The Daemons & The White Witch of Devil’s End by Reeltime Pictures Review

I’ve always been fascinated by good witches ever since reading as a child The Little Witch by Otfried Preußler. With November truly settling in with colder darker nights here at The Big Blue Box Podcast, I want to celebrate the general goodness and witchery of the determined but kind Olive Hawthorn, played by Damaris Hayman with a review of The Daemons and a Doctor Who-associated video production The White Witch of Devil’s End.

The Daemons

The Daemons is often stated as one of the favourite Doctor Who stories of the Pertwee era. Watching it again after quite a few years it feels like a story from a bygone age. It’s a pleasant feeling going back to the 1970s when people were seen congregating around the television and a meeting place in the pub.

The story is full of all the familiar elements of what we’ve grown to love from the Pertwee era. There is a strong leading man, lots of vehicular action, familiar characters from UNIT, Jo and Bessie mixed in with all the enjoyable non-gory elements of a Hammer horror story. The story sets out its stall early in night scenes with sheets of rain, a howling wind, thunder and lightning and a man who dies.

It’s inviting drama beaconing you to sit back and enjoy the ride. The clues keep coming in episode 1 that there is a calamity coming with the mention by Olive Hawthorne of the horned beast, death and destruction, Beltane, the greatest occult festival and Devil’s End so that the Doctor and Jo have to speed down in Bessie to the village.

How clever the script is to build the tension using a tv broadcast at the site of an archaeological dig, to be broadcast live on TV on the eve of Beltane as Professor Horner has planned to break into “The Devils Hump”, All the drama around the breaking into the barrow reminds me a bit of the reaction of the 1922 excavation led by the Egyptologist Howard Carter to excavate the tomb of Tutankhamen.

The chaotic tension behind the scenes with the TV crew and Horner bickering as the professor is suitably unimpressed with the highly strung TV presenter who is all stress and nail-biting behind the scenes and switches to a highly irritating smarmy TV persona when addressing the viewers. It’s enjoyable dynamics between the city-type slightly cynical TV crew when there is a village of secret covens and curses.

Season 8 is where the Master appears in every story and there is a part of me that if I had watched the whole season would have probably rolled my eyes by now but watching The Daemons solo there is something highly amusing about the Master in spectacles wearing a vicar’s robes. He’s delighting in the irony of becoming a master criminal behind a respectable disguise creating a coven of followers. I’m sure he is the comic relief for the story as he cajoles the villagers to follow “I only need two things – your submission and your obedience to my will” with the promise of power and the next minute forget and abuse them as “you’re all less than dust beneath my feet!”.

Normally the Master wants to take centre stage as the main villain but I rather enjoy that with Azal he has taken on more than he can cope with and becomes quite low in the pecking order in terms of threat to the Earth.

At the beginning of the story, Jo and the Doctor have an interesting discussion regarding whether unexplained events are magic and the Doctor as a scientist berates her as he can find the logical and rational explanation. Jon Pertwee does play haughty well as the Doctor tries to explain how science is behind the events at Devil’s End impatiently to the villagers several times.

His Doctor easily becomes exasperated by the human race but Jo Grant, is on hand meanwhile with a slightly cheeky air to puncture his arrogant edges and their father-daughter relationship feels warm. It is a novel idea human progression has been the result of alien intervention from demons from the planet Daemos. Azal is in essence playing a god as a scientist who has decided the Earth experiment is failing.

Jo inadvertently saves the day with an act of self-sacrifice which gets Azal in a tizzy about how illogical it is that he destroys himself. It’s not the strongest resolution if I’m honest but it wraps up the story so the Doctor and Benton can have a far more interesting time learning the Maypole dance.

In the behind-the-scenes, it’s revealed the script by Barry Letts and Bob Sloman played to the actors’ personalities and preferences so you get to have Mike Yates riding a motorbike (which I loved) and with the exchanges between him and the Brigadier are comedy gold.

John Levene loved stage fights so there are a few in The Daemons but how Benton as a trained soldier is beaten up so soundly by villagers is a bit of a mystery. Oh, it’s a mystery…  He rescues Olive Hawthorne however “a damsel in distress”. Both she and Benton play to their strengths as they become a dynamic duo of sorts which is rather sweet and funny as she hits an attacking Morris dancer over the head with her reticule and Benton shoots objects as they try to persuade the villagers the Doctor is a wizard.

It wasn’t until rewatching The Daemons that I noticed Olive Hawthorne doesn’t have that many scenes after episode one but her impact as a well-loved character is due to a marvellous delivery by Damaris Hayman who fleshes out this strident woman as well as the lovely pairing with John Levene as her “knight in shining armour”. Olive is focused, open, keen to learn from the Doctor and understands her role to protect the village. I’m not sure if we have seen a white witch in Doctor Who but Damaris Hayman as Olive Hawthorne certainly has a determination as the one lone outspoken voice before the Doctor arrives that no one wants to believe in.

In one respect she could be considered a crank, on the verges of what is normal as she believes in magic and senses something evil having “cast the runes”. However, she has a charm and level-headedness that makes me like her so much. There is a moment where you think she will fall under the Master’s attempt at hypnotism, but she resists, and the realisation hits she is mentally very strong. She isn’t a meek person.

The White Witch of Devil’s End

Reeltime Pictures creates related content using Doctor Who characters and in 2017 The White Witch of Devil’s End came out for the home purchase market. It is set in the older years of Olive Hawthorne and allows Damaris Hayman to let the character take centre stage in a way that doesn’t happen in The Daemons. In a talking heads style Olive is mostly in her cottage by the fire. She recounts different points in her life to the camera addressing a spirit she can only see through a collection of separate stories.

There are six stories in the collection which include live-action sequences with actors playing other characters which you see from Olive’s point of view. This is probably visually the least interesting element in the production as with the live-action sequences you don’t hear the other actors’ voices as Olive is the narrator. Damaris at 84 years old when this production was made is excellent as Olive and as a narrator. Her voice and appearance demonstrate a wealth of acting experience which draws you in although some stories have stronger writing than others.

The first story The Inheritance covers her early life as a twin and how Olive Hawthorne started her journey to becoming the white witch and guardian of Devil’s End. The warning in the story is she will need to choose the right path but it will involve many sacrifices throughout her life as a guardian.

The second story Half Light resonated with me so much when Olive is attracted to a stranger Victor. Other stories deal with adversaries which may be demons that kidnap children (The Cat Who Walks through Worlds which features Sophie Aldred’s son) or cast spells on other people (The Poppet).

As Olive comes towards the end of her life  (Daemos Returns and Hawthorne Blood) she worries about the future and what will happen after she dies in the village, and this is reflected by her thoughts in the stories as she deals with the different threats to Devil’s End.

The White Witch of Devil’s End is an interesting collection of stories as Olive is just a human being with thoughts and emotions but very tied to her destiny. She had psychic premonitions and visions from a young age and the bloodline of the Hawthornes has always protected the village. The exploration of her life in these stories adds some depth to what we see in The Daemons in what can be a lonely journey as a guardian. I think the stories would have been fantastic also as an audiobook.

The Daemons is available on the Doctor Who The Collection Season 8 Blu-ray Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 8 – Limited Edition Packaging [Blu-ray] [2021]: Amazon.co.uk and White Witch of Devil’s End is available through timetraveltv.com

What are your thoughts on The Daemons or have you seen The White Witch of Devil’s End? Where does the story rank for you? Post your thoughts here, on the Big Blue Box Podcast Discord Server or on Twitter. Let’s talk!