Terry Pratchett's Going Postal

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal
Main cast
Format	Fantasy, comedy
Created by	Terry Pratchett (screenplay by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle)
Directed by	Jon Jones
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	2
Production
Executive producer(s)	Rod Brown, Vadim Jean, Ian Sharples
Distributor	Hollywood Pictures
Broadcast
Original channel	Sky 1
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Original run	30 May 2010 – 31 May 2010
Chronology
Preceded by	Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic
Followed by	Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals
External links
Website

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal is a two-part television adaptation of the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle and produced by The Mob, which was first broadcast on Sky1, and in high definition on Sky1 HD, at the end of May 2010.

It is the third in a series of adaptations, following Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. It was announced as part of an investment of at least £10 million into adaptations of novels, including Chris Ryan's Strike Back and Skellig by David Almond. Filming began in May 2009 in Budapest.

As is now traditional with The Mob's Discworld adaptations, several fans were invited to appear as extras, during shooting in Budapest.

Cast

• Richard Coyle – Moist von Lipwig
• David Suchet – Reacher Gilt
• Charles Dance – Patrician Havelock Vetinari
• Claire Foy – Adora Belle Dearheart
• Marnix Van Den Broeke – Mr. Pump
• Jimmy Yuill – Mr. Spools
• Steve Pemberton – Drumknott
• Andrew Sachs – Tolliver Groat
• Tamsin Greig – Miss Cripslock
• Ingrid Bolsø Berdal – Sgt Angua
• Adrian Schiller – Mr. Gryle
• Ian Bonar – Stanley Howler
• Madhav Sharma – Horsefry
• Timothy West – Mustrum Ridcully
• Terry Pratchett – Postman

Plot

The story follows Moist von Lipwig, who after years of undertaking confidence tricks on others finds himself caught by the guards, the sergeant being a werewolf, and is sentenced to death under the alias of Albert Spangler. After a brief spell in prison he is hanged by the neck, but not killed. He is brought before Patrician Havelock Vetinari who insists that he either becomes the new Postmaster or be executed by falling down a deep pit.

Moist attempts to escape but is caught by his parole officer Mr. Pump, a golem, and brought to the rundown post office where he meets his two staff; Junior Postman Tolliver Groat and his assistant, the pin-obsessed Stanley Howler. Moist learns that the post office has been superseded by semaphore towers known as "Clacks" which are run by the unscrupulous Reacher Gilt.

Initially Moist attempts to escape his duty, but realises that he cannot get away without overcoming Mr. Pump, so he goes to the Golem Trust to help understand how golems are created and controlled. There he meets Adora Belle Dearheart whom he begins to have feelings for. His skills prove to be useful in making the post office popular again, both when he invents the postage stamp in an attempt to raise money which proves to be highly successful, and when he starts an express post service to neighbouring cities.

While staying in the post office Moist begins to experience visions which show him that some of his confidence tricks led to tragedies for those he conned, which result in him starting to have feelings of remorse for the first time, these feelings are heightened when he discovers that Adora Belle's father, Richard Dearheart, was indirectly a victim of one of his cons, and as a result lost ownership of his invention, the Clacks. Moist confesses his past misdeeds to Adora Belle just as the post office is set alight, so Moist sets his own safety aside and runs into the burning building to rescue Stanley Howler. Before finding Stanley, he encounters Mr. Gryle, a banshee assassin, who confesses that he killed the previous four Postmasters. Just as Mr. Gryle is about to strike, Moist calls on the haunted letters in the post office to stop Mr. Gryle, which they do.

The burning of the post office means that the people of Ankh-Morpork are turning to the "Clacks" for sending their messages, so Moist comes up with a plan to draw people back to the post office by pretending that he has experienced a vision telling him where the gods have buried money to help repair the post office (in reality the money was a hidden stash from his past cons). This helps draws people back to the post office, so Moist announces a new long distance delivery service.

Meanwhile Adora Belle Dearheart is working on a way to jam up the Clacks with the help of a group of hackers (clacks-crackers) called "The Smoking Gnu" which they succeed in doing temporarily. The Clacks' chief engineer, Mr Pony, finds a way of preventing the jamming process, but Mr. Pony begins to see that working for Gilt is wrong and presents Adora with evidence to prove that Gilt had the past four postmasters, as well as Adora's brother, killed.

When an attempt to jam the Clacks fails Moist challenges Gilt to a race – Clacks versus post office – the message to be sent is a biography of Havelock Vetinari, to Uberwald. Moist and Adora employ a disused Clack tower to intercept and successfully change the message from the biography to a confession of Gilt's guilt, which is witnessed in Ankh-Morpork, so Gilt is arrested and Adora is made manager of the Clacks. At the end of the story a postman (played by Terry Pratchett) arrives at Vetinari's palace to deliver a letter to Gilt, using one of his aliases. Vetinari implies that Gilt killed himself by falling down the deep pit.

Differences from the book

• John Dearheart's death is different from the book.
• Adora Belle Dearheart attempts to get the post office golems to go on strike in the movie.
• Moist knows that Angua is a werewolf in the movie, while in the books he does not discover this until halfway through Making Money.
• The characters of Anghammarad, Tiddles, Miss Maccalariat, Death, and Gladys are removed.
• The whole "Pi" subplot is removed, including Bloody Stupid Johnson's trans-dimensional letter sorting machine which caused the original collapse of the post office
• Reacher Gilt is present when the Clacks message sent by Moist is read out. Mr Wilkinson reads instead of Collabone, and the reading takes place in the square instead of the Great Hall.
• Moist makes a speech as he is about to be hanged at the reading. This did not happen in the book.
• The explanation of the golden suit and the initiation test are both removed.
• The previous four postmen are killed by Mr Gryle instead of the time warp.
• Moist's character is changed, with him seeing visions, and repenting of his former crimes.
• In the film the race between the clacks and the post office is to Uberwald, not Genua as it is in the book.
• The timeline is different. Adora Belle says that her brother died three years ago in the movie, not one month ago. The backlog of the mail is several decades' worth in the book and only four years' worth in the movie.

External links

• Terry Pratchett's Going Postal at the Internet Movie Database
• Terry Pratchett's Going Postal at the British Comedy Guide
• Preview of Going Postal on Sky.com
• Sneak peek pictures of Going Postal on Sky.com
• Official Going Postal site
• Official Going Postal trailer
• Extended Going Postal trailer
• Richard Coyle Interview