Samuel Barnett gets title role in Dirk Gently USA

Samuel Barnett has been cast as the lead opposite Elijah Wood in Dirk Gently, BBC America's eight-episode series based on the cult novels by Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams.

Elijah Wood cast in BBC America's "Dirk Gently"

Elijah Wood has been cast in Dirk Gently, the upcoming BBC America comedy from writer and director Max Landis. Wood will play Todd [seemingly an American Richard MacDuff], the assistant to the title character, an eccentric detective. The series is based on the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency novels by the late Douglas Adams.

BBC America greenlights new Dirk Gently TV series

Douglas Adams' detective Dirk Gently has been greenlit for another TV adaptation, courtesy of BBC America and writer Max Landis.

Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently set for US TV series

The world's foremost and only Holistic Detective is set to move to America. Dirk Gently, the character created by Douglas Adams in his comedy-sci-fi-mystical-mystery novels Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, has been optioned for a potential US television series and comic book.

Lessons I learned from watching Dirk Gently

Starring Stephen Mangan and Darren Boyd, this quirky BBC Four series entertained and enlightened me. So without further ado, here are the lessons I learned from watching Dirk Gently.

Stephen Mangan: Dirk Gently victim of Cameron & Osborne

The actor says the acclaimed BBC4 drama "had huge potential" before a decision to freeze the licence fee forced the corporation to make cuts.

Stephen Mangan 'bitterly upset' over axed Dirk Gently

Actor Stephen Mangan has admitted he is "bitterly upset" at the BBC's decision to drop the Dirk Gently series.

I tried to like Dirk Gently (BBC Four) but it was hard to find the humour. As with the spoof show Cricklewood Greats, which came and went a few weeks ago leaving a sense that even Peter Capaldi can sometimes waste his time, a great deal of care and attention didn't add up to a single gag. It could be that, as the years pass, one falls out of love with the spoof form itself; perhaps because everything has been done. On one of the off-world channels last week I got another chance to see the movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and it was as impressive as ever. It had infinite resources from the film archive and they were deployed with tact and cunning. But even then, I didn't laugh much.

For any show that tries to do the same sort of thing but with less wit I can barely summon up enough interest to see it through. The antipathy has got something to do with the spoof form itself. It is always as if the spoofers had spent years getting ready, paying the wrong kind of attention; they are like practical jokers, forever looking for a way in. On the other hand, The Comic Strip bunch a few years back did some good stuff, and a spoof sequence was always the highlight of the French and Saunders shows. When I recall those two in their spoof mode, however, I also recall that The Two Ronnies were only ever disastrously dull in their Piggy Malone number.

Dirk Gently - Episode 1.3 review

The last episode of Dirk Gently returned to the show's default style, compared to last week's sci-fi/fantasy indulgence, and I have to admit that disappointed me.