Discworld Monthly - Issue 169: May 2011
Table of Contents:
1. Editorial
2. News
3. Readers' Letters
4. DiscTrivia
5. Article: Discworld Games - Part 3: Discworld 2
6. Competition Results
7. Article: The Casting of Witches
8. The End
1. Editorial
Welcome to issue 169 - another year older but still none the wiser. Yep, it's that time of year again: Discworld Monthly has now been going for 14 years.
There appears to be a sudden spate of people trying to start up new branches of The Broken Drummers - a small group of Discworld fans that meet up monthly. Originally based in London, the Drummers now have two branches in Australia at Perth and Sydney. This month we have ads for a UK branch in York and two more Australian branches in Adelaide and Brisbane. Looks like the Drummers are taking over the world.
The announcement that Terry has filmed a documentary about assisted death that will be shown on TV this summer has sparked a lot of controversy in the press.
In the documentary Terry travels with a man named Peter who has motor neurone disease to Dignitas in Switzerland and stays by his bedside while he dies.
When interviewed Terry said: "I wanted to know more about Dignitas in case I ever wanted to go there myself".
Actor Sir Patrick Stewart (who many will remember as Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek: TNG) has recently added his support to assisted suicide. In a recent interview he said: "I have the strong feeling that, should the time come for me, having had no role in my birth, I would like there to be a choice I might make about how I die."
We will let you know when the documentary will be shown once we find out ourselves.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13088111
Remember Troll Bridge? It was going to be the first live action adaptation of a Discworld short story. The film has been stuck in development hell for a long time. Terry has written new dialogue and helped flesh the story out and the scope of the film is much bigger than originally expected. Now, eight years on, the production team have simply run out of money and are looking for fans to help finance it. The team have set up a KickStarter account where you can pledge a small donation towards the film. If they get enough pledges by July 6th your pledge will be accepted otherwise you will not get charged and the project will fail.
Lord of the Rings fans used this type of system to finance the epic fan film The Hunt for Gollum.
Snowgum films are looking for 45,000 dollars to finish the film. If everyone that subscribes to this newsletter would pledge the price of a pint of beer the film will get made and probably have some money left over.
For more information including some footage of the film so far visit: http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=TROLL169
Don't forget, if you visit a play or a talk and would like to let the world know about it, please feel free to email your review to info@discworldmonthly.co.uk and we will consider it for publication.
If you have written an article that you think we might want to include in the newsletter please feel free to email me at the address below. We will of course give credit for anything we use.
--
Jason Anthony (Editor) info@discworldmonthly.co.uk
William Barnett (Deputy Editor)
Richard Massey (Back to School)
2. News
News from the Discworld Convention: Discworld Convention 2012 launched!
Come one, come all to the Discworld Convention 2012. Next year from the 24th to the 27th August we will be holding the Eighnnnnnnn International Discworld Convention at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham.
Our website is now live and you can sign up immediately! Remember folks, join early and join often.
The short-list for the first Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now award has been announced as:
* Postponing Armageddon, Adele Abbott
* The Platinum Ticket, Dave Beynon
* Half Sick of Shadows, David Logan
* Apocalypse Cow, Michael Logan
* Lun, Andrew Salomon
* The Coven at Callington, Shereen Vedam
Terry will announce the winner at a party to be held on the 31st May.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=LOCUS169
Terry was recently interviewed by Cambridge First about his involvement with Alzheimer's Research UK.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=CHARITY169
Terry was recently interviewed in the Sunday Business Post (Ireland) about his involvement in Trinity College.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=TRINITY169
The Independent newspaper recently included an article titled: The 50 books every child should read. Moving Pictures was the only one of Terry's books to make the list.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=BOOKS169
Last month we reported that Terry had pledged 10,000 GBP towards a reward to help capture the people responsible for a killing spree on swans. Six swans were found shot on the 30th January and another eight on 22nd February.
We also reported that three men were arrested for the crime but sadly due to insufficient evidence nobody was charged with the offence.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SWAN169
The Website Topless Robot have created a list of their most awesome non-human Discworld characters. Any guessing what comes in at NUMBER ONE.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=ROBOT169
It appears that France had a working version of The Clacks back in 1792, created by inventor Claude Chappe. It eventually peaked at 534 stations but was very expensive to run.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=CLACKS169
With thanks to Tim Hicks for the information.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents has been adapted into a stage musical. The adaptation has been written for older primary school children and was premiered to a delighted audience at Church Broughton Primary School (Derbyshire) on the 16th/17th March.
The musical is just over an hour long and includes eight songs and incidental music.
Matthew Holmes writes: "As a bit of a Pratchett fan for many years, I really enjoyed writing the adaptation and working with the school children to stage it - they absolutely loved the story and threw themselves into their roles. I've written for A and C Black for 8 years but this project was the best."
Details of the book can be found on Amazon at:
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?ISBN=1408145634
Local newspaper article about the premiere:
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=TAMAHER169
Discworld Dates...
This section will contain events that you need to keep in your diary. Entries will remain until they go out of date. New entries will include the word [New] next to them. If this section gets too large we will start pruning entries.
[UK and AU, Updated] The Broken Drummers and The Drummers Downunder are groups of fans that meet up monthly in the UK and Australia.
I've been informed that the UK Broken Drummers May meet-up has been moved to the 9th May to avoid clashing with the Wincanton weekend but haven't heard anything from either of the two Australian Drummers so I am assuming they will still be on the first Monday of May. Wincanton probably quite a long drive for Aussie Drummers to get to.
Monday 2nd May 2011 - The Drummers Downunder (Perth) will be meeting from 7pm at The Vic Hotel, 226 Hay St, Subiaco, Australia.
Monday 2nd May 2011 - The Drummers Downunder (Sydney) meet at Maloneys on the corner of Pitt and Goulburn Streets (across the road from World Square), Sydney, Australia at 7pm.
Monday 9th May 2011 - The Broken Drummers meet at The Monkey Puzzle, Paddington, London, W2 1JQ, England at 7pm.
The Drummers are always happy to welcome new visitors.
[AU, New] Nanny Ogg's Cookbook - The Play will be performed for one show only on Sunday 8th May at 2:30pm in Brisbane, Australia.
The show was adapted by Ian Rennie
JHC Goatberger and his overseer Mr. Cropper are in trouble. There's a troll getting heavy about the rent, and the Engravers Guild are cutting up rough about unpaid bills. There's only one slim hope (well, perhaps 'slim' is the wrong word) - call the famous Lancre Witch! No, not the dangerous one.
This is the story behind "Nanny Ogg's Cookbook". It's not just about recipes. It's about treating people right, even when they're not your sort of people. And keeping your kneecaps intact.
Specially prepared for the Australian Discworld Convention in Sydney, this one-act play will be performed only once in Brisbane! Meet the cast for drinks and the Joye of Snacks after the show!
All tickets just 20 AUD! (Includes the Joye of Snacks after the show!) BOOK ONLINE: http://www.artstheatre.com.au P: 3369 2344
[UK, New] The Banbury Cross Players are performing Wyrd Sisters from 18-21 May 2011 at the Mill Arts Centre, Nanbury. Box office 01295 279002. Curtain up is 7.45pm and tickets are 7.50 GBP and 8.50 GBP (no concessions Fri/Sat).
http://www.banburycrossplayers.co.uk/
[NL] The first Dutch Discworld Convention takes place at Hotel NH Atlanta in Rotterdam on 28th - 29th May 2011.
Program items so far are Premiere for the Netherlands of Going Postal, a Banquet buffet, a Masquerade and Workshops.
No news about Guests of Honour yet.
Contact details: http://www.dutchdwcon.nl
For further information contact: info@dutchdwcon.nl
[US] NADWCon2011 planning is under way. The dates of the new con will be July 8-11, 2011, and the location will be the Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor's Club, in Madison, Wisconsin.
http://www.nadwcon.org/
[UK] Following on from last year's great success with Wyrd Sisters, Collingwood RSC will be performing Jingo at The NEW THEATRE ROYAL, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.
The dates you want to know are Tuesday 12 till Friday 15 July 2011. curtain at 19:30. FOUR shows ONLY.
Box Office number 02392 649000. Ticket prices Stall and Dress Circle 12 GBP (concession 10 GBP), Upper Circle 8 GBP (concession 6 GBP).
[US, New] The Historic Mounds Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA will be performing Mort. This will be their first in a hopefully long line of Terry Pratchett productions.
Performances will be July 22 and 23, 29 and 30, and August 5 and 6, 2011.
For more information, please visit: http://www.moundstheatre.org/AmDram.html
[UK] Wadfest X - The Future and Beyond takes place from 19th - 21st August 2011. The event takes place at Trentfield Farm in Church Lanehan, Retford. Wadfest is a family-focused camping event where Discworld fans meet up for a weekend of fun and games from Luggage Wars to Live Pingu. The event includes a talent show and a charity auction where you can get some excellent collectors pieces.
More information at http://www.wadfest.co.uk
[DE] The German Discworld Convention 2011 will take place from 30th September to 3rd October 2011. Assassins will roam the halls of Castle Bilstein but they promise not to harm visitors of the 3rd German Discworld Convention during that time (except when contracted).
Registration has started and about 80 tickets remain.
http://www.scheibenwelt-convention.de
You can let people know that you will be there by visiting us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/ScheibenweltConvention
[IE] Irish Discworld Convention 2011 (IDWCon11)
The second biennial Irish Discworld Convention will take place, once again, in the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon. Taking place from the 4th-7th of November 2011. For those of you who missed it the first time, and if you don't mind us saying so, it was a bit of a bit! If you would like to be there this time membership is now open and information on all sorts is available at our website! Special Guest Professor Sir Terry Pratchett has confirmed his attendance! Now it's your turn!
[UK, New] Studio Theatre Club Abingdon will be performing Snuff from 22nd to 25th February 2012. Tickets will go on sale on 10th October 2011.
http://www.studiotheatreclub.com/CurrentPlans.html
Small Ads...
Please note, DWM has no way of checking the veracity or validity of
any of the items in our small ads section. As always, exercise
caution when giving out your details over the Internet. We
*strongly* recommend parental supervision for younger readers who
follow up any of these contacts.
Chris Morley caution@cautionroadiecrossing.com writes: Over the last few years, I have given my wife a nearly complete set of resin Feegles from PJSM Prints and would dearly love to complete the set for her birthday or Christmas this year. I have diligently been tracking eBay auctions for Rob Anybody and he is nowhere to be found.
If any reader has a good condition Rob Anybody with the box, I will pay a reasonable collector's price.
Please email me with a price and picture of Rob to the address above. We are based in the US.
Jean jean.mead669@btinternet.com writes: Hi, I'm looking to start up a Broken Drummers in the York area. Any takers? Any reasons why not? Has it happened before or fallen foul of numbers or venues or time constraints?
If you want to meet up just for a pint and try out the local pubs in the York area, why not?
I don't care who you are, driver, non-driver, biker, walker, horse rider, we could arrange somewhere!
Please contact me if you are interested.
Leisha Bradshaw leibra@optusnet.com.au writes: I am going to try and gather the masses of fans out there together for a Brisbane fan group. It's a bit daunting, I wonder if anyone will turn up? I was thinking about perhaps having a different name like The Ilumminated Brethren of Ee, but then it occurred to me that no one would find us or know what we were about. Instead we will be Brisbane Broken Drummers.
Get together Sunday, 29 May 2011 at 14:30 Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, Southbank South Bank QLD
There is a facebook page and email: cagedwhale@gmail.com
Danny molokov@gmail.com writes: Attention all Discworld Fans in Adelaide, Australia! Coming out of Nullus Anxietas 3, we are starting up a new fan social group, along the lines of the Broken Drummers.
Our first meeting will be on Thursday, May 5th at Higher Ground, 9 Light Square at 6pm for dinner, migrating across to the Colonel Light Hotel at 8pm. Come along for a chat, drink, and potentially a game or two.
We have also set up an email mailing list at https://groups.google.com/group/adelaide-discworld-fans so please sign up there.
Camilla Brokking lilac.to.ventoux@gmail.com writes: In just a few weeks, on The Glorious 25th of May, I will be cycling up Mont Ventoux in France to raise money for Alzheimer's research. I would be hugely grateful for any help in spreading the word, and naturally, for donations too!
All the information is available through my website, http://www.lilactoventoux.org, and donations can be made at my JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/lilac-to-ventoux
Eve Smith E.D.Smith@ljmu.ac.uk writes: I am currently looking at how Discworld fandom mirrors the cultural economy in our wider society. Many fans collect the various pieces of merchandise that have been available over the years, Clarecraft figurines, stamps etc, or simply posess a single item such as a tee shirt or piece of jewellery. However, there are also fans that seem to collect more unique items, such as original cover artwork, manuscripts and film props.
I would like to find out if these collectors of one-off items represent the breadth of Discworld fandom or whether they represent a specialist group within the wider fandom. I was particularly impressed by the items sold at the auction at last year's convention, such as the Omniscope. If you bought one of these items, or have previously obtained a rare one-off item and would be prepared to answer 11 questions to help me I would be very grateful.
The questionnaire is at http://www.survey.ljmu.ac.uk/dwcollectables
If you have any questions about this you can email me at the address above.
3. Readers' Letters
If you have any letters or comments, please email them to info@discworldmonthly.co.uk
We assume any correspondence is eligible for use in the newsletter unless otherwise stated, including the sender's email address. We may also edit your letters and maybe some of the punctuation too.
It is vitally important that you don't pass off other people's work as your own. If you use information from other resources please let us know so we can give proper credit.
* From: "Julie Cunningham" juliegcunningham@yahoo.co.uk
I sent my husband off to the Post Office as soon as I saw the Magical Realms stamps advertised but he came back with an extra Pratchett treat for me - Magical Realms postcards! I did not know but the Post Office make postcards to accompany the special stamps they create, which are a lovely addition to your Pratchett collection or for just sending to Pratchett fans. I wouldn't want any fans to miss out and I believe they can be purchased on-line at: http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=STAMPS169
* From: "Peter Furness" furnessp@mweb.co.za
I thought it was wise to advise Kelly of the slippery slope she has started on by naming pets after Terry's characters.
We have had two generations of dogs, the first consisting of an Irish wolfhound female cross who was obviously named Angua, the second a terrier/labrador male cross that was named Gaspode.
After 10 years we now have our second generation of three females named Esmeralda Weatherwax (Esme), Gytha Ogg and Magrat (note the spelling) Garlick, much to the consternation of our local vets.
I have a pub at home called the Broken Drum, and my wife serves pub snacks from a tray labelled C.M.O.T.Dibbler, Purveyors of fine food.
My son has a sausage dog called Nak Mak Feegle. So you can see once started it's hard to stop and it is seriously contagious.
We were fortunate that our children were both named before Terry entered our lives, but there are always the grandchildren.
In one of my meetings with Terry I challenged him on the use of my family name in his book Strata, he was his normal witty self and pointed out that the character was DR Furness 6009degC not PG Furness so he thought he had escaped. I then gave him my son's card for D(amion) R(obert) Furness; his riposte was that it was actually Dr Furness, so I gave him the card for my daughter-in-law who has a Phd in Genetics.
With his normal charm and wit he acquiesced and signed a personal note to my son on the page in question, changing the character in his book to Damion Robert Furness 98.4degC. He has it framed in pride of place in his study.
* From: "Anduin" fp@anduin.dk
I know Terry is a very knowledgeable man - the Discworld series are a treasure trove of connotations, citations, allusion ... the lot. But fashion forward??? Who could've known.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=CHAIN169
and we're talking Balmain here - not some Goth speciality or re-enactment stuff.
and this must be micromail:
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=RIHANNA169
I wonder what Pepe would think of Rihanna....
Time for Shatta to open stores on Roundworld it seems.
Also I just stumbled over a book - Pieter de Jode's 'Various Academy Figures Newly Compiled from Life with Enormous Labour and a Great Cost; Most Convenient for Young People who Enjoy the Art of Drawing' from 1629. I just wonder if Leonard of Quirm might have learnt drawing - and naming things - from this? No telling what could have reached him through L-space.
* From: "Denis Kavanagh" beadleguts@yahoo.co.uk
I found this in a book called "Funny Ho Ho and Funny Fantastic" while reading it recently. The book was printed in 1967, but unfortunately they don't give the date of the quote. The story instantly caught my eye, and I ended up re-reading The Last Continent (always a pleasure, never a chore!).
"The Henley-on Todd regatta took place at Alice Springs last Saturday. There was not a drop of water in the river. A crowd of 2,500 lined the banks of the Todd river to watch the crews running as they carried their bottomless yachts and skiffs over the sandy river bed. The head of the river for skiffs and the Australia cup for yachts were won by crews from the Anoonguna aboriginal welfare settlement."
* From: "Ian Jarrett" ianjarrett2010@hotmail.co.uk
Righto, first of all I've got to say that I am a die-hard Pratchett fan and although I seem to be moaning, it is tongue in cheek.
Honestly.
I'm getting sick of Discworld books.
Stop sharpening that pen Mr Pratchett, and please call off that tall bloke with the scythe.
I'm an Oxfam volunteer you see, and just lately we've had a good 300+ Discworld books donated over a small period. I {I was going to say "We" but the fantasy section falls on my shoulders} have been swimming in Discworld books of late and both want the donations to. just. stop. please.
I've put them the online store, eBay, advertised them here, in the shop and, when all else failed, took them to the market myself.
In short, I've done all I can to sell them stopping short of actually stuffing the books into pockets and taking the money off people.
Honestly, most of the time, we do not get much in the way of Discworld books donated. The ratio of customers must usually be 3 to one book.
Now?
Must be 20 books per customer.
Honestly though, I'm not complaining, really I'm not.
It's just that... Well... on top of all that... A neighbour moved out recently... Downsizing from a house to a flat... And has given me for my own {large} collection about 30 Discworld books...
I never, ever thought I'd say this...
But...
I've had enough of Discworld books for now.
Ian J
PS. Just had a new box of donated books in... And more Discworld books are on the top.
* From: "Tamsin"
I'm always amazed by how much research goes in to Terry's books - most of which I don't appreciate until someone writes in to Discworld Monthly pointing out the latest thing they've found. Here's one I came across earlier today, the "Sator Square".
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S
The full phrase "Sator arepo tenet opera rotas" (very rough translation being "the farmer uses his plough") is arranged in to a square, which can then be read in any direction - forward, backward, right side up, upside down and quite possibly inside out too. The earliest appearance of the square was found in the ruins of Pompeii dating back to 79AD and it has popped up on architecture all over the place since then. The square has also had magical properties attributed to it for its palindromic qualities. This article has lots more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square.
DWM replies: Tamsin gets this month's letter of the month.
* From: joshua.sommerman@frontier.com
Taking a moment to peruse a food blog, (yes I am a foodie as well as a Pratchett fan) I came across a substance known in the Kosher world as "Schmaltz".. To quote Wikipedia: "Schmaltz or schmalz is rendered chicken, goose, or pork fat used for frying or as a spread on bread, especially in German and Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine" Although the article goes on to say pork fat is of course not kosher, I wonder if Elephant fat would be, especially since the best fats, suets, tallows, and oils come from the Schmaltzburg deposits. The article then goes on to say, "Schmaltz was derived from the Middle High German 'smalz' 'grease', 'tallow', 'fat'.[3] (That word in turn is from the same root as "melt" and "enamel"). Schmaltz was used as a metonymic occupational name for a chandler.[4]" The whole article can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz
Oh the things that trigger the Discworld fan in me. It never ceases to amaze me the tiny details Sir Terry puts into his craft!
4. DiscTrivia
This month I'll take three random quotes from Stephen Briggs' The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld and ask you to name which book they came from.
The answers as usual can be found at the end of this issue.
5. Article: Discworld Games - Part 3: Discworld 2
Written by Jason Anthony.
In this series of articles I am looking at the various Discworld games (either computer or physical) that have been developed over the years. This month I am looking at Pygnosis' Discworld 2 game.
The game was subtitled "Mortality Bytes" in the US and "Missing presumed...!?" in the UK. It was released in 1996 by Perfect Entertainment and then ported to the Playstation and Sega Saturn in 1997.
Discworld 2 was released only a year after Discworld 1 but that year made a huge difference in the quality of the graphics and sound. Windows 95 had started taking over from Windows 3.11 and this meant that games needed to be more Windows friendly.
Discworld 2 was released in DOS and Windows versions - neither work well on modern hardware and operating systems natively.
Once more ScummVM comes to the rescue (Discworld 2 uses the same Tinsel engine that Discworld 1 used). The process of getting it working with ScummVm was slightly more involved because the game came on two CDs. If you just try to copying the contents of both CDs onto a folder on your hard drive you will find that some of the file have the same name and disc two will overwrite disc one. The solution, thanks to the ScummVM forums, was to:
Rename ENGLISH.SMP on CD1 to ENGLISH1.SMP Rename ENGLISH.TXT on CD1 to ENGLISH1.TXT Rename ENGLISH.IDX on CD1 to ENGLISH1.IDX Rename ENGLISH.SMP on CD2 to ENGLISH2.SMP Rename ENGLISH.TXT on CD2 to ENGLISH2.TXT Rename ENGLISH.IDX on CD2 to ENGLISH2.IDX
The game then fired up without incident. The first thing you notice is that the games runs at about twice the graphics resolution of the previous game, which you'll remember I had to run at 3x its normal resolution to stop it looking like a postage stamp on a big screen. The style of the graphics is much more cartoon like. The opening sequence with Death looks quite like the Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music animations which came out around the same time.
The game starts with Windle Poons dying but Death not turning up (it appears to be loosely based on Reaper Man). As Rincewind you are tasked with collecting the ingredients required to perform the Rite of AshkEnte.
There are a lot of jokes in the game, some of which are self referential. In a moment of peril in the opening sequence Rincewind mentions he can't be killed as it's only the start of the game. After a large explosion he goes on to mention the special effects budget has improved.
The good news is that the game looks and sounds a lot better than the previous one but once you get past the bling you still have the same type of frustrating puzzles to resolve. Some are relatively simple but others require quite a lot of effort (making you use one object on another and then using the resultant object on another for example). It all gets quite tedious.
With walkthrough in hand I managed to complete the first act in around an hour. Before that and without the walkthrough I bumbled around aimlessly for a long time trying to use every combination of object against every other object. You can spend quite a lot of time talking to all the characters in the game. If you have a few hours to spare and can put up with the tedious puzzles some of the jokes are quite good.
Oh, and if you want to get the ladder you need to right click on Granny Weatherwax before you speak to Cassenunder. That took me ages to work out even with a walkthrough.
Next time I'll try to see if I can get Discworld Noir to work. This time however without the help of ScummVM as Noir uses a different game engine that ScummVM doesn't support.
6. Competition.
Last month we gave you the opportunity to try to win a set of enamelled badges from our friends at PJSMPrints. The five badges feature: Death, Rincewind and Luggage, Terry, Lord Vetinari and The Librarian.
We asked you to answer the following question:
The answer we were looking for was 3.50 GBP. Not 1 GBP which is the price of the button badges on the same web page. We received 143 correct entries and 12 incorrect entries.
The first name randomly drawn out of the electronic hat is Stephen Brown of Belfast. Well done Stephen. I'll pass on your details to PJSMPrints who will get your prize off to you as soon as possible (I think they may still be in Australia at the moment).
For more information about PJSMPrints' products visit:
http://www.pjsmprints.com/badges/
7. Article: The Casting of Witches
By Nanny Oggy (nannyoggy@ymail.com)
Welcome once again to the Casting Studio! Many MANY thanks to all of you who took the time to email me (and Greebo! He cast his gimlet eye over the replies and was utterly disgusted to find only ONE of you even mentioned him! LOL) with your votes and suggestions. I hope I responded to everyone, and that you didn't mind getting responses! The results of your votes are as follows for the 'Casting of Witches' (many thanks to Trisha in Texas for that idea):
Granny:
Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Helen Mirren equal first place with 8 votes each, and 1 vote each for Annette Crosbie and Meryl Streep.
Nanny:
Dawn French and Miriam Margoyles joint top with 9 votes each and in 2nd place Patricia Routledge got 1 vote.
Agnes:
Ruth Jones had a massive 11 votes, with the 'Unknown Actress' getting 2!
Magrat:
Joanna Page in first with 7 votes, 3 votes for Alison Hannigan, and finally - Jane Horrocks, and the Unknown Actress in joint 3rd with one vote each (it seems that beyond the main 2 witches there was some more trouble in picking someone! Maybe like the casting of Dr. Hank McCoy in X Men... 'the availability of tall blue furry men wasn't exactly vast!' - Maybe the availability of wet hens isn't either!!)
Tiffany:
Dakota Fanning got 5 votes, the Unknown Actress 3 and Dakota Blue
Richards 1 vote.
I was however very interested in your suggestions... some I totally agree with and it's why I trawl the IMDb site frequently and bounce ideas off my other fellow TP fans!!
Suggestions:
GRANNY:
Sheila Hancock
Emma Thompson
Vanessa Redgrave
Sue Johnston
Eileen Atkins
Haydn Gwynn
Janet McTeer
Geraldine McEwan
Harriet Walters
Lindsay Duncan
June Brown (Dot Branning from Eastenders)
NANNY:
Pam Ferris
Caroline Quentin
Pauline Quirke
Annette Badland (Alien PM in Dr. Who)
Kathy Najimy
Bette Midler
Kathy Bates
Julie Walters
MAGRAT:
Claire Skinner (mother from Outnumbered)
Julia Sawalha
Renee Zellweger
Jemma Redgrave
Sally Phillips (Jam and Jerusalem)
Cameron Diaz
Gwynneth Paltrow
Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice)
Carla Gallo (Daisy Wick in Bones)
Emma chambers
Tamsin Greig
Sheridan Smith
Lydia Leonard (Victoria in 39 Steps)
Morven Christie
AGNES:
Katy Nix (Daisy, Not Going Out)
Adele
Kathy Najimy
Miranda A Hart
Measha Bruggergosman (Canadian Opera Singer)
Liz Franklin Kitchen (another opera singer)
TIFFANY:
Bonnie Wright (aka Ginny Weaseley)
Karen Gillan (Amy Pond in Dr. Who)
Kaya Scodelario (Skins)
Abigail Breslin (Olive, 'Little Miss Sunshine')
Feel free to contact me to discuss these further, I have enjoyed the discussions!! And be sure to vote on the 2nd article in the series... Mustering of the City Watch. I must email Holy Wood now to let them know that the populace has spoken!!
Next month we will discuss "Mustering of the City Watch".
8. The End
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