Good Omens: Review: Part 5

BBC Radio 4, December 26, and on iPlayer for 30 days

The Horsepersons of the Apocalypse gather as the End Times approach…

It’s a bit harder to be objective about this episode, as this is the one from which I heard scenes recorded back in September (see the separate short feature here). Everything is starting to fall into place, as Lower Tadfield is effectively cordoned off from the rest of the country – although Crowley and Aziraphale do find some very unusual ways of breaking through.

The Four Horsepersons – three of the ones you’d expect, and Pollution replacing Pestilence for reasons that become clear – acquire their own acolytes, in the form of four bikers who, not surprisingly, decide that they want their a proper nomenclature, rather than Pigbog, Scuzz etc. They’ve only just worked that out when they try to emulate the Horsepersons – and learn why Death told his colleagues that he’d catch them up shortly… Jim Norton gives one of the best renditions of Death I’ve heard across the Pratchett canon, and I hope that he returns to the role soon.

Dirk Maggs juggles all the other strands so there’s a constant feeling of momentum: Colin Morgan and Charlotte Richie’s characters have fulfilled one of the prophecies (in a scene that wasn’t dramatized!) while Clive Russell gets rather more to do as Shadwell in his scenes with Julia Deakin’s Madame Tracy. Adam’s gang are starting to get worried about his rather dark fantasies but surely he can’t be serious… can he? The scene is set for the final (double-length) episode.

Verdict: The pace never slackens as the end becomes nigh. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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