Good Omens exclusive: first look at Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter in new TV series
Josie Lawrence reveals why she was Neil Gaiman's first choice to play the unnervingly accurate prophet and 17th century witch
When it comes to understanding the chaos of Armageddon, there's really only one person you can turn to: Agnes Nutter, a 17th century witch who lives on through her (rather cryptic) book of prophecies.
Now Amazon has released their first-look image of Josie Lawrence as Agnes in Neil Gaiman's adaptation of Good Omens — and it looks like she's in a mild spot of bother, as witch-finders prepare to burn her at the stake.
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Though a relatively small part, Agnes plays a vital role in the Good Omens story — and Gaiman knew from the start which actress he wanted to play her, after hearing Lawrence as Agnes in a previous BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the novel.
"I played her in the radio version and really enjoyed it. That’s when I first got to know Neil," Lawrence explained. "Later, I got a message from him saying, 'I am writing the TV script for Good Omens. I have put that "Agnes Nutter looks not unlike the actress Josie Lawrence"'".
However, Lawrence revealed that at one point she had "said bye-bye" to the part due to scheduling conflicts.
"It was touch and go for a while because I was in the middle of rehearsing a production of Mother Courage when they were filming. They had to film Agnes’s scenes in an Elizabethan park, which they only had for a couple of days," Lawrence said.
"Those days were when I had the technical rehearsals for Mother Courage. So in my head I said bye-bye to Agnes. But then, the producer of Mother Courage, Neil and Douglas managed to move things around so I could film the scene. So I got up very early one day, got burnt at the stake and went back to play Mother Courage."
When we meet Agnes during the series, we find her about to be burnt at the stake by a witch-finder, Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer, the ancestor of modern-day witch-finder Newton "Newt" Pulsifer.
Judging from the image above, it looks suspiciously like comedian Jack Whitehall will be playing both Pulsifiers in the series...
UPDATE: It seems that Agnes Nutter is updating her prophecies for the 21st century.
A cryptic Twitter account has just been revealed called @NiceProphecies, containing a number of curious (and, dare we say it, Nice And Accurate) posts concerning current events.
We're still working our way through the messages to see what clues can be discovered. But we've got a feeling there could be a few more 'prophecies' to come...
Good Omens is released globally on Amazon Prime Video on 31st May
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