Every Terry Pratchett Adaptation Ranked (Including The Watch) – Screen Rant

The works of Sir Terry Pratchett had been extensively adapted even before the recent release of The Watch. While best known for his Discworld fantasy series, Pratchett was a prolific author who also wrote a number of children's books and collaborated with other writers on novels such as Good Omens.

With 41 books in his Discworld series alone (including all the books aimed at children, middle-grade readers and young adults), it's no wonder that Terry Pratchett is one of the most frequently adapted authors of modern literature. His books have been adapted into graphic novels, video games, and stage musicals. The stage plays based on his work are particularly popular with amateur dramatics companies, due to Pratchett's emphasis on character and clever wordplay that lend themselves well to the melodrama of the theatre.

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Despite this versatility, it's the TV adaptations of Pratchett's works that have introduced him to the greatest number of people. These adaptations vary wildly, with some being close to the original work though lacking in a big budget and others featuring big budgets while only paying lip service to the books that allegedly inspired it. A rare few managed to build upon the original work to create something that was a fitting tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett's imagination and genius.

The city of Ankh-Morpork revolutionized civic life by unionizing its criminals, turning Thieves and Assassins into legitimate craft guilds. This left the City Watch with little to do, as the criminals were far better at preventing crime than they were. (The coppers had to work harder to lower the crime rate, while the criminals only had to work less.) This has left the Ankh-Morpork City Watch a shell of its former self, managed (in theory) by the drunken Captain Samuel Vimes.However, when an old enemy from Vimes' past reveals himself and emerges at the center of a plot to destroy the city with forbidden magics, it will fall to Vimes, his squadron of misfits, and a dashing noblewoman leading a secret life as a vigilante to save the day.

The Watch ranks dead last on the list of Terry Pratchett adaptations because it can't properly be said to be an adaptation. Indeed, the credits for each episode of The Watchdescribed it as being "inspired by" the works of Terry Pratchett rather than being "based on" them. This was because The Watch took character names and concepts from the original Discworld novels, but applied them haphazardly to wholly new characters. To give one example, the character of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, who was originally a peddler of questionable sausages in a bun and anything else that might be hurriedly sold out of a suitcase on a street corner, was transfigured into Throat; a drug-dealer and police snitch, played by Ruth Madeley from The Rook.

The cruel irony is that, for all the efforts the producers of The Watch made to separate themselves from the source material to present a "punk rock thriller," the show was entirely beholden to the original Discworld books. Much of the humor of the serieswas based around knowing winks to the audience whenever a reference was made to something from the books, such as the librarian of Unseen University being an orangutan. Unfortunately, these references only confused thenew audience The Watchhoped to attract and further irritated Discworld fans in the wake of the random changes from the books. In the end, The Watch cut out the heart and soul of Pratchett'sWatch series and propped up its corpse while pretending it had a life of its own.

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Like Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense, Johnny Maxwell sees dead people. Unlike the dead people Cole dealt with, who often didn't know they were dead, the ghosts Johnny Maxwell befriends are all too aware of their incorporeal nature. They are also none too pleased when they learn their cemetery has been bought by a large conglomerate and is due to have an office building placed on top of their graves. Johnny is all too happy to try to help, but what can one boy do against the forces of commerce?

Produced as a four-part serial for Children's ITV, Johnny and the Dead is a spirited adaptation of the original novel, which was the second of Pratchett's trilogy of books for young readers centered around the adventures of Johnny Maxwell. Despite what he described as a shoe-string budget, Pratchett was pleased with the adaptation and described young actorAndrew Falvey as "the perfect Johnny." The serial boasted an impressive cast, with Brian Blessed (best remembered as Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon) playing the ghost ofWilliam Stickers, "the man who would have invented communism if Karl Marx hadn't." Unfortunately, despite perfectly capturing the novel's message about the importance of respecting history and your elders, the series was slow paced.

There was always something odd about the strange homeless woman who hung around in Johnny Maxwell's neighborhood, but he never suspected that Mrs. Tachyon was a time traveler until he and his friends were asked to watch over her "Bags of Time" while she was in the hospital. Soon Johnny and his friends find themselves in London in 1941, which would normally be problem enough. However, the kids wind up in a literal race against Time after Johnny(much like Marty McFly in Back to the Future) engineers his own non-existence by accidentally arranging for his grandmother to die at the height of The Blitz.

Produced as a three-part special by the BBC, Johnny and the Bombis based on the third and final volume of Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell trilogy. This one boasted better production values than Johnny and the Dead and had a faster pacing thanks to its smaller episode count. It also featured an impressive ensemble of young actors, with Johnny Maxwell played by a young George MacKay, who is best known today for playing Lance Corporal Schofield in 1917.

Kings come and kings go but King Verence of Lancre went somewhat faster than most, thanks to the treacherous Lord Felmet and his scheming wife. Entrusted with Verence's son by a loyal but dying soldier, a trio of witches find themselves dragged into the world of politics; an arena they'd rather stay clear of until they learn King Felmet believes that witches should pay taxes like everyone else. Of course, Fate has a way of fixing these things, but Lancre might not last long enough under Felmet's misrule for the true heir to grow to manhood in obscurity and return to claim his birthright. This leaves Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Mistress Garlick using every trick of the witch's trade (and several made up on the fly) to save the realm.

Inspired by the plays of William Shakespeare (particularly The Scottish Play),Wyrd Sisterswas the sixth Discworld novel but is still considered one of Pratchett's best books. This animated adaptation, originally released in six parts on Channel 4, is not quite so fondly remembered. The chief problem is that the animation byCosgrove Hall focuses too much on individual characters in close-ups, when most of the story involves two to three people talking to one another. This breaks up the dialogue and the flow of much of the humor, destroying any conceit that the characters are people having an actual conversation and not drawings voiced by actors, who were all alone in a sound booth. It's a shame because Wyrd Sisters had an impressive cast, including Christopher Lee as Death, but there was no sense of interaction between the actors on screen.

Rincewind is the single worst wizard on the Discworld, having proven incapable of learning how to spell "wizzard" properly after several decades of study, much less master a single spell. Freshly expelled from Unseen University, he is press-ganged into acting as a guide to Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist. What follows is a magical journey that will take them to the edge of the world, over it, and back again, as Twoflower and Rincewind see the many wonders of the Disc and run away from them very quickly.

Produced as a two-part miniseries for Sky One adapting the first two Discworld novels, there is much to admire about The Color of Magic.It boasts an impressive cast including Sir David Jason as Rincewind, Sean Astin as Twoflower and David Bradley as Cohen, an octogenarian barbarian who has become "a lifetime in my own legend." Unfortunately, while this is an accurate adaptation of the The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic, there is a reason why Discworld fans typically recommend starting with one of the later books and then going back to read the earlier works. Pratchett didn't truly find his voice as a writer until later in the series and the earliestDiscworld books were largely based around parodying classic fantasy tropes as he established his own setting. While the miniseries cut out a lot of the material referencing H.P. Lovecraft and Anne McCaffrey that would go over the heads of general audiences, there still isn't much of a plot to The Color of Magic and the conclusion drags on longer than the ending of The Return of the King.

The Nomes are tiny folk who live unseen in the world of humans.Masklin is a clever young Nome, who leads his starving people into a human dwelling, the Store, not expecting to find another tribe of Nomes for whom "Outside," "the Sun" and "Rain" are myths. Nor did Masklin expect for the Thing (a box handed down among his people's elders) to come to suddenly come to life and start talking about how the Store was closing down. This leads to a bold plan to take command of one of the great Trucks that are taking apart the only world most of the Nomes have ever known, and take it to somewhere Outside to build a new home.

Clocking in at just over two hours and originally released as 13 short episodes on ITV, Truckersmarked the first time that one of Terry Pratchett's works was adapted for television. It is widely regarded as one of the best works of stop-motion animation ever produced by Cosgrove Hall. Beyond being well-animated and having a fantastic ensemble of veteran voice actors, the series is incredibly accurate to Pratchett's original novel, which distinguished itself from similar series like The Borrowers and The Littlesthrough its use of humor. While it looks a bit rough by today's standards, its generally agreed that it's a shame Cosgrove Hall never got the chance to adapt the rest of The Nome Trilogy.

Death takes a holiday, leaving his adopted granddaughter Susan Sto Helit (it's a long story) to take over the family business in his absence. This proves problematic, as Susan has repressed all of her memories of the grandfather with the very bony knees, and the Discworld has become threatened by an outside influence; a powerful magic which manifests through a young bard called Buddy and the "music with rocks in it" created by Buddy's band. As more and more fans fall under the spell of the song, reality threatens to fall apart, unless someone can bring about the day the music dies.

The first of the two animated Discworld adaptations created by Cosgrove Hall for Channel 4, Soul Music proves to be far more than the sum of its parts. As with Wyrd Sisters, the animation is rough and the timing of the voice acting seems off-kilter at times. It is redeemed, however, by two factors. The first is a script which expands upon the original novel, adding in some appropriate gags involving classic rock lore, such as Buddy (in a nod to an infamous John Lennon quote) informing the mayor of the cheese-loving city of Quirm that "we're more popular than cheeses." Naturally this leads to a chase scene right out of A Hard Day's Night. The other factor is the soundtrack, which merited its own album release, and boasts a number of perfect stylistic parodies, such as "Pathway to Paradise" and "She Won't Change Her Mind."

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Nearly every culture marks the middle of winter with some kind of festival and the Discworld is no exception, annually celebrating the coming of the Hogfather: a jolly fat man who delivers toys and fresh sausages to all the good children of the Disc. This Hogswatch, however, the Hogfather has gone missing, thanks to the actions of a clever assassin called Mr. Teatime. Now, as Death takes the place of the Hogfather(with his manservant Albert in tow as a pixie helper) to ensure that his yearly duties are discharged, it falls to his granddaughter Susan (now employed as a nanny, Slayer of Monsters and Wielder of The Poker) to get to the bottom of things before Mr. Teatime literally kills the holiday spirit.

Based on the fourth of the Discworld novels centered around Death and produced as a two-part special for Sky One, Hogfather has become a modern holiday standard along with Love Actually and Last Christmas. It features an astonishing ensemble, includingMichelle Dockery as Susan Sto Helit, in one of her first roles years before she played Lady Mary Crawley on Downton Abbey, and Ian Richardson, in one of his final roles, as the voice of Death. (Sir David Jason, reportedly a huge fan of Pratchett's books, is also in this one as Albert.) It is incredibly faithful to the original novel, which is both a blessing and a curse. Discworld fans love all the cameos of beloved characters like Constable Visit and Corporal Nobbs, but newcomers may be confused by why such attention is paid to such seemingly minor characters, asHogfatherassumes the viewer is already familiar with the sizeable cast.

Moist von Lipwig was a cheat, a liar and all-around scoundrel, who played many roles as an independent conman and gentleman of fortune. However, once he was caught and presented with a choice of execution or an honest job restoring Ankh-Morpork's archaic post office, von Lipwig found himself cast in his most improbable role ever; hero. Working his away around flying assassins, corrupt businessmen and golem parole officers, it will take all of von Lipwig's cunning to come out on top and maybe, just maybe, find something close to redemption for his past crimes.

The third and final Discworldadaptation produced as a two-part special for Sky One, Going Postal is the best of the trio. This is largely due to the fact that Going Postal manages to stand on its own and be far more friendly to newcomers than Hogfather and The Color of Magic. Additionally, while all of the Sky One productions featured fantastic ensembles, Going Postal's cast had the most interactive chemistry. This was particularly true of Richard Coyle (Father Faustus Blackwood in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Claire Foy (Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown), who played the lead roles of Moist von Lipwig andAdora Belle "Spike" Dearheart.

Times are tough for barbarian heroes, and Cohen has lived through a lot of tough times. Denied a heroic death in battle and now having an easier time crushing his enemies than he does going to the bathroom, Cohen has ridden out to the middle of nowhere in search of an old-fashioned troll to prove himself in single-combat; a test of manhood he somehow never got around to completing in his long life of adventure. Unfortunately, while times are tough for barbarian heroes, they're even tougher for the trollsstruggling to keep the hiding under bridges and slaying wandering heroes industry going.

Troll Bridge was based on one of the few short stories Terry Pratchett wrote that was set in the Discworld. It was first published in After The King, which was a collection of short fiction paying tribute to Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. Rather than writing a story set in Middle Earth, Pratchett elected to evoke the same spirit of ennui in the face of the passing of ages which Frodo experienced, noting that "...things change, things pass. You fight a war to change the world, and it changes into a world with no place in it for you." This fan-film, officially endorsed by Terry Pratchett before his death and approved by his estate upon its completion in 2019, perfectly captured that sense of ethos and has earned a dozen film festival awards since its release.

The end is nigh, the Four Horseman are preparing to ride and Armageddon is on the way. Unfortunately for the forces of Heaven and Hell (who have so been looking forward to the final battle to end all things), the Anti-Christ has gone missing, having been accidentally switched at birth with an ordinary human boy. Now, the demon put in charge of seeing the son of the Devil raised wrong and the angel charged with watching the demon have formed an uneasy alliance to try and find the real Anti-Christ, save the Earth and eff-up the Ineffable Plan; chiefly because they like Earth better than Heaven and Hell, neither of which have good Sushi, good music, or good bookshops.

Amazon Prime's adaptation of Good Omens was a labor of love, which Neil Gaiman (who co-wrote the original novelwith Terry Pratchett in 1990) agreed to write and showrun. This request was reportedly made by Terry Pratchett on his deathbed, as he felt that nobody else could do their novel justice. While that point may be debatable as Terry Gilliam was interested in doing a film adaptation for some time, it cannot be denied that the vast majority of critics and fans agreed with Pratchett's assessment and loved the final product of Gaiman's efforts.Good Omens is not only the best adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel ever made, but one of the best TVadaptations of a book ever made.

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word"blogging" was coined. He got his start writing for thelegendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone onto write for over a dozen websites, including 411Mania, ComicsNexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in InformationScience from the University of North Texas and a BFA from theUniversity of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic bookhistory trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of AmericanComic Books, Japanese Manga and Cosplay at over a dozen conventionsand served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novelsfor Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to hiswork for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Managing Editor ofKabooooom.com, the housecritic of Explore The Multiverse and writes reviews for NoFlying, No Tights a graphic literature and anime review siteaimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog My Geeky Geeky Ways which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television seriesmaking up The Arrowverse as well as hiscomedic Lets Play videos. What little spare time he has isdevoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. Youcan follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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Every Terry Pratchett Adaptation Ranked (Including The Watch) - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero