One of the few things that made a sizeable impact on my childhood was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A veritable phenomenon that impacted a generations of British comedy, the Hitchhikers Guide began life as a fabulous radio play staring the dulcet tones of Peter Jones as ‘the book’.
Though not a popular opinion amongst millennials, the radio play is one of my favourite dying art forms and I recommend anyone who is getting bored of endlessly curating their spotify playlists to give it a try. There is a reason the Hitchhikers guide was adapted into a television series, a series of novels and a major motion picture.
Staring the absurdist adventures of human: Arthur Dent and his best friend an alien: Ford Prefect. Things begin with the end of the world and go down hill from there. The characters are rich and varied, the comedy fast and relentless in its ability to make you laugh out loud. The only down side to the whole series, which is the case in a lot of vintage programming, there is only one major fame character in the whole galaxy. Trillian. However Susan Sheridan does an excellent job of bringing her to life, I wonder why I never connected with her more. Instead I loved the capable and adventurous Ford, a guy who always knew where his towel was.
Anyway, do yourself a favour, dig up the original radio show and pop in on during your morning commute. It’ll set you up for your day ahead, or in the very least help you put things in perspective. At least the Vogons haven’t cleared our planet to make way for a hyperspatial express route. Yet
The Original Radio show cast
