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The Worst Witch is a series of children's novels written and illustrated by Jill Murphy and published by Puffin Books. The first book was published in 1974. They have become some of the most outstandingly successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 4 million copies.[1] In 1986, the first book in the series was made into a Halloween telefilm. A TV series based on the books aired from 1998 to 2001, and has inspired two spin-offs, Weirdsister College (2001) and The New Worst Witch (2005).
Mildred Hubble is the worst student at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. She is well-meaning but does things without thinking. The benevolent headmistress, Miss Cackle, is generally understanding, whereas Mildred's form teacher, the virago Miss Hardbroom thinks she just isn't trying hard enough.
Other characters in the books include Ethel Hallow and Mildred's friends, Maud Moonshine and Enid Nightshade. Maud is a rotund girl and more sensible than Mildred, although usually finds herself caught up in her friend's problems. Enid (introduced in the second book) is a practical joker who is more likely than Mildred to get them all into trouble. The three of them have a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow, their high-born, snobbish and vindictive classmate.
Murphy (who began writing The Worst Witch at the age of 15) based the Worst Witch books on her own experiences of school at Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, England[2] with Singing becoming Chanting, Chemistry becoming Potions and so on.
In 1986, the first book in the series was converted to a made-for-television film on ITV starring Fairuza Balk, Tim Curry and Diana Rigg. Though a British film, it also aired in the USA on HBO. The film followed the plot of the first book of the series, portraying the incidents of Mildred turning herself invisible and turning Ethel into a pig, Miss Cackle's evil twin sister Agatha plotting to take over the school, and the Grand Wizard viewing the Halloween Broomstick formation (sabotaged by Ethel's faulty broom she lent to Mildred). It was shot at St. Michael's College in Tenbury Wells. This holiday special later aired on The Disney Channel every year for Halloween until the late 1990s. Its opening song, titled "Growing Up Isn't Easy", was sung by Bonnie Langford; its music was composed by Charles Strouse and its lyrics were written by Don Black. Their other musical number was "Anything Can Happen On Halloween", sung by Tim Curry. Denis King composed its incidental music score. He also wrote the song "My Little School".
The Worst Witch, a TV series based on the books which starred Georgina Sherrington and Felicity Jones as Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow respectively, was broadcast from 1998 to 2001. It was shot in Montreal.
When it was no longer realistic that Mildred would still be at school, the series relocated her to a magical university in Cambridge and was retitled Weirdsister College: The Further Adventures of the Worst Witch, and saw the return of Felicity Jones as a reinvented Ethel Hallow.
In 2004, a new series based on the 1998 series was made, entitled The New Worst Witch. It centred on the adventures of Mildred's equally bungling cousin, Henrietta "Hettie" Hubble, played by Alice Connor, also set at Cackle's Academy.
The stories mainly take place within the walls of Miss Cackle's Academy, a girls' boarding school in a stone castle atop a mountain, surrounded by forest. Each book covers one term at the Academy. There are two terms a year, the Winter term (September–January) and the Summer term (March–July) with a month's holiday between terms. As of the end of The Worst Witch to the Rescue, Mildred, Maud, Enid and Ethel are in the second (Summer) term of their third year at the Academy.
Mildred Hubble, the heroine of the Worst Witch book series, is a good-hearted, but bungling young witch-in-training at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, who never seems to get anything right. She is tall, with long dark plaits, and, according to the illustrations, frequently fails to tie her bootlaces. Some have alleged that her wanton clumsiness is a sign of dyspraxia.[3]
Mildred does not come from a witch family like most of the other girls, but earns a scholarship at Cackle's Academy for a first-class piece of creative writing which greatly impresses the headmistress, Miss Cackle, and her curious cousin, Diana Grisanti. Although her mathematics and science skills leave much to be desired, Mildred is tenacious and channels her creative energy into her quest to become an accomplished witch. She means well and tries very hard, but she is adventurous and impulsive, meaning she often gets into trouble with her teachers - most notably with Miss Hardbroom.
In the TV series, after several years at Miss Cackle's Academy Mildred continues on to University, training at Weirdsister College in Cambridge where she seems to improve in her skills as well as meet up with Ethel again. She is briefly seen in the first episode of the New Worst Witch series as an accomplished and successful witch escorting her younger cousin Hettie on her first day at the Academy.
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Ethel Hallow is Mildred Hubble's acid-tongued rival. She does very well in class, comes from a prominent witch family, and gives the impression of being a model student. However, she is spoiled, snobbish and vindictive although able to turn on the charm and act sweet and innocent when the teachers are near, playing the role of a victim with Mildred as the bully. Ethel is not given a physical description, but in the book illustrations she is a tall, skinny and sharp-faced young girl. In the television series she is shown as a rather attractive young girl who matures into a beautiful and popular teenager in Weirdsister College, where Mildred and Ethel overcome their hatred of each other and become friends, although in the episode where Enid visits, Ethel has no qualms about snitching on them.
In the first book of the series, it is revealed without explanation that Ethel and Mildred were enemies prior to the story. Ethel takes pleasure in taunting Mildred about her inability to train her cat into riding a broomstick and Mildred responds by turning her into a pig. From then on Mildred and Ethel resent each other and Ethel vows to get Mildred expelled. So far she has been unsuccessful. In the first five books she appears to have no friends, although her young sister, Sybil, makes an appearance in A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch. A friend of Ethel's, Drusilla, makes a brief appearance in The Worst Witch All at Sea and later plays a bigger part in The Worst Witch to the Rescue where she hides Mildred's tortoise up a tree. In the TV series Drusilla is Ethel's bumbling sidekick. They are shown to be allies rather than true friends, sticking with each other because nobody else likes them. However, in the episode "The Unfairground" they cease to be friends because Drusilla agrees with what Mildred and the gang are doing. Drusilla is not seen again after the following episode, suggesting that they never make up. Ethel is Mildred's arch-enemy.
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Maud is Mildred's best friend at Miss Cackle's Academy. She is a short, plump girl with wide glasses who always wears her hair in bunches. She is fiercely loyal to Mildred and assists her on most of her adventures, often against her better judgment. In The Worst Witch Strikes Again Maud grows jealous of Mildred and Enid's budding friendship and turns on Mildred, siding with the friendless and vindictive Ethel. However, she tires of Ethel's constant degrading of Mildred and ends their "friendship", siding with Mildred and becoming friends with Enid. For American audiences, Maud's surname was changed to Spellbody in the books and Warlock in the 80s film.
Later in the series, Maud grows her hair longer and loses a lot of her weight, as her mother makes her go on a strict diet. Not much is known about her family, but it is most likely she comes from a prominent family of witches, much like the other girls at the school. Maud is a decent and considerate person, but grows weary of Mildred's incessant clumsiness and often lectures her on how to improve herself. Ironically, Maud is not a perfect angel, as she is also responsible for a laughing potion going wrong, as she along with Mildred had no idea how to make one.
Another of Mildred's closest friends. She makes her debut in The Worst Witch Strikes Again after she is transferred to Miss Cackle's Academy and Mildred is assigned to look after her, to the irritation of Miss Hardbroom. At first Mildred thinks Enid will simply be a nuisance and a pain, but she turns out to be a wild practical joker. Her attempts to make Mildred like her only result in Mildred getting into trouble, for example, turning her cat into a monkey and enchanting a vaulting pole which catapults Mildred into the air and into Miss Hardbroom's study.
Enid is tall, well-built and rather muscular for a girl. She has large limbs and fair hair, usually in one long plait. In the TV series she is small and waiflike with dark hair. She takes an instant liking to Mildred and hopes to become her friend, implying that she is not a judgmental girl. Overall she is friendly and kind-hearten, but sometimes oversteps the mark in her attempt to befriend and help people and being nice.
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The fearsome deputy headmistress of Miss Cackle's Academy and the clear power behind the throne. She is Mildred's form mistress in first form and through various combinations of events continues to be her form mistress throughout the series. Tall, bony and sour-faced, she strikes fear into the pupils' hearts. "HB", as the girls refer to her, seems to have a particular resentment of Mildred. Miss Hardbroom frequently praises and rewards Ethel Hallow, and frequently rebukes Mildred in front of the other students. It is Miss Hardbroom who gives Mildred the title of "the worst witch in the school".
In the later books Miss Hardbroom's humanity comes through on occasion, in incidents such as her accident in The Worst Witch All at Sea, the restoring of Mildred's hair to its rightful length in The Worst Witch Saves the Day, and her admitting of her error of judgment at the end of The Worst Witch to the Rescue.
Miss Hardbroom always has her hair tied up in a tight bun which makes her face look really long.
Miss Cackle is the kind-hearted headmistress of the Academy. Plump and pleasant, Miss Cackle is more lenient towards Mildred when she is in trouble, and rather than intimidate the girl as Miss Hardbroom does, Miss Cackle gives long, sorrowful lectures which causes Mildred to feel guilty for the trouble she is in. Her birthday is celebrated at her beloved Academy, and her students believe it to be the most boring event of the year. Despite her kind heart, Miss Cackle can be intimidating when she wants to, and has occasionally broken into fits of rage at Mildred, most notably both when Mildred humiliated the reputation of the Academy by ruining a broomstick display to honour the Wizards' Council (Ethel had cursed Mildred to ensure she would make a fool of herself), and after she incorrectly believed Mildred was cheating at the school sport's day, after Enid cast an improper spell upon Mildred to make sure she won the pole vaulting competition. However, these moments of anger are few and short-lived.
Miss Cackle has an evil twin sister named Agatha Cackle, who is bitterly jealous of her position of authority at the Academy. In the first of the series, Agatha and her coven of rebellious witches plotted to overthrow Miss Cackle and turn her, the staff, and students into frogs as they slept. Mildred caught them as they brewed their invisibility potion, by turning them into snails and taking them to the school to show Miss Cackle. Ashamed that her own sister would break the Witches' Code, she ordered Agatha to accept defeat and live the code like all decent witches. Agatha reluctantly co-operated. She tries to take over again at the end of series 1, by pretending to be Miss Cackle and dragging Mildred out of the classroom by her ear.
The "best friend" of Ethel Hallow, with whom she is is often paired up. Drusilla appears only briefly in The Worst Witch All at Sea, but her role in the TV series and in the later books increases greatly. Drusilla is a horrible, vindictive bully, but lacks the acid-tongued spite of Ethel, and seems to be in great awe of her. Their "friendship" seems to be more of an alliance or a form of servitude: Ethel and Drusilla are not true friends, they have stuck beside each other because nobody else can bear to be around them. Drusilla seems to have no will of her own: if Ethel said "Jump", she would ask, "How high?". Drusilla does everything Ethel orders her to, and in one book (The Worst Witch to the Rescue) she steals Mildred's beloved pet tortoise and hides it in a tree. In the TV series, she and Ethel end their friendship after Drusilla sides with Mildred. They never make up and cut all ties with each other.
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