Dirk Gently: Douglas Adams' detective finally cracks TV

After 23 years, Dirk Gently is bringing distinctly English sci-fi to the small screen. Chris Harvey reports.

Dirk Gently: Appliance of science is stuff of fantasy

Can a TV drama with a detective who uses quantum mechanics to solve cases be a success?

Video: Stephen Mangan on playing Dirk Gently

The actor, Stephen Mangan talks to BBC Breakfast about playing the lead role in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, adapted from the novel for BBC Four.

Its writer, the late Douglas Adams, always thought that his stories about Dirk Gently, the hapless detective, would make a better film than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but found it difficult to get his books adapted at the time.

Stephen Mangan 'wants more Dirk Gently'

Stephen Mangan has admitted that he is keen to film more episodes of Dirk Gently.

TV preview: Dirk Gently

This modestly-budgeted pilot suggests potential for a series, so the deviation from Adams's originals makes sense.

Dirk Gently review

Gently doesn't do it for this Douglas Adams fan...

Stephen Mangan interview

Stephen Mangan couldn't afford to be daunted by outside expectations. "I'm not playing the book. I'm playing Howard's script. I play Dirk the way I would want to watch, in the most interesting way I can," he insists.

Stephen Mangan 'feels Dirk Gently pressure'

Stephen Mangan has admitted that he feels the pressure of playing Dirk Gently in a new BBC Four drama.

Stephen Mangan: "People still yell 'Dan' at me!"

"He physically abused me every day," says Stephen Mangan of recent co-star Matt Le Blanc. "He'd pin me down and fart in my face." We think he's joking. But the lank-haired comic actor has such a scurrilous sense of humour that it's hard to distinguish between a deadpan gag and a world-breaking exclusive.

It's no wonder, then, that he's been chosen to breathe life into Douglas Adams's huckster detective Dirk Gently in a new BBC drama...

'Dirk Gently' writer teases pilot episode

Howard Overman has revealed more details about his forthcoming adaptation of the Dirk Gently novels.