Feb 27, 2022
This week, I'm joined by George Daniel Lea and James S. Murphy to wax lyrical about the 90s young adult series by the late great Terry Pratchett, The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy (1992-1996).
We chat about Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb, and the surreal, often bitter messaging of all three, as well as their positionality and mood rooted in the mid nineties of the UK. We also tie them in to aspects of Pratchett's work with his Discworld series, and talk about how the Johnny books resonate with us now, in 2022, and what they have to say about war, history and visionary headspaces. Hope it's a blast!
0.00 Preamble
0.06 The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, pt 1
0.57 The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, pt 2
You can find the show on Twitter at @EGoat_pod (or tweet at me on @D_Faggiani) and email us with any feedback on escapegoatpod@gmail.com. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts! Do share and enjoy. We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show!
George is a prolific YouTube creator, mostly on videogames, pop culture and literature, whose channel can be found here. His horror fiction and reviews can be discovered on his website Strange Playgrounds. He can be reached on Twitter on @EnigmaticElegy. He has previously featured on this podcast talking about Gormenghast and The Flight of Dragons, and I had the honour of featuring on his channel talking about the Amiga500 era of gaming!
James podcasts regularly at Pex Lives, about Doctor Who, Bob Dylan and whatever else he pleases. He can be got on Twitter via @JimCrop1916.
All original intro, outro and other incidental music recorded and made available by kind permission of Richard Gilbert.
NOTES
Andrew Blair (who featured on our Doctor Who: Flux episode) wrote a piece back in 2015 about the Johnny Maxwell books - here it is! Also, the 2006 BBC TV series of Johnny and the Bomb can be found on YouTube (starring the now-famous George Mackay!) The 1995 ITV version of Johnny and the Dead seems to be a bit more elusive online, currently.