Richard Dormer Cast As Lead In BBC America ‘Discworld’ Series ‘The Watch’
BBC America has found the leader of ‘The Watch‘ as ‘Fortitude’ & ‘Game Of Thrones’ star Richard Dormer takes the top job in the series based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.
Set in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork, where crime has been legalised, ‘The Watch’ is a uniquely anarchic drama. The series centres on a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. The Watch is an inclusive genre-bending series inspired by the legendary ‘City Watch’ subset of Sir Terry Pratchett’s bestselling “Discworld” novels and its many iconic characters.
Richard Dormer stars as Sam Vimes, Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing. Dormer you will know from his roles in ‘Game Of Thrones’ as Beric Dondarrion, ‘Fortitude’ as Dan Anderssen, and can next be seen in Sky’s upcoming drama ‘Cobra’.
“I’m so thrilled to be part of this brilliant madness and mayhem!” commented Dormer. “I was immediately drawn to the multitude of layers to Sam Vimes, and I find the dynamic between him and his band of disenfranchised comrades very compelling.”
That “band of disenfranchised comrades” includes Jo Eaton-Kent (‘Don’t Forget The Driver’) as Constable Cheery, the ingenious non-binary forensics expert, ostracised by their kin and finding a new home and identity; Adam Hugill (‘1917’) as Constable Carrot, the idealistic new recruit, raised by dwarfs, but really a human abandoned at birth; And Marama Corlette (‘Blood Drive’) plays the mysterious Corporal Angua who is tasked with Carrot’s training and keeping the rookie alive.
Also cast are Lara Rossi (‘Crossing Lines’) who plays the formidable Lady Sybil Ramkin, last scion of Ankh-Morpork’s nobility, who’s trying to fix the city’s wrongs with her chaotic vigilantism, and Sam Adewunmi (‘The Last Tree’) as the wounded and wronged Carcer Dun, out to hijack destiny itself, take control of the city and exact a terrible revenge on an unjust reality.
Produced for BBC AMERICA by BBC Studios and Narrativia, the show’s lead writer is Simon Allen (‘The Musketeers’). Joining Allen as writers on the series are Joy Wilkinson (‘Doctor Who’), Catherine Tregenna (‘Torchwood’), Amrou Al-Khadi (‘Little America’) and Ed Hime (‘Skins’). Craig Viveiros (‘Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None’) is set to direct.
“Sir Terry Pratchett is in the bloodstream of popular culture,” adds Lead writer and executive producer, Simon Allen. “He has a distinctly British kind of literary heart and humour, but his ideas are defiantly human and universal. It’s been such a privilege to work with our world-class director, producers and writers on building a television show that honours his legacy while striking out on its own in his name and spirit. Like the man whose genius inspired it, The Watch is a hopeful show that believes it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. I can’t wait for everybody to see our joyously brilliant cast light candles and, of course, flamethrowers.”
‘The Watch‘ Season 1, comprised of eight episodes, begins filming in Cape Town, South Africa in September. No news yet on when or where the series will land in the UK, but it will come to BBC America in 2020.
