Douglas Adams

Writer Douglas Adams had a breathtakingly fertile mind, and TV has sometimes proved a limited medium for capturing his flights of fancy. But Howard (Misfits) Overman has plucked the comic essence of Adams from his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and worked it into a digestible, enjoyably eccentric format.

A well-received pilot in 2010 has spawned this three-part commission - a first for BBC4 and we hope not their last - starring Stephen Mangan as the shambolic, slightly annoying gumshoe and "Everywhere Man" Darren Boyd as his flinching sidekick.

The endearingly chaotic story about Pentagon surveillance, horoscopes and a toy pig is suitably Adamsian, and overall it makes for a quirky alternative to Sherlock - I think it can go quirkier still. But the show belongs to Boyd: without expending any effort, he has all the funniest moments.

Dirk Gently: The case of the missing electric monk

It's a tricky business, steering Douglas Adams's dodgy sleuth Dirk Gently from page to screen. Howard Overman tells Benji Wilson how he did it.

Since 2010's largely successful pilot episode based on Douglas Adams's comic detective novels, public appreciation of bromantic bickering between sociopathic north London super-sleuths and their prissy but redoubtable sidemen has risen considerably. A fluffy pig, some bogus horoscopes and an extramarital affair are the dots that Stephen Mangan's 'holistic' private eye - a shaggy-haired Sherlock with a belief in the interconnectedness of seemingly random coincidences - and grounded associate Darren Boyd must join to stop some global meltdown or other. It ditches the more ornate lunacy and the dark, portentous undercurrents of the Adams originals, but just enough of his charm, fun and spirit of closeted anarchy remains to appeal to fans as well as newcomers.

The thousands of creative decisions behind Dirk Gently

One man, Douglas Adams, wrote two and a half books about the adventures of holistic detective, Dirk Gently, and now over 100 people have collaborated to bring his character to the small screen for a new series which starts tonight.

The late Douglas Adams, upon whose work Dirk Gently is loosely based, once served as script editor during Doctor Who's original run, so the links are inherent anyway. But television really doesn't need another straggle-haired, loose-limbed, people-phobic, geek-chic eccentric solving crazy puzzles with assistance from a more diffident and human sidekick. It's probably only a matter of time before they revive Catweazle starring Ben Whishaw as a sexy nerd wizard in a pin-striped smock (I really shouldn't be giving them any ideas).

Stephen Mangan is fine as Gently, a conceited, bumbling, shabby detective who conducts "tangential investigations" based on his belief in the interconnectedness of all things. But his borderline charming performance isn't enough to rescue this micro-budgeted production from resembling a CBBC version of Sherlock.

The gritty cheapness of original BBC4 comedies such as The Thick Of It and Getting On actually works in their favour, as their dark, jittery essence practically demands flat lighting etc. But Dirk Gently, in trying to create a much lighter and more fantastical mood, is ill-served by its cheapo aesthetic.

Everything about it is far too slight: slightly likeable, slightly funny, slightly clever, but never enough to really succeed as either comedy or drama. And while the decision to downplay the science-fiction concepts found in the original books makes sense from a budgetary point of view, it also exacerbates the general feeling of pointlessness. It's just too generic and ordinary. And Douglas Adams was never generic and ordinary.

Douglas Adams & Stephen Fry were unbelievably similar

Next weekend, legendary conservationist Mark Carwardine will be celebrating the life of Douglas Adams, with whom he did so much to help threatened wildlife with their book Last Chance To See, which was adapted for television with Stephen Fry.

Following a well-received pilot, Stephen Mangan returns as Douglas Adams's holistic detective. The first of three new adventures finds Gently and sidekick Macduff (Darren Boyd) probing the death of a computer whiz who thought the Pentagon was after him, and taking on a client convinced his horoscopes are coming true. At times it's rather dizzying as the script from series creator Howard Overman (Misfits) skedaddles along, but best just to admire the skill and mad energy of it all.

Compared to Whitechapel over on ITV1, the cases ­investigated by Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency make perfect logical sense.

But the first pilot episode of this BBC4 comedy screened back in 2010 got a mixed reception.

People who hadn't read Douglas Adams' original novels tended to like it more than devotees.

They were peeved that Dirk Gently wasn't played by a pudgy man wearing a red hat, a green striped tie and thick metal ­specs, but by Stephen Mangan.

Fans also objected to the way Howard Overman's script left out so much of the book's detail - which is a bit like complaining that you can't fit the entire British Olympic Squad on a push-bike.

Recommissioned for three episodes (they're nothing if not bold at BBC4!) Mangan returns along with Darren Boyd as his much put-upon partner Macduff.

It's a name that's perfectly suited to being chewed over and spat out with scorn as Gently does here.

Tonight Dirk must discover the connection between a man who thinks the Pentagon wants to kill him and another man who thinks his horoscopes are coming true.

According to Dirk's holistic view, these two seemingly unconnected cases must be linked.

And fans of Adams' novels will be pleased to see Dirk's theory of "Zen Navigation" comes straight from his book, The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul.

Basically, if you have no idea where you're headed, just find a car that looks like it knows where it's going and follow that.

Howard Overman: Gently is another 'comic take on genre'

There's a fourth series of Misfits coming, and a US pilot created with Josh Schwartz. But first comes an adaptation of Douglas Adams's 'holistic detective' tales.

After a successful pilot, Howard Overman's (Misfits) adaptation of Douglas Adams's detective tales gets a three-part run. Stephen Mangan stars as the gauche sleuth with a knack for solving cases by circuitous means. The opener finds Gently and put-upon associate MacDuff (Darren Boyd) in Cambridge tackling a conspiracy theory and a murder. Meanwhile, Macduff's girlfriend Susan (Helen Baxendale) is also in Cambridge at an interview for a new job which, if she got it, would mean the end of Gently and Macduff's detective partnership.