Highlights from the Ineffable Con 2 panel with Neil Gaiman, Douglas Mackinnon and Rob Wilkins!
On the props they took with them: Rob has the iconic Devon watch??? He also has the statue at St. Beryl’s. Neil has a chair from the bookshop set (which he had to purchase from the BBC). Douglas has the playing cards that were featured in the baby swap scenes.
Neil's and Rob’s favorite bit that was added to the TV show from the book was the entire cold open. "Watching their relationship grow, everything felt rooted in the book, but it also felt like it was its own thing." For Douglas, it was David Arnold’s music!
Rob apparently had a cameo somewhere in the cold open??
Neil on the Bastille scene: "Did [Aziraphale] have any conception of the mess he was in? Probably not." Neil doesn't think Aziraphale did it on purpose so that Crowley would rescue him. He really just wanted crepes. "But the moment of joy when Aziraphale realizes he's been rescued is one of my favorite things."
Neil called the fans a “yoghurt starter.” "You put it into your warm milk and the whole thing starts to go off then it all turns into yoghurt."
Douglas read the script before he read the book (same as David Tennant). Michael Sheen was already a book fan long before!
Neil makes up weird little stories about the characters for himself. He puts in little details and Easter eggs that he thinks only he will notice (but people on Tumblr and Twitter notice and ask him about it lmao)
Neil wrote the script thinking Michael Sheen would be Crowley. Then when he was writing the Blitz scene he realized he wanted it to be David Tennant dancing down the aisle of the church, and that he wanted Michael to be Aziraphale instead. "I know Michael, and I know how much of him is Aziraphale... I wanted him to play someone that was Michael's inner goodness coming straight out."
According to Douglas, normally, for the screening that’s held for the cast and crew, only about 30 people show up, and they only stay to watch the episodes they worked on. But 300 people showed up to the GO screening for the cast and crew and they stayed for all 6 episodes.
Neil's favorite part of making the show: "The thing I loved most was the love."
Neil simply texted Nick Offerman and asked him if he wanted to play the role of the American ambassador. Jon Hamm's favorite book when he was a kid was Good Omens! Then Neil had dinner with Frances McDormand, and "by the end of the conversation, Frances was going to be God."
Neil on the budget constraints: "I was not put on this earth to fight budget battles. I was put here to create things... All the cold open would have gone. The death of Agnes Nutter would have gone." (And it was Sir Terry who wrote that bit in the book!) The fandom lost the other four horsemen to budget constraints, too.
Neil, on Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship: "There are definitely people out there that seem to think I accidentally wrote a love story. With all the beats of a love story and a breakup halfway through... There are just some things you do when you're writing a script that you do intentionally. When people accuse [Aziraphale and Crowley] of being a couple, they don't deny it. They don't argue. There's no flustering on their part. Other people in the story perceive them as a couple too."
Douglas, on the same topic: "I've been directing for quite a while. I tend to notice when the characters are falling in love... Everything is meant."
POSSIBILITY OF A SEASON TWO? "Season two? Of what?” NEIL, WHY ARE YOU TEASING US LIKE THIS. “All we have to do is hint that we're ready to do season two, and the old gang is just sitting around the kitchen table going, 'When do we start?'"
