Quote: KLRiley @ May 29 2012, 10:17 AM BSTThen may I recommend the R4 version. Relatively faithful to the book. Excellent central performance by Harry Enfield, who in MHO gets much closer to Adams' Dirk. And there is a pleasing absence of Mangan.
Yes, I have that, but was a little disappointed it was the same story. I'll have to leave it a while before listening to it.
Quote: zooo @ May 28 2012, 2:34 PM BSTThe BBC making yet another shit decision to add to their enormous pile of shit decisions.
Hmmm...I don't know. I enjoyed the show but it did feel a bit like Sherlock + Dr Who = Dirk.
I'd be far more miffed if one of the other two got the chop.
I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the BBC dropped Dr Who. Not remotely. They are utterly clueless.
I really like this show. A bit gutted, tbh.
Quote: cwickham @ May 28 2012, 7:22 PM BSTA pity, but given the ratings, perhaps not that unexpected.
No. The ratings were very good for BBC Four.
Quote: Aaron @ May 29 2012, 6:10 PM BSTNo. The ratings were very good for BBC Four.
Not really - they were falling from an admittedly OK starting point. It started with around 770k and fell to 507k by the final episode. (I would have used consolidated ratings, not overnights, for a fairer comparison but the final episode didn't timeshift enough to get into the multichannel top 30.)
Given the budget cuts are biting and this must have been one of the more expensive programmes on the channel, I would have expected it to start slightly higher, perhaps touching a million for the opener, and be more consistent. I gather BBC4 is being turned into a channel designed to "compliment" BBC2 - i.e. more repeats - so any new commissions would have to do very well to survive.
If budgets are are issue, maybe they could give us a radio series.
Understand that there's an American version of this is the works by the same company that's currently doing a Dirk Gently comic.
I would give it a look.
As an avid fan of ALL things related to Douglas Adams I always mop up every version of his work wherever it appears. Especially as he encountered such incredible obstacles in getting his material in its original form made, for instance his film script, and the radio scripts of the 3rd, 4th AND 5th volumes of Hitchhiker's Guide.
This TV series bares NO resemblance to EITHER of the Dirk Gently novels, presumably hence the caveat of 'Based on' applied to it by the TV Company. The ONLY similarity is the name of the programme and the names of some of the characters.
With the paucity of available versions one is supposed to be grateful for ANY version at all.
If like me you are a Douglas Adams fan who is familiar with the novels you are guaranteed to be hugely disappointed by this program.
If however you've never heard of either Douglas Adams OR the Dirk Gently novels, then watch it for what it is, and possibly enjoy it as such. At the very least think of it as introduction to Douglas Adams, then try each Dirk Gently novel in turn and make up your own mind about the bloke and his creation.
