For more than 50 years Spike Milligan’s deliciously pernicious Badjelly the Witch has been hugely popular in New Zealand.
Originally a short, handwritten story Milligan wrote for his children, it was printed in 1973 and made into an audio version.
It’s since become a Kiwi staple whether in book, radio play or theatre form, and was the most-licensed New Zealand play — believed to have more than 100 productions throughout the country.
Mukpuddy Animation Studios hope to bring it to a new generation of fans, they have picked up the rights and have turned it into a 13-part series, streaming on TVNZ+ starring Miriam Margolyes as Badjelly.
So why has it resonated with New Zealand audiences over the years? It’s mixture of silliness and darkness, explains Ryan Cooper, one of the co-founders of Mukpuddy.
“We quite like a dark sense of humour and we adopted the British style of humour more so than American comedy,” he told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
“And then just the darkness and the spookiness of it — that’s the one thing that people say to us, ‘oh, it used to scare me as a kid’.”
Milligan wrote the story for his children about Tim and Rose who lose their cow, go on a journey to get their cow back and encounter Badjelly.
When Mukpuddy realised there wasn’t a “fleshed out” animated version they decided to go on a hunt for the rights, Cooper said.
“The first thing I did was I put out a tweet, when it used to be called Twitter and wasn’t a toxic wasteland. And I just said, would anyone know who I might contact about looking into the rights?”
That led to Norma, Milligan’s former personal assistant.
“She was handling all the licensing for the audio, but she was in her 80s.”
Norma said the Milligan estate was interested, but then the trail went cold.
“It turned out, unfortunately, Norma had passed away, and a Kiwi living in London who had taken over that role had heard that from the Milligan daughters that we were interested, so it all got going again.”
It was a “strange process”, he said, but the Milligan family were soon on board.
“They’re very silly, like their dad. We told them our approach, how we wanted to do it, and we have wanted to honour the book as well as expand on a few moments.
“They trusted us completely, and it was an absolute honour and incredibly daunting.”
Mukpuddy have assembled an impressive array of talent to voice Milligan’s characters. Joining Margolyes is Rhys Darby, Cohen Holloway, and British comedians Jo Brand and Joe Wilkinson.
The animation stays true to Milligan’s story, Cooper said.
“It was all about a wholesome journey and a wholesome relationship between these two kids, but keeping it naughty, like Spike’s book. That was what people loved about it. Badjelly was awful, she wants to eat children at the end of the day.
“You can’t eliminate that part from the story. That’s what she wants to do. She wants to turn them into a soup.”
Streaming now in New Zealand on TVNZ + Badjelly the Witch is also proving popular overseas.
“It’s playing in Canada at the moment. It’s about to launch in Australia, on the ABC, and we have just sold it to ITV in the UK.
“Tthere’s some more places to be announced that I’m not allowed to say, but it’s doing what we hoped it would do, and that take this story that was so important to New Zealanders and reintroduce it to a new generation here and abroad.”
rnz.co.nz
