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

I'm currently rereading _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_. There have been two TV adaptations of the character so far. N.B. The character has been adapted, not the stories by Douglas Adams. While both TV series were quite entertaining, they bore little resemblance to the stories of Electric Monks, time traveling rooms in Cambridge, and Nordic Gods that Adams wrote. Rather both shows took the concept of an Holistic Detective and serialized it for TV. The first, with Stephen Mangan took viewers on new cases each week, while the latest version with Samuel Barnett & Elijah Wood took viewers on a new grand adventure each of its two series. Stephen Mangan's "Dirk" stuck more to the detective mold than Samuel Barnett's who's origin story lied within some murky, government conspiracy.

But neither Character resembled the Dirk described in Douglas Adams' books. So, as I've been rereading the first book, I've been picturing Dirk as he might be portrayed by Matt Berry, of _The IT Crowd_, _The Mighty Boosh_, and _Snuff Box_. Give him a preposterous red hat and he IS Svlad Cjelli!


If they ever made a film version that stuck to the original stories, who would you cast as the various characters?
Here's a list cribbed from Wikipedia:

Richard MacDuff, a young software engineer working for WayForward Technologies II, owned by Gordon Way. His Anthem software, which is designed as a spreadsheet, but also has a unique feature to convert corporate accounts into music, was extremely popular, but he is falling behind in his deadlines to create an updated version. Throughout the book, he tries to figure out how a couch became impossibly stuck in the L-shaped stairway to his flat, forcing him and any visitors to climb over it to get to his flat.

Reg (Professor Urban Chronotis, the Regius Professor of Chronology), Richard's old college tutor, a fellow of St. Cedd's College, Cambridge with no apparent duties, who is "on the older side of completely indeterminate". He has a predisposition for childish conjuring tricks and an extremely bad memory.

Gordon Way, the owner of WayForward, who is pressuring Richard to complete his behind-schedule software project, and ends up getting shot for no immediately obvious reason a few chapters into the book.

Susan Way, sister of Gordon Way and professional cellist, and the "specific girl that Richard is not married to".

An Electric Monk from a planet very far from the Earth. Electric monks are coincidentally humanoid robots designed to practice religion in their owners' stead. This particular monk had accidentally been connected to a video recorder and, in attempting to believe everything on the TV, had malfunctioned and begun to believe "all kinds of things, more or less at random", including things like tables being hermaphrodites and God wanting a lot of money sent to a certain address. Since it was cheaper to replace the Monk than to repair it, the Monk was cast out in the wilderness to believe whatever it liked. The Monk also owns a somewhat cynical horse, which he was allowed to keep because "horses were so cheap to make". Upon his arrival on Earth, the Monk has several humorous misadventures.

Michael Wenton-Weakes, the spoiled son of wealthy parents, known pejoratively as "Michael Wednesday-Week," which is when he promises to have things done by, such as the next issue of his poorly-managed magazine Fathom. His mother sold Fathom to Gordon Way after his father's accidental death when the latter was changing an electric plug. While Michael seems largely apathetic and yielding to others, the loss of Fathom bothers him much more deeply than anyone realises.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, writer, one of the founders of the English Romantic Movement. Also a famous laudanum user. In the novel, he is an alumnus of St. Cedd's College. His poems Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner figure prominently in the plot.

Richard MacDuff sounds sufficiently like a character form "inherent Vice" or "Bleeding Edge" (both by Thomas Pynchon) that I would cast Joachim Phoenix (who was in "Inherent Vice"). Unless I gave Phoenix the role of Dirk gently himself.

Pynchon's books refer to the Deep Web, which may not have existed when Adams was writing his Dirk gently books. I think it would be fair to update he material, since the world has moved on somewhat from Adams's days.

But I seem to be drifting

Phoenix is just too tall and thin for Dirk Gently. Mangan and Barnett are also thin and just don't feel right.

I would suggest Martin Freeman, but he may bee a bit too old for the role. Does gently have to be portrayed by a Brit? I'm more familiar with American actors.

Have you ever read _A Confederacy of Dunces_? Because I think Dirk Gently and Ignatius J. Reilly could be played by the same person regardless of nationality.

Here’s the BBC Radio cast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/dirkgently/cast_series1.shtml

Chosen for their voices, of course, but they may indicate the kind of character actors you need.

Harry Enfield was brilliant in this, but you’d need a younger actor today.

Andrew Sachs was also very good as the professor.

Toby Longworth’s woice was synthesised, so really anyone in a cloak would do for the monk.

And Dirk Gently has Slavic parentage, so a non-Brit would be ideal.

That's one of the reasons I think Matt Berry would be ideal, he a bit dark and alien.

I liked Stephen Mangan as Dirk, but sticking to the descriptions in the book he perhaps would have been a better fit for Richard. I like your suggestion of Matt Berry for Dirk

Alan Rickman would have been a good Reg

Susan Way would be played by the cellist Natalie Clein

When I read the books - some 15 or so years ago - I loosely imagined him looking like a close cousin of Inspector Clouseau.