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Meet The Watch
With filming underway in South Africa, the BBC has released the first pictures from the adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s tales of The Watch. Set in a fictional city where crime […]
With filming underway in South Africa, the BBC has released the first pictures from the adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s tales of The Watch.
Set in a fictional city where crime has been legalised, The Watch is a genre-busting series that follows a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining, the character-driven drama follows several of Terry Pratchett’s best-loved creations on a riotous and emotional odyssey. The cast includes Game of Thrones’ Richard Dormer as Captain Sam Vimes, Adam Hugill (1917, World on Fire) as Constable Carrot, Jo Eaton-Kent (Don’t Forget The Driver), as Constable Cheery, Marama Corlett (Blood Drive, Sick Note) as Corporal Angua, Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines, Cheat) as Lady Sybil Ramkin and Sam Adewunmi (The Last Tree, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man) as Carcer Dun.
The stellar cast for the series also includes Anna Chancellor (Pennyworth, Trust) as Lord Vetinari, James Fleet (Outlander, The Vicar of Dibley) as The Archchancellor, Ingrid Oliver (Defending the Guilty, Doctor Who) as Doctor Cruces, Ruth Madeley (The Rook, Years and Years) as Throat, Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Deep State, Dynasty) as Captain John Keel, and Bianca Simone Mannie (Homeland, Saints & Strangers) as Wonse.
Comprised of eight episodes, The Watch is directed by Craig Viveiros (The War of The Worlds), Brian Kelly (Outlander, Poldark) and Emma Sullivan (Silent Witness, Doctor Who). The show’s lead writer is Simon Allen (The Musketeers, Das Boot). Joining Allen is a team of writers including, Joy Wilkinson (Nick Nickleby, Doctor Who), Catherine Tregenna (Torchwood, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man), Amrou Al-Kadhi (Hollyoaks, Little America) and Ed Hime (Skins, Doctor Who).
The Watch is produced by BBC Studios and Narrativia for BBC AMERICA. It is executive produced by Richard Stokes (Torchwood, Broadchurch), Hilary Salmon (Luther, Three Girls) and Ben Donald (The Mallorca Files) for BBC Studios, Rob Wilkins (Good Omens) for Narrativia, Simon Allen, and Craig Viveiros.
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I feel like this is going to be a case where it would be better if they emphasised the ‘inspired by’ and dropped the ‘Discworld’
Why?
Using some of the themes and ideas discussed as a spring board for a series, a city where crime is legal, etc sounds like a cool idea but it’s not discworld and the shots we’ve seen don’t look like discworld either. And while some may appreciate the aesthetic more than I, turning lady sybil into a younger batwoman esque figure goes against her character and leaves us with rich young girl falls in love with gruff old street wise man which is a story we’ve seen before. Making Cheery in a non binary male is fine for representation and stuff but the drops the issue Cheery had of coming out to a very conservative and traditional parents/ race.
Now this could be a great series, as I said “I feel like …” I don’t know but this is sounding like it’s gonna be stuck between the cool original ideas of the books and the cool original ideas of the writers leaving us with no one happy.
So you’ve read the scripts?
No why have you?
I am going with the information they have presented to us and as far as I am concerned making fairly logical conclusions based upon what we have seen of adaptions in recent years. I am not talking about how it is serialised, or not, how well paced it is, or acted. I am simply commented on the information they have chosen to release to us. Information selected to get us interested in the property. Saying I shouldn’t assume anything at this point is like watching a terrible trailer and saying I don’t have any interest in watching the movie.