Radio 4 confirms cast, title and details on sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series

While it’s not exactly new news that a sixth Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series is planned by BBC Radio 4 (here), it is cool that we now have official news about the cast and other details on the series.

Radio 4 have announced the following details:

In 1978 the worlds of science fiction and comedy were united when BBC Radio broadcast The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, followed by four further series between 1980 and 2005. Now, for the 40th anniversary of Hitchhiker’s radio debut, the original radio cast will star in a sixth instalment titled The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase.

The series will be produced by long-time collaborator Dirk Maggs, who was chosen by the late Douglas Adams to bring ‘HG2G’ back to Radio 4 for the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases.

The new series will be adapted from Eoin Colfer’s book And Another Thing…, which was commissioned by the Douglas Adams Estate in 2009 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first novel. The episodes will also include unpublished Hitchhiker’s material by Douglas Adams, sourced from notebooks and writings preserved in the library at St. John’s College in Cambridge.

Across six new episodes, Simon Jones will reprise his role as the main protagonist, the quintessentially English Arthur Dent, as he continues to travel through space and time following the destruction of Earth.

Starring alongside Jones will be members of the classic radio, television and stage casts, including  Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Sandra Dickinson as Trillian, as well as special guest stars including Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch.

Following in the footsteps of the late Peter Jones and William Franklyn, Douglas Adams’ friend, co-author and former flatmate John Lloyd will step in to become the voice of ‘The Book’.

Simon Jones says: “It seems extraordinary that it’s been forty years since we recorded the first pilot episode for BBC Radio; how modest were our expectations then, and how amazing a world-wide phenomenon it became, and continues to be. I never expected to still be searching for a decent cup of tea and some kind of answer to Life, the Universe and Everything almost a lifetime later. Still, the dressing-gown and towel may be a little threadbare, like my hair, but my voice, much to my surprise, hasn’t changed a decibel, and despite years in America, I can still talk Arthur’s ‘indignant-posh’.

“This may be the wittiest and most epic adventure yet, and I’m especially pleased we’re in the talented hands of Dirk Maggs who is better qualified than anyone to script and produce us. It’s always a joy to be reunited with Geoff McGivern, as my partner in space and time, Ford Prefect. Over the years, we’ve lost some great friends, and we still miss them, but we’ve also gained other valued colleagues, and for this trip across the Galaxy we have a tip-top team all ready to do justice to Douglas’ unique and quixotic vision.”

As a life-long fan of the series, books, TV show, movie comics and games, I actually found Colfer’s entry in Adams’ masterful universe to be a pretty successful effort. While it tried a little too hard in places, when it found its feet it actually felt like a nice continuation of Arthur, Ford, Zaphod and Trillian…

Can Radio 4 deliver? Well, the last installment wasn’t on par with the early ones but was still well worth a listen (or several) so hopefully with the return of Maggs and the original crew and the addition of material written by the late Adams himself, this should be one to look forward to… whenever it arrives.

“We’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere … and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys…”

Source: Comedy