I wanna talk about Lesley the Delivery Man today and y'all are my victims :D
He's a small character, but I think he's a very good example of how the Cold War themes of the book were adapted and changed in the show. The two narratives, book and show, almost completely overlap. Almost but not completely, and I am going to nitpick the hell out of it because Yes. Let's go.
The Delivery Man in the Book
The International Express Delivery Man doesn't have a name in the book. He's always, exclusively defined by his role. Here's a concept art for the show, based on the book:
His missus Maud, on the other hand, is named in the book (the spoon and fork line in the show is a direct quote).
This mention of his wife is about the one distinctive quality our Delivery Man gets. In any other regard, he lacks an individual character. He's short and he wears glasses. He loves his job and his wife. He distrusts foreign weather. His opinions are usually rather generic, and he's completely unflappable in front of the weirdness he experiences: he's just one Delivery Man, doing his job.
It's been told Newt is the Perfect Average Man, a perfectly generic Clark Kent. And yet Newt is also completely unique in his straightforward, awkward way. The Delivery Man on the other hand is almost faceless. Much like everyone else in the book, he does his job. The fact that his job is to call forward the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is completely incidental.
And this is a perfect character for a WWII/Cold War allegory: a time when some of the greatest atrocities in modern Western history were caused by people "just doing their jobs".
The Delivery Man acts as a mirror for Crowley, or rather a version of Crowley who kept "doing his job" long enough to actually see humanity destroyed.
The International Delivery Man remains complacent whereas Crowley doesn't.
Yes, I admit the comparison is unfair, because Crowley has an idea about what's happening and the Delivery Man doesn't. But that's actually part of the point: that the Delivery Man didn't ask why he had to deliver weird packages in strange locations, and went so far as to die. Just to do his job.
Everyone is just doing their jobs. The banality of evil, they call it. And what's more banal than a delivery man in his blue uniform, and what's more evil than the Four Horsepeople?
(Note: I think both book and show make a distinction between Hell and Heaven's brand of Good and Evil, and good and evil as humans intend them. The Horsepeople aren't Evil as in Hell Aligned; they are more neutral Earth forces. But they are evil in the sense that they are actively malicious incarnations of humanity's great atavistic fears).
Complacency and obedience will end in disaster. Taking responsibility in your actions, actually seeing the damage you are causing, and working to prevent it, are necessary actions to save the world.
So, that's for the book. Let's talk about...
Lesley the Delivery Man in the show
When adapting this character, the TV show had to choose if they wanted to keep the relative anonymity of the Delivery Man, or if they want to build upon him. They chose the latter, and so Lesley was born. He's still a White British Generic Delivery Man, but now he has a name, we get to see his home, and we get to see his relationship with Maud in more details (and they are freaking adorable).
This small change shifts his character, I believe.
Here's Lesley. Dressed in tan colours, with a white van with wings on it. Almost obsessively loyal to the company. This line to me feels not just like a man who loves his job, but a man who genuinely believes in his job:
Ours is not to reason why. Ours is to deliver packages.
Lesley doesn't question his orders, he accepts them because it's his mission to accept them.
And meanwhile his wife, dressed in red (I think? Pink perhaps?), asks him questions. Who is the delivery for? Why a delivery on a Saturday? Come back to bed, Lesley. Stay home.
In the book, there was no one questioning Lesley. Now, the woman he loves actively questions him, asks him to stay. She's the only one who calls him by his name.
It's not about a faceless cog in the machine following orders, it's now about this single character ignoring questions and doubts to follow his duty. It's his individual desires (staying at home with his beloved Maud) fighting against the need to follow the company line.
Love against Obedience, Freedom against Law (or, at least, company policy). One of the main themes for Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship in the show. Lesley is now a clear mirror for Aziraphale, while Maud mirrors Crowley's questioning nature (she even has a cutesy nickname for her husband!).
Unfortunately, Maud's questions aren't enough, and there's no doubt in Lesley. He's faithful to the company and he will make these deliveries, and then he'll come home to Maud. It's not that he doesn't love Maud, he clearly does. But it's his job, and he believes in his job.
And unknowingly, he becomes an instrument of the End Times. He follows the company line because he truly, genuinely believes in it, and at the end of it he finds Death.
It's almost the same as in the book, but I think that in the show it's less about complacency to orders, and more about mindless beliefs trampling everything else, be it your loved ones or the entire world.
The conclusion is however very much the same: the need to be free, to question, to rebel, to challenge paradigms and do what you think is right. But the way we get there is just slightly different.
So basically, to sum my thoughts up into something coherent:
I think in the book the Delivery Man was an example of complacency in a job that leads up to War, and he is a dark mirror to Crowley and Aziraphale (but especially Crowley in the text), who actively stop being complacent in their jobs because they don't want the War.
In the show, Lesley the Delivery Man is a dark mirror to Aziraphale, choosing duty/faith over love, an action that kills him and condemns his beloved to destruction. Maud, originally only name dropped, now has Crowley's role as the Questioner and Temptress, but she unfortunately fails.
The Delivery Man is a simple way to spot what changes from page to screen. Both storylines follow the same main plot points and reach the same conclusion about free will, but with some subtle differences in execution.
The costume department people knew what they were doing and I want them to know that I love them.
I will stop rambling now because the more I look at this the more I fear I am spouting bullshit ok bye