Hopes may rise on the Grasmere

[venta]

Things to be excited about: a radio adaptation of Neverwhere next year. According to Neil Gaiman's blog post, it's got a really interesting cast list.

I'm probably most pleased with the idea of Anthony Head as Mr Croup, but deeply curious about Johnny Vegas as Lord Ratspeaker. Also notable: Christopher Lee as the Earl, Natalie Dormer as Door and Benedict Cumberbatch as the Angel Islington.

Comments

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Bernard Cribbins as Old Bailey!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh, missed that :)

Also, a thing I have just discovered: in the TV series of Neverwhere, Door was played by the same person who played the blacksmith in A Knight's Tale. No way!

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

I was reading about that last night. I have to admit that, unpopular though it was, I really loved the TV series. It had that wonderfully wierd claustrophobia coupled with dodgy special effects that had to be glossed over with cracking dialogue that all British sci-fi and fantasy used to have (eg Doctor Who before it got revamped, Blakes' 7, The Box of Delights) even if the beast of London was very obviously a Highland cow. I find it really hard to imagine anyone else in those roles. To me, Croup will always be Hywel Bennett and the Angel Islington is Peter Capaldi. (Won't stop me listening to the radio show though...)
Should also say that I'd never been on the London Underground before watching the series and reading the book. I was very disappointed on my first trip.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I also loved the TV show - interestingly (at least, according to Wikipedia) one of the reasons it looked so low budget[*] was that it was lit and shot in a manner intended to be "filmised" later, but then wasn't. So it came out looking really garish and weird. Apparently Neil Gaiman commented that people doing copies-of-copies-of-copies of VHS tapes actually improved the way it looked...

I guess (like HHGTG) I just think of the TV, book and radio as quite different entities so I don't mind new people taking the roles and doing different things with them.

[*] OK, the other reason was that it was low budget :)

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Low budget was the reason all British sci-fi and fantasy had to concentrate on characters and dialogue. Anything to take attention away from the 'special' effects.

I'm usually able to seperate out Tv, book and radio but, in this case, I think i saw the TV series before reading the book. Usually with stuff like this I'll have read the book first so maybe that's why I'm so set on the characters in Neverwhere.

I always love the Floating Market scenes since a couple of reenactment groups I know were involved and, while it's always fun to play 'spot the reenactor', it's even more fun to go, 'good grief, where they ever that young?!'

[venta.livejournal.com]

I believe a few members of the role-playing society I (subsequently) belonged to in Oxford were in there too, but I never managed to spot them.

I think (unusually!) the TV series actually is the original, and the book is a subsequent novelisation.

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Now I think about it I do vaguely remember Neil Gaiman saying somewhere that he'd been disappointed with the TV series so he ended up completely over-describing everything in the book in an effort to put across how he'd actually wanted it to look.

Damn it, was intending to tidy the room tonight. Suspect I'll be watching Neverwhere again now.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it sound great? Of course I'd love to see a proper film of it, but I'll settle for this.

Oh and don't PANIC!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nah, "Don't Panic" was HHGTG ;)

One kudo to you.

My gripe with films is always that - if made from books - they have to be so condensed that you lose a lot. A 6-part episodic TV series seems more likely to be squashable into a film, but I think secretly I'm happier with a radio series :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Note to self: Natalie Dormer is not the person you thought she was from looking at the photo. You were thinking of Lily Cole.