They are all wizards at spelling. Tonight five schoolchildren aged 12 and 13 will do battle on prime time television to find Britain’s best young speller.

In a BBC series watched by millions they have already leapt over ellipsis, conquered pugnacious and survived cryogenics.

Tonight they compete in the final of Hard Spell, a programme that has struck a remarkable chord among schools and youngsters. Suddenly spelling is hot: so hot that it’s cool to know your coccyx from your humerus.

Some critics complain that such a public competition puts children under intolerable pressure; others rightly say pure spelling skill reveals nothing about comprehension or intelligence.

Nevertheless the idea has tapped into a latent, even chthonic passion for spelling words and 100,000 children applied to take part. Schools and families cheered regional competitors on as the numbers were narrowed down. It was far from the preserve of the independently educated — and two finalists go to state schools.

“When I won a place in the final all my family were really proud of me. My brother was so excited he nearly knocked me over,” said Nisha, a 12-year-old from the Midlands who goes to a state school and who reckons she is just an ordinary girl who likes spelling.

“Even though I’m academic, I like to relax and play games. I also play the drums — it’s a way to relieve stress, just whacking those pods.”

The success of Hard Spell follows the phenomenon of spelling competitions that has swept America. A documentary on the subject, made on a shoestring, has proved a surprise hit and reaped a small fortune. Titled Spellbound, it is FilmFour’s choice for its main film on Christmas Day.

In Britain there’s a book just out, too — Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary — which hopes to do for spelling what Eats, Shoots and Leaves did for punctuation.

And yet there is a piquant irony in all this fervour. In many other countries such a spelling competition would be absurd because their languages are far simpler. Words are spelt as they sound.

“A contest comparable to Hard Spell in Italian would be ridiculous,” says John Wells, a professor of phonetics at London University. In Italian, words tend to be spelt as they are pronounced. “Hard Spell reflects the fact that our spelling is hard. It’s a pity that we have to have this type of contest.”

There is no denying the skill of tonight’s contestants and they deserve their moment of glory, but ought their effort to prompt wider questions? Does proper, accurate spelling matter in the age of computers? And could English, a language that millions of foreigners have to acquire, be made easier to spell and therefore easier to learn?

AT FIRST sight it seems obvious that correct spelling is necessary, indeed vital, since without it we are vulnerable to all manna, sorry manner, of misunderstanding. To be so angry that you throw your computer out of the window may be excusable; to throw a commuter out of the window would not. To invite your boss to meet you in the public bar is fine, but the pubic bar may be embarrassing.

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