This series is centred on Arthur Dent; a very ordinary Englishman whose life is about to change in extraordinary ways. First his house is due to be demolished for a bypass... this is nothing to learning that his friend Ford Prefect is an alien from the vicinity of Betelgeuse and not from Guildford or the fact that the Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. They manage to hitch a lift off the planet before its destruction. In the adventures that follow they are thrown into space; meet Ford's two-headed cousin, Zaphod Beeblebrox; a depressed robot named Marvin and Trillian, a girl Arthur failed to get off with in a party in Islington before learning the truth about the origins of the Earth.
Given that this series is getting on for forty years old it is not surprising that it occasionally shows its age... perhaps somewhat surprisingly the dated effects merely add to the series' charm. The version follows the original radio series fairly closely; helped by the return of several of the original main cast who are great in their roles; new cast members impress as well. The story is full of delightful silliness as well as genuine inventiveness... who, apart from Douglas Adams, could have come up with the idea of the Babelfish? The story moves along at a cracking pace... to be honest I'd have preferred it if the material had been stretched a bit to make the series longer. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of sci-fi comedy... it is just a shame only one six-episode series was made as there are a few loose ends; to find out what happens after the ending you have to go back to the radio version or the books.
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