The cast of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Copyright: Above The Title Productions / BBC

Key details

Genre
Sitcom
Broadcast
2007 - 2008
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Episodes
12 (2 series)
Stars
Harry Enfield, Billy Boyd, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, Robert Duncan, Felicity Montagu, Michael Fenton Stevens, Toby Longworth and more
Writers
Douglas Adams, Dirk Maggs and Kim Fuller
Directors
Dirk Maggs and Dawn Ellis
Producers
Jo Wheeler and Dirk Maggs
Company

Dirk Gently (real name Svlad Cjelli) is a private detective who believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. His Holistic Detective Agency therefore solves the whole crime and finds the whole person, although admittedly his cases mostly tend to involve missing cats.

Gently's first case is that of the murder of Gordon Way, owner of WayForward Technologies II. His work college, Richard MacDuff, believes that he is being considered as the prime suspect, which leads him to employ Dirk to clear his name. The case ends up evolving into a somewhat bizarre tale of time travel, alien visitation, ghosts, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an Electric Monk who believes everything in the world is pink... it is one big case for Dirk!

In series two (The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul), Dirk has fallen on hard times - he is reading palms in a tent, dressed as an old gypsy woman. But when Detective Superintendent Gilks decides the headless body of one of Dirk's clients is the result of a particularly irritating suicide, Dirk is plunged into a mystery where the interconnectness of all things is tested to the limit.

Additional details

Also known as
  • The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul (Series 2 title)
Production
Studio
Soundtrack
Music composed by Philip Pope.

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Wednesday 3rd October 2007 at 6pm on BBC Radio 4

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