Good Omens: The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation

by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Mark Heap (Narrator), Peter Serafinowicz (Narrator), and Full Cast (Narrator)

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s celebrated apocalyptic comic novel.

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday in fact. Just after Any Answers on Radio 4….

Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - are assembling.

Witchfinder Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor’s cryptic predictions.

Atlantis is rising; fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan.

Everything, that is, but for an unlikely angel and demon duo, who have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. If they are to prevent Armageddon they’ve got to find and kill the one who will bring it about: the Antichrist himself. There’s just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him…

Adapted, sound designed and co-directed by Dirk Maggs (Neverwhere, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) this first ever dramatisation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel features a large cast including Peter Serafinowicz, Mark Heap, Josie Lawrence and Paterson Joseph.

• ISBN10: 1910281921
• ISBN13: 9781910281925
• Publish Date: 15 January 2015 (first published 1 May 1990)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
• Imprint: BBC Digital Audio
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (WAV)
• Duration: 4 hours and 20 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[kiracanread]

I really didn't enjoy this book at all. I've never felt such disinterest whilst reading a book and I wouldn't bother to revisit.

[Inkslinger]

Crowley and Aziraphale are the most fun. lol

[CrowNoYami]

I understand now why this book has such a huge following. Instead of reading the book first I watched the Prime TV Show by the same name, and I must say that they did an amazing job! I highly recommend the book, both to those who have and have not seen the show.

[clairelm]

This was the first audiobook I had listened to in a long while and I loved it! A fun, exciting book, will definitely have to watch the Amazon tv version and read the paperback!

This has become one of my all time faves thanks to Amazon's mini-series. I hadn't laughed so much in YEARS!! I just love the style these two masters used to tell their crazy, weird, yet hilarious tale. It also helped that I am a fan of all things Monty Python since this was the vibe I got from both the book and show. I would highly recommend this to anyone in need of a good laugh. I will definitely consider adding more Pratchett to my list of authors to read.

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

Written by legends Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, there was no way this could not turn out well.
My expectations were pretty high but the book fulfilled almost all of them.
I didn't love it quite as much as I had expected but was certainly a good read. The idea behind the story is brilliant and hilarious. The execution in terms of Azira and Crowley is almost perfect as well. I'm not too sure about some of the other characters like Newt and Anathema, but I'm willing to ignore that.
All in all the book was a lot of fun and contained some interesting bits of information, but I'm don't think I'd read it a second time.

[nsperry92]

I really wanted to like this book. I had heard so many great things about it and, of course, I love the works of Neil Gaiman. The book started out just fine. I found myself chuckling at the humor and pulled in by the uniqueness of this book. Further the storyline seemed to slow down and become choppy. I wonder how much of an impact not being familiar with Terry Pratchett's work has on my opinion of this book. Perhaps I'll try to come back to it later.

[MurderByDeath]

I haven't always had the best luck with BBC full cast dramatisations, but this one worked brilliantly.   A demon and an angel set out to thwart the apocalypse.  Chaos ensures.   It's Pratchett, so it's almost guaranteed funny.  I haven't read enough Gaiman to comment on what he brings to the story other than to know it's excellent, whatever it is.  Two masters of fantasy having a bit of fun with Armageddon and a small but pointed commentary on the human condition thrown in at the end.  Oh, and a bloopers reel.   If that's not enough, the voice actor who does Crowley, the demon, sounds a little bit like Alan Rickman.

[gmcgregor]

Human nature, and the supernatural battle to influence it from God and the Devil, are at the heart of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel, Good Omens. That sounds serious, but this book really isn't: it's breezy, funny, and light, while still managing to play with some weighty themes. The story centers on two beings: the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who first meet outside the Garden of Eden after the Fall. Over the long millennia that follow, the two (who've settled in England) strike up a wary friendship, though they're constantly acting to thwart each other. When the Antichrist is born, though, and the end of the world starts to become uncomfortably nigh, they realize that even though they "want" the war between heaven and hell to begin so that their side can be eternally victorious, they would actually much rather continue to enjoy their current state of existence, and they conspire to keep it from happening.

There's a mix-up, though, in the birthing ward where the Antichrist is supposed to be placed with the right family. Instead of being given a righteously portentous name and going home with the world-traveling American ambassador, he's actually called Adam and sent home with a perfectly normal little family in a perfectly normal little town in the English countryside. The same perfectly little down where Anathema Device, the last descendant of a medieval witch and prophetess, Agnes Nutter, happens to live. Those prophecies are unfailingly accurate, and they say the world is due to end on Saturday, so things are about to get real.

What a delight this book was to read! The writing is sparkling with wit, and it doesn't have a feeling of being grafted together from the work of two different authors, either. I can't really compare it to both authors on their own, since I've only ever read Gaiman's solo work, but I can tell you that if you generally enjoy him, you'll likely enjoy this as well. There's all kinds of ingenious little touches, like Crowley's obsession with his car, the hellhound sent to be a companion to Adam being inadvertently wished by him from a slavering beast into a little spaniel-terrier type dog with a floppy ear, and the re-imagination of the Four Horsemen into a motorcycle gang.

But it's not just fluffy apocalyptic fun, the theme of the cruelties humans inflict on each other with very little if any direction from the active forces of evil resonates throughout. We so often chose to deal with life's little injustices by getting snippy with the barista, who in turn goes home and gets snippy with their roommate, who takes it out on their partner, etc etc. The shoulder devil is just so much easier and more instantly gratifying to give into than the shoulder angel. I don't personally believe in any sort of incorporeal forces of good and evil, but I do believe we chose every day whether to be our better selves or, well, our less good selves, and this book, as well as entertaining me, reminded me that it doesn't hurt to try to be the latter. Definitely highly recommended.

[brokentune]

Review posted on:
http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/749234/good-omens