Original title
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Released
1/5/1981
Origin country
GB
Genre
Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Production companies
BBC
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
1
Number of episodes
6
Don't Panic! The story of Arthur Dent, an average Englishman who life was spared by his friend, who turned out to be an alien, while the planet Earth is destroyed. His friend tells him about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a guide with anything you ever needed, and wanted to know. They travel across the galaxy, meeting friendly, and not so friendly characters in order to find the great question (the answer being 42).
Kevin Davies' hour-long documentary from 1993. Packed with unbroadcast and archive material, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Simon Jones, David Dixon, Mark Wing Davey, Sandra Dickinson, Douglas Adams and Alan J. W. Bell.
Kevin Davies revisits his footage from "The Making of..." documentary, to bring together a further 20 minutes of interviews and other material that didn't make it into the final program.
A profile of the late Douglas Adams - creator of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Features contributions from many of hsi famous collaborators and friends, such as Stephen Fry, Terry Jones, Clive Anderson and Griff Rhys Jones.
The first episode was screened to a selected audience at the National Film Theatre and featured a specially recorded introduction by voice-of-the-book Peter Jones -- his only on-screen appearance in his "Hitchhiker's" Capacity.
As part of a BBC Education programme, cameras were given access to the radio studios of "Hitchhiker's" during the production of the second episode, just in time to record things going not-terribly-well with the Nutrimat Drink Dispenser.
The BBC2 trailer for the first episode of "Hitchhiker's."
The final minutes of studio recording for Episode Two on Saturday, 8th November 1980, were a fraught affair, with time seriously running out. A 15-minute overrun was formally agreed but it still meant lights-out at 10:15PM, whether the scene was completed or not. Watch the timecode as it counts down towards the cut-off point of 22:15:00 and you'll begin to feel some of the tension experienced by all concerned.
An appearance by animator Rod Lord and producer/director Alan J. W. Bell on the 23rd January 1981 edition of the programme, talking about "Hitchhiker's" with Donny McLoud. This footage is sourced from the only surviving off-air recording.
A short sequence cut from Episode Two prior to transmission.
Whoopsies and bloopers of 16mm film clips rescued from the editors trim bins
At the time, Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head was at the cutting edge of robot animatronics. The 12th February 1981 edition of the BBC's long-running science programme Tomorrow's World took a closer look.
The first composited version of the title sequence borrowed obvious elements from the 1970s Doctor Who slit-scan tunnel effect. Alan J.W. Bell ordered a new tunnel for broadcast
All the Hitchhiker's series award-winning graphics have been re-mastered from original film into one mesmerizing sequence. Rod Lord's complex animation, enhanced by Paddy Kingsland's rich and delightful music with comedy legend Peter Jones' inimitable voiceover. Presented in Mono, as per the original
Live-action excerpts, newly re-mastered from surviving archive reels. Most of the original film from the series no longer exists, purged as usual in the way of big broadcasters, who thought they needed the shelf space more. Luckily, the animators saved their reference work-prints and other random bits of film. These aren't always in the best of condition, but they do offer fascinating glimpses into the production process.
Flashes of life on the studio floor at BBC Television Centre. The Inventive cast and crew furch between the mindless tedium and bursts of action. These were the usual dynamics of programme-making, in those analogue days of 1980. To be honest, very little has changed since.
From archive video, three people who knew Douglas Adams very well, remember his battles to write the earliest episodes. His younger half-brother James recalls the old typewriter thundering through the fabric of the family home. Radio Series Producer Geoffrey Perkins and Douglas Adams official biographer Nick Webb shed more light on his struggles. (Sadly, Perkins and Webb also died unexpectedly, way too young, as per their famous friend.)
Douglas Adams explains to Minnette Marrin his ideas for interactive CD-Rom audio drama, whilst in Birmingham the fans gathered for a Hitchhiker-themed games convention. Features a spoof animated Guide entry on Douglas.
The show made a triumphant return to its original medium on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004, with surviving cast members and some terrific guests, including Richard Griffiths as Slartibartfast and the recently deceased Douglas Adams himself, as Agrajag!
A quaint book programme where Robert Kee discussed Douglas Adams' second novel with the author.
Interviewed about his fiendish new Nitthiker's Gundo compoter game. The energetic presenter Freff recalled in 2018 how Douglas had had a headache, yet after two good rehersals, the segment was extended by 2 minutes.
Recently made available again on newly packaged CDs, (and also for the first time, on shiny red vinyl!) the various Phases of the radio series-adapted from the books in style by producer Dirk Maggs - are seen being recorded in these lengthy promos. (Originally made by Kevin Jon Davies for online use by Above The Title Ltd and BBC Radio 4, these have now been re-mastered, pluggling the 2018 re-releases.)
A look at how Stephen Moore recorded Marvin for The Tertiary Phase, with an annoyingly cheerful swap mattress called Zem. This was one of the video extras on the little-known 2006 DVD-Audio in 5.1 Surround of The Tertiary Phase
A March 1980 edition of the public access programme. Young, unemployed Anthony Hodgins conducted the earliest known filmed interview with Douglas Adams, on the subject of his unhappy childhood. An audio extract from Hitchhiker's is illustrated with library footage, the earliest visual interpretation on TV.
Never heard of International Towel Day? Simon Jones explains, whilst also plugging the 2012 Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Show Live UK tour.
The first broadcast glimpse of the new Hitchhiker's TV series was during this Nationwide clip, when presenter Sue Cook interviewed "Richard, er, Douglas Adams."
The Paranoid Android made his first bid for chart success with this whimsical appearance on the legendary BBC's flagship children's magazine show.
Made by Perfectly Normal Productions for BBC Radio 4, adapted by Dirk Maggs from the Eoin Colfer book And Another Thing.. plus some material newly discovered among Douglas Adams' papers. Once again, surviving cast members gathered at The Soundhouse in London, and welcomed some wonderful guest stars including Mitch Benn, Ed Byrne, John Lloyd and Sir Lenny Henry, with Jim Broadbent as Marvin.
The only time the BBC's listings magazine ever granted Hitchhiker's the honour of a front cover, they also made this promo, with unique narration. Luckily, the producer kept this copy. (NB: Edited for music copyright reasons.)
The world of proto-digital audio production was examined here in this highly technical explanation of the BBC's newest dubbing suite, featuring the BAFTA-winning sound supervisor Mike McCarthy, at work on Hitchhiker's. Warning: May also contain beer barrels.
Made in 2009 for Penguin Books' launch evert and website for the Eoin Colfer (6th Official) Hitchhiker's novel And Another Thing. These films about various aspects of Hitchhiker's were online for 2 years, in very low resolution, but have been up-sealed here. Douglas Adams features in archive footage from the early 80s. 1.Towels 2. Radio Origins 3. ICA Stage Show 4. Rainbow Theatre 5. BBC TV Series 6. Guide Graphics 7. Promos & Porsches 8. The Movie 9. Premier Party 10. This Never Happened.
35mm widescreen animation sequences used for back-projection on the set
The unexpurgated explosion, filmed at high speed, by looking up at a pyrotechnic
Arthur Dent, a perfectly ordinary Earthman, is surprised to wake up one day to find bulldozers outside his house with orders to knock it down to build a by-pass. He is even more surprised later on in the pub when his best friend Ford Prefect reveals himself to be from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The two are forced to hitch a lift on one of the advancing Vogon spacecraft which proceed to blow up the Earth to make way for an interspace bypass. Our two heroes find themselves trapped in a storage room in hyperspace, with only a menacing Vogon guard for company.
Arthur and Ford have been discovered. Vogon Captain Jeltz tortures them by reading his poetry. He then has Arthur and Ford thrown off his ship, to what must be certain death - except for one improbable miracle. At the last second, an infinite-improbability prototype ship (which can pass through every point in the Universe) rescues them. What is rather surprising is that Zaphod Beeblebrox, the hip cat who stole the spaceship, is vaguely familiar to Arthur. And so is Zaphod's companion, Trillian.
The starship Heart of Gold is headed for the planet Magrathea, a planet which it is generally agreed does not exist. In trying to land on Magrathea's surface, the crew faces an ancient nuclear missile defence system, escaping only when Arthur turns on the Infinite Improbability Drive. This helpfully replaces the missiles with a bowl of petunias and a very surprised sperm whale, who learns about the ground before he hits it. Later on, deep in the core of the planet, an unknown enemy attacks Trillian, Zaphod and Ford while Arthur meets Slartibartfast, an old man who designs planets for a living. Slartibartfast takes Arthur on a tour of the factory floor, showing off his latest project - Planet Earth, Mark Two.
Arthur learns about the Great Project - the second most powerful computer in existence, called Deep Thought, created to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The computer comes back online much later on to give its final answer - 42. The scientists are understandably hacked off, even more so when Deep Thought cannot tell them what the Ultimate Question is, and a new computer, called the Earth, has to be built for that purpose. The current owners of the Great Project, Trillian's pet mice, want to cut open Arthur's head to find the Question, but when the crew are all trapped behind a bank of exploding computers, all appears lost.
Arthur, Ford and the gang arrive at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe on Magrathea, built on the ruins of a planet-building complex, transported there by the exploding computers. Here, thanks to compound interest, you can enjoy a vast five-course meal and cabaret at no cost whatever while the universe collapses and dies around you. Arthur and Ford are surprised to find Marvin still waiting for them in the restaurant's star-ship park. He has been there rather a long time. They decide to steal a space-ship, but unfortunately it turns out to be the stunt ship of <I>Disaster Area</I>, the loudest rock band of all time, and is programmed to plunge directly into the sun. So what next?
Fortune is on the crews' side - the transporter on the ship is still working, but needs someone to manually operate it. Marvin is therefore pressed into volunteering to sacrifice himself so the rest of the group can escape. Arthur and Ford get separated from Zaphod and Trillian and find themselves on board a space ship about to crashland into the prehistoric past of a planet that the two of them find strangely familiar. If this is indeed Earth, then history as they know it is about to be changed - and so is the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything....
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