Farthing Wood Deaths Revisted: Series 1 - The Hedgehogs

We’ve reached the final deaths of the original series, and they saved the most heart-breaking for last.

Back in 1993, I was keen to archive every episode of Farthing Wood, and had a special VHS set aside for just that purpose (a good move, as the official VHS releases, when they came, were not much cop, shaving off bits and pieces from each episode in an effort to keep the overall running time down to 80 minutes or so).  Every week, we set our VHS recorder, and I would usually dedicate a portion of my weekend to watching and re-watching the latest episode, fully digesting it, while also having the option to revisit any previous moments from the Farthing Wood saga that took my fancy.  This episode was the anomaly -  it caused me so much upset that, not only did I watch it just once, but my mother insisted that I tape over my recording of it the following week.  This was not merely a preventive measure to ensure that I was never tempted to revisit it, but also a gesture geared toward somehow erasing the episode, and all the distress that had accompanied it, from the continuity of the show.  I happily complied, as I couldn't envision ever wanting to go back and watch this one again, completism be damned.  Doing so spared me the burden of having to hit the fast forward button every time I wanted to progress from episode 9 to 11 (although I did still have to skip through the recap sequence if I wanted to be completely clean of it), but it never really shook those final Hedgehog-related images from my head.  Their absence from subsequent episodes was in itself a sad reminder of what had come before.  It had happened, and there was no getting around that.

Unlike most of the animals who died en route to White Deer Park, the Hedgehogs were not what you would call useless.  They weren’t useful – like the Squirrels, there was very little they could do to benefit the party as a whole along the way (though they did help to rescue the rabbits during the river crossing episode, so there is that), but they were nonetheless capable and competent, and were able to get as far as they did without causing any trouble.  Unfortunately, the gargantuan task of having to cross a busy motorway caught them directly by their Achilles’ heel, and here’s where it ended for them.

Learning that they will have to cross a motorway in order to reach White Deer Park comes as a massive shock to the animals, as even their guide Toad had no idea what lay ahead.  It transpires that the motorway was still under construction when Toad initially crossed it, but now that it’s up and running and abuzz with traffic, getting across won’t be half as easy.  Fortunately for the Farthing Wood crew, traffic on one side of the motorway has come to a complete stand-still, so making it to the centre proves straightforward enough.  No such luck on the remaining side, however – all the animals can do is wait for a wide enough gap in the traffic and make a bolt for it.  As we all know, a hedgehog’s natural defence when faced with danger is not to flee, but to curl up into a tight, spiny ball, a tactic which works well against predators but is sadly of little use against cars.  The Hedgehogs themselves are painfully aware of this, but quelling their instincts in the face of imminent danger is another matter.  Badger purposely insists that the Hedgehogs, along with the Rabbits (fast but incompetent), wait until an especially wide gap has materialised, at which point he orders them to run.  In a particularly poignant exchange, the Hedgehogs express doubts as to whether they actually are capable of making it to the other side, but ultimately decide that White Deer Park is worth trying for.

Badger and the Rabbits make it across with little difficulty, but the Hedgehogs struggle to fight their natural urges to stop and curl up.  When a huge lorry starts tearing down upon them, this finally proves too much for Mr. Hedgehog, who becomes paralysed with fear.  Mrs. Hedgehog pleads with him to keep going, but to no avail.  Faced with the option of abandoning her mate and continuing without him, or remaining by his side and sharing in his imminent death beneath the wheels of the lorry, Mrs. Hedgehog chooses the latter.

HORROR FACTOR: 10. This is a real shocker, as we actually do see the wheels of the lorry roll right over them onscreen.  Naturally, the show doesn’t go as far as to show us their crushed and mangled bodies in the aftermath (although Adder does later insinuate that she can see them), but what we do see is still pretty horrifying.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 9. In the end, Mr. Hedgehog was a victim of his own instincts, pure and simple.  Mrs. Hedgehog, on the other hand, died one of the most courageous and honourable deaths in the entire series.  It does irk me a little later in the episode, when Owl informs Adder that, “Those cowering hedgehogs curled up and died.”  Nothing cowering about the way Mrs. Hedgehog died, thank you very much.  Not to mention, the mere act of trying took a considerable amount of guts on both their parts.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 10. If this particular Farthing Wood death doesn’t move you tears, then none of them will.

OVERALL RATING: 29

The GOOD news is that everyone who makes it across the motorway goes on to make it to White Deer Park (Badger even spoils this fact in his opening narration to the subsequent episode when he states that “For the survivors the final hurdle had been overcome, and now nothing could prevent us from reaching White Deer Park”, so we could all rest easy).  There were further run-ins with pesticides, wedding attendees and golfers, but thankfully none of these proved fatal.

Problem is, White Deer Park is far from the all-out haven that the animals were hoping for, offering safety from the specific type of human encroachment that reduced Farthing Wood to tatters, but also a fresh set of perils in the form of hostile locals, limited food resources during a particularly harsh winter, and the odd human who assumes that they can pick off one or two creatures without the authorities ever knowing.  So, yes, for those animals formerly of Farthing Wood, the challenge was far from over, and I'll still have a lot to talk about for Series 2.