Catweazle: Review: 40th Anniversary DVD

40th Anniversary Special Edition

Network, out now

The adventures of an 11th Century wizard who finds himself at odds with the 20th Century…

Rewatch a series that you loved growing up and chances are you’ll be disappointed (as Film 24’s reruns of Freewheelers recently proved). But there are some shows that retain the magic they originally wove, and Catweazle is definitely a case in point. There’s a wry humour throughout that helps overcome some of the technical shortcomings of the 40-year-old show and it’s never less than entertaining when Geoffrey Bayldon is on screen – as creator Richard Carpenter says in one of the commentary tracks, Bayldon acts from the head down, with his feet sometimes seeming totally independent of the rest of his body.

Because its makers couldn’t guarantee episodes would be shown in order, there’s less of a serial feel to the show than you might expect, particularly given the McGuffin of the second series, which means you can dip into episodes at leisure.

Network have added a new introduction from Bayldon and expanded the picture galleries from their earlier separate releases, although it’s a shame that there’s no musical accompaniment on these. With the aforementioned commentaries plus reunions, contemporary archive footage and script PDFs, this is pretty much the last word on an enjoyable slice of TV history.    7

Paul Simpson

Click here for our interview with Geoffrey Bayldon