Discworld weekly police procedural approved by Pratchett

I know there’s already a thread, but people might actually read one that has an informative title.

Here’s the scroop. While Prime Focus isn’t the same group that did the previous Discworld miniseries (that was The Mob) it looks like the person running the show, Rod Brown, was also executive producer on Hogfather, Going Postal and The Colour of Magic.

Pratchett seems pretty excited and I’m pretty sure this will be the first wholly original story set in Ankh-Morpork since the underrated adventure game Discworld Noir.

Since we know that it features the Ankh-Morpork Watch, I think we have all the information to start baseless casting speculation! I say James Nesbitt for Vimes, Christopher Eccleston for Vetinari and Robert Sheehan for Corporal Nobby Nobbs.

Good work.

Cautiously optimistic about this. I thought Going Postal was excellent, and captured the tone and incidental detail of Ankh-Morpork very well. I remember struggling a bit with the other two, but I didn’t watch them fully. Perhaps worthy of another chance.

To me Robert Sheehan feels a bit young for Nobby Nobbs, who always felt to me like a skinny Timothy Spall with dermatological disorders out the wazoo. I’m really not sure about James Nesbitt as Vimes, either. Too genial, too manic. I’m struggling with those two in general, actually, but I’ll throw in a couple of my own: John Henshaw is pretty much tailor-made for Sergeant Colon. Charles Dance already did a pretty bang-up job as Vetinari too, so I’d be inclined to keep him.

How about David Thewlis?

Whoops. Forgot about that. They already have an Angua, too, don’t they?

I wasn’t sold on the Angua. The role imo requires more than blond hair and big tits.

Wasn’t Angua only in Going Postal for about five seconds anyway, of which half were spent doing an unconvincing CG transition into a werewolf? It’d be pretty much a blank slate, casting-wise.

Dance is currently cast as Tywin Lannister in HBO’s Game of Thrones. I can’t imagine that will tie up his schedule too badly, but recurring characters in two TV shows at once might be difficult.

I am totally excited for this but at the same time, how the hell expensive is this going to be? You’ve got werewolves, dwarves, a troll, and even a vampire these days on the Watch. I can’t imagine it would be cheap to produce that every week.

Werewolves and vampires aren’t that expensive anymore.

The only thing I want sparkling are trolls ok.

Hogfather is. I liked that one quite a bit. Actually, Karen and I have gotten into the habit of watching it every Christmas.

I think The Colour of Magic suffered from trying to cram two books worth of material into one movie. Decent, but not as good as Hogfather, IMHO.

Sean Pertwee could ham it up as Nobby Nobbs.

I’d rather have Sean Pertwee as Vimes, myself.

I wonder when this will see the light of day?

Simon McBurney (Archdeacon Robert in Rev) seems like he would make a perfect Vetinari, he’s practically already playing the role:

This is taking SO LONGGGG… At least they are starting to write it?

“Rumours have circulated for some years of a series in development based on Pratchett’s novels featuring the characters of the Ankh Morpork City Watch, the police department of the Discworld’s fictional metropolis. Speculation was renewed on Friday with that BBC Studios is working on such a project, titled The Watch, and that screenwriter and producer Simon Allen is attached to it. BBC Studios has since confirmed that the show is in development in an email to Guardian Australia.”

I’ve wanted for a long time to read this series, but I hear it’s important to start at the beginning, and my public library only has the latest ones (in ebook format, at least).

It isn’t necessary to start at the beginning. He has several different ‘story arcs’, and they kinda work standalone (I think it is worth reading them all eventually…).

I’m a big fan of starting with the Watch series. That was my first book, Guards Guards!

BTW Amazon Prime currently has Hogfather and Colour of Magic movies up.

I always hear about people seeing things adapted from books and then complaining that nothing looks right, doesn’t match the image in their head. This would probably be my prime example, I would imagine.

The hearing about it, or the images in your head?