Do you want to see a picture of Angua and Cheery from the BBC new Pratchett adaptation?

[BarkandCheese]

The program is called The Watch, from what I understand it’s a distillation of the watch novels. The blonde actor is Angua, the dark haired one is Cheery. I’m trying to wrap my head around the casting choice for Cheery, who in the books is spoiler alert a female dwarf who due to all dwarfs having beards is assumed to be male by her colleagues.

Yes, Cheery being a female dwarf who wants othets to know she is female is quite important.

I'll watch it though. Because of Richard Dormer.

Cheery had a beard and an axe with glitter on it

No. Just no. Shall not be watching.

I like Anna Chancellor a lot too. Just not in this role.

I will watch the first episode and see how it goes. I think I’m going to treat it a bit like I did His Dark Materials and pretend it’s a stand alone series that’s not massively loosely based on books I’ve adored for most of my life.

Ohhhh I looked at it and thought they were cast the other way round! Hmmm yet to be convinced.

@BarkandCheese would love to agree re Anna chancellor but “Morporkians are in no doubt that Vetinari is firmly in charge of the city; the political system of Ankh-Morpork is described as "One Man, One Vote," in which Vetinari alone is the Man, and he has the Vote“

In this case I’m not sure feminising the role was needed.

I was so excited about this series. Then as all the little snippets have been released I have been shouting at my phone “WTF?? Why? What have you utter bastards done to Discworld?”
I really don’t think I’m going to be able to watch it.
It’s a bloody shame as if they had stayed true to the Watch books it had the makings of a great series.

Oh no. No no no no no. Buggrit.

That photo is pure blasphemy

I was looking foemrward to seeing what Anna Chancellor did with Vetinari. I don’t think swapping sexes changes the character that much and Chancellor has always played sharp, aloof and posh very well. However, the Assassin’s Guild would not have been co-Ed during her youth*

*Now it is coveted as the very best education for the idle, overly rich young women of The Disc as much as it is for the idle, overly rich young men. However the young women have proven to be far more ruthless and...imaginative in their studies

Nothing is sacred.

Urgh. I thought the one on the right was Angua. Ridiculous dress sense apart that person looks more like they could turn into a wolf at any moment.

I don't know how you would navigate casting a (Terry pratchett) dwarf. To cast a person with dwarfism seems rather clunky - some people with dwarfism hate that others act in roles for dwarfs because it perpetuates the freak show/there for mockery/comedy value problems people with dwarfism face in their everyday lives). But Corporal Littlebottom is such a solidly described character across how many books, that all fans know that she is short, female with a beard, wears chainmail and shyly shows a few small signs of femininity. To cast obviously different was always going to cause mutiny.

Personally I can't watch anything Discworld on screen. All the characters look wrong because they're not what I imagined over many years and many repeated reads of the books.

I still have nightmares about the depictions of trolls in going postal

Charles Dance in the right makeup and hair would be a cracking Vetinari.

Vincent Price definitely had the right look but he has been dead for quite a while.

I think you may have it the wrong way round - I've seen the blonde labled as Cheery in a few pics. Either way it is wrong wrong wrong and will be avoided!

Isn't Angua more of a redhead in the books ? Think they have definitely got Cheery wrong - whether its the blond or the brunette - she needs to have a beard!
For me Vetinari is Jeremy Irons or Julian Sands

they’ve taken the character and place names and chucked everything else out

yep. this.

keeps happening with popular books. the tv producers have a story they want to tell that is too weak to stand on its own merits. buy the rights to an unrelated book and crowbar the plot made up by the dull and uncreative production committee into a hollowed out shell from the book where everything except the proper nouns have been ostracized.

Can someone start a kickstarter to have the company that did the previous SKY adaptations release a rival version to this? They didn’t get everything right (David Jason as Rincewind ??!??) but their version of The Hogfather was a thing of loveliness. I would definitely contribute to that.

I can’t imagine that actress making a growl that runs down a spine and hitting the button labelled Primal Fear.

And the actor looks far too tall and slim for Cheery.

Charles Dance in the right makeup and hair would be a cracking Vetinari

He is Vetinari in Going Postal, and does it perfectly. I love the watch series and I don’t think I can watch this, it’s just so wrong to not follow the books as accurately as possible. It’s a shame and a missed opportunity as the real Discworld and the characters would make excellent tv.

Fucked into a cocked hat full of fuck. That is my considered opinion.

Rhianna and Rob quoted Ursula Le Guin on the Earthsea adaption when asked for comments. A polite way of saying that STP's vision had been utterly betrayed.

Mess with the Pratchett universe, get thrown in the scorpion pit. Who agrees?

Oh no. I agree with all of you, esp Charles Dancecas Vetinari, but I have never seen any TP on film or tv and so I am going to have to watch this.

Did someone mention Going Postal? How can I watch this?

From what I've read the only commonalities to the actual book are the names, the rest is just some horrendous pile of steam-punk awfulness.

@Amortentia I didn't know that! I never watched the going postal adaptation as I heard pretty bad things.

Was ranting about this to DH last night (who, as his has never read a Pratchett book, had no clue why I was so annoyed). But Lady Sybil is not some skinny vigilante! She is a slightly on the mature side, statuesque lady of magnificent bosom (something which as we know she is allowed to have) who takes no nonsense and yes, she may occasionally melt marauding dwarves who just tried to murder her family with dragon fire, but she is not some young skinny Minnie. And she doesn’t sneak, she sweeps! She gives people good talkings to! Her aunt (I think) gave some highwaymen such a good talking to that they ran home crying to their mothers! She’s one of my favourite characters and I can’t see any of her in the description from this show.

It looks bloody awful. Rhianna must be devastated.

I actually think Discworld is unfilmable, because so much of the humour/character is in the narrative voice.

Going postal isn't bad at all, the plot is simplified to work on screen but it's a really good adaptation.