Things I’ve Learned About The Good Old U S of A From Watching Films And Telly

[cornflakegirl]

Rory, you're a life saver. I will have to investigate what all these phases mean, but at least I now know where to go.

Riaz - I'm pretty sure that the phases relate to the five books. IIRC, the first two were the only ones that were on the radio before they were books, so I'm guessing that the later ones are Radio 4 dramatisations of the books, rather than "original scripts", but I could be wrong.

 

[riaz]

Thanks for that, Emma. If that is the case, and having read the books time and again, I am not too sure I would like to have a dramatisation of all five books. One and two were enough for me then. I would certainly have a listen before I buy the other three. Also, 30 years ago the technology wasn't there to jazz things up, so all the machinery was hand cranked and the special effects were special. None of this digital razzmatazz you get nowadays. I really enjoyed that.

I think last year BBC website was running H2G2 again, but I think it was the newer version, off Radio 4 again. Unfortunately, I found out about it the day it went off line, and in any case it is not available to persona non grata like us expats. (Where is the sobbing emoticon when you need one?)

Isn't it amazing what you can learn on an Excel forum? And whom do we credit for hijacking this thread?

 

[cornflakegirl]

When I followed Rory's link to the BBC website, I could only see the three newer ones there. I have to agree that the later books didn't match up to the first two.

I think when a thread has been so thoroughly hijacked that someone apologises for responding to the original question, it may be a little late to apportion blame. Although it's probably Rory's fault

 

[RoryA]

 

[PaddyD]

"...so I'm guessing that the later ones are Radio 4 dramatisations of the books, rather than "original scripts"..."

Radio came before the books & (I'm trying to remember here) the original series had about 12 episodes up to the point where cavemen were shown to be surprising good at scrabble...if interested in the details about the how each episode (or 'fit') came together, best source is the book with the transcripts of the original series - each episode is introduced by Douglas Adams /Geoffrey Perkins (who produced it):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

 

[cornflakegirl]

Paddy - according to Wiki, there were "adaptations of the last three books to radio", which fits with what I thought.

 

[Thorin]

I notice that a new Hitchhikers Guide book is planned !!

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7619828.stm for info.

 

[cornflakegirl]

Hmmm... of the myriad times that this has been done before, has it ever actually been a good idea?

 

[riaz]

Maybe not, but if Mrs Adams has sanctioned it, she must have a good reason...

 

[Richard Schollar]

Maybe not, but if Mrs Adams has sanctioned it, she must have a good reason...

She needs the cash?

Sorry, I'm being cynical again...