The Worst Witch (1998 TV series)
The series stars Georgina Sherrington and Felicity Jones (as Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow respectively), and was broadcast from 1998 to 2001 on ITV, and later on HBO. The series also stars veteran British actress Una Stubbs as the eccentric chanting teacher, Miss Bat. Felicity Jones was replaced by Katy Allen after the first series, it was explained away as a magical makeover (a "witch-over"). New characters were also added, such as Frank Blossom (the school's caretaker), Miss Crotchet, the music teacher in the third series who replaced Miss Bat and two students from ethnic minorities – Ruby Cherrytree and Jadu Wali. New recurring characters included Merlin Langstaff, a wizard apprentice who befriended Mildred, his two mean-spirited acquaintances – Barry "Baz" Dragonsbane and Gary "Gaz" Grailquest, Charlie, Frank Blossom's nephew who really wanted to be a wizard, Mrs. Cosie, the nervous owner of the nearby tearoom and Mistress Hecketty Broomhead, the evil school inspector who later became a brief headmistress. Also as a character who appears more than once is Egbert Hellibore, chief wizard and headmaster of Camelot Castle, where Merlin, Charlie, Baz and Gaz live. The first series dramatised "The Worst Witch" and "The Worst Witch Strikes Again", and the second series dramatised "A Bad Spell For The Worst Witch" and "The Worst Witch All At Sea". Both of these two series also contained original stories. The third and final series continued with purely original material.
List of The Worst Witch characters
In the original 1998 TV series, Mildred was portrayed by Georgina Sherrington. In the 2017 remake, Mildred is portrayed by Bella Ramsey (although in the episode "The Best Teacher", Mildred is portrayed by Rachel Bell when she is temporarily aged into an older woman by what was meant to be a wisdom spell). Both TV adaptations establish that Mildred is the 'worst witch' because she is the first student at Cackle's to originate from a non-magical background; the 1998 version has her receive a scholarship for an imaginative piece of creative writing and the 2017 version has her learn about Cackle's and magic because she helped Maud get to the school on her first day after Maud crashed into her balcony. It is revealed in the season two finale of the 2017 series that actually Mildred's ancestors were magic, but her great-grandmother thirteen generations back sacrificed twelve generations of magic to reignite a founding stone.