Back in the 70s John Pertwee created the lovable straw filled Worzel Gummidge. Now the amazingly talented Makenzie Crook has taken up the role. Now I will be the first one to speak out and say that Makenzie is a very fine actor. Think of The Office and the delightful series The Detectorists with another favourite of mine, Toby Jones. But I have to say that I still prefer John Pertwee. He was Worzel, with his amazing talent for voices and his mannerisms. He made it seem so effortless to bring a straw man to life. According to my research, scarecrows go back to Ancient Egypt where they used them when farming on the banks of the Nile. My first encounter with them was as a very young boy travelling up from Brighton to visit relatives in Lincolnshire for our annual holiday. The further North we progressed the more of these creatures we would see. Upon entering lovely Lincolnshire they were everywhere. Staring at us from behind crumbling stone walls or in the middle of a crop filled field. They were always busy, rain or shine. More recently on many visits to Cornwall we have passed through delightful villages where the inhabitants have set the scarecrows to all manner of tasks from speed cop to fisherman. I don’t like to admit this but it must have been some 25 years ago, my sister in law and I were almost lost in the Lincolnshire Wolds, looking for an obscure little farmhouse. A sweltering hot day with not a soul about. We pulled over and I volunteered to go and ask the chap tending his tractor in the nearby field. Now my eyesight has never been fantastic due to an accident when I was a toddler. Well, that’s my excuse. I was well into the field when I realised it was one of our straw friends. I can just imagine a rustic old farmer hiding behind a hedge guffawing and saying “stupid baxxxxx”. But, where are they all now. A few on farms, a few more on allotments. But not as many as in my youth. They are definitely an endangered species. A job for David Attenborough perhaps?.