Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish - reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!
Last week, I reviewed an old TV mini-series, Aristocrats, based on the real-life stories of the daughters of the Duke of Richmond in the 18th century. Jean was delighted and intrigued by the book Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees.
Good Omens was advertised on Amazon Prime before many of the episodes of Silent Witness that I watched earlier this year. David Tennant ( Doctor Who, Broadchurch) was such a delicious bad boy in the trailers that Good Omens was near the top of the list of shows that I wanted to watch when I finally finished all 21 seasons of Silent Witness.
Tennant's co-star, Michael Sheen, is probably best known for playing Tony Blair in The Queen and two other films. Much of Sheen's career has been on the stage in London. Sheen plays the angel pitted against the Tennant's demon.
The demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale met in the Garden of Eden where Crowley inhabited the snake and Aziraphale, feeling sorry for the banished couple, gave his flaming sword to Adam and Eve.
One of my favorite parts was the opening of episode 3 when we flash back through all of history to see the interactions of Crowley and Aziraphale. Once we get to King Arthur's Court, that history settles in the British Isles with a quick trip to Paris for the French Revolution.
After the flashback, we go back to the current story involving the Antichrist and Armageddon centered in the village of Tadfield, near Oxford. With that set up, it's hard to believe that Good Omens is mostly a comedy. Crowley, the demon, and Aziraphale, the angel, have one thing in common - they like the world and don't want to see it end.
Good Omens is based on the book of the same name, co-authored by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Neil Gaiman was a show runner, so I think we can be confident that the mini-series stays true to the spirit of the book.
Have you seen Good Omens? Or read the book? What did you think?
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books
