In the city of Ankh-Morpork, things are going badly for failed wizard Rincewind. Recently expelled from the Unseen University, Rincewind reluctantly accepts an offer to guide hapless tourist Twoflower on a journey across Discworld, unknowingly setting in motion a chain of events that threaten both their safety and the existence of the Disc itself. With Rincewind's arch-enemy, the bloodthirsty Trymon, in hot pursuit, can the inept duo save themselves and Discworld from destruction...?

The Colour of Magic is the latest of Terry Pratchett's works to be transformed into a two-part TV series. This time the story is a combination of Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic books.

As I've previously mentioned in other reviews, I am not the world's greatest lover of Terry Pratchett. I've never managed to get the whole way through one of his Discworld books and I've never understood what all the fuss was about. In my eyes he is another one trick pony - like Douglas Adams - who has managed to keep his head down and, effectively, write the same book over and over again for years hoping that no one will notice.

While this is a pretty impressive production, it's not a scratch on Hogfather, which had many layers and subplots to it. The Colour of Magic is fairly straightforward and rather shallow. Another problem was that for those that haven't read the books, you'll be forgiven for thinking, at first, that David Jason is playing the same character as he played in Hogfather - but before he was banished to work as Death's manservant. It might be some time before you realise it's a totally different character he's playing.

There are two DVD editions available to buy - the single or double disc versions. To be perfectly honest I can't really recommend the two-disc collection as the extras are pretty poor.

One the first disc we get both parts of the story; an introduction with Terry Pratchett (5 min, 25 sec) and a sparse director's commentary. For those purchasing the two disc edition, the second disc contains Discworld Tourist Guides (eight mini Discworld related guides, each averaging around six minutes in length); Deleted Scenes (seven deleted scenes); Blooper Reel (2 min, 44 sec of possibly the most unfunny and uninteresting outtakes you'll ever see); interviews with Terry Pratchett (8 min, 42 sec), David Jason (11 min, 35 sec) and Sean Astin (15 min, 53 sec) and Stills Gallery.

The DVD menu has obviously been designed to run across both the Blu-ray and DVD editions and suffers from that usual problem that the text is so tiny as to only be readable on the largest of TV sets. For example I nearly missed the interviews, and "Discworld Tourist Guides" looked like it said: "Discworld Courage Choices". Why on earth do DVD producers insist on making these menus so unreadable?

Additionally fans of Death will be disappointed to hear that he's not in it very much, but when he does make an appearance it's well worth the wait. And is it me? Or does Tim Curry look more and more like Jeremy Beadle these days?

While this lavish production will appeal to both Pratchett fanatics and those that have never read one of his books, it's still not a patch on Hogfather.

8

Nick Smithson