ITV2’s new show Switch (from the production outfit behind Being Human ) follows a very modern “coven” of four young witches living in London, played by Lacey Turner, Nina Touissant-White, Phoebe Fox and Hannah Tointon. But how are the spells cast?
SFX got to see for ourselves on set, as we watched the filming of a scene where the witches (each of whom represents one of the four elements – Earth, Water, Air and Fire) cast a resurrection spell on… a dead cat! (Fear not, no animals were harmed…) Afterwards, we got Nina Toussaint-White (Mels in Doctor Who ), who plays the bolshy Jude, to talk us through the process:
“Phoebe, who plays Grace, is Water. She’s more into the spells than anyone else – she has more of a solstice background, and her mum, who Caroline Quentin plays, is really into making her a traditional witch, whereas we’re really modern. So Phoebe gets the book out and kinda gives us a nudge and tells us we all can do it, tells me I’m Fire, and then we all go and get an element.
“So Hannah is taking feathers out of a pillow to make Air. I then try and light a lighter – doesn’t work, “Bollocks!” – and go off and get some matches. Lacey, who’s Earth, gets a plant pot and just starts hitting it. And then we stick some water in from a vase. So you just find what you can to make the elements of the pot. And we all have to be together to do a spell.”
Switch kicks off on ITV2 in October. Read more about the show in the new issue of SFX , on sale now. Switch features in our 24-page Awesome TV Preview bonus mini-mag, alongside all of the big new shows starting between now and Christmas.
To celebrate the preview mag, for the next two weeks we’re going to be running a story from a different show every day on sfx.co.uk – featuring extra content you won’t be able to read in the magazine. Come back tomorrow for Day 11.
Go back to Day 9 of the Awesome TV Preview : Star Wars: The Clone Wars