Review DISCUSSION- CATWEAZLE: THE ENCHANTED KING - Episode 20

michaellevenson

Moderator
Staff member
Doc, I'll review this when you have reached this point of course, but something of interest I'll reveal now, keep you intrigued.
Carpenter visited the set while filming this episode and was shocked at the changes made to his script. He was a young writer and felt powerless to stop what was happening.
Catweazle was made to look a figure of fun, a slapstick buffoon. Bayldon also was unhappy. There was a brand new director and producer for season 2 and most fans would say that from episode 21 onwards it was great and hit great heights as series 1had done, but like the first half of series 4 of Blake's 7, series 2 took time to settle.
 

michaellevenson

Moderator
Staff member
As I say above, Carpenter was unhappy with this episode, the director , presumably, added stuff to the script that Carpenter hated, and Bayldon even stated on interview on the DVD notes, that Carpenter never wrote this, someone else did because the production was behind schedule. Well, sorry Geoffrey but Carpenter certainly wrote this, but the added extras are not his fault.
Graham Crowden plays sculptor John Gobbling who has a statue of the scales of justice to be unveiled by Lady Collingford. Catweazle wondering around Kings Farthing hears a demon in a demon box telling him that a King has been turned to stone. In reality a children's storyteller on television is doing a "Jackanory" type programme, which Catweazle thinks is real. So a good set up for an entertaining story, as Catweazle wants the statue that Gobbling has created as it represents " the balances" i.e. Libra.
So Catweazle runs foul of Gobbling and " custard pie" type fight ensues with wet clay being flung, Catweazle ends up covered in muck, it's all quite funny, but Carpenter correctly thought Catweazle is turned into a figure of fun, a slapstick stooge, okay I agree, but its a fun episode.
Crowden plays it for all it's worth, hamming it up, and the unveiling ends in farce as Gobbling and Catweazle ends up wrestling on the plinth.
In series two the stories are much more Catweazle centric than the first series, Carrot was pretty central to all plots of series 1 episodes, here Cedric, as in most episodes, tags along and clears up Cat's mess, rather than being the cause of the mess, stumbling into the situation. Here though he inadvertently causes the finale. Cedric goes with Groome to collect Gobbling from his studio to take him to the unveiling,surprised to see Catweazle there, and hides him in the boot of the car thereby taking him to the unveiling to cause mayhem.
I'd mark this lower, but Crowden saves it, more than saves it actually.
7.5/10
 
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