The Willows, Winter and Mr Morley (1983-4)

Mr. Morley only ever gave our class one piece of homework. 

He was my teacher when I was in the 4th Year at Junior School. Just before Christmas 1983 he told us all to watch The Wind In The Willows on ITV. It was shown the day after Boxing Day and I made sure I saw it in case Mr. Morley asked questions or gave us a test. He didn't - but I was still glad I'd watched it.

 It was brilliant. Cosgrove Hall made loads of TV shows - Danger Mouse, Chorlton and the Wheelies, Jamie and the Magic Torch... but The Wind In The Willows was a masterpiece. It was all done with stop-motion animation and I dread to think how many hours they spent making it. The music, the voices and the models all came together to make a perfect piece of TV.  

Cosgrove Hall went on to make five series of further adventures for Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad and I carried on watching, even after I left Junior School.

 Mr. Morley often mentioned The Wind In The Willows as his favourite book - and sometimes he'd read extracts at the end of the day. Do kids still have that sort of thing in Primary School? Do teachers read stories as a reward for good behaviour? A lot of my favourite books were things that teachers read to me - Danny The Champion of the World, The Enchanted Wood, Nicholas and the Gang... 

A lot of us didn't have Dads at home - and Mr. Morley seemed to understand that his job wasn't just to help us with our class-work. He was patient and kind - but we knew there were lines we couldn't cross. There were stories about Mr. Morley making kids copy out Hymn books because they'd been caught talking during school assemblies. And once, on a school trip to Weardale, he yelled at us for not taking our hats off in a Church. He was the first real father-figure some of us had.   

 

When my son was younger I found a set of stories from The Wind In The Willows in our local charity shop. They'd simplified the language and included lots of colourful illustrations - but the stories were basically the same. We read and re-read these books at bed-time and it became a bit of an obsession. And I got to use my silly voices again. 

If we walked past some trees my son would tell me to watch out for the Weasels in the Wild Wood or he'd talk about some of his school friends being 'nice like Mole' or 'cheeky like Toad'. Helpful grown-ups (and teachers) could be 'friendly like Ratty' or a 'bit grumpy but clever like Badger'.

 

Collecting different editions (mainly found in our local charity shops) became a bit of a hobby. My son liked any version with action-packed illustrations - he was delighted by the sight of Badger and Mole beating up Weasels with stout cudgels. As he got older, we gradually got more grown-up versions (more words, fewer pictures) and we loved the stories even more.

And of course we watched the Cosgrove Hall film and some of the TV episodes. My son preferred the 1990s cartoon version with Rik Mayall voicing Toad, which is fair enough. I'll always stick with the Cosgrove Hall version - David Jason as Toad might not be as outrageous as Rik Mayall, but the songs and the animation have more charm. 

It's a wonderful place to go back to.

 When I first started Teacher Training, they told us to spend two weeks observing life at a local Primary School. I went back to my old Junior School but none of my teachers were still there. 

 

I'd hoped to see Mr. Morley again - to thank him for being a weekday-Dad and for telling me all about The Wind in the Willows. Some of the newer staff had worked with Mr. Morley and told me that he'd passed away. He can't have been that old. I hope he loved teaching as much as his classes loved him.   

 

 For me, Mr. Morley was Mole, Ratty AND Badger. He only set one piece of homework and I hope I never finish enjoying it.