Sherwood Sorceress (home video)
Sherwood Sorceress was a video diary released as a download by BBV Productions on their new website in 2021. Notable for reconciling the information given about Liz Shaw's future in Fable Fusion with the events of the P.R.O.B.E. — establishing Elizabeth Holub as her granddaughter by a previous, heterosexual relationship before her marriage to Patricia Haggard — it eventually became the last entry of the P.R.O.B.E. Case Files - Volume 1 DVD release.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Giles helps Liz save a kidnapped child.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
On 9 January 2021, Liz Haggard turns up at P.R.O.B.E. HQ with a personal request for Giles, which he notes is uncharacteristic of her. She quickly explains that her young granddaughter Elizabeth Holub — the daughter of Simon, Liz's son by a previous relationship — has been kidnapped. Although mildly hurt that this is the first Liz ever told him of that side of her family, Giles naturally agrees to help and jumps into action, using P.R.O.B.E.'s backdoor access to the Ministry of Defence's nation-wide surveillance network.
Since they have none of the proper paperwork, this still requires a bit of jiggery-pokery from Maxie, but soon enough the facial recognition software gives them a series of hits on Elizabeth's location over the past few days, including security footage from a service station on the M1, taken early in the morning, showing her in the back of a car with two unidentified male drivers. Tracking the car (which they easily identify as stolen), they trace its movements all the way to Nottingham.
The location soon reminds Liz of one of the old cases she solved during her time at P.R.O.B.E. with Louise Bayliss, which she recounts to Giles. Sightings of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest had turned out to be illusions cast by a Sorceress to lure children into a stone circle where she'd set up camp so that she could magically drain their life force to augment her own lifespan by means of a spell bound to grimoire. Though the women had foiled her operation, stealing the grimoire without which she was powerelss, she had escaped alive.
As Liz directs Giles to the stone circle, it soon becomes clear that she and her two mind-controlled henchmen have indeed returned, with little Elizabeth all set to become her latest victim, having been gagged and tied to a pole in the centre of the stone circle. The Sorceress emerges, dismayingly cadaverous but alive, and explains that she spent the last few decades looking for a new grimoire of equal power to the one she lost, and plotting revenge against Liz — hence targeting her granddaughter as her first victim this time around. Heedless of the danger, Giles makes to free Elizabeth. Although the Sorceress's goons lunge at him and begin to beat him, he managed to loosen her bond sufficiently that the girl manages to free herself completely and, picking up a log, whacks one of them in the head, not quite managing to knock him out, but distracting both sufficiently to give Giles an edge. Meanwhile, Liz tackles the feeble Sorceress and snatches her grimoire away from her, once again stripping her of her powers.
With the powerless Sorceress handed over to the police, Giles and Liz drive Elizabeth back to Cambridge, where Liz elects to stick around to spend a bit of quality time with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. This leaves Giles to return to P.R.O.B.E. HQ, where he ends up solving three more cases before the day's out, only then recording a case file on the Sherwood Sorceress case and taking a break for a nice cup of tea.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Louise Bayliss
- Liz Haggard
- Elizabeth Holub
- Elizabeth Holub's mother
- Maxie Masters
- The Sherwood Sorceress
- The Sherwood Sorceress's stocky goon
- The Sherwood Sorceress's other goon
- Simon
Mentioned only[[edit] | [edit source]]
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Writer - James Hornby
- Script editor - Lucy Wood-Ives
- Art - Warren Lewis
- Theme - Mark Ayres
- Logo - Lucas Kovacs
- Editing and Post-production - Callum Brown and Bill Baggs
- With special thanks to Hunter O'Connell and James Wylder at Arcbeatle Press
- Liz Shaw used with the kind permission of the BBC. Likeness based on the actor Hazel Burrows.
- Elizabeth Holub used with the kind permission of Gary A. Braunbeck and Lucy A. Snyder.
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Giles is called away from the end of recording his video diary by the whistle of the kettle boiling.
Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Sherwood Sorceress was originally released for free on the BBV website and, simultaneously, on the BBV YouTube channel, though it was later paywalled.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Liz's granddaughter Elizabeth Holub originated in the short story PROSE: Fable Fusion [+]Loading...["Fable Fusion (short story)"].
- Liz recounts a case which occurred during her early days at P.R.O.B.E., with her partnered with Louise Bayliss, as introduced in HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative [+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"].
- An image of the Sherwood Sorceress appeared prominently in HOMEVID: A Message From Sir Andrew [+]Loading...["A Message From Sir Andrew (home video)"].
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official Sherwood Sorceress page at bbvproductions.co.uk
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