by Samantha Yaffe
page 26

The Worst Witch is the top-rated children's drama series on Britain's itv, and its increasing popularity in Canada is marked by its Gemini nomination this year for best children's or youth program or series.

The roughly $8-million, 13-part, half-hour series is a tripartite coproduction of London, Eng.-based htv and Global Arts and Montreal's Galafilm.

Based on the popular children's books by Jill Murphy, the series, now entering its third season, follows the day-to-day life of the accident-prone Mildred Hubble. A student at Crackle's Academy of trainee witches, Hubble, the first witch in her family, faces extraordinary challenges as she attempts to learn such basic witch skills as flying a broom.

"[The series] has an Addams Family kind of feel to it," says line producer Ian Whitehead.

But what's truly unique is that all the lead characters are girls and the cast includes 15 regular characters.

Although the series targets an eight- to 10-year-old female demographic, "a lot of adults watch it because it's not dumbed-down for kids and it's not slapstick humor," says Whitehead.

Produced by Angela Beeching and Michael Haggiag of Global Arts and directed by Andrew Morgan, John Smith and Stephan Pleszczynski, the series is mostly shot in studio in London, with some episodes lensed in Montreal.

Special effects are required for broom flying, disappearing, zaps and flashes, and tornado simulation, but Whitehead says the production devotes most of its money to the elaborate sets, the writing and the large cast.

In Canada, the series is broadcast on ytv, tfo and Radio-Canada. It airs on hbo in the u.s.

While all the characters speak with a British accent, the series was dubbed into "American English" to help sell it in the u.s. - an idea courtesy of exec producer and Galafilm principal Arnie Gelbart.

Cast includes Georgina Sherrington, who recently won a Hollywood Young Artist Award for her lead role on the series, Toronto-based theatre actor Clare Coulter and British-born Una Stubbs.

Writers on the series include Martin Riley, Garry Lyons, Clive Endersby and David Finley. As is often the case with children's series, The Worst Witch's production team has been forced to consider what to do with the program as the teenage girls become young women. Sending the kids to college in the fourth season and developing a feature film out of the show are two directions under consideration. London-based Hel has worldwide distribution of The Worst Witch except for Canada, where Galafilm holds rights. htv's Dan Maddicott, Gelbart and Haggiag are exec producers. *