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BBC Radio 4 presents the Above the Title Production of
DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
by DOUGLAS ADAMS
"Only a Holistic Detective can end up in the right place at the right time for what, on the face of it, are all the wrong reasons."
The first ever BBC RADIO 4 incarnation of the "other" great creation by DOUGLAS ADAMS, the enigmatic DIRK GENTLY, will be produced in the first of three series by the award-winning team behind the epic conclusion to THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
Through an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things, Dirk Gently has established a Holistic Detective Agency. Its chief success seems to lie in tracking down missing cats for elderly ladies. But despite his strenuous denials, rumours of Dirk's psychic abilities have a bizarre tendency to come true. So when Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving in a very bizarre manner, he is drawn into a four billion-year old puzzle that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction.
This series of six half-hours features a stellar cast with HARRY ENFIELD as the eponymous Holistic Detective, BILLY BOYD (The Lord Of The Rings) as his client Richard Macduff, OLIVIA COLMAN (Peepshow) as his secretary Janice Pearce, JIM CARTER (The Golden Compass) as his nemesis DS Gilks, ANDREW SACHS (Fawlty Towers) as Professor Reg Chronotis, FELICITY MONTAGU (I'm Alan Partridge) as Susan Way, ROBERT DUNCAN (Drop The Dead Donkey) as her brother Gordon, TOBY LONGWORTH (Star Wars) as the Electric Monk and MICHAEL FENTON STEVENS (Nighty Night) as Michael Wenton Weakes. Making guest appearances are ANDREW SECOMBE (Star Wars), JON GLOVER (Harry Enfield & Chums), JEFFREY HOLLAND (You Rang M'Lud), WAYNE FORESTER (Captain Scarlet) and TAMSIN HEATLEY (Broken Sword).
Considered by many to be as funny, if darker, than Hitchhikers, the Dirk Gently novels are as much about Douglas Adams' uniquely funny views on consciousness, conservation and our place in the cosmos as they are about crime. The first series explores everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach, and an Electric Monk.
The cast features many old friends and colleagues of Douglas Adams, including the series music composer PHILIP POPE. The production team, from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases, is led by Executive Producer HELEN CHATTWELL, Producer JO WHEELER and Douglas Adams' own choice to pick up the Producer/Director reins of The Hitchhikers Guide, DIRK MAGGS.
The BBC AUDIOBOOKS commercial audio release will feature nearly an hour's worth of exclusive extra material available as a 3-disc CD (RRP £15.99) and to download (£10.80) from 8th November.
The series premieres on Wednesday 3rd October at 6.30pm on BBC RADIO 4, and will also be available on the Listen Again service on www.bbc.co.uk/radio4.
Douglas Adams' much loved detective, the enigmatic Dirk Gently, will be make his UK broadcast debut on BBC Radio 4 this October.
Featuring a star-studded cast with Harry Enfield in the lead role, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency will be produced by the same award-winning team that made the conclusion to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Harry is joined by Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd, Fawlty Towers' Andrew Sachs, The Golden Compass' Jim Carter and Peepshow's Olivia Colman.
Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things but his Holistic Detective Agency's only success seems to be tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely, and he is drawn into a four-billion year old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction.
This first series of six 30-minute episodes is adapted from the book of the same name and directed by Dirk Maggs, himself chosen by Douglas Adams to conclude the Hitchhikers saga.
The cast includes: Billy Boyd as Dirk's client Richard Macduff; Olivia Colman as Dirk's secretary Janice Pearce; Jim Carter is Dirk's nemesis DS Gilks; Andrew Sachs as Professor Reg Chronotis; Felicity Montagu (I'm Alan Partridge) as Susan Way, with Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey) as her brother Gordon; Toby Longworth (Star Wars) as the Electric Monk; and Michael Fenton Stevens (Nighty Night) as Michael Wenton Weakes.
Guest appearances are made by Andrew Secombe (Star Wars); Jon Glover (Harry Enfield and Chums); Jeffrey Holland (Hi-De-Hi); Wayne Forester (Captain Scarlet) and Tamsin Heatley (Broken Sword).
Considered by many Adams fans to be as funny as, if darker than, Hitchhikers, the Dirk Gently novels reflect Douglas' unique and funny take on matters as wide-ranging as consciousness, conservation, man's place in the cosmos and crime. The first series features everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach and an Electric Monk.
The cast and production team feature many old friends and colleagues of Douglas, including music composer Phillip Pope. The production team, from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases is led by Executive Producer Helen Chattwell and the Producers are Jo Wheeler and Dirk Maggs.
Re: Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently - Radio 4, Wednesdays @ 6.30pm
Heads up again ...
Its back next Thursday night ... the second (but not final - see production notes below ) adapted Dirk Gently radio drama, once again realised by the very talented Dirk Maggs
BBC Radio 4 presents the Above the Title Production of
THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL
by
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Harry Enfield returns to BBC Radio 4 for the second series featuring Douglas Adams' quirky and enigmatic Holistic Detective, Dirk Gently. This time he's pitted against a sinister team headed by the Fifth Doctor Who - Peter Davison - as Simon Draycott and Jan Ravens (Dead Ringers) as his wife Cynthia.
Dirk has fallen on hard times and when a frantic client claims he is being stalked by a goblin and a hairy, green-eyed, scythe-wielding monster, things have hit rock bottom. He is forced to desperate measures - reading palms in a tent, dressed as an old gypsy woman.
But when Detective Superintendent Gilks (Jim Carter, The Golden Compass) decides the headless body of Dirk's client is the result of a particularly irritating suicide, Dirk is plunged into a mystery where the interconnectness of all things is tested to the limit.
Odin, Father Of The Norse Gods (Stephen Moore, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) signs away his powers for 24-hour nursing care under the strange Dr Standish (John Fortune, Bremner Bird & Fortune). A Nurse who treats eagle wounds (Morwenna Banks, Absolutely) without anaesthetic. Dirk's old friend Richard Macduff (Billy Boyd, Lord Of The Rings) finds himself working for a sinister new employer. A canned drinks machine claims to be Dirk's ex-secretary (Olivia Colman, Peep Show). And an American journalist (Laurel Lefkow, Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic) finds herself being stalked by Thor The God Of Thunder (Rupert Degas, The Brightonomicon).
This is the second six-part series from Above the Title Productions based on the Dirk Gently novels. The executive producer is Sioned Wiliam. The producer is Jo Wheeler.
The director is Dirk Maggs, originally chosen by Douglas Adams to adapt and direct the award-winning radio conclusion to The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
The series begins on BBC Radio 4 at 11pm on Thursday 2nd October and will be released in extended form on CD and online from BBC Audiobooks in November.
Like DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY, Douglas Adams wrote THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL as a mystery novel, not a six-part radio series,. The more confusing it became - the harder the reader found it to connect things - the more it served Douglas's purpose, which was to pull together the most unlikely set of events possible. But flicking back a chapter or two to check what on earth the author has in mind is not a luxury radio listeners can indulge in (especially when driving, even using the Holistic System Of Navigation). We were keen that the second Dirk Gently series should avoid any confusion - despite the author's intention to baffle. If the first novel were a jumbled up Rubik's Cube to which last year's radio series provided a move-by-move solution, not revealing the final twist which put all six colours on their respective surfaces till the end, this series required a Rubik's Cube which started solved and stayed that way.
The challenge was to retain Douglas's mischievous delight in strewing barrel loads of red herrings across the path of his detective story - all of which prove to be vital clues to its solution - whilst fleshing out characters created more in descriptive passages than in dialogue. The process involved the 'Columbo' method, where the audience are fed key bits of plot in advance, so they can more comfortably enjoy witnessing our hero stumbling blindly towards a solution they already have had revealed. Thus the adaptation reshuffles or invents bits of story to sharpen the plot and characters - the Draycotts, for example, who barely exchange a single line of dialogue with anyone in the book - not even each other. That's fine in a novel by Douglas - all of which we heartily recommend you read in any case - but too minimalist for a six-part radio series.
Some of the characters and plot devices employed here are not in THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL but inspired by Douglas's notes for the third Dirk Gently novel - notes so brief they are not included in its unfinished, published form as THE SALMON OF DOUBT. On Douglas's hard drive a sub-folder marked "The Old Salmon" contains a document named "The Whole Resource (Relevant)". This is forty-three pages of his earliest notes for a book under the same title, quite a few of which feature characters and ideas from his previous magnum opus. Several of these have informed certain passages in these recordings, and may indirectly provide a means of helping Dirk Gently find a solution to various mysteries within the third radio series next year.
28-09-2007, 9:41 PM
Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently - Radio 4, Wednesdays @ 6.30pm 
Re: Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently - Radio 4, Wednesdays @ 6.30pm 
) adapted Dirk Gently radio drama, once again realised by the very talented Dirk Maggs
E. & O.E.
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