#john mccarthy

Unlike my previous pieces analysing individual cut scenes based on the available concept arts of never filmed historical minisodes, this post will delve deeper into the original structure of S2 — we’re going to see what other scenes were cut and which set elements were omitted or changed, and therefore what the overarching themes and potentially important parts of the story might be.

The following artworks were published by Louis Ralph, John McCarthy, and Good Omens X-Ray on Amazon Prime, and show early versions of the show’s environments and storylines.

Jon Coffee and Vinyl Fetish

The more detail-oriented viewers are already well aware of the changes in Aziraphale’s neighbourhood that took place between the first and second season of the show, but for the others’ sake, let’s review them again:

As Michael Ralph, production designer for the series, explained in his DVD commentary for episode 4:

“There was a beautiful coffee shop that we built across from the bookshop. We called it ‘Jon Coffee’ after [John Coffey in] The Green Mile ’cause I’ve always loved that. Don’t wanna get sued for that, but I spelled it with a J-O-N, not a J-O-H-N. ’Course, I don’t think anyone’ll ever see that or understand it either – but they might now!”

And according to the official Whickber Street lore:

“Give me Coffee bought Jon Coffee in 2019 and expanded into Honey Sweets in 2021.”

But, interestingly, this change hasn’t happened at the concept art stage yet, as we can see in Louis Ralph’s works below. On the other hand, apart from its name, the record shop hasn’t changed much — we can even see Maggie Service behind the counter.

Michael Ralph’s paraphrase of The Green Mile’s iconic character’s name took on a new, quite literal meaning after being implemented in the S2 iteration of the Soho set. Jon is, after all, a Scandinavian variant of the biblical name John — and based on the labels of various pastries on the counter, we can now additionally pinpoint the owner’s assumed country of origin to Sweden. This might or might not be a hint to one of the intended S3 locations, as the final version of the same coffee shop focuses on America (and New York in particular) instead.

The obvious reference to Saint John the Apostle was strengthened by the amount of notebooks and writing paraphernalia visible in the second picture. Looks like his modern iteration, possibly a prototype of Nina, was supposed to be a writer. Hopefully a bit more present than book Aziraphale’s recollection of the Apostle:

“St. John the Divine of Patmos, whose ‘Revelation’ had been the all-time best seller. Aziraphale had found him a nice chap, if a bit too fond of odd mushrooms.”

The “Give me coffee or give me death” motto might not have been there yet, but the exact same sentiment was already expressed through set design elements like the poster above — just like the clear view on both the record shop as well as the bookshop in each of the photobashes. If you had any doubts about Metatron’s ability to peek into the drama unfolding there during the Final Fifteen before, this should give you some food for thought.

Crowley’s home away from home

The Bentley’s parking spot was originally conceptualised as a sewer tunnel underneath the Westminster Bridge rather than a quaint London side street. It made Crowley’s homelessness more obvious and the unexpected appearances of Shax and Beelzebub much more sinister and invasive. The final in-universe location for these scenes suggested by the skyline superimposed on the Edinburgh set is still close to the river Thames, but on the other side of it — which means even closer to Soho and its resident principality.

Jim’s bedroom and its treasures

Originally seemed much more like Aziraphale’s territory — marked not only by the omnipresent books, but also multiple swords, canes, and other memorabilia scattered around the room, like an antique Chinese incense burner, a Moroccan brass serving dish, and a shell. There’s even a Victorian vanity cabinet with a traditional shaving set (probably another recommendation of Aziraphale’s barber). Since it was eventually filmed in the same part of the bookshop set as Aziraphale and Crowley’s private conversation before the Edinburgh trip, the amount of decorations had to be limited, even if for purely practical reasons.

Whickber Street’s history

The following piece, originally shared by Prime Video X-Ray as a part of the official S2 look book gallery, seems particularly mysterious, since its context hasn’t been revealed yet in any of the official or half-official communications. It’s an interior view of the Dirty Donkey pub from the Victorian times — something that visibly deviates from the already established storylines from this era (i.e., 1859 A Tale of Two Cities bookshop scene tragically cut from S1, the Holy Water Argument of 1862, and the late 1880s gavotte scene at the discreet gentlemen’s club in Portland Place). Needless to say, I’m gnawing at the bars of my enclosure at the very thought of the possibilities here.

Let’s fast-forward a bit to the next ineffable meeting though. The existence of night and day scenes from the same locations might suggest that the original 1941 minisode had initially spanned over more than one day after all, even though the events shown on screen in S2 fit within one evening. This can be seen as a new source of hope for the Blitz (almost-)kiss truthers.

The 1941 concept arts showcase not only Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop, but also other parts of Aziraphale’s neighbourhood. If you look closely at the right side of this picture, you will notice a group of soldiers queuing up in the entryway leading to the exact location of Mrs Sandwich’s shop in the modern day Soho. Who knows, maybe Maggie is not the only one continuing an old family business tradition in the area?

Unlike the above mentioned establishments, the modern day locations of Chinatown’s Lucky Snake grocery shop, Phang’s buffet restaurant, as well as Bilton Scaggs Hats and Caps were out of luck (or, more probably, Aziraphale’s personal sphere of influence) and suffered great damage from the air raids. Protecting the bookshop and its contents must had taken quite a toll on the angel; can’t really imagine any other reason for him to allow this level of destruction and tragedy so close to his home.

True forms

Still on the topic of damage — this time of the emotional sort — let’s take a look at the contrast between Bildad and Aziraphale’s original depictions in ‘A Companion to Owls’ minisode. I have three questions: what in Mad Max AU even is this, what kind of unspeakable things must have happened to our Flood era princess, and why was this piece titled ‘Crowley BC 13’?

While answers to the above questions are still nowhere to be found — just like everyone’s favourite obstetrician slash cobbler — these original concept arts provide some comfort in a series of very biblical, very angelic depictions of Aziraphale. Fingers crossed for a similarly optimistic wing budget and the subsequently big amount of true form screen time in S3!

1x02 Diefenbaker’s Day Off | Score

One of the most charming parts of early due South is how much the score shines. It's my favourite TV score ever, and it really acts as another important character especially in the first season.

This hit especially is so good! The call-and-response on the twelve-string! The dichotomy between the pared-down score (just a woodwind, guitar, and percussion!) and the chaos inherent in the establishing shots of Chicago! The parallelism in how Fraser is a simple-livin' kind of guy out of place in this bustling metropolis and neither of them really fit together!!

With THE SNAKE WOMAN (1961), director Sidney Furie reminds us that the past isn't always better and the content-entertainment-churning machine has been hard at work since the beginning. The film stars Susan Travers, John McCarthy and Elsie Wagstaff, and includes a surprising amount of accurate snake facts!