From an early age Moist von Lipwig made a living by conning others out of theirs; ultimately he is caught in the city of Ankh-Morpork and sentenced to hang. He survives the hanging and finds himself being given a choice by Lord Vetinari, the city's patrician, he can either be executed again or take over the running of the city's failing post office. Not surprisingly he chooses the latter. When he gets to the Post Office he soon thinks he has been given an impossible task; there are years' worth of letters stacked everywhere and all recent post masters have met with untimely deaths. He is a quick thinker and soon starts to get the service working again
much to the annoyance of Reacher Gilt, the owner of the 'Clacks'; a system of sending messages via semaphore, who doesn't want any rivals. It becomes apparent that Gilt isn't above murder eliminate the competition. Moist von Lipwig will have to be particularly clever and get the help of Adora Belle Dearheart, whose family invented the clacks but were conned out of its ownership, if he is to keep the post office open and avoid being hanged again.
I enjoyed this adaption of Terry Pratchett's book; I haven't read it yet but have read others featuring many of the characters including 'Making Money' which is also centred on Moist von Lipwig. I thought Richard Coyle did a really good job bringing the character to life. Charles Dance was suitably imposing as Lord Vetinari and Claire Foy impressed as Adora. I was less sure about David Suchet's performance as Gilt; it had a bit too much of the pantomime villain for my tastes. Ankh-Morpork was portrayed well enough although I imagined it to be more threatening with narrower streets and intimidating characters lurking in the shadows. There were plenty of things to enjoy about the production; I liked how the Clacks where depicted and the appearance of various characters who have small parts here but are more important in other Disc World novels; notably Sergeant Angua, the werewolf in the Watch. Overall I rather enjoyed this and would recommend it to people who have enjoyed the Disc World books.
I enjoyed this adaption of Terry Pratchett's book; I haven't read it yet but have read others featuring many of the characters including 'Making Money' which is also centred on Moist von Lipwig. I thought Richard Coyle did a really good job bringing the character to life. Charles Dance was suitably imposing as Lord Vetinari and Claire Foy impressed as Adora. I was less sure about David Suchet's performance as Gilt; it had a bit too much of the pantomime villain for my tastes. Ankh-Morpork was portrayed well enough although I imagined it to be more threatening with narrower streets and intimidating characters lurking in the shadows. There were plenty of things to enjoy about the production; I liked how the Clacks where depicted and the appearance of various characters who have small parts here but are more important in other Disc World novels; notably Sergeant Angua, the werewolf in the Watch. Overall I rather enjoyed this and would recommend it to people who have enjoyed the Disc World books.