Hogfather (TV adaptation)

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Terry Pratchett's Hogfather
Hogfather series logo.
Genre	Fantasy, comedy
Creator(s)	Terry Pratchett Vadim Jean
Starring	Michelle Dockery David Jason Ian Richardson (voice)
Narrated by	Ian Richardson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	2
Production
Running time	189 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	Sky One
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Links
Official website
IMDb profile

Hogfather is a two-part television adaptation of the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett, produced by The Mob, and broadcast on Sky One, and in High Definition on Sky HD, over Christmas 2006. First aired in two 1h30 episodes on the 17 and 18 of December at 20:00 UTC, it was the first live-action film adaptation of a Discworld novel.

1 Plot
2 Main cast
3 Trivia
4 Controversy
5 CGI effects
6 DVD release
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

The series closely follows the plot of the novel, in which the Hogfather, the Discworld equivalent to Father Christmas, has gone missing, and Death is forced to take his place, while his granddaughter Susan attempts to find out what happened.

[edit] Main cast

Michelle Dockery - Susan Sto Helit
David Jason - Albert
Marnix Van Den Broeke - Death
Ian Richardson - Death (voice)
Marc Warren - Jonathan Teatime
Joss Ackland - Mustrum Ridcully
David Warner - Lord Downey
Neil Pearson - The Raven (voice)
Nigel Planer - Mr Sideney and Auditor (voice)

Pratchett himself has a cameo as a toymaker, in addition to his official script credit of 'Mucked About By'.

[edit] Trivia

The storyboarding for the film was by artist Stephen Player, who drew The Streets of Ankh-Morpork and The Discworld Mapp.
At the Discworld Convention 2006, Bernard Pearson revealed that he had been involved to help with the 'look' of Ankh-Morpork.
Some interior and exterior scenes were shot in Spring 2005 at Sutton House, Hackney, with extensive use of artificial snow to create winter.
The film premièred at the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair on Monday 27th November 2006. Part 1 and a teaser for part 2 were shown.
The film was shown on the 17th and 18th December on Sky One, and was repeated shortly afterwards on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. A "making of" documentary entitled The Whole Hog was shown on Sky One on the 10th.
Beginning the second week of December, Sky began using a new Christmas ident for Sky One, Two and Three, featuring the Hogfather's sleigh and the message "Happy Hogswatch".
The song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was used on Hogfather radio advertisements with the word "Hogfather" replacing "Santa Claus".
When Albert comments that Susan is more likely to get involved if told not to, Death replies "You may think I've already thought of that, but I could not possibly comment,". This is a direct reference to another of Ian Richardson's characters , Francis Urquhart from the BBC series House of Cards, who often said a similar phrase.
Although not named in the original book or the script, Pratchett decided the toymaker was named Joshua Isme, and his shop was Toys Is Me (a play on Toys R Us). The set dressing for the toyshop included appropriate labels. The toymaker was played by Pratchett himself.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

In March 2006, the production company, impressed by Discworld costumes seen at fan events, announced that fans with appropriate costumes would be offered the opportunity to appear in background scenes. This was announced by a fan on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett, and caused a flurry of negative posts, with some criticising the company for using fans as unpaid extras, and others questioning how much quality control would go into the costumes used. In the wake of this unexpected criticism, the opportunity was withdrawn.

[edit] CGI effects

The CGI for the show was done by Moving Picture Company, one of the largest post production companies in Europe. The firm employs upwards of 450 people and is based in Soho, London.

[edit] DVD release

The official Sky One Hogfather site states "Easter 2007" as the DVD release date.^{[citation needed]} Amazon gives 9 April 2007 as the release date.^[2] The making of the Hogfather is available on itunes as a video podcast.