Sanders wears a jackal head, some of the females have slapped on Cleopatra makeup and nearly everyone has decorated themselves in glitter and presumably the leftover tinfoil. The film opens up with a terrific sequence showing some wildlife in the forest before moving to a group of naked people doing a ritual. Casting beautiful model like, nude woman somewhat discredits this film as an educational documentary, endorsing a more voyeuristic motive by the director. In doing this Leigh somewhat cheapens what could be an informative piece of cinema about Witchcraft. Getting It Straight in Notting Hill Gate (1970, 25 mins): spaced-out sitars, Blue Beat 45s and the prog-rock grooves of Quintessence soundtrack this up-close flashback to Notting Hill Gate in 1970.

Despite this, Legend of the Witches takes a relatively subdued and more in-depth look at witchcraft, though it has been accused of straddling the line between the serious-minded and the seedy. Before a minute is on the clock, he has managed to notch up some full frontal nudity accompanied by a gasp!It certainly sounds like a British film from the 1970s (which it is of course) but there's no question that it's a bit too try and a bit too much like a professor talking to himself. We can start with the wonderful cinematography, which takes a very low-budget and makes it look like something more. It’s soundtracked by a hallucinogenic musical freak out by The Spindle and lit with lysergic lighting. This remastered version of the film is of good quality which makes the most of Leigh’s beautiful cinematography of the countryside both in daylight and under moonlight. Originally X-rated, it centres on the rituals of celebrated Notting Hill Witch King and Queen, Alex and Maxine Sanders.

Directed by Derek Ford and staring High Priest Alex Sanders ( Legend of the Witches, 1970), Secret Rites, 1970, is a pseudo-documentary about a young girl being initiated into a witches’ circle. As she emerges from Notting Hill Gate Underground station, she looks like she could be on her way to a modelling assignment for Nova.

These were said to include healing people of warts by “wishing them on someone else, who’s already ugly. Despite some definite artistic merit and generally educational feel, it was predictably promoted as a softcore porno on its theatrical release (sex undeniably sold in the seventies). Directed and written by Malcolm Leigh, this film, sold as a documentary, does seem to depict with some authenticity Wiccan rites and ceremonies.