What a brilliant upload. My sister and I still sing this at Halloween and it brings back the creepy feeling all over again at 42 years old. Thanks for posting.
thank goodness for CZcams and its posters I spent nigh on over 40 years thinking I'd imagined this song as nobody else remembered it I even have the children in my family singing it every Halloween so it carries on to another generation. Gosh we must have been brainwashed by it as children I remember it every Halloween and watching it in the class room on the big TV that was wheeled into the room lol then watching it in the school holidays with my Mom as she scared me telling me if I was not careful a witch would vanish me away (the ploys parents used to get us to behave) I was always looking over my shoulder and making sure my bedroom window was locked :o thank you so much for posting I also loved Watch! remember that one? Ahhhh the innocence of childhood. I can sleep now knowing it was all real and not made up :)
70s/80s child here what a joy to see these old childrens programs that were made very creatively back when we only had 3 channels and zero SGI or special effects. This song is still stuck in my head and I always found Halloween fun and not that scary to be honest ❤️🌟
skawashers I think Henry Woolf is one of the great characters of 70s TV. Loved him in steptoe and son playing Frankie Barrow the godfather of shepherds bush and the Goldhawk Road lol
This brings back so many great memories. I can remember watching this episode on Halloween back in 1975. We had made witches hats at school. Great Times.
Wow! I have wasted so many half-terms watching this and sung this song for 37 years. A casual search and I hear it again! I love CZcams and I love people like WeeKelpie who take the time to upload. Thank you!
Haha...yeh it's Frankie.... he terrorised Albert and Harold.....the episode where they smashed up the stem ginger jar.... to extort insurance money from them...
OMG!!! I never thought I'd ever see this episode again! The Halloween pumpkin story scared the absolute hell out of me... Then again, I was 3 at the time. The trauma made this one of my earliest childhood memories!
The Pumpkin scared a number of people in the story Henry read. The Pumpkin was thwarted by a hungry pig who eats him for supper. Charlie believes the pig wasn't very kind and Henry informs Charlie that the Pumpkin was a rotter.
I think this is 1976 or 1977. I'd forgotten about the witches song and not seen it since then. I remembered the words to the song but must have only seen it no more than twice back then. Goes to show how kids brains learn and remember so well at that age.
I started out as a young teacher in 1974 and watched Words and Pictures with my Reception Class. I loved this programme and it's lovely to see this again. There has always been something that puzzled me though. When I first started watching it there was another presenter, wearing that smock. Then one term without any explanation there was Henry Woolf instead. I've seen on Wiki that Tony Robinson presented it for a bit but with a different format and photos to prove it, and that may have been before I started watching. I was pretty sure it was David Jason for a while, then Henry Woolf seemed quite similar when he turned up. The children didn't even notice. Anyone else think this?
@@simonblossom Yes I've seen that, but I would like to hear from David Jason if he stood in for Gabriel Woolf while he was ill maybe, in 1974 or 5, wearing the same clothes and looking very similar. I've done really well in superrecogniser tests.
One thing that did scare ME when I was a kid was the BBC TV announcer's voice, notably when he said, "The time's coming up to whatever and BBC1/2's returning to a Trade Test Transmission" - he sounded as though he wasn't in a very good mood.
I watched this at primary school. Witches of Halloween song. Inspired to scare my younger brother everytime he goes to toilet or upstairs on his own in the night times. I was a terrible person doing that
Joan of-fart Back then in the UK we just didn't have pumpkins...they were never in the shops and most kids carved out turnips at Halloween...can you imagine how tough they were to cut! Nightmare...but the smell of scorched turnip will always remind me of a true, spooky 1970s Halloween.
3:23 she's a bit bloody handy with that knife!! I can't see many witches and goblins giving her too much grief :D I remember watching this as a child in the 1970s.
OMG thank you so much for this, watched this in junior school in 75, on a big telly on tripod legs in the school hall. With our school milk. That song is still going through my head after all those years and here it is to watch again :)
Thank you so much for uploading this, so many fantastic childhood memories. I've been telling my wife about this for years. So difficult to describe and now thanks to you, she's seen it at last.
OMG. Thanks so much for posting this! Glad you found it!! The nostalgia. Been hoping this episode would turn up on you tube for years! Yes pumpkins didn't exist in UK grocers generally in the UK and we used swedes. This episode is the one that most stuck in my head from words and pictures. Loved it. Good old educational programmes of the 70s!
Wow wow wow ! I can’t believe I’m able to watch this episode once again after all those years my children in the 70s loved it as did I thankyou so much for the trip down memory lane 🎃🎃🎃
Blimey, I remember watching this in primary school in the late 70s. That pig eating the live pumpkin, that could talk, scared me to death! And I remembered that 'Witches Of Halloween' song too!
Thanks for the upload WeeKelpie, thought I would never see this one again, all I need now is an Episode of Freetime when I was on riding a mountain bike in Rochdale
Wow, thanks for sharing this. This is the only episode I remember clearly, the Halloween one, loved it when I was a kid. I think they repeated it every Halloween for a few years because it certainly stuck in my mind. Brings back so many memories of times and people gone. Thank you
For anyone who wants to know the broadcast history... First TX 20th October 1975, then repeated: 27th October 1975 3rd November 1975 7th May 1976 (preview for teachers for the next school year) 18th October 1976 20th October 1976 25th October 1976 27th October 1976 16th October 1978 18th October 1978 20th October 1980 22nd October 1980 29th October 1980
Blimey this takes me back - I remember the witches and was trying for ages to find a clip of the song, and here it is. Thanks for sharing - brilliant!! :)
I've looked for this for years after watching it in school as it aired in what must have been around 1976 (I also remember pretending to 'shoot' the dots in the countdown before it while something like Dancing Queen was playing). Thanks so much for the share and the memories!
i knew one day this would be posted I remember seeing this in 1975 as a 7 year old at infant school and it was one of those programs that stayed all my life i could quote the words to the song verbatim. It was actually quite scary when your only 7 years old It made be believe witches actually existed. (not that I took much convincing back then lol)
Great find - I'm sure there was another version of this episode where a group of kids turned up for a Hallowe'en Party and one came as "The Ghost of Batman"
Can anyone remember in Words and Pictures, the episodes featuring a boy and girl in a playground setting.I believe they were called Penelope and Keith.Driving me mad not knowing .Any help greatfully appreciated.
Thanks so much for this been looking for it for yrs!!!!! Outa all the words and pictures this us the one that has stuck in my head for years! Does anyone remember what I think was called is the play tent with chris lilycrap coz I can't find it????
I remember the excitement of the " school telly" being wheeled into the classroom and this being shown as a treat
Exactly me too!
What a brilliant upload. My sister and I still sing this at Halloween and it brings back the creepy feeling all over again at 42 years old. Thanks for posting.
What are you on about? This shit is fucked up
thank goodness for CZcams and its posters I spent nigh on over 40 years thinking I'd imagined this song as nobody else remembered it I even have the children in my family singing it every Halloween so it carries on to another generation. Gosh we must have been brainwashed by it as children I remember it every Halloween and watching it in the class room on the big TV that was wheeled into the room lol then watching it in the school holidays with my Mom as she scared me telling me if I was not careful a witch would vanish me away (the ploys parents used to get us to behave) I was always looking over my shoulder and making sure my bedroom window was locked :o thank you so much for posting I also loved Watch! remember that one? Ahhhh the innocence of childhood. I can sleep now knowing it was all real and not made up :)
Thanks for the memories. I was six years old in 1975. I could still remember the witches song.
70s/80s child here what a joy to see these old childrens programs that were made very creatively back when we only had 3 channels and zero SGI or special effects. This song is still stuck in my head and I always found Halloween fun and not that scary to be honest ❤️🌟
Thank you SO much for posting this. I have been looking for this episode for years and years. I loved the pumpkin going. HOP……HOP….. HOP
Henry Woolf.. wow hes still about at 86 .I remember this episode more than any others .
skawashers I think Henry Woolf is one of the great characters of 70s TV. Loved him in steptoe and son playing Frankie Barrow the godfather of shepherds bush and the Goldhawk Road lol
This brings back so many great memories. I can remember watching this episode on Halloween back in 1975. We had made witches hats at school. Great Times.
Wow! I have wasted so many half-terms watching this and sung this song for 37 years. A casual search and I hear it again! I love CZcams and I love people like WeeKelpie who take the time to upload. Thank you!
Thanks so much, I used to love this programme.
me too
This brought back memories. Thank you so much for sharing.
Watched this and it all come flooding back :) including the song, which I had completely forgotten about!
This is still a wonderful relic and again I thank you for the upload
I just shit my pants for the first time since I was four. The first time I saw this..... But then I did have nine day old lamb stew for dinner.
Its Franky Barrow ! The Godfather of Sheperds Bush ! He played the little mobster in Steptoe and son lol!
Haha...yeh it's Frankie.... he terrorised Albert and Harold.....the episode where they smashed up the stem ginger jar.... to extort insurance money from them...
Wasn’t he in steptoe and son rides again as well? At a dog track when Harold was racing a deaf greyhound lol
Arthur Sultan, the Surrey Mystic
He was in a Doctor Who story called The Sunmakers as well.
Henry Woolf. Life long friend of playwright Harold Pinter.
Now in his late 80's he lives in Canada.
OMG!!! I never thought I'd ever see this episode again! The Halloween pumpkin story scared the absolute hell out of me... Then again, I was 3 at the time. The trauma made this one of my earliest childhood memories!
I remember this ........now I feel old !
The Pumpkin scared a number of people in the story Henry read. The Pumpkin was thwarted by a hungry pig who eats him for supper. Charlie believes the pig wasn't very kind and Henry informs Charlie that the Pumpkin was a rotter.
I LOVED words and pictures. Thanks so much for uploading
Amazing! I always hoped I would get to see this again one day! Thank you.
I think this is 1976 or 1977. I'd forgotten about the witches song and not seen it since then. I remembered the words to the song but must have only seen it no more than twice back then. Goes to show how kids brains learn and remember so well at that age.
themistermillson 1975 First aired
Not just kids. I started teaching about then, and I remember that song as well.
I started out as a young teacher in 1974 and watched Words and Pictures with my Reception Class. I loved this programme and it's lovely to see this again. There has always been something that puzzled me though. When I first started watching it there was another presenter, wearing that smock. Then one term without any explanation there was Henry Woolf instead. I've seen on Wiki that Tony Robinson presented it for a bit but with a different format and photos to prove it, and that may have been before I started watching. I was pretty sure it was David Jason for a while, then Henry Woolf seemed quite similar when he turned up. The children didn't even notice. Anyone else think this?
Gabriel Woolf (16 episodes, 1970)
Tony Robinson (20 episodes, 1972-73)
Henry Woolf (56 episodes, 1975-78)
Vicky Ireland (84 episodes, 1982-89)
Stuart Bradley (28 episodes, 1990)
Sophie Aldred (80 episodes, 1992-1993; 1996-2001)
Michael Hobbs (28 episodes, 1993-94)
Paul Ewing (28 episodes, 1999-2001)
@@simonblossom Yes I've seen that, but I would like to hear from David Jason if he stood in for Gabriel Woolf while he was ill maybe, in 1974 or 5, wearing the same clothes and looking very similar. I've done really well in superrecogniser tests.
One thing that did scare ME when I was a kid was the BBC TV announcer's voice, notably when he said, "The time's coming up to whatever and BBC1/2's returning to a Trade Test Transmission" - he sounded as though he wasn't in a very good mood.
Thanks for posting....me and my Dad still occasionally break into singing the Witches of Halloween! catchy tune ;)
We used to sing that song 'witches of Halloween' at friends houses, like carol singing, but for halloween
That's a polystyrene pumpkin! When will the lies and cover ups end, BBC?
I watched this at primary school. Witches of Halloween song. Inspired to scare my younger brother everytime he goes to toilet or upstairs on his own in the night times. I was a terrible person doing that
WeeKelpie Can you upload more episodes of Words & Pictures with Stuart
Bradley for me please?
Thank you thank you thank you
thank goodness it was kept!
"Why don't you write about something that really frightens you?...."
Cue years of therapy for 100's of disturbed children.
a very early version of magic pencil as well! shame it was only one letter done i like the title credits at the start
I'd take that pumpkin back to the greengrocer, it's obviously made of polystyrene.
Fred Blogs you would of had a job getting pumpkin in the uk in 75. People tended to use swede instead.
As we did a swede or a very large potato black bin bag for a cloak and cheap plastic Halloween masks 😊🎃
excellent but did'nt have the 1975 BBC Schools and Colleges countdown clock at the start
Its Frankie Barrow!!! , "The Godfather" of Sheperds Bush from Steptoe & Son
I think there is a episode called sky hawk dose any one remember it?
scared me to death this a kid!
That's not a real pumpkin it's a plastic-prop .
Joan of-fart Back then in the UK we just didn't have pumpkins...they were never in the shops and most kids carved out turnips at Halloween...can you imagine how tough they were to cut! Nightmare...but the smell of scorched turnip will always remind me of a true, spooky 1970s Halloween.
3:23 she's a bit bloody handy with that knife!! I can't see many witches and goblins giving her too much grief :D I remember watching this as a child in the 1970s.
OMG thank you so much for this, watched this in junior school in 75, on a big telly on tripod legs in the school hall. With our school milk. That song is still going through my head after all those years and here it is to watch again :)
It's The Collector from Doctor Who The Sun Makers ...! Praise the company !!
Thank you so much for uploading this, so many fantastic childhood memories. I've been telling my wife about this for years. So difficult to describe and now thanks to you, she's seen it at last.
OMG. Thanks so much for posting this! Glad you found it!! The nostalgia. Been hoping this episode would turn up on you tube for years! Yes pumpkins didn't exist in UK grocers generally in the UK and we used swedes. This episode is the one that most stuck in my head from words and pictures. Loved it. Good old educational programmes of the 70s!
Wow wow wow ! I can’t believe I’m able to watch this episode once again after all those years my children in the 70s loved it as did I thankyou so much for the trip down memory lane 🎃🎃🎃
I loved this as a kid! I never forgot that witchy song! Lol
It's exactly as I remembered it, my brother used to sing it to me to scare me, was this the late 70's?
Jimmy N13
Originally shown in October 1975, but repeated every Halloween until about 1980.
Thank you so much for uploading. I remember being off school sick & seeing this. Brilliant!
Well fuck me
Blimey, I remember watching this in primary school in the late 70s. That pig eating the live pumpkin, that could talk, scared me to death! And I remembered that 'Witches Of Halloween' song too!
Thanks for the upload WeeKelpie, thought I would never see this one again, all I need now is an Episode of Freetime when I was on riding a mountain bike in Rochdale
Wow, thanks for sharing this. This is the only episode I remember clearly, the Halloween one, loved it when I was a kid. I think they repeated it every Halloween for a few years because it certainly stuck in my mind. Brings back so many memories of times and people gone. Thank you
For anyone who wants to know the broadcast history...
First TX 20th October 1975, then repeated:
27th October 1975
3rd November 1975
7th May 1976 (preview for teachers for the next school year)
18th October 1976
20th October 1976
25th October 1976
27th October 1976
16th October 1978
18th October 1978
20th October 1980
22nd October 1980
29th October 1980
dunebasher1971 thank you :)
dunebasher1971 great work on the info thank you happy Halloween 🎃
But i was sick with my appendix in the mid 80s. I remember it well. Then read with basil brush and Watch.
I was born 75 and i can remember this vividly,hence why I've found it on YT.
Blimey this takes me back - I remember the witches and was trying for ages to find a clip of the song, and here it is. Thanks for sharing - brilliant!! :)
elk lord....first thing i though of when i saw him....steptoe. nice one..
thankyou soooo much, im glad im not the only one to have this seared on my soul!
I've looked for this for years after watching it in school as it aired in what must have been around 1976 (I also remember pretending to 'shoot' the dots in the countdown before it while something like Dancing Queen was playing).
Thanks so much for the share and the memories!
Glorious upload.
the presenter is actor Henry Woolf, wearing a "Cornish Smock"
The crumbly videotape at the beginning reminds me of the scene at the end of the film Threads where the tape has been damaged by radiation. 😱
thank you been looking for this for ages !!!!!
i knew one day this would be posted I remember seeing this in 1975 as a 7 year old at infant school and it was one of those programs that stayed all my life i could quote the words to the song verbatim. It was actually quite scary when your only 7 years old It made be believe witches actually existed. (not that I took much convincing back then lol)
Wow thank you for uploading this Thought I'd never see this again. Witches of Halloween !!! remember watching this at school !!
Wonderfull memories i have spent years trying to remember the name of this fantastic programme people taught i was making it up thank you so much
My childhood
Yes! Brew the witch was also in button moon my kids were obsessed with her lol
so many memories :)
god i remember this i was about 12 years old classic !
'Henry Woolf' British actor. Great school memories :D
Great find - I'm sure there was another version of this episode where a group of kids turned up for a Hallowe'en Party and one came as "The Ghost of Batman"
Andy Howells, I remember that as well !
Still very disturbing.
Mercy on us , it scared the woman out of her wits LUV IT
Henry Woolf haha, Frankie Barrow hollows out a pumpkin
Still scarred
Can anyone remember in Words and Pictures, the episodes featuring a boy and girl in a playground setting.I believe they were called Penelope and Keith.Driving me mad not knowing .Any help greatfully appreciated.
The Words and Pictures theme song, the only kids tv theme which makes you think of nuclear war! Watch Threads and youll see what i mean.
that pumpkin is foam
Thanks so much for this been looking for it for yrs!!!!! Outa all the words and pictures this us the one that has stuck in my head for years! Does anyone remember what I think was called is the play tent with chris lilycrap coz I can't find it????
Omg. I remember the play tent with chis lilicrap! Brew the witch and the other puppet characters. Marvellous!!
+Allison Mcandrew It was called Playboard.
Yewtree....
you think they would have used a real pumpkin.
Creepy MuthaPhucka presenter in every way! I recall this from my childhood.... God knows who was in charge at the time... Ted Heath?........
To think many schools don't touch Halloween today...as it may offend/upset...what a joke this country has become