Going Postal

Over the past three years, Sky have broadcast three adaptations of Terry Pratchett novels starting with The Hogfather in December 2007, The Colour of Magic in March '08 and, in May '10, Going Postal.

As with the other two, it begins with a brief introduction to the Discworld, a circular planet which rests on the back of four elephants which are standing on the back of a giant turtle, swimming through space before focusing on the main city on the Discworld, Ankh-Morpork. We then have a montage of scams perpetrated by conman Moist Von Lipwig who manages to stay one step ahead of the law and all attempts to foil him by changing payment methods and the way in which bonds are bought and sold. However, he hadn't banked on Ankh-Morpork's City Watch, particularly the werewolf Sgt Angua, whose sense of smell leads the City Watch to Von Lipwig.

Sentenced to death by hanging, Von Lipwig is literally hanged within an inch of his life and brought before Patrician Havelock Vetinari who gives Von Lipwig a stark choice: death or become Postmaster General. Considering the latter is probably the best choice (only just), Von Lipwig is introduced to the other members of the Post Office, Junior Postman Groat and Stanley, the pin obsessed assistant. Finding the Post Office bulging at the seams with undelivered mail and that all of his predecessors had extremely short tenures, Moist soon begins to regret his decision. Not only does he have the rather unkempt and smelly Groat and the millions of undelivered letters to cope with, but the Post Office is in competition with the Clacks, a brand-new communications device which uses giant towers to send messages by a semaphore-like system which arrive at the other end on tickertape.


Unable to escape his parole officer, a giant Golem called Mr Pump, Moist soon gets to work trying to update the postal system, motivate his staff, outwit the devious Clacks chairman, Reacher Gilt, and try and get a date with the beautiful chain-smoking head of the Golem Trust, Adora Belle Dearheart. As Moist employs all of his marketing and manipulation to take business away from the Clacks, which Reacher Gilt doesn't take lying down, the battle for communication across the Discworld is well and truly on.

Although I read many Terry Pratchett books when I was younger, I haven't read the ones on which these TV adaptations were based so was able to view them purely as long movies without any preconceptions about characters, locations or events. I found Hogfather to be a reasonably entertaining and accomplished fantasy drama which was vastly improved upon the following year with The Colour of Magic which, although I found David Jason to be horribly miscast as Rincewind (a wizard who I imagine to be tall and angular), looked and felt more like a Pratchett film so was eagerly looking forward to Going Postal. This is the best of the three so far with terrific casting led by Richard Coyle as Moist, David Suchet as a Reacher Gilt, Andrew Sachs as Groat, Claire Foy as Adora and Charles Dance as Lord Vetinari.


With the recent (and ongoing) turmoil at Royal mail, this release comes as an extremely appropriate time as, although Pratchett didn't write the book with this in mind, the postal system finds itself under increasing pressure from the Internet and SMS messaging which can be seen as the equivalent of the Clacks system. As the film says, there's nothing quite like receiving a letter (or parcel) and all e-mails or text messages in the world can't compensate for a handwritten letter. Going Postal does make you realise the importance and historical significance of the Post Office and, by the end, I almost felt like writing a letter just the sheer hell of it!

This is a TV movie that was extremely well made with great attention to detail and the filming in Budapest certainly provided the filmmakers with some great locations, hard-working crew and actors for the small(er) roles. I found it to be an engrossing watch with terrific characters, some sparkling dialogue and great interplay between the main characters.

The Disc

Extra Features
The main special feature is a commentary with director Jon Jones with an optional picture-in-picture function that allows you to watch him speaking with one eye on the monitor to his right or go through a selection of images whilst he is speaking. Jones gives a fascinating overview about the filming process, casting and trying to stay true to the source material, mentioning that although Charles Dance has the wrong hair colour (Lord Vetinari has dark hair in the novel), he was accepted by the Terry Pratchett fans on set.

Just as with The Colour of Magic BD (and DVD), when you select 'play' on the menu, you have the option of watching part one, part two or parts one and two with the second instalment following directly on the first or with the introduction by Terry Pratchett (this is available to watch separately from the special features menu) in which he talks briefly about the book, his approach to writing a novel and the adaptation itself. It is a shame that they didn't see fit to cut out the credits and opening from part two and present it as a single three hour film as that would have been the ideal way to watch the film.

There are also interviews with the principle members of the crew and just about every member of the cast. It's a shame that these have to be selected individually, apart from the cast interviews which can be played sequentially using the 'play all' function, as I grew a little tired of selecting the next name. What they have to say is rather typical EPK material but quite informative EPK material at that which casts a great deal of light on the filmmaking process, how they became involved and what they think of the finished thing.

Additionally, you have a blooper reel and some deleted scenes and some image galleries.


The Picture
Like the other two adaptations, this was broadcast on Sky1 and Sky1 HD so it was no surprise that there is a Blu-ray release as well as the DVD and the difference between the two is quite something, especially when you look at the scenes with fine detail and even the credits. Going Postal has a wonderful picture with some brilliant costumes, vibrant colours and excellent contrast levels. Although the CGI and model work isn't quite as it would be on a multi-million-dollar film, it is still very impressive for a TV movie and the Golems look especially good, with a very tall man inside a suit and someone else (Nicholas Farrell, who also voiced Death in The Colour of Magic) providing the vocal talents. Pulling off something like the Golem, a 7 foot tall animated lump of clay, is no mean feat and it is a testament to the parties involved that they look as good and convincing as they do.

When going through the supplementary material, I was surprised that they had only built one Clacks tower and it really shows how good the CGI was that it looks as if there is a whole system of them dotted around the Hungarian (or should that be Discworld?) countryside.


The Sound
Unfortunately, and as with the Blu-ray release of The Colour of Magic, there is no high definition soundtrack or even an uncompressed LPCM 5.1 option but fortunately the Dolby Digital 5.1 option is extremely good. The score and sound design are both extremely impressive and keep the surround speakers occupied which really come into their own when Moist is attacked in the Post Office by a banshee whilst the building burns.

The dialogue is extremely clear and I had no need for the optional English subtitles and, whilst the disc also comes with a DD 2.0 stereo track, the surround option is clearly the way to go as the stereo track is found little more wanting in the more action orientated scenes.


Final Thoughts
Going Postal is by far the best of the three Terry Pratchett adaptations and looks extremely good with terrific costumes and sets and a decent, though not spectacular, selection of extra features. If you enjoyed this when it was on TV in May, then this is something well worth picking up and, if you missed it but liked The Hogfather and The Colour of Magic that this set is one well worth adding to your collection.