Who else is still mad for Good Omens? Between watching it a few dozen times, trawling articles online and reading my TV companion, I've got a bunch of new weird and wonderful facts and easter eggs in this series.
Kickass Queen of England
This is perhaps my favourite little easter eggs. I'm sure when we were watching Good Omens we were all asking the same thing. What was the Young family watching on TV when Adam decides to head off for an early night? We simply HAVE to know.
Well, thank goodness for Neil Gaiman has he posted the script to his Twitter. And I've never laughed so hard in my life. If you want to follow along in the episode, the scene starts around 49'55.
https://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/1147216494914396162
They almost didn't get rights to Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen music is a running gag in Good Omens, the joke being any cassette that spends too long in a car will turn into Queen's Greatest Hits, no matter what it started out as.
It makes Queen, particularly Bohemian Rhapsody, Director of Good Omens, Douglas Mackinnon, actually considered dropping the whole series before it had even begun if they couldn't get the rights to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
There was a period last summer, where at the beginning of the summer, when we were in post-production, where Queen was going, ‘Yeah, you can have some of the songs, but certainly not “Bohemian Rhapsody,” because the film is going to come out and we want to keep the timeline clear. How ‘Good Omens’ Was Able to Get the Rights to Queen’s Music – Including ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Foruntuletly for all of us, with a full seven months between Good Omens and Bohemian Rhapsody. Rami Malek rocks his role as the incomparable Freddy Mercury in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
Terry Pratchett's Hat
Terry Pratchett's hat has become iconic of the author himself. Every Pratchett fan knew to look out for this one and we find it pretty easily in Aziraphale's coat stand.
However, that hasn't been the only appearance of Pratchett's hat.
During the Leicester Square Odeon premiere, Pratchett's hat, scarf and a large bag of popcorn was given its own seat so he could be there in spirit.
https://twitter.com/dwmoook/status/1133427102139715585
Soul Music
In the cafeteria scene between Crowley and Shadwell, the demon is holding a copy of the Infernal Times with the headline "Soul Music: Catalogue your collection of Souls?"
This is a reference to the novel's depiction of Crowley as a man with an expansive collection of Soul Music (all alphabetically organised):
He was very proud of his collection. It had taken him ages to put together. This was real Soul music. James Brown wasn't in it. Good Omens
Also, Soul Music is one of the Discworld novels which might be a little nod to Pratchett. Is that a bit of a stretch? Maybe, but what the hell, I'm loving it.
Doctor Who!
There are a lot of Doctor Who easter eggs in Good Omens, unsurprisingly. Apart from the fact that David Tennant seems to magically attract them like a Timelord magnet, Neil Gaiman himself is also a Whovian, having written one of the best episodes in its history, The Doctor's Wife.
Okay we're going to run through these fast. Apart from the rather on the nose "EXTERMINATE" Pepper says in answer to why aliens would come to earth, we also have:
Newt's tie.
The Young's car licence plate is SIDRAT which is TARDIS backwards.
Aone I totally admit I missed and only saw on Polygon - one of the astrological new home opinions Crowley considers is Gallifrey, the Doctor's home planet.
Neil Gaiman Cameos
Neil Gaiman has two cameos in Good Omens. And funnily enough, both in the same scene. After being basically dumped by Aziraphale and outed by the angels, Crowley hides from his fellow demons in an empty cinema watching a cartoon.
Well, an almost empty cinema. Just visible in the seats is one other patron - the back of Neil Gaiman's head.
On the screen, Hestur takes over one of the rabbits to threaten Crowley and, would you have guessed it, while Ned Dennehy plays Hestur for all of his 'human' moments, it's Gaimen who voices him in this cartoon form.
Outside of the series itself, who can forget Gaimen's most hilarious cameo during this teaser for the series; the song Brand New Baby Smell sung by the Chattering Order of St. Beryls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boz7rHYLj6s
David Tennant got bitten!
I have to thoroughly recommend the Good Omens TV companion, even though I don't usually read them. It's frankly beautiful, has so much to read.
In the interview with the kids who played The Them, Sam Taylor Buck who plays Adam talks about Ollie the dog, the dog who plays the hell-hound.
"Ollie is the one that bit David Tennant," he declares, and gleefully lords over the awkward silence that follows.
Now apparently I'm the only one who missed this! But yes, apparently Tennant got bitten by the anti-Christ's dog on set. I can only really see articles in The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Evening Standard - none of which I'm going to link to on principle, but they describe it from a nip, a bite to Tennant "being attacked."The TV companion makes it clear it was all pretty inconsequential.
And that's it for now!
Let me know if you've seen any more easter eggs! I'm now were near through with Good Omens and I'll be writing more about it in future.