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New Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Series Announced

AllieA writes "The BBC has announced that they will be adapting the final three Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books for radio, with this 'tertiary phase' including Life, the Universe, and Everything; So Long and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. Members of the original radio series cast, including Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey, Susan Sheridan, Stephen Moore and announcer John Marsh, will all take part in the new series, set to start next spring and be completed before the end of 2004."

7 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Finally.... by Ratface · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A reason to listen to "normal" radio again!

    I tend to listen only to Internet radio stations where I can steer the type of programming I listen to. There is all too little original programming on broadcast radio that makes it worthwhile - and waaay too much commercialised pop rubbish.

    Think about it - when was the last time you actually *looked forward* to something on the radio? And when was the lst time on TV?

    Right!

    --

    A little planning goes a long way...
  2. Peter Jones... by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Without Peter Jones as "The Book" I'm not sure how I feel about this.

    Also, it's important to point out that there were many differences between the books, the scripts, and the television production.

    Adoption of the remaining three books to Radio by anyone other than DNA himself is something I don't believe will work.

    --

    "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

    Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
  3. The Book by EngMedic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm going to miss Peter Jones as The Book, though...

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    filter: +3. Hey, look! all the trolls went away!
  4. Re:Will it do the books justice? by WegianWarrior · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If they take the cue from how the first radioseries turned into books, they probaly chop things up, rewrite the plot, rewrite dialoge, have people act the same way for different reasons (which saves rewriting the dialog) and genraly simply tell the same story ina different way.



    Will it do the books justice? Maybe not, but I think it still might be good. The movies don't do much justice to The Lord of the Rings (I found LotR:TT to do more injustice than justice to the book) but they are still worth seeing, ain't they?

    --
    Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
  5. Re:Will it do the books justice? by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure about this. The thing about the radio plays comming first was that the strange sound affects, tunes and dialogue forced you to imaging just how unbelievably weird everything was with not much description by the characters. The early books were an extrapolation of this. Now with the later books we've all read the books first and so the 'scenery' has been described to us and our imaginations no longer need to work.

    As they say the pictures are *always* better on radio.

  6. Re:This has already been done in Finland by TomV · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the BBC radio series consisted of 12 half-hour episodes (and a Christmas special), titled from "fit the first" to "fit the twelfth" in homage to "The Hunting of the Snark".

    If the plot of the YLE version matched the plot of the books then it wasn't a translation of the Radio Series, rather a fresh adaptation from the books. Basically, if it mentioned Hig Hurtenflurst, the Dolmansaxlil Shoe Corporation, the Shoe Event Horizon, the Bird People Of Brontitall, hundreds of cloned archaeologists named Lintilla, a thirteen mile high statue of Arthur Dent Throwing the Nutrimatic Cup and the Ruler Of The Univers and his cat, and small lemon-soaked paper napkins it was adapted from the Radio Series. If not, it was from the books.

  7. Re:Radio shows before they were books. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    the last 3 books were never on the radio. The first radio series formed the basis of the first two books, and the second radio series is pretty much an entity unto itself. Bits of it appear in the books, but not the whole thing.
    The Krikkit Wars of book 3 will be a joy to hear on radio.

    The second series ended "Will there ever be another series?"
    HURRAH !! YES!!

    Lets hope they are a success, and that the company goes on to acquire the rights to the Dirk Gently books too!!!!