The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[1] is a BBC television adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which aired between 5 January and 9 February 1981 on BBC2 in the United Kingdom. The adaptation follows the original radio series in 1978 and 1980, the first novel and double LP, in 1979, and the stage shows, in 1979 and 1980, making it the fifth iteration of the guide.
After the success of the first seven episodes of the radio series, all broadcast in 1978, and while the second radio series was being recorded, Douglas Adams was commissioned to deliver a pilot script for a television adaptation on 29 May 1979, to be delivered by 1 August.[3] A fully animated version was briefly discussed in the autumn of 1978, but it was eventually decided to make most of the series feature "live action" and only animate The Guide's entries.[4]John Lloyd, who had worked with Adams on the first radio series, is credited with starting the process of adapting the series for television, after the receipt of the pilot script, with a memo to the head of light entertainment (John Howard Davies) in September 1979.[5] Adams was still working on scripts for the second radio series of Hitchhiker's and working as script editor for Doctor Who, and thus the BBC extended the deadline for the pilot script of the television adaptation to the end of November.[6] The script for the pilot was delivered in December 1979, and terms for the five remaining scripts were agreed upon in January 1980. While there was some resistance to a project considered "unfilmable," Alan J. W. Bell was given the duties to produce and direct the television adaptation. John Lloyd was signed as associate producer.
Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, watching his home being demolished in the first television episode.
In early 1980, production on the pilot episode began on several fronts. Rod Lord of Pearce Animation Studios directed a 50-second pilot, hand-animated, giving a 'computer graphic' feel to the Babel Fish speech of the first episode. Adams and Bell were both pleased with the animation, and Lord was given the go-ahead to do all of the animation for episode one, and subsequently the complete television series.[7] Narration for the first episode was recorded by Peter Jones in March 1980. The filming of two green-skinned aliens reacting to Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters was done on 8 May 1980. Further filming of crowd reactions to the Vogons, location filming of Arthur's house and a scene in a pub were done between 11 and 16 May 1980. Scenes aboard the Vogon ship were recorded on 7 June 1980, in the BBC's TC1 studio. The final edit of the pilot episode was completed on 2 July 1980, and it was premiered for a test audience three days later (5 July). Further test screenings were held in August 1980. Based on successful test screenings, the cast was reassembled to complete the six episodes of the series in September 1980. Production continued through the autumn, with filming and recording occurring out of order. Recording and production of the final episode continued into January 1981.
The gap in production made for some continuity problems between the pilot episode and the remainder. Notably, Simon Jones' hair was cut short for another role and he wears a noticeable hairpiece in later episodes. Conversely, David Dixon's hair appears longer.
One major change first appeared in the stage show and LP adaptations, and made its way into the novels and television adaptation. Nearly all of the sequences from episodes five and six in the first radio series that were originally co-written with John Lloyd were completely cut. Thus the Hotblack Desiato character and Disaster Area make appearances in episode five, and Ford, Arthur, Zaphod and Trillian are all randomly teleported off of Disaster Area's stunt ship in episode six. Lloyd does receive a co-writer's credit on episode five, for the material on the statistics about the universe. The complexities of adapting the material for television meant that some episodes became as long as 35 minutes; as a result, material that had appeared in the radio series (e.g.: the seance involving Zaphod's ancestors) had to be cut. The programme is particularly notable for its mock computer animation sequences, actually produced on film using traditional cel animation techniques. There have been several different edits of the series: Some, but not all, American PBS stations recut the series into seven 30-minute episodes when they began transmitting the episodes nearly two years later, in December 1982. Other PBS stations re-edited the programme into television movies, broadcasting more than one episode at a time without interruption. The UK videotape release was on two cassettes, each consisting of three episodes edited to run together and also adding some previously unseen material. The soundtrack was remixed into stereo. The North American VHS tape released by CBS/Fox Video included this material on a single video cassette. The DVD edition claims to be the final and definitive version of the six television episodes.
Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox with animatronic second head and third arm.
Another production problem was that, being a visual adaptation, a solution had to be found to display Zaphod's three arms and two heads, a joke originally written for radio. In a previous stage adaptation, a version of a pantomime horse was used, where two actors filled one costume, providing three arms and two heads between them. For this television series, a radio-controlled animatronic head was designed and built, incorporating twelve servo motors and two receivers. However, the head was notoriously unreliable and in many scenes merely sits there, inanimate. For the third arm, most of the time it was seen tucked into Zaphod's jacket. But when called for Mike Kelt, who had designed the extra head (with make-up, hair and prosthetics designer Joan Stribling) would hide behind Mark Wing-Davey and slip his arm into the appropriate sleeve.
Other elements to the production were done by a variety of BBC designers. The Heart of Gold and B Ark models were built by Perry Brahan. The small, furry creature from Alpha Centauri in episode three was a puppet designed and controlled by Jim Francis, who also built the Magrathean bubble car (also seen in episode three), and was the stunt double for Richard Vernon in the scene in which the bubble car was seen to fly. Matte paintings throughout the series were created by Jean Peyre. Music and sound effects were by Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with the exception of the theme music; the familiar Journey of the Sorcerer theme by Bernie Leadon was used again, in the arrangement by Tim Souster that had previously been used for the Hitchhiker's LP. Video effects using the Quantel system were done by Dave Jervis. Other puppets, including insects seen in episode five, were designed by Susan Moore. Some of the actual puppeteering was done by Stuart Murdoch, including operating parts of the Dish of the Day animal. Two important cast changes were made for the television version. David Dixon replaced Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, and Sandra Dickinson replaced Susan Sheridan as Trillian. The changes were made because McGivern did not suit the role visually, and Sheridan was unavailable at the time. Another new cast member was Michael Cule, who appears as the Vogon guard in episode two. Cule had first appeared in one of the Hitchhiker's stage adaptations, performing no fewer than twelve roles. He reprised the Vogon guard part in the 1992 Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy television documentary, voiced the Babel fish, appeared in the 1994 photo illustrated edition of the book (as Prosser), and returned a third time as a Vogon guard for the BBC Radio 4Quandary Phase.
Martin Benson as Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz reading poetry to Ford and Arthur during the second television episode.
Because of the sheer number of models used in episodes two to six, a single day of filming just the model sequences was set aside at the BBC Television Centre on 28 October 1980. This has been described as "a luxury few other shows could afford". To provide proper timing of spoken lines on-set, as Douglas Adams himself spoke the lines of Eddie the Computer and Deep Thought, until they were redubbed by David Tate and Valentine Dyall respectively. Adams had several cameo appearances during episodes one to three in the television series:
One of the drinkers in the background of the pub.
The man who walks naked into the ocean, similar to Reginald Perrin. The original actor for the part called in sick.
The Guide entry on "The Worst Poetry" also used Adams's likeness as the basis for the illustration of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.
In the future Encyclopedia Galactica, Adams making a cameo appearance as one of the Sirius Cybernetic Marketing Division members.
An image in a guide entry on "an important and popular fact", along with animator Rod Lord, who provided a self-portrait.
The hand-animated "computer graphics" of The Hitchhiker's Guide itself won a BAFTA, a Design and Art Direction Silver award, and a London Film Fest award. The spaceman suspended from a wire in the opening title sequence was Alan Harris. Locations for filming included a clay pit and the former Par-Fowey railway tunnel in Cornwall, the Edmonds Farm and Red Lion pub in Haywards Heath, Sussex, the Budgemoor Golf & Country Club near Henley-on-Thames, and at Dovestones in the Peak District National Park. Episode three was originally scripted to have a "pre-credits sequence" where Trillian announces their arrival at "the most improbable planet that ever existed", Magrathea, to Zaphod. This was never filmed. The arrangement of Journey of the Sorcerer by Tim Souster, used in the titles, was released as a single in the UK in January 1981. The B-side featured Douglas Adams playing rhythm guitar. Many of the costumes seen in episodes one to four can be seen again during sequences at Milliway's in episode five, as well as the writing at the start showing 42 crossed out several times also includes the number 101010 which is the 42nd number in the binary number base.
A second series was planned at one point, with a storyline, according to Alan Bell and Mark Wing-Davey, that would have come from Adams' abandoned Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen project (instead of a television version of the second radio series). Adams got into disputes with the BBC (accounts differ: problems with budget, scripts, and having Alan Bell or Geoffrey Perkins involved were all offered as causes), and the second series was never made.[8][9] The elements of the Doctor Who and the Krikketmen project instead became the third novel, Life, the Universe and Everything.
Documentary
In 1992, Kevin Davies wrote and directed a documentary entitled The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Davies had previously worked on the stage show at the Rainbow Theatre, and while working for Pierce Animation Studios in 1980, had introduced Alan Bell to Rod Lord, leading to the animation for the television series. For the documentary, Davies used many photographs and home movies he shot during the 1980 production of the series and recorded new interviews in October 1992 with the cast and crew. New footage of Simon Jones, David Dixon and Michael Cule, in character, were shot at the farm in Sussex used as Arthur Dent's house, and incorporated into the documentary with some references to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, such as Arthur finding his home intact, and placing his (animated) Babel fish into a goldfish bowl. BBC Video released the 60-minute documentary on VHS in 1993. Footage not included in the original documentary was included in the 2002 DVD release of the series. The documentary itself has not (as of 2024) been transmitted on television.[8]
A pre-credits sequence shows a countdown to the end of the world as the narrator tells the story of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Arthur Dent's connection to it. As the sun rises over the English countryside for the final time, Arthur wakes to discover his house has been scheduled for demolition as a bulldozer heads for his house. Arthurs friend Ford Prefect arrives to tell him his home is about to be destroyed, but reveals himself to be an alien journalist working on a new version of the eponymous Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and clarifies that Earth itself has been scheduled for demolition by the bureucratic Vogons, who soon arrive in Earth orbit. After hitchhiking onto a Vogon ship, Ford guides Arthur through the basics of interstellar survival, including the importance of towels, before they are discovered. Ford laments that, if they are lucky, they will probably be thrown into deep space although if they are unlucky, the Vogon captain "might want to read us some of his poetry first".
2
"Fit the Second"
12January1981(1981-01-12)
After being subjected to Vogon poetry, Arthur and Ford are thrown out of an airlock but improbably rescued just before death by the starship Heart of Gold, which has been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox, accompanied by Trillian, a young Earthwoman who Arthur once met at a party in London. Ford and Arthur are escorted to the bridge by Marvin the Paranoid Android and meet Zaphod and Trillian.
3
"Fit the Third"
19January1981(1981-01-19)
The Guide explains the origin of the legendary planet of Magrathea, which manufactured planets for the hyper-wealthy millions of years ago, until the galactic economy collapsed. Zaphod explains to Ford that he has found the legendary planet and intends to plunder its fabulous wealth. Zaphod orders the computer to land on the planet surface but before long they receive a transmission from the commercial council of Magrathea, informing them that the planet is closed for business and asking them to leave. They ignore this and receive another message, noting that nuclear missiles have been launched at the ship, although this is just a professional courtesy reserved for the planet's most persistent customers. When attempts to evade the missiles fail, Arthur uses the ship's Infinite Improbability Drive which ends up turning the missiles into a very surprised looking whale and a bowl of petunias. Trillian discovers that during the chaos her mice have escaped. The five head onto the surface where they find it desolate. Zaphod suggests that the Magratheans lived beneath the surface of the planet so they split into two groups – Trillian, Zaphod and Ford explore a tunnel, while Arthur and Marvin remain on the surface. Trillian, Zaphod and Ford's thread ends on a cliffhanger, with them seeing something alarming at the end of the corridor. Meanwhile, Arthur and Marvin watch the sunset. Eventually, Slartibartfast, a Magrathean engineer arrives and asks Arthur to come with him. Leaving Marvin to watch the ship, he explains that the Magratheans were in hibernation for the last five million years while they waited for the galactic economy (which they inadvertently crashed) to recover. They descend deep into a tunnel as the Guide narrative explains that while humanity had always assumed that it was the most intelligent species on Earth, in fact the dolphins were more intelligent and had left the planet some time before. However, both the dolphins and humans were less intelligent than mice. Meanwhile, Slartibartfast shows Arthur the vast tract of hyperspace that acts as the Magrathean's factory floor, and that they have been brought out of hibernation for a special commission — "the Earth Mk II, we're making a copy from our original blueprints". It is revealed that the Earth was originally made by Magrathea as a giant supercomputer for mice, but it was destroyed five minutes before completing its programming.
4
"Fit the Fourth"
26January1981(1981-01-26)
Slartibartfast shows Arthur the archive tapes of the development of Deep Thought, the second most powerful computer ever built, that was given the order to search for the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything. After seven and a half million years, Deep Thought confidently announced that the answer was "42". The Earth was then commissioned from Magrathea to be the most complex supercomputer in existence, in which life itself would make up the primary programming matrix, with the task of searching for the Ultimate Question to Life, The Universe and Everything. Slartibartfast and Arthur join Ford, Trillian, Zaphod, and Trillian's mice, who were in fact descendants of Deep Thoughts builders and had guided them to Magrathea. The mice dismiss Slartibartfast, then express their desire to determine the Ultimate Question by first extracting Arthur's brain. While the mice attempt to strike a deal, the galactic police arrive to arrest Zaphod for the theft of the Heart of Gold. Ford, Arthur, Trillian and Zaphod flee the dining hall only to be cornered by the police in a large bay. After a misunderstanding, the police open fire on a computer behind which the four are hiding, causing it to explode.
5
"Fit the Fifth"
2February1981(1981-02-02)
After an initial period of confusion, the four travellers find that the explosion has somehow transported them forward in time to just before the end of the universe. They are in "Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe", which was built on the ruins of Magrathea. Having travelled through time but not through space, they find Marvin still waiting for them 40 million years after being left behind. He's now an attendant at the car park, and still depressed. Just before the universe ends, Zaphod and Ford get Marvin to help them steal a spaceship, which turns out to be the property of the galaxy's loudest rock band, "Disaster Area". The episode ends as the ship is about to start Disaster Area's signature concert finale; a dive into the sun of Kakrafoon.
6
"Fit the Sixth"
9February1981(1981-02-09)
Just before the ship crashes into the sun, Zaphod, Trillian, Ford, and Arthur escape in a teleport module that they convince Marvin to stay behind and operate. He is still on the ship when it heads into the sun, despite announcing that after 40 million years of existence, he has, in fact, worked out the Ultimate Question. Ford and Arthur arrive - without Zaphod and Trillian - on a spaceship carrying millions of people in cryogenic pods. The ship's inhabitants are from Golgafrincham and are made up of unskilled workers in apparently pointless jobs: marketing managers, used car salesmen, business analysts etc.. Years before, the intellectual and practical elite people of Golgafrincham (the thinkers and the doers) had tricked the most unproductive members of their society into leaving the planet by saying it was doomed. The ship lands on pre-historic Earth, and Ford realises that the Golgafrinchans, not the primitive cave dwellers already on the planet, are the ones that will evolve into the human race. Later, Ford realises that the Ultimate Question may still be in Arthurs's head and using improvised Scrabble tiles Arthur blindly pulls the question "What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9" from a bag (implying that, since the Golgafrinchans supplanted Homo Erectus as the dominant Earth species, the Earths programming has become corrupted). The two friends lament the eventual destruction of the Earth as What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong plays. An after-credits scene shows the Guide, now floating in space, as it shows the updated entry for Earth that Ford had spent 15 years working on, "Earth: Mostly Harmless"
Availability
Front cover of the first part of the UK VHS release of the series.
Neil Gaiman reveals in the first edition of his biography of Douglas Adams, Don't Panic, that the BBC was preparing a Laserdisc release of the Hitchhiker's television series in the mid-1980s, but had to cancel the project due to a legal tangle with the movie rights, although master tapes for the Laserdiscs were prepared. The sound was specially remixed in stereo and Elektra/Asylum records agreed to license the original Eagles theme music. The series was eventually released on VHS format by BBC Video in 1992. This was a dual cassette edition featuring additional material that had originally been cut from the broadcast episodes. CBS/Fox Video made the six episodes available on a single VHS tape in North America starting in 1993. They were joined by The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, also on VHS, that same year, as well as a Laserdisc release. A double tape box set edition was also released featuring the collected complete series and Making Of releases. Restoration of the six episodes and the Making Of documentary commenced in 2001, with a Region 2 and 4 DVD release in the United Kingdom by BBC Video (Catalogue Number BBCDVD 1092) in January 2002. A Region 1 edition, released by Warner Home Video, followed in April 2002. Both DVD editions are two-disc sets, with the six episodes on the first disc and accompanying bonus materials on the second. The North American DVD edition also has a copy of the Omnibus tribute to Douglas Adams from BBC Two that aired on 4 August 2001, which the UK DVD edition does not.
A special edition box set of the series was released on Blu-ray and DVD on 1 October 2018. The set featured upscaled HD versions of the original episodes alongside optional stereo or 5.1 surround sound mixes remastered by Mark Ayres, formerly of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
In North America, the complete series is viewable on Hulu, Amazon Prime and BritBox.[10] In the UK, the complete series is viewable on BritBox, with the Special Edition available on Amazon Prime Video.[11]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a 67% approval rating based on 6 reviews.[12]
^a The part of "Loon-Quall," one of the two computer programmers who hears Deep Thought announce "The Answer," is stated by the DVD production notes as being played by David Leland. However, the idea of the role was for that character to have been descended from the earlier programmer, Lunkwill, played by Antony Carrick.
Related Research Articles
Slartibartfast is a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a comedy/science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. The character appears in the first and third novels, the first and third radio series, the 1981 television series, and the 2005 feature film. The character was modelled after actor John Le Mesurier.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and 2005 feature film.
Mostly Harmless is a 1992 novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It is described on the cover of the first edition as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy". It was the last Hitchhiker's book written by Adams and his final book released in his lifetime.
Ford Prefect is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the British author Douglas Adams. His role as Arthur Dent's friend – and rescuer, when the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass at the start of the story – is often expository, as Ford is an experienced galactic hitchhiker and explains that he is actually an alien journalist, a field researcher for the titular Guide itself, and not an out-of-work actor from Guildford as he had claimed.
Shada is a story from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by the series' script editor Douglas Adams, it was intended as the final serial of the 1979–80 season but was never originally completed, owing to strike action at the BBC during studio recording. Entering production as a six-part story in 1979, plans were later revised for the story to be broadcast as a four-part story in 1980. Ultimately however, the story was never completed in either format.
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. Originally built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP technology, Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Instead, the crew request him merely to carry out mundane jobs such as "opening the door". Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human, though this is, if anything, an underestimation. When kidnapped by the bellicose Krikkit robots and tied to the interfaces of their intelligent war computer, Marvin simultaneously manages to plan the entire planet's military strategy, solve "all of the major mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and psychological problems of the Universe, except his own, three times over", and compose several lullabies.
Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character and the hapless protagonist of the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Tricia Marie McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the movie version, her middle name is Marie. Physically, she is described as "a slim, darkish humanoid, with long waves of black hair, a full mouth, an odd little knob of a nose and ridiculously brown eyes," looking "vaguely Arabic."
Life, the Universe and Everything is the third book in the six-volume Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction "trilogy of five books" by British writer Douglas Adams. The title refers to the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy" by Douglas Adams, and is a sequel. It was originally published by Pan Books as a paperback in 1980. The book was inspired by the song "Grand Hotel" by British rock band Procol Harum. The book title refers to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, one of the settings of the book. Elements of it are adapted from the radio series, primarily the Secondary Phase, although Milliways itself, Arthur and Ford's final fate come from Fits the Fifth and Sixth of the Primary Phase.
The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—initially a BBC Radio series by Douglas Adams—who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project for a hyperspace express route. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans, and have green skin. Vogons are described as "one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous", and having "as much sex appeal as a road accident" as well as being the authors of "the third worst poetry in the universe". They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats. According to Marvin the Paranoid Android, they are also the worst marksmen in the galaxy. They follow orders as they were told to and will not allow exceptions.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction video game based on the comedic science fiction series of the same name. It was designed by series creator Douglas Adams and Infocom's Steve Meretzky, and it was first released in 1984 for the Apple II, Mac, Commodore 64, CP/M, MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari 8-bit computers, and Atari ST. It is Infocom's fourteenth game.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy of five books" by Douglas Adams, with a sixth book written by Eoin Colfer. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name, centering on the adventures of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth; while roaming outer space, he comes to learn the truth behind Earth's existence. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon previous works in the media franchise of the same name, created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, John Malkovich, and the voices of Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Thomas Lennon, Richard Griffiths, Ian McNeice, Bill Bailey and Alan Rickman. Adams co-wrote the screenplay with Karey Kirkpatrick but died in 2001, before production began; the film is dedicated to Adams. The film received positive reviews from many critics and grossed over $100 million worldwide.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series primarily written by Douglas Adams. It was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 1978, and afterwards the BBC World Service, National Public Radio in the US and CBC Radio in Canada. The series was the first radio comedy programme to be produced in stereo, and was innovative in its use of music and sound effects, winning a number of awards.
The terms Primary Phase and Secondary Phase describe the first two radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first broadcast in 1978. These were the first incarnations of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise. Both were written by Douglas Adams and consist of six episodes each.
The Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase, Quintessential Phase and Hexagonal Phase are respectively the third, fourth, fifth and sixth series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Produced in 2003, 2004 and 2018 by Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4, they are radio adaptations of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth books in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series: Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish; Mostly Harmless and And Another Thing....
And Another Thing... is the sixth and final installment of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy of six books". The book, written by Eoin Colfer was published on the thirtieth anniversary of the first book, 12 October 2009, in hardback. It was published by Penguin Books in the UK and by Hyperion Books in the US. Colfer was given permission to write the book by Adams' widow Jane Belson.
References
↑ The spelling of Hitchhiker's Guide has varied in different editions. For consistency this article always spells it this way. See Spelling of Hitchhiker's Guide.
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