Willo the Wisp

WILLO THE WISP
Made by: Nicholas Spargo
Shown on: BBC
Years shown: 1980-82

Drugs are bad, kids. And they’re expensive. But a viable alternative is a marathon viewing of Willo the Wisp, an absurd and incomprehensible cartoon about the characters who inhabit Doily Woods. It was narrated by Willo, a spirit-like entity who looked remarkably like Kenneth Williams, possibly because he provided the voices for the characters. The central twosome were Arthur, a big, orange caterpillar, and his friend, Mavis Cruet, a kindly fairy in a tutu, who was just too fat to fulfil her great wish of flying. But if anyone was having any fun, you could guarantee that it wouldn’t last long, because Evil Edna was never far away. Evil Edna was a witch in the form of a TV set; the screen showed her face, and she could zap people with her antennae. The subsidiary characters were Carwash, the posh, monocle-wearing cat, whose wisdom surpassed the combined intelligence of everyone else; and The Moog, a strange, sausage-shaped dog who was affectionate but utterly stupid.

The episodes had to be seen to be believed - pretty much anything could happen, including Evil Edna falling in love with a TV news presenter who she tunes into. That was strange enough, but then, in an attempt to escape, the presenter leapt out of the TV set and revealed himself to be only as big as he appeared on screen. These days, the BBC makes programmes that children can understand, which, in my opinion, is a crying shame.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 6/10

(Thanks to www.sausagenet.com for the borrowed pic)