Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2021

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1)

This is a blog post about The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy , one of the most remarkable radio shows ever to emerge from the great Light Entertainment Department of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It's not going to deal with any of the later iterations of the story, which exists in more forms across more media than almost anything else I can think of. I don't remember much about the TV version, I never saw the stage show, I no longer own a copy of the LP, the film came too late to be of much interest, and I actively dislike the books. But the two original six-part radio series (and the Christmas Special which linked them) were once a big and important thing for me, and I'm sure their influence can still be detected in the stuff I write. So I thought I would have another listen, and try to explain what they meant to me. The first series was initially broadcast in March 1978. I remember reading the listing for it in the Radio Times, and thinking it looked intere