Trillian is dead

Susan Sherdian with Simon Jones for a live version of the H2G2 radio series episode 2 in 2008

Susan Sheridan, who played Trillian in the radio series, has died aged 68 the 9th August 2015.

Her voice is instantly recognizable for all Hitchhiker fans. She was Trillian since the broadcast of the first H2G2 radio episode in 1978. She was not casted in the TV adaptation but remained Trillian in the five H2G2 radio series and was also part of the H2G2 radio series live stage tours in 2012 and 2013.

Apart from Hitchhiker, Susan Sheridan was a voice coach, and provided her voice to a number of animations. She  voiced Princess Elionwy in the Disney animation The Black Cauldron.

She was also quite a loveable person for all those who had the opportunity to meet her (me included). 

She died peacefully at home due to ilness.

Dirk Maggs, producer of the new H2G2 radio series, broke the sad news to the fans : "Heartbroken to report that my dear friend and colleague Susan Sheridan died peacefully at home yesterday. Sue was cast as Trillian by Douglas Adams and Geoffrey Perkins in 1978 for the first radio series of Hitchhikers and returned for the last three radio series in 2004-5, after which she joined the cast for our Hitchhikers Live stage tours in 2012-13. Sue had a full and happy career on stage, radio and television, where for many years she was the voice of Enid Blyton's 'Noddy'. Backstage, Sue was warm, witty and wise, with a wicked sense of humour, which kept us sane during some trying times on the road. We will miss Sue dreadfully and our love and thoughts go to her husband Max and daughters Emily, Alice and Olivia."

Simon Jones wrote on his facebook page : "Yesterday our tight little group of original Hitchhikers became sadly diminished with the loss of our beloved Sue, when her sparkling light left our Galaxy, and left us lonely and bereft. We've known each other for two years shy of forty years, which is a fact that seems incredible to ponder.It was wonderful to be reunited for the Live Hitchhikers Tours that started in 2012, and to rekindle our long-standing friendship and team spirit, Those early days when we all assembled with Douglas Adams and Geoffrey Perkins seemed suddenly to have been made vividly recent, and her feisty energy invigorated us all, and made us value her more than ever. Her Trillian was practical and vital, and she more than made up for the somewhat sketchy character that Douglas had given her. Out of the studio she was also a delight, and I can only say to Max, Emily, Alice and Olivia, that she enriched all our lives in a very special way that will stay with us forever. Nancy and I send them our love and support."

H2G2 live will tour the UK in 2012!!!

Some days ago, James Thrift, Douglas Adams' brother, announced that we should "Watch out for some fantastic Hitchhikers news on it's way soon!"

Simon Jones finally announced it on Radio 3 on Monday 25th : "THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY RADIO SHOW - LIVE !" will be "a major UK touring event for 2012".

The show will  star all the main original cast still alive including SIMON JONES as ARTHUR DENT GEOFFREY McGIVERN as FORD PREFECT STEPHEN MOORE as MARVIN SUSAN SHERIDAN as TRILLIAN and MARK WING-DAVEY as ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX.

The show will be adapted, written and directed by DIRK MAGGS (yes the genius who did Hitchhiker Live at the Hitchcon and also adapted and directed the three last books of H2G2 for Radio 4 and also the two Dirk Gently books). PHILIP POPE will be the musical director.


Of course, this is great news for all Hitchhiker fans! I hope to publish an interview with Dirk Maggs very soon on http://www.douglasadams.eu.

Here is the press release : "Arthur Dent is having a bad day. Both his house and his planet have been demolished. The girl he really - really - fancies is on the third arm of a two-headed alien. His best friend isn't from Guildford after all, but a small planet near Betelgeuse. He can't find a decent cup of tea because there's no such thing any more. And he's still wearing his dressing gown.
Next year, UK theatre audiences will be able to experience the world's favourite sci-fi comedy at first hand, by those who helped create it, from the Heart Of Gold to the Restaurant At the End Of The Universe, performed live on stage by Simon Jones and the original Hitchhiker's cast, re-creating their iconic characters in a radio-style show filled with laughter, really wild sound effects and drinks with extremely silly names.
Douglas Adams's legendary comic sci-fi saga is packed with unique cultural and comedy 'firsts'. It spawned six best-selling novels, five award-winning BBC Radio series, a Television series and a blockbuster movie. Translated worldwide, it was voted Number One Audiobook Ever and one of the Best Loved Books In Britain. Its unique, irreverent and hilarious views on everything from Tea-making to Towels have won it an ever-growing band of devoted readers, listeners and viewers. This self- contained adventure will introduce newcomers to Babel Fish, Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe And Everything, while delighting Hitchhiker fans of all ages.
Directed by Dirk Maggs - Douglas Adams's choice to conclude the saga in its original medium - The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live will explode on tour in the UK in 2012.
   
Whatever else you do in 2012, make sure you know where your towel is ..." 

Note that the event will soon have its own website here : http://www.hhgglive.com 

William (new voice of the guide) Franklyn has died aged 81

I'm deeply sorry I missed the info, but William Franklyn has passed away at the end of october from a prostate cancer. As the BBC says "His 50-year career encompassed TV, radio, film and stage, appearing in episodes of The Avengers and The Scarlet Pimpernel among many others. He also appeared in television shows such as Top Secret, Splitting Heirs and Ooh, You Are Awful".

He will be best remembered by us of couse for his work on the new Hitchhiker's radio series. He was the voice of the book in the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential phases. He replaced his old friend Peter Jones who was of course the legendary voice of the book in the original radio series and in the BBC TV series.

H2G2 Tertiary phase Audio DVD launched!

Just a quick news to help you remember that the H2G2 tertiary pahse audio DVD is now avalaible on bbc shop or on amazon.co.uk or in any good shop in UK. No date for a US release yet and no indication about the release of audio DVDs for quandary and quintessential phases. Everything is possible if they sell enough DVDs of the tertiary phase in the UK market.

There was a press launch on Tuedsday 3rd October in London with Dirk Maggs and Geoffrey McGivern.

H2G2 tertiary phase DVD-A details and cover !

Finally the long wait is almost over. The H2G2 tertiary phase DVD-A is almost here with 5.1 surrond sound mix, behind the scene video, photo gallery, audio extras and a complete version of the Krikkit song.

According to the great Kevin Davies (H2G2 expert and who filmed the H2G2 new radio series recordings), the behind the scene videos will include :

"Online Trailer Arthur and Ford - Together Again Marvin and Zem The New Voice of the Guide Stereo Heads - Zaphod & Trillian

All featurettes are widescreen, including the trailer which was standard ratio 4:3 online. Approx 31 mins of video content altogether.

The "improbable speed" film on Above The Title's website showing the goings-on in studio during the recording of the Q-Phases is naturally being held back for that series DVD-A should this first one prove successful...

...Which it will!" (posted on douglasadams.se forum)

Well you can already pre-order the DVD at the BBC online shop. The official release date is the 2nd October.

Tertiary phase wins the "Audie award of the year"

Every year at this time the US Audio Publishers Association (APA) holds its annual Audie Awards. The awards, given in 29 categories, were announced May 19, 2006 at an awards ceremony held in Washington, DC. The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy Tertiary Phase won the 'biggie' - Audie Of The Year.

Congratulations to the crew, cast and of course Dirk Maggs, director of the new H2G2 radio series.
PS : the audio books market in US is huge. The APA estimates the size of the US audiobook market at $832 million in 2004 with 3,430 titles published.

Dirk Maggs Webchat transcript + Don't miss the utimate episode + buy the CDs and scritps

First, I would like to apologize. This site has been offline during several days, the forum is no more avalaible due to a change of webhost, but nevertheless this site will grow in the next weeks and months to keep a memory of maybe the best Hitchhiker's incarnation : the radio series.

To celebrate the end of the broadcasting of the Hitchhiker's radio new series, Jenz had the great idea set up a webchat with Dirk Maggs, the director of the new Hitchhiker's radio series. "Dirk will relax with us in the VIP chat room tonight, Thursday June 16, at 9 pm UK time, which is 8 pm GMT. The room will open some time prior to start, in order for those who can't join later to be able to submit their question". NB : You can now read the transcript here.

Remember that the last episodes are broadcast right now. You can now listen to the ultimate episode online on BBC Radio 4 website till next tuesday evening.

The Quandary and Quintessential Phases are now broadcasted on Radio 4 since the 6th May. And they are even better than the tertiary phase. Dirk wrote some wonderful new stuff and the actors are unbelievably good.

If you missed the stuff, remember you can already buy Tertiary and Quandary Phase in shops and Internet. The Quintessential Phase and the new radio scripts will be avalaible at the end of June, begining of July. Here are the links and presentation from Amazon.co.uk where they are currently not expensive at all (40 to 50% off). But you can also buy them on many online shops in UK where they deliver worldwide.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase
The long-awaited, brand new third series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes to audio on CD and cassette, with 25 minutes of unbroadcast footage. Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for this new six-part dramatisation of Douglas Adams's book 'Life, the Universe and Everything'. Amongst the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. Other famous names in these new productions include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and cricket commentators Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The original two series of Hitchhiker's were massively successful on radio and have continued to be bestsellers on audio CD and cassette. This new release also features 25 minutes of material not broadcast on radio.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase
Don't panic! The Hitchhiker's saga returns once again with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in Douglas Adams's famous trilogy in five parts. The Earth has miraculously reappeared and, even more miraculously, Arthur Dent has found it. Returning to his cottage after... well... ages, he falls in love with the girl of his dreams. But Ford Prefect is on to something which might well burst Arthurs bubble. There is, after all, something very fishy about his girlfriend's feet, and what has happened to all the dolphins? Perhaps, at last, all will be revealed in God's Last Message to His Creation. Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford and Stephen Moore as Marvin. William Franklyn is the Book, and there is a whole host of famous guest stars. This extended edition features 30 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quintessenial Phase
Panic! It's the last ever installment of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, with a brand new full-cast dramatisation of Mostly Harmless, the final book in Douglas Adams's famous 'trilogy in five parts'. While frequent flyer Arthur Dent searches the universe for his lost love, Ford Prefect discovers a disturbing blast from the past at The Hitchhiker's Guide HQ. Meanwhile, on one of many versions of Earth, a blonder, more American Trillian gets tangled up with a party of lost aliens having an identity crisis. And just when Arthur thinks he has found his true vocation on the backwater planet of Lamuella, the original Trillian turns up with more than a little spanner in the works. A stolen ship, a dramatic stampede and a new and sinister Guide lead to a race to save the Earth...again. But this time, will they succeed? Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Sandra Dickinson as Tricia McMillian, and Stephen Moore as Marvin. William Franklyn is the Book, alongside a host of famous guest stars. This extended edition features 30 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases: v. 2
The remaining books in Douglas Adams's masterpiece are finally to be dramatised on BBC Radio 4, where it first began - and we're publishing the scripts! Twenty-five years after the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero Arthur Dent are being brought to life in their original medium. This dramatisation of the last three books, Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, features Douglas Adams himself, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, and includes new material written by him specially for the radio sequels. The original Hitchhiker's radio cast is returning; Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android. The late Peter Jones's great friend, William Franklyn, replaces him as The Voice Of The Book. Also involved are famous names such as Joanna Lumley, Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The shows will be broadcast in two series in Sept. 2004 and spring 2005. Publication of the scriptbook ties-in with the series climax.

Simon Jones and Geoffrey Mc Guivern and Simon Jones chat + Simon Jones interviewed

To celebrate the broadcasting of Hitchhiker's radio series last installment, Simon Jones and Geoffrey Mc Guivern (Arthur and Ford in the radio series) joined the BBC radio 4 website for a live webchat. And of course it was a nice chat because these guys (that I had the pleasure to meet during the recording of these last radio series in january) are incredibly froody.

You can read the full transcript of the webchat here. Simon Jones was also interviewed by Julia Hankin on BBC radio Newcastle the 29th April about returning to his famous role as Arthur Dent. You can listen to the interview online here.

Don't forget you can still listen to the latest episode on the web during one week after the broadcasting on the Hitchhiker's radio 4 website.

The Quandary Phase begins the 3rd May. Incredible cast. Trailers online

Above the title and the BBC radio series website have both heavily updated a few days before the broadcast of the last instalments the utterly famous Hitchhiker's radio series = the Quandary and the Quintessential phases.

The Quandary Phase will begin at 6.30pm on 3 May. Each of the four weekly episodes will be repeated at 11.00pm on Thursdays (with the exception of 5 May). The Quintessential Phase will start on 31 May.

On the Above the Title website, you'll find a great video trailer and a video making of made by Kevin Davies. They have also an audio trailer and lot of pics.

As you certainly know, the cast for the two last phases is incredible. Sandra Dickinson and David Dixon (Trillian and Ford in the TV series) both appear in the new series. Jane Horrocks (Absolutely fabulous) is excellent as Fenchurch. Johnatan Pryce comes back (the famous english actor well known from "Brazil" already played in the second series). Stephen Fry (the Narrator in the movie) is also here. And there is even a Hollywood star Christian Slater ("Interview with a vampire") who plays Wonko the Sane in the Quandary Phase.

The Hitchhiker's Adventure Game on Radio 4 wins BAFTA Best Online Entertainment Award.

This year's Interactve Bafta Awards gave the award of Best Online Entertainment to "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Adventure Game - The 20th Anniversary Edition". The original Hitchhiker's Adventure game has been created by Douglas and Steve Meretzky in 1985 for Infocom. It has been a big commercial success for a text only adventure (250.000 copies sold) and remained a quite popular version of H2g2 during all these years (for more infos about the original game check this place).
Douglas, who was quite proud of the game, had an online playable version of the game on his official website. And when Radio 4 decided to launch a big website for the upcoming broadcasting of the new radio series based on the last three books of the Hitchhiker's series, they chose to work on a new version of the Hitchhiker's Adventure Game which would be playable on their website.

But Radio 4 did not just put the old version of The Adventure Game online. They asked to Rod Lord (the guy who created the guide graphics in the TV series) and to Sean Sollé (from Douglas' company The Digital Village) to work on a brand new version to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the game (if you want to learn how they made such an exploit check here).

In fact, the new version of the Hitchhiker's adventure game is one of the reasons why the Radio 4 website is so succesfull. The graphics are great, and Sean made a wonderful work to update it and attract new players to this wonderful game.

You can notice that there is now two versions of the game with some new graphics from the young artists Nolan Worthington and Andrew Wyld.

The new version of the game is excellent, has well deserved this prize and we all hope that Radio 4 will let it online after the broadcasting of the new series this spring.

Recordings for the last phases begin this week !!

As you sure know the quandary and quintessential phases are on the way. This new series will contain eight new episodes (four based on "so long and thanks for all the fist" and four episodes based on "mostly harmless"). The two last phases will be broadcasted on air and on line thanks to Radio 4 from the 3rd may 2005 (3 days before the US and UK movie release date!) to the 21rst June.

So it's certainly time already for Dirk and the cast to go back in studio. In fact the recording began the 17th december in New York. Dirk Maggs has "directed a legendary US comedy talent down the line from London. The result is one half of a very funny conversation with Ford Prefect which will be completed by Geoffrey McGivern in January. More news on casting will follow, including the voice behind this character ... sorry to tease ... it's worth the wait ... "

Anyway we already know some of the new cast involved :

- Jane Horrocks (you certainly remember her she's Bubble in Absolutly fabulous!) will be Fenchurch - Miriam Margolyes (Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets) will be The Smelly Photocopier Woman From Hawalius - Chris Emmett as The Evil-Looking-Bird From The Old Pink Dog Bar - Rula Lenska is back but we still don't know her part (she played the Lintillas and her clones and also the airline stewardess in the secondary phase - episode Fit The Twelfth)

The BBC publishes details about the success of Hitchhikers on Internet

The 3rd phase of the Hitchhiker's, based on Life the Universe and Everything, has been broadcasted from 21st september to the 26th October both on the air and on Internet.

As you know, Radio 4 has made a great mini site about Hitchhikers to celebrate the new series attracting a lot of people (with a lot of great sections and even a new version of the famous Hitchhiker's text game). And the episodes were avalaible for listening during seven days on Internet.

Of course the success has been overwhelming but noone expected that more than one million persons would listen to the radio series on Internet and 40.000 players would be attracted by the new online edition of the old Infocom text game.

For the fist time, the BBC has published in october a press release with accurate details about their success on the web. In this press release, they say that "nearly six million people used the BBC's radio websites in October, listening to more than 10 million hours of radio via the internet and generating almost 160,000,000 page impressions, new figures reveal". Simon Nelson, Controller of BBC Radio & Music Interactive, said: "These are the first set of monthly statistics we have published and they show record numbers for both online listening and web traffic". In fact, one year before, the BBC radios attracted a little less than 4 million listeners. Two millions more in one year is not too bad, and obviously Hitchhikers had an effect on the BBC radio's success on line.

For october, Radio 4 got the first place in top 30 on demand programmes with 653.636 persons listening to Hitchhikers on the web (this include the four episodes broadcasted in october, the first and second episodes were broadcasted in september). Hitchhikers is far ahead the other programs. The classcial soap "Archers" gets the second place (still on Radio 4) with 382.726 listeners. Chris Moyle got 325.975 listeners on Radio 1. And all the other programs score less than 200.000 listeners.
Thanks to Hitchhikers, Radio 4 was in october the second most successful BBC radio network on Internet with 1.247.445 visitors. Radio 1 is still first with 2.352.366 visitors

Amazon already sends CDs + My review of the new series

It seems that Amazon.co.uk has begun to ship the new Hitchhiker's radio series Audio CD a few days before the planned time. Good news for all of us who pre-ordered this new invaluable item. A good deal for the more impatient ones too because the last sixth episode will be only broadcasted monday, the 25th october.

And, unsurprisingly, the Audio CD sells well on Amazon. It is listed in the top sellers lists.
Is it worth the few quids it costs? Definitly yes. Dirk Maggs has done a wonderful job, and you'll appreciate a lot to be able to listen to the new series with a marvellous CD quality sound. And a great bonus has been added : the episodes have been specially extended for this CD. So you will hear brand new material you haven't heard on radio or/and the web.

It was a hugely difficul challenge for Dirk regarding the well known fact that the second series ended abruptly and that the following versions of Hitchhikers absolutley ignored what happened in this second series. So the fact that he found a solution to that is one of Dirk great ideas.

The hightlights of the new series are definitly the Agrajaf part played by Douglas in the Cathedral of Hate, Marvin helpless pivoting in circle in in the swamps of Squornshellous Zeta with a talkative mattress called Zem for only company, Arthur flying, Zaphod trying to save the world by arresting the Kikkrit robots, the party in the sky, or Trillian eating Ford's crisps while watching a documentary...
All the actors, the old and news ones, have done a wonderful job, and the magic from the original series is still here even if, of course, twenty five years later, it doesn't sound entirely the same ! Sound effects are very well done (they are of course far more realistic and present that in the original series), the music is nice, and important point too for the news series, William Franklyn does a fantastic job as Peter Jones' substitute.

DON'T FORGET ! Meet or chat with Dirk Maggs + BBC competitions

You will have soon two opportunities to meet and/or chat with the new radio series director Dirk Maggs. The best luck for you would be to be in London the Saturday 30th September. You will be able to meet Dirk Maggs plus some members of the Hitchhikers radio cast (maybe five of them!) for a unique signing at the Forbidden Planet store during lunchtime hours. So be careful, phone and don't miss it!

And to celebrate the end of the Tertiary phase broadcast, Dirk Maggs will join the BBC Radio 4 webteam for a live webchat on October 26 at 7pm, immediatly after the broadcast of the final epsiode. The BBC webteam even invite you to send them alread your questions.

Oh, and while you're on the great Hitchhikers Radio 4 website, don't forget to look at all their goodies (the 25th anniversary Hitchhiker's adventure game edition, exclusive interviews,...). And let's remember that the BBC has launched two competions. A Guide Entry competition (you could win a digital radio - competition ends 31 October) and a Picture competition for the Adventure Game (with some great prizes including CDs of the Teritary phase or even a chance to take part in a recording for the next series in next january for a broadcast in may - competition ends 15 december). But bad luck for the rest of the world, this competitions are opened only to UK residents

First episode available online in surrond sound !

We had to wait a little, but now you can listen again to the first episode broadcasted last thursday on Radio 4' Hitchhiker website.

And you can even listen to the first episode in 5.1 surround sound ! And you can choose the player you want to use : real player or windows media player. That's great news if you have some 5.1 audio speakers plugged to your computer. But anyway, i think the sound should be better than with the stereo version. It's well worth a try if you've got a fast internet connection.

If you haven't heard the new radio series, let's say that this first episode is great, even if the action suffers from the fact that our favourite characters are all scattered around the universe. It's quite an emotion to hear this good old voices and even Peter Jones, the original narrator voice who sadly passed away. The new actors are wonderfull too : William Franklyn (the new narrator) Roger Gregg (Eddie), Andy Taylor (the Mattress)

The tertiary phase will be avalaible on cds and tapes the 25th october. On BBC shop you can pre-order them and see the CD artwork.

On the Radio 4 websites you'll find two competions : the Guide Entry Competition and the Picture Adventure game Competition. In this last competition, you can win a part in a recording for the next series and a script signed by the cast!! Sadly, as usual with the BBC, both competitions are "open to UK residents only. Overseas entries will not be considered".

First episode of the third H2G2 series broadcasted today

Today is the great day. The first episode of the third series will be broadcasted today on the air and on Internet at 18h30 GMT. Like the other ones this episode will be repeated on air at 23h00 and be avalaible on the great radio series mini website during seven days. So you can't miss it !!

The new version of the Infocom adventure text game should be avalaible today on Radio 4 website too. As you maybe know already, this version playable online, will be illustrated by Rod Lord who made the famous guide entries graphics of the BBC TV series in 1981.

Media coverage for the third series

The new radio series is going to be broadcast in just a few days now and it's hard to stay calm. Of course some good media coverage has already been done. MJ Simpson has spotted several articles :
- The Times has written a good article that you can find on their website. Simon Jones (Arthur in the radio series) regards the director Maggs as "the Phil Spector of Radio 4"! The Times comments that "The sound is indeed extraordinary", but warns the upcoming listeners : "the need to shoehorn in years of back-story, coupled with Adams’s famous love of digression, make this first episode dense to the point of incomprehensibility. It takes until episode two to get warmed up". The newspaper bets that the new series will may be help to regulate the generation gap between the first listeners 26 years ago and their children !

- Of course Radio Times has also done something, in the issue dated 18th-24th September, but it seems a little disappointing. Sad, because we could have expected something great from the famous british radio TV program weekly.

- Director Dirk Maggs is interviewed in this month issue of "Cult times". Five page long so well worth a reading.

- Simon Jones (Arthur Dent) was interviewed in October issue of Dreamwatch, and in the BBC Programme information newsletter for week 38.

- It seems that the five page feature in Mail on Sunday published the 12th september was a little disappointing according to MJ Simpson. The journalist made a few mistakes and told nothing new.

- Roger Gregg (Eddie in the new series) wrote something in the Irish Times but sadly not available for free online. However I was lucky enough to read it (thanks roger!) and it is a quite good one page long insight report of the third series, with also a little history of the legend : "Everyone involved knows that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy : Tertiary phase is destined for radio history. As the documentary cameras run, Simon Jones passes a stack of scripts over a buttered croissant. He politely asks everyone to autograph them. He explains that, having been based in the US for many years and done his share of guest appearances on the sc-fi convention circuit, he is keenly aware of the radio series and their million of adoring fans. The stack of signed scripts he announces are for charity raffles : each will sell for several hundred dollars in the US, he says. This starts a whirlwind of script signing".

Of course, I think you can still find the TV Zone issue 180 which includes two lengthy articles about Hitchhiker’s Guide. 13 pages written by Andrew Pixley and Kevin Davies. You can't miss that one!

The BBC will revive the Hitchhiker's old computer game to celebrate the third radio series broadcast

The BBC makes a great job to celebrate the broadcast of the third radio series. The Hitchhikers Radio 4's website is really great. And it will be even better from the 21st september, day of the first broadcast of the new episodes. This peculiar day, Radio 4's website will feature the 20th anniversary edition of one of the most popular text adventures from the begining of the eighties. Published by Infocom in 1984, this computer based on the first book, written by Douglas Adams himself, has been a huge success.

The old game refusted to die. It's been online on douglas adams official website, and The Digital Village even made a wap version in 1999. And now it will be revived in a enhanced version with Rod Lord, the man who made the illustrations for the book entries in the BBC TV series. According to MJ Simpson, "in addition, fans will be encouraged to submit their own illustrations to accompany the events of the game".

J enz Kjellberg aka The Duke of Dunstable, webmaster of the fabulous Douglasadams.se website, has just put online his own set visit report after the visit we did together with fellows Nick Webb and an other fan called Simon Hall. Duke shares his enthusiasm with us, and I'm sure that after reading so many eager movie set visits (including mine), you won't ever have any doubts about the fact that the movie is in good hands. As Duke says : "It’s tight, it makes sense, it’s a new angle with new scenes and characters, and it’s funny. I am 100 per cent confident, and all these people involved are so dedicated it brings tears to ones eyes." Besides the fact that i look like a "a young but balding Robert De Niro" (i take that as a compliment), Duke reveals that we indeed saw the movie trailer a few days before everybody. It looked fabulous on their big flat TV set of course! He also reveals a lot of interesting bits like the "Vogon arse print in a special “throne”,... That one is also quite good : "I felt warm to discover that a new item invented by Douglas and which I have been talking about earlier is indeed still in the script, and not only that; it plays quite an essential part". Indeed, even if he can't talk much more about it, Mr Duke has been really a prophesier on this one. And it is a great concept. Of course, you would still complain about the obvious fact that we can't give you a lot of details about the movie, but well, it would spoil the suprise, wouldn't it?

That's great news. First, "each episode will be available for 7 days following the Thursday evening repeats" on Radio 4's amazing website. So you can't even miss one episode, even if you're very absentiminded.

And of course you will absolutly want the episode on tapes or even better on CDs (well you can buy both too!). They are already available in pre order on BBC shop. The release date is next 25 october, so you won't have to wait long! The CD version (3 cds) cost 11£99 (you get 4£ off the usual price 15£99) and the tapes version (3 tapes) costs 14£99. As notice MJ Simpson on his website, they are worth buying because they are longer edits. In total there is about 21 minutes of extra material – which is nearly an entire other episode!"

You'll have to wait a little more to get your hands on the scriptbook, but you'll get the whole new series (14 episodes, "So long" and "Mostly Harmless" will be broadcasted next spring in eight episodes). It's going to be published by Pan Macmillan the 1st July 2005.

Of course, the press is going to cover the radio series broadcast. You've got to buy a copy of this month' TV Zone. Some great articles have been writen in this issue by Hitchhiker's legend Kevin Davies (see his interview here) and Andrew Pixley, a researcher into archive TV and radio. As Raymond Daley wrote on afda : "Get off your arses and speed your way to your nearest newsagaents to buy Tv Zone #180. It has an article about the hikers original radio series (some very nice pictures there) and stuff about the NEW radio series transmitting in September.Well worth a look, LOTS of nice pix to look at. and a mention of a special dvd for the new series (I'll say no more, read the mag!)".
The Mail on Sunday plans to publish some good stuff too. MJ Simpson wrote on his site that "Dirk Maggs tells me that he was recently interviewed about the Tertiary Phase for the Night and Day section of the Mail on Sunday. This article will be published in the paper on 12th September".

The radio adaptation of "Life, the Universe and Everything" will be aired on Radio 4 from the 21st september. It will be broadcast on Tuesdays at 18.30hrs and then repeated the following Thursday in each case at 23.00hrs.

First episode : 21st Sept at 18.30h + 23rd at 23h Second episode : 28th Sept at 18.30h + 30th at 23h Third episode : 5th Oct at 18.30h +7th at 23h Fourth episode : 12th Oct at 18.30h +14th at 23h Fifth episode : 19th Oct at 18.30h +21st at 23h Sixth episode : 26th Oct at 18.30h +28th at 23
If you're in UK, you can obviously listen to the radio show on your old radio set, but if you're an internet geek, and if you're not currently living in UK, you can of course listen to the the new Hitchhiker's radio show on Radio 4 website. Just make sure you've got the right plug ins before the show if you don't want to miss the begining.

And to celebrate this broadcast, Radio 4 website had already launch a section regarding the h2g2 radio series. We could see a little making of (made by Kevin Davies) and listen to a preview. We have now a new great design and a lot of other amazing stuff so go there NOW !