Badjelly the Witch is a brief handwritten, illustrated story by Spike Milligan, created for his children, then printed in 1973. It was made into an audio and a video version.
In the story, two children, looking for their lost cow, meet magical enchanted forest characters. They are captured by Badjelly the witch, then rescued by an eagle. God intervenes as they escape, and the witch is destroyed when she attempts to "scratch God's eye out". The characters enchanted by Badjelly are rescued.
In 1975, in the planning for an audio version for the BBC "infant's programme" Let's Join In, Milligan objected to the planned removal of God from the story. The BBC wrote in a letter that the object is not to put God on the same level as goblins, to which Milligan replied that goblins, fairies and God all exist. However, he allowed God to be removed. In 1974 Ed Welch set "Badjelly the Witch" to music and the LP was released on Polydor Records.Spike narrated it with a large orchestra, and the LP was a reasonable success.However in New Zealand it was a huge success and has sold over 40000 recordings up to 2012.
Famous quotes containing the word witch:
“The witch turned as red
as the Jap flag.
Her blood began to boil up
like Coca-Cola.
Her eyes began to melt.
She was done for.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)