I must have been twelve or thirteen when the first season of Hitchhiker’s Guide was repeated on Radio National at around midnight. I recall being tucked up in bed with a cassette player, ready to listen and record an episode. I’ve no idea if my parents knew what I was doing; they never said anything if they did. Hearing those episodes in the darkness, comforted by Arthur Dent’s panic, Zaphood’s hoopiness, and Ford’s…. Ford-ness, to say nothing of dear old Marvin and brilliant Trillian, are pivotal moments from my childhood. 

Because this was Hitchhikers, and I could never get enough of it. I read and re-read the books to the degree that they fell apart (especially the first one, which will always be my favourite). And I wore the cassette tape out with re-listening. When the TV series was repeated on ABC, I recorded it and watched it again and again and again. I recently watched it with my daughter Sophie, who absolutely loved it.*

I know my story isn’t unique. Most of you reading this will have done the same. Some of you will have listened to the radio series — Phases One and Two — when they originally came out in 1977 and 1978 (I was far too young). Like Doctor Who before it, when Hitchhikers gets its claws into you, it never, ever lets go.

Despite all this, until this week, I hadn’t read the original radio scripts. Why bother when you can just listen to the episode? But scripts, of course, are very much their own thing, and this book plays on that, replicating Adam’s stage directions and putting back in the lines edited from the episodes (usually for reasons of length). The footnotes from Geoffrey Perkins are lovely, funny and fascinating. I got emotional when Douglas intruded (or was invited) into the Footnotes with his recollection of the recordings. These were fragments of Douglas, sparkling with wit and self-deprecation, that I’d never encountered before. The recovery of a “lost episode” — Arthur Dent being interviewed by Sheila Steafel while sleeping in the cave on prehistoric Earth — is another lovely, unexpected surprise. 

Of course, having read the scripts, I went back to the radio series.** I can confirm that it remains one of the most incredible things ever broadcasted across the galactic sub-ether network.  

* I’ve seen the movie once. That was more than enough. If you liked the film, that’s fine. But I’m not sure we can be friends.

** It’s on Spotify, along with the other Phases that came later, essentially adaptations of the novels. Sadly, they’re simply not as good because the source material isn’t as good. One of the great disappointments of my childhood is discovering that So Long and Thanks for All The Fish lacked all the wit, charm, surrealism and sharp observations that made the first three novel (especially, the first two) so damn magnificent.