h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Born on the 11th March 1952, and named Douglas Noel Adams, he was considered a strange child and a little slow (walking into lampposts and taking a while to learn to talk). He was 12 when he first got anything into print, that being a short story in the Eagle about
a man who losses his memory. He performed in school plays and ‘had’ to go university in Cambridge, that’s where footlights and where all the talented comedy writers/performers of the time were.

He went to university and was very disappointed with footlights, he and a couple of friends set up a review ‘Adams-Smith-Adams’, and he worked with many, now famous, comedy stars. After university he worked with Graham Chapman, and they managed to get a TV comedy show made, called ‘Out Of The Trees’, it involved a man picking a flower, to which the police complain, then the fire brigade turn up, then the army and so on until the world blows up. He also worked on several other projects, and among other things he submitted sketches for the Burkiss Way, Monty Python and Weekending

Being 6’5” the same height as John Cleese and Peter Cook and many other comedy stars, Douglas maintained that Graham Chapman being only 6’3” was therefore four percent less funny, he once owned 8 wardrobes (at one time and all in his bedroom), and has had some very strange luck. He became famous for the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, he was extremely intelligent, very talented, and also very bad at keeping deadlines.

Its been said that a lot of people originally disliked the Dirk Gently novels, because they weren’t Hitchhikers, me I loved them for the exact same reason. As much as I like Hitchhikers, I would have liked more, something different, something new. Douglas Adams didn’t write a lot, there were a lot of things he was interested in that took up his time. He suffered with novels- writing was a painful experience.

I can’t help thinking that if he hadn’t spent so much time on the Hitchhikers movie, we could have enjoyed a lot more different works. The Salmon Of Doubt - his collected peices goes some way to do this. But then the Hitchhikers movie was his dream and you can’t argue with that?, besides with his numerous interests and with his track record for writing.....

I found myself saying when I learned of his death that ‘The worlds he created are the best I’ve ever imagined’ and its true.

I was under the impression that 'Out of the Trees' was never actually made: there's only the first pilot episode that I ever knew of. It stars Simon Jones and is rather funny in a sort of absurdist way. You can see clips from it on the DVD of the Hitchhiker's tv series.

Yeah I'm not very clear on that point am I!

That's ok. Consider it made!