I first encountered HHGTTG when I was at Primary School in New Zealand, watching the original tv series a year or two after it was made. I was hooked (as, in time, were my brother and sister) and badgered my parents into buying me the original book trilogy. The three of us read them obsessively and acquired a Mastermind-level knowledge of them (better in fact – we defeated a contestant in NZ who had it as his specialist subject).

I think your posts on the subject are superb. It’s been quite a few years now since I’ve read them or seen the movie (let alone the tv series, and I’ve never listened to all of the radio programmes), and this brought so much back. For what it’s worth, I think the film works ok (no more, but no less) as long as you don’t try to relate it to the books but treat it as a stand-alone work. Stephen Fry was an inspired choice for the narrator, and you can see why they cast Martin Freeman, but other comparisons just aren’t going to work I fear.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write these pieces and I can already see there is a great deal else on the site to enjoy. Chapeau!

Likewise, Simon, it’s interesting to hear your own path. I do intend to get around to the radio version at some point and I suppose a few people might find it odd that I’ve almost done these in the complete reverse order.

Excellent to hear your own experiences of pubs. It’s the kind of thing that I imagine is quite difficult to quantify across the nation and therefore I find myself relying on anecdotal evidence. I do regularly use a pub that has a distinctive bar/lounge split, with the bar full of stools and TVs showing sport, while the lounge has chairs, a fireplace and relative quiet. I’d be curious if most people have a specific definition of a ‘snug’. Having come of pub-going age much more recently, of these terms, ‘snug’ is the one I have probably come across the most. I tend to use it to describe any tucked away area that is smaller than the main part of the pub, usually a proper room in that it has a door, so a group of you can have some privacy if you manage to fill it.

On the other hand, poor though they are, Zaphod’s fake head and arm certainly work better on TV than on the stage version I saw at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park. I seem to recall being told that the Theatr Clwyd version simply had two people wearing a single Zaphod costume thus easily providing him with a third head and arm that actually worked, but I never saw their version.

The book’s graphics on television are superb and, for once, something previously left to one’s imagination probably didn’t match up to it to the way it was realised on screen.

All that aside, I really came here to talk about pubs.

I remember the separation of the bar and the lounge, and perhaps even a third area (more variably named, but quite often ‘the snug’) being prevalent in a majority of pubs throughout most of the 1980s, with small price differences reflecting the quality of the furnishings and the comfiness of the seating. I could well believe these fiscal margins got smaller as time went by, but I’m sure it remained cheaper in the bar throughout the 80s. There was certainly a trend, where the pub layout would allow it, to knock through in order to merge the various smaller seating areas into one and standardise the decor and pricing, but there were plenty of places where it just couldn’t be done.

Douglas Adams’ (“DNA”) writing is a joy. There are some great humorous lines in the show as well as some lovely-to-roll-around-in-your-mouth words and phrases. “Beeblebrox”, “mind-bogglingly”, “omin-cognate neutron wrangler”, “Bambleweeny”, “Bugblatter Beast”, etc. The show really benefits from its antecedents as a radio series. It gives it a very quickfire line of comedy that really appeals. The later novels written by DNA, not based on any scripts, have their own strengths but lack some of the direct comic punchiness.

“I’m in awe of the graphics’ design style and wish they were on screen a bit longer so I could admire them further.”

The graphics are a great solution to ‘how do we bring the narrative style of the radio version to TV?’ They did a fantastic job. Adams made sure the screens were filled with little bits and pieces so that people who recorded it on their VCRs would be able to watch it back and pause it and get a bit of extra entertainment. I think one of my favourites is the HHG editor, “Web Nixo”, who appears briefly in an animation in episode five. Nick Webb was Adam’s editor at Pan Books on the first novel.

I hope you get on much better with your brother these days!

Most of all, I’m knocked out to know that the graphics *still* captivate 40 years later. That’s brilliant! I’m so happy that you’ve got so much out of this.

Many thanks! 🙂

All the best

Andrew

He’s in the TV series a couple of times.

I didn’t know I needed to be looking for him! I’ve just looked back – is he stood up in the white jacket?

The Narrator was kept from the radio show and I suspect that the “computer” graphics were used as Guide readouts to have something on screen while Peter Jones was talking.

Did you spot Douglas Adams in the pub?