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).

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...

"Episodes" concerns a pair of brittle - but improbably naïve - British writers (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig). They are lured to Hollywood with the promise that their successful UK series about an elderly, erudite school headmaster and his charges will translate fabulously to the U.S. They are assured the show will happen with only minimal changes. Not! The stunned pair is forced to accept Matt LeBlanc (playing himself) as the series star. LeBlanc is deadpan and adorable riffing on his own image/reality as an actor whose best days were a decade ago (when he was one of the stars of "Friends"). Matt's got guts, and he can act. He is strikingly comfortable allowing himself to appear unsympathetic and cynical. And handsomer now; he has allowed the gray in his hair to grow in.

But the heart of "Episodes" is the dry, withering rat-tat-tat between Mangan and Greig. It's Nick and Nora Charles, it's Maggie Smith and Michael Caine in "California Suite." It's the real deal for anybody who has had to negotiate vicious showbiz bullshit. And even if you haven't had to do that, it is fabulous to watch, and to listen to. The writing is super-clever and spot on.

Stephen Mangan explains 'Episodes' role

Stephen Mangan has revealed details of his new sitcom Episodes.