i-only-ever-asked-questions
i-only-ever-asked-questions
I Only Ever Asked Questions
207 posts
True, the only reason I created this account was so I could ask questions on other people's blogs :P  but who knows I may start shouting my own questions, maybe someone is listening!
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 3 months ago
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GO3 Set photo
Well, we got our first good look at the updated GO set and there is a BIG change from last season. Spoilers after the break
The new picture, posted by Martin Newstead and shared by @fuckyeahgoodomens shows part of one of the street. There is a Chinese Restaurant there but it is not the same Chinese Restaurant we saw in season 2. This seems to be a new one which is replacing the Magic Shop. YES! THE MAGIC SHOP IS GONE
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In this new picture, the original Chinese Restaurant would be on our back, the bookshop is on the right and the Dirty Donkey is on the left. All the way at the far end wall there is the red door that was used for the Windmill Theatre
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What does this mean? Is there going to be a time skip and we are seeing a changed Soho? Is this going to be a plot point or just something that happened on the sidelines? Or is this just reusing the props to pretend we are in a different street? Who knows!
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 8 months ago
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On the last blow to GO and why we want the 6 episodes
I might get hate for this, I may be completely ignored, I don't know. But I wanted to point out a couple of things.
I have seen a lot of hate towards fans who are sad, disappointed and angry at Amazon for reducing the 3rd season by about 2/3rds (45 min per episode originally) to a home movie. Hate that is unwarranted because you can, in fact, have more than one thought in mind. You can have different feelings about different things at the same time, you can have different feelings about the same thing at the same time, and more importantly you can respect people for having feelings different to yours in response to the same thing. Life is not black and white, humans are not black and white, situations are not black and white, it is more like... shades of gray
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So want to remind (or inform) people of why we are so upset and why we want those 6 episodes back
This fandom has been around for 34 years, it has been around since the book came out. It is not 4 years old, it is 34, older than many of the fans have been alive, maybe even you
The fans have known since at least 1991 that there was a sequel planned, that there was a plot and even a title, 668 The Neighbour of the Beast, but nothing happened. The sequel was again brought up in 2005, when a little bit of the plot and the South Downs were revealed, and more hope was built, but again it didn't happen
In 2010 when they decided to make GO a TV show instead of a movie, Terry believed that the whole story could be told at last
In June of 2021, S2 was announced and we learned that since the beginning the idea was to take two seasons to finish the story, where S3 would be the actual plot of the unwritten sequel and S2 would be the bridge between them
S3 is the story that the fandom has been waiting for for 34 years, the story Terry wanted told, the one he had a hand in creating. It was supposed to be the last of his stories to be released into the world
We were told it was bigger than S1 and suddenly it is not. The story that fans have been waiting for 34 years, the one we've been looking forward to see on TV for over 3 years is suddenly taken away. S1 needed 6 episodes to go through it all (5 if you exclude the cold open of Ep3 and the executions in Ep6), S3 was supposed to be bigger than that, the story in S3 was supposed to take a whole 6 episodes to be told and seeing how S1 needed so many hours, a bigger story would need a bit more, not less. So yeah, many of us are upset, many of us have been waiting for a long time, many of us had been hoping for a long time, don't belittle us for that
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 8 months ago
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Can angels and demons save our season?
Right now, it would take a 25 lazarii miracle to get Good Omens 3 as a six episode TV season instead of a 90 minute film. So let’s try to perform a miracle. People have brought completely cancelled TV shows back from the dead before. Why can’t we bring ours back from this?
Let’s try to make a miracle.
Let’s take a page from those other fandoms’ books and do a good ol’ fashioned snail mail campaign, with a twist: let’s send them angels and demons. Paper cut-outs, greeting cards, figurines, you name it. Angels and demons, working together to save Good Omens season 3. Mail them to Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios’ primary address:
2021 7th Ave S Seattle, WA 98134, US
Be nice! Be polite! I know we’re all hurting right now, but threats and negativity won’t help us one whit. Treat it like showing appreciation. Tell Amazon how much you loooove Good Omens and how much you want more.
And let’s keep on reminding @/PrimeVideo and @/AmazonMGMStudios that we love GO and want more. Use the hashtag #GoodOmensDeservesBetter.
Maybe we aren’t out of miracles yet.
(And follow and help out GO_Deserves on Twitter if you're still on Muskrat's hellsite)
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 8 months ago
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SEASON FUCKING THREE?!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 9 months ago
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Thank you for explaining. I was more thinking about the "Mr." part of "Mr. Crowley" he dislikes so much that he keeps correcting people. But yeah, I can see the issue he also has with the "Crowley" part of it. Maybe that is why he was fine going by "AJ" for so long until AJ became something he didn't like either making him feel trapped. When reading, the whole Mr. Phale thing kind of made me confused and sort of uncomfortable, like when you see something you don't like and makes you grunt and twitch (kudos to your writing for making me feel strong emotions! <3). After thinking a bit, I realized, this has to do with my own hung ups about my name, which go in the completely opposite direction. It drives me up the wall when someone calls me by my spouse's name. You have no idea what an uphill battle it is every time I fill a form, sign up for something or call an office; it confuses people that we don't share the surname and that mine is actually two separate words that I refuse to hyphenate or mash together, I feel so strongly feel about that I fight the battle every single time. So Crowley doing the opposite just wasn't clicking. Thank you for explaining! :) I would absolutely loooove to read the dad and Javier stories. I know they might not be happy or they may have been happy at some point and now they have been reinterpreted, but I would love to read them all the same. I think things like this help round a character, give more context and backstory and I love that. Besides, we already know he gets his happy ending ;) This has nothing to do with the fact that I am completely fascinated? intrigued? by Eve and Crowley's relationship both before and during Javier :P ;) but that is probably another whole post of its own XD XD BTW you did write that Ezira's dad died in a car accident, and that was one of the things that made his mom sort of estrange herself from him. Yay for backstories! Oh yes, and the last thing. I have been watching DtS, I have been binging the thing, I am so engrossed and I utterly blame you ;). So. Much. Drama. it is like real life Game of Thrones with racecars instead of dragons and more inbreeding than an Egyptian dynasty, and I am loving it XD XD
Hi! Doing a re-read of #RR for the nth time a question popped up in my head... how and when did AJ's parents die? I don't think it was ever mentioned. Ezira dwells a lot on his dad's death and in his mom's reaction. But other than getting rid of the whole estate when it happened, we don't know how AJ's parents passed (I sort of have the feeling they died together maybe). Was the fight with his dad after AJ DNF'ed the last time they talked? Do you have a hc about it? Been wondering for a while
Hellooooo! This is a great question with an unsatisfactory answer! I have never really determined how they died. I also have only a loose idea on how Ezira's dad passed (I don't think I've concretely mentioned it).
TW for abuse that is consistent with #RR. There are maybe some spoilers for future content I may or may not write that I have headcanoned for a long time below the cut.
The fight was one of the last few times they spoke. It was one of the last times Crowley Sr. ever tried to push AJ around, and he suffered dire consequences for it, financially and reputation-wise. The thing about parents who abuse their kids is, one day that kid grows up to be an adult, a beheamoth of an adult in this case, while the parent grows old and frail. AJ put fear in his father that day, and it ended their transactional relationship. His death and the estate he left behind was less so an inheritance and more of a fuck you, deal with this crap. And if it hadn't been illegal, AJ would have committed arson.
Of course, decades later, Crowley is still unpacking all of this shit, only realizing now that he went from one abusive relationship (his father) to another (Javier) without really acknowleging them for what they were until years later.
My not-so-little headcanon has always been that AJ has a difficult relationship with his surname. He doesn't really like being a Crowley, but that's his brand now (note that he has also never really liked his 'brand' either). So he lets slide Raph's jokes about him being "Mr. Phale" cos doesn't that sound nicer? The first time Raph ever called him that, something twigged in AJ's brain, and it wasn't, "I want to marry Ezira" necessarily, but "I don't have to be Crowley."
So he starts to use it a little here and there casually outside of official capacities, like ordering pizza or picking up the nibling from daycare. And they go to brunch meetups and book clubs with an ever-evolving group of people who don't always recognize them right away, and they introduce themselves as Anthony and Ezira Phale. And it's nice. Weird at first. But when Ezira doesn't really comment on it and signs them under reservations as a couple, AJ's shoulder relax.
But also, Ezira has helped him like the other half of himself, the Hyde to his Dr. Jekyll, so to speak. Because Anthony Fucking Crowley isn't a trainwreck anymore or a has-been. He's a mentor and an inspiration, a legend, and while that is discomfitting in its own way, it's better than the unrepetent, unloved, unforgivable AJ Crowley of old.
I've always liked this idea when I make up little stories about them in my head because it seems very in line with canon!Crowley who goes through several name changes, trying on different hats (aha!) until he finds one that fits best. I don't think he'll change his name ever in an official capacity, but he enjoys the person he gets to be behind the scene when he isn't front-facing.
So, he says, "Who cares about my parents? I don't," and that's why they rarely get mentioned.
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 9 months ago
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This is the Horsehead Nebula, the one he worked on with Saraqael
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👀.
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 10 months ago
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In the book Crowley talks about the burden of getting a new body from Hell:
"The last thing he needed now was to be killed. It would require all sorts of explanations. They didn’t hand out new bodies just like that; they always wanted to know what you’d done with the old one. It was like trying to get a new pen from a particularly bloody-minded stationery department."
There is nothing in the book about demons possessing anyone. Aziraphale doesn't talk about it either, he just shows up in some random guy's head in Australia after the circle incident in the bookshop.
I always saw the "I am not going to go there" as a reaction to the idea of both inhabiting Crowley’s body at once. Aziraphale says he needs a body and it hard to find one, Crowley follows the thought and says to himself "I'm not going to go there" as in "nope, not happening." The comment is more of a thought to himself and not meant to be heard by Aziraphale. Then Aziraphale finishes his thought "pity I can't inhabit yours." Crowley does not react with surprise to this statement because the idea had already occurred to him, what he does is recoil and make expressions of disgust.
Hi! I'm currently rewatching Supernatural and got a genuine question about the Good Omens universe - do the GO demons have their own bodies (meaning: empty bodies they get issued to go to Earth but the body belongs to them, lile, say, a piece of clothing) or do they need to possess a human, like in SPN? We know the GO angels get their own bodies because Aziraphale gets scolded for losing his when discorporated and since his idea to possess a body to get back to earth is a new one we know his body was/is his own but what about the GO demons? It's canon that the GO demons can possess people too and when Azi appears to Crowley in the pub and says he needs to find a receptive body bit it's not easy, Crowley tells him "I'm not going to go there" - what does that mean? Help 😅
Hiya! :) I am pretty sure the angel and demon bodies in Good Omens work the same :). Azi can't possess Crowley bc Crowley is not a human and his humansona is already occupied :).
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 10 months ago
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We all know our beloved angel is a bit of a bastard, but have you realized how much of a bastard he really was to his boss? The first time Aziraphale sees Gabriel, he shows up naked and Aziraphale is rightfully surprised. This happens sometime in the afternoon Once inside though, Aziraphale pretty much just throws Gabriel a blanket. OK, he gets a pass, I mean, who wants to be surprised by their naked boss?
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Then Crowley sees Gabriel for the first time, now wearing the blanket like a toga. We don't know who came up with that... but it is still only a blanket. At some point, someone realized Gabriel needed to move around and wear something. Aziraphale could have gotten him some actual clothes, but noooo, blanket it is
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It is evening/closing time when Crowley and Aziraphale have their little fight. Crowley storms out and Beelzebub drags him to Hell. After that, in the late evening/night, he goes back, apologizes and tells Aziraphale they should do the small half-miracle. And Gabriel still only has a blanket. It has been a whole half-day and all this time Azirpahale has not given Gabriel proper clothes
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We don't see him wear clothes until the next morning. Was this Aziraphale feeling bad after enjoying a bit of schadenfreude? Or was this Crowley just going "I really don't need to see this"? We don't know but it takes Aziraphale a lot of time to give Gabriel clothes, and when he does they are ill-fitting clothes Aziraphale may be worried and may want to solve the Gabriel mystery, but deep down, he is probably enjoying having a little revenge on his normally dapper boss LOL
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 10 months ago
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Good Omens Through the Decades
UPDATED!
This is a timeline of all the events that have happened related to Good Omens, from its inception to its publication to its future plans; editions, adaptations, failed adaptations and the like.
I originally wanted to have this post ready for the anniversary in May, that didn't work, it just kept getting larger. Then I wanted to do it for the anniversary of Season 2 in July, that didn't work either, for the same reason. So I am just going to post it now, a random date and hope for the best LOL. And guess what? After a fun and fruitful chat with another fan who prefers to remain anonymous, I added a couple of events a few trivia here and there (thank you!). So, a little bit of warning: it is loooong, lots of things have happened in 34 years. At the beginning I was going to put all the references at the end of the post, but they are a lot, so I put them in a document instead.
*Yes, of course I am aware of the allegations. But this is about the history and the world of Good Omens which is so much bigger than one person, even if that person started the whole thing. It is ours now. It is Terry's and Rob's. It is David and Michael's, Douglas McKinnon's, David Arnold's and the rest of the cast and crew. It is Colleen Doran's, Dirk Maggs's, Terry Gilliam's, Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody's. It is Stephen Brigg's and Martin Jarvis's. And so many other people who have brought or will bring its many iterations to life. It is the fans'.
1985-1990 - The Book
1985, Jan - Terry and Neil met for the first time when Neil interviewed Terry for Space Voyager magazine after The Colour of Magic was published [1,2] *For years they both wholeheartedly believed it had been at a Chinese Restaurant during February. Some time after Terry passed away Neil found his diary for 1985 where the entry said it had been in January at an Italian Restaurant [3]
1987, summer - Neil wrote the first 5000 words of a story and sent it to a few friends, including Terry; "An exchange in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, combined with a late night viewing of The Omen and a love of Richmal Compton’s immortal Just William stories, had put a story into my head, about a demonic baby-swap that goes wrong, in which the Antichrist grows up to be a nice kid, with a dog and a gang" [1,4]
1987, Oct - Sandman began and William the Antichrist went into the back back back burner [1]
1988, spring? summer? - Terry called Neil and offered to either buy the idea or write it together; "About a year later I took it out of the drawer and did see what happened next, even if I couldn’t see how it all ended yet" [5]
1988, summer - They wrote it together (do you really need a reference? 😉)
1988-1989 - First draft took about nine weeks. After Richmal Compton's estate did not reply to the request of using William Brown and his world, William became Adam, Pepper and War became female and the book got a new title (Good Omens by Neil) and subtitle (The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry). The second draft took about four months. There were still about five more months of polishing and editing and auctioning and more editing [4,6] *Good Omens was the first Terry book that ever went to auction. It ended up going for £150,000 [7]
1989, Halloween - During the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, Terry and Neil started plotting what could become the sequel to Good Omens and called it "668 The Neighbor of the Beast" [6,8] *The real-life experience of trying to piece together the plot of a soft porn movie using little free increments from hotels' pay-per-view over time probably made it into the sequel around here [7]
1990, May 10. Book published in the UK - Hardback published in the UK by Victor Gollancz (with whom Terry had already been working) to be followed by paperback by Corgi on May 23, 1991 [8,9] *After the first UK edition was published (Gollancz), several changes were made to the text to make it easier on US readers and to polish it a bit. The new text was used by both the US publishers (Workman) and the UK publishers of the paperback (Corgi). Gollancz was unaware of this alternate text until about 2009. They started using the Workman/Corgi text starting with their next edition in 2014 [9]
1990, Sep. Book published in the US - Hardback published in the US by Workman to be followed by paperback by Berkley on March 1992 [9,10] *UK editions list Terry's name first and US editions list Neil's name first. This was done because Terry was more known in the UK and Neil was more known in the US [7]
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1991-2004 - The Movies
1991, Feb - Hollywood Studio Sovereign Pictures hired Terry and Neil to write an adaptation of the book for a movie. The studio had some specific requirements such as Crowley owning a night club, Aziraphale working as a curator for the British Museum, Tadfield with an abandoned pier and a miniature town in it and Satan. They ended up rejecting the script anyway [11] *It was at this point that Terry suggested Buddy Holly's "Every Day" as the theme for Good Omens. In this script some of the angels used for the series got started like Gabriel and Sandalphon and a big sequence had them use their haloes like frisbees inside the British Museum [11,12,13]
1992, Jan. Movie Script - Terry declined to write a second script, but Neil stayed and wrote one. In October the company got taken over and all dreams of a movie died [11,14] *In this script Crowley tries to run away to Alpha Centauri
2001-2002. Terry Gilliam Movie deal - Since about 1999, when he obtained the rights, and throughout the 00's Terry Gilliam tried hard to make a movie. The closest he came to it was in 2001-2002 when he got as far as casting the parts (Johnny Depp as Crowley and Robin Williams as Aziraphale). But he couldn't get a US studio to invest the last $15M and the movie project collapsed [13,15] *Terry had received, back in 1989, a copy of the book asking for a blurb. The letter got lost and he thought the book had been sent as a pitch for a movie [15,16]
2004, Jun 20th - Hill House Publishers created the "Neil Gaiman's Preferred Edition Series" with limited editions of American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. As a bonus for the subcribers, Hill House printed the 1992 movie script under the name "A Screenplay." Only 500 numbered and 52 lettered copies were ever made [11,17]
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2005-2010 - The Sequel (and the Audiobooks)
2005, Jun - Terry and Neil met at the Audie Awards in New York and plotted a little more of the sequel. This was when the South Downs bit was thought up [18,19]
2005, Dec. Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions - The list of resolutions came out sometime between Christmas and New Year's at Harper Collins' website [7] *The well-known idea of Crowley gluing coins to the sidewalk is not in the book at all, it came from this list
2006, Feb 28. New edition - The book was reissued in the US as a hardcover in two different versions. The text is the same but one version has a white cover with Crowley and Neil's name listed first, and a second version has a black cover with Aziraphale and Terry's name listed first [7,20] *This time the explanation for the authors' name order was to make sure the book could be found both under "G" and also under "P"
2006, Jul. Briggs Audiobook - ISIS released in the UK an unabridged audiobook read by Stephen Briggs in CD, MP3CD and cassette (it won the 2008 Audiobook Download of the Year by audible.co.uk) [21,22]
2009, Nov 10. Jarvis Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US an unabridged audiobook read by Martin Jarvis in CD [23] *Martin Jarvis is the same narrator who recorded the Just William audiobooks, a nice Easter egg related to the origins of the book
2010, Sep 23 - Terry and Neil had dinner at a sushi restaurant in Cardiff and decided that the book should be adapted as a TV series and not a movie anymore (as per Terry Gilliam's advice). And if it goes well, the rest of the story, the unwritten sequel, should be adapted too [8,13,24] *It was around here that the idea of the sushi restaurant cameo with both of them being patrons started
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2011-2013 - The Stage (and a failed TV series)
2011, Feb. Terry Jones TV series - Terry and Neil agreed to a deal to adapt the book into a four-part TV series made by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott. At the end they didn't quite like the script though [13,25,26]
2012, Jun - Amy Hoff's The Cult Classic Theatre was granted permission to adapt the book to a stage play [27] *One of the conditions was that no footage would be taken/made available and the script would not be shared/sold
2012, Aug- Narrativia was established as the production company that would handle all of Terry's work adaptations. The production of the TV series and of The Watch were then transferred from Prime Focus [28,29] *Narrativia was first revealed at "The Watch Team Interview" panel during the Discworld 2012 convention on Aug, 26th [28]
2013, Mar. Stage Play - Amy Hoff's play was presented on March 20-23 and 27-30 at the Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow [30]
2013, sometime. The Musical - Vicki Larnarch and Jim Hare, "two hippies from Sydney", had met with Terry and Rob about six months prior. Terry's interest had gotten piqued when they showed him The Chattering Order Nuns song and he asked them to come back with a showstopper and a few more songs. They came back with "All Living Things" and they got the green light to go forward with the adaptation [31]
2013, Dec 11 - In a meeting at The Groucho Club, Terry and Neil enter into talks with the BBC to adapt GO to TV [32]
2014-2015 - The Radio Drama
2014, summer - Dirk Maggs adapted the book into a Radio Drama and gave Terry and Neil a cameo as police officers pursuing Crowley [33,34] *In July, Neil advised Dirk to get Terry's recording asap, before he couldn't do it anymore. They did it in the summer and that day ended up being the last day Neil and Terry saw each other [35]. The rest of the recording happened during autumn [13]
2014, Aug - Terry asked Neil to make the TV adaptation of Good Omens, "I know, Neil, that you are very, very busy, but no one else could ever do it with the passion that we share for the old girl. I wish I could be more involved, and I will help in any way I can" [12] Neil, of course, said yes
2014, Dec. BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation - The six episodes aired between December 22nd and December 27th, 2014 on BBC Radio 4 [36]
2015, Jan 15 - Random House UK released the BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation in CD [37]
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2015-2019 - The TV series (and some luxury limited editions)
2015, Mar 12 - Terry passed away 😢
2015, Mar 25 - Terry's funeral. As soon as Neil got back home, he started writing the script for the TV series [12] *Sometimes signed copies of the third draft of the pilot (dated 25 July 2015) appear in eBay
2015 - Jay James-Moody joined the team to produce the musical [31]
2016, Aug - First read-through of the series script [38] *The scripts were finalized right before SDCC 2016 which was held July 21st-24th [39]. Both Maggie Service and Tim Downie were present in this read-through [40]
2017, Sep 18 - 2018, Mar 10. Season 1 shooting - Season 1 started shooting at St. James' park (with the 11 years ago scene) and ended in Cape Town, South Africa [13,41,42] *The read-through before shooting occurred on Sept 13, 2017 [43]
2017, Nov 13 - Full development reading of the musical at the York Theatre in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia [31,44]
2019, Feb 8 - The social media campaign to promote Season 1 started with a tour of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, an acapella choir that traveled to different cities for events and TV shows [45,46]
2019, Apr 25. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's video - The video "That Brand New Baby Smell" was released in YouTube [47]
2019, May 3 and 4 - Workshop production of the musical at IPAC in Wollongong, Australia. About ten days before the series premiere Vicki, Jim and Jay showed Neil and Rob a recording of this show [31,44,48] *Although a full recording of the workshop exists, they are not allowed to share it until it is finished
2019, May 21. Companion Book - A companion book to the TV series with interviews and behind the scenes photographs written by Matt Whyman was published by William Morrow [49]
2019, May 21. The Script Book - Headline Publishing Group released a script book in both hardback and paperback (The US edition by William Morrow followed on Jun 11th). All editions of the script book include an "Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" deleted scene. An exclusive edition for Waterstones included an additional deleted scene (Aziraphale in the 1800). A hardback edition limited to 1000 copies with white cover included four different deleted scenes (thugs visiting the bookshop, Leonardo DaVinci, the televangelist and Crowley clothes shopping) and a series of sketches made on set by Lorna May Wadsworth. On Jan 15th of 2020, a paperback edition with the white cover was released; it contained all five deleted scenes from the other editions and a sixth one (Aziraphale trying to sell a book); this edition does not include the sketches however. [9,50] *The script book was created so the production could pay for the death of Agnes Nutter, a scene (and a character) originally written by Terry which was too expensive to film [3]
2019, May 23. The Illustrated Edition - The Pratchett Estate and Neil agreed on a revised definitive text. It was published in five versions collectively called the Definitive Edition. Two versions were published by Gollancz which they called the Illustrated Edition; a standard hardback with black cover and a limited edition in a slipcase with white cover signed by Paul Kidby, the illustrator [51,52]
2019, May 30. "Unholy Night" - The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's released their album "Unholy Night" on Amazon Music and other digital platforms [53]
2019, May 31. TV Series - Season 1 premiered in Prime Video 😊
2019, May 31. Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]
2019, Jul. The Definitive Edition - The other three versions of the revised text were published by Dunmanifestin, the company established by the Pratchett Estate to handle Terry's intellectual property. All editions were limited: The Occult Edition (July 1st) with only 1655 copies in a black clamshell box, the Ineffable Edition (July 4th) with 666 copies in a deluxe box including ephemera, and the Celestial Edition, made to order with only 24 copies [52,55]
2019, Aug 2. The BBC Radio Drama Collectors Edition - A vinyl box set by Demon Records included four LPs printed in black and white in illustrated wallets, commentaries by Neil and Dirk and a set of tarot cards. An Amazon exclusive limited edition of 500 sets also included a print signed by Neil [56]
2019, Aug - Neil pitched Season 2 to Amazon [57]
2019, Oct 28, Nov 5, Nov 15. DVD and Blu-Ray - Amazon released the series in both DVD and Blu-ray formats for both the UK (PAL) and US (NTSC) market. A limited edition in steelbook form was released for the UK market only [58]
2019, Dec - John Finnemore joined as co-writer of Season 2 [57] *In this meeting, John stated that he needed to know the ending before he could write so Neil came up with the ending of Season 2 in about 5 minutes right there and then
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2020-2025 - TV Series Season 2, a new Audiobook and some other adjacent projects
2020, May 1st. Lockdown Video - A short video about a phonecall between Crowley and Aziraphale was created by Narrativia and The Blank Corporation for the 30th anniversary of the book. It was released in the the official YouTube account of the Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett6025) [59]
2020, summer - Neil started writing the script for Season 2 beginning with the opening scene for episode 1 [57] *The last scene written was Gabriel organizing the books by first letter of first line. It was planned as the last scene for Episode 2 but at the end got moved to another place [60]
2020, Sep 16 - Season 2 was officially greenlit (along with Anansi Boys) [61]
2021, Mar 26 - The Hillywood Show announced the Good Omens parody project [62]
2021, Jun 29 - Amazon announced Season 2 in a press release [63]
2021, Oct 18 - 2022, Mar 1. Season 2 shooting - Season 2 started shooting in the Bathgate studio. Some scenes were shot on location in different parts of Edinburgh and other areas [64,65] *The read-thorugh happened over October 14th and 15th, three episodes per day [66], David had to attend via zoom since he was still in isolation from Georgia's covid [67]. On the other hand, Michel McKean (Shadwell in Season 1) was present for that zoom read-through but had to be drop out also for covid reasons [68]. Peter Davison (David's-father-in law) was asked to play Job's part after shooting had started (possibly replacing Michael McKean?) and Ty Tennant (David's son) was cast too after shooting had started but through audition [69]. Maggie Service was in the very first shot of the season and also in the last day, first one in last one out as she said [70]
2021, Nov 2. Full Cast Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US a full cast audiobook with Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. The audiobook was later released in the UK on January 14th, 2022 [71,72] *The original cover for the audiobook was designed by Henry Sene Yee; a lavender background with drawings of Crowley and Aziraphale facing away from each other. After Season 2 was released, the cover changed to one of the promotional posters [73]
2023, Mar 15. Good Omens HQ - The Terry Pratchett Estate and Neil Gaiman created Good Omens Headquarters. The headquarters launched official accounts in several social media platforms and a website that keeps track of collector's items as they are being revealed [74]
2023, May 10. Good Omens Parody - The Hillywood Show's parody premiered in their YouTube channel (thehillywoodshow) [75] *Amazon Video partnered with Hillywood to announce the premiere date for Season 2 within their parody video. Neil, Maggie Service and Daniel Mays appeared as guests
2023, Jul 28. TV Series Season 2 - Season 2 premiered in Prime Video 😊 *As part of the promo campaign two days before the premiere, Amazon screened the first two episodes in cinemas in several cities for free for Amazon Prime members
2023-2024 - The Graphic Novel
2023, Aug 1. Graphic Novel - The Kickstarter campaign to fund the graphic novel adaptation with Colleen Doran as illustrator [76] *At its closure, 36,867 backers had pledged £2,419,973 (notice it is pounds, not dollars)
2023, Aug 25. Season 2 Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack for season 2 in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]
2023, Dec 14 - Season 3 was officially greenlit [77]
2024, Apr 18 - The Graphic Novel Pledgemanager site launches for people who missed the Kickstarter campaign or to add extras to an already existing pledge [78]
2024, Jul 13 - Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody appeared as virtual guests at Nullus Anxietas 9, the Australian Discworld Convention 2024 held in Adelaide, to talk about recent push for the musical [79]
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2025 - The Future
2025, January - Season 3 is scheduled to begin filming [80]
2025, Spring - Graphic novel is scheduled to be released [76] *The original release date was in July of 2024, however in April of 2024 it was announced that it would need to be pushed to the Spring of 2025 (Update #20)
There should be a special mention of a fan created musical parody for YouTube that was in development in Russia by 62Media. This was completely fan made and not connected to the Pratchett Estate, Neil, the BBC or Amazon (which is why it is not in the list). Unfortunately it had to shut down due to COVID [81]
Fun fact: During the tour to promote the book, back in 1989-1990 the song "Shoehorn With Teeth" by They Might Be Giants became the unofficial anthem of the tour since that is what they always ended up singing when things went too crazy [82]
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i-only-ever-asked-questions · 11 months ago
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Good Omens Through the Decades
UPDATED!
This is a timeline of all the events that have happened related to Good Omens, from its inception to its publication to its future plans; editions, adaptations, failed adaptations and the like.
I originally wanted to have this post ready for the anniversary in May, that didn't work, it just kept getting larger. Then I wanted to do it for the anniversary of Season 2 in July, that didn't work either, for the same reason. So I am just going to post it now, a random date and hope for the best LOL. And guess what? After a fun and fruitful chat with another fan who prefers to remain anonymous, I added a couple of events a few trivia here and there (thank you!). So, a little bit of warning: it is loooong, lots of things have happened in 34 years. At the beginning I was going to put all the references at the end of the post, but they are a lot, so I put them in a document instead.
*Yes, of course I am aware of the allegations. But this is about the history and the world of Good Omens which is so much bigger than one person, even if that person started the whole thing. It is ours now. It is Terry's and Rob's. It is David and Michael's, Douglas McKinnon's, David Arnold's and the rest of the cast and crew. It is Colleen Doran's, Dirk Maggs's, Terry Gilliam's, Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody's. It is Stephen Brigg's and Martin Jarvis's. And so many other people who have brought or will bring its many iterations to life. It is the fans'.
1985-1990 - The Book
1985, Jan - Terry and Neil met for the first time when Neil interviewed Terry for Space Voyager magazine after "The Colour of Magic" was published [1,2] *For years they both wholeheartedly believed it had been at a Chinese Restaurant during February. Some time after Terry passed away Neil found his diary for 1985 where the entry said it had been in January at an Italian Restaurant [3]
1987, summer - Neil wrote the first 5000 words of a story and sent it to a few friends, including Terry; "An exchange in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, combined with a late night viewing of The Omen and a love of Richmal Compton’s immortal Just William stories, had put a story into my head, about a demonic baby-swap that goes wrong, in which the Antichrist grows up to be a nice kid, with a dog and a gang" [1,4]
1987, Oct - Sandman began and William the Antichrist went into the back back back burner [1]
1988, spring? summer? - Terry called Neil and offered to either buy the idea or write it together; "About a year later I took it out of the drawer and did see what happened next, even if I couldn’t see how it all ended yet" [5]
1988, summer - They wrote it together (do you really need a reference? 😉)
1988-1989 - First draft took about nine weeks. After Richmal Compton's estate did not reply to the request of using William Brown and his world, William became Adam, Pepper and War became female and the book got a new title (Good Omens by Neil) and subtitle (The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry). The second draft took about four months. There were still about five more months of polishing and editing and auctioning and more editing [4,6] *Good Omens was the first Terry book that ever went to auction. It ended up going for £150,000 [7]
1989, Halloween - During the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, Terry and Neil started plotting what could become the sequel to Good Omens and called it "668 The Neighbor of the Beast" [6,8] *The real-life experience of trying to piece together the plot of a soft porn movie using little free increments from hotels' pay-per-view over time probably made it into the sequel around here [7]
1990, May 10. Book published in the UK - Hardback published in the UK by Victor Gollancz (with whom Terry had already been working) to be followed by paperback by Corgi on May 23, 1991 [8,9] *After the first UK edition was published (Gollancz), several changes were made to the text to make it easier on US readers and to polish it a bit. The new text was used by both the US publishers (Workman) and the UK publishers of the paperback (Corgi). Gollancz was unaware of this alternate text until about 2009. They started using the Workman/Corgi text starting with their next edition in 2014 [9]
1990, Sep. Book published in the US - Hardback published in the US by Workman to be followed by paperback by Berkley on March 1992 [9,10] *UK editions list Terry's name first and US editions list Neil's name first. This was done because Terry was more known in the UK and Neil was more known in the US [7]
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1991-2004 - The Movies
1991, Feb - Hollywood Studio Sovereign Pictures hired Terry and Neil to write an adaptation of the book for a movie. The studio had some specific requirements such as Crowley owning a night club, Aziraphale working as a curator for the British Museum, Tadfield with an abandoned pier and a miniature town in it and Satan. They ended up rejecting the script anyway [11] *It was at this point that Terry suggested Buddy Holly's "Every Day" as the theme for Good Omens. In this script some of the angels used for the series got started like Gabriel and Sandalphon and a big sequence had them use their haloes like frisbees inside the British Museum [11,12,13]
1992, Jan. Movie Script - Terry declined to write a second script, but Neil stayed and wrote one. In October the company got taken over and all dreams of a movie died [11,14] *In this script Crowley tries to run away to Alpha Centauri
2001-2002. Terry Gilliam Movie deal - Since about 1999, when he obtained the rights, and throughout the 00's Terry Gilliam tried hard to make a movie. The closest he came to it was in 2001-2002 when he got as far as casting the parts (Johnny Depp as Crowley, Robin Williams as Aziraphale, Mme. Tracey and Hastur, and Kirsten Dunst). But he couldn't get a US studio to invest the last $15M and the movie project collapsed [13,15,16] *Terry had received, back in 1989, a copy of the book asking for a blurb. The letter got lost and he thought the book had been sent as a pitch for a movie [16,17]
2004, Jun 20th - Hill House Publishers created the "Neil Gaiman's Preferred Edition Series" with limited editions of American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. As a bonus for the subcribers, Hill House printed the 1992 movie script under the name "A Screenplay." Only 500 numbered and 52 lettered copies were ever made [11,18]
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2005-2010 - The Sequel (and the Audiobooks)
2005, Jun - Terry and Neil met at the Audie Awards in New York and plotted a little more of the sequel. This was when the South Downs bit was thought up [19,20]
2005, Dec. Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions - The list of resolutions came out sometime between Christmas and New Year's at Harper Collins' website [7] *The well-known idea of Crowley gluing coins to the sidewalk is not in the book at all, it came from this list
2006, Feb 28. New edition - The book was reissued in the US as a hardcover in two different versions. The text is the same but one version has a white cover with Crowley and Neil's name listed first, and a second version has a black cover with Aziraphale and Terry's name listed first [7,21] *This time the explanation for the authors' name order was to make sure the book could be found both under "G" and also under "P"
2006, Jul. Briggs Audiobook - ISIS released in the UK an unabridged audiobook read by Stephen Briggs in CD, MP3CD and cassette (it won the 2008 Audiobook Download of the Year by audible.co.uk) [22,23]
2009, Nov 10. Jarvis Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US an unabridged audiobook read by Martin Jarvis in CD [24] *Martin Jarvis is the same narrator who recorded the Just William audiobooks, a nice Easter egg related to the origins of the book
2010, Sep 23 - Terry and Neil had dinner at a sushi restaurant in Cardiff and decided that the book should be adapted as a TV series and not a movie anymore (as per Terry Gilliam's advice). And if it goes well, the rest of the story, the unwritten sequel, should be adapted too [8,13,15] *It was around here that the idea of the sushi restaurant cameo with both of them being patrons started
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2011-2013 - The Stage (and a failed TV series)
2011, Feb. Terry Jones TV series - Terry and Neil agreed to a deal to adapt the book into a four-part TV series made by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott. At the end they didn't quite like the script though [13,25,26]
2012, Jun - Amy Hoff's The Cult Classic Theatre was granted permission to adapt the book to a stage play [27] *One of the conditions was that no footage would be taken/made available and the script would not be shared/sold
2012, Aug- Narrativia was established as the production company that would handle all of Terry's work adaptations. The production of the TV series and of The Watch were then transferred from Prime Focus [28,29] *Narrativia was first revealed at "The Watch Team Interview" panel during the Discworld 2012 convention on Aug, 26th [28]
2013, Mar. Stage Play - Amy Hoff's play was presented on March 20-23 and 27-30 at the Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow [30]
2013, Apr - BBC drama producer Heather Larmour pitched a radio drama adaptation to the BBC [31]
2013, sometime. The Musical - Vicki Larnarch and Jim Hare, "two hippies from Sydney", had met with Terry and Rob about six months prior. Terry's interest had gotten piqued when they showed him The Chattering Order Nuns song and he asked them to come back with a showstopper and a few more songs. They came back with "All Living Things" and they got the green light to go forward with the adaptation [32]
2013, Dec 11 - In a meeting at The Groucho Club, Terry and Neil enter into talks with the BBC to adapt GO to TV [33]
2014-2015 - The Radio Drama
2014, summer - Dirk Maggs adapted the book into a Radio Drama and gave Terry and Neil a cameo as police officers pursuing Crowley [31,34] *In July, Neil advised Dirk to get Terry's recording asap, before he couldn't do it anymore. They did it in the summer and that day ended up being the last day Neil and Terry saw each other [35]. The rest of the recording happened during autumn [13]
2014, Aug - Terry asked Neil to make the TV adaptation of Good Omens, "I know, Neil, that you are very, very busy, but no one else could ever do it with the passion that we share for the old girl. I wish I could be more involved, and I will help in any way I can" [12] Neil, of course, said yes
2014, Dec. BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation - The six episodes aired between December 22nd and December 27th, 2014 on BBC Radio 4 [36]
2015, Jan 15 - Random House UK released the BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation in CD [37]
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2015-2019 - The TV series (and some luxury limited editions)
2015, Mar 12 - Terry passed away 😢
2015, Mar 25 - Terry's funeral. As soon as Neil got back home, he started writing the script for the TV series [12] *Sometimes signed copies of the third draft of the pilot (dated 25 July 2015) appear in eBay
2015 - Jay James-Moody joined the team to produce the musical [32]
2016, Aug 1 - First read-through of the series script [38] *The scripts were finalized right before SDCC 2016 which was held July 21st-24th [39]. Both Maggie Service and Tim Downie were present in this read-through [40]
2017, Sep 18 - 2018, Mar 10. Season 1 shooting - Season 1 started shooting at St. James' park (with the 11 years ago scene) and ended in Cape Town, South Africa [13,41,42] *The read-through before shooting occurred on Sept 13, 2017 [43]
2017, Nov 13 - Full development reading of the musical at the York Theatre in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia [32,44]
2019, Feb 8 - The social media campaign to promote Season 1 started with a tour of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, an acapella choir that traveled to different cities for events and TV shows [45,46]
2019, Apr 25. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's video - The video "That Brand New Baby Smell" was released in YouTube [47]
2019, May 3 and 4 - Workshop production of the musical at IPAC in Wollongong, Australia. About ten days before the series premiere Vicki, Jim and Jay showed Neil and Rob a recording of this show [32,44,48] *Although a full recording of the workshop exists, they are not allowed to share it until it is finished
2019, May 21. Companion Book - A companion book to the TV series with interviews and behind the scenes photographs written by Matt Whyman was published by William Morrow [49]
2019, May 21. The Script Book - Headline Publishing Group released a script book in both hardback and paperback (The US edition by William Morrow followed on Jun 11th). All editions of the script book include an "Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" deleted scene. An exclusive edition for Waterstones included an additional deleted scene (Aziraphale in the 1800). A hardback edition limited to 1000 copies with white cover included four different deleted scenes (thugs visiting the bookshop, Leonardo DaVinci, the televangelist and Crowley clothes shopping) and a series of sketches made on set by Lorna May Wadsworth. On Jan 15th of 2020, a paperback edition with the white cover was released; it contained all five deleted scenes from the other editions and a sixth one (Aziraphale trying to sell a book); this edition does not include the sketches however. [9,50] *The script book was created so the production could pay for the death of Agnes Nutter, a scene (and a character) originally written by Terry which was too expensive to film [3]
2019, May 23. The Illustrated Edition - The Pratchett Estate and Neil agreed on a revised definitive text. It was published in five versions collectively called the Definitive Edition. Two versions were published by Gollancz which they called the Illustrated Edition; a standard hardback with black cover and a limited edition in a slipcase with white cover signed by Paul Kidby, the illustrator [51,52]
2019, May 30. "Unholy Night" - The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's released their album "Unholy Night" on Amazon Music and other digital platforms [53]
2019, May 31. TV Series - Season 1 premiered in Prime Video 😊
2019, May 31. Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]
2019, Jul. The Definitive Edition - The other three versions of the revised text were published by Dunmanifestin, the company established by the Pratchett Estate to handle Terry's intellectual property. All editions were limited: The Occult Edition (July 1st) with only 1655 copies in a black clamshell box, the Ineffable Edition (July 4th) with 666 copies in a deluxe box including ephemera, and the Celestial Edition, made to order with only 24 copies [52,55]
2019, Aug 2. The BBC Radio Drama Collectors Edition - A vinyl box set by Demon Records included four LPs printed in black and white in illustrated wallets, commentaries by Neil and Dirk and a set of tarot cards. An Amazon exclusive limited edition of 500 sets also included a print signed by Neil [56]
2019, Aug - Neil pitched Season 2 to Amazon [57]
2019, Oct 28. Blu-ray and DVD - Amazon released the series in DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook limited edition Blu-ray (PAL) for the UK. The US version (NSTC) followed on November 5th in both DVD and Blu-ray, there was no steelbook edition for the US market [58]
2019, Dec - John Finnemore joined as co-writer of Season 2 [57] *In this meeting, John stated that he needed to know the ending before he could write so Neil came up with the ending of Season 2 in about 5 minutes right there and then
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2020-2025 - TV Series Season 2, a new Audiobook and some other adjacent projects
2020, May 1st. Lockdown Video - A short video about a phonecall between Crowley and Aziraphale was created by Narrativia and The Blank Corporation for the 30th anniversary of the book. It was released in the the official YouTube account of the Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett6025) [59]
2020, summer - Neil started writing the script for Season 2 beginning with the opening scene for episode 1 [57] *The last scene written was Gabriel organizing the books by first letter of first line. It was planned as the last scene for Episode 2 but at the end got moved to another place [60]
2020, Sep 16 - Season 2 was officially greenlit (along with Anansi Boys) [61]
2021, Mar 26 - The Hillywood Show announced the Good Omens parody project [62]
2021, Jun 29 - Amazon announced Season 2 in a press release [63]
2021, Oct 18 - 2022, Mar 1. Season 2 shooting - Season 2 started shooting in the Bathgate studio. Some scenes were shot on location in different parts of Edinburgh and other areas [64,65] *The read-through happened over October 14th and 15th, three episodes per day [66], David had to attend via zoom since he was still in isolation from Georgia's covid [67]. On the other hand, Michel McKean (Shadwell in Season 1) was present for that zoom read-through but had to be drop out also for covid reasons [68]. Peter Davison (David's-father-in law) was asked to play Job's part after shooting had started (possibly replacing Michael McKean?) and Ty Tennant (David's son) was cast too after shooting had started but through audition [69]. Maggie Service was in the very first shot of the season and also in the last day, first one in last one out as she said [70]
2021, Nov 2. Full Cast Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US a full cast audiobook with Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. The audiobook was later released in the UK on January 14th, 2022 [71,72] *The original cover for the audiobook was designed by Henry Sene Yee; a lavender background with drawings of Crowley and Aziraphale facing away from each other. After Season 2 was released, the cover changed to one of the promotional posters [73]
2023, Mar 15. Good Omens HQ - The Terry Pratchett Estate and Neil Gaiman created Good Omens Headquarters. The headquarters launched official accounts in several social media platforms and a website that keeps track of collector's items as they are being revealed [74]
2023, May 10. Good Omens Parody - The Hillywood Show's parody premiered in their YouTube channel (thehillywoodshow) [75] *Amazon Video partnered with Hillywood to announce the premiere date for Season 2 within their parody video. Neil, Maggie Service and Daniel Mays appeared as guests
2023, Jul 28. TV Series Season 2 - Season 2 premiered in Prime Video 😊 *As part of the promo campaign two days before the premiere, Amazon screened the first two episodes in cinemas in several cities free for Amazon Prime members
2023-2024 - The Graphic Novel
2023, Aug 1. Graphic Novel - The Kickstarter campaign to fund the graphic novel adaptation with Colleen Doran as illustrator launched [76] *At its closure, 36,867 backers had pledged £2,419,973 (notice it is pounds, not dollars)
2023, Aug 25. Season 2 Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack for season 2 in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]
2023, Dec 14 - Season 3 was officially greenlit [77]
2024, Apr 18 - The Graphic Novel Pledgemanager site launches for people who missed the Kickstarter campaign or to add extras to an already existing pledge [78]
2024, Jul 13 - Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody appeared as virtual guests at Nullus Anxietas 9, the Australian Discworld Convention 2024 held in Adelaide, to talk about recent push for the musical [79]
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2025 - The Future
2025, January - Season 3 is scheduled to begin filming [80]
2025, Spring - Graphic novel is scheduled to be released [76] *The original release date was in July of 2024, however in April of 2024 it was announced that it would need to be pushed to the Spring of 2025 (Update #20)
There should be a special mention of a fan created musical parody for YouTube that was in development in Russia by 62Media. This was completely fan made and not connected to the Pratchett Estate, Neil, the BBC or Amazon (which is why it is not in the list). Unfortunately it had to shut down due to COVID [81]
Fun fact: During the tour to promote the book, back in 1989-1990 the song "Shoehorn With Teeth" by They Might Be Giants became the unofficial anthem of the tour since that is what they always ended up singing when things went too crazy [82]
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i just found your post about the baby delivery contract between Anthony J. Crowley. Well done, deciphering so much of what it said!
One question has been burning (hah) in my mind ever since reading the book is *what* exactly the complicated sigil is that Crowley draws there.
The book says, "'Sign. Here.' [Hastur] said... 'No. Not A. J. Crowley. Your real name.'
"Crowley nodded mournfully, and Drew a complicated, wiggly sigil on the paper. It glued redly in the gloom, just for a moment, and then faded."
To put the question another way, on the assumption that he writes some version of his " real name," *what* exactly is his real name meant to be here? Do you think Hastur and Ligur are referring to "Crawley," or something still more ancient? and how does the sigil represent it? What language, alphabet, or literary tradition does the sigil come from? Does it have any grounding in an ancient language that human historians, theologians, or linguists would recognize?
Not being raised in the Christian tradition, there's a fair amount of lore that went over my head, so if it's some arcane or even fairly well-known theological thing, there's a good chance I didn't catch it.
No reason you'd have the answer to any of this, but short of Neil himself, you're probably the best person I could ask. Just a shot.
And thanks!
Thank you. It was fun deciphering the thing :)
I wasn't really brought up in the Christian tradition. We were one of those families that showed up for weddings and funerals and that's it. So I am not really qualified but I'll do my best.
"Anthony J Crowley" looks like something he chose to go by in the human world. At the graveyard Ligur says "What’s he calling himself these days?" implying they think of it as an alias or something. Crowley may see it as his real name but as far as celestial bureaucracy is concerned, it is not his "legal" name.
Angels have a language that pre-dates humans. It is whatever Aziraphale and angel Crowley were speaking in the nebula scene. We can see it in Gabriel’s trial, the symbols/hieroglyphics are it, but we humans can't understand it. Crowley's name, whatever it sounds like, uses that alphabet, not the Latin one English uses, that is his squiggly.
This is how I understand it, but again I don't have a strong religious background. Hope it helps :)
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@neil-gaiman Wait, but in this ask, you said it was "you don't dance" Which is it?
In Good Omens S2, when Aziraphale invites Crowley to dance, does Crowley say "We don't dance" or "You don't dance"? He kind of swallows the word, so it's hard to tell. Many people think it's "you." I hear "we," which makes sense to me because Crowley has seen Aziraphale do the apology dance several times. But if he means "we have never danced together," that wouldn't contradict anything already established. Thank you (for all of it)!
We.
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Aziraphale's bibles
Have you ever noticed how many bibles Aziraphale has just lying about? So. Many. Bibles. Oodles of bibles! In S1 we only saw two, one on top of the desk that he used for checking the number of the beast in Revelations; and the other one on the desk surface, right behind his angel mug when he sat to read The Book (not that book, the other book, the one with the true prophecies).
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In S2, we see no less than five bibles on his desk alone and more around the bookshop.
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The first one is on the left, right under the little "For the Young: Hymns for Church and Home, with Forms of Services" book, which incidentally opens to: "So shall no wicked thing draw near, To do us harm or cause us fear." (This angel has no shame).
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Then there are three more in the desk's middle compartments. One, with a green cover, is on the left slot, right above the tray with pens (this one is a New Testament only). The other two, both with black covers, are right behind the mug, where the RadioTimes watermark is. They look identical but they could be two volumes of the same edition or two different editions. We can probably assume one of these is supposed to be the one from S1. The desk in S1 didn't have compartments, it had drawers so there were no books in that area.
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The last one is the on on top of the desk, on the right. This would be the same he used in S1 (although the bible itself is different)
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On his right side, sometimes he has an easel where he displays a large book. This is not a bible itself, but an illustrated book of biblical motifs. Sometimes it is closed and sometimes it is open. He normally has it on the Adam and Eve page (cheeky!) but in Ep 2 he opened it to the Book of Job page instead.
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There is yet another one in the shelf that Gabriel Jim is organizing
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And there is one more in the first backroom (the one with the computer where he talks with Gabriel and Sandalphon). It is on a little table by the door of the private backroom (the one where he confers with Crowley in)
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But there is a set of bibles that are even more important to him than any of the other ones. Although the show never mentioned it, the book tells us that in addition to his passion for prophecy books, he also loves and collects misprinted bibles*:
"And he had a complete set of the Infamous Bibles, individually named from errors in typesetting. These Bibles included the Unrighteous Bible, so called from a printer’s error which caused it to proclaim, in I Corinthians, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God?”; and the Wicked Bible, printed by Barker and Lucas in 1632, in which the word not was omitted from the seventh commandment, making it “Thou shalt commit Adultery.” There were the Discharge Bible, the Treacle Bible, the Standing Fishes Bible, the Charing Cross Bible and the rest. Aziraphale had them all. Even the very rarest, a Bible published in 1651 by the London publishing firm of Bilton and Scaggs."
This collection of bibles is hiding in plain sight and readily on hand. Just ask Jim!
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The rest are right there on Aziraphale's desk. The tags are hard to read but I found, from right to left, The Treacle Bible, The Discharge Bible, The Unrighteous Bible, then three that I couldn't decipher, the Standing Fishes Bible and The Charing Cross Bible. One of those three is supposed to be the Buggre All This Bible, but none of the tags seemed to fit.
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*All the bibles mentioned are real except for the Charing Cross Bible and the Buggre Alle This Bible which in the GO world was printed by Bilton and Scaggs, the publishing company that also printed The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. I have a whole post about Bilton and Scaggs if interested. Now, looking back to S1, as part of his restoring the world, Adam replaced Aziraphale's misprinted bibles with Just William books. Let that sink in... Adam moved Aziraphale's bibles from their righteous place. No wonder Crowley realized it right away. These are Aziraphale's bibles for Go- for Sat- for Somebody's sake!
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Fortunately by S2 everything was back to normal.
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Bilton and Scaggs
Back when I was working in the map of Soho, I got to Bilton and Scaggs Hats and Caps. There is so much to say about this shop and its history, and it is so interesting that it warrants its own post, so here we are
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Bilton and Scaggs Publishers was a London publishing firm in the 1600's, we don't really know when it was established though. They were not one of the eight great publishers of London, but they were doing well enough, after all, it was able to survive its three major publishing disasters (which occurred in rapid succession). Alas, it looks like Bilton and Scaggs, publishers went out of business somewhere in the 1890's and the milliner who set up shop there, kept the name. Nowadays, only Aziraphale knows the full story. What follows are details of their disasters. They are quite funny, unless you are Master Bilton or Master Scaggs of course :P
The first one was in 1651; when they accidentally printed the so called Buggre Alle This Bible. This very rare misprinted Bible had a few verses added to Genesis and a variation in Ezekiel. Of course our angel owns one copy. Genesis chapter 3 normally has 24 verses where the last one goes like this: "24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." The three additional ones go like this:
25. And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming sword which was given unto thee? 26. And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next. 27. And the Lord did not ask him again.
"It appears that these verses were inserted during the proof stage. In those days it was common practice for printers to hang proof sheets to the wooden beams outside their shops, for the edification of the populace and some free proofreading, and since the whole print run was subsequently burned anyway, no one bothered to take up this matter with the nice Mr. A. Ziraphale, who ran the bookshop two doors along and was always so helpful with the translations, and whose handwriting was instantly recognizable." The other issue with this Bible was a little change in Ezekiel 48:5 and it is the change that gives the Bible its name:
2. And bye the border of Dan, fromme the east side to the west side, a portion for Afher. 3. And bye the border of Afher, fromme the east side even untoe the west side, a portion for Naphtali. 4. And bye the border of Naphtali, from the east side untoe the west side, a portion for Manaffeh. 5. Buggre Alle this for a Larke. I amme sick to mye Hart of typefettinge. Master Biltonn if no Gentelmann, and Master Scagges noe more than a tighte fisted Southwarke Knobbefticke. I telle you, onne a daye laike thif Ennywone with half an oz. of Sense shoulde bee oute in the Sunneshain, ane nott Stucke here alle the liuelong daie inn thif mowldey olde By-Our-Lady Workefhoppe. @ “Æ@;! 6. And bye the border of Ephraim, from the east fide even untoe the west fide, a portion for Reuben.
What we can conclude from here is that Aziraphale owned a bookshop in the 1650's that was in the same block as Bilton and Scaggs Publishers. From the deleted scenes in the script book we know he opened A. Z. Fell & Co. in 1800. But there is nothing saying he couldn't have owned a bookshop with a different name decades or centuries before. The bookshop tour special feature from the S1 DVD says he's had it for 350 years. Counting from 2020, that would put it at around 1670. But if we generalize to around 2000, that means the shop could have been there in the 1650's. This more or less matches this ask where it is explained that Aziraphale bought the land in 1630 and over the next 60 years (1690ish) he expanded and built the current bookshop.
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Sorry for the tangent, back to Bilton and Scaggs.
The second publishing disaster occurred in 1653 when somehow they obtained one of the famed Shakespeare's "Lost Quartos" and subsequently lost it (the three Shakespeare plays never reissued in folio edition and now are totally lost to scholars and playgoers. Their names are "The Comedie of Robin Hoode, or, The Forest of Sherwoode", "The Trapping of the Mouse", and finally "Golde Diggers of 1589." In S2 Episode 6 we see all three folios inside the box Gabriel brought with him. I am sure if asked directly, Aziraphale will assure you that he has no idea how those pamphlets got into that box. It was completely empty only four days ago!
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The third and final disaster happened in 1655 and involved a prophecy book that didn't sell a single copy and ended up being the first book remaindered in England: "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch." Not even the sign "Locale Author" attached to the book helped sell it in the author's home town in Lancashire. At the end the publisher destroyed all the unsold copies. Aziraphale, however, seems to have found the 1655 catalog from Bilton and Scaggs that contained only the 1972 prophecy "Do not buy Betamax."
I do find interesting that although evidently Aziraphale had a close relationship with Master Bilton and Master Scaggs, he still failed to secure a copy of the prophecies. It was printed right there! Next to you! How did that happen? Where were you, Aziraphale??!!
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Thank you @fuckyeahgoodomens, @nastasya--filippovna, @offwhitemage, @somethingawesomeandironic, @ineffably-queer-book-lover, @jotunn-scholar, @sarahthecoat, @jotunn-scholar for deciphering the missing words. @throwingpeopleouttawindows, fixed!
@santacoppelia, you made me think about that and I think Crowley has a permanent contract with Hell as an employee to gain souls for their master. And this antichrist gig was a side job that of course, he had no choice in taking. LOL
Updated! A few days ago the contract Crowley signs in S1 came up on discord. Being the crazy person that I am, I set on the quest of finding out what it actually says. I couldn't make out everything, especially at the end where Crowley's hand and the sparks obscure the lines but I made out most of it (transcript below the break).
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One of the things I like the most is that the contract specifically says "Anthony Crowley of Mayfair, London." In the book, Hastur tells Crowley not to use that name: "No. Not A. J. Crowley. Your real name.” Crowley nodded mournfully, and drew a complex, wiggly sigil on the paper. It glowed redly in the gloom, just for a moment, and then faded."
Interesting things:
The contract is referred to as "the Agreement" - HA!
The contract is between Hastur and Ligur ("the Customer") and Crowley ("the Service Provider"). Not with Hell itself or with Satan.
The contract never actually says what "the Service" is nor does it say how much Crowley is supposed to be paid (so is it just delivering the baby to the convent, or all the upbringing too?)
There is a part that says Hastur and Ligur will pay the costs when the operation is done. But later on it also says that Crowley will not be reimbursed for his own expenses. Talk about being shortchanged!
Hastur and Ligur will NOT provide any help
Crowley must contribute to a retirement plan (Superannuation) for himself and his employees if he has any (how thoughtful)
And lastly, I learned the UK has Superannuations and it is not just an Australian thing! (go figure! the things GO teaches me)
So here you have it. A contract from Hell! literally If anyone can make out the words I couldn't or finds an error, please let me know and I'll update this one.
Full transcript:
[Line covered by clip and Ligur’s fingers] (the "Agreement")
BETWEEN
HASTUR AND LIGUR of HELL (the "Customer")
AND
ANTHONY J CROWLEY of MAYFAIR LONDON (the "Service Provider")
BACKGROUND a. The Costumer is of the opinion that the Service Provider has the necessary qualifications experience and abilities to provide services for the Customer. The Costumer will pay the Service Provider per project agreed. Each project has its own costs and the Service Provider agrees to inform the Customer what are the costs involved when setting the operation and the Costumer agrees to pay the total amount when the project is delivered. b. The Compensation will be payable upon completion of the Services. The Service Provider is responsible for paying any Superannuation Guarantee contributions that may be required in relation to the work performed by the Service Provider or by the employees of the Service Provider under this Agreement c. The above Compensation includes all applicable sales tax, and dues as required by law
Provision of Extras a. The Customer will not provide any resources, assistance or extra for use by the Service Provider in providing the Services Reimbursement of Expenses b. The Service Provider will not be reimbursed for expenses incurred by the Service Provider in connection with providing the Services of this Agreement. Independence of Services c. In providing the Sevices under the Agreement it is expressly agreed that the Service Provider is acting as an independent contractor and not as an employee. The Service Provider and the Customer acknowledge that the Agreement does not create a partnership or joint venture between them, and is exclusively a contract for service
Notes a. All suits, requests, demands or other communication required or permitted by the terms of this Agreement by [intelligible words] and delivered to the Parties of the Agreement as follows
ANTHONY J CROWLEY of MAYFAIR LONDON
HASTUR AND LIGUR of HELL
and each [Illegible words due to Crowley’s hand] notify the other.
[ILLEGIBLE WORD]
ANTHONY J CROWLEY
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Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman at NADWCON 2011 (North American Discworld Convention) ❤
Neil: The single worst experience that we went through was, I think, the film. The first go round on the film, where it was bought by very nice people who convinced us they were very nice because we were absolute innocent. And I just remember going up for the first meeting with them.
And we were going up for the meeting, and Terry says, 'Here, come over here.'
I said, 'Okay.'
He said, 'Um, look, I'm not sure about these people, and you're not sure about these people. If this is our first meeting, if they're just completely barking, we should have a code word. And whoever says the code word, we both get up in unison and we leave'.
I said, 'Okay, so we need a code word that neither of us could conceivably say in normal conversation.'
And Terry says, 'Yes.'
I said, 'Okay, what about Biggles?' Now, biggles, for those of you who don't know, was a famous...
Terry, joking: A famous Cardinal. [Cardinal Biggles in Monthy Python].
Neil: He was. Of course.
Terry: They're young, that's the only one they know.
Neil: Captain W. E. Johns wrote books about Biggles, who was a World War I flying ace who, with his pals Ginger and Algy used to go out and shoot out the evil Germans. So, if any Germans are here, you're not evil, tt was just in this book. So. So, I say, 'What about biggles?'
And Terry is, 'Okay. Biggles it is.'
So we head up for the meeting, and we're sitting there around the table talking to what seemed to be terribly nice, sensible people. And then the executive walks in. And the executive in this case was a woman who looked like she had mugged somebody 20 years younger than her and stolen her hair. And she walked in and she didn't... She said like, 'Hi, Neil. Hi, Terry. It's lovely to meet you both. Now, I'm sure that the guys have been talking to you about your book, Good omens, and what we're thinking about now. Okay, let me just run some stuff past you. We figure the dynamics of this are the kid, Adam, whatever his name is, Newt, the witchfinder. We see him as, like, maybe being Tom Cruise, young, goodlooking, hunky, but he's looking for the witches. And the witch, Athaneema, I think her name was. Okay, so there's Newt and there's Athaneema'.
And I look at Terry, and I need to actually mime this - I think we should do this together.
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Fun fact: Neil wrote the 'Athaneema' into the Good Omens series :).
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Updated! A few days ago the contract Crowley signs in S1 came up on discord. Being the crazy person that I am, I set on the quest of finding out what it actually says. I couldn't make out everything, especially at the end where Crowley's hand and the sparks obscure the lines but I made out most of it (transcript below the break).
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One of the things I like the most is that the contract specifically says "Anthony Crowley of Mayfair, London." In the book, Hastur tells Crowley not to use that name: "No. Not A. J. Crowley. Your real name.” Crowley nodded mournfully, and drew a complex, wiggly sigil on the paper. It glowed redly in the gloom, just for a moment, and then faded."
Interesting things:
The contract is referred to as "the Agreement" - HA!
The contract is between Hastur and Ligur ("the Customer") and Crowley ("the Service Provider"). Not with Hell itself or with Satan.
The contract never actually says what "the Service" is nor does it say how much Crowley is supposed to be paid (so is it just delivering the baby to the convent, or all the upbringing too?)
There is a part that says Hastur and Ligur will pay the costs when the operation is done. But later on it also says that Crowley will not be reimbursed for his own expenses. Talk about being shortchanged!
Hastur and Ligur will NOT provide any help
Crowley must contribute to a retirement plan (Superannuation) for himself and his employees if he has any (how thoughtful)
And lastly, I learned the UK has Superannuations and it is not just an Australian thing! (go figure! the things GO teaches me)
So here you have it. A contract from Hell! literally If anyone can make out the words I couldn't or finds an error, please let me know and I'll update this one.
Full transcript:
[Line covered by clip and Ligur’s fingers] (the "Agreement")
BETWEEN
HASTUR AND LIGUR of HELL (the "Customer")
AND
ANTHONY J CROWLEY of MAYFAIR LONDON (the "Service Provider")
BACKGROUND a. The Costumer is of the opinion that the Service Provider has the necessary qualifications experience and abilities to provide services for the Customer. The Costumer will pay the Service Provider per project agreed. Each project has its own costs and the Service Provider agrees to inform the Customer what are the costs involved when setting the operation and the Costumer agrees to pay the total amount when the project is delivered. b. The Compensation will be payable upon completion of the Services. The Service Provider is responsible for paying any Superannuation Guarantee contributions that may be required in relation to the work performed by the Service Provider or by the employees of the Service Provider under this Agreement c. The above Compensation includes all applicable sales tax, and dues as required by law
Provision of Extras a. The Customer will not provide any resources, assistance or extra for use by the Service Provider in providing the Services Reimbursement of Expenses b. The Service Provider will not be reimbursed for expenses incurred by the Service Provider in connection with providing the Services of this Agreement. Independence of Services c. In providing the Sevices under the Agreement it is expressly agreed that the Service Provider is acting as an independent contractor and not as an employee. The Service Provider and the Customer acknowledge that the Agreement does not create a partnership or joint venture between them, and is exclusively a contract for service
Notes a. All suits, requests, demands or other communication required or permitted by the terms of this Agreement by will be given in writing and delivered to the Parties of the Agreement as follows
ANTHONY J CROWLEY of MAYFAIR LONDON
HASTUR AND LIGUR of HELL
and each [Illegible words due to Crowley’s hand] notify the other.
[ILLEGIBLE WORD]
ANTHONY J CROWLEY
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