the hitchHiker's guide to the galaxy

Following the huge success of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Tertiary Phase in 2004, the final two books in Douglas Adams’ masterpiece have been dramatised for radio, where Hitchhikers first began 25 years ago. On BBC Radio 4 from Tuesday May 3rd at 6.30pm (repeated the following Thursday at 11pm), The Quandary Phase and The Quintessential Phase of Hitchhiker's will be broadcast over a total of eight weeks, comprising adaptations of the novels So Long & Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless.

Award-winning production company Above The Title have picked up where they left off, to complete the ‘trilogy in five parts’. The original cast Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Stephen Moore, Mark Wing-Davey and Susan Sheridan have again been reunited, perhaps for the last time, and once again replacing the late Peter Jones as The Voice Of The Book is his great friend William Franklyn. Several actors connected with Hitchhiker's from its other radio and television incarnations are also taking part, including Jonathan Pryce, Bill Paterson, Sandra Dickinson, David Dixon, and Rula Lenska. New stars thumbing a lift include Jane Horrocks, June Whitfield, Stephen Fry ('The Voice Of the Book' in the new Hitchhiker's film), Arthur Smith, Saeed Jaffrey, Miriam Margolyes, and American superstars Jackie Mason and Christian Slater. Douglas’ close friend Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens, Paul McCartney’s Musical Director, will again provide the soundtrack, and the recordings will be mixed using the latest digital technology by Paul Deeley at The Soundhouse.

The programmes are being adapted, directed and co-produced by Dirk Maggs (Radio 1’s Batman, ITV’s The Animated Mr Bean, The Magic Roundabout Movie) and produced by Bruce Hyman and Helen Chattwell of Above The Title. Both Bruce and Dirk were Douglas Adams’ original choice for the job.

The next few months are set to see a revival of Hitchhiker-mania. The books came fourth in the BBC’s Big Read top 10 last year and Walt Disney are releasing the feature film in late April. As the new movie provides the first instalment of the saga for a new generation, these long-awaited radio episodes will bring the final books back to where the story began, with the original cast.