The Worst Witch (TV Series) - Characters - Teachers

Teachers

• Miss Amelia Cackle (Clare Coulter) - Miss Cackle is the Headmistress of Cackle's Academy. She is often weary of Mildred's various exploits, but ultimately much fairer and more sympathetic than Miss Hardbroom. Miss Cackle has a love of cheese, cheese cake and cream cakes, and spends most of her free time at Cosie's Tea Rooms. She has a twin sister named Agatha, who is an evil witch and tries to take over the school by magic twice during the first series. The second time, Agatha kidnapped Amelia in the middle of the night, tied her up and locked her in the storeroom. Agatha then pretended to be her sister and ran the school as Headmistress, until Mildred realised she was an imposter and rescued Miss Cackle. Cackle attended Witch Academy with Mistress Hecate Broomhead, although she knew Broomhead by another name and only discovered who she was when Sybil Hallow turned Broomhead back into a child, and she recognised her. Miss Cackle also has a niece, Gabrielle Gribble, who came to the Academy as a student teacher during the episode Learning the Hard Way. Cackle kept her family connection secret from all the staff, not wanting any special treatment to be given. (Clare Coulter is the only actor from the original series who returned for The New Worst Witch.)
• Miss Constance Hardbroom (Kate Duchêne) - Miss Hardbroom is the fearsome Deputy Headmistress of Cackle's Academy. Tall, scrawny and sour-faced, she strikes fear into the students' hearts, especially Mildred's, whom Hardbroom seems to have a particular resentment of. She is nicknamed 'HB' and is the only witch on the staff shown to have the ability to appear from thin air. Miss Hardbroom devotes all her praise and pampering to the shallow Ethel Hallow, and constantly degrades Mildred in front of her and all the other pupils. Hardbroom is a stickler for standards and tradition, believes in strong discipline and dislikes most of the other teachers, particularly Miss Bat, who she sees as incompetent and irresponsible. Miss Hardbroom is an exceptionally talented and powerful witch, and it is often left up to her to save the day when situations get out of hand. When Miss Cackle's evil sister Agatha and her sidekicks try to take over the school, Agatha states that "Hardbroom is the really dangerous one" and must be dealt with first, suggesting Hardbroom is well-known and feared by the adult witch community. Miss Hardbroom has been shown to have a kinder side to her, such as when she altered a potions test to make it easier for Mildred. Despite her fearsome nature, it is hinted that Hardbroom is afraid of one witch; Mistress Hecate Broomhead, her old personal tutor, whom Hardbroom claims to have taught her "everything she knows". Miss Hardbroom appeared briefly in the first episode of Weirdsister College, summoned by magic to test Mildred upon entry. (Kate Duchêne was replaced by Caroline O'Neill in The New Worst Witch.)
• Miss Imogen Drill (Claire Porter) - Miss Drill is the PE teacher, and the only non-magical staff member at Cackle's Academy. She is a strict and stern teacher, though is often sympathetic to Mildred. She has a love of the great outdoors and often takes the girls on runs and assault courses in the forest. She has a boyfriend named Serge, whom she met in the episode The Great Outdoors - he is the leader of the 'Rocky Mountain Rangers', who shared the campsite with Miss Drill and the girls. In the episode Secrety Society, Drill threatens to resign after a run-in with Miss Hardbroom, and states that Serge offered her a job at his Adventure Centre. Miss Cackle convinces Drill to stay and makes her the supervisor of 'Dangerous Old Book Society' club. Miss Hardbroom is very resentful of Miss Drill being a non-witch, which often angers her, and in the episode Power Drill Mildred and her friends decide to help by secretly making a potion to give her witch powers. Believing Miss Drill's powers have developed naturally from being around witches all the time, Miss Cackle is forced give Miss Drill an investiture and officially name her as a witch. Drill then changed her name to 'Hilary Hemlock', but later turned selfish and unreasonable with her newfound powers, causing Mildred to come clean about the potion. After this, Drill takes an antidote and returns to her normal, non-witch state. (Miss Drill did not feature in The New Worst Witch.)
• Miss Davina Bat (Una Stubbs) - Miss Bat is the slightly loopy Chanting teacher at Cackle's Academy during Series 1 & 2. She lives in the stationary cupboard in the staff room and has a habit of eating bizarre food, including flowers, fungus, sour milk and cat food. Miss Bat is also not the most reliable person to have in a crisis, as proved in the episode Alarms and Diversions when the emergency alarm reduces her to hysterics. In the episode Old Hats and New Brooms, Miss Bat surprises everyone by returning from Inner Mongolia (she usually spends the summer holiday in the staff room cupboard). Miss Bat hates Miss Hardbroom and often argues with Miss Drill. When Miss Gimlet, the Second Year class tutor left at the start of the new term, Miss Bat fought with Miss Drill over which one of them should replace her. Miss Cackle eventually decided to let Bat and Drill share the position, but later put Miss Bat in charge of the First Year for half of the term. Miss Bat left Cackles for unknown reasons at the end of Series 2 and was replaced by Miss Crotchet.
• Miss Lavinia Crotchet (Polly James) - Miss Crotchet is the replacement Chanting teacher for Miss Bat, who was introduced in the episode Secret Society. She has a magical barrel organ which she spends most of her first episode trying to tune. She is similar to Miss Bat but not as loopy and slightly more 'up-to-date'. During the episode The Lost Chord, Miss Crotchet was mesmerised by Austrian conductor Professor von Raffenburg, who seduced her and tried to use her to find the famous 'Lost Chord'. Sybil Hallow discovered he was in fact a conman, who wanted to use the Lost Chord to rob everyone in the school. (Miss Crotchet did not feature in The New Worst Witch.)