Thursday, 9 July 2009

Sky One unveils cast for Pratchett's Going Postal

The British satellite/cable channel Sky One are preparing to start shooting their fourth live-action adaption of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, following on from 2006's Hogfather and 2008's The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. In keeping with the non-linear series of adaptions - Hogfather is the twentieth Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic the first and The Light Fantastic the second - the next book to be adapted is Going Postal, the thirty-third book in the series.


The announced cast so far is:

Moist von Lipwig - Richard Coyle (Coupling)
Reacher Guilt - David Suchet (Poirot)
Lord Vetinari - Charles Dance (you know who he is), replacing Jeremy Irons.
Adora Belle Dearheart - Claire Foy (a relative newcomer)
Drumknott - Steve Pemberton (The League of Gentleman)
Groat - Andrew Sachs (Fawlty Towers)
Miss Cripslock - Tamsin Greig (Green Wing)

That's a pretty decent cast. I'm hoping Sky One produce a better result this time. Hogfather was decent, but The Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic was a bit of a confused mess. Notably, David Jason is absent from proceedings this time around, as he is busy with other projects.

If successful, the adaption will pave the way for further Discworld adaptions, including the other two books in the 'Moist trilogy', namely Making Money and the still-to-be-written Raising Taxes.

In related news, Pratchett has recently reclaimed the rights to Guards! Guards! after the BBC, which had been discussing producing a weekly Guards-based TV series, rejected any idea of him having a creative say on the project. This raises the possibility that the Guards sub-series, arguably the most popular part of the Discworld series, could now be adapted by Sky instead.

Going Postal is entering production in Hungary and will be screened by Sky over Easter 2010.
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4 comments:

  1. Jebus9 July 2009 at 23:27:00 GMT

    Thank Christ there's no David Jason in this one! I was almost certain they'd cast him as Moist just to shit us. Hogfather was ho-hum, Colour & Light were God-awful - I didn't even bother finishing them.

    Fingers crossed this translates better and Richard Coyle is a LEGEND so I have high hopes.

    Best adaptation so far has been the stop motion Truckers from the early 90s.

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  2. Anonymous28 July 2009 at 07:10:00 GMT

    I've heard lots of people say that Hogfather and TCOM/TLF weren't very good, but I loved them!

    From the very start, Hogfather had me hooked. Perhaps this is because I haven't read the books but I knew people who had, so I was curious. I've loved both of these so far and I look forward to more from SkyOne.

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  3. Anonymous5 November 2009 at 19:19:00 GMT

    I wonder when it'll be released?

    I love David Jason and if they do Sourcery I want him to return to the main role.

    Booyah, Jebus!

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  4. Elphaba32522 November 2009 at 12:16:00 GMT

    I love Going Postal so I hope its better than Colour and Light. I lost the will to live.

    David Jason was so-so as Rincewind but I liked him as Albert, so I think he might have been able to pull Groat off but I'm definately looking forward to seeing Andrew Sachs. He's really funny.

    Lets see how they butcher this one shall we!

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