BBC Radio 4, March 3 2018

With the imminent arrival of The Hexagonal Phase, a look at the creation of the original radio series forty years ago.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (HHGG for short) has woven in and out of my life for the last forty years. Introduced to the series by a schoolfriend (who’s since gone on to great heights in the TUC), I listened over and over to the original series, and stayed up to hear the first ever broadcast of the Christmas episode (Fit the Seventh). I queued up for the signing of the first book by Douglas Adams, and followed HHGG through the second radio series, the TV series, the record albums (one of which I listened to repeatedly during a long stay in Canada in 1986), and then the later books. Some of these (heresy!) didn’t necessarily work for me as well as others – So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, in particular, although I understand it a lot better now – and like so many, I was devastated when news of Adams’ premature death was announced. Four years later, I was asked by Boxtree to ghost-write the book on the making of the movie which meant I was lucky enough to see a lot of footage that never made the final cut (Viltvodle VI in particular was destroyed in the edit), and to get to spend time with those who knew Douglas well.

And now it’s back. Eoin Colfer’s And Another Thing, written to mark the 30th anniversary of the first book, is the basis for Dirk Maggs’ new Hexagonal Phase (and that’s the right way round, not as Radio Times might have you believe!). But fret not – there’s a lot of Douglas Adams original material in there, thanks to diligent research by Kevin Davies in the Adams papers held in Cambridge. In the various folders there, Kevin found annotated scenes from book and scripts – as well as a number of notes from Douglas Adams to himself. These form the basis of David Morley’s excellent documentary on the subject.

You’d think rabid HHGG fans would know all that there is to know about the creation of the series, and the various influences on it, but there are a few surprises in here – some of the interviewees suggest that things may not have happened quite as we have been led to believe. And without doubt, there’s still a thrill in hearing Douglas Adams talk about the Guide.

Verdict: There’s certain things that I think are reaching a bit – particularly with regard to the possible derivation of the name Zaphod – but overall this is a good tribute to one of the masterpieces of radio science fiction. 9/10

Paul Simpson