We Recommend: Dirk Gently

Gimmicky detective shows are not uncommon, from Sherlock to Castle, and it's hard to deny this is another one, although the quality writing/acting talent involved in Dirk Gently makes it more acceptable to like, not to mention the literary roots.

Stephen Mangan on Douglas Adams

Stephen Mangan, star of BBC4's Dirk Gently, talks about his love affair with the work of the late author Douglas Adams...

Following a well-received pilot, Stephen Mangan returns as Douglas Adams's holistic detective. The first of three new adventures finds Gently and sidekick Macduff (Darren Boyd) probing the death of a computer whiz who thought the Pentagon was after him, and taking on a client convinced his horoscopes are coming true. At times it's rather dizzying as the script from series creator Howard Overman (Misfits) skedaddles along, but best just to admire the skill and mad energy of it all.

Compared to Whitechapel over on ITV1, the cases ­investigated by Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency make perfect logical sense.

But the first pilot episode of this BBC4 comedy screened back in 2010 got a mixed reception.

People who hadn't read Douglas Adams' original novels tended to like it more than devotees.

They were peeved that Dirk Gently wasn't played by a pudgy man wearing a red hat, a green striped tie and thick metal ­specs, but by Stephen Mangan.

Fans also objected to the way Howard Overman's script left out so much of the book's detail - which is a bit like complaining that you can't fit the entire British Olympic Squad on a push-bike.

Recommissioned for three episodes (they're nothing if not bold at BBC4!) Mangan returns along with Darren Boyd as his much put-upon partner Macduff.

It's a name that's perfectly suited to being chewed over and spat out with scorn as Gently does here.

Tonight Dirk must discover the connection between a man who thinks the Pentagon wants to kill him and another man who thinks his horoscopes are coming true.

According to Dirk's holistic view, these two seemingly unconnected cases must be linked.

And fans of Adams' novels will be pleased to see Dirk's theory of "Zen Navigation" comes straight from his book, The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul.

Basically, if you have no idea where you're headed, just find a car that looks like it knows where it's going and follow that.

Howard Overman: Gently is another 'comic take on genre'

There's a fourth series of Misfits coming, and a US pilot created with Josh Schwartz. But first comes an adaptation of Douglas Adams's 'holistic detective' tales.

After a successful pilot, Howard Overman's (Misfits) adaptation of Douglas Adams's detective tales gets a three-part run. Stephen Mangan stars as the gauche sleuth with a knack for solving cases by circuitous means. The opener finds Gently and put-upon associate MacDuff (Darren Boyd) in Cambridge tackling a conspiracy theory and a murder. Meanwhile, Macduff's girlfriend Susan (Helen Baxendale) is also in Cambridge at an interview for a new job which, if she got it, would mean the end of Gently and Macduff's detective partnership.

Stephen Mangan interview

Stephen Mangan talks to Metro about why he loved Coppers but could never have been a policeman, who he thinks is the best stand-up in the world and why he's a sucker for music documentaries.

Top 5 Douglas Adams characters

Stephen Mangan returns to BBC Four in Dirk Gently next week as the morally dubious, self-styled Holistic Detective. In anticipation, CultBox are thumbing a lift around the galaxy of creator Douglas Adams's finest characters...

Stephen Mangan interview

The new three-part series stars of Dirk Gently stars Stephen Mangan as the morally dubious, self-styled Holistic Detective...

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.