Night Watch

[tealin]

Mount the barricades and don the lilac! Part one is here!

I've only just started listening to it and while it's not as awesome as a Dirk Maggs production, I am pleasantly surprised by their Vimes.

... and Colon. Wow, Colon sounds exactly like I imagined.

... ooh, but not Vetinari. Is it that hard to bring in Stephen Briggs?

I just realized how incredibly NOT suited to radio this story is. And part one only goes to the conversation with Lu-Tze? How many parts is this, again?

Comments

[ceilonar.livejournal.com]

Aagh! It won't play. It says it can't establish a connection and I am SO sad right now. Noooooooooo, computer! Why?!

[fani.livejournal.com]

Is there an archive for the Dirk Maggs production? Or is it out on CDs?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh, Dirk Maggs hasn't done anything Pratchett as far as I know, but I love his renditions of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and the last couple volumes of the Hitchhiker's Guide 'trilogy.' he brings some real cinematic sensibilities to the radio play medium and is really good at timing, which I think is the weak point in most Pratchett radio plays.

[fani.livejournal.com]

Well I think this is the first time I listen to a radio play. Um... is it not supposed to have background music and ...it seems to just want to plow through the pages like crazy? Is that normal?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty normal .. radio plays have a much smaller budget than movies (obviously) so if they get music at all it's usually really bad synth stuff. And with a limited running time, you kind of have to cut down the book to what's really important for the plot. Big chunks of narration go because it's primarily dialogue-driven, which brings down the page count significantly, especially in the exposition-heavy opening chapters (or lack of chapters, as the case may be). I never realized how incredibly visual this book is ... they do as well as they can with supplying necessary information another way but I feel like I'm missing more than half the story as opposed to the 'theatre of the mind' that most radio plays are.

[dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com]

I rather like Vimes, too. Vetinari sounds more like a school headmaster than the Patrician...

[dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com]

The weird almost-electronic plinking sound as Vimes climbs up to the roof is sorta off-putting though.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and the nearly-simultaneous crash of the library dome and explosion of thunder should sound roughly like this:

[pause for build of tension]
...



not

downward falling harp-y sounds

[gmonkey42.livejournal.com]

WOOOOOO! I know what I'm doing this evening.

[jesskat.livejournal.com]

Aaaahhh!! I want to listen to this so badly, but we're moving this weekend and won't have internet access for two weeks.:( Is it a multi-part series? Will it be archived on the BBC site? If so, any idea for how long? If not, for the love of Om, is there anyone who would be so kind as to record the rest for me?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I'll be recording them all, so when you get moved in drop me an email and we'll try to figure out some way of getting them to you. Don't talk too loudly, though, or they'll all be wanting some. :)

P.S. YOU GET THAT GAG! That has got to be one of the most underappreciated gags in the whole series; it's gut-bustingly funny (at least I find it so) but so few people seem to notice it! I want to do an illustration for it someday...

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. Vetinari in particular is not at all how I imagined his voice. Vimes was pretty good. Makes me want to read the book though. I wonder who might have a copy?

[teshara.livejournal.com]

Where is the rest of this?
Must! Have! More!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's a series currently airing, so you'll have to wait until next Wednesday. How spoiled we are, with TV series boxed DVD sets!

Uh-oh...

[(Anonymous)]

Having downloaded this tasty bit of audio, I clicked the 'open' button and it was like, "SCHMERG, THIS CAN'T PLAY BECAUSE WINDOWS NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT PROGRAM TO PLAY IT ON."

How did you go about playing it? I tried Windows Media Player and Realmedia and one or two other programs with names I can't remember, and it just stuck its tongue out at me, said 'FAIL' and closed.

Re: Uh-oh...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Um ... that link should open the stream in a stand-alone RealPlayer. No right click/save as function necessary, just click on it. If that continues not to work, you can go to the Radio 4 site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4) and click on 'Listen Live' which is a sort of tabby thing on the top of the furthest right column on the page and scroll through the programs list until you find Night Watch (might be listed as Terry Pratchett's Night Watch for added confusion).

[(Anonymous)]

This is interesting ! (Shame I understood about half of it - and that's thanks to having read the book twice previously - my oral English abilites are not what they were :-( )
I took the liberty to forward the link to my friends at the Pratchett Club Francophone (http://lepcf.org/newforum/viewtopic.php?p=2124#2124), and doing so I also made a link to your Discworld page, saying I'm a fan. I hope it's okay ?

Cheers from across the pond,
Anilori

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Linking is great - thanks!

Make sure they know the link to the first episode will only last until tomorrow night, when it'll become the second episode.