Yahoo News David Tennant explains why it was "hugely important" to get Good Omens right for TV
The End Times are approaching. After being in various stages of development for almost three decades, there's just 11 days to go until the TV adaptation of Good Omens finally arrives.
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's co-authored comic fantasy novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch was originally published in 1990, with the pair being courted by Hollywood soon afterward.
Various movie and television versions have been mooted in the years since, with Terry Gilliam at one time attached to direct a Good Omens film, but it was Pratchett passing away in 2015 that made Gaiman all the more determined to bring their story to the screen.
It's a rather strange and complicated tale, but at the heart of Good Omens are two characters, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who are determined to halt the impending apocalypse having grown accustomed to their comfortable surroundings in England.
Related: How to catch up on Good Omens
"They rather like the world," David Tennant – playing Crowley in the TV series – tells Digital Spy and other press on set. "They like dining at the Ritz, and wine, and fast cars. So yes, it's entirely selfish, their desire to avert the apocalypse, but it does mean they have a common goal and become unlikely allies in that."
Tennant's devil is someone who "enjoys life" and "doesn't lack self-confidence", the actor says. "That means he's someone rather appealing to get under the snakeskin of – he's a delicious character, and because he's got that supernatural element as well, all bets are off.
"You can kind of take that in as many directions as your imagination will allow, which is fantastically liberating."
The yin to Tennant's yang is Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, a self-righteous spirit who, over the course of Good Omens' six episodes, has "the edges knocked off him a bit."
"For someone who's eternal, he does actually kind of change as the piece goes on," Sheen says. "He starts out being slightly holier-than-thou – what we have as an idea of a boring goody-goody two-shoes or whatever – but actually it becomes something different over time."
"He's an angel who is not without his flashes of naughtiness, and I'm a demon who has been known to do the right thing occasionally," Tennant says. "They're best friends, but they could never admit that. But they do rely on each other, and they become each other's touchstone through the ages."
"Even though they're opposite teams, Aziraphale's nature is to love, so he just loves Crowley," adds Sheen. "Maybe he's a little bit in love with Crowley. Or maybe that's just me and David!"
The pair came to Good Omens from different perspectives, as Sheen is a long-time fan of Gaiman and Pratchett's work, while Tennant hasn't read the book. But both were excited by how Gaiman had adapted his and his friend's work for the screen.
"I've been a huge fan of Neil's since I was in drama school," says Sheen. "So to be able to go back to this story now is amazing."
"He just creates this extraordinary world – it's not really like anything else," Tennant says of the author. "Neil does that in his own way, and Terry Pratchett does that in his own way, and together it's sort of something else again.
"It's a reality that's obviously completely heightened, and yet it's so sort of rooted, and the vein of satire that runs through it is so juicy. And it's so fleshed out, this world that they create, that it feels completely palpable when you read it – which obviously is what you're looking for in a script and in a story to tell."
Both are aware of the huge amount of anticipation surrounding this series, not just because it's been so long in the making, but because of fans' strong attachment to the source material. (In 2003, Good Omens was listed at number 68 on a BBC ranking of Britain's 100 favourite novels. It was, according to Gaiman, the only book in that list to have never been adapted.)
"I know there's been attempts," says Sheen. "I mean, you should never give Terry Gilliam anything, to be honest!"
"Clearly this is hugely important to people, this book," Tennant nods. "So of course, once you realise that you hold in your hand something that's so precious to people, you don't want to disappoint them.
"I'm sure it won't mirror what everyone sees in their heads, but maybe it'll be better for some people. I'm sure some people will be furious; I'm sure some people will be utterly delighted. All you can do is do your best."
"There's bound to be a lot of expectation," Sheen agrees. "But I think the fact that Neil is so involved, that helps obviously. You feel like it's coming from the source."
In many ways, though, Tennant and Sheen – who are joined by an all-star cast including Jon Hamm, Anna Maxwell Martin, Jack Whitehall, Miranda Richardson and Nick Offerman – agree that 2019 feels like the perfect time to finally be bringing Good Omens to the screen.
"Life does feel almost apocalyptic on an almost daily basis, so it's quite a tonic to come to work and almost be making a joke of the end of the world," Tennant says. "I think probably we all need to do that. Maybe that makes it all the more relevant, something of a pressure release!"
Indeed, Sheen sees the series as "a celebration of humanity, even though the main characters are all mainly supernatural beings".
"It's never a bad time," he concludes, "to re-establish why it's good that we don't all blow each other up."
Good Omens launches Friday, May 31 on Amazon Prime Video.
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