Hard Spell Abbey was a five-part spelling bee

Spelling bee

A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....

 game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 produced for CBBC

CBBC

CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

. It was shot entirely on location in Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 during 2004. The series was designed to accompany Hard Spell

Hard Spell

Hard Spell is a United Kingdom televised spelling bee programme for children between the ages of eleven and fourteen, presented by Eamonn Holmes, with Nina Hossain reading the words. It was first broadcast on BBC One in late 2004...

, a family spelling competition for BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

. Each episode featured games as well as some reality-based filming. Short comedy cameos from spelling celebrities were included in a highly popular strand named "Spellebrity Squares". In this rehash of a popular classic, an impressive roll call of celebrities was asked to spell live on camera, including Dermot O' Leary, Dick 'n' Dom, Tracy Beaker, Jonathan Ross, and Dermot Murnaghan.