The Witches


11:55 pm - 02:00 am, Saturday, October 25 on Freeform HDTV (East) ()

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About this Broadcast
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Muppeteer Jim Henson and director Nicolas Roeg collaborated on a tale about a witch brewing a potion to turn children into mice. Based on a story by Roald Dahl.

1990 English Stereo
Fantasy Drama Horror Action/adventure Children Comedy Adaptation Family Other Documentary

Cast & Crew
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Anjelica Huston (Actor) .. Mrs. Ernst/ Grand High Witch
Mai Zetterling (Actor) .. Helga
Jasen Fisher (Actor) .. Luke
Rowan Atkinson (Actor) .. Mr. Stringer
Bill Paterson (Actor) .. Mr. Jenkins
Brenda Blethyn (Actor) .. Mrs. Jenkins
Jane Horrocks (Actor) .. Miss Irvine
Charlie Potter (Actor) .. Bruno Jenkins
Anne Lambton (Actor) .. Woman in Black
Sukie Smith (Actor) .. Marlene
Rose English (Actor) .. Dora
Jenny Runacre (Actor) .. Elsie
Annabel Brooks (Actor) .. Nicola
Emma Relph (Actor) .. Millie
Nora Connolly (Actor) .. Beatrice
Rosamud Greenwood (Actor) .. Janice
Anjelique Rockas (Actor) .. Henrietta
Jim Carter (Actor) .. Head Chef
Roberta Taylor (Actor) .. Witch Chef
Brian Hawksley (Actor) .. Elderly Waiter
Debra Gillett (Actor) .. Waitress
Darcy Flynn (Actor) .. Luke's Mother
Vincent Marzello (Actor) .. Luke's Father
Serena Harragin (Actor) .. Doctor
Greta Nordra (Actor) .. Norwegian Witch
Elsie Eide (Actor) .. Erica
Kirstin Steinsland (Actor) .. Child Helga
Merete Armand (Actor) .. Erica's Mother
Ola Otnes (Actor) .. Erica's Father
Ann Tirard (Actor)
Leila Hoffman (Actor) .. Lady
Johan Sverre (Actor) .. Policeman
Arvid Ones (Actor) .. Policeman
Sverre Rossummoen (Actor) .. Policeman
Rosamund Greenwood (Actor) .. Janice
Angelique Rockas (Actor) .. Henrietta
Grete Nordrå (Actor) .. Norwegian Witch

More Information
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Did You Know..
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Anjelica Huston (Actor) .. Mrs. Ernst/ Grand High Witch
Born: July 08, 1951
Birthplace: Santa Monica, California, United States
Trivia: Born July 8th, 1961, he daughter of director John Huston and his fourth wife, ballerina Ricki Somma, Anjelica Huston spent a privileged but troubled childhood in Ireland. Although her father didn't really want her to be an actress, he gave her substantial roles in his films Sinful Davy and A Walk With Love and Death (both 1969). The actress did little movie work during the '70s, choosing instead to pursue a successful, albeit short-term, career as a model before returning to films with a vengeance in the '80s, diligently studying with famed drama coach Peggy Feury.In 1985, Huston earned an Oscar for her performance as the vengeful girlfriend of hit man Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor, making her the first third-generation Academy winner in history. Other worthwhile roles followed in her father's final directorial effort, The Dead (1987), and Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). She was also rewardingly directed by her half-brother Danny Huston in Mr. North (1988). Huston earned additional Oscar nominations for her outstanding dramatic work in Enemies: A Love Story (1989) and The Grifters (1990). On a lighter note, she was ideally cast as Morticia Addams in the two Addams Family movies in the early '90s; neither was recognized by the Academy, although both earned her Golden Globe nominations. Despite her breakup with long-time companion Nicholson (she went on to marry Robert Graham in 1992), Huston still occasionally acted opposite him, most notably in Sean Penn's The Crossing Guard (1995). Other notable roles for the actress during the late '90s included her turn as the wicked stepmother in Ever After (1998) and a hilarious portrayal of a football-obsessed, dysfunctional mother in Buffalo '66.In addition to her work on film, Huston accumulated an impressive roster of television credits during the 1980s and '90s, including her powerful performances as frontier woman Clara Allen in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove and the beleaguered mother of an autistic child in the two-part Family Pictures (1993). She also had a supporting role in the widely acclaimed 1993 production of And the Band Played On. In 1996, Huston made her directorial debut with Bastard out of Carolina, a praised adaptation of Dorothy Allison's novel of the same name, and followed that up with another behind-the-camera effort, Agnes Browne, in 1999. She played Gene Hackman's estranged wife in the critically-acclaimed The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001. She appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in his police drama Blood Work. She continued to appear in a wide variety of films including an officious antagonist in Daddy Day Care. In 2004 she reteamed with Wes Anderson for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and played in the made for cable historical drama Iron Jawed Angels. In 2006 Huston took on a small role in Terry Zwigoff's Art School Confidential, and appeared in Martha Coolidge's Material Girls opposite Hilary and Haylie Duff.In 2008, Huston joined the cast of the made-for-HBO period film Iron Jawed Angels, in which she played an activist opposed to the National Woman's Party, which encouraged rewarding American women with the right to vote and hold citizenship. After participating in several films throughout 2006 (Material Girls, Art School Confidential, Seraphim Falls), Huston reunited with Wes Anderson to play a supporting role in the multi-award winning comedy The Darjeeling Limited in 2007. The actress took on another supporting role in the critically acclaimed psychological drama The Kreutzer Sonata (2008). In 2011, she co-starred in the complex comedy drama 50/50, in which she played the overbearing mother of a public radio employee diagnosed with cancer at 27-years-old.
Mai Zetterling (Actor) .. Helga
Jasen Fisher (Actor) .. Luke
Born: May 08, 1980
Rowan Atkinson (Actor) .. Mr. Stringer
Born: January 06, 1955
Birthplace: Consett, Durham, England
Trivia: Best known to American audiences as the Black Adder and Mr. Bean, black-haired, bug-eyed, and weak-chinned comedian Rowan Atkinson is one of the most popular funnymen in England whose keen, often black humor and knack for physical comedy has earned him a huge international following. Born in Newcastle, Atkinson was educated at Newcastle University and Oxford. While at the latter, he teamed up with budding screenwriter Richard Curtis to write comedy reviews for the Oxford Playhouse. Shortly thereafter, the two created material for the Edinburgh Fringe. By 1978, Atkinson's humor had earned him a devoted fan base and he was offered leading roles in two British television comedies. Instead, Atkinson chose to get involved in the internationally acclaimed comedy series Not the Nine O'Clock News as a writer and a performer. His performances in the oft-distinguished show earned Atkinson a British Academy Award and got him designated "BBC Personality of the Year" in 1980. His stage performances also continued to significantly increase his popularity. In 1983, he and Curtis created the Black Adder, a cowardly and conniving Tudor Prince named Edmund who tries vainly to become King of England after inadvertently killing his father during a battle. Billed as a "situation tragedy" on the BBC, it ran three seasons and later spawned a couple of specials. Atkinson made his feature-film debut in the 1983 James Bond thriller Never Say Never Again. In the late '80s, he starred in a few films penned by Curtis. It was while they were filming The Tall Guy that Atkinson and Curtis created Mr. Bean, an average British Joe with a clumsy nature and a nasty streak and launched a series. Different from other shows in that it was largely silent, Atkinson's Bean demonstrated a rare gift for slapstick that has led to his being compared to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. During its six year run, Mr. Bean became the most popular show in the U.K. and has since been shown in 89 countries where it has gained a cult following comparable to Monty Python and Fawlty Towers. Atkinson himself attributes his character's popularity to the fact that the socially awkward, middle-aged Bean's mundane adventures, largely due to his clumsy inability to cope with even the smallest of life's foibles, mirror the feelings and experiences of people the world over. In 1997, Atkinson brought the character to the big screen in Bean. Other notable Atkinson film performances include his voice characterization of Zazu in The Lion King and that of the hilariously inarticulate priest in Four Weddings and a Funeral.Atkinson oversaw an animated television series based on his beloved Mr. Bean character, and then took a cameo part in his longtime collaborator Richard Curtis' directorial debut Love Actually. In 2003 he starred in another international comedy hit, the spy spoof Johnny English, a movie so successful it spawned a sequel in 2011. In addition, Atkinson returned to the well yet again in 2007 with the feature length Mr. Bean's Holiday, which co-starred Willem Dafoe.
Bill Paterson (Actor) .. Mr. Jenkins
Born: June 03, 1945
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Trivia: A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Stage, Bill Paterson made a name for himself in Scotland's burgeoning "alternative theatre" movement. He was most prominently associated with a theatrical aggregation known as the 7:84 Company--which, as virtually every chronicler of the 1970s British theatrical scene has duly noted--referred to the percentage of property owners and the amount of owned property in England. Making a bizarre first TV appearance in 1971's Licking Hitler, Paterson waited until 1978 to give movies a try. His star-making part was the recently jilted radio DJ in director Bill Forsyth's deliciously unpredictable Comfort and Joy (1984). Bill Paterson's TV credits include the hallucinatory Dennis Potter miniseries The Singing Detective.
Brenda Blethyn (Actor) .. Mrs. Jenkins
Born: February 20, 1946
Birthplace: Ramsgate, Kent, England
Trivia: Though Brenda Blethyn has enjoyed a long and successful career as an actress on the British stage and in television, it wasn't until the release of Mike Leigh's film Secrets and Lies in 1996 that she became well-known to moviegoers as well, earning a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for what was only her third film.Blethyn's early stage experience included stints in the stock companies of the Bubble Theatre and the Belgrade Theater of Coventry. In 1975, she joined the Royal National Theater, where she worked with some of Britain's leading stage directors, including Peter Wood, Peter Hall, and Bill Bryden, and her roles ran the gamut from Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House to Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. With the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared under the direction of Maximillian Schell in Tales From the Vienna Woods and in Alan Ayckbourn's Wildest Dream. In 1991, she received the British Drama Awards' Best Actress prize for her role in Steaming and the Theatre World Awards' Outstanding New Talent prize for her role in the Broadway production of Absent Friends.Blethyn made her film debut in 1990, with a small part in Nicholas Roeg's The Witches. Robert Redford cast her as Brad Pitt's mother in A River Runs Through It in 1992, but 1996's Secrets and Lies provided Blethyn with her first substantial screen role. In a story developed through six months of improvisations with Leigh and the cast, Blethyn's performance as a woman getting to know the daughter she had given up made her an international sensation almost overnight. Blethyn received another Oscar nomination in 1999, for her role as the overbearing mother in Little Voice; her nomination complemented her growing popularity in Hollywood, reflected by her casting in such high profile projects as Billy Bob Thornton's Daddy and Them (1999). The actress would go on to appear in such films as Beyond the Sea, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonemen.On television, Blethyn would also make splashes in BBC productions like King Lear, Henry VI, Part One, The Labours of Erica, The Buddha of Suburbia, War and Peace, and Vera.
Jane Horrocks (Actor) .. Miss Irvine
Born: January 18, 1964
Birthplace: Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England
Trivia: Perhaps best-known to international audiences for her role as Bubble, Edina Monsoon's gloriously vapid assistant on Absolutely Fabulous, Jane Horrocks is a well-established stage and screen actress in her native Britain.Born in Lancashire, England, to working-class parents on January 18, 1964, Horrocks began performing in a non-professional capacity (or "showing off" as she has said) at an early age, wowing her informal audiences with her gift for mimicry. Although an acting career was seen as unrealistic in her Northern English town, Horrocks nevertheless ended up winning a place at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where her classmates included Ralph Fiennes, Imogen Stubbs, and Iain Glen. During her studies at RADA, Horrocks was advised to lose her distinctive Lancashire accent. Fortunately, she rejected this "advice;" her decision to nurture her way of speaking would later result in her casting in a number of plum character roles.Following graduation, Horrocks joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite the RSC's prestige, the actress felt unchallenged and underused in her work with the company. Thankfully, she found some form of relief in her collaboration with playwright Jim Cartwright while performing in a production of one of his plays; Cartwright was so impressed with Horrocks' uncanny impersonations of such singers as Edith Piaf and Judy Garland that he promised to write a play expressly to showcase her talents. A few years later, he made good on his promise with The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, a play about a painfully shy girl (Horrocks) possessing a remarkable ability to mimic some of history's most famous singers. Horrocks earned lavish praise for her performance; in 1998, the play was made into a well-received film, Little Voice, in which Horrocks co-starred with Ewan McGregor, Brenda Blethyn, and Michael Caine. Horrocks also began appearing on both the big and small screens during the late '80s, doing supporting work in a number of films and television series. She had her screen breakthrough in Mike Leigh's acclaimed family comedy Life Is Sweet (1991), earning awards from the Los Angeles film critics and the National Society of Film Critics for her portrayal of an anorexic girl who at one point asks her boyfriend (David Thewlis) to lick chocolate off her breasts.Bouncing back and forth between comedy and drama and film and television during the rest of the decade, Horrocks continued to establish herself as one of her country's most versatile performers. The 1998 release of Little Voice brought with it lavish acclaim for the actress, who earned a number of international award nominations and honors for her singular performance in the film.
Charlie Potter (Actor) .. Bruno Jenkins
Anne Lambton (Actor) .. Woman in Black
Born: July 04, 1954
Birthplace: London
Sukie Smith (Actor) .. Marlene
Born: September 23, 1964
Rose English (Actor) .. Dora
Jenny Runacre (Actor) .. Elsie
Born: January 01, 1943
Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the late '60s.
Annabel Brooks (Actor) .. Nicola
Emma Relph (Actor) .. Millie
Nora Connolly (Actor) .. Beatrice
Rosamud Greenwood (Actor) .. Janice
Anjelique Rockas (Actor) .. Henrietta
Jim Carter (Actor) .. Head Chef
Born: August 19, 1948
Birthplace: Harrogate, Yorkshire, England
Trivia: Was head boy of his high school in his final year. Left the University of Sussex after two years to join a fringe theatre group called the Brighton Combination. Performed with the Madhouse Company of London, a comedy troupe, during the 1970s. Attended a circus school in New York during the 1970s, where he learned to walk the tightrope, ride a unicycle, juggle and perform magic. Met wife Imelda Staunton when they were both cast in a 1982 production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal National Theatre in London. They later worked together in a production of The Wizard of Oz; he was the Cowardly Lion to her Dorothy. Serves as chairman of the Hampstead Cricket Club.
Roberta Taylor (Actor) .. Witch Chef
Born: February 26, 1948
Birthplace: London
Brian Hawksley (Actor) .. Elderly Waiter
Born: April 08, 1920
Died: September 28, 2001
Debra Gillett (Actor) .. Waitress
Darcy Flynn (Actor) .. Luke's Mother
Vincent Marzello (Actor) .. Luke's Father
Serena Harragin (Actor) .. Doctor
Born: September 16, 1959
Greta Nordra (Actor) .. Norwegian Witch
Elsie Eide (Actor) .. Erica
Kirstin Steinsland (Actor) .. Child Helga
Merete Armand (Actor) .. Erica's Mother
Born: June 08, 1955
Ola Otnes (Actor) .. Erica's Father
Born: September 02, 1951
Ann Tirard (Actor)
Born: June 05, 1917
Leila Hoffman (Actor) .. Lady
Birthplace: Hackney
Johan Sverre (Actor) .. Policeman
Arvid Ones (Actor) .. Policeman
Sverre Rossummoen (Actor) .. Policeman
Born: August 05, 1951
Anne Hathaway (Actor)
Born: November 12, 1982
Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY
Trivia: An actress whose first big screen gig also proved to be her breakthrough, Anne Hathaway became a familiar face to millions of moviegoers thanks to her starring role in Garry Marshall's 2001 hit The Princess Diaries. Cast as a clumsy high school girl who finds out she is the princess of a small country, Hathaway was able to prove her comedic timing opposite no less than Julie Andrews.Hailing from Brooklyn, where she was born November 12, 1982, Hathaway became involved in the theater at a young age, and as a teenager performed with the Barrow Group, a prestigious New York theatre company. She did her first industry work in the short-lived but critically praised TV series Get Real before auditioning for Marshall, who, according to legend, cast the actress as the accident-prone princess after she fell off a chair during her audition. The success of The Princess Diaries opened a number of doors for Hathaway, but she chose the one that led to Vassar College, where she enrolled in 2000, taking some time off from film.Though a supporting performance in the 2002 box-office disappointment Nicholas Nickleby offered Hathaway little chance to shine, a lead performance as the eponymous character in thefantasy-themed romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004) found her stepping into some big slippers for another Cinderella-style story not unlike the obligatory Princess Diaries 2 that same year. As if to anounce her acendancy out of the teen fantasy ghetto, Hathaway plunged into edgier territory with the gritty teen drama Havoc (also 2004), although the explicit film merited only a video release. It was her next two roles, however, that would announce the young actor's arrival into adulthood. As one of the two quietly suffering wives in Ang Lee's acclaimed Brokeback Mountain, Hathaway exhibited an irrepressible rodeo-girl spirit broken down over the course of a sham marriage. As the co-star of the chick-lit adaptation The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, she entered the world of contemporary, high-fashion power players, suffering the slings and arrows of a deliciously evil (and Oscar-nominated) Meryl Streep. The film played throughout the summer, becoming a bona-fide sleeper hit. Although initially cast in 2007's runaway summer comedy, Knocked Up, Hathaway backed out of the role that eventually went to Katharine Heigl. She chose instead to follow the period-romance path with Becoming Jane, a Shakespeare in Love-style speculative fiction on the life and one true love of Jane Austen.2008 turned out to be a banner year for the actress who scored a box office hit starring opposite Steve Carell in the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart, and garnered the best reviews of her career thus far for her work as a recovering addict in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. That role earned her a number of year-end critics awards, as well as Best Actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy. Hathaway would subsuquently find herself free to enjoy leading lady status, appearing in a number of iconic projects over the coming years, like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and a slinky Selina Kyle/Catwoman inThe Dark Knight Rises. In 2012 she landed the part of Fantine in Tom Hooper's adaptation of the phenomenally successful stage musical Les Miserable. Getting to deliver the production's most beloved song, "I Dreamed a Dream", Hathaway made the most of the small but juicy part and was rewarded with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.In 2014, Hathaway appeared in the indie film Song One and reteamed with her Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan for the sci-fi epic film Interstellar. She next starred in The Intern, opposite Robert De Niro, and reprised her role Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Jahzir Bruno (Actor)
Stanley Tucci (Actor)
Born: November 11, 1960
Birthplace: Peekskill, New York, United States
Trivia: Like many another contemporary movie and TV favorite, Stanley Tucci is a graduate of the drama department at SUNY-Purchase. Tucci made his film bow in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, after which he specialized in playing lowlifes and scuzzbags, despite his offscreen credentials as a loyal friend and loving family man. Some of his more memorable appearances were as Rick Pinzolo in TV's Wiseguy (1987-1989), a minor-league thug named Vernon in Beethoven (1992), and a Middle-Eastern assassin in The Pelican Brief (1993). Tucci acquired a fan following of sorts for his slimy year-long role of Richard Cross on the weekly TV series Murder One (1995).In 1996, Tucci broke loose from his established screen persona by playing an ambitious Italian-American restaurateur in Big Night, the most delightfully "gastronomic" film since Like Water for Chocolate. The art-house favorite was a sheer labor of love for Tucci, who served as its producer, co-wrote its script with his cousin Joe Tropiano, and shared directorial duties with his friend Campbell Scott. Tucci again directed two years later with The Impostors, a farcical comedy that cast him and longtime friend Oliver Platt as two stowaways on an ocean liner. Unlike Big Night, however, the film did not do well with audiences or critics. After starring in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1998) as Puck and In Too Deep (1999) as a police supervisor, Tucci again stepped behind the camera, this time to direct Joe Gould's Secret (2000). A historical drama about an eccentric man (Ian Holm) living on the streets of Greenwich Village, it received a very enthusiastic reception at the 2000 Sundance Festival, where it premiered. The early 2000s seemed to be a winning period for the versatile actor, with Tucci also taking home the Best Supporting Actor in a television movie award for his role in Conspiracy (2001). That same year he appeared in America's Sweethearts as an intense movie mogul. He continued doing solid work even when the finished films were sometimes lacking. He played in the Jennifer Lopez hit Maid in Manhattan, Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition, the American remake of Shall We Dance?, and landed his largest role in a major Hollywood production when Steven Spielberg cast him as the ambitious, officious manager of The Terminal. Tucci lent his voice to the animated film Robots in 2005, and the next year earned solid notices for his work as a fashion magazine editor loyal to the diva editor in chief Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.The highly-respected character actor continued to work steadily in a variety of projects, but a pair of high-profile supporting roles in 2009 earned him strong reviews and awards consideration. As the husband to Julia Child in Julie & Julia, Tucci got to work opposite Meryl Streep yet again in another box-office hit, but it was his creepy turn as a child killer in the big screen adaptation of The Lovely Bones that earned him Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations.In 2010 he appeared opposite Cher in Burlesque, and was a loving father in the sleeper hit Easy A. In 2012, Tucci was cast as the announcer and emcee Caesar Flickman in the hit adaptation of the smash novel The Hunger Games. Tucci continued to be a work horse, appearing in seven films in 2014, including Transformers: Age of Extinction and a cameo in Muppets Most Wanted.
Angus Wright (Actor)
Born: November 11, 1964
Philippe Spall (Actor)
Birthplace: Cornwall, England
Trivia: Son of an English father and a French mother.Speaks English and French.Best known for his work in Downton Abbey.
Simon Manyonda (Actor)
Birthplace: London, England
Trivia: Son of two doctors.Attended speech therapy to work on speech impediments he developed at an early age.Joined the Young Vic Youth Theatre at age 15.Decided to attend drama school after working at a film school with young children in New York.A Board Member at the Theatre Peckham in London, England, which supports young artists.
Rosamund Greenwood (Actor) .. Janice
Born: June 12, 1907
Angelique Rockas (Actor) .. Henrietta
Grete Nordrå (Actor) .. Norwegian Witch

Before / After
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