This British made-for-television movie – based on a popular children’s book by Jill Murphy and developed via a pre-sales agreement between Central Television and America’s HBO – revolves around Mildred Hubble (Fairuza Balk), one of the young girls at Miss Cackle’s International Academy, a prestigious witch school.
Mildred can’t do anything right in her first term at the school – she is a terrible speller, has problems with her potions and even has a tabby instead of the standard black cat.
As a result, she is constantly picked on by her classmate Ethel Hallow (Anna Kipling) and her form mistress and potions teacher, Miss Hardbroom (Diana Rigg).
The school’s headmistress, Miss Cackle (Charlotte Rae from The Facts of Life), has an evil twin sister called Agatha (also Charlotte Rae) who plans to destroy the school with the help of her sidekick Delilah (Su Elliot).
Luckily, Mildred stumbles across Aggie’s plans and saves the day for the school.
Tim Curry provides a fantastic cameo as The Grand Wizard – a character that doesn’t appear in the original book but was written in as part of the US “creative input” into the show. Other English elements in the novel were altered to appeal to a US audience, with the original witches boarding school changed to an international academy with American girls and a few multicultural faces.
Filmed at St. Michael’s College, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.
The story was later developed into a TV series, both in 1998 (as a British/Canadian co-production) and again in 2017 (in a co-production between the UK and Germany). A 2005 spin-off series – The New Worst Witch – was based on Jill Murphy’s books.
Miss Hardbroom
Diana Rigg Miss Cackle/Agatha
Charlotte Rae Grand Wizard
Tim Curry Mildred Hubble
Fairuza Balk Miss Spellbinder
Sabina Franklyn Delilah
Su Elliot Maud Warlock
Danielle Batchelor Ethel Hallow
Anna Kipling Donna
Kate Buckley Pixie Brown
Leila Marr Zoe Chant-Vestry
Lisa Brice Sophie Hattrick
Katrina Heath Gloria Hobgoblin
Tara Stevenson Misty Meadow
Laura Heath Natalie Sinister
Sophie Cook Verity Sinister
Sophie Millett Bubble Toil
Julia Nagle Goodie Twocharm
Kathryn Lacey Dawn Undercover
Nevena Kaley Julie Vanishing
Caroline Woolf Spinner Webb
Amy Shindler
Director
Robert Young
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Mildred can’t do anything right in her first term at the school – she is a terrible speller, has problems with her potions and even has a tabby instead of the standard black cat.
Filmed at St. Michael’s College, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.
Ethel Hallow
Misty Meadow
