David and Michael in the interview with Ali Plumb for BBC Radio 1, 10th July 2023
I compared it with it's podcast version and there are some bits that are cut out in the video 👀 but I added them into the transcript ❤ 🐍😊 .
AP: If you're thinking I'm the kind of guy that rocks up to a Good Omens interview with...
Michael: With the book.
David: Oh, well done.
Michael: We'd be correct.
AP: Yeah.
[GOS2 Promo]
AP: So after such a successful and well received first series, what gives you guys?
David: Why risk it?
AP: Why risk it.
Michael: What gives you the right?!
AP: What gives you the cojones to do another one?
Michael: I know.
AP: How dare you?
Michael: It's terrible. When I wrote it.... Well, no, I mean, that's the thing, really, I mean, it's Neil and Terry's baby. And we'd always known that they'd gone beyond the world of the first book. In fact, there's stuff that's not in the first book, in the first series. So Gabriel is a character, you know, who's not there. So we'd always known that there was a lot more.
David: The ideas, the threads.
Michael: Exactly. And they even had a name for a sequel. 668: The Neighbour of the Beast. Which is hilarious.
[A cut out part that is not in the video, but you can listen to in the podcast version of it:
AP: Just take, write the joke and then work it out later.
Michael: The best Good Omens joke isn't even in the Good Omens book.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And so we knew there was all that. So I think given that, that gave certainly us the confidence to know that we were in, you know, safe hands.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And I think gave Neil the sense that it was worth exploring, going further, because I think without that, he would never have done it. If he didn't feel that Terry was part of that ride as well, then I don't think he would have gone on it.
]
AP: At the risk of reading from the scripture, this is what's in the hardback copy of Good Omens: 'Why isn't there a sequel? Neil: Well, we know how the sequel goes. We played around with the idea whilst we were on tour. We even discussed a few scenes, but we could never quite work up the enthusiasm. It'd have been fun. We'd split the cash. But we both had other things to do'.
Michael: Yes. It's very much how we felt, isn't it? We'll split the cash.
David: Yeah.
AP: And run.
Michael: You know, and if we got nothing else on.
David: Well, yeah.
Ap: And you kind of enjoy each other's company?
Michael: I mean, enjoy is a strong word.
David: We're very good at faking it.
AP: Actors. I love it.
David: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Michael: Yeah, exactly.
AP: When, outside of a show's context or the film's context, have you felt physically, visually the silliest? Because I think in this show there have to be moments. Green screen, full orange wig hair, that you go, no one take a photo of me right now.
David: The opening scene of Season Two is set in space and we're dressed as sort of old fashioned-
Michael: That makes it sound like sort of an episode of Blakes 7 or something, it's not Sci-Fi space, is it?
David: There's nothing wrong with that.
Michael: No, there's nothing... I mean I love it.
David: Jesus,
AP: Are you stepping up saying Sci-Fi's rubbish at this-
Michael: No, no, no! Of course not! No. But what I'm saying is-
David: I don't know who this is
Michael: David is making it sound like it's like Aziraphale and Crowley are in a rocket ship.
David: It is set in space!
Michael: Well, yeah.
David: First series set in space! You can't... it's just factual.
Michael: But not like space 1999.
David: Just space.
AP: It's pure, undiluted space.
David: It's set in space. In fact, it is undiluted space. And for that, we were dressed as a traditional angel in a sort of nighties...
Michael: Yes, we weren't in silver spandex.
David: We were in nighties.
Michael: We were.
David: And we were strapped to make this floating in space - and they didn't have this on Blakes 7 - we were strapped onto these gurneys and moved up and down.
[hehe bonus pic :)]
Michael: I had a jetpack.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
David: I mean, it looks beautiful. The finished, the finished piece.
Michael: It was very odd, wasn't it? Yes. We were both sort of just like.
David: Yes.
Michael: Hovering around each other.
David: And it was, it was ignoble. Some of the being strapped in and out.
Michael: It was. Yeah.
]
AP: At least it's not Jon Hamming into a room... full Hamm.
[GOS2 Promo]
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
David: The naked Hamm? The naked Hamm was... yeah. He seemed pretty...
Michael: He seemed very relaxed.
AP: He insisted on spending more scenes in that costume.
]
Michael: That was never in the script.
David: No, he just turned up on set.
Michael: That's how he showed up.
David: I had an idea, guys!
Michael: Yes. No, there's lots to look forward to.
AP bursts out laughing: Sorry.
Michael: And lots to look back on.
AP: This second series, having a little bit more wiggle room in terms of where you might be able to take the characters, I think it's fair enough to say. Do you feel more active input.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
AP: Into where they might go? Because to me, they strike as having a very strong Woody and Buzz factor of...
David: Right.
AP: Bear with me here. You're both not very good at your jobs.
David: How dare you?
AP: It's true. One's no angel. One's far from evil.
David: That's true.
AP: And you kind of are fudging it constantly.
]
AP: Do you feel you have more room to kind of fudge here and fudge there and really muck about with the characters now?
Michael: I mean, I every day when we start, I like to first of all say, Neil, I've got no interest in hearing what you're going to say. This is what I think should happen.
David: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, the thing is, when you've got Neil Gaiman writing it-
David: Yeah.
Michael: -you should have just go, off you go, mate.
David: The last thing you want to do is start putting in your ideas. You don't want to limit anything that's going to come out.
Michael: It's like brain. It's like when Ringo says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
AP: Yesterday, I have notes.
Michael: Listen, listen to what I've come up with.
AP: There's too much guitar in this.
David: Yeah.
AP: More drums.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. I think one of the things about Neil that is so wonderful is that he is so open and generous with ideas,
David: Yes.
Michael: and he's so not precious about what he's written. He is very respectful of what he and Terry created and is probably a bigger fan than any other fan, but he's not precious about it and he's very open to collaboration. In fact, he's probably the most collaborative
David: Yes.
Michael: I'd ever come across in my life.
David: Yes, absolutely.
Michael: So he loves watching what other people bring to the table, not just actors, but, you know, designers, everyone. And then I think he takes from that and is influenced by that. So it's very collaborative in that sense.
David: Yes. But if we influenced where the characters went in season two, it was sort of circumstantially.
AP: Right.
Michael: Yeah.
David: It was sort of by the act of what happened during season one and getting to know Neil and getting to know each other. But the great joy for us is turning up to these wonderful scripts and going, oh, I get to take this character here now. What a lark.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
Michael: I mean, I wrote some very stern emails to him.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Which I was glad to see that he totally ignored.
AP: Screen time for me.
Michael: Yes, exactly.
AP: I like to think the 'I was right, or rather, you were right and I was wrong' dance was organic in the moment, not in the script. And could you give us a quick how might I recreate that beautiful...
David: Absolutely not. No. I worked with the choreographer for some days.
Michael: It's true.
David: Yeah.
Michael: It's true. And am I right in saying that... I wonder if this exists? But when we were filming it, didn't I, on the last take, I made you do it once with you thinking that you were doing it for real, but actually it wasn't for real. It was just so I could do.
David: It was so you could have-
Michael: So I could Strictly Come Dancing [british dance contest]-
David: Exactly that. Does it exist? I think it does exist.
Michael: It must have actually built... I had cards made with scores on them and David, God bless him, came in and did the whole thing again, thinking that he was doing it for the filming. And in fact, it was literally just so at the end I could go, 'SEVEEEEEEN'! [It was filmed, hehe, see here :)]
David: Yeah. But I don't want Amazon to think we're wasting your production...
AP: Money and time. No.
David: And it will show up on a blooper reel somewhere.
Michael: There was no film. There was no film.
AP: It was definitely not a waste of time. No, absolutely not.
]
AP: What would you say the fans have responded most to from the first series when you meet them at comic cons or on social media or what have you? Are there moments from the first series where they love talking about that scene?
Michael: Well, I think people really enjoy the going through history stuff, don't they? I mean, we thoroughly.
David: We certainly do. There's just something about the characters and their relationship, though, that seems to have just caught fire. I mean the amount of...
AP :I won’t read some ot the stories I’ve glanced upon.
David: Right.
AP: Yes. Fanfiction is quite….
David: Oh, I see. Oh that is not for us to read.
Michael: Oh I read it all.
AP: Oh you should. You write most of it, right?
Michael: I write most of it.
David: But it's lovely to see. And I have seen more than I can count. Aziraphale and Crowleys showing up. People dressed and always in twos, always in pairs.
Michael: Yes.
David: You know, and that's lovely. And that seems to absolutely encapsulate what the whole show is about, I think.
AP: Tattoos, fan art.
David: Definitely, yes. Seen a couple of tattoos.
Michael: Yeah.
AP: Yeah. Do you get fans in the street quoting lines or just pointing and staring? Because you two together can't really walk down the street.
David: Michael doesn't walk anywhere.
Michael: Those days are long gone.
AP: Jackpack.
David: Yeah.
Micheal: Yeah.
AP: Yeah, that's fair.
Michael: Well, I get a lot of ‘To the world’.
David: Oh, yes. Nice.
Michael: People like to… yeah.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And 'You go too fast, Crowley.’
David: Ooh.
Michael: There’s a lot of that. That gets jumped around.
AP: What about... and this is a kind of BAFTA winning question, so just send it my way.
David: Wow.
AP: Would you say these characters are in your top three most fun characters you've ever played? Because they strike me as being... I'd probably play these characters forever if I could.
Michael and David: Yeah.
Michael: This is like on what's that show when people have to say whether they want to date each other again? You go first. Top three?
David: I mean...
AP: Number two...one?
David: It'd be a weird scenario to say it wasn't.
AP: Yeah, I agree.
David: In this situation.
AP: Yeah.
David: To start something: well, I mean, it's sort in the little twenties. But... No, we did have an irresponsible amount of fun.
Michael: Yes. Not really like working.
AP: No.
Michael: I mean, I very much hope that we eventually get to, in one way or another, in one form or another,
David: Yeah.
Michael: get to play them just very, very old. And it may well be... I mean, we joke about doing a theatrical tour.
AP: And swapping.
David: I'm not joking. I'm not joking about that.
Michael: No.
David: It's a lovely little retirement plan.
Michael: I know.
AP: I'm dead keen on Good Omens 666. I think...
Michael: Oh!
AP: It's just there.
Michael: Yes.
David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AP: Think about it. Post apocalyptic...
Michael: Part, like Good Omens 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 666. I mean, that's a long running series. That's longer than Frasier.
AP: Big words. If a bad joke's worth telling. 666.
Michael: Telling over and over again.
AP: Over and over and over.
David: Yeah.
AP: Guys, I'm going to ask you one last favour as I wrap things up, which is I have at the front of this book, one Mr. Neil Gaiman.
[shows a copy of Good Omens signed by Neil Gaiman].
AP: He signed it and he said as he often does: Ali, have a good doomsday. Would you care to deface?
Michael: I heard the other day that someone went to interview George Harrison and the person who interviewed him said, would you mind signing this record? Whatever it know, the white album, whatever. And he went, do you want them all? And they used to all write each other's name, all sign each other's names.
David: Wow.
Michael: Because they had to do it so much.
David: Do you want to do mine?
Michael: Just get Neil to do that.
AP: Could you please sign as your man? I'll be very lucky.
Michael: On a different page.
AP: You pick your own page, deface as you will.
Michael: Yeah. Look at that. I do a little halo.
David: Oh, that's given me an idea.
Michael: Oh look at that, yeah.
AP: And then while I'm here, I'm going to do the super unprofessional thing of asking for a photograph, if that's allowed.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Oh, look at that.
David: That's perfect.
Michael: That's nice, isn't it?
AP: Beautiful. Would you mind helping me out?
David: Do you see what we've done there, Ali?
AP: Oh, thank you!
Michael: And yours is D for...
AP: I'm going to kneel behind you.
David: Sure.
Michael: I thought I should turn my M into wings.
David: Oooh.
Michael: This is, this is...
AP: Guys, as you may have worked out, big fan.
David: Cheers, Ali.