The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Standing before a very live and appreciative audience at the Almeida Theater in London in August 1995, Douglas Adams claimed to have five performing voices: "posh quiet, posh loud, less posh quiet, less posh loud, and Australian." This performance is about the silliest, most delightful, poshest dramatic reading you'll ever want to hear--with Adams choosing three selections from his wonderfully irreverent, hugely successful canon of science fiction satire. With the subject matter being irrational couches and Frogstar Battle Robots, he gleefully presents some of his best-loved characters, including Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and Marvin the Paranoid Android. Adams died unexpectedly in 2001. This live CD is a fine remembrance of a beloved author of gentle insight and exceptional style. B.P. 2008 Audies Finalist (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine


It's been more than a quarter century since Douglas Adams's original radio series was first broadcast. In the able hands of director Dirk Maggs, Adams's third novel about Arthur Dent, Life, the Universe, and Everything, has been adapted as a radio drama and brought to life with most of the original cast from the first two series. Simon Jones reprises his role as the chronically disgruntled Arthur Dent, an earthman cast about in time and space when the earth is destroyed. Geoffrey McGivern is back as the easy-going Ford Prefect, and Mark Wing-Davey is the two-headed hipster, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Fans will be pleased by the return of Susan Sheridan as Trillian, who was conspicuously absent from the second series. Even Douglas Adams, who passed away in 2001, makes an appearance as the continuously reincarnated Agrajag. Through the wonders of digital sound editing, dialogue from an audiobook version of LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING read by Adams was seamlessly spliced in, along with Simon Jones reading Arthur Dent's parts. Roger Gregg of Crazy Dog Audio Theatre plays Eddie the Shipboard Computer, giving a cheerful counterpoint to Stephen Moore's hilariously depressing Marvin the Paranoid Android. All in all, a delightfully manic treat. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2006 Audie Award Winner (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine