What's On TV Over Halloween (Samhain to us Pagans)

Seeing as it is the weekend before Halloween – or Samhain – there are obviously quite a lot of horror films on the telly. However, not many seem to be witch-related this year. I’ve looked through my Radio Times and this is what I have spotted.

Tonight at 1am you can watch the 1968 classic Witchfinder General starring Vincent Price. This movie about the historic witchfinder Matthew Hopkins is on BBC2 at 1.10am. It gets 5 stars and as I don’t think I have ever seen it, I’ll give it a go.

On Sunday at 3.50pm, Channel 4 is showing Addams Family Values. OK, maybe not totally witchcraft related, but one of my favourites. At 10pm you can watch a made-for-TV drama on Lifetime called Amish Witches: The True Story of Holmes County. Apparently it isn’t very good according to a review I read.

Film4 is offering a witchy double bill on Halloween itself. Bell, Book and Candle – a 1958 American romantic comedy starring Kim Novak as a witch who casts a spell on her neighbor played by James Stewart – is on at 4.45pm. Hocus Pocus – a fun black comedy about three witches who are resurrected – is on Film4 at 6.55pm on Monday October 31.

I couldn’t seem to find many documentaries about paganism on the telly either – which is a bit unusual. Tony Robinson’s superb series Britain’s Ancient Tracks, about the history, myths and legends associated with the network of ancient trackways that have been travelled by people in Britain for over 5000 years, isn’t on this week.

If you haven’t seen the first two episodes yet – on the Icknield Way and The Ridgeway – they are worth watching on catch-up. The next one in the series is about the North Downs Way and will be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 4 November at 8pm.

What you can watch this evening if you like Tony Robinson is an old Time Team episode on Discovery History at 7pm in which the archaeologists dig on Anglesey hoping to find evidence of ancient druids.

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