David Tennant has predicted that an apocalypse like the one depicted in his new series Good Omens could be “seconds away”.
Tennant said the current political climate in the UK and abroad had made the source material for the series “terribly prescient” once again.
The show for Amazon Prime Video is based on the 1990 novel Good Omens: The Nice And Accurate Prophecies Of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and sees an angel and a demon work together to save the world from an apocalypse triggered by the birth of the antichrist.
The 48-year-old former Doctor Who star, who plays the demon Crowley, spoke alongside his co-star Michael Sheen at the show’s world premiere in London, which was stylised to resemble the Garden of Eden.
Sheen, who plays the angel Aziraphale, compared the situation today with the period before the end of the Cold War.
He said: “When they wrote the book Terry and Neil both felt like it was a bit weird because everyone was getting along so well.
“They were both writing about an apocalypse 30 years ago. It was the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was coming down.
“But now, as the TV series is coming out, everything has started to get a little bit more apocalyptic.”
Tennant added: “It all feels like it could be seconds away. It all feels terribly prescient. We can only hope (that there are people who can stop it).
“If you want to drag a political lesson out of it, it’s that there are two polar opposite fundamentalist standpoints of heaven and hell – and the two who have any chance of solving it have to meet in the middle.”
Sheen, 50, said he hoped the human race would “muddle our way through” in the end, adding: “It’s our very flaws and weaknesses that make us human and allow us to connect.”
Tennant replied: “They should be diametrically opposite but they actually have more in common than they do apart.”
The ensemble cast also includes Frances McDormand, Miranda Richardson, Michael McKean, Anna Maxwell Martin, Josie Lawrence, Reece Shearsmith and Sir Derek Jacobi.
Good Omens is available on Prime Video on May 31.