Going Postal - pt. 1

Having read the book only twice (I've read other Discworld novels many more times) I found myself still somewhat surprised by the events of the story and the direction felt very confident and centred, much more so than Hogfather and The Colour of Magic/The Light Fantastic. The urban settings of the story give it a very different feel to TCoM/TLF which was very much set outside with only the Unseen University and a few other scenes set indoors. The austere wintery feel of Ankh Morpork in Hogfather feels very different to the dilapilated streets in GP, again giving this story a feel of its own. The realisation of Mr. Pump is both excellent and highly flawed. On the one hand he has a very expressive body language but on the other hand he doesn't feel as strong and relentless as golems are described in the books. Moist comes across ver well as a slimy conman caught firmly in the grasp of the Patrician and his inescapable net of doom. Adora is something of a 1920's Berlin socialite, I almost expected her to turn into Marlene Dietrich at one point! The rest of the cast range from the good (Steve Pemberton) to the average (Timothy West) to the camp (David Suchet). Charles Dance really should have been in the story more for me, his version of the Patrician is so intriguing, much more so than Jeremy Irons and at the time of TCoM/TLF I thought he might be the definitive actor in the role).