It is a comedy, it’s not preachy, but this time Worzel is an eco-warrior out to save the world
Mackenzie Crook on playing lovable scarecrow
NERVOUSLY glancing down at his hands, consternation on his face, Mackenzie Crook is one of life’s worriers. And there is one worry in particular which plays on his mind – the future for his two kids on a planet suffering the effects of climate change.
He said: “I do worry. I don’t know where we’ll be in 10 years. If you look at the graphs and how steeply things are beginning to rise, I don’t know when we will actually start feeling the impact, the hardship. And it’s probably not going to affect me as much as it is them.”
He shares his environmental concerns with the latest character he is playing, the talking scarecrow Worzel Gummidge, in BBC’s Christmas reboot of the family comedy. Mackenzie, who also wrote and directed the two-parter, says his 12-year-old daughter, Scout, is teaching him how he can be green off-screen too.
“My daughter came into the edit with me a couple of times,” he said, “and one time, we walked by Starbucks and I asked her if she wanted to get a drink.
“And she said, ‘We can’t because I haven’t got my cup’. It wouldn’t cross her mind to go in there and get a takeaway cup. It got me thinking.”
Like many, 48-year-old Mackenzie is ashamed the buck has been passed to the younger generation, including Scout and his 17-year-old son Jude.
He supports the Extinction Rebellion protests in London in April and added: “It’s exciting to see the young people spearheading the campaign.
“They’re all over it and I think they realise that it is their fight. The lazy adults left it too late and don’t care.”
His new screen role is a far cry from his Hollywood days starring alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
The lovable scarecrow, based on the 30s books by Barbara Euphan Todd, was played by Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee in the 1979 TV series.
In this version, Mackenzie stars alongside comedy great Michael Palin, Zoe Wanamaker, League of Gentleman comic Steve Pemberton and Getting On star Vicki Pepperdine.
Worzel has stopped fawning over Aunt Sally and wants to save the world.
It is up to Worzel, John and Susan, played by youngsters Thierry Wickens and India Brown, to figure why the
seasons have stopped in Scatterbrook. But Mackenzie hopes viewers will not think he is being too “preachy”.
“Above everything else, it’s supposed to be a comedy,” he said.
“But it would have been weird not to put an environmental theme in a comedy-drama set in the countryside in the present day.
“It just seemed like the absolute ideal vehicle to put a message in there that hopefully is not a preachy sermon.”
Mackenzie loves the countryside, so much so that he bought eight acres of it – a wood in Essex.
“It’s everything to me,” he said. “I spend time in the outdoors. I live in
London but I love my garden. The woodland in Essex I bought about 10 years ago is where I take the kids to escape.
“My whole childhood was spent mucking around down the river. It’s really important to me.”
The star said he drew inspiration for his Worzel from the books, not the 70s TV series.
Mackenzie spent three hours getting prosthetic make-up done to transform him into the scarecrow, something he has endured before when playing the terrifying leader of the Druids, Veran, in Britannia. He said: “One of the things that I took from the books is that Worzel had a turnip head. I wanted him to look like a vegetable that had been yanked out of the ground.”
It’s been nearly 20 years since Mackenzie’s career took off, playing twerp Gareth Keenan in The Office.
The popularity of the show still surprises him.
He added: “Not a day goes past when somebody doesn’t shout, ‘Gareth’ if I’m out in London.
“It’s nice people are affectionate. I was fond of Gareth. He was an idiot but an unpretentious idiot.”
Mackenzie’s days of filming for months on end, away from his wife Lindsay, a former advertising executive, are few and far between now.
He has decided he is much happier closer to home. He said: “When I’ve worked in the theatre, it’s quite often been hard and I’ve been away from home a lot. I made a decision not to be away from home so much any more.
“I did two productions on Broadway which took me away for five months at a time when the kids were really little. That was hard.”
Whether he and Worzel can solve the climate crisis remains to be seen but Mackenzie hopes the show brings some Christmas cheer.
“I really hope, on Boxing Day, families sit round the TV and watch it together” he said. “That’s what I had in my mind when I wrote it.” Worzel Gummidge will air on BBC1 on Boxing Day at 6.20pm and Friday 27 at 7pm.
It’s exciting to see the young people spearheading the climate campaign
MACKENZIE CROOK ON EXTINCTION REBELLION
My whole childhood was spent mucking around by the river
MACKENZIE CROOK ON HIS LOVE OF NATURE