Could you even imagine Good Omens without David Tennant's devilish charm?
The former Doctor Who actor makes for a perfect double act with Michael Sheen in the TV version of Neil Gaiman and the late Sir Terry Pratchett's apocalyptic dark comedy series, yet he was very nearly rejected for the role of the demon Crowley.
Gaiman has revealed to Digital Spy that Good Omens' streaming home Amazon Prime initially pushed back on his choice to cast Tennant.
"I'd written the first script, and had the idea of maybe having Michael play Crowley," he revealed. "By the time I got a couple of episodes in, I wasn't feeling that. I was thinking, 'I don't think Michael is Crowley.' There's something incredibly gentle and – if I'm going to use the word here, I may as well – angelic about him."
The writer went on: "What's interesting about Michael is that Michael always plays characters with an edge. They're always slightly dangerous. There's something brittle... you know, whether it's his Tony Blair or his David Frost or any of the famous characters he's played.
"I just loved the idea of getting to play with the fact that there's something gloriously sweet about Michael, and letting that shine through.
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"Then I wrote episode 3, which is the one which has the long 'Crowley and Aziraphale through time'. I had the sequence in the church where Crowley had to come down the aisle, hopping – you know, he was dealing with the fact that he was walking on consecrated grounds.
"And I just suddenly thought, 'Actually, David Tennant could do this.' It was a lovely, simple idea, and then it didn’t leave... [But] it was harder to get Amazon to sign up on David Tennant. The people at Amazon didn't quite get why I wanted David.
"I knew that it would work. It finally came down to... you know, it would have been a day before David had to go off and do another movie. I phoned Amazon, and I said, 'You have to say yes, because I don't have a number two. There's nobody else I want. So you have to say yes.'
"And they said yes. Fairly shortly after that, once they saw him acting, they were really apologetic about keeping us waiting."
And thus, an angelic (and demonic) TV double act was born!
Good Omens premieres in the UK tonight (January 15) at 9pm on BBC Two.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
