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T-Bag is a witch-like character who appears in a number of television programmes which ran from the
mid-80s to early 90s on Children's
ITV. Written by Grant
Cathro and Lee
Pressman, each series has a different title and features a single story told
over several episodes.
From 1985 to 1989, the original T-Bag is Tallulah Bag, played by Elizabeth
Estensen. In 1990, Elizabeth Estensen left the show and Tallulah was
destroyed attempting to kill T-Shirt and Sally Simpkins with a spell which they
reflected back onto her. She was subsequently replaced by her sister, Tabatha
Bag, played by Georgina
Hale. Coincidentally both actresses subsequently had roles on the ITV soap Emmerdale.
Both sisters obtain magical powers by drinking tea made from the 'High
T-Plant' and both are incapable of brewing it properly themselves and require an
assistant or 'Tea Caddy' to do it for them. In return for his help, T-Bag shares
her magical powers with her assistant T-Shirt and he serves as her sidekick.
T-Shirt (Thomas Shirt) is played by John Hasler throughout the series, starting as a
small child in the early series, and growing up on screen until he towered above
Georgina Hale by the time the final series ended in 1992. In the early episodes,
he worked in a toy shop and was re-acquired by T-Bag in the first episode of
each series. In later episodes, however, the toy shop, and references to
T-Shirt's supposed normal human life between series, were dropped, and 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, (rather limited, owing to cheap 1980's
special effects) mostly consist of conjuring objects out of thin air when
needed, sending objects elsewhere and teleporting across time and space
instantaneously. T-Bag triggers her teleport ability by clicking her fingers,
T-Shirt finds finger clicking too difficult and blinks instead.
The premise of each series involves various items hidden across time and
space with T-Bag and the heroine both trying to find them. Debbie Carter, played
by Jennie
Stallwood is the heroine of the first three series. Diana
Barrand took over for series four as child television presenter; Holly Anna
Jones. Kellie Bright,
who later appeared in The Upper Hand and The Archers, 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's
handmaiden, Polyzena, or Polly, played by Natalie Wood. In T-Bag and the
Sunstones of Montezuma, Archeologist's daughter; Penny Hunt is played by Evelyn
Sweeney. Typically, each episode also features two non-regular cast members
to progress the story.
The scattered items are either needed by the heroine in order to defeat T-Bag
or are needed by T-Bag in order to carry out some evil plan to take over the
world and are scattered across time and space in the first episode of each
series to prevent T-Bag from acquiring them. Each episode then consists of the
contest between T-Bag and T-Shirt on one side, and the girl on the other, to
acquire one of the magical items.
Each episode has a different setting in which the magical item is hidden,
usually either historical periods; such as ancient Egypt, ancient Rome,
Renaissance Italy or Elizabethan England. Or settings from folklore or
literature; Tom Sawyer's American South, Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest, or a
French Foreign Legion station in North Africa which owes something to Beau Geste. Sometimes historical
figures such as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci or Queen Elizabeth I
make a guest appearance. Thus, there is an educational element to the show,
although these settings and characters are always treated lightly rather than
with great accuracy.
The early series were loosely based upon the good vs. evil theme, Tallulah
being the more sinister of the sisters. Typically, the final episode features a
return to the setting of the first episode, the magical items re-united, a last
minute struggle over the possession of them; often with T-Bag briefly gaining
possession through trickery and T-Bag's defeat by the girl; often with the aid
of T-Shirt, who tends to switch sides. The comic aspects are usually dropped and
T-Bag becomes a much more sinister character as she seems on the point of
achieving her dreams of world domination, only to be thwarted at the
last minute.
The later series were designed to have a lighter tone. Tabatha; a
ridiculously vain, self-deluded character, having had enough of being the 'good'
sister, wanted to try being the 'evil' one for a change but was comically
incompetent at it. She tended to get an amusing comeuppance at the end of the
episode and T-Shirt was far more sympathetic towards her than to Tallulah. This
theme lead to the last series; "Take Off with T-Bag", which features T-Bag
merely looking for clues to track down her birthday present and no one
attempting to beat her to it. T-Shirt's young cousin Tow Ling, played by Bea
Julakasiun, also featured and T-Bag became a purely comic character. |
 Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved
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| Title |
Year of broadcast |
| Wonders in Letterland |
(1985) |
| T-Bag Strikes Again |
(1986) |
| T-Bag Bounces Back |
(1987) |
| Turn on to T-Bag |
(1988) |
| T-Bag's Christmas Cracker |
(1988) |
| T-Bag and the Revenge of the T-Set |
(1989) |
| T-Bag's Christmas Carol |
(1989) |
| T-Bag and the Pearls of
Wisdom |
(1990) |
| T-Bag's Christmas Ding Dong |
(1990) |
| T-Bag and the Rings of
Olympus |
(1991) |
| T-Bag's Christmas Turkey |
(1991) |
| T-Bag and the Sunstones of Montezuma |
(1992) |
| Take Off with T-Bag |
(1992) |
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