From TES issue 62 (March 2010)

Series 2/3/4/6/7. Level 1/2/3.
WITCHES
The Knightmare Dungeon played host to several witches over the years. The first was Mildread in series 2, played with impressive gusto by Mary Miller. Her loathsome, slurping style is certainly very memorable, but her appearances that made the most impression on me were the ones where she would use another character’s or advisor’s voice and/or shape to try and trick the team into making a fatal error.
In series 3, Mrs. Grimwold acted as a sort of replacement for Mildread. She was played in true pantomime style by a male actor, Tom Karol. Sometimes a potential help and sometimes a potential hindrance, dealings with Mrs Grimwold always demanded caution, although she was by far the least dangerous of the three members of the Grimwold family featured in this series. Mr Grimwold – her husband – was a savage ogre, and there was no reasoning with him, while the couple’s two-headed dog - Festus – was apparently ever-ready to eat anything that moved, including (it is strongly suggested) Mrs Grimwold herself in the final episode of the series!
You could argue that another character from series 3 – Morghanna, played by Natasha Pope – was a witch too, as her Arthurian namesake is practically always referred to as such. However, Knightmare’s particular take on the character seemed to indicate that she was more of a sorceress than a witch – certainly she was not a witch of the traditional old crone type, such as Mildread and Mrs Grimwold. Personally, I feel quite happy using either term to refer to this character, but you may have your own preference.
Series 4 also featured a witch – Mistress Goody, played by Erin Geraghty. She is possibly Knightmare’s strangest ever character, as she only turned up towards the end of the series and didn’t really do anything. Her main function seemed to be using her broomstick to sweep the room in which dungeoneers commonly made pacts with Hordriss and Malice – certainly that is all she does during Dickon’s and Jeremy’s quests. She has a slightly larger role in Giles’s, but there is still no obvious point to her – weird!
After taking a break during series 5, witches returned with a vengeance in series 6. The realm of Witch Haven had moved into Dungeon Dimensions, and took up a good deal of level two. An entire coven of witches lived here – presumably there were thirteen of them altogether, but we only got to know the names of three of them. These were: Heggatty, a small witch with a very annoying manner of speaking, played by Stephanie Hesp; Peggatty, a cackling crone who liked to fly around on her broomstick and throw fireballs at everyone; and Queen Greystagg, the leader of the coven. All three of these characters apparently thought of themselves as “sisters” to each other, although whether this was true in the literal sense, or just in the sense that they belonged to the same “sisterhood” of witches, is a subject that could be debated forever with no hope of resolution.
Greystagg was played by Iona Kennedy, and her tense relationship with Lord Fear was a major plot strand running through both series 6 and 7. Lord Fear spent most of series 6 trying to persuade Greystagg to sign an alliance with the Opposition, and when she finally refused he made her pay a hefty price. By the time series 7 rolled around, Lord Fear had totally destroyed Witch Haven with his techno-magic, leaving Greystagg furious and desperate for revenge. It would have been interesting to see this terse relationship continued into series 8, with Greystagg in a position of power sufficient to cause Lord Fear some problems - like Maldame was - but apparently we have Iona Kennedy’s pregnancy, and the tightness of Greystagg’s costume, to blame for this slight disappointment.

Fear Factor: 7 Even the friendliest witch is still a bit scary!
Killer Instinct: 4 Peggatty had quite a lot, and if you count Morghanna…
Gore Factor: 5 If only because of Mildread’s warts!
Humanity: 10 All human at the most basic level, I’d have thought.

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