FIRST LOOK TV: Good Omens - heaven or hell?

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Amazon Prime

ONLY a dream acting team could do justice to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel Good Omens, so thank the Gods and demons that Scotland's David Tennant and Wales’ Michael Sheen were available.

If Tennant and Sheen, working together for the first time, aren’t enough to pull in the paying viewers, there is Mad Men’s Jon Hamm as the Archangel Gabriel, Frances McDormand as the voice of God (it’s official: the Almighty is a woman), and many more starry faces besides.

Good Omens was published nearly three decades ago. The fact it has taken this long for an adaptation to emerge is testament to the novel’s length, sprawling nature, and tendency towards loquaciousness. In the end, Gaiman, following a last wish by the late Pratchett, did the job himself.

This is a tale of an angel and a demon. The demonic Crowley (Tennant) and angelic Aziraphale (Sheen) have known each other since Adam and Eve were dating. It was Crawly the snake, as he was then named, who landed the couple in bother with the apple business.

Now envoys to Earth from heaven and hell, the two ought to be enemies, but Aziraphale is too sweet to be mean to anyone, and Crawley is a basically nice geezer, for a demon. He has grown rather fond of humanity, largely because they get into such appalling trouble on their own he barely needs to lift a finger.

Aziraphale rather likes life on Earth too, with its second hand bookshops and chi-chi sushi restaurants. When the pair of unlikely chums learn the Antichrist is to be born and bring about the end of times, they join forces to neutralise the threat. What a pity their best laid plan, as best laid plans are wont to do, gang aft agley.

Tennant was one of Pratchett’s favourite actors, and the character of Crowley, the groovy, shades-wearing, skinny-jeaned demon, fits him like a Savile Row suit. Sheen plays Aziraphale with lip-smacking relish as a cross between It’s a Wonderful Life’s Clarence and Julian Clary. Together, the pair are perfect, although if you find a little of each actor tends to go a long way you might disagree.

The production, which streams on Amazon Prime from today before being shown on the BBC later this year, has another Scots connection in director Douglas Mackinnon, who worked with Tennant on Doctor Who as well as helming episodes of Sherlock and Line of Duty.

The adaptation makes few concessions to those who have not read the book, and the quick fire editing and switching of story strands can be confusing. The book’s love of language can go either way, too, with some scenes in need of a firmer editing hand. Visually, the look and feel of the piece owes more to telly than cinema, which was disappointing.

Those niggles aside (plus the presence of a witchfinder with a dodgy Scots accent), Good Omens is a delightful mish-mash. It’s fun, funny, and inventive, with a cast that is clearly in tune with the material and keen to do it justice. Fans won’t be disappointed.