Douglas Adams

Towel Day wrapped up

The annual celebration of Douglas Adams's 'massively useful' piece of interstellar travel kit keeps on growing. Have you been taking part?

In a comedy based on Douglas Adams's novels, Stephen Mangan stars as detective Dirk Gently, whose investigative technique is based on "an unswerving belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things". Happily, the switchback script here, by Howard Overman (Misfits), has a kind of pointedly whimsical quality that's pure Adams. Although there are moments when Mangan's energy overwhelms the rest of the cast, you suspect Gently's creator would approve.

Meddling with the novels of such a geek luminary as Douglas Adams is a precarious business, so it's no surprise that this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - first shown on BBC4 last December - had ardent fans up in arms over the deviation from its source novel. But a series has been commissioned, so all their favourite bits of the books have a chance to make it to the screen. For the rest of us there is enough to appreciate in a plot that expands from a case of a missing cat to some surreal flights of fancy. Stephen Mangan is great as the chaotic, evasive Gently, while Darren Boyd does a great line in bewilderment as an unwitting sidekick.

Stephen Mangan's not-great-but-better-than-expected turn as Douglas Adams's holistic detective actually stands up to a second viewing, so even if you watched it on BBC4, you may be surprised to find you like it more this time around.

Fans of Douglas Adams were unimpressed with this reworking of his Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency when it aired on BBC Four last year - they felt it deviated too far from Adams's original novel. Tonight, it gets its first terrestrial airing with the detective (Stephen Mangan) examining a case that links a missing cat with an exploding warehouse.

BBC Books to publish 'lost' Douglas Adams' Dr Who

BBC Books is to publish the 'lost' Doctor Who story 'Shada', an unbroadcast adventure of the Time Lord written by Hitchhikers' Guide author Douglas Adams.

42 - need I say more?

We have all known for some time that the answer to the ultimate question of "...what's the meaning of life, the universe and everything" is 42. Ever since Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1979, researchers have frantically tried to determine the meaning of the meaning of life. Legend has it that Adams floated several possibilities, but told only Stephen Fry, who has vowed to take the secret to his grave.

The meaning of life? 42 things about 42

Douglas Adams said it was the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. He meant it as a joke, but a new book shows how the number 42 has played a significant role in history.

Douglas Adams and the cult of 42

If you know The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, then you also know the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. But how did Douglas Adams come up with that number?