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For Hallowe'en, a thread on writing the definitive history of my favourite witch story of all time...
Last year, @TheSaplingNZ asked if I'd write a wee piece on how New Zealand developed an obsession with Spike Milligan's BADJELLY THE WITCH...
Last year, @TheSaplingNZ asked if I'd write a wee piece on how New Zealand developed an obsession with Spike Milligan's BADJELLY THE WITCH...
The brief was brief. I think @TheSaplingNZ editors thought they might get 600 words out of me by month's end. Alas, I am a completist Gemini, and I couldn't stop until I'd explored all the BADJELLY side alleys. Especially: why NZ loves BADJELLY, when the UK barely knows her...
Spike Milligan was a famous Irish-English comedian, poet, writer, songwriter, occasional actor, known for The Goon Show, and for writing openly (and often hilariously) about the very closed topic of post-war post-traumatic stress disorder. Spike was also a dad...
BADJELLY THE WITCH smacks, in the very best way, of made-up-ness. I thought I'd almost finished my story, when Murray Lynch of Playmarket NZ asked "Do you want to talk to Jane? I've just had lunch with her in London". This would be Jane Milligan, to whom the book is dedicated...
What a treat! Spike Milligan worked hard, but was often home in time to tell wonderfully made-up bedtime stories. 'Top quality bedtime-story action!' recalls Spike's daughter Jane ( @goonchild4) in The Badjelly Chronicles: Episode One... 
https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/the-badjelly-chronicles-episode-one
https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/the-badjelly-chronicles-episode-one
Among the many things we learn from Jane, is that Tim and Rose's pet, Fuffy Bum the Cat, was the real Milligan family feline... 
In this first instalment, I loved being able to include Jane's recollections of how Spike would face his mental health head-on: ‘When he was down, he would just go to bed and watch TV and eat ice cream... He only ever really wanted us to be happy. Just be free. Enjoy.‘ 
So, Spike hand-writes the family favourite bedtime story into a real story, it's published in that handwriting in 1973, and very soon after that, he puts it to music, with a young composer named Ed Welch—who went on to write the Thomas the Tank Engine theme!... 
The funnest discovery in my chat with Ed, about his work on the BADJELLY THE WITCH LP, was finding out that he did the "Roar Roar Squeak Squeak" bit.
Also, how Ed got the job is an inspirational story of gumption for the ages... https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Two
Also, how Ed got the job is an inspirational story of gumption for the ages... https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Two
In New Zealand, the BADJELLY THE WITCH record was a straight-up hit. THIS is where our country's love affair with the witch, the worm, the cow, the eagle, the mouse, the apple tree, the giant, and Tim and Rose, begins, thanks to the repetitive power of radio...
"People wanted it every week!" says veteran broacaster Dick Weir. Starting mid-70s, BADJELLY became the most-requested thing on the ZB network and regional radio stations.
Even today, the @95bFM Kids' Show play the 22min tale every other week...
https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Three
Even today, the @95bFM Kids' Show play the 22min tale every other week...
https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/22/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Three
By far the *most* interesting BADJELLY fact I learned on this journey was that she was actually out of print for a long, long time. Then the 1970s babies started having babies, and asking for the book, and one Wellington bookshop owner decided to do something about it... 
BADJELLY THE WITCH was republished in NZ in 1994. @PenguinBooks_NZ has sold at least 100,000 copies in the last 25 years. That’s an average of 4,000 copies per year. But only in New Zealand. Things in the UK were long-dependent on Spike's manager, who passed away last year...
The Milligan kids now hold the keys to their Dad's literary castle. 
And they have plans. As @TVNZ reports here (and we first tipped in @TheSaplingNZ story), the wonderful @Mukpuddy people have secured the rights to bring BADJELLY to the screen... 
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/entertainment/kiwi-animation-company-bringing-badjelly-witch-screen
And they have plans. As @TVNZ reports here (and we first tipped in @TheSaplingNZ story), the wonderful @Mukpuddy people have secured the rights to bring BADJELLY to the screen... https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/entertainment/kiwi-animation-company-bringing-badjelly-witch-screen
The Badjelly Chronicles: Episode Four details the publishing dramas (how is it possible that anyone thought BADJELLY THE WITCH had too much personality?), Milligan estate management changes, and the exciting existence of a Badjelly Agent!... https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/26/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Four
The final chapter of The Badjelly Chronicles details the final piece of the "Why is Badjelly still so beloved in New Zealand?!" puzzle.
It concerns Aotearoa’s most successful stage play. Not a year goes by without Badjelly being performed somewhere in New Zealand...
It concerns Aotearoa’s most successful stage play. Not a year goes by without Badjelly being performed somewhere in New Zealand...
What I love about this chapter is what it shows about the magic of adaptation, and how a work of art that's already perfect can become more so in a different setting.
‘I knew kids were there to see Badjelly and if we waited, it was a long time...’ https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/27/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Five
‘I knew kids were there to see Badjelly and if we waited, it was a long time...’ https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2020/03/27/The-Badjelly-Chronicles-Episode-Five
Every time I read BADJELLY THE WITCH aloud, I can hear the inner workings of Spike Milligan’s brain. You really can’t read the story to a child without fully committing. Spike gives us permission to be brilliant, humane, imperfect idiots. 
Speaking of which...
Speaking of which...
My child asked to be BADJELLY THE WITCH for Hallowe'en this year and instructed me to be Binklebonk, the Tree Goblin. One printed-out giant sausage and a buttercup-yellow jacket later...
(How'd I do, @goonchild4?)
(How'd I do, @goonchild4?)
Thanks to @TheSaplingNZ for the inspired commission. Thanks to @megarillo for the beautiful illustrations. Thanks to Spike Milligan for being so Milligany. And here's the original recording. 
https://open.spotify.com/album/4Wjwdvfh4njj26tzwpA6fx
https://open.spotify.com/album/4Wjwdvfh4njj26tzwpA6fx
