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 up at the stars, imagining hitching around them instead. From there it progressed into a 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, it was groundbreaking in that it was not filmed in front of a live audience, unheard of for radio comedy at the time. The special effects are also incredible, the result of many hours work by the Radiophonic Workshop.
The cast is magnificent. Simon Jones plays Arthur Dent as if the part was written with him in mind, which in fact it was. Geoffrey McGivern as the guide researcher who decided that the name Ford Prefect would be a good one to be inconspicuous while on earth is a wonderfully relaxed balance to Arthur's frustrated and confused lead, while Steven Moore as the ultra depressed robot Marvin is hilarious. Also Peter Jones as the book is brilliant. His deadpan readings of excerpts from the eponymous guide wonderfully accentuate the insane nature of the entries. There is also a great guest cast including John le Mesurier as the wise old bird.
The Hitchhiker's Guide maintains high standards throughout. Douglas Adams' vision of the universe out there is the wackiest I have come across to date, and although nothing makes sense, that just adds to the comic touch. Because it is on the radio, the dialogue has to be spot on and it is. The actors have a really obvious enthusiasm and work together very well.
Last year, the BBC played three further series of the Guide on radio 4, the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential phases, reuniting the original cast, and also featuring Adams himself as the unfortunate Agrajag, who is continually reincarnated in different forms, only to be unwittingly killed by Arthur Dent.
I would recommend this to anybody. I tell all my friends to try listening to the radio series and nobody has ever not liked it. I am sure you won't either.
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Advantages: Hilarious, Classic, Well-written, Well-acted, generally brilliant. Disadvantages: Not in a terribly convenient format for listening to one episode at a time
Apr 5th, 2006
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