Some good news to spring from the dire predictions of a crackpot for once. You may recall that, back in April last year, Neil Gaiman revealed he'd be bringing his classic Terry Pratchett collaboration Good Omens to TV. Now there is an official deal for the BBC and Amazon to share production duties on the planned six-part series.
Combining the best of both Pratchett and Gaiman's writing styles, Good Omens is by turns dark, philosophical and barkingly funny. Angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley have got rather fond of Earth and are thusly annoyed to discover that the Antichrist is going to show up and bring it to an end. Terry Gilliam was once planning a film adaptation with Johnny Depp and Robin Williams, but was scuppered by 9/11.
The Beeb previously adapted the book for Radio 4 back in 2014 and now Gaiman is writing all the episodes for the new show, planned for releases on Amazon Prime Video worldwide first in 2018 before a separate broadcast on the BBC. “Almost thirty years ago, Terry Pratchett and I wrote the funniest novel we could about the end of the world, populated with angels and demons, not to mention an eleven-year-old Antichrist, witchfinders and the four horsepeople of the Apocalypse,” Gaiman says in a statement. “It became many people's favourite book. Three decades later, it's going to make it to the screen. I can't think of anyone we'd rather make it with than BBC Studios, and I just wish Sir Terry were alive to see it.” So do we, Neil, so do we. But we're just happy to see that this is truly happening, and in the rights hands.
Elsewhere in Gaiman TV adaptations, we're anticipating the American Gods show, which is due on US cable channel Starz this year, and will be available on Amazon Prime in the UK.