Sadly miscast here. Joss Ackland is a great actor, but far too gentle and far too gentlemanly. Ridcully is an comic old buffer, yes, but he's no fool, he's a powerful wizard in his own way and he ought to be quite frightening.
It was clear to me from the moment Ridcully was introduced in the books that he could only be played by Brian Blessed. With a mighty beard - someone describes him somewhere as looking like a man halfway through swallowing a cat
I see what you mean, Joss lacks the rugged outdoors thing that separate Ridcully from the pampered academics of UU. Not that he usually sports a beard, but I'd see Brendan Gleason as a good Ridcully too.
But I think this is something that is generally wrong with Pratchett adaptations, they go for buffoonery rather than subversive sarcasm. The characters almost seem naive in the films.
Dum Spiro Spero
This is the only one I've seen, it lives in my Christmas films box. I think I'll stick with the books. You're right about the tone; and you can imagine much more spectacular stuff than they can possibly show on screen. As the legendary little boy said about the radio - the scenery's better.
shareI believe that Timothy West played Ridcully quite well in Going Postal. Though it wasn't a large part, I thought he definitely put across the 'Family-Sized Self-Confidence' that Pratchett described Ridcully and the Senior Wizards as having.
share