Nomes Revisited!

There are very few events that can brighten up a Monday when you work weekdays, but this particular lunchtime I fell upon a little nugget of information that plastered a ridiculously huge grin on my face for the rest of the day!

I liked the Terry Pratchett fan-page on Facebook some time ago - to the point that I can't remember doing it!  I mostly use it to keep an eye on new releases and other such things.  It is through this page that my Monday was brightened up considerably.

Towards the end of my lunch break, I was scrolling down my Facebook feed when my attention was grabbed by a photo of the grill of a lorry, or a truck if you will prefer.  Readers can be assured that I have no real interest in lorries, nor indeed any kind of modern road-based vehicles.  I'm strictly a steam train fan, if anyone would like to know.

What really attracted my attention was the sight of two little figures who were seated in the grill of the lorry.   Closer inspection identified them to be none other than Grimma and Masklin, two of the major characters from Terry Pratchett's non-Discworld trilogies The Bromelliad!  The first book, Truckers, was adapted into a children's television series by Cosgrove Hall and shown on CITV in 1992 (it was on Tuesdays after Tiny Toon Adventures, a titbit of knowledge I'm using simply to indicate the impression that the series had left on my little five-year old mind.)  My mum and I (and my mum will back me up on this) watched the whole series religiously, and mum had the good idea of taping it for future viewing.  It remains - alongside Thomas the Tank Engine - one of the most memorable programmes that I watched as a child, and because of it I can say that I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett since I was five years old.  In fact, the only reason I read my first Discworld book was because I recognised Terry Pratchett as "the bloke who wrote Truckers."  The rest, as they say, is history.

The series, as I mentioned previously,  had been taped as it aired on Citv.  A few years afterwards we got a proper vhs of the series,  which conveniently got rid of the opening and closing sequences shown on television, but also cut out tiny parts of the original series.   With the birth of the DVD player, I became hopeful for a DVD version...but none came.  I had begun to believe that this little tv treasure would never be seen again.

However, I am very pleased to announce that I thought wrong.   Underneath the photo of Grimma and Masklin was the announcement that Truckers will finally be released on DVD for patient fans to enjoy forever on 7th October!  I was grinning from ear to ear by the time I had finished reading, and spent the remainder of the afternoon humming the theme tune.  I also amused myself by muttering "Bargains Galore!" under my breath when I made a mistake.   It's much preferable to proper swearing, but most people haven't a clue what you're on about!

Finally,  my husband will understand why I pronounce delicatessen as two words, or why I sometimes say words like haberdashery and stationery in an odd way.  I checked up amazon when I got home that evening, and was pleased to find that the DVD was indeed available for pre order (guess what happened then...)

I wanted to share this bit of very exciting news with you for two reasons.   The first... because it is exciting!  It's probably the most excited that I will ever be for a DVD release.   But also sharing this introduces you all to a bit of my history.   Some people can claim that they fell in love with fantasy when they stepped through the wardrobe into the magical world of Narnia, others followed a particular little hobbit as he journeyed through Middle Earth with a wizard and a company of dwarves.  I got on a lorry with Masklin and the other Nomes, and discovered the store and Arnold Brothers (est 1905).

I must admit that it doesn't sound as good as the Hobbit or the chronicles of Narnia,  but the result was just the same.