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The hell have they done to sybil, she is bloody skinny???? where is my big buxom booming lady! not happy about this at all.

 Formosa wrote:
The hell have they done to sybil, she is bloody skinny???? where is my big buxom booming lady! not happy about this at all.

suspect its that global audience thing, as whilst book fans and British folks would understand what she is a homage / parody of I suspect it might not translate well elsewhere, also unsure about Angua, always imagined her as fairly physically imposing

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
Knowing the BBC, it's entirely possible they'll just go for the most Cumberbatchian person they can get and make Vimes Sherlock...

Nonetheless, still hopeful for this. The Watch is a good place to start as it gives the unfamiliar viewers an instant point of reference; everyone's seen at least one cop drama. I'm not normally a fan of the 'it's a police show, but...' formula, but for this, it could work. Keep the format simple, and let the world and the stories do the talking.

I'm with Mad Doc on this, they should go for original stories (maybe loosely based on the books) rather than straight adaptations, just because adaptations so rarely actually leave anyone happy (I am aware of the irony of saying that while also being massively hyped for the upcoming BBC take on His Dark Materials that's happening at some point... )

Ahhhh, but Rhianna Pratchett is the guardian of her father's legacy.

Indeed, I'd wager so cautious a custodian (she's not letter anyone, even herself, write new Discworld stories for print) is the very reason it's taken this long to get the project trundling forwards. So I suspect she wouldn't stand for Vimes via Sherlock. There's plenty of space for a Sherlock type character in Ankh-Morpork of course - but that Watch isn't it (for one, I suspect Lord Vetinari may not stand for it!)

She said today that she isn't involved in this. She was, back when Sir Pterry was alive, but that was before the BBC was involved.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
The hell have they done to sybil, she is bloody skinny???? where is my big buxom booming lady! not happy about this at all.

suspect its that global audience thing, as whilst book fans and British folks would understand what she is a homage / parody of I suspect it might not translate well elsewhere, also unsure about Angua, always imagined her as fairly physically imposing

that is a very fair point but god damn they missed their mark here, so many good actors could have had that role

As for Angua, she always struck me as a waif of a woman that was still intimidating for some reason... we got any word on Detritus yet?

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
He'd be not bad as Vetinari, if they can't afford Charles Dance again.

You think Benedict Cumberbatch would be cheaper than Charles Dance?

^^^It's Bandersnatch Cummerbund, FYI. And I think any adaptation of Discworld for the small screen would do well without him.

 Red Harvest wrote:
^^^It's Bandersnatch Cummerbund, FYI. And I think any adaptation of Discworld for the small screen would do well without him.

I have a girlfriend and child whose names Anglophones find peculiar and frequently and tediously alter for their amusement, I don't do it to other people.

I'm enjoying some of the 'BBC forcing diversity' chatter on twitter. Presumably from people who have never read any Watch books.

Or indeed any Discworld. But yes, diversity was a seriously central theme for Sam Vimes.

I just hope they do the odd voiceover from Vimes(or DEATH) to keep the footnotes feel, and that one of them is the Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Economic Injustice.

 Yodhrin wrote:
I just hope they do the odd voiceover from Vimes(or DEATH) to keep the footnotes feel, and that one of them is the Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Economic Injustice.

indeed, I thought the v/o worked okay in Good Omens and the Disc does need a soupcon of explanation for the uninitiated, I've got my fingers crossed for a show that brings us into the world via the Watch and maybe concludes with Vimes and Carcer timey-wimeying into Night Watch (as jumpimg straight into a past when the audience doesn't get the present might not be the best move)

Footnotes could also be done as sort of vox pops from people being interviewed by The Watch?

Just a talking head, offering an insight or two.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Bit unsure of Sybil’s casting.

I’ve always seen her, mentally, as a dowdy type character. But hey, if she’s got the acting chops, all will be good.

Yeah, she looks all kinds of wrong. Sybil Ramkin should be more like 'Keeping Up Appearances' era Patricia Routledge - stout matronly spinster, upper-class in a 'jolly hockey sticks' girls public school fashion. This couldn't be more miscast if they put a 12 year old boy in the role.

Sybil is far more than a body shape though.

Particularly when Young Sam comes along, she becomes more motherly than matronly.

Whilst yes, that is generally associated with ‘Mumsie Shaped’ ladies of a certain age, it’s her attitude they’ve got to get right here.

Totally agree it’s not what I’d have gone with - but then we’ve not seen her auditions, so who knows?


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My main concern here is with Carcer being cast, we may not be starting at The Beginning, which traditionally is the best place to start.

Part of Discworld’s appeal is how Sir Terry delivered serious and believable character development, especially with Vimes.

When we first meet him, he basically lives in the bottom of a glass. By the end, he’s met Sybil, their romance is well kindled, at The Watch itself is starting to matter to Ankh-Morpork.

From there, over the following novels, we see The Watch become a serious force to be reckoned with. Greater diversity added (sometimes to Sam’s chagrin), whilst old guard such as Nobby and Fred offer the same old, reassuringly bribeable face to the citizens.

There is room for compromise. But they need to cover the earliest days in some fashion, or The Watch as both Ankh-Morpork’s redemption and Sam’s own personal redemption just won’t land that well, I fear.

Without a clear understanding of ‘the bad old days’, we lose Sam’s motivation for accepting the diversification and other general madness of things.

I also hope they go easy on the cameos. Yes, I’d love to see Rincewind, The Witches, Moist Von Lipwig etc. Of course I would. But they don’t have to be front and central to the plot. None of them have any great interaction with The Watch after all. Rincewind is a Wizzard, so deals with other stuff. And I can see Granny Weatherwax needing much at all from The Watch, should she visit Ankh-Morpork. And Moist? Well, I’m certain he can get himself out of scrapes! William De Worde? Yes. Absolutely yes. As the main journo, he and Otto Shreek can easily show up now and again.

Just......go easy with it. I dare say most existing fans neither want nor need to be bludgeoned with such, and newcomers won’t get it.

Heck, just seeing a certain pointy hat with ‘Wizzard’ written on it, moving through the general crowd will work for me.

But most of all? Keep the soul of Sir Terry’s world. Keep the humour. Keep the sideways glance at our world. Don’t try to ‘reinterpret’.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Footnotes could also be done as sort of vox pops from people being interviewed by The Watch?

Just a talking head, offering an insight or two.

dibbler explains it all ?

Though......having said that.

Perhaps they’ll need to work in the likes of Moist and Unseen University? Part of what made Ankh-Morpork in particular such a rich setting was that we saw the city from multiple perspectives.

The Watch, UU, and Moist (a con artist kinda gone straight, or at least forced to channel his wiles for the good of the city).

If it’s just The Watch and nothing but the The Watch? I have some concerns that won’t do such a rich setting justice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Footnotes could also be done as sort of vox pops from people being interviewed by The Watch?

Just a talking head, offering an insight or two.

dibbler explains it all ?

That works!

Good Omens prototyped the footnotes bit pretty well. Just needs a solid narrator.

As to Angua, if im not mistaken its the same actress that portrayed her in some of the earlier BBC series (mostly bit parts). In the novels she's pretty unimpressive in human form, but once she shifts all bets are off.

IIRC Angua's first descriptions are of a stunning blonde. It's not particularly important - only really for a "breastplate" pun.

At the moment, I don't know who most of these actors are - the one playing Sybill only appears to have been in Iron Sky 2 - not a knock against her, it just means I know nothing about her. All I'm doing is trying to judge them on appearance, and that's basically irrelevant. For example, I caought myself looking at the agency shot of the actor playting Angua and thinking "well, maybe they picked her because she looks kinda … unique, so it hints at how she's a werewolf", and then I was going to complain that wasn't how Angua in human form was, but then I stopped and figured, or maybe she's just a better actor than the others that auditioned.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sterling191 wrote:


As to Angua, if im not mistaken its the same actress that portrayed her in some of the earlier BBC series (mostly bit parts). .

Do you mean the radio plays? The TV miniseries have all been done by Sky, and it was certainly a different actor in Going Postal.

Sterling191 wrote:
As to Angua, if im not mistaken its the same actress that portrayed her in some of the earlier BBC series (mostly bit parts). In the novels she's pretty unimpressive in human form, but once she shifts all bets are off.

She's only appeared in live action in Going Postal, I think? That's Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (people might know her better as Armistice in Westworld?). She didn't have to do much acting as Angua, but I thought she really looked the part. Stern and slightly intimidating Scandinavian vibe, which is how I always read Angua - that said, I'm not sure if that's how she's ever described, or whether that's just how I imagined her in the mid 90s when I read Men At Arms and it's always stuck.

nfe wrote:

Sterling191 wrote:
As to Angua, if im not mistaken its the same actress that portrayed her in some of the earlier BBC series (mostly bit parts). In the novels she's pretty unimpressive in human form, but once she shifts all bets are off.

She's only appeared in live action in Going Postal, I think? That's Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (people might know her better as Armistice in Westworld?). She didn't have to do much acting as Angua, but I thought she really looked the part. Stern and slightly intimidating Scandinavian vibe, which is how I always read Angua - that said, I'm not sure if that's how she's ever described, or whether that's just how I imagined her in the mid 90s when I read Men At Arms and it's always stuck.

Could have sworn she appeared before Going Postal, but it appears I'm misremembering. But yeah, the facial structure between her and the new actress is fairly similar, and I think it'll result in a similar effect.

Well, Uberwald is sort of generically Eastern European (and the aftermath of the "Evil Empire" is clearly Pterry doing the fall of the Soviet Union ) so Angua should probably look Germanic of Slavic. On the other hand, it's a running gag that no-one realises the Werewolf in the Watch is her (everyone seems to think it's Nobby, or perhaps Constable Visit), so I don't think you'd want to many "werewolfy" mannerisms.

I'm not sure how she looks in my head - I tend to just go with the cover paintings - but there's a bit of Rene Russo from the last couple of Lethal Weapon films in there, I think.

nfe wrote:

I'm enjoying some of the 'BBC forcing diversity' chatter on twitter. Presumably from people who have never read any Watch books.

The Watch books being the ones where the second book concerns Vimes being unhappy about a troll, dwarf and woman / werewolf being added to the Watch to make it more diverse, and which later gets into allegories for personhood, racism and gender identity?

I can't even act surprised at the Anti-SJW's any more.

It was also the main theme of the third Discworld novel ever written, Equal Rites. Frankly it takes a special effort to miss it.

To be honest, the same sort of cretins attack Star Trek for sudden ‘social conscience’.

They also claim Stan ‘he invented the X-Men’ Lee would be ‘spinning in his grave’ at the MCU stuff, because it has The Dreaded Wimmins in it.

Honestly the extreme ends of the whole sjw and antisjw and that whole block are pretty much cut from the same cloth, just on different sides of the argument. Plus online you can bet a good few of the more vocal with websites and blogs and youtubes and twitches are likely just fanning the flames for the views and pledges and thus the income. You see the very same thing happen with dubious religions which are mostly pyramid schemes - those at the top making the money make the most extreme noise to generate all that interest and keep the money flowing even if what they are saying is utterly without any sense of logic or thinking.

Okay enough social commentary please.

I am not sure how to feel about these castings personally because other than the fellah from GoT (who I quiet like) I have no idea of who they are. Glad to see that they are actually going to make it though, but need to watch DO first.

.. surely the old HItchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series nailed the footnote/explanatory voiceover thingy ?

That had the Guide itself as a vehicle for that; a Discworld series wouldn’t have that device. They could use Vimes’ Disorganiser, I suppose, or a Small God.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
It was also the main theme of the third Discworld novel ever written, Equal Rites. Frankly it takes a special effort to miss it.

Not to mention Feet of Clay, and the continuously relevant Jingo.

The meltdowns are gonna be epic if they make it to Monstrous Regiment.

Alas, it's back to "social commentary" with the latest casting news.

They're gender-flipping Lord Vetinari and Dr Cruces, possibly Dibbler as well depending on whether "Throat" is meant to be them or a new character.

Just, why. The novels are already crammed with social justice'y themes and interesting, complex characters of all sexes, genders, species, and Nobbys, there just no need to make arbitrary changes to the source material.