Good Omens: will gods smile on TV adaptation of famous book? All the early signs look like they will

“The lovely thing about Good Omens,” says Neil Gaiman, “is that it’s the most apocalyptic story where you actually get to avoid an apocalypse. We get to have our apocalyptic cake and not eat it too.”

It’s this sort of irreverence that characterises Gaiman’s 1990 end of the world fantasy novel, co-written with the late, great Terry Pratchett, and – you can bet – will take centre stage in the forthcoming Amazon/BBC TV series.

The story focuses on the angel Aziraphale (played by Michael Sheen) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant), Earth-bound representatives from their respective domains of Heaven and Hell who have become friends over the Millennia. What’s more they’ve come to rather like our planet, and so must set out to stop the incoming Antichrist, an 11 year-old boy, from ushering in the End Times.

It’s the oddest of odd couple stories, you might say. On the one hand, there is Crowley who rather enjoys the Earthly pleasures available to him, says Tennant. “He’s a bit more of the moment he’s in than Aziraphale, who doesn’t change down the Millennia so much.” Sheen, meanwhile, sees Aziraphale as a purely beatific being. “He just loves Crowley. Maybe even he’s in love with him … who knows?!”

Either way, Sheen and Tennant sit atop an enormous cast and a sizeable budget to bring this beloved Gaiman-Pratchett world alive. Just a taster of those involved: Benedict Cumberbatch and Frances McDormand voice Satan and God, respectively. Mad Men’s Jon Hamm pitches up as the Archangel Gabriel while League of Gentleman comedian Reece Shearsmith plays William Shakespeare. The list goes on.