Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal Part One review (2024)

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The first of a two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel, Going Postal may be the best yet of Discworld stories brought to the small screen…

Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal Part One review (1)By Gaye Birch | |

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This review contains major spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode yet. Part 1 is repeated next on Sky 2, Monday, May 31st at 4:00pm.

The next time you receive an Amazon package a couple of days late, or that errant postcard from your cousin turns up a month after they got back home, don’t get too mad, and spare a thought for the residents of Ankh-Morpork, capital city of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

Here, even first class post may end up amongst millions of letters in the darkest of corridors, burned by a screaming banshee or snatched by bandits. It’s a far cry from the Royal Mail, and almost as ridiculed. So, when a master conman gets the chance to run the postal service, it’s much more than a job in middle management.

The third adaptation of a Discworld novel for Sky, Going Postal opens with an excellently executed title sequence, easily matching many big screen films frame for frame. But more than just hinting at a healthy budget, this sequence introduces us to a main subject of the story, taking us through the inner workings of the clacks.

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The clacks system is a mode of communication in Discworld, a sort of telegraph business that converts customers’ messages to ticker tape which are then relayed from one clacks tower to the next through the city and beyond by semaphore signals using opening and closing shutters at each tower’s top.

The system was the property of the Dearheart family until its inventor, Robert Dearheart, met with financial tragedy and an unexpected death. Control then passed to Reacher Gilt, an unscrupulous man who threatens employees into doing his bidding and who’s let the clacks system fall into disrepair and suspicion after an employee drops to his death in the opening scenes, while a large dark figure flies away.

Gilt isn’t averse to hiring assassins to remove anyone who gets in his way or threatens to thin his fully packed wallet. His preferred dispatcher is a banshee, a half-man half-bat creature who’s perpetually covered in ooze.

There is no competition to communication by clacks, as the all but abandoned post office of Ankh-Morpork is in an even worse state than the dilapidated clacks towers. Patriarch of the city, Lord Vetinari, the highest ranking government official, has the advantage of his own mythical creature in the form of a gorgeous female werewolf sergeant who can scent track criminals. Vetinari wants to abolish the clacks’ monopoly and fakes captured conman Moist von Lipwig’s death at the gallows with an offer of reviving the post office once more.

Von Lipwig, a man who’s lived by his wits since he was orphaned, becoming a master manipulator of men and women, takes the job, with escape and profit his end game objective. This will be difficult, though, as a huge Golem, Mr Pump, has been put in place as both protector and parole officer.

He’ll need looking out for, as each of von Lipwig’s predecessor post masters has met with a gruesome end.

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Moist also discovers that this is no ordinary post office. Every surface of the massive, labyrinthine building is littered with undelivered letters and packages, lining every edge of every room and passageway, crammed in cubby holes and corners and spilling out of closets. He has only two postal employees for help, both long since out of practice, the young, simple, anorak straight pin collector, Stanley, and eager, older Mr. Groat.

But in the quiet hours of night, when no one’s around, the words in the envelopes have whispering voices and ink mingles in the air and combines to magically show von Lipwig the consequences of his many cons, in black-and-while silent films with title cards, projected on the post office walls. These scenes reveal that what he thought were victimless crimes actually resulted in death and ruin for many families, including the Dearheart family and the sole survivor, the lovely Adora Belle, with whom von Lipwig is immediately smitten on first sight.

Forced labour at the post office under threat of death isn’t just punishment, it’s his penance for his crimes, balancing von Lipwig’s immoral acts with improving people’s lives, by delivering long overdue mail, such as acceptances of proposals and other good news.

This is the first of the three adaptations to include any sort of romantic element for the lead character. It’s not heavy-handed and I’m sure it will become a vital element in von Lipwig’s eventual redemption.

Ankh-Morpork is a much more solid, but less intimate city-state here, filmed in Budapest in stone and brick buildings and streets. There’s not a pub in sight within city limits that I’ve seen so far, and that element may be missed by those expecting the milling about of shopkeepers, stall owners and animals in the close quarters seen in the prior films.

Another change that’s noticeable is the absence of Jeremy Irons’ softly lisping Vetinari. I thought his gentle menace in The Colour Of Magic was great, but I’m equally happy with Charles Dance in the role, who effortlessly shows, with a glaring glance and calm, even tone, that he’s a man in a powerful position and to be feared.

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There’s also been no hint of magic, outside of the possessed letters of the post office, and the towers of the Unseen University are truly unseen in this adaptation. I haven’t progressed through reading the Discworld series of books to this thirty-third story, but it’s clearly nearly wizard-free and not the sword and sorcery story of earlier books such as The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic.

For all the changes from the prior films, once you’ve settled into the new look Ankh-Morpork it’s easy to appreciate the stunning performances of each actor. Richard Coyle, a favourite on the small screen in Coupling and Strange, is immensely impressive as Moist von Lipwig in what is essentially multiple roles in various disguises, dialects and mannerisms of the conman. Clare Foy is a petite powder keg of sarcastic sharp-tongued charm and compact strength in four inch steel-tipped stilettos in her Adora Belle guise, and David Suchet makes a surprisingly effective and intense villain, while managing to draw a smile in every scene.

The hallmark wordplay and puns of Discworld are all there, with quotable lines given to even the least prominent characters, as is the visual humour: in manner (Gilt rising to tiptoe in the presence of the taller Patrician), wardrobe (Reacher’s ridiculously oversized neckwear) and even signage (the hairdresser’s missing apostrophe).

The sets, props and costumes are all first class as are the special effects. One highlight and visual accomplishment is von Lipwig being swept through the post office corridors in a torrent of letters.

Part of the appeal of Discworld is in its parallels to our own spherical world, slightly skewed. We’ve witnessed the invention of the postage stamp (von Lipwig’s attempt to create value he can fold and steal) and the perforated sheet (a serendipitous discovery by the far-from-genius Stanley), and the creation of the Discworld version of the Pony Express.

We’ve learned too that it was Adora’s brother who fell to his death from the clacks tower, and Adora discovers, through Moist’s own letter to her, that it was his fake bonds scheme that was the downfall of the Dearheart family and the start of Adora’s addiction to cigarettes (conveyed here as a much more sinister and heartbreaking habit).

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When we last see von Lipwig, he’s trapped in a burning post office, having heroically run in to rescue his workmate, but coming face-to-face with the deadly banshee swooping down on him and blocking his exit and escape from the flames.

I can’t wait to see where these characters end up and whether or not Moist and Adora get more than the most wonderful kiss they’ve never had.

Part Two of Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal will be broadcast on Sky1 tomorrow, Monday May 31st at 6:00pm.

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Tags: DiscworldFantasyTerry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal Part One review (2)

Written by

Gaye Birch

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Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal Part One review (2024)

FAQs

What is Terry Pratchett's writing style? ›

Style and themes

Pratchett's earliest Discworld novels were written largely to parody classic sword-and-sorcery fiction (and occasionally science fiction); as the series progressed, Pratchett dispensed with parody almost entirely, and the Discworld series evolved into straightforward (though still comedic) satire.

Where can I watch Going Postal in the UK? ›

Download the Peaco*ck app and start streaming full episodes of Going Postal. You can watch Going Postal on Peaco*ck.

Is Going Postal part of Discworld? ›

Going Postal is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004.

Is Terry Pratchett for kids? ›

Terry Pratchett wrote books for kids, and he wrote books for adults, but he mostly wrote books for people because he didn't see much of a difference between the two.

What is the best starter book in Discworld? ›

Guards, Guards! seems to be the most popular answer, with Mort being the second most popular.

What does "going postal" mean in urban dictionary? ›

Urban Dictionary definition of "going postal" -- "as originally coined from a series of real life shootings in the postal service, it now usually means that someone is about to go nuts or off the deep end. The reason for going postal is usually trivial.

Where does going postal come from? ›

The origin of the phrase derives from a series of incidents involving U.S. Postal workers, who shot and killed fellow workers and members of the public in 1986. The first recorded use was in an article by Karl Vick's 'Violence at work tied to loss of esteem', published on December 17th 1993 in the St.

Who carries Royal Mail in the US? ›

We use our long standing relationship with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to get your deliveries there. This allows you to get your items delivered to your customers alongside their mail every working day of the week.

Is Discworld a parody or satire? ›

It is quite logical to suggest that even those elements of the Discworld novels that have just been described as satirical can, in a postmodern sense, be labelled as parodic (or, indeed, as pastiche.) Postmodern parody and satire are, in effect, the same thing.

Is Discworld appropriate? ›

The bawdy jokes and very occasional implied sex mean that Discworld books are best read by teens and adults.

What age is going postal appropriate for? ›

Going Postal is masterfully written and there is very little reason why anyone shouldn't read it. In all honesty, I don't suggest this this book to anyone under the age of 13; Terry Pratchett is certainly an author for older readers.

What kind of writer is Terry Pratchett? ›

Terry Pratchett (born April 28, 1948, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England—died March 12, 2015, near Salisbury, Wiltshire) was an English author, predominantly of humorous fantasy and science fiction, best known for his Discworld series.

What is the writing style of Bleak House? ›

Bleak House has two oddities of technique — that is, the manner in which the story is presented. First, throughout the novel, there is an alternation in the point of view from which the story is being told. Second, there is a corresponding alternation between present tense and past tense.

What is the writing style of the blind assassin? ›

The Blind Assassin has a frame narrative structure in which multiple stories are nested within one another. In the 1990s, Iris lives as an elderly woman writing down her memories of her life.

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