The primary members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch are (see the linked articles for full details of the characters):
His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes Samuel Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, learned dirty tricks as a street copper and passed them on to new recruits. Under him, the Watch strengthens its position, and while he makes many enemies, the Assassins' Guild has stopped accepting contracts for his assassination. He marries Lady Sybil Ramkin, the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork, and together they have a son, Young Sam.
Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson Adopted by
dwarfs as an infant, Carrot grew up in the mines of the Copperhead mountains. He is "six feet six inches tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders". His dwarfish name is
Kzad-bhat, which, roughly translated, means "Head Banger", a logical nickname for a man living in a mine built by dwarfs. He was surprised to learn that he was human. His adoptive father thought it best that he goes live among humans and found him a job in Ankh-Morpork with the Night Watch, believing them respected and respectable. Carrot was "barely 16 years old". (
Guards! Guards!) Carrot joins the Night Watch when it is still a small group of misfits who run from criminals rather than arrest them (
Guards! Guards!). His old-fashioned view of justice leads him on his first day as a constable to arrest the leader of the entirely legal Thieves' Guild, but he later understands the city better. Captain Carrot rapidly and easily comes to know the city's one-million population by name and tax status, and is big on paperwork and organization. He always takes the time to see all sides of a story before acting. When
Sam Vimes plans to retire after marrying
Lady Sybil Ramkin, Carrot is promoted to the captaincy. Carrot becomes famous enough for
action figures of him to appear. (
Hogfather) Carrot's main talents are his charisma and "supernatural likability". He genuinely likes people, in contrast to Vimes, who "doesn't like anybody". He is often shown getting people to do things no one else could force them to do, simply by assuming that they will: for example, his outreach programs for at-risk Ankh-Morporkian youth treat them like boy scouts. When he directly commands someone, they find it very difficult to disobey. Even Vimes is susceptible to this power. Carrot prefers not to use this except in dire emergencies. Carrot often seems unthreatening, a dangerous conclusion if one is unlucky enough to disappoint him. People think Carrot is simple, and the narrator occasionally points out that while that is true, half of the town watch of Bad Blintz,
Überwald in
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. Other characters with a notable similarity to Nobby include a member of the guard in the Überwald town of Bonk, nicknamed "Nobbski" by Vimes, and one of the market guards in Al Khali, Klatch. Morphic resonance may have caused this, as with the various incarnations of
Dibbler. But being related to Nobby is not seen as a good thing. An Unseen University
bledlow who by sheer
coincidence shared Nobby's last name swiftly denied any family ties. The
Pratchett Portfolio says Nobby is known for saying "'tis a lie sir, I never done it," but he has not actually been recorded saying it. When Nobby was in Klatch he "got in touch with his feminine side", and liked to wear women's clothing. He also dressed up as an old lady for a
Traffic scam, to which Vimes put an end. Nobby briefly appeared in the
Cosgrove Hall adaptation of
Soul Music. In the
BBC Radio 4 adaptation of
Guards! Guards! he was voiced by
Melvyn Hayes. David Brett, formerly of the
Flying Pickets played Nobby in the 1988 stage play. Nobby also appears in two computer adventure games,
Discworld (The Trouble With Dragons), where he was voiced by
Tony Robinson, and
Discworld Noir, where he was voiced by
Rob Brydon). In both games, Nobby was voiced with a distinct Irish accent. In the 2006 TV adaptation of
Hogfather Nicolas Tennant played Nobby.
Sergeant Detritus Detritus is the first
troll to join the City Watch.
Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom Cheery Littlebottom, a female dwarf, is a forensic expert in the City Watch, introduced in
Feet of Clay.
Constable Reginald Shoe Lance-Constable Salacia "Sally" von Humpeding Sally joined the
Ankh-Morpork City Watch despite Vimes's reluctance to have a vampire on the force. She is invariably described as looking stunning in any outfit—much to Angua's irritation, as Angua feels diminished in Sally’s presence and views her as a rival for Captain Carrot’s affections.
Constable Dorfl Constable Visit-the-Infidel/Ungodly-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets (sometimes referred to as Visit-the-Ungodly-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets) is a constable of the City Watch. He is generally referred to as "Constable Visit", or occasionally "Washpot" from one of his favourite quotations, "Moab is my washpot. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe", from Psalm 60 of
The Book of Om. He first appeared in
Feet of Clay. Samuel Vimes says he is a good copper, his highest form of personal praise. He is a gentle but determined Omnian
proselytiser who can clear a large crowd in seconds by talking religion and offering pamphlets. When off-duty, he goes door to door with fellow Omnian Smite-the-Unbeliever-with-Cunning-Arguments. Not afraid of Visit's proselytising, his friend and fellow constable Dorfl, a golem with endless patience, wants to argue faith rationally. He appears in the Sky One television adaptation of
Hogfather, portrayed by
Richard Katz.
Inspector A E Pessimal A. E. Pessimal was first the government Inspector of the Watch assigned (in
Thud!) by
Lord Vetinari to inspect the Watch and judge whether they gave
fair value ("
who watches the watchmen?") and to inspect the Unseen University in
A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices. Described as a neat little man with very shiny shoes, no friends, and no sense of humour, he does not have a first name, and was "initialled" at birth rather than named. He could have seriously inconvenienced Vimes with difficult questions such as: "Why is C. W. St. J. 'Nobby' Nobbs in the Watch?" Vimes eventually swore him in as a
special constable for the duration of an impending street fight of roughly a thousand trolls and dwarves, to scare the man and show him what it was like to be a copper. Instead, A E took his position seriously, to the point of bare-handedly attacking and trying to bite a troll who took a swing at Vimes. This totally shocked Vetinari ("
Mr. Pessimal? Mr. A. E.
Pessimal? We are talking about the same person? Small man, very clean shoes?"). Vimes offered him the position of Lance-Constable and
adjutant, needing someone to look through paperwork and sift out important or suspicious facts. A E is the start of an
internal affairs department in the Watch. In
Snuff, A E is a newly minted
Inspector Of the Watch, and his
forensic accounting has become legendary and feared throughout Ankh-Morpork.
Constable Igor Igor was an
Igor his family considered "too modern" for
Überwald, He specialised in
genetics and created a rabbit named Eerie, on which he grew human ears. He bred noses as independent lifeforms until they were transplanted. He experimented with swimming potatoes hoping for instant fish and chips. Like all Igors, he is a highly talented transplant surgeon. He sometimes forgets to lisp. Vimes hired him for his surgery methods, considerably more advanced than in Ankh-Morpork. Igor first appears in
The Fifth Elephant. He and Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom form the Watch forensics department.
Constable Downspout Constable
Downspout first appears in
Feet of Clay, and is a
surveillance expert for the Watch. As a
gargoyle, he is able to remain motionless in one spot and watch for days at a time, a "world champion at not moving" as Vimes once remarked. He has no use for money and instead receives his salary in
pigeons, which he eats.
Corporal Buggy Swires A
gnome. Introduced in
Jingo or possibly in
The Light Fantastic, which mentions a gnome identified only as Swires, Buggy has the hard-nosed, bellicose personality typical of his species, and can shout down uncooperative witnesses despite being only six inches tall. He has established himself as the sole member of the Watch's Airborne Section except perhaps Wee Mad Arthur, by taming various birds (acquired from the
Pictsies for a crate of whisky) as transport for reconnaissance and messaging. ==References==