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''T-Bag'' is a British television series about the eponymous witch-like character and her assistant, T-Shirt. The series ran from 1985 to 1992 on ''
Children's ITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...
''. Written by Grant Cathro and Lee Pressman, each series adopted a different title and featured a single story told over several episodes.


History

The programme was first broadcast on 4 April 1985. The show was originally intended to be educational; however, this aspect was dropped after the first series in favour of simple adventure plots. From 1985 to 1989, Tallulah Bag was played by
Elizabeth Estensen Elizabeth Estensen (born 10 August 1949) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Diane Sugden on the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' from 1999 to 2021, with a guest stint in 2022. She has also made appearances in various British te ...
. In 1990, Estensen left the show and Tallulah Bag was replaced by her sister Tabatha Bag, played by
Georgina Hale Georgina Hale (born 4 August 1943) is an English film, television and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in the films of director Ken Russell, including '' The Devils'' (1971), '' The Boy Friend'' (1971), and ''Mahler'' (1974), for ...
. She played the role until the series ended in 1992.


Plot

The sisters obtain magical powers by drinking tea made from the 'High T-Plant'. They are incapable of brewing it properly, requiring an assistant (T-Shirt) to do it for them. In return, T-Bag shares her magical powers with T-Shirt (Thomas Shirt), played by
John Hasler John Hasler (born 21 April 1974) is an English actor. He is best known as T-Shirt in the children's television series ''T-Bag'' from 1985 to 1992, and for voicing Thomas the Tank Engine in the UK dub of the children's television series ''Thomas ...
. He started as a small child and grew until he towered above Hale by the series end in 1992. T-Shirt is presented as T-Bag's constant companion, part harassed surrogate son, part household servant. T-Bag and T-Shirt's magical powers mostly consist of conjuring objects out of thin air when needed, sending objects elsewhere and teleporting across time and space. T-Bag triggers her teleport ability by clicking her fingers. T-Shirt finds finger clicking too difficult and blinks instead. Although T-Shirt was T-Bag's assistant, he did not share in her evil ways, and though sometimes he appeared to be faithfully serving T-Bag, he was overall a hero, not a villain, and would ultimately side with the child heroine of the story. Each series (apart from the last) followed a similar format, T-Bag (after reuniting with T-Shirt, either through grovelling or putting him under her power) would attempt to increase her power and there would only be one thing that could stop her. The components that made the item work would be scattered across time and space, and the girl of the series was required to travel and collect them all before T-Bag could get her hands on any of them. Debbie Carter, played by Jennie Stallwood, was the heroine of the first three series. Diana Barrand took over for the fourth as child television presenter Holly Anna Jones.
Kellie Bright Kellie Denise Bright (born 1 July 1976) is an English actress. Her roles include Linda Carter in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', for which she won the 2015 British Soap Award for Best Actress and Best Dramatic Performance, Julie in ''Ali G ...
, who later appeared in ''
The Upper Hand ''The Upper Hand'' is a British television sitcom broadcast by ITV from 1 May 1990 to 14 October 1996. The programme was adapted from the American sitcom '' Who's the Boss?''. As in the former series, affluent single woman Caroline Wheatley ...
'', ''
The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
'' and ''
EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'', played Sally Simpkins in series five and six, plus a Christmas special. In ''T-Bag and the Rings of Olympus'', the heroine is the Goddess
Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
's handmaiden, Polyzena, or Polly, played by Natalie Wood. In ''T-Bag and the Sunstones of Montezuma'', archaeologist's daughter, heroine Penny Hunt was played by Evelyn Sweeney. Typically, each episode also features two non-regular cast members to enliven the story. Each episode has a different setting in which a magical item is hidden. These are often historical settings or settings from folklore or literature, such as ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, Renaissance Italy and Elizabethan England,
Tom Sawyer Thomas Sawyer () is the titular character of the Mark Twain novel ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and ''Tom Sawyer, Dete ...
's American South,
Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
's Sherwood Forest or a French Foreign Legion station in North Africa which owes something to
Beau Geste ''Beau Geste'' is an adventure novel by British writer P. C. Wren, which details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable jewel from the country house of a rel ...
. Historical figures such as
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
,
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
or Queen
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
make guest appearances. Each episode would usually contain two guests stars (an exception to this was ''Wonders in Letterland'', as Jim Norton appeared in each episode playing a different role), with an anchor character who appeared in the first and last episode to send the girl on her quest. Towards the end of each series, T-Bag and T-Shirt would inevitably have a huge argument and she would take his magic from him (except in ''Turn on to T-Bag'', which turned out to be her downfall) before kicking him out. He would then team up with the girl, and the final episode would usually show T-Bag stealing the collected items back and being within striking distance of victory only to be thwarted at the last second and apparently destroyed, although this was usually temporary. Tallulah Bag (Estensen) was finally destroyed for good in the last episode of ''T-Bag and the Revenge of the T-Set'' and replaced by her sister Tabatha Bag. Although their roles as the villain remained the same, with T-Shirt still by her side, the two characters were quite different. Whereas Tallulah would attempt to keep calm and composed often in attempts to impress people, Tabatha was prone to being over-dramatic and lost her temper. The departure of Tallulah and arrival of Tabatha also caused a role reversal in regards to T-Shirt, as he became more competent and level-headed against her silliness and tendency to rush into situations (to the point that, in ''Pearls of Wisdom'', he was able to successfully deliver one of the titular pearls to T-Bag on two occasions, only for her to immediately lose it both times - not that it stopped her inevitably blaming him for her failure). One common trait was that although both Tallulah and Tabatha spent most of the series as comic relief, both would become very menacing when needed (usually in the last episode). The final series, ''Take Off With T-Bag'', broke the mould the previous series had set. This time T-Bag was the protagonist and travelled in her spaceship with both T-Shirt (who was willingly working for her now) and a new character named Tow Ling Shirt who was T-Shirt's Chinese cousin. She spent the series collecting golden envelopes which were leading to her birthday surprise. In the final episode of the series, she found that she had been on a wild goose chase while Granny Bag set up a surprise party for her during the distraction. T-Bag, in a rare show of heart, declared that the greatest gift of all was friendship just before she had her birthday cake splattered all over her.


Series

The series titles and broadcast dates are given below:


DVD

A new DVD, T-Bag: The Reunion Documentary, featuring interviews with principal cast and crew members was released on 17 September 2007, through UK based company Fantom Films. In December 2008 it was broadcast on
Film24 Film24 was a British television channel, that was available on Sky channel 157. The company had offices at Pinewood Studios and produced content for the TV channel as well as programmes for international TV, the Internet and mobile distribution. ...
. In May 2010,
Revelation Films Revelation Films is a British film and television production and distribution company delivering visual entertainment via cinema, television and digital platforms. Tony Carne founded Revelation Films in 1992 as a video and television production ...
announced plans to release the series on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
. As of autumn 2013, only the first 3 series have been made available by Revelation and there haven't been any further DVD releases. * First series was released on 8 November 2010, * Second on 24 January 2011, * Third on 2 May 2011.


Reception

''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described the show as "...time travel drama somewhere between ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' and ''
Blackadder ''Blackadder'' is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC One from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robins ...
''".


References


External links


The High-T Website
Fan website with video clips, image galleries, merchandise info, cast biographies and Nitpicker's Guide. {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109001403/http://hight.50webs.com/index.html , date=2020-11-09
The T-Room
Including sound and video clips; episode guides etc.

Information about the reunion DVD
Classic Kids TV
Classickidstv page on T-Bag. 1985 British television series debuts 1992 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series 1990s British children's television series ITV children's television shows British children's fantasy television series British time travel television series English-language television shows Television shows produced by Thames Television Television series by Fremantle (company)