
Douglas Adams
- English
- Writer
Press clippings Page 11
In a comedy based on Douglas Adams's novels, Stephen Mangan stars as detective Dirk Gently, whose investigative technique is based on "an unswerving belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things". Happily, the switchback script here, by Howard Overman (Misfits), has a kind of pointedly whimsical quality that's pure Adams. Although there are moments when Mangan's energy overwhelms the rest of the cast, you suspect Gently's creator would approve.
Jonathan Wright, The Guardian, 20th May 2011Meddling with the novels of such a geek luminary as Douglas Adams is a precarious business, so it's no surprise that this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - first shown on BBC4 last December - had ardent fans up in arms over the deviation from its source novel. But a series has been commissioned, so all their favourite bits of the books have a chance to make it to the screen. For the rest of us there is enough to appreciate in a plot that expands from a case of a missing cat to some surreal flights of fancy. Stephen Mangan is great as the chaotic, evasive Gently, while Darren Boyd does a great line in bewilderment as an unwitting sidekick.
David Crawford, Radio Times, 20th May 2011Stephen Mangan's not-great-but-better-than-expected turn as Douglas Adams's holistic detective actually stands up to a second viewing, so even if you watched it on BBC4, you may be surprised to find you like it more this time around.
TV Bite, 20th May 2011Fans of Douglas Adams were unimpressed with this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency when it aired on BBC Four last year - they felt it deviated too far from Adams's original novel. Tonight, it gets its first terrestrial airing with the detective (Stephen Mangan) examining a case that links a missing cat with an exploding warehouse.
Patrick Smith, The Telegraph, 19th May 2011Dirk Gently commissioned for a full series
BBC Four has ordered a three-part series of Dirk Gently, following a successful pilot of Douglas Adams's comedy drama on the station last year.
British Comedy Guide, 31st March 2011BBC Books to publish 'lost' Douglas Adams' Dr Who
BBC Books is to publish the 'lost' Doctor Who story 'Shada', an unbroadcast adventure of the Time Lord written by Hitchhikers' Guide author Douglas Adams.
Charlotte Williams, The Bookseller, 24th March 201142 - need I say more?
We have all known for some time that the answer to the ultimate question of "...what's the meaning of life, the universe and everything" is 42. Ever since Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1979, researchers have frantically tried to determine the meaning of the meaning of life. Legend has it that Adams floated several possibilities, but told only Stephen Fry, who has vowed to take the secret to his grave.
Bill Young, Tellyspotting, 8th February 2011The meaning of life? 42 things about 42
Douglas Adams said it was the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. He meant it as a joke, but a new book shows how the number 42 has played a significant role in history.
Paul Bignell, The Independent, 6th February 2011Douglas Adams and the cult of 42
If you know The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, then you also know the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. But how did Douglas Adams come up with that number?
Peter Gill, The Guardian, 3rd February 2011I like comedies, I like dramas. Comedy-dramas I've never been sure about and Dirk Gently has all but convinced me they don't work. The eponymous hero is a detective who believes in "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" but after this outing, even he'd struggle to make a case for that hyphen straddling the two genres.
Gently is the creation of Douglas Adams who was working on another of his cases when he died. This one began with a missing cat and ended with what seemed like the attempted murder of the three attractive leads, Stephen Mangan as Gently, Helen Baxendale and Darren Boyd, who was in the recent Whites with Alan Davies and seems to be cornering the market in sidekicks to curly-headed fools. They all survived but surely the show won't.
The soundtrack twanged with Randall & Hopkirk-esque harpsichord (or did that pair use a spinet?).
The hero chugged around in a Leyland Princess. But Dirk Gently lacked drama, despite blowing all of BBC4's special-effects budget for 2011 on a warehouse explosion, and it lacked comedy with not one halfway funny line - this only making me yearn for the return of Mangan's cFree Agents from last year and scour Amazon for a cheap box-set of Baxendale's Cardiac Arrest, deadly certain laughs of the darkest hue.
Aidan Smith, The Scotsman, 21st December 2010