THUD: DIRK GENTLY HITCHHIKES TO BBC

Love the books, a lot more trippy than Hitchhikers so I look forward to this.

The fuck? There's a Dirk Gentley series coming out? Pleasebegood! Pleasebegood! Pleasebegood! Pleasebegood!

Coming Soon!? Please let be before the end of life, the universe, and everything!

There's something about seeing Adams' stuff being put to film that never sits right with me. Cheapens it somehow. Still, I hope the show surprises me.

THUD: DIRK GENTLY HITCHHIKES TO BBC

First look at the tv show of Douglas Adams' second most famous series!

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Mentioned this in the other thread, but something about adapting Adams' work to film seems to cheapen it. It's absolute genius on the page, but when transferred to the screen, never comes off as anything more than amusing.

I actually liked the HITCHIKERS movie. Rockwell, Freeman and Rickman were great and Zoe Deschanal was adorable.
Can't remember if I read Detective's. Will have to remedy that.

Sorry to editorialise but I think you ought to clarify your last remarks by asking if this could be the first successful film or TV adaptation of Adams' work. The original Hitchhiker's BBC radio serial is incredibly good and deserves not to be lost in the mix. Personally, I'd even argue that the related 70s BBC TV adaptation works much more often than it doesn't. Fans of Douglas Adams should seek them out - the radio show on particular.

The original radio version isn't an adaptation. The novels that followed it are.

Anyway, people should read Dirk Gently. It's arguably better than Hitchhiker.

Already have my copy on the way. Funny, cause was just looking at picking it up last week. This gave me a good kick in the ass.

Point on the radio adaptations, but I couldn't stand the BBC series. Agree with Evi that something just seems off about his humor when translated to screen. It's too literary, perhaps.

Right on both.

Always thought Dirk Gently was an influence on Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it.

I say they better have some DAMN good writers working on this.
I particulary find the second & last Dirk Gently novel 'Long Dark Teatime of the Soul' easily on par with the HHG, and I like the idea of setting some ideas in the world created there- it has a nice goofy 'upperlip fantasy' feel to it. The absurdism in there is also not as abstract as in HHG, which to me was the main failure of the movie adaptation (and maybe also why it worked better on the radio). In the DG novels the humour is more grounded and concrete- it mainly plays off the collision between mythological concepts and contemporary society, and crazy real-life implications of philosophical concepts.
Also, Gently is kind of a Lebowski detective figure. He never actively solves a case, it mostly solves itself, and his own activities usually only serve to complicate the plot or have a completely different outcome from what he intends.
So that's great material to work into a detective serial- but with the DA name attached to it they better make sure to have some CRACKING writers (well, it's BBC of course... shouldn't be an insurmountable problem).

I like the first book (the sofa gag is still brilliant) but it's Teatime that's amazing.

Not really. Dirk Gently certainly works better as literature but for sheer chaotic humour you can't top Hitchhiker's. It's like saying Charlie Chaplin is better than the Marx Brothers. They're both brilliant in very different ways.

I merged the threads to keep the discussion tidier.

Always thought Dirk Gently never got the attention it deserved, simply from being in the shadow of Hitchhiker's, but I love the books. The first one has one of my favorite lines Adams ever wrote: "Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

Ha. Great minds, Ripoll.

I think the biggest questions I have at the moment is as follows: What?!? There's a Dirk Gently television series? Why am I only learning this now?

Actually, that's three questions.

If this is done properly, it will make an amazing pairing with the Beeb's Sherlock (which I only just caught up with).