Firstly, I just confess sincere apologies for not keeping my blog updated since taking up the role of Head of Editorial at Global Radio. Yes I know, I’ve been extremely poor and it will never happen again.
Although I will, in time, blog about all the amazing things we are doing over at Global, I wanted to take the opportunity to comment on the Beeb’s broadcast of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Yes, it’s going to be one of those kind of posts…
The original radio series was broadcast in 1978 and I must have been 4 at the time when I heard it first. I remember this very vividly because I was recovering from a very bad dose of chicken pox, reading endless copies of The Beano and, frankly, going bonkers with boredom. Then my parents handed me an old battered radio so I could listen to this new sci-fi programme.
Instant transportation.
I’m not saying I understood everything (I mean, what the hell was a ‘bypass’ anyway?) but the way this radio production brought the story to life completely blew me away completely. Towels, Dolphins, 3 pints of bitter and a packet of dry roasted peanuts – I became the ultimate Hitch Hiker’s fan (gauntlet thrown).
Since then I’ve been a member of several terribly named rock bands, attended many, many committee meetings where I’ve almost taken my own life and spent a good deal of time wearing nothing but black. Vague literary allusions I’m sure, but I reckon they make me an instant member of the Arthur Dent appreciation society – and I still wear my dressing gown with pride.
For years after listening to this show I tried to write my own radio plays but they they were always awful and frankly embarrassing plus they got even worse when I went to University. A little knowledge may be dangerous but a splattering of half-read Dylan Thomas and T.S Eliot can be bloody appalling.
So, anyway, fantastic that it’s back on radio and I can’t thank those crazy guys on the original radio production team enough.
And yes, I know that’s a image from the TV series which was also good.
And no, the movie was terrible.
Steven Wilson-Beales
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