Good Omens on Amazon Prime is based on the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett contemporary fantasy novel about the Apocalypse and an angel and demon who want to stop it from destroying the world.
Because Neil Gaiman is from Hampshire, England and the late Terry Pratchett was from Buckinghamshire, the two prolific authors have always sprinkled a lot of British references into their work.
Many of those references popped up in the Good Omens television series including one that many American viewers might not understand. Since Gaiman was the actual showrunner, this is no surprise.
Jeffrey Archer on Good Omens
Good Omens is about an angel and demon who have been on Earth since the beginning of time. As the premiere episode of Good Omens showed, they were at the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were banished.
As a matter of fact, the demon Crowley (David Tennant) is who tempted Eve with the apple and the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) is who gave Adam a flaming sword for protection, resulting in the first murder — of a lion.
Anyway, in the present day, the angel and demon want to stop the Apocalypse, which is about to happen. Crowley just likes the finer things on Earth like rock and roll and good bourbon.
Aziraphale also has Earthly loves, such as fine wines and great books. He even owns his own bookstore.
At one point on the Good Omens TV series, high ranking angels Gabriel (Jon Hamm) and Sandalphon (Paul Chahidi) visit Aziraphale in his book store to discuss the Apocalypse and Sandalphon mentions something “smells evil.”
While the angel smelled the presence of Crowley, Aziraphale lied and said that the evil smell is likely “the Jeffrey Archer books, I’m afraid.”
“Hold on, something smells evil in here.”
“Oh, that’s the Jeffrey Archer books.”#GoodOmens— Amy Carney (@click2carney) June 2, 2019
Who is Jeffrey Archer?
Jeffrey Archer is a best-selling author and novelist who started off his career as a Conservative politician. He served his political career from 1969-74 before he started his career in writing.
In the ’70s, Archer started writing his novels and by 1992, he was made a “life peer,” which made him a very high-level aristocrat. That was not enough to keep him out of prison.
A contemporary retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo ➡️ A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer https://t.co/Lyb1CRqv87
— Carol (Bookaria) (@Bookariatweets) June 2, 2019
In 2001, courts found Archer guilty of perjury and perverting justice in a 1987 libel case against Daily Star that he initially won. He served two years of his four-year prison sentence.
Not to let that hold him down, Archer profited from this by writing a three-volume memoir titled A Prison Diary, which became a bestseller.