The Watch: Terry Pratchett adaptation sets its cast

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The “punk rock” drama will start filming at the end of the month…

The Watch, BBC America’s forthcoming adaptation of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, has rounded out its cast.

Deadline confirms that Anna Chancellor and James Fleet will be starring alongside Richard Dormer in the 8-part series. Chancellor will play Lord Vetinari, The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, “and architect of the city’s normalised wrongness and ramshackle system of governance”, and Fleet will be The Archchancellor, “wizard, magical advisor, and the Head of the Unseen University.”

The Watch takes place in Ankh-Morpork, where all crime is legal, and will follow a group of misfit cops “as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.”

Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who), Ruth Madeley (The Rook), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Dynasty) and Bianca Simone Mannie (Homeland) have also joined the cast in supporting roles. Some cast members have been revealed earlier, including Adam Hugill (1917), Jo Eaton-Kent (Don’t Forget The Driver), Marama Corlett (Blood Drive), Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines) and Sam Adewunmi (The Last Tree).

Filming will begin by the end of November in South Africa, with episodes being helmed by Craig Viveiros (And Then There Were None), Brian Kelly (Outlander) and Emma Sullivan (Doctor Who). The series was penned by Simon Allen (Das Boot), Joy Wilkinson (Doctor Who), Catherine Tregenna (Torchwood), Amrou Al-Kadhi (Little America) and Ed Hime (Skins).

We will see the first episodes of The Watch arrive in 2020.