h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 'Hogfather' - the Television Series - A87850524
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

A look at the first live-action Discworld television series inspired by the Terry Pratchett novel.

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I haven't seen the series, but the entry reads well.

"Two hour-and-a-half hour episodes"
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"Two 90 minute episodes"

"The adaptation was by Mob & Co Films"
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"The adaptation was produced by Mob & Co Films"

"was submitted to him for his approval and input"
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"was submitted to Pratchett for his approval and input"

"was inspired by Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
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"was inspired by Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)."

Thanks for the review – all those suggested changes have been made.

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A good Entry and I love the series.

The only Thing that confused me was when you meantion 'Men of Harlech' and 'Zulu', because I've never heard of any of them.

'Men of Harlech' is a song about the seven-year siege of Harlech Castle from 1461-1468 during the Wars of the Roses. Harlech is in north Wales and so the historic song commemorates Welsh bravery. 'Zulu' (1964) is a famous British war film about the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879, in which a British military hospital containing a hundred patients and a few healthy men were attacked by 4,000 Zulus and survived. In the film the British troops are Welsh and, to keep morale up during the battle, sing 'Men of Harlech'.
In 'Zulu' the song makes sense, as it is about being brave despite the overwhelming odds. In 'Hogfather' it is remarkably out of place. (Mind you, the Zulu chants in 'Zulu' appear in 'Gladiator' at the start, and that didn't make much sense either…) I can add that info in a footnote if you think it requires inclusion?

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thanks

I missed that you have added a link to Zulu, so that should be fine. But if you could add a short footnote to the song please?

Okay, footnote added?

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Great entry on a much-loved adaptation that introduced me and my family to the joy of Terry Pratchett.
Small niggle "will Death sleigh those who..." should be "will Death slay those..." unless you meant the pun of course.

Ah yes, 'sleigh' was deliberate as he rides across the Disc on one.

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I'm enjoying these Entries - I like how you bring out the humour. The one Terry Pratchett novel I read didn't impress me for some unknown reason, but reading these I would be interested in watching the TV adaptations

You use both Sky 1 and Sky One - was there different branding?

Why is HO HO HO in small? (in Pliny it isn't small )

Footnote 3 could do with a few more words, I think, as I read it and thought TISE

Thanks for your comments there, I've expanded the footnote a little.

'You use both Sky 1 and Sky One - was there different branding?'
From 1989-2008 the channel was 'Sky One' (before that it was 'Sky Channel'), from 2008 to date it is 'Sky 1'. As 'Hogfather' was made in 2006, 'Sky One' is correct.

Why is 'HO HO HO' in small? Well, I tried to recreate the style of how Death talks in the Discworld books for that and 'COWER BRIEF MORTALS!', which is all in capitals, no quotation marks and a slightly smaller font size. What do you think? Does it work?

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HO HO HO does work, but in Pliny it seems HUGE! Perhaps if it wasn't in bold font, it might look OK in Pliny and Ripley...

Sorry, I hadn't spotted this comment earlier.
I've had a look and it seems okay to me - but how does it appear to other readers? It could just be slightly tweaked to be a standard font.

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Looks like just standard caps in Goo (although I realize that's not the skin of choice). When I read it I was thinking it would be cool in small caps, but I wasn't considering the differences in fonts across all the skins. I can see where that would present problems.

I tweaked that bit now so it shouldn't be an issue.

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It didn't change how it looks in Pliny, so I say you may as well go for small in Ripley, and it will be fine like that

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