me about half way
through that it was actual circle itself that was
the thirteenth sign... The zodiac he had on the
floor which should have just grown week by week as
the signs were found - we weren't able to do that
because we were worried about it going out in a
different order; but that would have been lovely if
we could have done it. That's how it was scripted,
but they couldn't do it because they were worried
about the fact that Americans scramble the order of
things and of course we didn't sell it to America so
it didn't even matter!”
Pulled Stumps
After two series Catweazle was cancelled.
“They pulled stumps on it as is their wont in this
country”, comments Richard. “[When] you get
something good they kill it as soon as they can. I'd
have liked it to have gone on for five or six years
like the Americans do... There have been attempts to
resuscitate it, but now I think I'm a little bit
frightened of it because it was so good when it was
done. And also a successful series acquires a golden
glow around it and consequently people probably look
back on it and see it as probably better than it was
so that you're really up against your own myth if
you're going to write some more. Annie and I have an
idea that it would make a great stage thing for
kids.”
“A musical”, Annie Lee adds. “You could have all the
magic in it, you see, and it'd be great!”
 Motley
Following Catweazle, Richard wrote twenty-two
episodes of Black Beauty, but returned to
Fantasy with The Ghosts of Motley Hall. The
inspiration stemmed from seeing a ghost when he was
an actor staying at a theatrical boarding house in
Liverpool. The memory re-surfaced when, many years
later, he was asked to write a family comedy show.
“I got to thinking, do they [ghosts] see us? And if
they see us, what do they think of us? That
started me off with the idea of ghosts. The guy that
directed Catweazle said, ‘We want to do a comedy
show that all takes place in one set and it's five
or six people, no more and may be one guest every
week’... and I thought, well ghosts can't get out,
they're sort of stuck where they are and they can be
from any period in history and jogging along
together so to speak. I sort of thought if there
were five ghosts in this empty house, they would
want to keep it empty, they didn't want people in it
at all... They were five ghosts who sometimes got
on, sometimes didn't get on, but had to get on
because they were stuck there. Some people could
hear them and see them, and it struck me that if you
could create that sort of situation, you've got bags
of comedy going.”
The only ghost who could venture outside was the
stable lad who was the character children were
supposed to relate with. “In those days, and I think
still today, people have this absurd idea that you
have to have a child in the thing if kids are going
to watch it. That's rubbish of course.”
Space Boy
A rather more obscure Science Fiction serial he
wrote for television was The Boy from Space
for the BBC's schools programme, Look and Read.
At the mention of these programmes, Richard
Carpenter rushes into his study and emerges with a
pile of books that accompanied the series: “That was
about the most difficult thing I've ever written in
my life”, he says, “because you're restricted to the
first two-hundred words of the English language plus
a few words like telescope and telephone and
television.” It was originally shown in black and
white, but as colour became the television norm, a
problem arose when they wanted to show it again.
“The two children in it, who played Helen and Dan...
had grown up, they were now young adults. So we have
this wonderful opening where they're sitting on Mill
Hill observatory steps saying, ‘Do you remember when
we were kids and we first came to the observatory?’
and you do a fade and them as kids come up the drive
on bicycles. Now I know of no other film or
television [programme] where that's ever happened.”
Some of the stories were hosted by Richard Carpenter
himself. “I didn't do The Boy from Space, I
think I did... was it Cloud Burst?” He picks
up the
Cloud Burst book from the pile on the table,
opens it and points to an illustration of himself
inside the front cover. “Yes, there I am.” Cloud
Burst was about the invention of a rain gun and
the moral of the story was that technology could be
used for good or evil. “I was getting at nuclear
energy, really.”
Even though Richard Carpenter went on to write
family programmes like The Smuggler, The
Adventurer,
Dick Turpin and later Robin of Sherwood,
he has never turned his back on writing for
children. “Once I was interviewed by somebody and
they said, ‘Why don't you write for adults?’ and I
said, 'I'd rather write adult programmes for
children than childish programmes for adults' - and
the chance of writing an adult programme for adults
is fairly remote on television.”
Jane Killick
(In the second part of this interview, in a future
issue, Richard Carpenter talks about creating the
classic adventure series, Robin of Sherwood.)
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"Middle Ages Magic / A Spell
in Look-in"
|
 Source:
"Time Screen" Number 21 / Spring 1995
Open article as PDF
A new face in TV COMIC was Catweazle, the
wizard who fell through time from 1087 to 1970
in LWT's comedy-fantasy film series. The comic
debut came in Issue 949 (21st February 1970), a
week after its appearance on most ITV regions.
As a one page black-and-white strip drawn in
mild caricature by Bill Lacey, the humour and
style of Richard Carpenter's scripts and
Geoffrey Bayldon's strange performance were
captured perfectly. Initially, the characters of
Carrott, the young boy who befriended Catweazle,
and his father Mr Bennet also appeared, although
they were generally phased out after Issue 978
(12th September 1970).
 Middle
Ages Magic
Lacey also continued to draw Catweazle through
to Issue 1033 (2nd October 1971) whilst ITV screened
the second season in the spring of 1971.
Accordingly, the new second season sidekick of
Cedric (played by Gary Warren) made his debut in
Issue 1009 (17th April 1971) but did not remain
around for long. One of the best and funniest
serials concerned Catweazle being admitted to
hospital for suspected poisoning, where he had an
X-ray and saw his bones photographed before him.
Skulking around the hospital that night, he then
found a skeleton and believed that all the bones had
been removed from his body! It was notable that the
subsequent story, in which Catweazle got involved in
a magician's stage act, would form the basis for his
next set of adventures in LOOK-IN the following
year.
 A
spell in Look-in
Like The Flaxton Boys, another strip to make
the jump from TV COMIC to LOOK-IN was Catweazle,
with a comedy /adventure strip over two
black-and-white pages starting in Issue 2 (8th
January 1972). Borrowing an idea from its former
incarnation, the new strip saw Catweazle teaming up
with a stage magician the Great Bondini (Fred Bond)
after leaping forward through time to escape the
Normans. The storyline, which was initially drawn by
John Stokes and then latterly by an unknown Spanish
Artist, was a generally rambling affair at first,
with long chains of incidents and misadventures.
Catweazle was befriended by Bond' s son, Joe, and
hindered the stage act in general, through making
Touchwood into a giant and winding up by ruining a
feature film. With' Issue 23, self-contained stories
were introduced featuring Catweazle, Joe Bond and
Bondini, some of which again borrowed from TV COMIC.
With the series having completed its run the
previous year, Catweazle bowed out of LOOK-IN with
Issue 48 of the 1972 volume. New strips brought in
during the year included Doctor in Charge by
Kerr, Elephant Boy, Pathfinders and
The Fenn Street Gang by Kerr. Current
programmes like ESCAPE INTO NIGHT and PARDON MY
GENIE were featured in articles. 1972 was the first
year to see the regular summer edition of LOOK-IN
HOLlDAY SPECIAL, featuring a three-page Catweazle
strip. |
|
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"Brothers
in magic - Catweazle returns"
|
 Source:
"TV Zone" Issue 107 / October 1998
Open article as PDF
Something very strange, maybe magical, took place
deep in the heart of Surrey, on a glorious afternoon
in May. It's a bewitching scene, like a final
episode of a series that was never filmed, but is
now taking place...
GEOFFREY BAYLDON AND ROBIN DAVIES, Catweazle and
Carrot, are enshrined forever in the legend that is
Catweazle; the odyssey of an 11th
Century magician transported 900 years forward in
Time, capturing the hearts and imagination of
millions of TV viewers along the way. The two actors
have returned to a place they called Hexwood Farm,
the base for the locations of the first series, to
talk about the series that changed their lives, and
to celebrate its first video release. Geoffrey is
visibly overcome by the reunion. Robin Davies,
instantly recognizable as the boy who discovered the
old magician hiding in the barn nearly 30 years ago,
busily surveys the scene. It's a curious sight to
see them together again, peering over hedges,
looking around corners as if they might both find
something left behind from their past. “It doesn't
seem to have changed a lot”, Geoffrey sighs as he
captures a few images of the farm for his camera,
“and being here with Robin...” He pauses, dewy-eyed,
aware of the years that have flown, “It's quite an
experience.”
Robin Davies cheerily
recounts his memories as a 15-year-old, talking with
passion about the programme he loves so dearly,
blissfully ignoring his extensive television and
stage career and his current blossoming career as
writer/actor/director. Today he is here to talk
about
Catweazle.
“Geoffrey and I will
always be linked as Catweazle and Carrot, a bit like
Tonto and the Lone Ranger, Batman and Robin, but I'd
like to say Geoffrey, after 30 years you're still my
friend”, he pauses, awash with a rush of memories,
and asks for the filming to cease. They haven't seen
each other since 1969.
Words and thoughts
inevitably turn towards those fellow collaborators
missing today. “I wish they were here”, pines Robin
at one point, as if the magic rediscovered today
might materialize them: Charles 'Bud' Tingwell,
veteran Australian who played Mr Bennet, Carrot's
long-suffering father, still periodically turning up
in the occasional programme, most recently
Neighbours; Neil McCarthy, who died a few years
ago, the gentle giant, unforgettable as farmhand Sam
Woodyard; and of course Richard 'Kip' Carpenter,
who's idea sparked it all off...
 THE
IDEA
Back in 1968, Richard Carpenter already had 300-odd
television appearances behind his belt and a wealth
of stage and screen credits to his name. He had the
idea to write initially as a sideline, with the
concept of Catweazle coming purely by
chance. “We'd been down to my brother-in-law's
turkey farm in Sussex one weekend, and had decided
instead of taking the main road home, we'd try a
different, more rural route, and we got rather lost.
We'd gone down this narrow lane and I saw a gate
with the word ‘Catweazle’ written on it, and I
thought, what an unusual name. So I wrote it down
and put it in my trousers, and forgot about it. A
fortnight later I rediscovered it when I came to
send the trousers to the dry cleaners. I started
musing on it and imagining that this would be a
great name for a wizard. So I began building up a
picture over the following months of what he'd be
like. Around that time I had a book called the
Hundred Details from the National Gallery and
I came across a picture by Hieronymous Bosch called
the ‘Crowning with Thorns’. In it there is a little
man pointing up at Jesus on the cross, and I
thought, this is what Catweazle would look like.”
Richard's initial concept was quite different. “I
thought this could be a good educational schools
programme where this wizard would jump through Time
and the boy would show him around the 20th Century
and explain how things worked. But then I thought
it's much more than that and would make a good
comedy series.”
Richard duly produced a
series of storylines and presented them to the newly
formed London Weekend Television who wanted to buy
the idea, but Richard convinced them that he could
complete the task, and with the use of a loaned
office at LWT, set to work.
 CATWEAZLE
Enter Geoffrey Bayldon, who at 45 was one of
Britain's most respected and experienced character
actors. He had previously worked with Richard
Carpenter at the Old Vic. Bayldon recalls, “Richard
Carpenter told me that he'd written something and it
would be marvellous for me and to be honest,
although I was touched, I didn't take it very
seriously. And then months went by and one day my
agent said she'd just received a script, and instead
of being cool as agents are, she just said,
‘Geoffrey I've just read the first page, and I think
it's yours... and it's magic’.”
The idea for Geoffrey
Bayldon as Catweazle had been in Carpenter's mind
for some time. He championed the part for Bayldon
against London Weekend's initial choice of Jon
Pertwee. In a strange role reversal, Geoffrey was
actually considered for the original Doctor Who, but
had passed on it. “Tell them too long and too old”,
Geoffrey had told his agent, fed up with being
presented with geriatric roles.
The idiosyncrasies of the character were Bayldon's
own invention. Affectionately referred to by the
crew as Catweazle's ‘Fizzes’, they came about purely
by chance. “Some of the voices came by accident when
we were shooting the second episode”, recalls
Geoffrey. “Robin found me hiding in a wardrobe and I
made this funny noise [making a Catweazle-like
squeal] and the director Quentin Lawrence liked it
and asked for them to be left in, and they were
eventually scripted.” Six scripts were initially
asked for which Richard duly completed. But then
well into shooting, LWT, realizing the potential of
the series, commissioned a further seven
ON LOCATION
Filming began in the summer of 1969 and Home Farm
was transformed into the production base for the
crew. Castle Saburac, the water tower where
Catweazle created his magic, and one of the most
memorable images from the first series, was
constructed from fiberglass and located in a
clearing in the woods. None of the filming took
place in the tower itself but in a mock-up on solid
ground.
Daily, Geoffrey and
Robin would make the trip to East Clandon from their
homes in London. Bizarrely Robin would have to find
his own way down by public transport until Geoffrey
demanded that he have a car to transport him. Travel
wasn't the only problem for young Robin, as he would
also have to run the gauntlet of embarrassing glares
during the occasions he'd have his golden locks dyed
a shock of red for the part of Carrot by an
exclusive London hairdresser.
Eventually the filming drew to a close. The final
moments shot against the backdrop of Boldermere Lake
near Guildford were a tearful affair. The old man
and young boy bade an emotional farewell, leaving a
lasting impression on Robin to this day. “It was the
end of Carrot, the end of
Catweazle for me, and the end of my
youth in a way... I had this line ‘Will you come
back one day?’ and of course for Carrot he didn't.
The tears were for real and I didn't want the camera
to see I was upset.”
In reality both Geoffrey and Robin had to project
their lines at each other against the thunder of the
A3 main road which borders the lake. The tree where
Catweazle arranged his memorabilia before leaving
the 20th Century is still there, very much overgrown
and forgotten
 A
WINNER
Catweazle's 13 episodes collected rave
reviews, becoming an instant classic and earning
Richard Carpenter the Writers Guild award for 1971.
Apart from the two books by Carpenter and a trio of
large format annuals, nothing more was manufactured.
Even a record of the familiar theme tune, put to
words and sung by Bayldon, was never released.
Nevertheless the fame of the series continued, even
extending to the most popular people on the planet,
as Geoffrey reveals “I did hear that the Beatles
were great fans of
Catweazle from Ringo, when he directed
a film I was in which we shot at John Lennon's
house. All of them had children and would drop
everything on Sunday's to watch the series.”
Geoffrey and Robin ved sacks of fan mail, especially
Robin, whose elfin features provoked a sizable
proportion of letters from Japan and a request for a
photograph from one of the Kray twins! Scenes that
would rival Beatlemania occurred in Holland as
thousands gathered to see Geoffrey, in character,
open a sports stadium.
For a while it seemed
children everywhere would disappear on Sunday
afternoons. “I live in a small community, with lots
of children”, recalls Bayldon, “and at 5.30 on a
Sunday afternoon if I was out, I'd see these
children rushing past me to watch
Catweazle shouting, ‘It's on in five
minutes’.”
SERIES TWO
A second series was immediately planned, but
director Quentin Lawrence, whose understanding of
the concept had added so much was not re-employed.
Neither was Robin Davies. Other forces were at work
to move the series into the commercial domain. A
location and storyline was chosen that would broaden
the appeal of the series. Brickendonbury Manor in
Hertfordshire formed the backdrop, and Gary Warren,
fresh from his success in The Railway Children
was chosen to play alongside Catweazle in a similar
role to Carrot. The overall storyline of Catweazle
attempting to collect the signs of the Zodiac in
order to fly was a novel idea, but mostly the magic
was obscured by the playing for laughs. Richard
Carpenter observed, “As with anything that becomes
successful, people were brought in who knew nothing
about the series. There were a lot of political
shenanigans about. The idea was that if it had a
stately home with a Lord and Lady, it's something
that could be sold abroad. The whole thing was
slightly jazzed up, possibly for the American
market, but it ended up falling heavily between two
stools.”
 THE
END
Progress was nonetheless
swift as the 13 episodes of the second series were
completed during the summer of 1970. The viewing
figures were consistently high and for a short while
the future seemed bright. The final episode ended
with the weary wizard leaving terra firma in a
balloon and off into the unknown. Richard Carpenter
had the idea for a third series to open with
Catweazle's balloon drifting to a halt atop Castle
Saburac, to revive some of the magic pointedly
missing from the second series; but given the
changes within LWT, any notion of a third season was
passed over. The cast and production team moved onto
other projects and the lovable sorcerer was left to
fill re-run slots around the world. Rumours have
persisted of a screen adaptation, and although
Richard Carpenter has a long completed script,
nothing has come of it.
The greatest legacy of Catweazle is
that people still talk about it. Both Geoffrey and
Robin have strong opinions on why it has maintained
its popularity. Robin Davies: “Catweazle
is a good all-round series, it's timeless. And
although I'm proud to say I was Carrot, I lay the
success of the series down to Richard Carpenter and
Geoffrey Bayldon. I was just lucky to have been
there. Very lucky.”
“Magic”, . “We didn't sentimentalize it, because the
magic did it for us. We relied upon the magic of the
story and the humour that comes out of someone
seeing the 20th Century through 11th Century eyes.”
Four volumes of Catweazle, including
the reunion footage at Hexwood Farm, are out now on
Network Video, priced £10.99. The second season of
Catweazle will be released in October.
Simon Wells
|
|
|
"Magic Moments"
|
 Source:
"Dreamwatch" No. 69 / May 2000
Open article as PDFSimon Wells returns to a more innocent age of children's television and recalls the adventures of the
mystical mage, CATWEAZLE...
BY THE SIDE OF A LAKE, LOOKING FORLORN, UNKEMPT AND FORGOTTEN, SITS A TREE WHICH HOLDS A SECRET.
Some thirty summers ago, two actors stood either side of this once green and leafy Scotch Pine to bade farewell,
on screen and off, and walk away; each touched forever by a children's television series that had magic running
through its seams.
For those not aware, CATWEAZLE is a fable of an eleventh century magician who accidentally fell nine.hundred years
through time and into the twentieth century. Looking very much out of place in the modern world, he nonetheless struck
up a friendship with a young boy called Carrot, who guided the loveable but hopeless wizard around the sights and sounds
of a new age to the magician's obvious bewilderment and wonder.
Most enchanting of all was the chemistry that existed between
the old man and the young lad; a sort of benevolent pupil-teacher relationship. Looking at it today, it belongs to a gentler,
more innocent time.
For a short period at the turn of the seventies, CATWEAZLE was, for many, the
number one star on children's television. It seems that even from its inception, the
series was destined to be cloaked in magic.
A drive in the country for its creator Richard Carpenter took him away from his
extensive stage and television profession and into a full.time writing career. His name is synonymous with quality children's
television through such shows as ROBIN Of SHERWOOO, THE GHOSTS OF MOTlEY HALL or THE BoRROWERS, but it all started on this trip
in 1968 when he went down to Sussex with his wife.
"My brother-in-law had a turkey farm in East Sussex," Richard recalls. "And we'd spent the weekend there. When we were about to go,
my wife said, 'Let's meander back'. So we did and got lost. We stopped, looked around, and there was a gate, and it had 'Catweasel'
written on it. I was intrigued by the name and I wrote it down and put it in my pocket. About three or four weeks later, I found
this bit of paper and I started thinking about the word, and from it came the character of a magician. It seemed such a good name.
I changed Catweasel to Catweazle; it just seemed to work better. At that time I had a book of pictures form the National Gallery
and in it I found a picture by Hieronymous Bosch called "The Crowning of Thorns" where there is this old man with a large nose and
a little beard who was a magician... And I thought 'This is Catweazle!'
 Idea in tow, Richard sent his concept to Joy Whitby, then the head of children's television at London Weekend Television, who remembers
with fondness her first exposure to the concept of Catweazle.
"Among the usual influx of unsolicited material that comes in was this one page of hand written exercise book, from Richard Carpenter,
a fairly well known actor, and it said he had this idea for a new series which centred on this old wizard called Catweazle. It really
was only an idea... But the name was arresting, a very well chosen name for a magical old wizard, who smelt as dirty as an old cat,
who had whiskers and was weaslely. But it was quite obvious that Richard was fairly obsessed with this idea.
What I remember as being one of the best concepts that sold it was his idea of seeing electricity as the sun in a bottle.
That really was an original piece of thinking."
The idea was thus commissioned, and with Joy Whitby acting as script editor to the neophyte writer, Richard set about to create an
initial six episodes, which were such a success for London Weekend Television, that a further seven were commissioned.
Richard had a friend from his days at the Old Vic in London, a gentleman by the name of Geoffrey Bayldon. Geoffrey was highly respected
in the industry for his stage, film and television work, but missing a role that would truly identify him with the public and stretch
his talent. Newly formed London Weekend Television had initially toyed with the idea of Jon Pertwee filling the wizard's shoes, but Richard
insisted that Geoffrey would be perfect for the role of Catweazle.
A script soon made its way to Geoffrey who leapt at the role of the loveable
sorcerer.
"Richard said to me one day, 'I'm writing something for you'," Geoffrey Bayldon recalls. "And I thought 'Bless him - how sweet', but
I didn't take it very seriously. When he mentioned it another time I knew it had been accepted. And then my agent rung up and said 'I've received
a script, and the first page is such magic'"
Carpenter's script also called for a young red headed boy, known simply as Carrot. A young actor called Robin Davies was selected to play the role
of the boy who would act as the wizard's guide to the 2oth century. He'd come fresh faced from a part in Lindsay Anderson's classic movie IF...
and successfully auditioned for the part of the sorcerer's apprentice. Charles "Bud" Tingwell, a housewives' favourite from the hospital drama,
EMERGENCY WARD TEN was chosen to play Carrot's recently widowed father, Mr Bennett- a single parent in a children's TV series was very daring
in 1969 - and Neil McCarthy was given the role of Sam, a simple farm-hand.
With all the main players assembled, a location was chosen in the heart of Surrey. A beautiful olde worlde village some ten miles from Guildford
called East Clandon was found and was perfect, dominated as it was by rolling fields and woods. Home farm was to become "Hexwood Farm" and was
perfect due to its cavernous barn and farmhouse.
Geoffrey had strong ideas on how he'd like to play the play the role of the sorcerer, even down to the costumes and the dialect.
The director, Quentin Lawrence, had an instinctive grasp of the child-like vision of the story, and would often instruct the cameraman to film
Catweazle in long shot, through the mist and against the pastoral backdrop of the woods.
Daily, Geoffrey would have to contend with the demands of transforming into character, and would arrive early to have his wiry frame dressed
to age the necessary nine-hundred years, a feat which took an hour and a half, and ended with a couple of baths to remove the make-up and
assorted gunge that had attached to him during the day.
Touchwood, Catweazle's free spirited toad "familiar" and fellow time traveller was as independently minded on-screen as he was off.
His piece-de-resistance was to relieve himself in the direction of the camera's lens as it would move in for a close-up, only to then
casually walk out of shot. To stop any embarrassing stains, a pocket specially lined in plastic was sown into Geoffrey's trademark cape.
Touchwood is the perfect listening companion for Catweazle to voice his feelings to, since otherwise he'd have to do a lot of talking to himself.
The summer rolled on with the cast basking in the atmosphere emanating from the magic of the fable. The final shots where Catweazle and Carrot
bade an tearful farewell were filmed at the side of an old Scotch Pine leaning over Boldermere Lake in Surrey.
Fittingly, it was the last scene of the series to be shot, and as such, was emotionally charged as Carrot watched Catweazle fade away and return
to his own time. It was the end of Robin Davies' association with CATWEAZLE and in a symbolic way, he was also parting with his childhood,
as he explains:
"I was upset that, as far as I was concerned I wouldn't see my friends again. It was the end, but it had been a great adventure. It was daft,
and it was make believe, and it had been a wonderful summer. But when I said 'Will you come back one day?', y'know, Catweazle never came back for
Carrot. It was the end. My childhood was coming to an end, and for me it finished then."
The filming drew to a close, and the production crew returned to Halliford Studios to piece It together for a broadcast date early in 1970.
Sunday 4 January duly rolled in and at 5.35pm, a few million homes took their minds away from the apprehension of the week ahead to wallow
in the beauty of the previous summer recreated so magically by the cast of CATWEAZLE. For the next thirteen weeks, the name Catweazle was on
everyone's lips. Words such as 'Electickery' and 'Tellingbone' became the chosen refrain in school playgrounds up and down the country.
The series was an instant success, earning Richard Carpenter the coveted Writer's Guild award for
1971.
 THE SUCCESS DF THE FIRST SERIES inevitably led to a sequel being commissioned, but it seems forces were at play to drive the concept away from the
rustic idyll of Hexwood Farm and into a more commercial domain.
Richard Carpenter: "Various things happened. We lost Quentin Lawrence, which I thought was devastating because we needed the continuity of the same
director. We also lost the farm, which I thought was a bad thing, and we lost Carrot. And although I was very thrilled that they were doing another
series, I had no real clout. It was decided by the powers that be to set it in a stately home with the son of a Lord and Lady. These were elements
that conflicted with the first series rather strongly. To me it lacked something the first series had. It didn't feel so warm."
Geoffrey Bayldon was naturally asked back, but the crew which gave the first series its unique style were not. Quentin Lawrence, whose cinematic
direction provided the first season with its rustic ambience, was left out, as was Neil McCarthy.
The greatest sadness was that Robin Davies, unaware
of the politics at play, believed he wasn't asked back because he had disappointed everyone with his performance of Carrot.
"I thought I didn't do the second series of CATWEAZLE because I wasn't very good" laments Robin "It's as if you're not invited to someone's party any
more, and you assume they don't like you. It hurt me deeply at the time."
Geoffrey, pleased beyond comprehension that his wonderful characterisation of Catweazle had led to a revival, realised early on that things had
changed. Catweazle was now being steered into a more slapstick domain. "I had misgivings," reveals Geoffrey. "I remember thinking
'Catweazle shouldn't have flour thrown all over him' Not from a thing of dignity, but it just wasn't the style".
The final episode found Catweazle, weary and growing unnervingly accustomed to the twentieth century, leave solid ground and fly off into the unknown
in a balloon. Of all the second series episodes, this final one was by far the most moving; so it was fitting that the story ended on a high note.
Unlike the end of the first season however, there were no plans to reconvene, as Geoffrey was keen to voice. "I was one of the first to say it's
stopped at the right time. I knew the standard had dropped, but more than that the Catweazle situation had played itself out. He was getting a
twentieth century mind."
Richard Carpenter did toy with extending the idea of Catweazle a little further, and had the balloon landing back on to of the water tower which
had been the wizard's retreat in the first series; but with London Weekend in the midst of huge political turmoil, the series was left as it was.
Despite huge repeat viewing figures around the world, no more thought was given to extend the tale beyond its twenty-six episodes. A feature film
had been considered a couple of times, even to the point of a draft script being written by Richard Carpenter, but even that was not pursued.
 In 1998, the world was looking back to happier, more gentle times, and somehow thoughts turned towards Catweazle again. Network Videos (who were the
first to release the series on video) brought Geoffrey and Robin back to the Hexwood Farm locations to reminisce about the series for a
documentary BROTHERS IN MAGIC. Later that day when Robin passed the lake that had seen the embers of his youth fade away, he whispered to himself
"Will you come back one day?" For Robin it was an emotional reunion, the first time he'd seen Geoffrey in thirty years; but it
wasn't something he'd entirely ruled out from happening.
Today Geoffrey, Robin and Richard are keen to stress the beauty of the story, especially its charm when set against the computer generated fare
churned out for today's younger viewers.
Geoffrey Bayldon: "It has enormous humour. It's very funny and it appeals to all ages, but especially children. Catweazle is a part of them.
It's totally un-vicious. It has a human feel, a magic feel."
Robin Davies: "What's happening now is exploitation, what happened then is entertainment. The likes of CATWEAZLE were designed to entertain children.
Why this series works so nicely is because there is a naivete to it. There's no bad language, no violence. Everyone gives a little gem. They were good
performances. We cared about how we did it."
The last word goes to Richard Carpenter: "In my opinion Geoffrey Bayldon is responsible for the success of Catweazle; more than any other person.
He seemed to latch exactly onto my original inspiration of Catweazle and then add another chunk of his own, so that we were completely at one with the
character. We were very lucky to get him. He made it."
|
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"Aber die
Kröten sind alle schon tot"
|
 Source:
"Süddeutsche Zeitung" 7. April 2004
Was fand man denn daran einmal gut? Peinliche
Gags, verwaschenes Bild, schlechte Schnitte. Alles
egal: Der Superstar unserer Kinderherzen hieß, nein
heißt für immer Catweazle... Salmay, Dalmay, Adonay
nochmal, so heißt er natürlich nicht, sondern
Geoffrey Bayldon, und der ist kürzlich 80 geworden.
(Martin Zips)
Manchmal stößt der alte Mann merkwürdige Laute aus.
So etwas wie "Arara" oder "Tsatsa".
Er macht das unbewusst, im Gespräch. Doch bei jedem
"Arara", bei jedem "Tsatsa" fühlt man sich glücklich
wie ein Kind, das gerade auf dem Dachboden sein
Lieblingsspielzeug wieder entdeckt hat. Schließlich
hat auch Catweazle, Fernsehheld aus Kindertagen, oft
"Arara", "Tsatsa" und anderes Zischzeug genuschelt.
"Vorsicht", sagt der alte Mann: "Menschen, die sich
heute noch mit den Stars ihrer Kindheit
beschäftigen, leben genauso gefährlich wie die, die
sich immer nur um den Augenblick kümmern."
Das Orakel hat gesprochen und der Mann im grauen
Sakko spießt sich - Arara, Tsatsa - noch ein paar
Kutteln auf. Es ist Geoffrey Bayldon, der in London
beim Italiener sitzt. Er spielte den Zauberer
Catweazle in der gleichnamigen britischen
Fernsehserie. Das ist lange her. Gerade ist Bayldon
80 Jahre alt geworden - Zeit für einen Besuch. Er
wundert sich. In seinem Leben habe er doch nur
unbedeutende Rollen gespielt. Den Psychiater in
einem
"Der rosarote Panther"-Filme. Da war Peter
Sellers als Inspektor Clouseau der Star. Einen
Mister Clapham in Folge 107 von
Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone. Da war Diana
Rigg als Emma Peel der Star. In Der Doktor und
das liebe Vieh war er ein Kunstmaler, dessen
Hund einen Tumor am Hoden hatte. Da war der Hund der
Star.
"Ich bin der meistbeschäftigte unbekannte
Schauspieler der Welt", sagt Bayldon. "Schon mit 22
gab man mir Rollen von 90-Jährigen." Hunderte Rollen
hat Geoffrey Bayldon, Sohn eines Schneiders aus
Leeds, gespielt. Neben Laurence Olivier, Jon Pertwee
oder Juliette Gréco. Ein einziges Mal nur rief ihn
Hollywood. Danach nie wieder.
Was bleibt, ist Catweazle, der mittelalterliche
Magier aus dem Kinderfernsehen. Der Zauberer, der
sich auf der Flucht vor den Normannen versehentlich
ins Großbritannien des 20. Jahrhunderts zaubert.
Hilfsbereite Heranwachsende kümmern sich 26 Folgen
lang um den merkwürdigen Typen, der vor Autos,
Telefonen und Glühbirnen furchtbar erschrickt.
Wegen Catweazle bekommt Bayldon heute noch, 35 Jahre
nach Ende der Dreharbeiten, fast täglich Fanpost.
Für den Sänger Paul McCartney, ein großer Fan der
Serie, mag es normal sein, auch Jahrzehnte nach der
Trennung der Beatles Fotos zu unterschreiben. Für
Geoffrey Bayldon allerdings, den lebenslangen
Nebendarsteller, ist das immer wieder etwas
Besonderes.
Ein Dutzend Anfragen gab es in dieser Woche allein
aus Deutschland. "I’m of you a great fan. You are
great actress." Die Leute wollen wissen, was Bayldon
macht.
"Was ich mache? Ich löse Kreuzworträtsel im
Telegraph." Sie wollen wissen, was aus Kühlwalda,
Catweazles kleiner Kröte, geworden ist.
"Während der Dreharbeiten gab es Dutzende davon.
Heute sind alle tot."
Wann wird er wieder im Fernsehen zu sehen sein? Wann
gibt es eine Catweazle-DVD? "Das wüsste ich auch
gerne." Was bedeutet "Salmay, Dalmay, Adonay"? "Es
bedeutet: Rubbish." Müll?
Der alte Mann wirkt plötzlich ungehalten. "Seit drei
Jahrzehnten stecke ich Fotos, die von mir bezahlt
werden, in Kuverts, die von mir bezahlt werden",
sagt Bayldon und reißt die blauen Augen auf.
"Meistens zahle ich auch das Porto selbst." Arara,
Tsatsa.
Die Figur Catweazle ist eine Erfindung des
Schauspielers und Autoren Richard Carpenter. In
Sussex hatte sich Carpenter einmal mit dem Auto
verfahren, auf einem Scheunentor las er das Wort
"Catweazle". Das könnte ein Magier sein, dachte er
sich und entdeckte später auf dem Bild
Die Verspottung Christi von Hieronymus Bosch
einen spitzbärtigen Greis. So muss ein Catweazle
aussehen, dachte sich Carpenter.
Boschs Greis erinnerte ihn an einen Freund von der
Schauspielschule, Geoffrey Bayldon. Vor 30Jahren, am
28.April 1974, lief Catweazle zum ersten Mal im
deutschen Fernsehen. "Der Erfolg hat viele
verwundert. Das Ding ist doch ziemlich primitiv
gemacht", erinnert sich der frühere
ZDF-Jugendprogrammchef Josef Göhlen. Noch heute gibt
es im Internet Dutzende Fanseiten. 30- bis
40-Jährige begrüßen sich hier mit "Salmay, Dalmay,
Adonay" und anderem Nonsens.
In England wird Bayldon oft an der Stimme erkannt.
"Plötzlich verhalten sich Taxifahrer wie kleine
Kinder", sagt der grauhaarige Schauspieler. Einmal
sei ein Wrestler vor ihm gestanden und habe gesagt:
"Catweazle! Das ist der größte Moment in meinem
Leben." Und weil in der Serie eine Kröte seine
Partnerin gewesen sei, sagt Bayldon, träfen sich
heute noch Mitglieder diverser Catweazle-Fanclubs
zur Krötenwanderung an den Staatsstraßen.
In Deutschland ist heute Super RTL
Marktführer bei den Jüngsten. Beliebte Kinderserien
heißen
Dragonball Z, Jimmy Neutron oder
Schwammkopf. Und wenn gerade eine Staffel von
The Tribe,
Die Pfefferkörner oder Die Hoobs zu
Ende ist, so schreiben junge Zuschauer Protestmails
an den
Kinderkanal. Der Mittdreißiger wiederum
schiebt sich heimlich eine Videocassette mit einer
alten Catweazle-Folge rein und denkt sich: Was fand
man denn daran einmal gut? Peinliche Gags,
verwaschenes Bild, schlechte Schnitte. Andererseits:
Schöne Titelmusik. Großartiger Hauptdarsteller.
Gutes Gefühl.
"Catweazle war schon etwas Besonderes", sagt Sybil
Gräfin Schönfeldt, Zeit-Literaturkritikerin und
Übersetzerin der längst vergriffenen Bücher zur
Serie. "Bei ihm ging es um Humor, Fantasie,
Anti-Rassismus und Freundschaft. Heute wird mir in
Kinderbüchern und -serien zu viel gemordet. Kennen
Sie
Twig oder Artemis Fowl?" Nein. "Da
werden ganze Völker ausgelöscht." Furchtbar. Also
schnell wieder zurück in die Vergangenheit.
Bei einem Auftritt in Holland, erinnert sich Mister
Bayldon, hätte es wegen ihm fast ein Verkehrschaos
gegeben. Überall Kinder. Die Mütter hätten ihm ihre
Babys in den Arm gedrückt. "Im Catweazle-Kostüm
behandelte man mich wie Jesus." Und immer, wenn
wieder irgendwo die letzte Folge lief - in
Deutschland, Dänemark oder Australien -, schrieben
ihm besorgte Eltern von Heulkrämpfen ihres
Nachwuchses.
"Bitte schicken Sie uns ein Lebenszeichen", baten
die Eltern. Foto, Unterschrift, Kuvert, Briefmarke.
Wie viel Geld hätte Geoffrey Bayldon heute mit
seiner Rolle verdienen können? In den Siebzigern war
er nur auf Cornflakes-Packungen und
Programmzeitschriften zu sehen. Die Postkarten, für
die er sich im Lumpenfummel und mit angeklebtem Bart
neben den Guards der Queen ablichten ließ, wurden
nie gedruckt. Der Song, den er im Studio aufnahm,
nie verlegt. Gäbe es heute einen erfolgreichen
Catweazle-Film, so lägen sicher Armeen von
Magier-Puppen in den Kaufhäusern, Computerspiele und
Gummikröten würden feilgeboten. Die Trickfilmfigur
Bob der Baumeister setzte in Deutschland 120
Millionen Euro um.
"Ich will das alles gar nicht wissen", sagt Bayldon,
der seit 40Jahren geschiedene, kinderlose
Charakterdarsteller.
Auf dem Weg zum Bus meint er: "Ich wünsche mir für
die paar Tage, die mir noch bleiben, zwei Dinge.
Keine Inkontinenz! Und, dass sie keinen
Catweazle-Film machen, so lange ich noch lebe. Ich
wäre für die Rolle zu alt - und einen anderen
Schauspieler würde ich einfach nicht ertragen."
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"Under
Catweazle's spell"
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 Source:
"Liverpool Daily Post" 9th November 2005
One children's TV programme is still adored
by its fans - 35 years after it was first shown.
Mike Chapple reports.
FOR people of a certain age, there is one
children's TV series which like the character it
featured still casts a spell of enchantment over
them 35 years since it was first broadcast.
Catweazle told the story of the eponymous 11th
century wizard who while trying to escape from a
troup of Norman soldiers mistakenly becomes stranded
900 years in the future.
In between trying to find a way back to his own time
he becomes astounded by the everyday things that we
take for granted. Items like the light bulb - "electrickery"
he called it - and the telephone - or "the telling
bone" - are simply beyond his comprehension
eliciting any number of strange squawks and
exclamations from Geoffrey Bayldon who memorably
played the scrawny old wizard.
Created by Richard Carpenter, the series which was
first screened in 1970 and 1971, was a cleverly
conceived, often hilarious and sometimes achingly
poignant slice of entertainment for all the family,
a concept that is almost unheard of in the minds of
today's TV production companies.
Four of the character's biggest fans were the
Beatles.
Ringo as director of the Marc Bolan tribute film
Born To Boogie even cast Bayldon for a bit part
saying: "We must have that bloke who played
Catweazle in it."
Perhaps it's this nostalgia for a more innocent time
that demand has brought the recent release of series
one and two on DVD.
This has also sparked a boom in the membership of
the Catweazle Fan Club which has nearly 700 members,
48 of whom live in the Merseyside and Cheshire area.
One of them is 47-year-old Gail Nunn from Prenton,
Birkenhead. She was only 12 when she first saw
Catweazle but has remained fixated with the
adventures of the loveable wizard and his toad
Touchwood to this day.
"Whereas other women got a craving for ice cream or
coal, when I was pregnant I developed an obsession
with trying to find out what Catweazle's toad was
called," laughs Gail, a domiciliary care worker who
joined the fan club a year ago.
"It took me seven months to find out and the person
who finally told me its name was Touchwood was my
uncle who whispered it to me on his death bed.
"I think what made Catweazle special is that it was
something the whole family could sit down and watch.
I had a rough childhood but I remember it as the
only programme the family were happy watching
together."
Gill says her own daughter told her recently that
one of her happiest memories from childhood was of
the family sitting down and watching Worzel Gummidge,
which coincidentally also featured the great
character actor Bayldon in another incarnation, the
Crowman.
Another local member is Sashya Maloney, from Newsham
Park, who, at 33 years old, was not even born when
Catweazle was first broadcast.
Appropriately enough, she is the manageress of
Worlds Apart, the popular memorabilia shop on Lime
Street that sells cult TV and movie material. The
fan club's splendid paraphernalia apart, however,
there is little else apart from the DVDs and the
original videos available for fans to buy.
"Catweazle was always a bit of a strange, nebulous
thing when it came to merchandise. When you've got a
series such as Stingray for instance, there's
something such as a vehicle to hang it on. There's
nothing really that could have been done with
Catweazle apart from making a figure of Geoffrey
Bayldon which would have been a bit silly."
The fan club's co-founder Gary Bowers agrees that
it's Catweazle's universal family appeal which was
its attraction.
The former pharmaceutical technician founded it
after a brush with mortality when he suffered a
ruptured pancreas in 1998.
"One of the things about a near-death experience is
that it makes you reflect on the past and one of the
things I focused on was Catweazle because it
represented some of the happiest memories of being
with the family," says 49-year-old Gary from Ewood,
Blackburn, who founded the club four years ago with
another Weazle fan, Carol Barnes from Worthing in
West Sussex.
"It's Geoffrey - he's the man who makes it
special. That and British humour. Plus, there's no
sex, no violence, no drugs - there's nothing in
there that can corrupt."
Ironic then that Gary says the politically correct
brigade have ensured that Catweazle will allegedly
never again be shown on television.
It is deemed too suggestive to feature an old man
befriending a young boy, as Catweazle does when
farmer's son Carrot tries to help him understand the
strange world in which he finds himself.
Gary says: "They say you can't show scenes where a
boy goes into a forest with an old man. But I've
never thought of it in that kind of way. It's awful
that three or four generations of kids have been
deprived of watching something that's so good
especially when you look at TV now."
Geoffrey
Bayldon himself believes Catweazle was an
extraordinary series - but is keen to pass the
credit elsewhere.
"It was magical," the 81-yearold actor tells the
Daily Post from his London home. "It is very rare
that an actor is given a script that's so wonderful.
The sky's the limit and you can do what you want."
Geoffrey says he would have loved Catweazle "to have
gone of forever" but thought that two series were
enough.
"I suppose you could have put him in a town. Then he
could have been living in a semi-detached with his
feet up, watching Coronation Street and sipping a
whisky. But it just wouldn't have worked."
He believes Catweazle is the product of a less
cynical time, the like of which we might never see
again.
"It's simplicity that's missing for one thing and
the fact that actors on TV are not allowed to
sustain a character and round them off with a good
director."
He is still fired with enthusiasm for the show
despite the fact that he will receive no royalties
from the DVD releases.
And unlike some more precious members of his
profession, Geoffrey revels in the recognition that
his character provokes nearly four decades on. He
has gladly attended three of the fan club's annual
summer fetes at the idyllic Home Farm near Guildford
where the first series was shot in 1969.
"It's an amazing thing when you get a big butch
fellow with a beer belly who will come up to you and
growl 'Catweazle I loved it'. They talk just like
children."
The latest incident happened when he got off the
train at King's Cross station.
"I asked a taxi driver for directions and after he
told me to turn left and all that sort of thing he
said 'It's Catweazle innit?' Five minutes later and
I had to ask directions again, this time from
another gentleman. He told me where I wanted to go
and then he said exactly the same thing -
'It's Catweazle innit'?"
Ample proof, if it were needed, that Catweazle's
spell remains unbroken.
(The Fan Club can be contacted on 01254 723 462.)
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"Catweazle"
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 Source:
"SFX"
# 168
April 2008
Open article as PDFWho did kids watch on telly in the early 70s?
A whiffy, mud-covered old magician from a millennium ago, that's who.
Sean Egan remembers a surprisingly successful show...
Early 1970. Sunday tea-times saw Btitish streets emptying as kids - and plenty of adults
gathered around the television set to watch a remarkable show with a peculiar title: Catweazle.
It was a series that was a rare thing on two counts: a fantasy tale that was also genuinely funny
and a kids' programme that was sophisticated enough to be thotoughly enjoyed by their parents.
Though its quality was undeniable, Catweazle also had another attribute that makes its memory burn
bright in the minds of its now grown-up demographic. With its unusually high production values - allied
to the fact that colour television broadcasts had only become universal in the UK the previous year - it
appeared at exactly the right time to make it seem a dazzling weekly doorway to another
dimension.
CATWEASELGATE
It all began when creator Richard Carpenter made a chance sighting of an intriguing sign on a rural gate: "Catweasel".
Though he would tweak its spelling, the word was c1early evocative for Carpenter, an actor by profession who had recently
turned his hand to scriptwriting. "The first thing I wanted to do was to find out what it meant," he says.
"It seemed to mean a person, so I had to discover what sort of person would be called Catweazle. It grew from that."
What Carpenter came up with was highly original. "He was an old magician," he explains. "What 'old' is I don't know.
It could be anything from 50 to 80. He didn't really know how (magic) worked and in the first series it didn't work at all,
except he could use ESP, which isn't really magic, although he thought it was, and he could hypnotise people, and that's really
all he could do." This was no kindly bumbling magic man, though. Catweazle was a petulant and childish - not to mention smelly
character. Carpenter says he never wotried that audiences might not find him sympathetic. "I wasn't bothered about whether people
would like him or not because I thought they would. I wasn't going to change him and play him sympathetically. He's a loner
and I'm always interested in people who are loners and not part of the common herd." The biggest twist was that Catweazle was a
magician from Norman times catapulted via one of his maladroit spells into the modern age. His bewildered reaction to 20th century
technologies - and his understandable assumption that they are the results of a superior form of magic that he must learn the secrets of
constituted the programme's chief comedy dynamic.
Joy Whitby, a producer at ITV regional franchise holder London Weekend Television, commissioned a series of 23 episodes.
By the time Carpenter had finished writing them, he already had a man in mind to play Catweazle. Though only in his mid forties,
Geoffrey Bayldon - an acquaintance of Carpenter's - had acquired a reputation for portraying old men, something that he considered
a bit of a bugbear, but he put his doubts aside when he received a call about the project from his agent. "My agent just said,
'It's here, I've just read the first episode and it is sheer magic'," he recalls.
The visual look of Catweazle was so instantly iconic that his raggedy brown robed, wild-haired, wispy-bearded image was used in
cartoon form in the show's memorable opening credits. Carpenter based the robe on a monk's habit. But Whitby and series director
Quentin Lawrence concluded it looked too neat and tidy and attacked it with scissors and mud. Meanwhile, Catweazle always had to look
dirty. Bayldon laments that this get-up ensured he spent "forever" in make-up. "I used to have to have two baths a day: one to get that
off and then another one to have a bath," he says.
Catweazle's way of speaking was even more iconic, even if Carpenter admits that the
likes of "Thou maggot!" and "I beseech thee!" which peppered the magician's speech were not exactly authentic to his time: "It's Elizabethan.
We don't know how they talked in Norman times so I thought, 'Well, let's set it back so that it sounds archaic,'and the easiest one that
we all knew about was Shakespearian speech."
Bayldon added a further twist to Catweazle's lingo. "When we did a reading, right at the beginning, I did it as a sort of conventional
old man," he says. "I thought, 'I'm not enjoying this'. Suddenly I said, in front of Miss Whitby, 'Can I try it North Country, exaggerated
and quirky?' Because that's possibly what they spoke." But it didn't stop there, because - as if by sorcery Bayldon brought something to the
character that Carpenter had no way of predicting when he'd first thought of him for the role, namely the
idiosyncratic hisses, gasps, squeaks and barks that we now associate indelibly with the character. In the second episode, Catweazle is
discovered in a wardrobe through his smell. Bayldon decided to express his character's fear with a sound he renders in demonstration
as "Waaahhck!" Reveals Bayldon, "Quentin Lawrence said, 'Geoffrey, I love that noise. I think we should use noises'. And as we had to
do a lot of the first episode again due to a camera fault I think, we had them in. It was wacky. That's the bit that I addedthe dottiness."
This engendered a crossfertilisation of ideas. "I saw rushes of what he was doing," Carpenter remembers, "then I would add little bits
into the script so that the script and Geoffrey's creativity and my creating the character were running side by side."
HANGING ON THE TELLING-BONE
Carpenter's premise had Catweazle finding himself on Hexwood Farm, populated by farmer Mr Bennet (Charles Tingwell), his teenage son
Carrot (Robin Davies) and two staff. Carrot becomes Catweazle's reluctant friend, hiding him from the world and introducing him to
such - for Catweazle - jaw-dropping concepts as the telephone (which Catweazle interprets as "Tellingbone") and electricity ("Electrickery"),
as the sorceror searches for a spell to take him back from whence he came. Catweazle's only other friend is his magician's "familiar", a toad
called Touchwood. Cannily, Carpenter had partly devised Touchwood in order to enable exposition: "Catweazle has nobody to talk to and he's
so close to Touchwood and Touchwood's so close to him that being able to talk to him made it easy to express what his problem was at
the time. It's quite useful." "Lovely," Bayldon says of his amphibious co-star. "I got it wrong. I thought they were slimy, which
of course they're not. He was Hell on earth at first. Naturally when they said 'Action' to a toad, he didn't exactly jump into action.
Then one day he turned to the camera lens and he started climbing up and put a paw straight onto the lens. From then on you couldn't stop him."
First broadcast on 15 February 1970, its hilarious dialogue, delightful acting, lustrous production, fine direction and intriguing cameo roles
from well-known actors like Hattie Jacques and Hilda Braid made Catweazle an instant smash and a second series an inevitability.
"Unfortunately the second series had a different producer and a different team," says Carpenter. "I wanted to keep the same cast.
I wanted to keep the farm." "They were thinking financially about going to America," says Bayldon. "They wanted it posh. So we had a lovely
lord and lady and a son to match. But it didn't sell to America." The first episode of Catweazle series two aired on 10 January 1971 and found
Catweazle who had discovered a way back to his own time in the finale of the first series - once again catapulted accidentally into the 20th
century. As with the first series, a teenage boy - Cedric (Gary Warren) - becomes his not entirely enthusiastically as he hides away from an often
terrifying new world. A twist is provided by the fact that both Cedric and Catweazle wish to crack a magic spell the boy has found in the
stately home in which he lives, Catweazle's motivation being that he believes it will give him the power
of flight.
During the making of the second series, Carpenter found himself having to resist the suggestions of script doctors, while Bayldon found himself
acting out some slapstick scenes that he detested. "There were episodes in it that are absolutely marvellous," he says, "but there were some that
really miss it. There were about two that I wish didn't exist. The humour of Catweazle is Catweazle. Not 'laugh because he's covered in plaster',
that sort of thing. You're laughing at his situation, not at him." While Carpenter and Bayldon agree
that the second series didn't match up to the first, they are unanimous in judging the finale to be majestic. In a beautifully shot scene, Catweazle -
who has now realised he is trapped in the modern age - commandeers a hot air balloon and exults in what he imagines is his capturing the coveted
power of flight.
END OF THE ROAD
Bayldon and Carpenter have differing memories about why Catweazle did not win a third series. Carpenter says that internal politics at LWT scuppered
it but Bayldon says he opposed one on the grounds that the character was running out of modern marvels to be amazed by:
"It was mentioned. I was firm. It was still marvellously popular, enormously so, and I thought, 'No. Catweazle's seen most of the 20th century'."
However, the beauty of the Catweazle concept has ensured an afterlife, whether via French time travel movie "Les Visiteurs" (1993)
which seems inspired by it, the lovingly complied and annotated DVDs or the belated Catweazle movie on the horizon. Carpenter feels he has
at least one explanation for this longevity. "The way to make fantasy work is if it looks real," he says. "You've got to
believe in Catweazle. He's funny but he's real. Magic for him ain't funny, ain't a game. It's his lifeblood and it has to be played completely for real.
It's funny because it's serious. Comedy is serious. That's the best sort of comedy."
Catweazle: The Movie?
A Catweazle movie has long been mooted but only now is it a serious proposition, courtesy of German production company Nimea.
Carpenter, who has completed a script, naturally asked Bayldon to reprise his role but was rebuffed because the 84-year-old
Bayldon feels himself too old, "I'm agin it," says Bayldon, saying the as-yetunnamed new actor will either, be someone "imitating me,
which will be horrible or doing It their way which will be unrecognisable". Carpenter though is thrilled by the project: "The first thing
that kicked me off as a writer was Catweazle and it will be the last thing that I do, probably."
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Fan Club
Source:
"Look-in" Magazin 6th May 1972
Then
we found Brickendonbury. There were stories that it
had been used during the war to train British
agents, and that Winston Churchill used it as his
secret headquarters.
