Happy 40th Birthday Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Here's Episode 42 of Sitcom Geeks in which John Lloyd opens up about his relationship with Douglas Adams - and the show itself: https://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/sitcom_geeks/episode_42/
Hitchhiker's Guide is 40 years old
The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million: they were the worst, too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that, it went into a bit of a decline.
That makes me feel old, 'Don't panic'...still the best sitcom-based advice I ever heard.
Oh no, not again.
I remember listening to this on Radio 4 on headphones when it first came out.
Some of it works just so well on radio (rather than TV or film).
For example in the first episode when the Earth blows up, on headphones the sound of the earth blowing up just seems to reverberate through the universe (or your head when listening on headphones).
Then the next line from Ford Prefect is "Would you like a peanut".
I just love the contrast between one moment the earth blowing up the next moment Arthur is being offered a peanut.
Sadly when it was made into TV programmes and films some of the subtle script was lost.
For example after Ford has offered Arthur a peanut Arthur asks Ford where they are.
"We're safe" says Ford "We're in a storage hold in one of the ships of the Vogon constructor fleet"
Arthur comes back with the lovely line "This is obviously some strange usage of the word safe I wasn't previously aware of.
But in the film of a few years ago they have the same question "Where are we" and the answer "we're safe"
But the following line is totally missed out, losing one of the classic lines from the original show.
(I realise that script changes have to me made when moving from one medium to another, but to throw out classic lines like that just seem a great shame)
Yep. The film was a big disappointment. Less witty dialogue more visual gags. Co-written by Douglas apparently, seems hard to believe. The BBC TV series was much more faithful to the radio.
Quote: Bill Poster @ 13th March 2018, 9:47 PMThe film was a big disappointment. Less witty dialogue more visual gags. Co-written by Douglas apparently, seems hard to believe.
Douglas died 2001, with the film not released till 2005. It was based on the movie scripts he'd been developing for it, but anything claiming he actually wrote the film himself is quite misleading!
Radio, the original and best... Definitely lost it after the second spurt.
I'm wearing my dressing gown writing this. Just thought you might like to know.
Quote: beaky @ 15th March 2018, 9:58 AMI'm wearing my dressing gown writing this. Just thought you might like to know.
That is interesting Beaky, do you have it monogramed at all?
Mine still has my old 'Lord Rage' monogram, must get it toned down.
Hoping you are keeping well! 
Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 15th March 2018, 9:41 AMRadio, the original and best... Definitely lost it after the second spurt.
Anything does well to get a second spurt out IMHO..
Wotcha, cock!
You OK Michael, having a good day?
I won hands down but my dad came hot on my heels despite a last minute spurt from my brother.
I thought HH got worse and worse, even more so than for most series, but I went throught this at https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/20948/ and no one cares what I think anyway.
Just the family crest, Frankie.
The trouble is Zaphod Beeblebrox is stuck in the 1970s.
Heresy for some, but even though I hated the film, I preferred Zooey Deschanel to Sandra Dickinson as Trillian. Yes I'm biassed because I used to have a crush on her, but I have a vague suspicion she may be closer to Adams' original imagination. Trillian was a complex individual and in the TV series she was more like a Barbarella figure. Zooey comes closer to doing her justice in my opinion. (No disrespect to Melanie C.)... It always annoyed me that they only had one major female part and went for the blonde-babe-in-sexy-outfit angle. I'm hardly a feminist myself, but with so few females in TV comedy, I felt they wasted an opportunity - especially given the depth of the original radio / book persona.
I think I've finally cracked why Douglas hit on 42 as the answer it's simple really
not only is 42 a the cosmic constant that determines the age of the universe, though he wouldn't have known that at the time the book was written he might well have been aware that 42 binary is 10 10 10 Most UK police forces use the 10code as a radio shorthand and 10 10 10 10 is the call for help desperately needed! It fits............