Status Updates From Terry Pratchett: The BBC Ra...

Fave line in Mort: “I don't know about you”, he said, “but I could murder a curry”.

I'm normally quite hard on Night Watch because (a) Terry Pratchett and I have different models of historical change and (b) no one else is, but I did choke up at the relevancy of this adaptation in a time when a mad patrician and a militarised police force are killing civilians. I'm just not sure that the solution is for us to sit behind barricades while the ruling classes sort things out for themselves.

Small Gods brings to my attention a problem I think a lot of these adaptations have: Pratchett writes some brilliant endings that draw together numerous strands from the novels, but that are set up, subtly or not, throughout. In adaptation, these endings often seem fragmented, and aren't always well executed. It means I can enjoy 3/4 episodes, but then feel unsatisfied at the end.

Eric is an interesting one - shorter, and thus more easily adapted; but also kind of a bridge in the Rincewind stories... none of which have otherwise been adapted. It's another example of how these radio shows seem more targeted to those who are already fans, which is fine, except it's not clear why they're better than audiobooks. This one does give us Mark Heap as the perfect voice of Rincewind, though.

In this 1992 adaptation of Guards! Guards! you and really hear the influence of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pratchett's humour was always in that general area, but it's emphasised here in a way that hasn't been the case in the previous, later adaptations in this collection.