Demon Headmaster lead writer Emma Reeves discusses the return of a key character from the original series…

In episode 6, everything changed – especially for fans of the original Demon Headmaster books and / or the 90s TV series. For the first time, we made it clear that this version is a continuation of the story, not a reboot. In fact, it should probably be properly considered as series 4, not series 1 – but then we didn’t want to spoil the surprise!

So, Dinah Hunter is back. The orphaned genius with the enormous brain who just wanted to fit in and make friends. Who had always succeeded in concealing her phenomenal brilliance until the Headmaster tricked her into revealing how incredibly clever she really was.

I suspect this episode is going to divide people – as Dinah is now played by a different actor. We made enquires about Frances Amey’s availability but sadly, we were told that she was no longer acting. However, we found the brilliant Charlotte Beckett to play the grown-up Dinah (now an MI6 agent), and I’m sure her cool but compassionate performance will win over fans old and new.

For the scenes featuring the young Dinah on the VHS, I hoped to use an old image of Frances Amey and cut swiftly away to the Headmaster’s reaction – obviously we’d need a new voice but we could have preserved the image of the original Dinah. But sadly a suitable moment couldn’t be found from the old series, so Dinah was recast twice in one episode! Jasmine de Goede gave a wonderful performance as Charlotte’s younger self – and was really quite similar to Frances Amey.

So, what has Dinah been doing since she last tangled with the Headmaster? Where are her brothers? And what of SPLAT? We decided not to tackle all these questions at once – Dinah reveals facts gradually and on a need-to-know basis.

It made sense to us that Dinah would use her exceptional intelligence to protect the world from evil. In the past she has been shown to be skilled at cracking codes and hacking computer systems. We decided that she was recruited by MI6 when she was studying at Cambridge. She faked her own death to protect her family and friends – but of course, the Headmaster was never really fooled by that ruse…

The Headmaster always viewed Dinah as a force to be reckoned with – although he could hypnotise her whenever he wanted to, he needed to allow her the use of her brain. She was less useful to him as a hypnotised zombie. Even back in the 90s, the Headmaster was aware that his dubious “educational” method of forcing knowledge and skills into students’ brains would never be enough in itself. He needed some level of independent thinking.

Perhaps, we wondered, that’s why he allowed SPLAT to stay around? To challenge him. It’s interesting that in the new book (Gillian Cross’s Total Control, upon which this series is based) nobody is immune to the Headmaster’s powers. Has he filtered out those who can disobey him, or has he just got stronger? For whatever reason, the Headmaster seems to love to keep his enemies close…

In Dinah, the gang have finally met an adult who understands the Headmaster problem. Because she’s been there too. They hope Dinah can help them but it doesn’t work out. Worse, they end up disrupting Dinah’s own attempt to take out the Headmaster. The gang fear Dinah’s going to make a deal with the enemy, but in fact, she planned to lure him to her old school and blow him up. What has driven Dinah to this desperate measure? We may be sure she has her reasons – and even this grown-up, confident secret agent is terribly afraid of the Headmaster.

By the end of the episode, the gang are on their own once more. No adult will save them from the Demon Headmaster. They’re going to have to deal with him themselves…