By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
The Worst Witch will be making its return in a fresh new series on Netflix. The series is based on the books by acclaimed children’s author Jill Murphy and will be targeted at a tween audience. The Worst Witch will follow the ever-clumsy Mildred Hubble and her adventures as a first year student at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. Bella Ramsey who was critically acclaimed for her role as Lyanna Mormont in Season 6 of the HBO series Game of Thrones, will play Mildred. Actress Clare Higgins (Doctor Who) will play the role of Potions teacher Miss Cackle, and Downton Abbey‘s Raquel Cassidy will play Deputy Head, Miss Hardbroom. According to The Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) other cast members will be Wendy Craig (The Royal) as Chanting teacher Miss Bat, Jenny Richardson as Mildred’s rival Ethel Hallow, and Meibh Campbell and Tamara Smart will play Mildred’s best friends Maud Moonshine and Enid Nightshade.
Magic spells, flying brooms, and potions gone wrong in this 12-episode fantasy series will be brought to life by Oscar-winning visual effects company Milk (Ex Machina). The Worst Witch is produced by CBBC Productions in collaboration with Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), ZDF Enterprises, and Netflix. The series will premiere in Germany and the UK in 2017 on ZDF and CBBC before being made available to Netflix members globally.
Long before J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter, Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch was the book for school boys and girls who ever imagined what fun it would be to be to go to a school for magic users. The Worst Witch was originally published by London publishing house Allison & Busby in 1974. The book became an instant success, selling out all copies within the first two months. Murphy though wrote The Worst Witch while still at school. Her creation, published over several books, would spawn a 1986 HBO television movie (with Fairuza Balk as Mildred) and a television series starring Georgina Sherrington. That series spawned two spin-off series of their own, Weirdsister College (2001) and The New Worst Witch (2005). The New Worst Witch saw Henrietta “Hettie” Hubble (Alice Connor) attending the same Cackle’s Academy as her cousin Mildred did before her. Sherrington reprised her role for one episode.
Source(s): Cultjer and Netflix.
Video Source(s): Confessions of a 90’s Kid.
