Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" coming to radio

[Mountain Man]

I saw this yesterday browsing another forum. Apparently Dirk Maggs, the same fellow who was hand picked by the late Douglas Adams to adapt the final three Hitchhiker's books for the radio, has taken on Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency":

This series of six half-hours features a stellar cast with HARRY ENFIELD as the eponymous Holistic Detective, BILLY BOYD (The Lord Of The Rings) as his client Richard Macduff, OLIVIA COLMAN (Peepshow) as his secretary Janice Pearce, JIM CARTER (The Golden Compass) as his nemesis DS Gilks, ANDREW SACHS (Fawlty Towers) as Professor Reg Chronotis, FELICITY MONTAGU (I'm Alan Partridge) as Susan Way, ROBERT DUNCAN (Drop The Dead Donkey) as her brother Gordon, TOBY LONGWORTH (Star Wars) as the Electric Monk and MICHAEL FENTON STEVENS (Nighty Night) as Michael Wenton Weakes. Making guest appearances are ANDREW SECOMBE (Star Wars), JON GLOVER (Harry Enfield & Chums), JEFFREY HOLLAND (You Rang M'Lud), WAYNE FORESTER (Captain Scarlet) and TAMSIN HEATLEY (Broken Sword).

Considered by many to be as funny, if darker, than Hitchhikers, the Dirk Gently novels are as much about Douglas Adams' uniquely funny views on consciousness, conservation and our place in the cosmos as they are about crime. The first series explores everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach, and an Electric Monk.

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The series premieres on Wednesday 3rd October at 6.30pm on BBC RADIO 4, and will also be available on the Listen Again service on www.bbc.co.uk/radio4.
http://abovethetitle.com/hda_home.php

There's a trailer and other stuff at the link in the top-right.

Maggs has said he plans to follow this up with the second Dirk Gently story "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" and an adaptation of the unfinished "Salmon of a Doubt" (left unfinished due to Adams' passing).

I loved Maggs' work on Hitchhiker's, so I'm definitely looking forward to this!

[supermeerkat]

Excellent news! I can't wait!

[Mountain Man]

Heh... I guess you and I are the only ones who have any interest in this.

[zilppuri]

It's brialliant book. I wish someone made movie out of it since the story is so good.
Ofcourse if someone first made decent movie (or mini-series for TV) of Hitchhikers guide..

[supermeerkat]

zilppuri: listen to the Hitchhikers guide BBC radio series - what makes it so good is that pictures are better than TV or movies.

[Paroxysm]

I'm not too excited for this. The last two phases of the hitch hikers series which were pretty much done entirely without Douglas weren't especially good. They just kinda rushed the plot relying too much on narration instead of the witty dialog that made the first few phases (mostly the first two) so awesome.

I'll still check this out since I'm an Adam's whore but I don't think we're going to be in store for anything overly special.

[Mountain Man]

I thought the Hitchhiker's radio plays were pretty good, actually. At least 90% of the material was taken verbatim from the books, which I was pleased with, because it meant we didn't get second rate crap written by someone other than Adams (i.e. the movie version). It did seem a little rushed at times, but I thought it still played well overall. Dirk Maggs certainly respects the material.

[Paroxysm]

I love the first two phases and the third phase is pretty good. I guess the problem I had with the final two was kinda what you praised them for. The first 3 radio plays were radio plays the last 2 were basically books on tape. Just reading the text with an occasional bit of dialog. Frankly I already have Douglas reading all the books to take advantage of the radio play format a certain amount of adaptation is required.

[Mountain Man]

I love the first two phases and the third phase is pretty good. I guess the problem I had with the final two was kinda what you praised them for. The first 3 radio plays were radio plays the last 2 were basically books on tape. Just reading the text with an occasional bit of dialog. Frankly I already have Douglas reading all the books to take advantage of the radio play format a certain amount of adaptation is required.
That's a good point. However, after that awful movie, I'm a bit wary of such "adaptations", so I was quite happy with the final two radio series even if they were essentially books on tape.

[Paroxysm]

The movie wasn't completely awful it... ummm... the dolphin song was alright...

See when I was little I used to listen to phase one on cassette almost every night for years (It's actually an alternate version to the one on cd now. I should try and do a digital copy if I still have it as there's some slightly different material and different choices in line delivery). I have a huge love of the original series and also other such radio plays (including things like The Goon Show). It's just a disappointment to have the format not used to it's strengths. Like all good story telling you shouldn't overtly tell the audience what's happening they should be simply shown it happening.

Eg

Narrator: Arthur pushed a button on the control panel. A sign lit up saying "Please do not push this button again"

Versus

Arthur: I wonder what happens if I push this button?
Ford: I wouldn't
Arthur: Oh!
Ford: What happened?
Arthur: A sign lit up saying "Please do not push this button again"

[Mountain Man]

I finally got a chance to listen to this. It was actually quite good. It was an honest-to-goodness radio play rather than a book on tape. The production and performances were top-notch across the board, and all the dialog was sharp, witty, and at times laugh-out-loud funny--Classic Adams, really--but I wonder how much sense the story would have made to the uninitiated? I thought it was a bit hard to follow at times, and I say that as someone who's actually familiar with the story (though to be fair, one could say the same thing about book).

My only other niggling criticism is that Billy Boyd's voice is so distinctive that I had some trouble buying his character. I kept seeing Billy Boyd in my mind instead of Richard MacDuff. Of course, that's hardly Boyd's fault as his acting was otherwise spot-on.

This is definitely one worth listening to a second time.

[Paroxysm]

Good to hear. I'm gonna grab a copy asap.

[Paroxysm]

Listening to the first episode. SO much better than the last two hitch hikers. Intro was especially awesome.

[Mountain Man]

I agree. It's very atmospheric and hooks you literally from the first second.

And I said that it's worth listening to a second time. I'll amend that to say that you need to listen to it a second time. Not only is the story easier to follow, but there is so much foreshadowing and other inside jokes that are impossible to catch the first time around. I listened to the first episode again on my way into work this morning, and I think I enjoyed it even more than I did the first time. First-rate stuff.

[Paroxysm]

They also have done a really good job restructuring the story into a radio play. There's really some rather large editing of the narrative structure but it works wonderfully so far and is nothing but completely faithful.

[GrkFire611]

I checked the links you posted, MM, but I can't seem to find where I can listen to this. It doesn't appear to be on the Listen Again service.

I'm really looking forward to this, I had no idea it even existed. The book was great.

[Mountain Man]

I don't think it's available through official channels at the moment.

[Paroxysm]

The CD version is out some places. Not in Aus yet. Normally take a little while to circulate.