Mackenzie Crook’s new one-hour Worzel Gummidge film will air on Christmas Eve on BBC One it was announced this week. Titled Saucy Nancy, the film starring Mackenzie Crook, India Brown, Thierry Wickens, Shirley Henderson and Vanessa Redgrave, it takes us back to the Ten Acre field and beyond. When Worzel, Susan and John visit the local scrapyard, they chance upon Worzel’s old friend Saucy Nancy. Languishing unsold for years, she longs to return to the sea where she believes her ship will be waiting.
Susan and John’s promise to ‘stay out of mischief’ proves difficult as the strange foursome navigate their way to the coast on foot, by bus, wheelbarrow, motorbike and sidecar.
This magical story of kindness and belonging is a daytrip out of Scatterbrook, and a change of scenery for Worzel and his friends, across wild moorland to white cliffs and the ocean.