oh. my. heavens. or: charles xavier, rupert giles, saruman, & sherlock all in one play? YES PLEASE

[luninosity]

No, now THIS is the most awesome thing ever:

The cast list for the radio adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere has been released. You guys. YOU GUYS. I CANNOT EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT ENOUGH. Here, join me in jumping up and down:

Comments

[euruaina]

I.. have surprisingly seen every one of them in at least one thing.

Huh.

Granted, I had to look a few of them up, but I know them all!
Sounds like it's gonna be fun.

I, uh, haven't actually read Neverwhere. Or almost anything else by Neil Gaiman, other than Good Omens (which I loved, by the bye). I need to change this.

I did very much enjoy the Doctor Who episode he wrote, however...

[luninosity]

It's going to be AMAZING! *excited expressions everywhere*

As I think I said elsewhere: it's not his best book in terms of, oh, epic scale and such, but I have a soft spot for it because it's just a straight-up darn good story, with a reluctant hero, a lot of brilliant weirdness involving London Underground (oh I miss London again), and a very earnest investigation of what it means to be a hero in the end. (I LOVE Good Omens, but it's definitely a mixture of both their styles! Of course, Gaiman tends to write every new book in a different style, so... Stardust is very Victorian-fairy-tale, very Lord Dunsany; American Gods is sparse and eloquent and I liked it better on second reading than on first, the Sandman series is intricate and vast...)

I love that episode! "Sexy," indeed. :-p

[puckrobin]

The Marquis de Carabas character (played in this version by Friar Tuck, or David Harewood as the opening credits to Robin Hood and Homeland actually call him) was somewhat based on the Doctor, specifically Gaiman's memories of the darker sides of Troughton's Doctor.

[luninosity]

He was a fantastic Friar Tuck. (Haven't actually seen Homeland, even though I probably should.) I did not know that, about the Doctor reference, but it makes a lot of sense! And now I will watch Gaiman's Doctor Who episodes differently. I can't wait to see how this one comes out; from his blog post, evidently he gave Matt Smith an interesting time with the dialogue...

[puckrobin]

It wasn't the first time in recent memory where the black sidekick had far, far more charisma than the Robin Hood. Harewood was one of the few good things in that show. (The main good thing, of course, is starring in the Hobbit.)

I've actually been watching Doctor Who in order from the beginning (although with the first two Doctors, this often means listening to the audio recordings and watching a handful of blurry off-air photos as the BBC had a habit of junking their old TV shows) and I've just hit the run of episodes that Gaiman grew up on.

The monsters are more memorable than the stories, but the 2nd Doctor played by Patrick Troughton (also TV's first Robin Hood) is absolutely superb.

[luninosity]

It wasn't the first time in recent memory where the black sidekick had far, far more charisma than the Robin Hood. *laughs* On the other hand, though, I did like Cary Elwes...

The loss of the oldest Doctor Who episodes is tragic, really. That's history, right there--though I suppose it wasn't then. At some point Awesome Husband and I want to do a full Who-watch, too, but that's going to take a lot of time.

What is it about the Doctors and Robin Hood, I wonder? The outlaw mentality...? Has the TARDIS ever gone to Sherwood Forest?

[garrideb]

Oh, I didn't know this! That's really interesting about the Doctor influencing the character of The Marquis, because I remember when they were casting for the eleventh Doctor, Paterson Joseph (who played The Marquis in the miniseries) was at the top of the list for a bit.