The Watch. Pratchett fans please report here, Sam Vimes calling you

[longwayoff]

I've just spotted this on iplayer. The only adapted Pratchett I've enjoyed is Good Omens. Has anyone seen this?

Really? That sounds interesting!

I know it's a bit marmite, but I thoroughly enjoyed Hogfather, and watch it most Christmases.

Liked Good Omens too

It's absolutely shite and the casting is sexist and agist, shouldn't have Pterrys name anywhere near it

I don’t think it’s an adaption as such. More that they’ve taken the character names and a few random bits of the books and mashed it all up. Cheery isn’t a dwarf, for starters. And Lady Sybil is thin!

I’m sure some people will enjoy it, but it’s definitely not any sort of faithful adaptation. There was a lot of upset about it - probably worth having a Google.

Yes, I'd heard bad things about it too. Shame.

Better news though, Good Omens is coming back for a second series! I started a thread about it the other day. John Finnemore is writing it with Neil Gaiman, and NG says the plot was sketched out in 1989 by TP and NG one evening at a convention. They just never got round to actually writing it together. Location filming starting in Scotland round about now, evidently.

It's a disgrace.

I remember the thread when they announced the casting. It was not positive!

Ohhh. Just sat through episode 1 getting cross. That's more than enough. Travesty, how has this slipped past me? Look forward to Good Omens 2 though, hurrah.

I tried watching it as a stand alone programme, putting out of my mind the idea that it was in any way meant to be based on or ‘inspired by’ the books. Didn’t work.

I'm not a pratchett fan in particular, I've seen and enjoyed the hogfather and the one about the mail, Going Postal? And I loved good omens!

I watched the 1st episode of the watch last night and wasn't enthralled at all. Just no idea what was going on and not that interested in finding out either tbh

Such a shame, The Watch is one of Pratchett's most beloved creations. Boo and bloody hiss. I'm properly cross. What a waste.

Terry Pratchett‘s daughter has disowned this as it bears so little resemblance to the source material. Steer well clear.

Guardian article here, including this:
Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna, and his long-term friend and assistant Rob Wilkins, who still runs Pratchett’s Twitter account, did not comment directly (they’re not involved in the adaptation). But both – in an impressively subtle piece of shade-throwing – shared a link to Ursula LeGuin’s legendary take-down of the appalling adaptation of her Earthsea books.

“I don’t know what the film is about. It’s full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense,” wrote LeGuin. “When I looked over the script, I realised the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence.”

She's tweeted about it, here, and made it clear elsewhere what she feels about what the BBC has done with her dad's world.

I am a big T.P. Fan and I quite like this. On ep4 currently. Nothing to do with Guards! Guards! But Vimes getting better and I like Angua and Cheery. Lots of references to the other books and at least there is a dragon. Carrot is annoyingly far from the character as is Lady Sybil but I can see Vimes marrying her at the end.
Sticking with it!

Lasted about 10 mins of this. I've left DH to it. None of the adaptations have hit the mark for me but this is by far the worst. Poor casting and bad acting. They're just shamelessly cashing in on the name as far as I can tell.

If Geraldine James (or a near facsimile) isn't Lady Sybil then I'm not watching.
I'm 50+. Who would be the alternative?

I've always visualized Lady Sybil as a younger version of Clarissa Dickson Wright or Barbara Woodhouse. And Vimes - well who hasn't got their own Vimes in their head? TP's characters are so vividly drawn they must be near impossible to cast satisfactorily. Pairing David Tennant and Michael Sheen for Good Omens was an unexpected delight. This Lady Sybil? No. Not the fault of the actress though, she seems perfectly ok but just wrongly placed, like the rest of it.

Pete Postlethwaite would have made a perfect Vimes

Yes PP. Sean Bean maybe, but yes, he should be a true Ankh Morporkian. And as for Vetinari. Just no. Wrong.

The late Paul Rutter could perhaps have played Vimes. Totally agree about Geraldine James as a perfect Lady Sybil.

Lady sybil was always Geraldine Jane's in my head, too. Vimes is Arthur Lowe as I always thought he had a bit of captain Mainwaring about him until he found his feet.

I am absolutely delighted about more Good Omens.

How have they omitted Colon?!

I agree that Pete Postlethwaite would've been brill as Vimes. I can't see Anna Chancellor as Vetinari, although she's a wonderful actor.

Jason Isaacs as Vimes would work I think

I tried watching it last night; got about 10 minutes in and thought WTF am I watching? Just No. Sorry, big thumbs down.

For anyone who has watched Zapped, I've always thought that the sets were the most perfectly Morporkian I've ever seen - I think the inspiration for the world of Munty must have borrowed heavily from TP.