Update at June 2008
This links with my other comments, etc, re the four ITV works inspired by Jill Murphy's Worst Witch novels. This TV series is the third and it follows on from the 1998 to 2000 series. It is often considered as season four of that series.
Here, Millie is at Weirdsister, her fourth year of basic cackling not actually shown on the screen and only her first year here is shown.
Some history. At Cackles she was someone who started from behind, obviously so, and got trouble from some because of that, but she also gained some close friends, who she managed to keep close to. First year, start of new term, after the break, she gained another close friend who maybe she should have redirected towards her enemies instead. As is, for most of her junior witch education she had nice girrl Maud, a fullness of moonshine, on one hand and on her other the new friend, Nightshade, who first appears after the first break. It is not obvious that Millie is heading towards a Weirdsister higher education.
So much was in the 1998+ series and in the novels too. Enid felt less deadly to me in the novels.
The ITV works include a lot that is not in the books and that is normal, some detail being changed around is also normal and can be healthy. Weirdsister was not in the novels, it is a development.
Weirdsister includes the original Ethel from 1998, her of a magnificent beauty and style. Only Deadly could compete with her beauty in 1998 and by 2001 Deadly has been sunk, in chains in the sludge at the bottom of the sea. Would that these two had not been the most beautiful, but this is about girrls. The 1986 feature was very different.
Weirdsister also includes Deirdre Swoop, who made an earlier showing in Cackle's dealings with Pentangle's. Swoop then going on to be the PE teacher in New, the fourth ITV work. This Swoop and this Millie appear in all three series. No actor appears in all four works.
Weirdsister also includes a brief glimpse of two characters from the earlier series. The 1998 HB for a short warning at the start. Enid during one of the final episodes, and that is scary, she is in a trap that she cannot escape from by herself and she has not been able to obtain worthwhile help. Enid has gone the way of some lost girrls and Millie shows that she is lost re having good ways to cope with that. In some ways Millie has moved forward in an impressive way while still having a lot of the earliest Millie about her, but in other ways she is so sunk as well.
So, this is a development of what was in the original and it can take some getting used to. It is about the ups and downs of girrls, not of girls. I find it worth trying getting acclimatised.
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So the series was not obviously special at first glimpse and the sepia-like imagery matching the 1986 feature is strange too. Get to know it I find it to be fun. If scary. Millie does make some really bad mistakes and I currently rate how she makes a pet out of her student and café waiter, house broken, boyfriend as the cringiest. Haircut acclimatisation? Why should a male to female find that scary?
