Simon And The Witch

Simon and The Witch was a dramatisation of the books by Margaret Stuart Barry, in which a boy named Simon befriends a witch (played by Elizabeth Spriggs). The show is most remembered, however, for featuring Joan Sims, as daft aristocrat Lady Fox-Custard. Two series were made, totaling 25 episodes.
 

Simon and the Witch – Episode Guide/Transmission History

A short (about 5 minutes) behind-the-scenes preview was aired on BBC 1 on Tuesday 3rd November 1987:
Making Simon And The Witch – 1987/11/03 16:30 - Andy Crane goes behind the scenes to meet Simon, the Witch and the director of this new children's serial.

Series 1, 13 Episodes – All BBC1 – Mondays and Tuesdays – Autumn/Winter 1987
1.01 – 1987/11/16 16:40 - What do you do with a witch who has trouble with her 'spelling'?  Simon decides that she should go to school.
1.02 – 1987/11/17 16:20 - The Witch is finally tempted to school by Simon's revolting descriptions of school dinners - but the frogspawn and toad-in-the-hole don't live up to her expectations.
1.03 – 1987/11/23 16:40 - After only one day at school, the Witch decides to play truant. She thinks up a song for the European Song Contest. Meanwhile, Jimmy has a lot of bad luck.
1.04 – 1987/11/24 16:15 - The Witch goes looking for George, and Lady Fox-Custard gets at least one unpleasant surprise.
1.05 – 1987/11/30 16:40 - The Hon Cuthbert Fox-Custard discovers what it's like to have fun. Meanwhile George, the cat, is causing a national emergency.
1.06 – 1987/12/01 16:20 - The Witch is ill, so it's a good job her sister is a witch doctor. But did she have to bring a gorilla with her?
1.07 – 1987/12/07 16:40 - Who is the mysterious fortune-teller at Lady Fox-Custard's jumble sale?
1.08 – 1987/12/08 16:15 - The day after the jumble sale and almost everybody is in trouble - including Miss Phoeble and Mr Bodley.
1.09 – 1987/12/14 16:40 - Spooky things occur as the Hallowe'en party approaches.
1.10 – 1987/12/15 16:15 - The school Hallowe'en party doesn't go quite as well as Mr Bodley had hoped.... 
1.11 – 1987/12/21 16:40 - How can the Witch pass Mr Bodley 's general knowledge test when she doesn't know anything?
1.12 – 1987/12/22 16:20 - The casting for the school pantomime causes more problems than Miss Phoeble would have wished for.
1.13 – 1987/12/29 16:20 - The great day has arrived! Everyone waits with bated breath as thecurtain goes up on The Sleeping Beauty.

Series 1 First Repeat Run (ALL) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays – Spring/Summer 1988
1.01 – 1988/05/24 16:20, 1.02 – 1988/05/31 16:20, 1.03 – 1988/06/07 16:15, 1.04 – 1988/06/21 16:20, 1.05 – 1988/06/28 16:20, 1.06 – 1988/07/05 16:20, 1.07 – 1988/07/12 16:15, 1.08 – 1988/07/19 16:15, 1.09 – 1988/07/26 16:20, 1.10 – 1988/08/02 16:15, 1.11 – 1988/08/09 16:15, 1.12 – 1988/08/16, 1.13 – 1988/08/23 16:15.
NB – A one week break was taken in June, due to BBC1’s sporting commitments.

Series 2 – All BBC1 – Mondays and Tuesdays – Autumn/Winter 1988
2.01 – 1988/11/14 16:40 - How can Mr Valdini keep his cafe open when there's no one to eat the spaghetti? Simon and the Witch decide to help.
2.02 – 1988/11/15 16:15 - Lady Fox-Custard goes on a health kick.
2.03 – 1988/11/21 16:40 - The plan to save Valdini's goes into action. But Lady Fox-Custard and Sally are determined to spoil everything.
2.04 – 1988/11/22 16:20 - An unexpected visitor fliesin to see the Witch and brings some unusual pets.
2.05 – 1988/11/28 16:40 - While Angelica recovers from her nasty surprise, Lady Fox-Custard organises an entertainment for 'nice' young children, and the Witch and Tombola go hunting for snails.
2.06 – 1988/11/29 16:20 - The Witch and Tombola visit Valdini's to eat spaghetti.
2.07 – 1988/12/05 16:40 - Things are going badly for the Witch. Her wand is missing, and, to make things worse, she hasn't even been invited to Cuthbert's birthday party.
2.08 – 1988/12/06 16:20 - Tombola's snakes are getting on the Witch's nerves, and the vacuum cleaner won't work. Could there be a connection?
2.09 – 1988/12/12 16:40 - The Holiday Club has been closed down, but who cares with a real live Witch around?
2.10 – 1988/12/13 16:20 - The Witch decides to pour cold water on Lady Fox-Custard's plans.
2.11 – 1988/12/19 16:40 - Sally becomes a spy, and the Witch becomes a cleaner.
2.12 – 1988/12/20 16:20 - Can Lady Fox-Custard use her influence with the police to close down Valdini's?

Series 2 First Repeat Run (ALL) – All BBC1 - Thursdays – Summer 1989
2.01 – 1989/06/15 16:20, 2.02 – 1989/06/22 16:20, 2.03 – 1989/06/29 16:20, 2.04 – 1989/07/06 16:20, 2.05 – 1989/07/13 16:20, 2.06 – 1989/07/20 16:20, 2.07 – 1989/07/27 16:20, 2.08 – 1989/08/03 16:20, 2.09 – 1989/08/10 16:20, 2.10 – 1989/08/17 16:25, 2.11 – 1989/08/24 16:20, 2.12 – 1989/08/31 16:20.

Series 1 Second Repeat Run (ALL) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays and Thursdays – Spring 1990
1.01 – 1990/04/03 16:20, 1.02 – 1990/04/05 16:15, 1.03 – 1990/04/10 16:20, 1.04 – 1990/04/12 16:15, 1.05 – 1990/04/17 16:20, 1.06 – 1990/04/19 16:20, 1.07 – 1990/04/24 16:20, 1.08 – 1990/04/25 16:20, 1.09 – 1990/05/01 16:25, 1.10 – 1990/05/03 16:15, 1.11 – 1990/05/08 16:20, 1.12 – 1990/05/10 16:20, 1.13 – 1990/05/15 16:20.

Series 2 Second Repeat Run (ALL) – All BBC1 – Tuesdays and Thursdays – Spring 1991
2.01 – 1991/04/02 16:20, 2.02 – 1991/04/04 16:20, 2.03 – 1991/04/09 16:20, 2.04 – 1991/04/11 16:20, 2.05 – 1991/04/16 16:20, 2.06 – 1991/04/18 16:20, 2.07 – 1991/04/23 16:20, 2.08 – 1991/04/25 16:20, 2.09 – 1991/04/30 16:20, 2.10 – 1991/05/02 16:20, 2.11 – 1991/05/07 16:20, 2.12 – 1991/05/09 16:15

Series 1 and Series 2 Third Repeat Runs – BBC2* - Sundays – Winter 1993/4
1.01 – 1993/11/21 09:15, 1.02 – 1993/11/28 09:15, 1.03 – 1993/12/05 09:15, 1.04 – 1993/12/12 09:30, 1.05 – 1993/12/19 09:15, 1.06 – 1993/12/26 09:00*, .1.07 – 1994/01/02 09:20, 1.08 – 1994/01/09 09:15, 1.09 – 1994/01/16 09:15, 1.10 – 1994/01/23 09:15, 1.11 – 1994/01/30 09:15, 1.12 – 1994/02/06 09:25, 1.13 – 1994/02/20 10:00*, 2.01 – 1994/02/27 09:25, 2.02 – 1994/03/06 09:25, 2.03 – 1994/03/13 09:25, 2.04 – 1994/03/20 09:25, 2.05 – 1994/03/27 09:25, 2.06 – 1994/04/03 08:55, 2.07 – 1994/04/10 09:20, 2.08 – 1994/04/17 09:20, 2.09 – 1994/04/24 09:25, 2.10 – 1994/05/01 09:25, 2.11 – 1994/05/08 09:25, 2.12 – 1994/05/15 09:25.
NB –  Sunday morning CBBC moved to BBC1 for one week only on Boxing Day 1993, to make way for seasonal programming on BBC2. Sunday morning CBBC also partially moved to BBC1 for two weeks in February 1994, the 13th and 20th, to accommodate Olympic Grandstand,  with a restricted timeslot on BBC1 only on the 13th there wasn’t room for all the usual Sunday morning programmes, so some, including Simon and the Witch were dropped for the week. On 20th the CBBC strand was alternated between BBC1 and BBC2 through the morning, depending on were the free schedule slots were, in order to accommodate CBBC’s usual Sunday morning schedule, and Simon and the Witch was one of the shows that went out on BBC1 that morning.

Series 1 and Series 2 Fourth Repeat Runs – CBBC Channel – Weekdays – Winter 2002
Broadcast every weekday at 14:35 from 2002/11/18 to 2002/12/20, presumably in order. Whilst it was great that the fledgling CBBC digital channel chose to rerun this series, it’s timeslot, at a time when both the programme’s and the channel’s target audience were at school, combined with the fact that in the channel’s pre-freeview days it was only available to a small portion of the viewing public anyway, meant that almost no-one saw this re-run. It is however thanks to this re-run that so much of the show is now available on youtube.