The Worst Witch premiered in 1986 on Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

 and HBO. It is based on the children's book by Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy is a London-born English children's author, best known for The Worst Witch series and the Large Family picture books...

.

Plot

The film follows the plot of the 1974 book from the series, portraying the incidents of when Mildred turns herself invisible and transforms Ethel into a pig, Miss Cackle's notorious twin sister Agatha plotting to take over the Academy, and the Grand Wizard viewing the Halloween Broomstick formation (sabotaged by Ethel's faulty broom which she lent to Mildred).

Cast

• Diana Rigg
  Diana Rigg
  Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
  
   as Miss Hardbroom
• Charlotte Rae
  Charlotte Rae
  Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
  
   as Miss Cackle/Agatha
• Tim Curry
  Tim Curry
  Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
  
   as The Grand Wizard
• Fairuza Balk
  Fairuza Balk
  Fairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
  
   as Mildred Hubble
• Sabina Franklyn
  Sabina Franklyn
  Sabina Franklyn is an English actress, and the daughter of William Franklyn and Margo Johns.Franklyn attended the independent Queen's Gate School and acted on stage with repertory theatres before her television appearances....
  
   as Miss Spellbinder
• Su Elliot as Delilah
• Danielle Batchelor as Maud Warlock
• Anna Kipling as Ethel Hallow
• Kate Buckley as Donna
• Leila Marr as Pixie Brown
• Liz May Brice
  Liz May Brice
  Elizabeth May Brice is an English actress. She is known for roles such as the convicted murderer Pat Kerrigan on ITV1's Bad Girls. To international audiences she may be more familiar as a minor cast member of the horror films Resident Evil and AVP: Alien vs Predator.-Career:Brice was born in...
  
   as Zoe Chant-Vestry
• Katrina Heath as Sophie Hattrick
• Tara Stevenson as Gloria Hobgoblin
• Laura Heath as Misty Meadow
• Sophie Cook
  Sophie Cook
  Sophie Cook is a British actress who is most notable for her role of Susan Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia BBC miniseries. She appeared in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1988 as well as Prince Caspian in 1989...
  
   as Natalie Sinister
• Sophie Millett as Verity Sinister
• Julia Nagle as Bubble Toil
• Kathryn Lacey as Goodie Twocharm
• Nevena Kaley as Dawn Undercover
• Caroline Woolf as Julie Vanishing
• Amy Shindler as Spinner Webb
• Pui Fan Lee
  Pui Fan Lee
  Pui Fan Lee is a British Chinese actress and presenter, best known for portraying Po in the children's television programme Teletubbies. She was the first presenter, alongside Chris Jarvis, to introduce programming on the BBC digital channel CBeebies...
  
   as Prefect

Production and broadcast

The film was shot at St. Michael's College

St. Michael's College, Tenbury

The College of St. Michael and All Angels, in Tenbury Wells Worcestershire was a boys school founded by Frederick Ouseley in 1856 to provide a model for the performance of Anglican church music. Choral services were performed daily in term time, and the college possessed a library that contained...

 in Tenbury Wells

Tenbury Wells

Tenbury Wells is a market town and civil parish in the north-western extremity of the Malvern Hills District administrative area of Worcestershire, England. The 2001 census reported a population of 3,316.-Geography:...

. Its opening song "Growing Up Isn't Easy" was sung by Bonnie Langford

Bonnie Langford

Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s then she subsequently became a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who and has appeared on stage in various musicals such as Peter Pan:...

. It was composed by Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist.-Life and career:Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel Strouse...

 with lyrics by Don Black. They also wrote "Anything Can Happen on Halloween". Denis King

Denis King

Denis King is an English Ivor Novello award-winning composer, singer and actor.As a writer he composed music for the British television series The Adventures of Black Beauty, Within These Walls, Lovejoy and Worzel Gummidge amongst others. He also composed the theme to the 1992 series The New...

 composed its score and wrote the song "My Little School".

This Halloween special aired on the Disney Channel

Disney Channel

Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

 in the United States every October until the late 1990s

Home media

Prism Entertainment released this television movie on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

October 19, 1994. Bfs Entertainment re-released this television film on video on December 28, 1999 and on DVD August 24, 2004.