Stephen Mangan

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" - even when he's searching for a missing cat. Happily, the switchback script here, by Howard Overman (Misfits), has a kind of pointedly whimsical quality that's pure Adams. Less happily, there are moments when Mangan's kinetic energy overwhelms the rest of the cast. On balance, though, you suspect Gently's notoriously deadline-averse creator would approve. A series please.

Douglas Adams's fictional detective has already been portrayed on Radio 4 in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and now in an adaptation by Howard Overman makes an amusingly inventive, if small-scale, transition to TV. Stephen Mangan plays the shambling, penniless sleuth who believes in the "fundamental interconnectedness of things" and possesses an unerring knack of stumbling to the right conclusion. In tonight's case, he is exercised by a lost cat, a missing inventor and an exploding warehouse. Events bring him into contact with two former university friends, the gullible MacDuff (Darren Boyd) and his girlfriend Susan (Helen Baxendale).

Douglas Adams always believed that Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency would make a better film than his more celebrated novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - although we can only wonder if the hugely talented, fitfully productive writer, who died in 2001 aged 49, would admire the concision of this one-hour adaptation. They've even lopped three words from the book's title. Running his Holistic Detective Agency, based on "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things", Dirk is broke and hopelessly chaotic. Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) is a spot-on Dirk, ably assisted by Helen Baxendale and Darren Boyd as sidekicks MacDuff and Susan. The plot builds to flights of fantasy from a simple case of a missing cat owned by pensioner Ruth, played by Doreen Mantle. From One Foot in the Grave's Mrs Warboys to Mrs Fishwick currently in Corrie, she's the connoisseur's vague old dear with impeccable comic timing.

Douglas Adams's holistic detective Dirk Gently arrives

Here's hoping that tonight's one-off show penned by Misfits writer Howard Overman and starring Stephen Mangan, leads to a full series.

How slavishly should screen adaptations follow a book?

It's been made very clear to me, mainly through conversations on Twitter, that a lot of people hold the Dirk Gently books in great affection and that they are going to be very upset if we don't get it right.

Video: Stephen Mangan on playing Dirk Gently

The actor, Stephen Mangan talks to BBC Breakfast about playing the lead role in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, adapted from the novel for BBC Four.

Its writer, the late Douglas Adams, always thought that his stories about Dirk Gently, the hapless detective, would make a better film than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but found it difficult to get his books adapted at the time.

Stephen Mangan 'wants more Dirk Gently'

Stephen Mangan has admitted that he is keen to film more episodes of Dirk Gently.

Stephen Mangan interview

Stephen Mangan couldn't afford to be daunted by outside expectations. "I'm not playing the book. I'm playing Howard's script. I play Dirk the way I would want to watch, in the most interesting way I can," he insists.

Stephen Mangan 'feels Dirk Gently pressure'

Stephen Mangan has admitted that he feels the pressure of playing Dirk Gently in a new BBC Four drama.

Stephen Mangan: "People still yell 'Dan' at me!"

"He physically abused me every day," says Stephen Mangan of recent co-star Matt Le Blanc. "He'd pin me down and fart in my face." We think he's joking. But the lank-haired comic actor has such a scurrilous sense of humour that it's hard to distinguish between a deadpan gag and a world-breaking exclusive.

It's no wonder, then, that he's been chosen to breathe life into Douglas Adams's huckster detective Dirk Gently in a new BBC drama...