Archive Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker’s Guide news for October 2003

Home / News / About me / About my book

31st October 2003
Another unreliable Tertiary Phase announcement
The mooted Tertiary Phase of HHGG is featured in Baz Bamigboye’s column in today’s Daily Mail. He claims that there will be 14 episodes, six next spring, eight next autumn and that the show will “feature as many of the original cast as possible.” Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld will play “the commentators from the planet Krikkit” according to Bamigboye who quotes ‘award-winning producer’ Bryce Hyman as saying, “Douglas was the voice of Agrajag in the original broadcasts and we’re going to digitally bring his voice back to life.”

How much of this is true? I can say very little now but will be able to provide more detailed confirmation/denial very soon. However, it should be obvious that some of the information is blatantly wrong (for example, there was no Agrajag in the original broadcasts) and so all of it should be viewed as suspect. Remember: no official announcement about the Tertiary Phase has yet been made. (Thanks to ‘BabyBuggyMum’ for alerting me to this.)

31st October 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 31st October
Here’s a nice Arthur Barker edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide, though the starting price is a bit steep (ie. realistic) for eBay (ends 7th November; no bids yet; starting price £150.00). Robert Hewison’s 1983 official history of the Cambridge Footlights is a terrific book and includes a rare picture of Douglas Adams in his undergraduate days (ends 7th November; no bids yet; starting price £4.99). Here’s a nice one – a bound proof of the new hardback edition of Don’t Panic (ends 4th November; no bids yet; starting price $15.00). As with last week’s Hitchhiker proof, I don’t have one of these myself, despite being one of the authors! Finally, here’s not one but two mega-rarities: a US proof copy of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and another one for Life, the Universe and Everything (both end 2nd November; latest bid on each $50.00). These are both signed and have been kept in plastic since 1982! (For some reason the LUE scans have been used for both books.)

29th October 2003
SFX reviews Don’t Panic
The December issue of SFX (with Keanu Reeves on the cover) includes a five-star review by Steve O’Brien of the new hardback of Neil Gaiman’s Don’t Panic. Unfortunately, the rather misleading review suggests that this is a new British edition “reprinted at last” instead of a US edition of last year’s UK paperback. There is no acknowledgement that a significant part of the book is by hands other than Neil’s (ie. mine and David K Dickson’s!) nor any mention that this edition does include a new Neil-penned introduction. This sort of thing wouldn’t have happened in my day!

28th October 2003
Nicolas Botti launches unofficial HHGG movie site with exclusive Robbie Stamp interview
While we wait for the first official publicity for the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, France’s number one HHGG fan Nicolas Botti has launched the movie’s first fan site. Nicolas (who produced the French radio series of Hitchhiker’s Guide) has kicked off the site with an exclusive, revealing interview with executive producer Robbie Stamp. You can also access the interview via Nicolas’ main HHGG site, Le Guide Galactique.

26th October 2003
Observer and Sunday Herald review Wish You Were Here
In today’s Observer, David Smith gives Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here a rather lukewarm review. “While he turns up some new anecdotes and psychological insights,” says Smith, “Webb pulls his punches at the critical moments as if not daring to affront his friend's memory.” As with so many reviews of my own Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (which Smith mentions), the chief complaint seems to be that there isn’t enough about Douglas’ love-life, as if that was the single crucial thing that would illuminate all the rest of his thoughts and deeds. “Webb is right to sum up Adams's importance as the first master blender of comedy and science fiction,” says the review, “but as for the key to Adams's private passions, we will have to keep on wondering.”

There is also a review in today’s Sunday Herald but I haven’t seen it because it’s not on their website.

26th October 2003
Big Read latest
Last night’s Big Read programme on BBC 2 revealed that Hitchhiker’s Guide was at number five in the top 21 and was actually the second most popular book among men. However, by the programme’s end it had slipped to number six as Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials jumped two places.

24th October 2003
Japanese HHGG website relocates
Japan’s number one Douglas Adams fan, Takako Yamamura, has relocated his excellent Share and Enjoy website to a new URL. Packed with detail, Takako-san’s site is highly recommended, provided you can read Japanese – and even if you can’t, you can just marvel at the covers of the Japanese editions of the Hitchhiker’s Guide novels.

24th October 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 24th October
Signed copies of the Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book don’t come up too often. This one is signed by Douglas Adams, Mel Smith, Ben Elton and others (ends 25th October; no bids yet; starting price £2.50). Though only short, the Douglas Adams interview in this issue of Loaded is quite revealing (ends 21st October; no bids yet; starting price £4.99). Or what about a 1985 issue of Zig Zag, also with an Adams interview (ends 29th October; no bids yet; starting price £2.00)? And here’s a shock – a bound proof of the US edition of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (ends 26th October; no bids yet; starting price $14.99)! Even I haven’t got one of these, and I wrote the damn thing!

23rd October 2003
ZZ9 Cornwall trip photos on-line
ZZ9 have updated their website with a selection of photos taken on the club’s September 2002 expedition to the Cornish locations used in the TV series of Hitchhiker’s Guide: the clay-pit that was Magrathea, the tunnel down which Slartibartfast’s aircar travelled and the beach where Ford and Arthur landed their raft – which was also where Douglas Adams walked naked into the sea. This was one of the most enjoyable events ever organised by the club and may be repeated in a year or so if enough members are sufficiently offleyhoo.

23rd October 2003
Bhaskar’s Big Read date announced, interview confirmed
Sanjeev Bhaskar’s half-hour programme championing Hitchhiker’s Guide as part of the BBC’s Big Read will be broadcast on BBC 2 on Saturday 8th November. The 90-minute programme (9.00pm–10.30pm) also includes John Humphrys on To Kill a Mockingbird and Arabella Weir on Gone with the Wind. "As a child, this book fundamentally changed the way I looked at the world,” says Bhaskar in a BBC press release. “It was as if there was a whole part of my brain that was in darkness, and Douglas Adams had turned on the light." Bhaskar has also agreed to be interviewed for the next issue of Mostly Harmless.

21st October 2003
Six Characters Arthur Dent profile repeat imminent
Last year BBC Radio 4 explored the history and impact of half a dozen classic characters from radio and TV comedy in a series presented by Barry Cryer entitled Six Characters in Search of an Answer. The programme devoted to Arthur Dent, first broadcast on 9th July 2002, will be repeated on Radio 4 at 8.30pm on Sunday 2nd November. HHGG fans outside the UK can listen to the show on the Radio 4 website using RealPlayer.

21st October 2003
Robbie Stamp offers film clues in Daily Telegraph
My mum sent me a cutting (cheers Mum!) from Saturday’s Daily Telegraph. Being really on the ball they have picked up that the HHGG film is happening only a fortnight after it was announced in Variety – but columnist Nigel Reynolds did at least have the sense to contact executive producer Robbie Stamp. “We’re just about to cast the film,” says Robbie, “and all I can say is that Arthur Dent will be played by an English actor. Other roles, probably including Ford Prefect, will be filled by Americans.”

Intriguingly, Robbie says that the script includes “best-loved characters plus a lot of brand new stuff that Douglas had written which has never been used.” The article trots out the same old Hugh Grant/Laurie rumours as well as mentioning Rowan Atkinson and Bruce Willis, two actors whose only connection with the film is that some imaginative journalist added their names to this obituary of Douglas. “Budgets of £80 million are being talked about,” according to Reynolds but he offers no source for this figure. The article cites Nick and Garth as joint directors, which of course they’re not, but does at least correctly state that HHGG started on radio.

“This will be a massive movie,” says Robbie, “but it will have all the Hitchhiker idiom, wit and humour and stay true to the spirit of the book. It will not be Star Wars with jokes.”

(As far as I can tell, the article isn’t on the Telegraph website.)

20th October 2003
Publishers Weekly praises Hitchhiker: ABODA
The new issue of trade magazine Publishers Weekly carries the first review of next month’s US edition of Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams. In a glowing review, PW calls the book, “an engaging yet straightforward portrait of the phenomenally successful writer” and “a must-have for serious Adams fans.” (Thanks to Dave Haddock for sending this.)

20th October 2003
Ladbrokes offers long odds on Hitchhiker’s Guide
Ladbrokes are offering 33/1 on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy winning the BBC’s Big Read. Lord of the Rings is favourite to win on evens, followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Pride and Prejudice, both at 5/1. This is for information only – this site does not encourage gambling!

19th October 2003
Sanjeev Bhaskar champions Hitchhiker’s Guide for Big Read
Comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar has been named as the celebrity who will ‘champion’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the BBC’s Big Read campaign. The top 21 were announced (in alphabetical order) on BBC 2 this evening in a show hosted by Douglas Adams’ friend and college pal Clive Anderson, and HHGG seemed to be one of the few books that everybody liked. “I think it’s a tremendous book,” said Professor Robert Winston. “A comic masterpiece, genuinely popular,” agreed comic Linda Smith.

Bhaskar came to prominence as part of the Goodness Gracious Me team but more pertinently he created and stars in The Kumars at No. 42. The Big Read programme featured tantalising clips of newly shot scenes from the book – with Bhaskar as Arthur Dent – and computer graphics which this time clearly had been done on a computer. Bhaskar starred in another sci-fi comedy, Paul Kousoulides’ acclaimed student short Inferno – and there is even a Hitchhiker’s Guide connection there because the cameraman on Inferno was animator/director Kevin Davies!

No news yet on when the HHGG programme will be shown but in the meantime you can vote for Hitchhiker’s Guide (or one of the other books…) at the Big Read website.

18th October 2003
First chapter of Hitchhiker on-line
My US publishers, Justin, Charles & Co., have posted a sample chapter from Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams on their website. It’s the very first chapter, which is headed ‘Prelude – Forbidden Planet’, rather than ‘Chapter One’ and establishes the book’s revisionist approach by overturning the well-known story about Douglas Adams having to fight through crowds to reach his own first signing session. The US hardback of Hitchhiker – with a new foreword by Neil Gaiman and a new introduction by me which updates/revises some aspects of the story – is published in two weeks time and is available for pre-order from Amazon at 30% off the cover price.

17th October 2003
Hammer and Tongs announce imminent movie website
Hammer and Tongs’ website has added (slightly belatedly) confirmation of their involvement in the greenlit Hitchhiker’s Guide movie: ‘It's official! Hammer & Tongs will direct and produce the feature film adaptation of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy. The project has been green lit and shooting is scheduled to begin Spring 2004. An official movie website will be set up shortly. Don't panic!’ The site adds, understandably: ‘We'll be working on the movie for the foreseeable future so no videos or commercials for a while.’

17th October 2003
Two Adams Who stories in Canadian anniversary marathon
Canadian channel BBC Kids is planning a Doctor Who marathon to celebrate the show’s fortieth anniversary next month. Nine Tom Baker-era stories, including two written by Douglas Adams, will be shown over Sunday 23rd and Monday 24th November. ‘The Pirate Planet’ is on at midnight Sunday, directly followed by ‘City of Death’ at 2am on Monday morning (Eastern Time). Quite how many Canadian kids are going to be up at that time is unknown...

17th October 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 17th October
There are two Arthur Barker editions of Life, the Universe and Everything currently on eBay, though both, as usual, are ex-library editions. This one (ends 24th October; no bids yet; starting price £4.99) is a 1985 reissue while this one (ends 21st October; no bids yet; starting price £2.50) says it’s a first. Caveat emptor! One doesn’t often see the first Marvin single in picture sleeve (ends 21st October; no bids yet; starting price £4.99). The Hitchhiker’s Guide theme single is more common but still 23 years old so worth getting when it’s in good nick (ends 21st October; no bids yet; starting price £4.99). Or here’s an oddity: a self-published collection of celebrity portraits by respected photographer Brian Griffin, including one of Douglas Adams (ends 22nd October; latest bid £4.99).

Meanwhile here’s a rarely-seen four-cassette US release of the radio series put out by Time Warner Audiobooks in 1994 (ends 20th October; no bids yet; starting price $5.00). And what the heck is this? A boxed set of five Pan paperbacks identical in packaging to the heavily remaindered Mostly Brilliant, except that this is called The Douglas Adams Boxed Set (ends 21st October; latest bid £2.99). Is it a prototype? An earlier release? Whatever it is, it’s rare.

15th October 2003
Big Read list to be revealed on Saturday
This Saturday sees the next stage of the Big Read project, a programme presented by Clive Anderson which counts down numbers 100-22 in the list of the nation’s favourite books. We know that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is in the top 21 and will be featured one of the seven subsequent programmes, but don’t yet know on which date that will be broadcast. (It’s all rather academic anyway as Lord of the Rings is a cert to win...) The Big Read Top 21 Revealed is on from 9.05pm to 10.40pm on 18th October on BBC 2.

15th October 2003
Nick Webb on Radio Scotland
Nick Webb will be talking about Douglas Adams and plugging his new book on Cover Stories on BBC Radio Scotland, 11.30am-12.00pm, next Tuesday (21st October). The programme will be repeated the following day at 10.30pm.

13th October 2003
Mostly Harmless issue 90 received
The October issue of Mostly Harmless was received at Magrathea this morning, packed with exciting, exclusive news and features for ZZ9 members. The fourth part of a mammoth John Lloyd interview concentrates on The Meaning and Deeper Meaning of Liff; there’s a behind-the-scenes report on The Big Read: Battle of the Books; BBC Director of New Media Ashley Highfield is interviewed about the Adams-inspired Book of the Future; Wish You Were Here is reviewed, as are my own appearances at the Edinburgh Book Festival and on The Weakest Link; the news about the film’s green light is accurately reported (which is more than most mags and websites have managed so far) and there is the full, exclusive, inside scoop on The Tertiary Phase. Membership of ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is still only £6 which is astoundingly cheap for four A4 mags, meetings, merchandise, etc. The sub may go up by a quid or two (still cheap!) at next month’s AGM so join now. Non-UK members can pay in a variety of foreign currencies – contact the club for details.

12th October 2003
WYWH newspaper serialisation – at last
The extract from Wish You Were Here which was supposed to be printed in the Mail on Sunday two weeks ago has finally been included in today’s edition. Interestingly, the extract chosen is the part about Douglas’ affair with Sally Emerson – which is exactly the same topic as the extract chosen from my own book Hitchhiker when that was serialised in The Times back in February. The Mail on Sunday is offering Nick’s book to readers for £14.99 + £1.95 postage.

11th October 2003
Douglas Adams quoted by Chaucer!
Well, sort of. Thursday’s episode in the BBC’s modern adaptations of The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, included the following dialogue: “He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.” “Dickens?” “No, Douglas Adams.” The episode was written by Tony Grounds.

10th October 2003
Variety story available to read
One of my industry contacts has sent me the full text of the Variety news story from last week which formally announced the greenlighting of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie.

10th October 2003
More movie casting rumours in Scotsman article
An article on today’s Scotsman newspaper does good work of spreading misinformation about the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie. Evidently working from the same source as yesterday’s booktrade.info story, a press release distributed by Ed Victor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Scotsman article includes numerous quotes from Ed including the one about Douglas favouring Hugh Grant for Arthur. Reporter Jim McBeth says, without any supporting evidence, that Hugh Laurie “is also in the frame” and that “Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz are understood to be interested in the roles of Zaphod Beeblebrox and his glamorous girlfriend, Trillian.”

This is all page-filling, rumour-mongering journalism of the worst sort and no credence should be given to any of these names. That’s not to say that one or more of them might not turn out to be accurate – nothing is certain until the casting is formally announced – but really The Scotsman is picking names out of thin air here.

The article gets Jane Belson’s name wrong, says that HHGG started in 1977, and suggests that the current screenplay is based on one discovered posthumously on Douglas’ computer.

10th October 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 10th October
One of the rarest bits of Hitchhiker’s Guide ephemera is this German CD, At the End of the Universe: Hommage á Douglas Adams by the Klaus König Orchestra (ends 12th October; no bids yet; starting price 50p). It’s an almost unlistenable modern jazz suite, but it is an authorised tribute and this is only the second copy I have ever seen for sale. Alternatively, if you have an unsigned Adams book and want to turn it into a (legitimately) signed one, you could buy this signed bookplate (ends 14th October; latest bid $11.11)

9th October 2003
Eric Idle pays tribute to Douglas Adams
In a new interview to promote his Rutland Isles CD and ‘Greedy Bastard’ tour, Eric Idle pays tribute to Douglas Adams when the subject of his own comic SF novel, The Road to Mars, is raised: “Douglas’s work was wonderful. Yes, absolutely, totally. ... Terry Jones wrote his last novel. I can't remember what it was called, but Doug did the DVD game and Terry had to write the book for him. Thought I'd ask Terry to write my next novel for me, too. [Laughs.] I like this idea: You write my novel.”

9th October 2003
Booktrade website fuels Hugh Grant rumour
Reporting the greenlighting of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, booktrade.info says: ‘Hollywood is awash with rumour about who will play whom, with Hugh Grant being talked about for the Arthur Dent role. "Hugh Grant was always the actor Douglas wanted for Arthur," says Ed Victor, agent for Adams's estate.’

I am not at liberty to reveal what I know or don’t know about Hugh Grant in connection with the movie, but can point out that Ed is merely repeating Douglas’ preference, not any casting decision by the current producers.

9th October 2003
Glasgow Herald reviewer doesn’t like either Adams biography
Thanks to Dave Haddock for providing me with a copy of the Glasgow Herald’s review of Wish You Were Here, published on 1st October. Nick Bruce seems to think, as others reviewers do, that because he met Douglas Adams once on a press junket he knew him better than Nick Webb or I did.

“There is an interesting book to be written about Adams, the crucial time at which he lived, and the clever ways his creativity chimed with developments in the real world, despite the fictional context of his best inventions in the most fantastic SF,” says Bruce. “There is probably another book to be written about his tormented personal soul and the roller-coaster it must have been to know, or worse, to love him. Webb, as a mate, was probably well-placed to have a bash at either, but sadly his version of Adams is just as unsatisfactory as Hitchhiker, the biography that Hodder brought out in the spring.”

Nick’s book is described as “breathless in its admiration” but “all over the place” and as a result it “leaves enormous mysterious gaps and unanswered questions” while giving “the unmistakable impression that it has been rushed to a conclusion. Later chapters are particularly sloppy.“ My own Hitchhiker escapes relatively lightly, being summed up as “thoroughly researched ... but ploddingly written.”

8th October 2003
Hitchhiker’s Guide movie survey
An American HHGG fan known only as ‘Deep Thought’ reports on afda that he/she is signed up with a market research company who routinely ask opinions about current or forthcoming films. “I was startled to hear them ask me, ‘Are you familiar with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to -?’, at which point I express a very enthusiastic yes,” says Deep Thought. “They then proceeded to ask me if I would be interested in seeing a movie based on the books, which I replied the same.”

7th October 2003
Wish You Were Here launch party
About sixty or so people crammed themselves into a room above a pub in London yesterday for the official launch of Nick Webb’s book Wish You Were Here. Among those spotted enjoying Hodder Headline’s bar tab were ex-TDV staffers Jim Lynn and Sean D Sollé, Hitchhiker’s Guide radio producers Simon Brett and Geoffrey Perkins, and three of the men making the movie – executive producer Robbie Stamp, producer Nick Goldsmith and director Garth Jennings – as well as Nick himself and members of Douglas Adams’ family. Nick and Garth chatted with us about the movie ... but I can’t tell you anything they said. All I can say at this stage is that everything they said filled me with confidence that they’re the right men for the job.

5th October 2003
MH90 posting delayed
Issue 90 of Mostly Harmless was scheduled to be posted out to ZZ9 members tomorrow, but has been delayed for a week due to a problem at the printers.

4th October 2003
Producer Jay Roach discusses HHGG movie
IGN Filmforce has quoted part of the Variety news story about the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie. Jay Roach, who was attached as director but is now producer, told the paper: "I don't like to cling to projects I know I won't get to, but I probably put more work into this project than any other. ... Six years with Douglas, and his spirit got under my skin. Disney put it in turnaround years ago after a regime change, and we shopped it to every studio and got turned down. Douglas did another draft on spec, but I'd gotten to the point where I told him I wasn't sure it would happen. He died not long after. I felt an obligation and we were lucky to have Spyglass because they continued funding it and never wavered. I'd thought the best way was the most expensive, to make it like Wizard of Oz. [Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith] found a playful and irreverent take that made me realise they were better for this than I am. ... It was just the most wonderful feeling, in some way a more pure joy than if I was directing it."

4th October 2003
Salmon of Doubt published in Czech Republic
When I was in Prague earlier this year I picked up recently published, nice Czech editions of all five Hitchhiker’s Guide novels. Now the same publisher has released The Salmon of Doubt as the snappilly titled Jeste Jednou a Naposledy Stopem po Galaxii, aneb Losos Pochybnosti. Hana Brezáková has done translation duties.

3rd October 2003
Hitchhiker’s Guide movie goes into pre-production – at last!
Variety has confirmed that the feature film version of Hitchhiker’s Guide, which as we all know has been in development on and off for more than twenty years, has finally been ‘greenlit’. Garth Jennings will direct from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick and the film will shoot in 2004 for release in 2005. At time of posting this (7pm on Friday) only comingsoon.net has picked up on the story. Variety is a subscription-only site, so if somebody has the text of the original story and can e-mail it to me, I would appreciate it!

NB. This is not just another ‘they’re going to make a Guide film’ rumour. The film has never been greenlit before and this announcement (which I know from other sources to be true) confirms that, barring disasters, the film will definitely be in your local multiplex two years from now. Woohoo!

3rd October 2003
Independent reviews WYWH
Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here has been reviewed in The Independent by Robert Hanks. As so often with biography reviews, he sums up his thoughts on Douglas Adams without ever saying whether the book is any good or not.

3rd October 2003
eBaywatch for week ending 3rd October
A sparse week on eBay for genuinely interesting and rare Adamsiana. Probably the only really unusual thing is the first US release of the radio series on six cassettes (ends 4th October; no bids yet; starting price $14.99). However, this paucity of collector’s items is probably a good thing, given how many new HHGG-related books are out now or set for imminent publication...