Discworld fans are right to be nervous about the BBC's 'punk rock' The Watch
over 5 years in The guardian
Terry Pratchett’s books about Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch have been adapted into a ‘punk rock thriller’ – and some are not happy
We Terry Pratchett fans have been lucky, in recent years. We were given Good Omens, which thanks to co-author Neil Gaiman’s shepherding and incredible performances from David Tennant and Michael Sheen, was a joy to watch. And we were told that BBC America was developing The Watch, a series based on Pratchett’s stories about Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch. Yes, we were a little nervous to read that Pratchett’s fierce, dark, sardonic stories were to become a “startlingly reimagined … punk rock thriller” that was “inspired by” the books. But we stayed faithful, for it was promised that the show would “still cleav[e] to the humour, heart and ingenuity of Terry Pratchett’s incomparably original work”.
But nerves were jangling even more fiercely on Friday as the first shots from the forthcoming show were shared by the studio. They … look kind of cyberpunky? Is that electricity? Where is their ARMOUR? Should we have been more wary about that “inspired by”? Continue reading...
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