Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Coming to Television With The Watch

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**reds8n**

...hope this doesn't suck, The Watch are my fav part of discworld.

https://www.tor.com/2018/03/01/terry-pratchetts-discworld-coming-television-the-watch/

BBC Studios and Narrativia are teaming up to bring Terry Pratchett’s Discworld to television, starting with a six-part series titled The Watch.

Deadline has reported that after plentiful rumors, Discworld will undergo a brand new adaptation for the small screen, produced by BBC Studios and Narrativia, the production company founded by Pratchett and currently run by his daughter Rhianna and business partner Rob Wilkins. Simon Allen (Strike Back, The Musketeers) is writing the series under the working title of The Watch.

This should excite Discworld fans, particularly those who are fond of Sam Vimes and the City Watch. It’s likely that the series will center around Ankh-Morpork’s police, which would be an excellent way of introducing new fans to the Disc and all its denizens. This is just a preliminary piece of news, with no actors or dates set for the production, but it’s good to know that we can expect more Discworld in our futures.

**Mr. Burning**

Quietly hopeful on this.

Along side the Witches the Watch has been a firm favourite of mine since Guards! Guards!

**Yodhrin**

Non-news. This project has ostensibly been in development for like, two years now with zero progress and the deadline article has no new info.

I'll get excited when they actually start production.

**Mr. Burning**

Yodhrin wrote:
Non-news. This project has ostensibly been in development for like, two years now with zero progress and the deadline article has no new info.

I'll get excited when they actually start production.

bum!

**KingCracker**

A few of his books were made into tv movies before and they were decent to good. So Ill hope for the best

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Last I heard, Rihanna Pratchett was working on bringing it to the small screen.

That it now seems to have a deal in place is news to me at least.

And that reminds me, I can’t find my copy of Wyrd Sisters :(

**AndrewGPaul**

KingCracker wrote:
A few of his books were made into tv movies before and they were decent to good. So Ill hope for the best

The Colour of Magic, Hogfather and Going Postal. Of the three, I was least happy with Going Postal - the portrayal of Angua and the golems was off.

**ingtaer**

Didn't know about Hogfather so thanks for that! I am the total opposite of your opinion on the other two, I really disliked TCoM and really enjoyed Going Postal even though I thought the book was mediocre.

I hope they do manage to make the Watch (and not make it rubbish), I guess Terry willing the steamrolling of his hard drive was not sufficient though...

**Lance845**

My favorite was always anything that had DEATH in it. The more DEATH the better. So, my favorite book was Mort. Make a Mort movie!

**Riquende**

Yodhrin wrote:
Non-news. This project has ostensibly been in development for like, two years now with zero progress and the deadline article has no new info.

I'll get excited when they actually start production.

Two years? I'm sure I was reading about this at least 5 years ago.

Yes... Wiki says in development since 2011

Regardless, the Watch (and wider Ankh-Morporkian society) is my favourite part of Discworld, and a show that doesn't just look at crime but the wider societal issues that the books did would really have a lot to say in the present climate.

**Turnip Jedi**

This are not the Witches I'm looking for but it's a start, think it'll stand or fall on getting Vimes right

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

So long as he’s more Pete Pothelswaite than Clint Eastwood....

But they definitely need someone who looks like they could Go Spare (still one of my favourite moments in any Discworld!)

I think I’d prefer non-novel based tales though, at least for the most part. Saves pedants comparing the scene 22 minutes and 33 seconds into Episode 3 to page 83, paragraph 3, line 5.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Nobby Nobbs is another character they must absolutely get right.

**Formosa**

Oh hell yes!

**Turnip Jedi**

I'd say Ecclestone might be a fine choice but he's mostly likely too much of an 'actor' to lower himself (least for Beeb money, Marvel money and he'll sign onto any old boswellox)

**Paradigm**

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...

)

**Jadenim**

Paradigm wrote:
...massively hyped for the upcoming BBC take on His Dark Materials that's happening at some point... )

Wait, what?! Where did that come from?!

Pullman and Pratchett? Gods below, I love the BBC!

**Paradigm**

Jadenim wrote:
Paradigm wrote:
...massively hyped for the upcoming BBC take on His Dark Materials that's happening at some point... )

Wait, what?! Where did that come from?!

Pullman and Pratchett? Gods below, I love the BBC!

It was announced some time last year, I think. It's being done by the people who did the really rather superb job of adapting Jonathan Strange And Mister Norrell a couple of years ago so the pedigree is there. Not heard any updates on it in a while though, I thought they'd have announced something alongside Pullman's last book but so far as I know they haven't.

**KingCracker**

Lance845 wrote:
My favorite was always anything that had DEATH in it. The more DEATH the better. So, my favorite book was Mort. Make a Mort movie!

I also really enjoy DEATH in the books, he just somehow makes me smile. However Mort bored me to tears and Im not sure if it was bad writing or it just never grabbed me or what but I had to force myself to finish that book

**Lance845**

Ah come on. That big fight in the hour glass room.that would be incredibly funny and exciting to see on screen.

**ingtaer**

Would love to see Soul Music just for Death striking his power chord pose (that and who doesn't love Blues Brothers).

**Elemental**

ingtaer wrote:
Would love to see Soul Music just for Death striking his power chord pose (that and who doesn't love Blues Brothers).

Channel 4 in the UK did animated adaptations of Soul Music and one of the Witches books in the late 90's. I remember liking them, and they seemed to be well-recieved and faithful at the time (the casting was absolutely perfect), but nobody seems to remember them at all now.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

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!)

**Turnip Jedi**

although I could see old Bunnyhutch Cummerband as Leonard of Quirm,

**AndrewGPaul**

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

**reds8n**

link

Richard Dormer, perhaps best known for his role as the Lightening Lord Beric Dondarrion in Game of Thrones, has landed the role of Sam Vimes. It feels like this is going to be a pretty quirky ‘police procedural’.

He told Terry Pratchett fans;

I’m so thrilled to be part of this brilliant madness and mayhem! I was immediately drawn to the multitude of layers to Sam Vimes, and I find the dynamic between him and his band of disenfranchised comrades very compelling.”

Adam Hugill will play Carrot and Jo Eaton-Kent will play Cherry. Hugill has more recently been seen in a relatively minor role in Pennyworth, the TV series about Batman’s butler.

Craig Viveiros will direct the show. He said;

The script for The Watch is like nothing I have ever read before. It’s anarchic, it’s noisy and raspy, and I am really looking forward to bringing it to life on screen. With such a talented line up of cast and crew together we can make something ground-breaking.

Filming starts in South Africa this month.

**Turnip Jedi**

bit of an odd choice of filming location, given the strange corners of Eastern Europe previously used to portray Ankh-Morpork, but if it makes the money go further so be it

**Sterling191**

Based on the characters they've cast for it seems theyre doing Night Watch, which has me all manner of excited

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

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.

**Chillreaper**

I still want to see Malcolm McDowell as Vetinari.

**Fifty**

The Lightning Lord is too pretty for Vimes. I would prefer Robert Carlyle. Probably a bit of a long-shot though!