It’s been a long time coming, but Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe has finally hit the screen. Richard Matthews visited the set of Hogfather during filming, intent on finding one of Pratchett’s biggest fans – David Jason…

There’s nothing quite as distinctive as the crunch of teeth underfoot. Walking around the huge sets for Sky’s mini-series adaptation of Terry Prachett’s Discworld book Hogfather you are afforded ample opportunity to grind said pearly whites into the concrete floor: one huge set for the Tooth Fairy’s castle is made up entirely of teeth and its construction has left a huge number of dental orphans scattered all over the lot.

Apparently, it was even worse yesterday. “Everywhere you went there were teeth, and people stopping to pick them up!” guffaws fantasy guru and Hogfather, erm, father, Terry Pratchett. “We’ve still got quite a lot of teeth, so if you want to take a small bag of teeth home with you… An awful lot were made for the Tooth Fairy’s castle.”

Here is a little bit of alternative history for the uninitiated: Hogfather is set in Pratchett’s fantastical, semi-medieval (i.e. there are castles and computers) Discworld, which rides through space on the back of a turtle, supported by four massive elephants. Apparently this concept was around long before Pratchett made it the centre of one of the most beloved literary universes. “The idea has been lying in a lumber room of legend for centuries,” winks the author. “All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off. It’s like a geological pizza but without the anchovies.”

The man charged with taking Pratchett’s page-bound pizza and delivering it to TV audiences on an unprecedented scale is director Vadim Jean. “Hogfather is my joint favourite book of all the series,” smiles the avuncular Jean. “It makes me laugh so much; the whole conceit that Death pretends to be the Hogfather… it’s a universal theme about the nature of human belief.”

And it’s pretty funny to boot. Housed at Three Mills Studio in Bow, East London (the original home of the Big Brother house no less), Hogfather is a massive undertaking for Sky – a High Definition mini-series filled with a massive cast, loads of visual effects and the first live-action adaptation of a beloved series. Pratchett’s fanbase is renowned for its devotion, so the author took a small straw poll just in case.

“Two fans came with us on the set the other week, and they were gobsmacked, ‘This is exactly what we [imagined],’” he grins. “You have to be careful. One reason for my success is the fans, but you have to take into account the readers. There are far more readers than fans – people who liked the books, enjoyed the books, but wouldn’t buy a T-shirt. And then you get the hardcore fans, but those fans, and I’m certainly not dissing them, but they’re a minority of a broader readership, and you have to really aim at the readership. In the case of a movie like this, you’re aiming at people who haven’t actually read the book. It may be a movie, but I also see it as a three hour advert for the book [laughs].”

Chilled to the Bone

The Hogfather, the Discworld version of Santa Claus, resides in the Castle of Bones, which has been meticulously carved out of polystyrene and fibreglass to construct a soaring edifice of bone and ice that certainly captures the distinct tang of Discworld, something that Jean feels is only now possible for the size of budget he has to work with.

“The time is right – the visual effects are now possible,” Jean explains. “What used to take 24 hours, then you sit down and watch it and go, ‘Well, it’s not quite right,’ is now down to two hours/an hour. If you want to cut the costs, then that makes a massive difference.

The technology has made it possible “We’ve been doing things in camera where Hollywood would spend 10 times as much money to achieve something that’s actually not quite as good,” he continues. “We’ve targeted the things that are impossible, and made those the focus of our visual effects, like the collapse of the Castle of Bones, which is 300ft high, and made of ice.”

Having said that, the new technology hasn’t made everything possible. “We decided that there should be a program on all script writing software,” laughs Jean. “As you type, for example: ‘The battle was long and furious,’ the cost of it should come up – ‘£150,000.’ You merrily write, ‘The raven flies through the door,’ and then you realise that’s two hours and it costs that much. When I was writing the adaptation, I was staying true to the book and how I felt it should be done. You only really start to think about how difficult it would be when you start getting into the nuts and bolts. I felt that the humour would always carry the story through, and that was a very important part of it. The dialogue, performances and the characters are so extraordinary and that’s at the core of the piece.”

And that cast is led by Delboy himself, David Jason. “It’s very silly,” chuckles the Knight of the Realm. “I accepted this before I was knighted. I hope the Queen isn’t going to watch because she might take it back!”

When the Hogfather goes AWOL, no less than Death himself decides to take on his mantle and keep the legend alive – taking his assistant Albert along for the ride, played by Jason.

“I start flying with Death as Hogfather, Father Christmas, as you do,” says Jason. “Being his assistant, I shall be flying over the rooftops delivering toys to the poor unfortunate children. I played a couple of scenes with Death the other day that I found very intriguing because you don’t get much back from a skull. There’s no facial expression there, so to get it to work, they have a voice, which is done by Ian Richardson, in a speaker. When you ask him a question, and he replies, a voice comes from over there [points and laughs], so it’s a discipline that you have to just accept.”

It’s clear that everyone involved thinks this is a special project and with Sky prepping a prime Christmas slot for the Hogfather, Jean is pleased with the outcome. “We’re making The Lord of the Rings without a Hollywood studio,” he says. “It’s an absolutely A-class crew and cast from this country – that’s what’s made it possible. Everything has been a complete joy. The cast is amazing, and Terry’s words have made the adaptation very easy because it’s all there to work with.”

Looks like he might get a healthy tip for delivering that pizza after all.

Originally published in Dreamwatch 148, January 2007.