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The basic concept is both incredibly simple and incredibly audacious: in the first episode, the main character’s house is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new bypass. This however shortly fades into the background when the Earth itself is demolished, also to make way for a new ... Read review
Advantages: Hilarious, Classic, Well-written, Well-acted, generally brilliant. Disadvantages: Not in a terribly convenient format for listening to one episode at a time
...tapes before I ever read the books, and I must say I’m glad I did so. Douglas Adams was a great writer, but his characterisations were inconsistent to say the least; he is said to have arbitrarily swapped lines of dialogue between characters to give them all some air time, and to make the jokes work. In some cases, without the different voices of the actors to let you know who’s speaking, it would be difficult to put a name to the character.
... ...amazing. Not the place to go for finely-structured plot or characters, but absolutely amazing for the use of subtle and intelligent humour throughout all the episodes, or “fits”, even to the end of the credits.
The basic concept is both incredibly simple and incredibly audacious: in the first episode, the main character’s house is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new bypass. This however shortly fades into the background when ... more
I listened to these tapes before I ever read the books, and I must say I’m glad I did so. Douglas Adams was a great writer, but his characterisations were inconsistent to say the least; he is said to have arbitrarily swapped lines of dialogue between characters to give them all some air time, and to make the jokes work. In some cases, without the different voices of the actors to let you know who’s speaking, it would be difficult to put a name to the character.
Having said that, these tapes are otherwise absolutely amazing. Not the place to go for finely-structured plot or characters, but absolutely amazing for the use of subtle and intelligent humour throughout all the episodes, or “fits”, even to the end of the credits.
The basic concept is both incredibly simple and incredibly audacious: in the first episode, the main character’s house is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new bypass. This however shortly fades into the background when the Earth itself is demolished, also to make way for a new bypass, though this is of course on a slightly larger scale. The main character, Arthur Dent, is saved from this destruction by his friend, an alien hitch-hiker who accidentally got stuck on the Earth fifteen years ago and adopted the name Ford Prefect because he thought it would be “nicely inconspicuous”. Arthur agrees to help Ford revise the book “The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, mainly because since his planet’s been demolished, there’s not much else for him to do. Hilarity ensues.
There are continuity flaws galore, but they’re the beautiful sort that go away if you ignore them. And Marvin the Paranoid Android, brought brilliantly to life by Stephen Moore, isn’t so much paranoid as manically depressed. You can’t be too much of a pedant in the Hitch-Hiker universe. You’d go mad. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Hitch-hiker is the sort of comedy you can listen to again and again without it losing any of what makes it so incredibly funny. In this respect, it’s a lot like Blackadder and Terry Pratchett, and most of the people I know who like one like the other two. One slightly annoying thing about the way it’s presented on the tapes is that one and a half episodes are on every side, meaning that if you’re relaxing on the other side of the room from your cassette player, you have to get up and turn the tapes over halfway through some of the episodes, if you don’t have the sort of tape player that does it for you, but that’s a small price to pay for the hours of amusement you can get out of listening to Hitch-Hiker. And once you’ve listened to it, it’s as if you’re part of a huge club of people with their own private in-jokes, like knowing the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything, and understanding the psychological benefits of knowing where your towel is.
I’d definitely recommend Hitch-Hiker to anyone, and I personally like the radio series a lot better than the books (the radio plot’s better) or the TV series (the radio pictures are better). The radio series is the original incarnation of Hitch-Hiker, and so you can experience Douglas Adams' universe in the media for which it was devised and written, and in which it works best. And unlike the tapes you can get of Douglas Adams reading the books (which in my opinion are inferior anyway) you don't have to worry about abridgement; the series on the tapes is exactly the way it was on the radio, even down to the credits. And of course, Peter Jones as The Book is brilliant.
The four-cassette box containing all 12 episodes will set you back about Ł35 from WHSmith's or Waterstones, which some people may think expensive, but it's really worth every penny.
Update 22/06/04:
OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH On the radio last night just before "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" the announcer said that the Tertiary Phase is going to be broadcast on BBCR4 in September! This hopefully means they've sorted out the broadcasting rights (something to do with the Hollywood film, they've been delaying playing the Tertiary Phase for months now) and we'll even get the fourth series eventually!
Now I'll put my excitement aside and explain what I'm talking about. Douglas Adams had long ago been asked to dramatise the 3rd and 4th books for the radio (just to confuse people) and the project was started, with him producing some material (and even playing a small part!) and others contributing both before and after his tragic death. All the surviving original cast members are involved, so we're FINALLY getting some more radio Hitch-hiker! So now would be a very good time to become a fan, or relive childhood Hitch-hiker memories.
Muswell 27.03.2004 (22.06.2004)
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Review of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Audio Book) - Douglas Adams
Advantages: Brilliant characters, clever humour, brilliantly read Disadvantages: Can't think of any, even though I listen to this over and over again
...this book, only listened to the tape. I have the tape of the first series, the radio 4 version, and although I have often considered reading the book, which we do own, the temptation to be lazy, lie back and enjoy the tape always won.
In September I wrote an opinion on Blackadder (TV) one of my other favourite comedies, and in fact there is a similarity between these two comedies. I may be confusing some people here as the storyline is completely ... ...before.
So enough about the wonderfulness of this book, and a bit about the actual storyline. We start our story in the middle of one normal Thursday, with our perfectly normal human Arthur Dent, who is in the middle of protesting against some bulldozers trying to knock down his house. The clever bit, the twist? Arthur Dents best friend Ford Prefect is in fact actually an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelguese. Don’t ...
jeocar 19.12.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Audio Book) - Douglas Adams
Advantages: Utterly hilarious, everybody should own this Disadvantages: None at all
The story of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a fascinating one. I am sure that many people will remember the recent film, but this is in fact the fourth incarnation of the Guide. The series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, the only human survivor after Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
It began life on radio, a crazy idea that Douglas Adams had while lying in a field in Europe on a hitchhiking tour and looking ... ...TV series, with most of the radio stars reprising their roles, and then became a book, and eventually five books, the infamous trilogy in five parts. Interestingly, they are all wildly different from each other, Adams believing that each new form had its own strengths and weaknesses that should be shown off.
Personally I have always found the radio series to be my favourite medium. I think that it is the purest and freshest. When it was first produced, ...
BenRowland 05.04.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Audio Book) - Douglas Adams
Advantages: Great, spaced-out fun Disadvantages: errr......
...radio play is one of the smartest and funniest around. Adams' largely plotless creation is full of ironic humour, as well as complete wierdness. The 'story' follows an earthman, Arthur Dent, who is rescued when the Earth is destroyed (to make way for a hyperspace Bypass) by his friend, Ford prefect, who turns out to be a hitchiking alien. What happens next is less of a story than an explosion in a wierness factory, with frequent interruptions from ... ...Guide To The Galaxy. Although the pace is fast, the events wacky, and the whole thing seems directionless, every chance remark by the characters,or seemingly pointless interjection by The Book does eventually get resolved. This means that as you progress throught it, the whole thing seems to reach some sort of identity in a way that is very complex and clever. If you have the stamina for this, it is incredibly entertaining. The books, too are well ...
loverice 04.07.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Audio Book) - Douglas Adams
Advantages: Like listening to the TV series. Funny, clever, good for all the family! Disadvantages: None I can think of.
...spine. I remembered watching the TV series as a kid, and I have vivid memories of the theme tune. This audio tape is almost identical to the TV series.
If you watched and loved the TV series, this portable piece of comic genius will not disappoint.
This CD is probably the most clever piece of science fiction - which isn't *science fiction* - I have ever heard. The story covers philosophy, religion, human nature, and digital watches, in such an ... ...to be an alien from the planet Beetlgeuse, and rescues him in the nick of time. The story continues by explaining that Ford is a reviewer, and is updating the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - a guide for anyone wishing to see the universe for less than 5 ulterian dollars a day. The story continues when Ford meets up with one of his brothers, who is currently President of the Universe, on their search for the answer to the ultimate question - Why ...
cs94njw 16.09.2005 (18.09.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Audio Book) - Douglas Adams
Advantages: The files are small and fit on just two CDs Disadvantages: Quality of recording poor.
Having read the above reviews, I have noticed they are generic, and do not represent a review of the actual item shown. This is the MP3CD edition, and while it therefore offers a cheap alternative to the full sets, and is squeezed onto two CDs, the encoding quality is appalling. I have dealt with MP3s for a long time now, and the quality, although often not as good as CDs, is certainly comparable when it comes to speech and sound effects, and is ... ...Hitch hiker's and jumped at the chance to replace my tired, worn tapes. However, when I listened to the episodes, there is a huge (and I mean huge) amount of pooing and hissing in the encoding, so much so that I could no longer listen. It is by far the worst piece of commercial encoding I have EVER heard, and coming from the BBC, I can only assume it is to make the audience buy the (overpriced) boxset. Do NOT buy this MP3 edition.
In conclusion, ...
jezmund 01.03.2005
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