Douglas Adams chat and listening

I am a huge fan of the late great Douglas Adams, still much missed.
And the kind soul who had put up the BBC play of LotR's I noted has also put up the Hitchikers ones too.

For those who dont know Hitchikers began life as a radio comedy. Then became a series of vinyl lp's slightly altered, then a trilogy of books, substantially altered (which ended up being a trilogy in 5 parts!), then a BBC Tv series, altered again, using most of the original radio cast and some truly awful effects. And finally a Hollywood film, very altered, that didnt do it much justice.

So heres a sort of listen along thread to what I think is the best version- in its original medium of radio.
Episodes are half an hour long (and do stay with them to the credits end as Adams was a Pyhton fan and nicked their idea of shoving a bit extra on the end after the credits-he was such a Python fan he once said of his youthful ambiition, 'I despertly wanted to be John Cleese until one day it occured to me the job was already taken.'

So here is episode 1 of Hitchikers first broadcast in 1978 (so in the digital watch joke-replace digital watch with mobile phone and its still funny!).
Do enjoy and comment if you listen.

No takers for giving Hitchikers a go?

How about I try to entice you with short extract explaining the company motto of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (Think Microsfot but on a universal scale and whose products are even less likely to do what you want them to).

Share and Enjoy!

oh, sorry petty, I actually gave the book a go and it was brilliant, though not finished with it. It's in english so it was a bit hard in the beginning, but the movie looks great

I encourage you hugely Norc to listen to these radio plays- this was its original format before the books. It was written for the medium of radio and huge fan of the books as I am in my honest opinion it was never better than in its original form (and after Adams sad death the original cast reunited and did the final books-so they sound nice and modern)

Another snipper- this time from the BBC tv version- it looked terrible in every way- from costumes to sets- however they left the dialogue alone making hugely enjoyable still despite the visual appalingness. (Still not as good as the radio version mind- different Ford in the TV series, he is good but the original is brilliant).

Meant to say Norc steer clear of the film (at least till youve heard he original) if you dont want to destroy it for yourself forever. 90% of it is the filmic equivelent of pissing on his grave! And the other 10% is what is left of Adams ideas.

Here am i with a brain the size of a planet. Love it.

Life, don't talk to me about life. lol

yeah, but Martin Freeman.

Sorry Norc, Freeman performance is genereally considered about adequate, but not holding a candle to the original Arthur picked by Adams and who has played the part for over 30 years now.

Been meaning to post. Listened to the first part when it was put up. I have been wanting to find this for a long time, having read the books and enjoyed them. Must say it does work better as a radio play. So where is the next one?

Wooo! Our Mayors back- roll out th red carpet (the fireproof one!).

And as always Kafria, your wish is my drunken command.
And radio is where it belongs. Definetly the best medium for it.

Thanks!

I Marvin!

Marvin and Ford are my two favourite characters. Although I've also got a soft spot for ole Slartibartfast.

Heres episodes 3 and 4 to keep you going.

just discovered this thread. The radio version can be found on the internet now! That's fantastic news.

I fully agree with Petty that the original radio version is by far the finest incarnation of HHGG, in fact I'd go so far to say it's one of the jewels in the crown of human culture.

http://www.musicoflotr.com/2012/06/rings-and-contracts.html

Always happy to see the Adams thread given a bump Chris- but um is their a connection I'm missing?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Always happy to see the Adams thread given a bump Chris- but um is their a connection I'm missing?

Arnt they the same bloke. Doug Adams

Odo n Wisey are gona av a field-day.

Not unless that bloke wrote Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Chris and he is also dead.

Is there any way we can cover this up ?
Saw the name, so assumed they were the same.
If you delete the posts now, no one will no

Feel like a numbat

Well as a moderator I could delete it, or even move it to the appropriate thread for film music, that would be the responsible thing for me to do. Unluckly for you I wouldn't know responsibility if it came up and said 'this kid is yours Mr Tyrant". So lets talk backhanders to get this cleared up shall we. Payment in buckie be ok with you? Or would you rather remain a numbat?

I like numbats, cute cuddly little things.

But rude apparently. Why little bugger, stick its tongue out at me would it? They aren't poisnous or anything are they? (You can never be sure with down-under things, most of them seem to be either poisnous or have to many legs, or both. I think that must have been where Ungoliant lived).

Numbats are cute, striped marsupials with bushy tails. They are strictly termite eaters, which they eat when it warms up enough for the termites to become active in rotting logs and under leaf litter. They sniff and scratch, turning over soil and breaking into logs to expose the termites; then they stretch out their long tongue to mop them up. Numbats have teeth but they can't chew; they just swallow as many as 20,000 termites a day.
Close

It also looks suspicously like someone took the head of a squirrel, the tongue of an anteater and the body of a fluffy duckling and bunged it all together. Between it and the platypus I suspect some very suspsicous goings on in OZhobbitland.

So here I was thinking you had done a wonderful combination of 'numbskull' and 'dingbat'. And now you tell me the thing actually exists?!

You Aussies are wacked.