Tallulah Bag (T-Bag)

Tbag-3 — Enjoying a cup of tea with T-Shirt

Tallulah Bag (Elizabeth Estensen) is the eponymous villainess of the first five series (1985-1989) of the British kids TV show 'T-Bag'. She is an evil sorceress who gains her magical powers by drinking tea made from the leaves of her 'High T-Plant'. Her powers include conjuring objects out of thin air, seeing across the world in her saucer, and teleporting herself or others to anywhere she desires.

T-Bag is a wicked, petty, spiteful woman who demands everyone treat her like a Queen and address her as 'Your Majes-T'. She is extremely vain and convinced of her own beauty, and usually wears a glamorous red gown along with a tiara of golden stars in her hair. Much of her time is spent in her inner sanctum or ‘T-Room’, drinking tea and plotting her evil deeds.

As T-Bag is incapable of brewing tea properly, she relies on her assistant or ‘T-Caddy’, T-Shirt (Thomas), to constantly make her regular cups. Without tea, she is powerless and grows weaker the longer she goes without it. T-Shirt is her reluctant companion - part harassed surrogate son, part household servant. T-Bag is bossy and callous towards T-Shirt, but also completely reliant on him for her crucial cups of tea. T-Shirt does not share her evil ways, and while he would appear to faithfully serve his mistress for most of the story, he always turns against her by the end.

In each series, T-Bag takes up residence in a magical world contained within an object (such as a board game, storybook, or music box), making life miserable for the inhabitants. A heroine girl is pulled into the world, who sets off on a quest to recover a set of magical items needed to defeat T-Bag and restore harmony.

Towards the end of each series, T-Bag and T-Shirt would inevitably have a falling out, resulting in her stripping him of his magic. He would then team up with the heroine against her. The finale would usually show T-Bag stealing the collected items and with victory in her grasp, only to be thwarted at the last second and apparently destroyed. However, she would return in the next series with her powers restored by a new T-Plant.

From series six onward, Tallulah was replaced by her sister Tabitha Bag.

Trouble With T-Bag (series 1)[]

T-Bag is introduced as the tyrannical ruler of the world within the board game ‘Wonders in Letterland’. A girl called Debbie discovers the game by chance while browsing in an old curiosity shop. Entering the game, Debbie learns from the Gardner the key to ending T-Bag’s reign of terror is inside a mysterious chest sealed with an incomplete legend. She sets off to the different lands of the game to find the missing golden letters needed to complete the legend.

In the final episode, T-Bag thinks she has seen off Debbie and is resting in her T-Room. T-Shirt has enough of serving her and sneaks off join Debbie, taking the T-Plant with him. T-Shirt is initially nervous at betraying his mistress, but Debbie promptly seizes the T-Plant and breaks it up to deprive T-Bag of the source of her powers.

T-Bag suddenly appears and orders T-Shirt to grab the letters, but he distracts her and flees with Debbie. T-Bag tries to teleport ahead of them, but her magic is gone. She decides there is only one thing for it, hikes up the skirt of her gown, and gives chase in her high heels and stockings.

Back at the start of the game, Debbie, T-Shirt and the Gardner try to complete the legend. T-Bag arrives and tells them it is useless without the golden Ts, which were in her possession all along. Debbie pretends to surrender to T-Bag as her servant, but this is just a trick to get her hands on the Ts. T-Bag watches helplessly as Debbie completes the legend and solves its riddle. The chest bursts open and releases the knowledge of the alphabet, which T-Bag had locked away to keep the game’s inhabitants in ignorance.

T-Bag is reduced to tears at her defeat, unable to stand the humiliation of being beaten by a mere child. With her magic gone and everyone now able to read, T-Bag’s power over the game is over. T-Shirt sends her back to the T-Room, intending to keep her there where she can do no more harm.

T-Bag Strikes Again (series 2)[]

T-Bag travels to a magic garden within a storybook, where she finds a new T-Plant that restores her to full power. In order to prevent the stories from ending, she scatters the 12 silver numbers from the face of the town clock across the book. She kidnaps T-Shirt to serve as her T-Caddy, but Debbie also enters the book and sets off to find the numbers.

In the final episode, T-Shirt is fed up of T-Bag’s bullying and makes her a fake cup of tea from a random garden plant instead of the T-Plant. T-Bag steals the numbers from Debbie and plans to melt them down, but T-Shirt tricks her again by melting a set of silver teaspoons instead. T-Shirt joins Debbie and the town crier Hickory to track down the final numbers and restart the clock on the edge of midnight.

T-Bag starts to feel sick from drinking the fake tea. Sensing something is wrong, she looks into her saucer to see the clock is moving and counting down to her doom. She hurries to teleport to the town square, but struggles to summon enough power. She succeeds at the second attempt, but it takes a great effort and forces her to exhaust the last of her magic.

T-Bag arrives at the square and tries to stop the heroes, but finds that her powers have disappeared altogether. T-Shirt gleefully taunts his erstwhile mistress, revealing the last cup of tea he served her wasn’t tea at all, and her powers have been getting weaker and weaker the more she drank.

The clock strikes midnight, bringing about the Happy Ending where ‘evil withers and dies, and goodness flourishes’. At the T-Room, a bright light flashes down from the sky and destroys the T-Plant. With the source of her power gone, T-Bag cries out in anguish as she fades into oblivion, but not before vowing ‘you haven’t seen the last of me’.

T-Bag Bounces Back (series 3)[]

T-Bag finds a new T-Plant in a world within a music box. She forces Major Happy out from his home, and scatters the eight golden bells that make up a magic glockenspiel with the power to stop her. She then kidnaps T-Shirt to serve as her T-Caddy once more. Guessing that T-Bag has returned, Debbie enters the music box and sets off to find the missing bells.

In the final episode, T-Bag thinks she has won after stealing Debbie’s bag containing the bells. Little does she know the bells have been switched out by T-Shirt while she was asleep. In the town square, Debbie, T-Shirt and Major Happy re-assemble the glockenspiel and start to play a special melody that restores harmony to the world.

Up in the T-Room, T-Bag suddenly starts to fade away as the magic of the bells begins to destroy her. Scared and confused, she frantically empties the bag only to find some shortcake and sugarcubes placed inside by T-Shirt. To her horror, T-Bag realizes she has been deceived and her very existence is now in danger.

In desperation, T-Bag teleports herself down to the square. Already severely weakened by the music, she pleads with them to stop, but it is too late as Debbie is determined to see her punished for her evil. Major Happy continues to play the melody, and T-Bag is helpless against its power. As the music builds to a crescendo, a bright light comes down from the heavens and strikes T-Bag. She screams out in agony before finally fading away into nothingness.

Debbie remarks this is “the end of T-Bag…..and this time for good”, but she returns for a further two series after this.