Belfry Witches (CBBC, 1999-2000)
This is another CBBC show that I must admit passed me by at the time, I’m not sure how (although I was 16 years old and no longer a regular viewer by the late-90s), but I discovered this more recently, and this is in a genre that is definitely of interest to me, as this could be described as a fantasy comedy-drama. Belfry Witches was adapted for TV from a book that was written by Kate Saunders, who had a varied career.
She was an actress, appearing in an early episode of Only Fools And Horses as one of Rodney’s girlfriends (“‘ere Del, he’s brought her home with him!”), and she was also a journalist and writer, appearing as a panellist on the first-ever edition of Have I Got News For You in 1990. I didn’t realise that she had also gone off into the area of children’s books, but it seems that she did rather well there too, winning some awards.
Belfry Witches starred Lucy Davis as Old Noshie (and this was long before the universally adored sitcom The Office) and Laura Sadler as Skirty Marm (who is better-known for appearing in Grange Hill and Holby City before her shock death in 2003 at the age of 22). They are a pair of rather rebellious teenage witches who live on Witch Island. One day, they turn up at a special event that they haven’t been invited to.
Well Mrs Abercrombie, who was the woman in charge of everything, really wasn’t impressed, and wasn’t going to stand for this. Their punishment is that they are banished from the island for the next 100 years. They have to leave their other witchy friends behind, including Bin Bag, and they then get on their broomsticks and fly away to the sleepy English village of Tranters End, which will never be the same again.
They decide to go and live in the belfry of the church, but how are they going to pass the next century, that’s a rather long time. They can also do magic, and start to make spells, and it’s at this point that the villagers realise that something rather weird is happening. They soon make themselves known, but they occasionally go and fly back to the island, Mrs Abercrombie is having none of it though and might punish them even more.
And well, things are total chaos really. There were 13 episodes of Belfry Witches in two series. These were later repeated as part of CBBC’s Wizard Week in 2001, and the repeat runs continued as late as 2005. There was never a VHS or DVD release of this though. But once again, this is another case of me finding a show from the 90s that I have no doubt I would’ve enjoyed if I had watched this at the time.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 