The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Series 1 episode guide

TV sitcom
BBC Two
1981
6 episodes (1 series)

Television adaptation of the highly successful sci-fi radio sitcom and comic novel, created by Douglas Adams. Also features Simon Jones, David Dixon, Sandra Dickinson, Mark Wing-Davey, David Learner and more.

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Series 1

1. Fit The First

Monday 5^th January 1981

One Thursday lunchtime, the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. Luckily for Arthur, his friend Ford Prefect turns out to be from somewhere in the vicinity of Betelguese and not from Guilford like he usually claimed. They escape the destruction of the planet only to be discovered by the captain who plans to throw them off the ship. Or if they're really unlucky, he may read them some of his poetry first...

2. Fit The Second

Monday 12^th January 1981

After being found un-welcome on a Vogon spaceship, Ford tries to conceive a plan of escape. Unfortunately, all of them rather involved being on the other side of the airlock door and the pair are ejected into space. They are rescued exactly 29 seconds later against highly improbable odds only to find that Ford is now a perfectly safe penguin and Arthur is rapidly running out of limbs. Following this, an encounter with a manically depressed robot leads to a series of highly improbable meetings...

4. Fit The Fourth

Monday 26^th January 1981

Seventeen and a half million years ago, a race of hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings set out to solve the meaning of existence and find the answer to life, the universe and everything. To this end they constructed a giant super computer which took seven and a half million years to come up with the answer that was not quite what was expected. But what has this got to do with Arthur? And why are a pair of mice so interested in his brain? The crew attempt to make it back to the Heart of Gold but are obstructed by two "sensitive new-age" policemen and thus find themselves next to a very inconveniently placed explosion...

5. Fit The Fifth

Monday 2^nd February 1981

The crew awake to find themselves not in the afterlife as expected, but at Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe, where Ford meets an old friend and Arthur argues the merits of vegetarianism with the dish of the day. In the car park Zaphod gets light fingered and they head off in a ship for excitement, adventure and really wild things. But the autopilot it seems, has already been given directions as to its destination...

6. Fit The Sixth

Monday 9^th February 1981

Marvin reveals that he knows the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything, but can tell that no ones really interested as the crew discover the purpose of the hijacked ship and hurriedly make plans of escape. After escaping, Ford and Arthur materialise in a very cold room full of dead telephone sanitisers, hairdressers and marketing executives and are promptly discovered and taken prisoner. A conversation with the captain reveals that the ship they have materialised on will soon be crashing into a small, prehistoric blue-green planet and a quick spot of adventuring leads Ford and Arthur to discover one of the biggest cock-ups in galactic history...

Series 1

1. Fit The First

2. Fit The Second

3. Fit The Third

4. Fit The Fourth

5. Fit The Fifth

6. Fit The Sixth

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