Aunt Alice (Mary Tamm) is the major villainess in the 1997 episode "Witches of the Abbey" for the action adventure TV series "The New Adventures of Robin Hood".
Aunt Alice is harboring a hidden life. She is posing as an Abbess of a large Abbey. However, she is also the head witch a group of three beautiful but evil witches who live in the catacombs of the abbey. The other two witches that make up the group are Winifred (Chantal Marcks) who is a blonde, and Hester (Maria Lennon) who is a redhead. (The imdb site has these two actresses incorrectly identified in reverse).
The three witches grow tired of Brendan (Shayne Anderson), their man slave since he is not strong enough and is not pleasing to them. Therefore, they trade him in for a younger and stronger model, who happens to be Little John (Richard Ashton). That make John their captive with mind control and he resumes the duties of being their slave.
Their old slave Brendan was returned to his village after ten years, with very little recollection of his time as a slave. When Robin realizes that Little John is gone, he figures that John has replaced Brendan. He poses as a nun and enters the abbey to speak with his aunt Alice. She denies taking Little John, and laughs at the thought that witches reside inside the abbey.
After being sent out, Robin decides to take a back way into the abbey. However, when he does, the witches are able to track his every move by watching him inside the witches caldron. They use trickery into making Robin not find anything on his investigation.
Later we see Hester and Winifred stiring the witches brew. It is up to them to make beauty creams and other souvenirs that the abbey can sell on the side in order to make a living. Winifred complains when Hester makes a splash and reminds her, that one drop on their beautiful skin, and it's all over for us.
Alice devises a plan to send Little John out to lie, steal, and cheat, since it will hurt Robin's reputation, and the people will gladly hand him over to Prince John. Little John starts by robbing the taxes from a village. Robin rectifies it by authorizing enough gold to make up for the money stolen. Robin then decides he has to find some way of getting back into the abbey to look around.
Because of the powerful magic they practice, Robin Hood (Matthew Porretta) is unable to breech the catacombs of the abbey in order to save his friend. As a result, Robin uses a magic potion from Friar Truck (Martyn Ellis) in order to fake his own death. He does this in order to trick his evil Aunt Alice, who will entomb him in the family crypt inside the abbey.
Robin gains entrance to the abbey and Alice is told that he died from mushroom cassarole. After being laid in the Locksley crypt, Robin is given the aneqdote through a kiss from Marion Fitzwalter (Anna Galvin). Before Alice leaves the crypt, she attempts to take Robin's sword and bow and arrow. However, Robin has a powerful grip on them, and she vows to come back with a hacksaw later.
After waking up, he attempts to rescue Little John. However, Hester and Winifred are alerted to the movement from the caldron, and notice he is not as dead as they thought. They conjure up a room filled with a giant web and spider, who attempts to kill Robin. However, he is able to use his sword to throw him through the circle of the web into a fiery abyss.
When Robin arrives at the witches lair, he tries to tell Little John he is there. However, John is still under the power of the witches, and the two fight. Robin finally wakes him up, and the two take on Winifred and Hester, who rapidly age to their true form. Robin and John eventually toss the two witches into the caldron that destroys them. The last one screams "Help me, I'm melting!"
Robin takes a beeker with the witches brew with him to talk with his aunt. He notifies him that unless she gives away all of her money to the poor, he will do with the brew what he did to Winifred and Hester. She tells him that she doesn't know any poor people. Robin tells her that Friar Tuck is waiting outside the abbey and would gladly distribute the money. Alice reluctantly agrees, and this is the last we see of her.
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