MORE FROM THE fortuitously prolific pen of E. Nesbitt, but stuffed full of the usual upper class Edwardian drawing rooms peopled by Posh Edwardian Children, here discovering a “magic ring” with wish-conferring capabilities. Each wish, naturally, had an unfortunate sting in the tail. So, a row of hastily constructed mannekins (an audience for the children’s pantomime) unexpectedly came to life as terrifying “Ugly-Wuglies”, the thieving cock-er-nee maid’s magical shopping spree wrought disastrous consequences and, in the most memorable moment, marble statues in the grounds took it upon themselves to start wandering around at night. Literal wish-fulfilment for those upper class kids who lived up the road from you. For those of us watching not a) Edwardian b) posh c) in a drawing room, all there was to wish for were the delights of riding around in a dinosaur, perpetual invisibility, or an indoor toilet.
THX 1139
March 17, 2019 at 10:30 am
The Ugly-Wuglies were an absolute nightmare, made somehow worse by dint of the fact they thought they were perfectly normal in their jumble sale horror. Then the posh kids trap them and leave them to die, unmoved by the creatures’ moans of dismay! The whole thing is really shivery.
Sidney Balmoral James
July 11, 2024 at 8:10 pm
This is the earliest tv programme I remember seeing – it was broadcast at the end of 1979. when I would have been three years old, and I was terrified by the statues coming to life. Ironically, I have no recollection of the Ugly-Wuglies (although my parents may have wisely turned off at that point), and I’ve never seen any reference to this in pop culture (unlike other horrifying things on children’s TV, like Noseybonk from Jigsaw), so perhaps they didn’t have the same impact in 1979.