The queue at the hipster
gelato joint proved
baffling to the over-40s.SHOWRUNNER Neil Gaiman
CAST David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Adria
Arjona, Miranda Richardson, Michael
McKean, Jack Whitehall, Jon Hamm,
Frances McDormand
PLOT After becoming accustomed to their
life on Earth, angel Aziraphale (Michael
Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant)
team up to stop the arrival of the Antichrist
and the coming of Armageddon.
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stories, even if they featured a comic
partnership between a demon and an angel
looking to stop the coming armageddon).
Spurred by a dying wish from
Pratchett in 2015, Gaiman has grasped
the reins for the series, turning it into
a six-episode miniseries and attempting to
bottle the wild wit and imagination that he
and Pratchett poured into the 1990 novel.
And for the most part, he has either met or
exceeded expectations. Which is no mean
feat, given how beloved the source material
is. It helps that Gaiman recruited a killer
cast to bring the story to life. The forces of
good and evil collide over a plan to bring
about the end of the world (featuring some
well-used and happily tweaked tropes such
as an antichrist child and the Four
Horsemen (horsepeople? Bikerpeople in
this regard?) Of The Apocalypse. At the
heart of it all are angel Aziraphale
(Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley
(David Tennant), who have known each
other since the (Biblical) birth of humanity
and, in the millennia that have followed,
are in no hurry to see everything come to a
flaming, war-between-heaven-and-hell end.
Sheen and Tennant are fine casting for
the central pair, a nervy gourmand-turned-
bookseller and a swaggering louche
boasting an unexpected way with plants (a
shouty, fear-driven way). It’s a partnership
that sparks with real warmth and joy, even
as this seemingly mismatched duo bond
over the centuries. Yet while they’re thefocus, the rest of the series has some
excellent performances, including Jon
Hamm (as the Angel Gabriel), Michael
McKean (as the pugnacious Witchfinder
Sergeant Shadwell) and Frances
McDormand keeping the tome’s asides
alive as God, narrating the background
and filling in the basics. If there’s a weak
link, it’s the kids playing the antichrist
and his friends, who while they’re not
disastrous, are broader brushstrokes than
some of the other characters, feeling less
inspired by the likes of Just William and
more ripped from those pages. And, while
it’s well shot, there are one or two moments
that are a little more in the style of cheaper
‘70s sci-fi telly, though that in its way adds
to the charm.
Gaiman has cannily trimmed the
expansive plot down to what really works
on screen, lightly tinkered with the timeline
to make it all feel relevant and fresh, while
keeping many of the elements that work.
It still has a lot to say about the world,
humanity, religion and what really went
on with the creation of the M25. It’s
a relief to note that Good Omens hurdles
the adaptation barriers with some space
to spare, channeling the likes of Douglas
Adams along the way. JAMES WHITERESIDING ON THE shelf labelled
“potentially unfilmable” for years since its
publication, Terry Pratchett and Neil
Gaiman’s cult apocalyptic comedy tome
was perhaps always going to be best served
by the boosted running time of a TV series
and the deep pockets of a streaming service
such as its final home with Amazon. After
all, people such as Terry Gilliam had tried
to turn it into a film, only to be frustrated
by the wordy, footnote-heavy style and, at
one point, real world situations (Gilliam
pitched his take shortly after 9/11 and
studios were in no mood for world-ending
VERDICT No screen version of the book
was going to be perfect, or work for
everyone, but this is probably the
closest we were going to get. Praise be!