BBC To Revive HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy had particular reason to celebrate this Towel Day (May 25, in honor of the author who died in 2001) when the news got out that the sixth book, And Another Thing, would be adapted into a radio series.
The series, which at six books is now the most inaccurately named trilogy of all time, originally got its start as a radio drama, so this is a homecoming, of sorts. The production, created by longtime Adams producer Dirk Maggs, is the first addition to the radio series since the fourth and fifth books (So Long and Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, respectively) were adapted for radio in 2005. There was also a “Live” version in 2014, but this was more a one-off performance separate from the series proper.
An interesting aspect of this series is the fact that the book in question is not by Adams. Eric Colfer (probably best known for Artemis Fowl) created, with the blessing of Adams’ widow, the continuation of the story in 2009. While initial reaction was mixed, the book has over time been accepted as, if not entirely Adamsesque, then at least acceptable to canon. At least part of this must be ascribed to the fact that Adams himself was unhappy with the ending of Mostly Harmless, as he had written it at a bad time in his life and felts its ending, in which he’d basically killed off the cast as thoroughly as possible, was a mistake. He had been working on bringing the story — and the characters — back to life when he died of a heart attack at age 49.
Very little is known at this juncture, the word only just having gone out. It is known that Maggs is wanting to bring back as many of the original radio cast as he can (sadly, Susan Sheridan, who played Trillian, passed away in 2015).
The series is tentatively set to broadcast in 2017.
(Kelly Luck still remembers the Babel Fish puzzle with fondness. Her other SciFi4Me work can be read here.)
