Good Omens: Review: Part 4

BBC Radio 4, Christmas Day and for 30 days on iPlayer

Adam’s heritage begins to show…

Kids of Adam Young’s age have some very good ideas as well as some very bad ones, but normally you don’t need to worry that they are going to be able to put them into practice. However, when the young boy in question is the heir to the underworld, and generally imbued with the ability to warp reality so that ancient beasts rise, or surprised Tibetans find themselves tunnelling through the earth, things can become a bit more serious. The original Gaiman and Pratchett book handles these scenes extremely well, never losing the William Brown-esque feel of the source material while making the threat that Adam poses very clear – and Dirk Maggs’ script and the cast of youngsters led by Adam Thomas Wright bring it to life very well.

With virtually every character now introduced, you can see how well the whole production has been cast. There’s a good rapport between all the characters who need to bounce off each other – Colin Morgan’s Pulsifer and Charlotte Richie’s Anathema deserve their own spin-off adventure (and you can guess how many of Morgan’s many fans wanted to put themselves in Richie’s place for one particular scene), while Phil Davis’ Hastur’s scenes with Peter Serafinowicz’s Crowley are great fun (and suitably amended for a 21st century audience). There’s some nice playing against the characterisation you’d expect – Nick Briggs’ Metatron doesn’t quite have the Charlton Heston-esque Voice of God quality you might expect, for example – while others, such as Josie Lawrence’s Agnes Nutter, couldn’t really be anything else. And as for the cameos – each so far has been a joy.

We’re just over halfway now (remember, the finale is a double-episode); if you’ve not caught up yet, then head over to iPlayer quickly – this is the adaptation that fans have been waiting nearly a quarter of a century for!

Verdict: The series continues to delight. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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