Don't Panic! A review of the 1980s BBC TV production of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
In the late 1970s, prompted by the success of Douglas Adams' original sci-fi/comedy radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the British Broadcasting Corporation's television department commissioned him and John Lloyd to adapt it into a six-episode miniseries. Adams, who had also worked for a while on the venerable Dr. Who TV series, had already adapted part of the radio series into a couple of novels ( The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ) was notorious for being a procrastinator, so the project took a while in getting started. At first, the TV version of Hitchiker's Guide was going to be an animated series, but this idea was nixed in favor of giving viewers a live-action version featuring some of the original radio series' actors, particularly Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Stephen Moore (Marvin the Paranoid Android) and Peter Jones (voice of The Book).