Review This Friday.... CATWEAZLE: THE FLYING BROOMSTICKS - Episode 11

[Doctor Omega]

Your thoughts on this episode....

Catweazle has stolen at least 50 birch brooms in a mad attempt to fly like a bird, by riding them while jumping through fire. The police have found these discarded burnt brooms and believe a satanic coven is operating. Sam gets the blame after admitting accidentally burning a broom while burning trash in the woods. Carrot rages at Catweazle that it's his fault that Sam is in trouble and after Carrot bribes him with a harmonica Catweazle agrees to rescue Sam from the police station.

On to the next episode....

THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/catweazle-the-wisdom-of-solomon-episode-12.4626/


Back to the previous episode....

THE HOUSE OF THE SORCERER

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/catweazle-the-house-of-the-sorcerer-episode-10.4623/

 

[Brimfin]

A bit of trickery in the title here. The Broomsticks never really fly, except in the slang of being stolen. Catweazle is the culprit, snatching them for a spell involving burning broomsticks – another attempt to get back home to his own time. But it’s poor Sam who ends up paying the price – almost.

It starts with Sam hard at work outside sweeping with a broom. He sweeps some hot embers and his broom catches on fire. Enter Sgt. Bottle, who’s trying to solve the case of the missing brooms. When he sees Sam with a hot broom, he thinks it’s one of those hot brooms. So later he comes by looking to get Sam to come in for questioning. Poor Sam thinks it’s about his car license which he hasn’t gotten around to renewing. (At least, I guess that means his car still works.) But when he goes down to the station, the Sergeant drills him about being in a coven and practicing witchcraft.

When Carrot gets enough of the facts, he figures out who’s really behind the stolen sweepers and sure enough catches Cat bristle-handed. He tries to cajole him into helping Sam, first by threatening to cut off his food supply and appealing to him as a brother in magic. But it’s his harmonica that seals the deal. Having just discovered that CW is a marksman with a bow and arrow, Carrot launches a plan.

First they go outside the station, where he tells Cat to fire an arrow though the gap where the window is opened. Catweazle fires and sends the arrow through the window instead – although it still hits the desk target. Perhaps he was used to firing at moving targets and expected the gap to move on him. Anyway, I actually did find that amusing. The note on the arrow tells the Sergeant to meet him at a rendezvous point. Cat does meet him there, and uses his magic knife to put a spell on him. However, it goes too far. Bottle returns to release Sam and call the case closed, but then he goes slightly nuts bouncing between a singing policeman and a little boy. Granted, he went too far in grilling Sam about the broom heist, but he didn’t deserve that much punishment. I checked the credits and saw this is his only listed appearance so I guess we’ll never see if he gets back to normal. Sam gets safely home and Catweazle get Carrot’s harmonica as his reward.

The man playing Sgt. Bottle is good, playing him like a small town cop who wants to be a big city detective and treats the broom case like it’s the theft of the Crown Jewels. The most amusing scene is when he first shows up looking for the owner of the farm and Mr. Bennet does a slow burn because Bottle can’t seem to recognize that he is the owner. Bottle is more of a straight man, playing the character mostly normal while talking about witches, covens, and stolen brooms. Meanwhile, the others get to register their disbelief about him – especially Sam. He doesn’t become the funny character until he goes nuts at the end. Of course, his fatal flaw is his tunnel vision. When he sees Sam with the burned broom, he immediately assumes he’s the culprit and grills him for two hours. We’ve seen characters like him arrest the wrong man on TV shows and unfortunately sometimes in real life. (Amanda Knox, anyone?) Still, he was at least right that the thefts did have something to do with rituals and the supernatural, so he didn’t deserve to be rendered crazy at the show’s end. It would have been funnier if Cat had told him to forget everything that happened today. Then he could go back and wonder what Sam was doing at the station and wonder why Mr. Bennet was so upset at him.

There are some other missed opportunities. Having people have a conversation with each person interpreting the statements differently can be hilarious. The famous “Who’s on First?” routine is a prime example. But Carpenter doesn’t try hard enough to make the pieces work. When Bennet hears the story of the brooms and then Sam tells him “I did it,” his reaction is funny. But in that position, surely you would ask a question like “What would you want with all those brooms?” or something. To see Bennet just kind of shake his head in wonder and then accept that Sam did something that wacky doesn’t seem real at all.

I’ll give this episode 5 brooms tied together, which Catweazle ignites and chants his spell, but still doesn’t get back home.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Part One

This is shaping up to be a lovely episode of misunderstanding. Mind you, I have just paused it at the halfway mark, so am uncertain how it will resolve itself yet. Will Carrot take the blame in order to save Sam from remaining in trouble? I can see no other outcome.

Oh well, on with the episode to see how this concludes....



Part Two:

Oh no!

I thought that was shaping up to be a fine episode, but am honestly disappointed with the resolution. Catweazle simply hypnotises the lawman, who then becomes all placid and silly. This confirms beyond doubt that CW has - at the very least - the power of mesmerism, but I don't think it was a particularly clever way of solving the dilemma, for Catweazle could now do this to solve any number of upcoming episodes. I hope they don't do this, for the series has shown itself to be smarter than this, writing wise.

Things that did make me laugh though:

"Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam!"

"Coven" - "Oven?"

But sadly, overall, this is my least favourite episode so far.

Grade C

Come on CATWEAZLE show, you can resolve your dilemmas with more wit than this!

 

[Cloister56]

We open with Catweazle attempting to save time by carrying too much stuff, just make three journeys Catweazle it will save you in the long run.
I'm not clear on what Sam is doing, I suspect that fire is for a purpose perhaps getting rid of insects but he is asked by Mr Bennett if the fire is safe, to which he replies "It is now". Really? Really Sam? that fire is now unattended, I think someone needs a lesson from Smokey.

Plus Sam has this exchange:
Sam - "My broom caught fire"
Carrot - "How did it happen"
Sam - "I Dunno, a spark must have set it off"


No Sam you threw it down into the fire, that "set it off"

This is one of those episodes that could be cleared up by people just saying things they would normal say. Sergeant Bottle points out the broom has been recently burned. Why wouldn't Mr Bennett immediately say "I know my farm assistant Sam was tending to that fire you see raging over there and it caught fire". To which Bottle could respond "Hmm sounds routine not like the other broom burnings, I'll be on my way" cue Catweazle music.

This episode seems to be tapping into the Wicker Man type vibe. I decided to look up brooms and witches, unless Catweazle is a man ahead of his time brooms didn't get associated with witchcraft until about 300 years after the Normans.

The Origin of Witches Riding Broomsticks

Catweazle has stolen at least 50 birch brooms in a mad attempt to fly like a bird, by riding them while jumping through fire.

50 brooms? So he has run through that fire what about 30 times? I assume he started with just one broom and then we get to see the pinnacle of 5 brooms tied together at the end. At what point was he giving up on this plan?

Catweazle appears to have his own disguise now. It's nice to see he recognises his sackcloth isn't appropriate and he needs to try to blend in.

The shattering window effect was pretty well done, revealing the startled police man, good job Catweazle didn't aim a few inches higher.

Still, he was at least right that the thefts did have something to do with rituals and the supernatural, so he didn’t deserve to be rendered crazy at the show’s end. It would have been funnier if Cat had told him to forget everything that happened today. Then he could go back and wonder what Sam was doing at the station and wonder why Mr. Bennet was so upset at him.

I thought that was shaping up to be a fine episode, but am honestly disappointed with the resolution. Catweazle simply hypnotises the lawman, who then becomes all placid and silly.

Yeah this felt like a very kids TV resolution. The previously boring, straight laced authority figure suddenly changes to acting wacky to hilarious effect. I guess it is a kids fantasy seeing their boring teacher suddenly become fun and less scary.
I think as it hasn't been done before in the series to solve a problem I think it is ok but I agree I don't want it to become one of Catweazle's regularly used powers.
Although then it enters into that continuity plot area of "Why doesn't he just use his mesmerism to solve this problem where clearly it would help" We have seen him use this power before to prevent Carrot talking about Catweazle. We haven't seen much evidence of that since and I think a few times Carrot has asked about Catweazle when looking for him. Perhaps it only works directly or the spell only has a temporary effect.
I hope so for Bottle's sake. They will probably give him some time off, he will recover and get on with his life and job. Although given how a "mental breakdown" was viewed back then it might spell the end of his career. With great power Catweazle, comes great responsibility.

Anyway let's just stick with the authority figure acts silly for 5 minutes, destroying his credibility and resolving the plot outcome.

I quite liked this episode, another breezy 20 minutes with some chuckles.

7 fire safety rules not observed by Sam, out of 10.

 

[michaellevenson]

An okay episode. John Junkin who played Sergeant Bottle was a talented writer as well as actor. During the 70's various sitcoms would usually have a Junkin script turn up sooner or later. He also teamed up with Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke Taylor for the radio classic Hello Cheeky, later a tv series.
The idea of country folk practising witchcraft was not so absurd at this time, Hammer Horror made a nice living out of such stories.
There was nice laughs as Bottle interviews Sam, coven/oven, which fire?/ witch fire. The ending has Catweazle blowing into the harmonica and was that touchwood putting his front leg up towards his ear in disgust?
7/10

 

[Doctor Omega]

"Catweazle" The Flying Broomsticks (TV Episode 1970) ⭐ 7.8 | Adventure, Comedy, Family

24m

www.imdb.com