Wizadora

A pilot show starred Fawlty Towers writer and actress Connie Booth, who had been alerted to the character by John Cleese who had taken an interest in the production. The pilot was never broadcast.

The concept was then developed into a language teaching tool for children to learn the English language published by Oxford University Press in 1991. Books, audio, and media were produced alongside the series. Originally The title role of Wizadora was initially played by Connie Booth in an unaired pilot before Cathy Lawday played the title role for Oxford University Press.

In 1992, Meridian Broadcasting took up the series. Considerable changes were made for this series. Some major changes included the introduction of Wendy van der Plank as Wizadora, who remained as the character from 1993–1996. Tatty, who was originally played by a woman, was now played by a man (Joe Greco-1993–94, Steven Ryde-1994–98) and Phoebe, who was originally played by an actor, was re-introduced as a 'life-sized' Model. Many characters were introduced and the original characters were given a makeover. Connie Booth was brought back in to write episodes for the series among others.

• Wizadora – the title character, a trainee wizard who receives her magic wand in the pilot episode, initially has problems with getting her spells right. Some of the things in Wizadora's kitchen are able to talk due to stray spells. Wizadora often breaks the fourth wall and talks to the viewers, and usually asks for their help when casting her spells. Wizadora's catchphrases include, "Oh, botheration!" and "Time for a bit of Wizzification!".

Wizadora's companions included –

• Tatty Bogle – a dim-witted scarecrow who lives in Wizadora's back garden and continually gets words muddled up. The character was played by a women before being reintroduced as a man for ITV. Played in the ITV series by Joe Greco[2](1993–1994) and Steven Ryde (1995–1997). Ryde was the voice-over announcer between programmes for the CITV service during the same period.
• Stan the Shopkeeper, who regularly takes delivery of new magical catalogue items, played by Brian Murphy
• Pippa the Postwoman, played by Tessa Hatts
• Top/Sticky/Bottom – three talking drawer people, who resemble socks. Once described as "a real nuisance" by Wizadora, they are very naughty, usually teasing Hangle and/or Filbert, and are always attempting to steal food or getting up to some kind of mischief whenever Wizadora's back is turned. Their antics usually end up causing a lot of trouble; one time Top invented a Grub Grabber to try and steal some food, but the device frightened Filbert who accidentally knocked over some potions, some of which got into Very Old Fish's tank and turned him into a purple blob. Wizadora usually punishes them by zapping them back into their drawers with her wand.
• Phoebe – a talking telephone. Early in the series, Phoebe was played by an actor dressed in a pink costume. In the ITV series Phoebe was re-introduced as a 'life-sized' model telephone, pink with a yellow headset, but later on, she's orange while her headset turns red. Phoebe answers calls, takes messages, and speaks lots of different languages.
• Filbert (Series 1–6 only) – a squeaking vegetable and a fellow trainee wizard. He is also regularly seen gardening. He loves to water the plants. He also talks in gibberish and in later series, English as the character develops.
• Dog Doormat – a barking doormat (Only seen in the first Series for ITV only)
• Hangle – a purple coat hanger (but who insists on calling himself a cloak hanger) with a yellow rain coat, glasses and a purple moustache, with a crude sense of humour. In the first episode of Series 1, Hangle introduces himself as "Cliff Hangle, cloak hanger extraordinaire".
• Very Old Fish – a cryptic talking male fish
• Poot – Wizadora's computer
• Nigel the Snail- lives with Very old fish
• The Crows – Two crows which cause mayhem for Tatty Bogle in the garden
• Roxy – a quite friendly talking spider (Introduced in 1997)
• Dusty – A creature who lives under the fridge, he has a very loud operatic voice and is usually sleeping (seen in the first series for ITV)

One episode of Wizadora was broadcast on CITV on Saturday, 5 January 2013 (the show's 20th anniversary) as part of a CITV anniversary special.[3] This was the first time the show has been broadcast in the UK since it was shown on Living TV in the early 2000s.

The earliest version of the show has been on DVD (oxford press). However, this is not the ITV version, and is instead an educational package.

In 2003, Entertainment Rights produced a 9-minute pilot for a proposed rebooted series for Channel 5's Milkshake! strand, with Anne Foy as Wizadora. Although a new version of the original theme tune was used and the overall look of the set generally in keeping with the earlier version, characters were given varying makeovers, with none of the original models being used, and several new minor characters introduced. CGI and Chroma key effects featured heavily. The proposed new series was not picked up, reportedly due to it being considered too costly.

Although there are no plans for the ITV series to return, the Oxford series is still in production with episodes being repeated on SWR Television. The original Oxford series is still used today as a teaching tool for children to learn English as second language. The DVD, book and audio tapes are still available to buy online, along with a PC-CD ROM. A free APP was produced in 2016. A website was set up in 2015, though it is now defunct as of 2018. In 2016, the German SWR Television, Educational Programmes set up a website featuring the series to foster use of Wizadora films and educational games in elementary schools in Germany. Free educational games based on the series have been developed since 2016 (Apps for android, iOS and webbased for Desktop computers) and are available on www.wizadora.de.

• Wizadora on German TV
• Wizadora on IMDb
• Wizadora at TV.com