The Worst Witch is a television series produced for ITV and YTV which ran from 1998 to 2001 with an original TV film produced in 1986. The series is based on Jill Murphy's book series of the same name, and centres on a group of young witches who train in an academy for magicians called Cackles Academy. It aired for a total of 40 episodes spread over three television series between 1998 and 2001, before being followed by its sequel Weirdsister College. Most episodes revolved around the academy, following the adventures of the worst witch ever, Mildred and her friends. The television series was later followed by The New Worst Witch, which ran for two series and chronicled the experiences of Mildred's younger cousin Hettie as she attended the school.
A new adaptation, a UK-German co-production between CBBC, ZDF and Netflix, also titled The Worst Witch, premiered in January 2017 and ran for four seasons, concluding in 2020.
As of 2026, one of the cast members, Holly Rivers is hosting a podcast Cackle's After Dark. The podcast features interviews with some of the cast.
Overview The series stars Georgina Sherrington as the lead character of Mildred Hubble, a disaster-prone young witch who attends Cackle's Academy for Witches.
Jessica Fox plays the character of Enid Nightshade, one of Mildred's friends. Felicity Jones plays Mildred's enemy Ethel Hallow in Season One before being replaced by Katy Allen for Seasons Two and Three.
Clare Coulter portrays the school's Headmistress Miss Cackle, Kate Duchêne plays Deputy Head Miss Hardbroom, Una Stubbs plays Chanting Teacher Miss Bat and Claire Porter plays PE Teacher Miss Drill.
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 witch at first, but then later decided to train to be a wizard; Mrs. Cosie, the nervous owner of the nearby tearoom; and Mistress Hecketty Broomhead, the evil school inspector who later became headmistress for a brief time. A character who also 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.
Characters Pupils Mildred Hubble (Georgina Sherrington) – Mildred is the protagonist of The Worst Witch series. She is a clumsy, bungling young witch-in-training, who never seems to get anything right at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. She is tall, with long, straggly dark plaits, and never ties her bootlaces. Mildred does not come from a witch family like most of the other girls, but earns a scholarship at Cackle's Academy through a first-class piece of creative writing (she is portrayed as being creative throughout the series, especially in art) which greatly impresses Miss Cackle. Mildred is kind-hearted and well-meaning and tries very hard, but she is adventurous and impulsive, which often gets her into trouble with her teachers, most notably the fearsome Miss Hardbroom. Creating havoc wherever she goes, mixing up spells and potions, Mildred is a walking disaster, frequently destroying the potion lab and often on the brink of bringing utter peril upon the school, but as she also has a knack of saving the teachers, the pupils and sometimes the whole academy from destruction, she always escapes getting expelled. 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. Mildred has an ongoing feud with Ethel Hallow, which lasts throughout the entire Worst Witch series and into the Weirdsister episodes. After five years at Cackle's Academy, Mildred goes on to university, training at Weirdsister College in Cambridge, a place she gained entry to through her artistic skills. At Weirdsister, she seems to improve her skills, and is shocked to discover that Ethel Hallow is her roommate, though the two later become friends. Mildred is briefly seen in the first episode of The New Worst Witch, now an accomplished and successful witch despite her struggles at school, escorting her younger cousin Henrietta "Hettie" Hubble on her first day at Cackle's Academy. Ethel Hallow (Felicity Jones – series 1; Katy Allen) – Ethel is Mildred Hubble's acid-tongued rival. She is a "straight-A" student, comes from a prominent and historic witch family, and gives the impression of being a model student to her classmates. She is spoiled, snobbish and vindictive; though in the presence of the school's teachers she can turn on the charm and act sweet and innocent, playing the role of a victim to Mildred's apparent bullying. Ethel takes pleasure in taunting Mildred about her inability to train her cat, to ride a broomstick, and Mildred responds by turning Ethel into a pig. From then on Mildred and Ethel resent one another and Ethel vows to get Mildred expelled, though she does not succeed. Ethel has many talents, among them pouting, bossing people around and insinuating herself into important people's graces. As she is one of "THE" Hallows and her father is the chair of the board of governors, she regards herself as superior to all the other pupils at Cackle's. Ethel and her only friend, Drusilla Paddock, are shown to be allies rather than true friends, sticking together because nobody else likes them, but in the episode "The Unfairground", they end their friendship because Drusilla agrees with Mildred and her friends' attempts to stand up to the teachers. In contrast to her personality, Ethel is an attractive young girl who matures into a beautiful and popular teenager at Weirdsister College. In her second year at Cackle's, she altered her appearance via a magical makeover (a "Witch-over"), initially to hide the fact she is the sister of whiny Sybil Hallow, but the result turned out so well she decided to keep it for the remainder of her time at the academy. When she came to Weirdsister College, Ethel felt as though it was safe to change back, and she resumed her original appearance. Strangely enough, when Ethel and Mildred are reunited at Weirdsister, they overcome their hatred of each other and become friends. Felicity Jones was replaced by Katy Allen for Series 2–3. Maud Moonshine (Emma Brown, credited as Emma Jayne Brown in Series 3) – Maud is Mildred's best friend at Cackle's Academy. She is a short girl with wide glasses and stringy hair that she wears in bunches. She is fiercely loyal to Mildred and assists her on most of her adventures, often against her better judgement. Maud is a decent and considerate person, but grows weary of Mildred's incessant clumsiness and often lectures her on how to improve herself. While usually very gentle, she can become quite snappy when someone attacks her best friends, even daring to face Miss Hardbroom in defence of Mildred. In the episode "Monkey Business", Maud grows jealous of Mildred and Enid's budding friendship and turns on Mildred, siding with the friendless and vindictive Ethel. Ultimately she tires of Ethel's constant degrading of Mildred and annuls their "friendship", siding with Mildred and befriending Enid. Mostly she is the voice of reason and tries to prevent Enid from leading Mildred down the path of mischief. Maud runs against Ethel for the Head Girl position in the final episode, but stands down at the last minute, stating that Mildred is better suited to the post. Enid Nightshade (Jessica Fox) – Enid is another of Mildred's close friends, who is introduced in the episode "Monkey Business" after she is transferred to Cackle's Academy and Mildred is assigned as her guardian. She is a small, waiflike girl and, at first, Mildred thinks she will simply be a nuisance, but Enid turns out to be a wild practical joker whose attempts to make Mildred like her, only result in getting Mildred into trouble. Overall she is friendly and kindhearted, but sometimes oversteps the mark in her attempt to befriend and help people. She takes an instant liking to Mildred and hopes to be her friend. She knows many spells and uses them regardless of the Witches' Code – i.e.: for selfish and trivial ends. Often her spells don't work as they are supposed to do, and her friends end up in deep water as a result. Enid made a guest appearance in episode 10 of Weirdsister College, as the gothic and rebellious Enid. She flew in from her college to surprise Mildred, stating that she needed a break, but she was really expelled for over-partying. She tried to persuade Mildred to leave Weirdsister and go travelling around the world, but Mildred insisted on staying and finishing her training. Enid agreed and stated that they would always remain friends, before departing. At the end of the episode "Monkey Business", she euphemistically indicates that schools are coming to an end in the real world. Drusilla Paddock (Holly Rivers) – Drusilla is Ethel's best and only friend. She is a vindictive bully but lacks the acid-tongued spite of Ethel, and seems to be in awe of her. Drusilla and Ethel have stuck together because nobody else can bear to be around them, their "friendship" seeming to be more of an alliance. Drusilla shows reluctance or regret about Ethel's schemes several times during the run of the show. Although she has occasionally teamed up with Mildred and her friends behind Ethel's back (and seems to get along remarkably well with them), she always ends up reverting to Ethel, but in the last two episodes of Series 3, she and Ethel end their friendship for good after Drusilla sides with Mildred. Ruby Cherrytree (Joanna Dyce) – Ruby is another friend of Mildred's. She is depicted as very tall, with frizzy hair worn in pigtails and an inventive personality. Ruby is very loyal to her friends and keen to learn at Cackle's Academy. She is also heavily addicted to all kinds of "electronic contrivances" and therefore a thorn in the flesh of old-fashioned Miss Hardbroom. The amount of walkmen, discmen, mini ghettoblasters, Game Boys, cyber pets, walkie talkies etc. confiscated by her form teacher is quite impressive. As she gets older, Ruby creates a number of wacky inventions that almost always go wrong, such as when she created a time machine and accidentally brought two Dark Age witches forward in time, who resumed their historic battle in the Academy. It was left to Mildred and Miss Hardbroom to save the school. Ruby also makes a transportation device that gives the wearer the equivalent of Miss Hardbroom's power to appear and disappear at will, except that in the episode "Just Like Clockwork", Mistress Broomhead tried it on and it went so wrong that she was temporarily paralysed / sent into a trance to use up all the time she saved whizzing about the spells classroom. Jadu Wali (Harshna Brahmbhatt) – Jadu is another of Mildred's close friends. She is mostly very sensible and, during the first two years at Cackle's, of a rather meek nature, yet she is often dragged along on whatever crazy crusade Mildred and the others are going on. Jadu is very keen to learn and shows mature behaviour, until the episode "The Unfairground", where she and Mildred attempt to rebel against the rules, fighting for students' rights and opposing the staff ("No uniforms, permission to go out of bounds and more chips!"). As a result, she is suspended and kept in isolation, but along with Mildred she is saved from expulsion by Maud, Ruby and Enid, who conjure up a witch known as "The Uninvited" who attempts to put the whole academy to eternal sleep.
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