First trailer released for THE WATCH

BBC America has released the first trailer for its controversially "loose" adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

BBC America also confirmed some additional casting for the show, with Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) playing the voice of Death and Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Toast of London, What We Do in the Shadows) playing a magical talking sword called Wayne. Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones, Chernobyl) is playing the voice of Sergeant Detritus, with Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, again) as Inigo Skimmer, the Duke of Stab.

The Watch starts airing on BBC America on 3 January 2021.

Writer of THE WATCH forgets to thank Sir Terry Pratchett as production wraps

The writer of The Watch, BBC America's increasingly controversial "loose adaptation" of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, has apparently forgotten about the late author and his estate whilst extending his thanks to people involved in the making of the television series. In fact, the writer fails to mention the Discworld book series, or that his TV show is based on novels, at all. He instead names himself as the "creator" of the story in a remarkable display of hubris.

The apparent snub was picked up on by Sir Terry's daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett on Twitter. Needless to say, the response from the enormous, global Discworld fandom has not been kind.

Sir Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels between 1983 and his premature death from early-onset Alzheimer's in 2015. At the time of his death, the Discworld novels had sold almost 90 million copies, making it the joint best-selling post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy series (with near sales parity with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). The series is a cultural institution in the UK, where Pratchett was a perennial bestseller. Sir Terry was also lauded for his work for charities and bringing greater awareness of issues such as the endangerment of orangutan populations and Alzheimer's research. He was one of the few writers in the "national treasure" category. He also has a growing fanbase in the United States (who were late but increasingly enthusiastic attendees of the Pratchett party).

Six of the Discworld novels have been adapted for the screen: Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted to animation by Cosgrove Hall in 1997, whilst Sky adapted Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal between 2006 and 2010. Development of The Watch began in 2011, with the original idea being to develop a TV-focused sequel to the Discworld novels set in the city of Ankh-Morpork and revolving around the City Watch (starting with Guards! Guards!), rather than adapting the books directly. This version of the series was in development with the BBC for several years before the BBC divested it to BBC America around the time of Sir Terry's death.

BBC America hired a new writer (Simon Allen, best known for The Musketeers) threw out all the work that had been done already, apparently chose not to involve Sir Terry's family (including his daughter, Rhianna, a talented writer in her own right who had been closely involved in the prior project) and completely reconceptualised the project, including throwing out major characters, turning the setting into a "cyberpunk" city (nonsensically; I think they meant steampunk) and "sexing up" other characters by making them younger, thinner and better-looking. The Pratchett fanbase responded negatively to the early publicity images of the show and this discontent grew as it became clear that the Pratchett Estate was unhappy with how things had gone.

Snubbing the creator and writer of the original stories in this manner will likely increase the discontent and negative publicity the show has engendered so far.

The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. A UK broadcaster has not yet been announced.

Terry Pratchett Estate distances itself even more from BBC America's THE WATCH

Following the publication of yet another publicity image from BBC America's The Watch, a TV series loosely "inspired by" Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, his family and associates have once again made it clear that they do not approve of the project and have distanced themselves from it.

The Watch - then also referred to as The City Watch and also less seriously as CSI: Ankh-Morpork - began life way back in 2011 as a co-development between Sir Terry Pratchett and the BBC. Pratchett had seen several adaptations of his work undertaken in the past, most notably the animated Channel 4 versions of the novels Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, both released in 1997, and Sky One's live-action versions of Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal in 2007-10. Although none of these adaptations were outright terrible, none arguably were as good as they should have been given the strength of the source material. Pratchett wanted to get more involved in these adaptations and in 2012 set up a company called Narrativia. Narrativia's goal was to try to establish greater control over the process and ensure greater fidelity to the feel of Pratchett's work transplanted to the screen, although not necessarily being completely 100% book-accurate in all respects (Pratchett understanding well that changes were needed given the shift in medium).

Sir Terry himself led discussions with the writers and it looked like everything was set for a faithful adaptation based on the novels, but with the freedom to move things around and take different ideas from different books. One idea apparently baked in from the start was that the series would not directly adapt the novels, but would instead pick up in the "present day" Discworld setting and use the novels as backstory, with the characters already in place. Among Pratchett's own ideas were using Ankh-Morpork's oft-mentioned, never-seen hospital as the setting for one storyline and using the creation of a City Watch band as a running gag.

Pratchett and his assistant and business partner Rob Wilkins were filmed discussing the project with the team from Prime Focus, the production team originally slated to make the show, by SFX Magazine in March 2011. Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers) and Terry Jones (Monty Python) were slated to write and possibly direct some episodes, and Pratchett's daughter Rhianna, now a respected writer in her own right, was also attached. The series was envisaged as being made in the UK on a relatively modest budget of $2 million per episode for a 13-episode first season, to air on the BBC. Crucially, the deal for the project was signed in 2011, before Narrativia was founded, with Sir Terry as the only named person involved on the book side of things.

Despite there being a strong wind in the sails of the project at this juncture (in October 2012 it was even reported - later erroneously - that the show had been greenlit), it appears that the BBC began to have second doubts and around 2013 put the brakes on the project. The BBC was under fire at the time for what was deemed to be over-extravagant spending in the aftermath of the global recession, and with The Watch coming in at significantly more expensive than Doctor Who, one of the BBC's own flagship programmes, it appears that enthusiasm for the project had dried up.

At some point between 2013 and 2016, possibly around the time of Sir Terry's sad passing in March 2015, the rights for the project were transferred from BBC Enterprises to BBC America, which decided to completely re-tool the project from the ground up with a whole new writing team. It appears during this time that Narrativia was effectively shut out of the process. Both Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins later reported (with somewhat-but-not-really concealed misgivings) that neither they nor Narrativia as an entity had been involved in the show for "many years." Nevertheless, when the show was formally greenlit (for real this time) in October 2018, Narrativia was namechecked as still being involved.

Prior to this point it appeared that the project was still going to be in line with Pratchett's original vision, where the novels are canon background material but the story takes place in the present-day of the book universe. Early reports that Ankh-Morpork was being modernised makes more sense in that context; although the city starts life in the first Discworld novel as a traditional medieval fantasy city, by the end of the series it as become a lot more Victorian and steampunk in technology and character, complete with railways and telegraphs. However, the initial casting reports from the series provoked concern, particularly when it was revealed that Sybil Ramkin, a middle-aged, rotund woman in the books who is nevertheless a major and powerful character, was being aged and slimmed considerably down to add sex appeal and action in her newfound role as a "vigilante," fighting crime on the streets of the city. The character of Cheery had also been changed from a young dwarfish woman anxious to prove her worth in her patriarchal society whilst also retaining her femininity to a young, non-binary human raised by dwarfs, borrowing Carrot's background and story for no immediately obvious reason.

By November 2019 it was clear that the project bore little, if any, resemblance to the source material, causing an immense backlash from fans and critics alike. In January 2020 the first publicity pictures from the project were released, reigniting the furore as it became clear that Ankh-Morpork in the TV show was a much more contemporary city, inspired by "punk rock" and featuring very modern-looking street lights and graffiti. It was at this point that Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins addressed the situation. Wilkins noted, rather forcefully, that The Watch is "inspired by, NOT based on," the series. Rhianna Pratchett further noted that the series being developed by BBC America is not the same series that her father signed off on, when it was a very different (and presumably better) beast and she hadn't been involved for years.

The Discworld Monthly published a run-down of the project here which seems to explain the root cause of the problem: the original contracts between the BBC and Sir Terry Pratchett stipulated that Sir Terry had some degree of influence and approval over the production, not Narrativia; Narrativia wasn't formally founded until after the initial contract was signed. As a result, when Sir Terry sadly left this Mortal Disc in 2015, there was no longer any kind of creative control being exercised from the book end of things and that allowed BBC American to effectively do whatever it wanted with no input from Narrativia.

The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. Narrativia has signed a series of new deals with Moving Pictures to develop TV and film projects based on the other Discworld novels. The Wee Free Men is also in production at the Jim Henson Company, with Rhianna Pratchett attached as a writer. It appears that BBC America only has the rights to the City Watch sub-series of Discworld novels (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff) and cannot include any elements from the other books. Moving Pictures may have the rights to all the other books (including those previously filmed by Sky One and Cosgrove Hall, since the rights reverted to the Pratchett Estate in the early 2010s), with Narrativia likely having more say over these adaptations.

The Discworld book series consists of 41 novels and numerous ancillary works and is the joint-biggest-selling adult fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings, currently tying with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire at around 90 million book sales apiece.

THE WATCH gets an airdate

BBC America's controversial adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books featuring the City Watch has finally gotten an airdate. The show will debut on BBC America in January 2021.

The Watch is "very loosely" based on Pratchett's source material, but has seen a raft of changes made to the books which have alienated the fanbase. These include creating a "young, sexy," crimefighting version of Lady Sybil Ramkin (a larger and older woman in the books) and turning Ankh-Morpork into some kind of steampunk metropolis rather than the Renaissance-level post-medieval city of the books.

Terry Pratchett's business partner Rob Wilkins and daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett were originally both involved with the project, when it was a much more faithful adaptation with the UK BBC, but have publicly distanced themselves from the show since it was transferred to BBC America.

New DISCWORLD TV adaptations announced, unrelated to THE WATCH

Narrativia, the production company set up by the late Sir Terry Pratchett and now led by his daughter and former business partner, has announced a new partnership with Motive Pictures to bring some more of Pratchett's Discworld novels to the screen.

Discworld has already enjoyed multiple television adaptations, with Cosgrove Hall adapting Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music as animated series in the late 1990s and Sky Television adapting Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal as live-action serials between 2007 and 2010.

BBC America was shooting a new series called The Watch, "inspired" by Pratchett's novels Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms and Night Watch, although it's unclear if shooting was completed before the coronavirus pandemic shut down productions worldwide. The adaptation was extremely controversial with fans for adopting a completely different aesthetic compared to the books and recasting a rotund, middle-aged female character with a younger, "sexier" equivalent. Narrativia, although retaining a producer's credit, had significantly distanced itself from the project and even thrown mild shade at it in later statements, clarifying that they were deeply involved with the project when it began at the BBC in the UK but it had changed tone and feel when it was moved to BBC America.

The Jim Henson Company is deep in pre-production on a film version of The Wee Free Men, the first in the Tiffany Aching sub-series aimed at younger viewers. Rhianna Pratchett is involved in this project as a writer, and it seems to be skewing much more closely to the books.

The new collaboration also seems rooted in faithfulness to Pratchett's text, as both Narrativia and Motive bring up a desire to make a more "resolutely faithful" version of the stories in what feels like even more shade being cast at BBC America's project.

What books are being discussed for adaptation is unclear. It's assumed that the City Watch sub-series is firmly optioned by BBC America, whilst the Jim Henson Company has the rights to The Wee Free Men and possibly the rest of the Tiffany Aching arc. That still leaves a large number of books available, including the iconic Witches sub-series, the widely-adored stand-alone novel Small Gods, and other stand-alones including Pyramids and Moving Pictures. Assuming that Sky One's option has now expired, the Rincewind and Moist von Lipwig sub-series are also presumably now available once again.

The television and film rights situation with Terry Pratchett's books is interesting, because normally a production company would option the rights to the entire setting even if they were only planning to adapt one book. For example, HBO owns the TV and film rights to the Westeros setting, so only they can make TV shows or films in that setting even if George R.R. Martin wanted, say, Netflix to make a Dunk & Egg show. In the case of Pratchett this was not possible due to the sheer volume of books (41 in total) and how they were split into sub-arcs. The result is a complex situation where some companies are adapting some books and others are adapting others, in some cases sharing characters with different actors (not dissimilar to the Fox/Paramount/Sony split of Marvel Comics characters).

More news as it comes in.

Terry Pratchett's daughter and writing assistant throw shade at THE WATCH TV series

The first publicity photographs from The Watch, a BBC America series "loosely inspired" by Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, were released this morning and in just a few hours have prompted a massive backlash from fans of the series. Beloved characters and settings have been changed for no immediately discernible reason, resulting in a storm of protest from readers.

In an amusingly-timed move, Terry Pratchett's daughter (and respected video game writer) Rhianna Pratchett and his former assistant and partner in Narrativia Productions, Rob Wilkins, both tweeted a link to a 2004 interview with Ursula Le Guin, where she eviscerated the Sci-Fi Channel's appalling mini-series based on her Earthsea novels which changed the source material for no reason.

Unfortunately, with production drawing to a close on the eight-part series, it's far too late for BBC America to change course and produce a more faithful adaptation of the books. As a result, it's likely that fans will now have to wait even longer for a decent version to appear in the future.

BBC America release first publicity images for Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH

BBC America has released the first publicity images for Terry Pratchett's The Watch and, well, yikes.

In this first image, Sybil Ramkin (Lara Rossi) appears to have either set someone on fire or are watching them on fire, plummeting through a hole in an Ankh-Morpork street. If you're thinking, "This never happens in the books," and "Why is a middle-aged, stout woman now a smoking hot vigilante?" you are not alone.

In this second image, we meet Constable Angua (Marama Corlett) and Constable Carrot (Adam Hugill) of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, although they seem to have lost their armour. Carrot at least looks spot on, if a few years older than the character.

In this image, Sam Vimes (Richard Dormer) and Angua (Marama Corlett) visit an Ankh-Morpork market. This image is the clearest example of a major shift in the setting aesthetic. Whilst the books are set in a late medieval/early Renaissance-level city slowly transitioning into a steampunk one (albeit over the course of forty books), the series looks set to open in a full Victoriana environment, with no traditional armour and the Watch characters wearing lanyards in lieu of a uniform.

This image shows Carcer Dun (Sam Adewunmi) up to no good. His guards appear to have parachuted in from a mid-franchise Final Fantasy video game, but okay.

Angua (Marama Corlett) and Constable Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent), the latter of whom doesn't appear to have a beard. Or be a dwarf.

The TV show has attracted negative coverage for its decision to only be "loosely inspired" by the books and instead pursue their own path with regards to casting, writing and setting. These images are not likely to improve this.

Monstrous Development: The Controversy of BBC America's THE WATCH

BBC America are currently shooting the first season of The Watch, a new fantasy TV show based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, specifically the “City Watch” sub-series which begins with Guards! Guards!

This is not the first time the Discworld has been depicted on-screen. In the 1990s it was adapted as three video games (Discworld, Discworld II and Discworld Noir) and two animated series from Cosgrove Hall, Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music. In the 2000s four of the books were adapted by Sky One in the UK as live-action dramas: Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal. The quality of these projects was “variable,” ranging from okay to disappointing.

The Watch is different. It has a far higher budget and it’s an ongoing show meant to last for multiple seasons. It aims to bring the city of Ankh-Morpork to life in detail and with a large cast of characters. What it is not planning to do, however, is adapt the books.

Instead, The Watch is “loosely inspired by” the novels and will instead create and tell original stories involving characters based on – to varying degrees of fealty – Pratchett’s characters, but not actually meant to be them. Based on the information we have so far, the storyline borrows elements from Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms and Night Watch, but will craft an original story by mixing and matching elements from those books together.

Fans are, it has to be said, baffled and increasingly angry over the direction the adaptation is taking.

This is not new ground for BBC America. In 2016 and 2017 they aired a two-season adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. This was likewise “inspired by” the books, not a direct adaptation. However, in this case the “loose inspiration” idea made more sense. Dirk Gently has been adapted to the screen and to radio several times previously, so a direct adaptation was not really necessary and may have indeed been redundant. In addition, the show was being shot and made in the United States, so an all-new story set in the States (whilst keeping Dirk as a slightly mad Englishman) made casting a lot easier. The first episode even includes a namecheck of the events of the first novel, positing the TV show as a sequel to the books, although Dirk in the show is a much younger character and has a different backstory to Dirk in the books, but this is not an outrageous change.

Of course, that show got away with it because Dirk Gently is relatively obscure, only consists of two very short novels, has a small cast of characters (of whom only Dirk appears in the show) and is relatively thin on backstory, lore and worldbuilding.

Discworld, on the other hand, is one of the biggest-selling fantasy series of all time, with over 90 million books sold worldwide. It has an ardently passionate fanbase who have been waiting for an ongoing Discworld TV series for almost forty years, and its worldbuilding, backstory and cast of characters is utterly immense. Whilst Dirk Gently needed bulking out to work as a TV show, Discworld very definitely does not.

The Books

The City Watch prominently feature in eight of Pratchett’s forty-one Discworld novels: Guards! Guards! (1989), Men at Arms (1993), Feet of Clay (1996), Jingo (1997), The Fifth Elephant (1999), Night Watch (2002), Thud! (2005) and Snuff (2011). Watch characters also play prominent roles in several of the other novels set in Ankh-Morpork, including Moving Pictures (1990) and Raising Steam (2013), as well as Monstrous Regiment (2003).

The City Watch of Ankh-Morpork are something of a joke, lacking real power and mostly just keeping themselves to themselves. Its commanding officer, Captain Sam Vimes, is a drunk who just tries to have a quiet life. The Watch are invigorated by the arrival of Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human raised by dwarfs who may also the long-missing, uncrowned king of Ankh-Morpork (something that interests him not at all). Carrot’s straightforward approach to dealing with crime – such as trying to arrest the head of the Thieves’ Guild – bemuses Vimes but also reminds him that his job has serious responsibilities. When a crazed religious cult unleashes a dragon on the city, it falls to Vimes, his motley crew of constables and a new ally, Sybil Ramkin, an expert on dragons, to save the city. When he succeeds, he is rewarded with more responsibility by Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.

Over the subsequent books, the Ankh-Morpork police force becomes a huge force for good in the city, stamping out crime, eliminating threats to the Patrician and ensuring order (to what degree this was unintended or part of a long-gestating masterplan by the infamously devious Patrician is open to question). Every time a threat arises, Vimes and his team are able to defeat it, if not without great cost. The City Watch becomes larger and more diverse, inducting vampires, zombies and trolls into its ranks, and helps the city become the thriving, semi-Victorian steampunk metropolis it is by the final few books in the series.

The TV Show
The information we have from the TV show is incomplete so far, but it does have several significant changes from the books.

The first is that many of the later recruits to the Watch are present from Day One: in fact, Cheery the dwarf and Angua the werewolf are already in the Watch when Carrot arrives. Angua is assigned to mentor Carrot and show him the ropes, which is a change from the books (where the reverse is true).

There’s also a curious line that “crime has been legalised,” which is not quite accurate. The Thieves’ Guild is licensed but has to operate within strict rules or face punishment. Freelance thieves and criminals remain illegal, so there’s still plenty for the Watch to do. This may have been a simplification of the plot in the books for a TV audience, or a sign of a major change to the worldbuilding.

In the biggest and arguably the most outrageous change, it’s been revealed that Lady Sybil Ramkin is no longer a formidable, somewhat rotund woman in early middle age, but now a younger, athletic “vigilante,” which has sparked some comparisons with Batman. Lady Sybil in the books is impressive as a character who operates within society rules but is also able to achieve results. She is also a rare example of a fantasy heroine who is middle-aged, not stunning attractive but still brave, capable and resourceful. Turning her into Batman in order to further "empower" the character feels derivative and lazy.

In a similar note, Cut-Me-Own-Throat-Dibbler, a street informant usually found selling dubious meat products to crowds watching whatever chaos is unfolding, has now been recast as some kind of intelligence agent with an army of freelance spies and thugs at his command, sort of like a working-class Varys from Game of Thrones. This is the absolute inverse of the repugnant character from the books.

Another concern is the publicity line confirming that the TV series will not be directly adapting any of the books but instead being inspired by them to create an original storyline. With the greatest of respect, this is always an act of stunning hubris by TV scriptwriters. The main writer of The Watch, Simon Allen, does not have a particularly distinguished CV, having written episodes of the BBC’s indifferent Musketeers show and light, disposable fare like New Tricks. I think it’s fair to say that he is not a good a writer as Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the greatest fantasists and satirists of all time. Thinking you can improve on Pratchett is extremely unwise.

It’s frustrating because the casting has, so far, been interesting. Richard Dormer (Ser Beric from Game of Thrones) as Sam Vimes is superb casting, and the formidably talented Anna Chancellor as a gender-swapped Patrician Vetinari is a fantastic notion, one I think Pratchett would have approved of. Some fans have expressed disdain for gender-swapping or race-changing characters, but given Pratchett's own views on the subject (and Ankh-Morpork's bustling cosmopolitanism) I suspect he would not have given a flying toss about any of those kind of changes.

The changes to the themes, characters, storylines and the very morality of the Discworld books are much more concerning, and I suspect would have set alarm bells blaring for the author.

Why buy the rights and then not adapt the books?
This is the question I suspect a lot of people are asking right now. Peter Jackson didn’t option The Lord of the Rings and turn it into a movie where Frodo Baggins is a ninja and Aragorn rides a Harley Davidson (no matter how interesting that might have been). Even Benioff and Weiss didn’t option Game of Thrones and turn it into a relationship drama about Ned and Cat’s marriage, and before the HBO show Martin’s novels were – especially compared to Pratchett – relatively obscure. Benioff and Weiss of course ran into trouble when they ran out of source material and had to create original material of their own, but that wasn't entirely in their control (although they should have still done a better job and not severely rushed the last two seasons, to be clear).

It feels like there isn’t an answer to the question that really makes sense. Simply adapting Guards! Guards! and maybe Men at Arms as the first season, maybe with some stand-alone new episodes thrown into the mix, is a fantastic idea. You can do some interesting casting if you want – seriously, Chancellor should kill it as Vetinari – but taking some of the strong, interesting female characters Pratchett created and turning them into clichés is pointless and insulting.

Even worse, the rumblings of discontent by Discworld fans is something you really don’t want to happen. Just as Game of Thrones did everything right (at least in the early production phase) and won a lot of support from book fans who spread word-of-mouth about the TV show and helped turn it into the biggest thing in television, The Watch is actively annoying and angering the millions of Pratchett fans who wanted a more faithful adaptation, and there are far, far more of them then there were fans of Martin before the show launched. This is something that could actively backfire in BBC America’s face when the show launches late next year.

Could it be that The Watch ends up being a pretty good piece of television? Maybe. But if writer Simon Allen wanted to create an original fantasy police TV show, he should have gone and created his own one. Optioning Terry Pratchett's fantastic novels and then refusing to use the stories in them the way the author intended is baffling and disrespectful.

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More cast announced for Terry Pratchett's WATCH TV series

BBC America has announced more casting news for The Watch, its TV series based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (more specifically, the ones focusing on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch). BBC America had previously confirmed that the series will be made up of original stories loosely inspired by the books, and this seems to be the case with the casting announcements made today.

Patrician Vetinari, Cut-Me-Own-Throat-Dibbler (now named "Throat") and the head of the Assassins' Guild, Dr. Cruces, are male characters from the books who have been cast with actresses: Anna Chancellor, Ruth Madeley and Ingrid Oliver respectively. Anna Chancellor in particular is a superb actress with tremendous presence and form and could play the Patrician very well, although the move does continue down the path of moving the TV series very far indeed from the books.

James Fleet has been cast as the Archchancellor of Unseen University (which one is unknown). The minor character of Lupine Wonse, also male in the books, will be played by Bianca Simone Mannie. Hakeem Kae-Kazim has been cast as John Keel, Sam Vimes' mentor in the Watch when he was younger.

Filming on The Watch started back in September in South Africa and the series is expected to debut in the second half of 2020.

Filming of Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH begins

Shooting has commenced on the BBC America TV series The Watch, "inspired by" Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels revolving around the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

The new TV series will be a reinterpretation of the City Watch books (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud and Snuff), featuring some of the same characters but, in some cases, in dramatically different circumstances. The TV series will also not be directly adapting the books, instead creating original stories.

Fan reaction to the news has been mixed. Some of the casting, particularly Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones' Ser Beric) as Captain Sam Vimes, has been highly praised, but other casting decisions have been criticised, particularly the decision to turn the middle-aged and stout Lady Sybil into a young, Catwoman-like vigilante.\

The Watch is expected to air on BBC America in late 2020.

THE WATCH TV series casts Vimes and other castmembers, confirms it will only be a "loose" adaptation

BBC America's City Watch TV series, based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, has added several major new roles to its cast.

Richard Dormer, best-known to fantasy fans for playing the role of Lord Beric Dondarrion in HBO's Game of Thrones, has been cast as Sam Vimes, the commanding officer of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. One of Pratchett's most iconic characters, Vimes is the alcoholic, cynical commanding officer with a hint of a conscience who finds himself drawn back into real police work. The previously-announced Adam Hugill is playing Carrot and Jo Eaton-Kent (The Romanoffs, Don't Forget the Driver) is playing Constable Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarfish member of the Watch.

Maltese actress Marama Corlett (Guardians of the Galaxy, Blood Drive, The City and The City) is playing Angua, a werewolf member of the Watch. Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines, Iron Sky 2) has been cast as Lady Sybil Ramkin, whilst Sam Adewunmi (Luck Man, Doctor Who) has been cast as villain Carcer Dun.

The casting seems promising, although the formal BBC press release seems to drive a stake through the heart of those hoping for a faithful adaptation of the novels. It confirms a number of major changes to both the worldbuilding (crime has been formally "legalised" in Ankh-Morpork, apparently) and to characters, with Lady Sybil now apparently being a vigilante, which is presumably why they cast her considerably younger than in the novels.

It appears that this will be following in the footsteps of BBC America's Dirk Gently TV series in being more "inspired loosely by the books" then actually adapting them, which is a bold and possibly controversial choice (moreso with the considerably better-known and better-selling Discworld series).

The Watch starts shooting on location in South Africa on 30 September 2019 and will air in late 2020.

Live-action DISCWORLD TV series casts Captain Carrot

The BBC's live-action Discworld TV series, with the working title The Watch, has cast its first actor. Adam Hugill will be playing the role of Captain Carrot on the series.

The new TV series, which is being developed by BBC America as an eight-part fantasy procedural, is inspired by the "City Watch" subset of the Discworld novels (starting with Guards! Guards!) by the late Sir Terry Pratchett. Oddly, the show will not be adapting the novels but will instead be using characters and situations established in them. The fact that werewolf Angua and dwarfish forensics expert Cheery are already part of the roster when the show opens suggests that the series may be acting as a companion or sequel to the books.

Hugill recently appeared in the pilot episode for Pennyworth and has a role on the upcoming Sam Mendes WWI movie 1917.

The Watch is now in pre-production and is expected to debut in late 2020.

BBC America greenlights Terry Pratchett's THE WATCH

BBC America has formally greenlit The Watch, an ongoing TV series based on the late Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel series.

The TV show will focus on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, an initially downtrodden and ineffectual police force which, over the course of many books, becomes an effective force for law and order on the streets of the city. The TV series will include characters such as Samuel Vimes, Carrot, Nobby, Angua, Cheery and Sybil Rankin, alongside appearances by Death himself.

It is believed that the series will mix in new and original stories with adaptations of the City Watch novels (starting with Guards! Guards!), although the precise format has yet to be revealed.

BBC America is pairing with Pratchett's own production company Narrativia to make the series, with Simon Allen (The Musketeers) on board as head writer. The first season will consist of eight episodes, expected to debut in late 2019 or early 2020.

Neil Gaiman to write GOOD OMENS TV series

Neil Gaiman has confirmed that he will be scripting a six-episode mini-series based on his 1990 collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens.

Gaiman had previously decided not to proceed as a writer on the project, believing it should only be done between him and Pratchett. Pratchett passed away last year, meaning that it was likely that the project would have to be given to another writer. However, Pratchett left behind a letter to be given to Gaiman in the light of Pratchett's death, in which he asked Gaiman to handle the project.

The BBC had previously been interested in the series when it was mooted as a 13-part series, but budget cuts at the BBC seem to have removed their interest. Cutting the story to six parts might be enough to reignite their interest, especially after their bullish recent performance with expensive-looking period and genre dramas such as Wolf Hall, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, The Last Kingdom and War and Peace. Good Omens also did well for the BBC as a radio drama in 2014, starring Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap as angels Crowley and Aziraphale.

In the same article, Narrativia, the production company set up by Pratchett before his death, confirmed that it was continuing to develop an ongoing TV series based on the City Watch storyline in the Discworld novels and it was also working on a film based on the novel Mort, with Hollywood scriptwriter Terry Rossio (Shrek, Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) developing a script.

It sounds like Good Omens is a bit further along than the other two projects, and hopefully we may be hearing more news about it soon.

Terry Pratchett to pass DISCWORLD onto his daughter

In an interview with The New Statesman, Terry Pratchett has confirmed that his daughter Rhianna has received his blessing to work on additional Discworld projects after he passes away or is no longer capable (he is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's). He has already made her a producer and writer on The Watch, a new TV series based on his City Watch Discworld novels, and has give her permission to write new Discworld books once he has hung up his pen.

Rhianna Pratchett already has writing form. She has worked in the computer game industry for many years, originally as a writer for PC Zone magazine and The Guardian's computer games section before penning the storyline for the Overlord series and Mirror's Edge. Most recently she has worked on the new Tomb Raider game. This is appropriate as Terry Pratchett is a noted fan of the original games, once even considering writing a game called Tomb Stocker which would centre on the hapless minions who stock those tombs fall of traps and puzzles.

When this transfer would take place is not certain, with Pratchett noting that when he has to stop writing he'll be "incredibly angry." Pratchett also revealed that he suffered from a cardiac emergency whilst in New York on a signing tour last month, requiring CPR from his assistant to survive. He brushes off the incident, noting that, "I once heard it mentioned that signing tours can kill you quicker than drugs, booze and fast women. Some of which I haven’t tried."

The interview also hints at major news on The Watch to be revealed soon, as casting is now underway for the series.

Terry Pratchett's CITY WATCH TV series greenlit (apparently)

News from a few weeks ago suggests that the TV series based on Terry Pratchett's City Watch Discworld novels has been greenlit to go into active production. A formal announcement doesn't seem to have been made, but attendees at the official Discworld Convention in Birmingham in late August seemed to be talking about the project as a done deal.

The proposed project would be an ongoing series with a first season of 13 episodes, unlike the existing Discworld TV adaptations (Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, Going Postal and the forthcoming Unseen Academicals) which are two-part TV movies. The series has the current working title The Watch. The series will be produced by Pratchett's own production company, Narritiva, in association with BBC Enterprises. The only announced writer so far is Guy Burt, who has worked on The Borgias and The Bletchley Circle. The series will comprise adaptations of the existing City Watch novels (presumably starting with the first, Guards! Guards!) and all-new adventures.

Narritivia is also developing a four-part TV mini-series based on Terry Pratchett's immensely popular collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens. This project will be co-written by Monty Python's Terry Jones and the somewhat-less-reputable Gavin Scott (whose credits include the rather poor TV adaptations of The Mists of Avalon and A Wizard of Earthsea).