Radio Play Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase (as Book-on-CD)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase
adapted from the novel And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer, based on the original novels by Douglas Adams (Compact Disc Hitchhikers)

I’ve been a fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories, by the late Douglas Adams, since the early-1980s, when I first saw the television version of HHGG, starring Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickenson as Trillian, Stephen Moore as Marvin, David Dixon as Ford Prefect and Paul Jones as the Voice of the Book. That TV series had actually followed the production and airing of HHGG as a radio play, with many of the same actors recurring their roles from the radio production in the TV series (a major exception being that voice actor Geoffrey McGivern was replaced by David Dixon as Ford Prefect). And, yes, viewing the TV show did ultimately get me started on reading all the books in the series as well.

Adams passed away in 2001, after having written 5 volumes in the “Hitchhiker’s trilogy”. All five of those were ultimately produced as multi-part radio plays, with the same actors in the key roles throughout all the stories. In 2009, an official authorized new entry in the Hitchhiker’s series was released by author Eoin Colfer — And Another Thing… — Two different radio play versions of this title were produced, one in 2009 and a second in 2018. That second version reunited most of the cast members (Jones, Davey, Dickenson, etc.). This CD set is the commercial release of the 2018 radio play.

When I reviewed the novel for our Staff Recommendations pages in 2009 (see link below), I ended up a little disappointed in it — it didn’t really live up to the quality of the original Douglas Adams stories. But, having sampled this 2018 radio play adaptation, my opinion has improved. As a radio play, with all the familiar voices reviving their comedic roles, this turns out to be a fun, entertaining sci-fi romp. The story itself is a little all-over-the-place, but the character bits are — at times — hilarious, and the sound effects, special effects and music all add to the overall production. This is a fun show to listen to!

[ Wikipedia page for this production web site ]

See Scott C.’s review of And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer in the November 2009 Staff Recommendations!

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you listened this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!