Enid Nightshade
| Enid Nightshade | |
|---|---|
| The Worst Witch character | |
| Created by | Jill Murphy |
| Portrayed by |
Jessica Fox Tamara Smart |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Witch, student |
Enid Nightshade is a fictional character from The Worst Witch books by Jill Murphy. She is best known for being a wild practical joker and is best friends with Mildred Hubble and Maud Moonshine and, like Mildred and Maud, has a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow and Drusilla Paddock.
Enid Nightshade in the books
Enid first appears in the second book of the series, The Worst Witch Strikes Again where she transfers to Miss Cackle's Academy in the Summer Term of Mildred's first year. She is described as having "hair the colour of milky tea" worn in a thick plait secured by a black hair ribbon and, despite not being fat, "there seemed to be an awful lot of her". Much to the chagrin of both Maud and Miss Hardbroom, Mildred is assigned by Miss Cackle to look after Enid. This causes Maud to break off her friendship with Mildred and go off in a jealous huff. Enid, at first, appears to be dull and boring but turns out to be a wild practical joker.
Throughout the second book, she gets Mildred into trouble without owning up, such as deliberately singing out of tune in a chanting lesson with Miss Bat and making Mildred burst out laughing, turning her black cat into a monkey, and putting a spell on Mildred's pole, causing her to soar through the air and land into Miss Hardbroom's study. Enid matures at the end of the book where she actually becomes friends with both Mildred and Maud. In all the other books, Enid mainly acts as a voice-of-reason to Mildred.
In the audiobook versions of the series, narrator Miriam Margolyes reads Enid with a Welsh accent (Enid being originally a Welsh name), although it is unknown if Murphy intended the character to be Welsh.
Enid Nightshade in the TV series
In The Worst Witch, Enid was played by British actress Jessica Fox. In the TV series, Enid's physical appearance is largely changed. In the books she is taller than Mildred, but in the TV series she is smaller than Mildred. Her milky tea-coloured hair is changed to dark-coloured (though she keeps the plait) and she has smaller limbs. Her joky personality is still intact, where she is seen playing several pranks on people, such as in the episode "The Great Outdoors" where she sends several forms of bad weather to Ethel and Drusilla. In the episode "Alarms and Diversions" where she sends a mini tornado into Ethel's room, in the episode "The Millennium Bug" where she tried to fool Amanda Honeydew that an axe had a mind of its own to prevent her from buying the castle, and in the episode "The Hair Witch Project" where she made restoring the flavour to chewed bubblegum her Third Year Witch Project (after the chewed bubblegum was tested by Mildred it was blown into a huge bubble where it drifted down the corridor and burst into Miss Drill's face). Despite her eccentric nature, Enid is normally a very true friend.
In the new BBC reboot, Enid will be portrayed by newcomer Tamara Smart.[1]