Review CATWEAZLE: DUCK HALT - Episode 15

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Your thoughts on this episode....

Catweazle casts the runes to find his new home, and ends up in an abandoned railway station called Duck Halt on an abandoned line.
Cedric and Catweazle enjoy an afternoon's country walk when they spy a pub sign " The Bull", being removed by the pub owners and handed to a hardware seller, loaded in a back of a van and driven off. Catweazle is determined to get the (Taurus) sign.







On to the next episode....

THE HEAVENLY TWINS

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/catweazle-the-heavenly-twins-episode-16.4632/


Back to the previous episode....

THE MAGIC RIDDLE

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/catweazle-the-magic-riddle-episode-14.4628/
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10


PART ONE


At least they are getting out and about in this second season. Here we get lovely countryside scenes and meeting the locals.

Highlights of this first half are the "crisps and pop" scene. (Miraculously Catweazle carries out his mission to purchase these things with a minimum of insanity. Catweazle also continues to insult Cedric as much as he did Carrot. "Twittering turnip" and "woodlouse!" being just two of the adjectives used.

By an amazing coincidence Catweazle sets his sights on acquiring a pub sign that just happens to be taken down that day.

This first half of the episode has ambled along pleasantly enough.



PART TWO

After some shenanigans with the hay fever guy Catweazle has his sign.

I think that the makers of the show missed a merchandising trick and should really have created three wheel bikes that you could cycle down country lanes towards oncoming traffic and into tunnels towards oncoming trains.

Before he can become Flatweazle the episode ends, in much the same way as episode two of the first series ended, with Catweazle now having a base of his own to operate from. The format is settled.

If they can get out and about af fair bit, then season two should be enjoyable enough.


Grade B
 

michaellevenson

Member: Rank 8
So Catweazle finds his new home, a deserted railway station on a disused line, which is quite clever. The original idea was for Catweazle to be in an old signal box high above the tracks, but that fell through.
There's going to be a measure of coincidence in series 2 as Catweazle looks for each zodiac sign in the correct order, this episode he finds a pub sign with a bull on it for Taurus. Bill Owen plays the hay fever ridden Mr Pickle, later to be famous for Compo in The Last Of the Summer Wine. Unlike Carrot, it doesn't look like Cedric owns a bicycle, but it's Catweazle with the transport in the form of a tricycle. Catweazle's reading of the runes did yield an accurate prediction of how he'd find Duck Halt, so there maybe something in it after all.
Gary Warren hasn't got the presence of Robin Davies but he's okay as Cedric , character who'll be getting Catweazle out of scrapes more than needing Catweazle to help him get out of them.
8/10
 
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Cloister56

Member: Rank 3
The hunt for astrological signs continues. I wonder about the veracity of this treasure hunt, there are 2 outcomes, one is that Catweazle is just collecting random objects with the correct signs on and it will lead nowhere, the second is that these are the correct icons and the treasure hunt will build to finding the magic Catweazle seeks. I guess we will find out in about 11 more weeks time.

Catweazle and Cedric appear to be bonding and Cedric seems to be quickly getting up to speed that Catweazle really is unaware of some things. Catweazle finds his Taurus symbol in a pub sign which as luck would have it is about to be changed. I can imagine this was happening to a lot of pubs at the time to appear more modern, a few decades later they will be switching them back to appear more retro or authentic.
I did wonder why Cedric was wearing a flower on his top but turns out it was just to test Mr Pickles hayfever. So Catweazle has some effective magic, he has no idea of the physiological process involved in hayfever but he can cure it none the less.
On his getaway Catweazle goes down to the train tracks. Much like Sam with his fire safety last season I think Catweazle might need some train track safety awareness.


Anway thanks to Dr Beeching Catweazle finds a nice new home. The Duck Halt from the episode title (I did wonder what the hell that meant).
I love old railway stations, some of the best horror stories are set there.
From Charles Dickens' "The Signalman" to Sapphire and Steel's second assignment, The Railway Station. And the excellent episode of Shadows "The Waiting Room", starring Jenny Agutter


So we are out of the big house but Catweazle has a new home that I definitely approve of.

It was an ok episode, I'll give it an extra point for the ending.

7 pub signs that will be resold to the same pubs in a few years, out of 10.
 
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