Liewe Heksie

Liewe Heksie
Created by Verna Vels
Based on Radio stories by Verna Vels
Directed by Louise Smit
Dalene Kotzé
Opening theme "Hulle noem haar Liewe Heksie"
Country of origin South Africa
Original language(s) Afrikaans
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 52
Production company(s) SABC
Release
Original network SABC TV1

Liewe Heksie (Afrikaans for "Beloved Little Witch") is an Afrikaans work of fiction created by children's book author Verna Vels in 1961. It centres on Liewe Heksie, a rather incompetent and forgetful witch, who lives with her friends the elves in Blommeland and whose foolishness and lack of magic skills leads to many funny situations. The Liewe Heksie series started off as radio stories, followed by books and stories on vinyl record. Liewe Heksie made a television debut in 1978 as an Afrikaans language children's television programme, directed by well-known children's program writer and director Louise Smit. A second series of Liewe Heksie followed in 1981, for a total of 52 television programs.

Storyline

Livinia,[1] or ‘Liewe Heksie’ as she is referred to by her friends, is the kind-hearted yet not very bright witch of Blommeland (“Flower Land”). Heksie cannot really do magic, but has a magic horse named Griet whom she can conjure up by saying his name. But, she can never remember it and only ever summons him by accident when she calls out “Oh Griet!” in panic. Her best friends are Blommie Kabouter (“kabouter” meaning elf or sprite), her kitten Mattewis and the stylish city cat Karel Kat, who rides a fancy car and owns a helicopter. She also loves playing with Klein Kwaaitjie Kabouter (“little angry elf”), the baby brother of the bad-tempered Kwaaitjie Kabouter. The ruler of Blommeland is the strict but kind Koning Rosekrans (“King Rose Wreath”), who is very fond of Heksie but gets frustrated with her inability to do magic and her repeatedly getting his name wrong. The source of Blommeland’s floral beauty is the strictly guarded Silwerroos (“Silver Rose”) which is coveted by the Gifappeltjies (“little poisoned apples”) and their evil witch the Geelheks (“yellow witch”). They frequently send two ‘kabouters’, Kerrie (“curry”) and Borrie (“turmeric”), to steal the rose to brighten up dry, barren Gifappeltjieland. Should they succeed, all the flowers in Blommeland would die and their land would become barren like Gifappeltjieland. However, on each of these occasions, Liewe Heksie manages to save the day, albeit accidentally, and is hailed a heroine. Sometimes the Feekoningin ("Fairy Queen") intervenes, and lets Heksie believe that she has done some real magic.

Stories

Series 1

Series 2

Published books

The first two books were illustrated by Dorothy Hill, the third by Nikki Jones and the last two by Piet Grobler.

Radio and television

In both the radio and TV versions, Vels herself provided the voice of Liewe Heksie. Many of the recorded Liewe Heksie stories also appeared on records and more recently CDs.

Puppets

Puppets, made by a modelmaking team headed by Rod Campbell, were used to bring the Liewe Heksie characters to life for their television debut in 1981. Ronel Botha designed the characters out of plasticine. The puppets were 22 centimetres in size. The flexible latex faces could move, the eyes could blink and a special mechanism inserted into the Liewe Heksie puppet made her cry, and her hat could move over her eyes when she was shy. A separate marionette version of Liewe Heksie was used when she flew on her broom. Due to the deterioration of the latex very few, if any, of these puppets exist today and sadly the original plasticine masters and moulds were damaged.

Parodies

The Liewe Heksie series was parodied on local comedian Casper de Vries's show Die Casper Rasper Show, with Verna Vels as a guest on the show. The sketch uses foul language, with costumes that don't really resemble the shows outfits. It suggests that Blommie and Koning Rosekrans are gay, and that Liewe Heksie has an affair with a Gifappel. Many references to the show's history are also mentioned.

Revival

There were plans for the show to be redone in 3D-CGI animation and be released in 26 episodes of 11 minutes each in 2007. It was to be animated by Anamazing Workshop, and produced by Meerkat Media, but economic conditions were poor and the project was scrapped.

References

  1. ↑ http://vintagemedia.co.za/television/liewe-heksie
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