Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 1 - Baby Field-Mice (x3)

Many viewers consider this instance of death to be the single most horrific and upsetting in the entire series’ run.  I do not agree myself (there is one instance, still yet to come, which was the source of infinitely more childhood heart-break for me), but I can certainly see their argument.  The imagery used to convey these deaths treads about as far into Martin Rosen territory as the series was ever likely to go, complete with mangled carcasses and plainly visible blood, and there are few who like to think of newborn infants as the victims of a particularly heinous attack.  Through the perpetrator, the ominously named “Butcher Bird”, we also get one of the few non-human villains of Series 1, one who’s fantastically deadly and gets their chance to demonstrate it.  Given that most non-human threats to the travelling animals came in the form of dull-witted dogs and morbidly obese cats, it’s hardly surprising that the baby-killing passerine made such a lasting impact.

This death requires a bit of context, as it takes place during a portion of the journey in which Fox was temporarily separated from the other animals and Badger had attempted to take up leadership in his stead.  Following their misadventures upon the farm, the next challenge for the animals is crossing a wide river, a task which could have been accomplished quite simply if not for the failure of the rabbits to maintain a level head.  The rabbits start panicking (characteristic behaviour for them), don’t get very far and, when Fox tries to help them out, completely overwhelm him to the point that he becomes too exhausted to swim.  That's when Murphy's Law kicks in, and a large mass of driftwood is revealed to be headed in their direction.  Badger leads the other animals in a rescue mission and, while the rabbits are successfully pulled to safety, Fox and Badger are unable to clear the driftwood in time and are knocked unconscious (the fifth episode ends with this as a cliff-hanger, although even as a child I was never naïve enough to believe that major characters like Fox and Badger would be killed off).  In the aftermath, the animals are able to locate and rescue Badger, but there is no further trace of Fox.  After a time the animals attempt to continue on their journey, but without Fox’s leadership things begin to unravel.  Along with the inevitable disputes about who should take over as the new leader (Owl, goaded by Adder, is particularly keen on seizing the position, but it ultimately goes to Badger) Toad’s guidance falters when his homing instinct starts pulling him in the direction of Farthing Wood, causing some animals to doubt whether he is capable of getting them to White Deer Park at all.  Finally, Mrs. Field-Mouse gives birth to a litter of three, an event which is initially greeted with delight by the other animals, but later gives way to questions regarding the practicality of having newborns travel with them.  Vole seizes the opportunity to assert that the smaller animals are fully capable of surviving where they are, and that the mice and the voles should not be forced to continue what is looking to be an increasingly futile endeavour to reach White Deer Park.  Badger, recalling what happened to the Newts when they made a similar decision, is extremely reluctant to leave them behind, but Owl suggests that the Field-Mice have a right to decide what is best for their own children.

In spite of (or, more likely, because of) Vole’s cockiness, one does get the feeling that this is not going to end well for the mice and voles, and sure enough their new home turns out to be located right within the hunting territory of a red-backed shrike (otherwise known as the Butcher Bird).   The implication is that the shrike was too cautious to make a move while there were bigger animals around, but once they had disappeared, it’s no problem.  Hare spots the shrike flying overhead with a dead baby field-mouse and races back to find the voles and adult field-mice huddling in terror, the shrike having made short work of the newborn babies.  Vole admits that he was misguided in having wanted to stay, and he and the other survivors re-join the main party on their journey to White Deer Park.

The Butcher Bird may have struck terror into the hearts of many a school-aged viewer, with his grotesque habits and his blood-curdling cry of “Shrrrrrrriiiike!”, but I’m honestly inclined to go a little easy on the guy.  He’s a merciless killer purely because he’s required to be so as a shrike.  Indeed, in the following episode when Fox (yes, he’s alive, but I’m sure you didn’t need me to tell you that) encounters the very same shrike and we get to hear his perspective on the events, it’s not altogether impossible to see where he’s coming from.  To him it was all just business as usual, and he cannot comprehend why his latest hunting venture caused so much offense amongst such a wide variety of creatures.  The whole notion of the Oath of Mutual Protection is completely alien to him – when Fox asks to be pointed in the direction in which the Farthing animals were headed, the shrike can only assume that Fox too is interested in picking off a few of their number.  He may be a punk, as Fox indignantly brands him, but, as is implicit in the shrike’s response, he has little reason to feel ashamed of that.

HORROR FACTOR: 10. The show certainly didn’t go easy on these three just because they were newborn infants, and the shots of the shrike hoarding his freshly-caught prey by spearing them upon a thorn bush are undeniably gruesome.  This is made all the more salient in the following episode when Fox happens across the shrike’s hoard and we’re treated to another glimpse of their half-eaten carcasses.  Not to mention, the blood stains on the vacant thorn branches that are implied to be left over from the shrike's previous victims.

NOBILITY FACTOR:  5. Once we’ve suspended our personal biases, this was all part of a natural cycle, and the shrike certainly had as much right as any of the Farthing predators to take advantage of a good opportunity when it came along.  It’s not as if Fox didn’t slaughter a whole bunch of rodents in the very same episode, after all.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 5. Let’s face it, we never really get the chance to form much of an emotional attachment to these characters.  Their youth and vulnerability certainly rouses our protective urges, and Mrs Field-Mouse’s grief at the loss of her offspring gives things an emotional tingle, but overall their deaths are played more for horror than anything else.  And what horror it is.

OVERALL RATING: 20

Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 1 - Mr. Pheasant

To say that Mr. Pheasant was upset by the death of his mate would be a serious understatement, though if it’s any consolation, he wouldn’t outlive her for long.  Of all the deaths in Series 1, his is the one that I find to be the most flat-out infuriating, for reasons that I’ll get to in due course.  I will say that Fox's early naivety as a leader really shines through in this particular episode - not only does he make a very questionable decision regarding Mr. Pheasant (one that predictably ends in tragedy), but Owl points out how he could also be held responsible for a near-miss involving one of the younger animals, who winds up on the wrong end of a snare and is spared thanks to Owl's wisdom and Mole's talents as a tunneler.

Although most of the surviving animals are able to escape from the barn by having Mole and Badger dig them to freedom, there is one slight snag – Adder, who kept Bruno the dog occupied throughout the escape process, is left behind, something which nobody else cottons onto until they're all recovering in the safety of a copse.  Now, of all the Farthing predators, Adder is by far the most despised and least trusted (something which Adder herself quite gleefully plays up to in her constant taunting of the smaller animals), so a percentage of the group are quite happy to press on and leave her behind.  Fox and Badger point out that Adder had played a vital role in their escape, and that they owe it to her not to abandon her.  Mr. Pheasant volunteers to go back - motivated, he mournfully declares, by a desire to see his wife’s final resting place, although Hare (who never really got along with Pheasant) believes that Pheasant just wants to make an exhibition.  All the same, Pheasant does return to the farm and try to find Adder, and it goes every bit as disastrously as you would expect.

Pheasant spies the freshly-cooked body of his mate, which the farmer’s wife had left to cool upon the windowsill, and breaks down into uncontrollable tears.  His crying attracts unwelcome attention and, worse still, the tears impair his vision, meaning that he cannot see the farmer pointing his shotgun right at him.  Adder tries to warn him, but to no avail.  Hearing the gunshot all the way over in the copse, the animals suspect that the worst has happened and send Owl to investigate.  She has more luck in finding Adder, and the two are reunited with the main party.  When Fox asks Owl what became of Pheasant, she loftily replies, “You need me to tell you?”

HORROR FACTOR: 4. Not only is this a foregone conclusion from the moment that Pheasant leaves the copse and struggles to even lift himself off the ground, but the very deliberate sense of déjà vu in the build-up to this death (once again it’s Bruno the dog who gives the unfortunate game bird away) makes it a little less shocking and a lot more groan-worthy than his wife’s death (in a bowl-of-petunias-oh-no-not-again kind of way).  Still, the very idea of being confronted with the chargrilled body of your recently-deceased partner is enough to make anybody’s stomach churn.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 7. Hare’s cynicism aside, going back for Adder was a highly courageous (if rather foolhardy) act on Pheasant’s part.  That said, of all the Series 1 deaths, this one does feel, more so than any of the others, like a shameless contrivance just to be rid of the character in question.  I do have to question how Fox could have tasked someone as vulnerable and incompetent as Pheasant with such a dangerous mission in the first place.  Wouldn’t it have been far more sensible just to send Owl from the start?  Not one of Fox’s better leadership decisions, I have to say.  And yet it's the baby rabbit's horrific but non-fatal encounter with a snare for which he takes the most flack.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 6. He may not have been the most sympathetic character overall, but in the end you’ve got to feel sorry for Pheasant.  He was doomed from the second he left Farthing Wood.

OVERALL RATING: 17

As a side note, Mr. Pheasant’s death is the only one that Badger does not see fit to mention in his opening narration for the following episode (and yes, that does include the Newts).  So you could have easily skipped this episode and never known what became of him.

Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 1 - Mrs. Pheasant

As noted, the series went fairly easy upon us with the first death.  When Mrs. Pheasant died in the following episode, however, it marked the moment when shit really got real.  And, as a kid, when this episode first aired, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.  Having not read the book in advance (and not fully taken on board the implications of the Newts’ fate at the time), it had never occurred to me that some of the characters might not make it to White Deer Park on account of being bumped off along the way.

With hindsight, it’s not so surprising that the Pheasants would be next to go after the Newts, given that they were only mildly higher up on the hardiness scale.  They couldn’t fly half as well as the other birds, and Mr. Pheasant in particular had a morbid (albeit justified) paranoia that the world outside of Farthing Wood was just one perpetual game shoot.  Mr. Pheasant was also one of the more ridiculous members of the Farthing Wood troupe, both self-pitying and highly conceited, while his long-suffering wife doted upon him and took his unappreciative remarks with little objection.

The animals are crossing farmland when they get caught in a heavy storm, an outcome hindering to everyone but Toad and Adder.  They decide to shelter in a barn, with the birds taking turns in keeping a look-out for signs of trouble.  Mr. Pheasant is supposed to be on look-out duty next, but he’s too intent on getting his beauty sleep, so Mrs. Pheasant graciously goes in his place.  She winds up drifting off herself, but wakes up in time to realise that the storm has eased and that there’s an extremely pissed-off farmer with a shotgun standing nearby, angry because his mastiff, Bruno, has failed to prevent his chicken coop from being raided by an uninvited predator.  Mrs. Pheasant wastes no time in heading to the barn to warn the others, but while the farmer is too caught up in ranting at Bruno to spot her, Bruno himself isn’t quite so oblivious, and barks to alert his master.  The farmer fires his shotgun, and Mrs. Pheasant never makes it as far as the barn.

HORROR FACTOR: 8. The moment of death itself technically occurs off-screen, but is nevertheless quite shocking (particularly to those who didn’t know in advance that it was coming) and totally unambiguous. We do also later get a full-on glimpse of the farmer carrying her lifeless body away.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 8. Mrs Pheasant died whilst trying to warn the other animals about the farmer and the dog.  I do have to take into consideration the fact that she fell asleep while she was supposed to be keeping watch - perhaps if she hadn’t, then she might have been able to react faster and the whole disaster could have been averted.  I also have to take into consideration that, by taking a bullet herself, it meant that the farmer was subsequently out of ammunition when he spotted Fox in the barn.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 5. The image of Mrs Pheasant’s lifeless body in the hands of the farmer is a fairly affecting one.  The only character who treats her death with any form of sentiment, however, is Mr. Pheasant – the other animals quickly become preoccupied with the far more pressing matter of their own fate.

OVERALL RATING: 21