Catweazle
 In
eleventh century England, deep in the heart of the countryside,
the eccentric and bumbling Merlin-like magician Catweazle finds
himself cornered by Norman Soldiers.
Relying on the unsure powers of his magic, he leaps into a lake
to escape his pursuers - taking with him his toad
"familiar" Touchwood, his thumb-ring and his sacred
knife, Adamcos.
However he flees further than he had hoped travelling nine
hundred years through time into the 1970s.
In unfamiliar surroundings Catweazle is soon discovered by
Carrot, the 14 year old son of a farmer who lives on Hexwood Farm
near the magician's water tower hiding spot (which he calls Castle
Saburac).
Through him, Catweazle discovers that things have changed
beyond his imagination. Being a magician, everything he
experiences in the twentieth century such as motor cars,
telephones ('telling bone'), and electric light ('electrickery'),
he believes is the result of magic.
 His
magic incantations include "Salmay, Dalmay, Adonay" and;
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S
Catweazle finally finds his way back to his own time at the end
of the first series. As the second series begins, Catweazle is
imprisoned in Farthing Castle trying to conjure Gold at the behest
of the great Norman lord, William de Collynforde.
Instead, his magic works for once, and he manages to fly from
the castle , but once again it is through time, not space. Hurling
himself, full of faith, from the battlements, Catweazle lands in
the moat . . . but the castle has vanished and in its place is a
large white house with a clock tower with a little turret on top.
The second series repeated the same formula, but this time
Catweazle's young friend is Cedric, the son of Lord and Lady
Collingford. Catweazle also finds himself a new home in an
abandoned railway station (Duck Halt) and sets about finding the
thirteen (yes, thirteen) signs of the zodiac in order to return to
his own time, while Cedric hopes to restore his family fortune by
finding the lost Collingford treasure.
 Who
can forget that immortal Catweazle zodiac-chasing song . . .
Twelve are they that circle round
If power you seek they must be found
look for where the thirteenth lies
mount aloft the one who flies
"Nuthing works!" was Catweazle's favourite saying
(usually muttered while blowing on his thumb-ring for luck). And
he was usually right.
Catweazle was created and written by Richard Carpenter.
The famous jaunty theme was actually a library piece called Busy
Boy (by Ted Dicks).
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