Adams' Dirk Gently Serialized on BBC Radio

happy monday writes "Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' is being serialised by BBC Radio, starring Harry Enfield. The first episode can be listened to on Radio 4's website now." The Times has a fairly glowing review of the program, and (for US folks like myself) some incomprehensible British-isms to boot.

Comments

Britishisms?

[toby]

Being British myself, and having modified my own communications to fit North American cultural scopes, I decided to scan the review for these claimed "Britishisms". A North American may be forgiven for not knowing who Kenny Everett is - although he certainly was broadcast as far afield as the former British colony Australia (now a military and cultural outpost of the USA) - but apart from that, what are the other impenetrable Britishisms?

Can't be bidet - a strictly Continental idea; "serendipitous" is surely common usage by now, though coined of course by a Brit; Chris Moyles - well who cares - one can assume he's the UK's Michael Richards - ditto; Boswell and Dr Johnson are simply subjects of general knowledge; Ravel is no Pom and his Boléro no English hymn; ah, Jeremy Clarkson, there you may have a point, laddie. Cholmondeley-Warner is just a television character, innit. Anything else?

Re:Britishisms?

[fsmunoz]

Australia is a military and cultural outpost of the USA? Wow, nice troll.

I don't think it was a troll, just an exageration to convey an image, an hyperbole if you will. I'm sure that the parent poster would say something along the same lines about the UK, just as I will happily (or not) say somthing about my own country in the same vein. Consider it a tongue in cheeck remark about the almost inevitable influence the US has all over.

Re:Britishisms?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or the fact that the CIA infiltrated our government in the Whitlam era, but hey, we host the Echelon network at Pine Gap for our own good I'm sure they told me.

Re:Britishisms?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zonk, the language is called English for a reason. The term 'Britishisms' is nonsense, either you understand English or you don't. If you don't, then you probably shouldn't be working as an editor.

Re:Britishisms?

[TheRaven64]

Car boot near the start, maybe? Lorry is another one. Mind you, any American who can't manage that kind of translation is incredibly ignorant.

Re:Britishisms?

[david.given]

I think the Lib Dems have two main things going for them: firstly, given half a chance they're going to push for electoral reform, which this country urgently needs; and secondly, they're really good at winding up the other two parties and pointing out the things they'd rather people not notice. So despite the fact that they're unlikely ever to gain power, and probably would do really badly if they ever did make it, I still think they're really useful.

It would still be nice to have a real government, though.

Oh good, RealPlayer

[svunt]

National broadcasters using these formats..tsk tsk - I'm an Aussie, and hate having wmv or mp4 only for video download from the ABC, but RealPlayer? Yuk! Poor Brits.

Re:Thanks for the warning

[garbletext]

Once again, the pirate community says "you're welcome"

Re:good stuff!

[wizzdude]

To be honest, I think the licence fee is worth every penny for Radio 2, 4, 5 Live, 6 Music and the website alone. I'm very happy to pay it for everything.

I absolutely "Adore" the Dirk Gently series.

[gbutler69]

Can't wait to hear these episodes.

Also, in case anyone thinks "Bolero" is a Britishism, recall that it was used as the theme for "10" starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek.

This movie was further immortalized in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in the famous swimming pool scene which was a homage to a similar scene in "10" with Bo Derek.

Tricky for radio...

[itsdapead]

I always thought it was much better than any of the Hitchhiker's novels.

Well, Hitchhiker's - at least the original radio show and the first two books based on it - was basically a series of sketches with a rather loose linking plot (which varied considerably between the Radio, book and TV show). As such it worked well on radio.

The two Dirk Gently books, however, have really, really clever plots in which lots of bizarre, random events get pulled together at the end using some wonderful fantasy logic. I'm not sure that will work so well on radio - having heard the first episode I think its going to be hard to follow if you haven't read the book.

The later novel-based Hitchhiker stories tried the same sort of trick, but didn't pull it off quite as well.

I particularly love Adams' debunking of the Sherlock Holmes axiom "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth" in the second book...

(Basically, "Impossible" could just mean that there is something in the universe that you don't understand, and there are plenty of those, "Improbable" suggests something that you do understand and know to be very, very unlikely. It makes sense in the context of the book, although I hope the creationists don't latch on to it :-) )