Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season 2
(2017)
What Season 1 was to science fiction, Season 2 attempts with fantasy (and even less attempt to keep the viewer orientated). The result is an outrageous, somewhat Dirk-lite breadcrumb trail of surreal laugh-out-loud craziness. Another doomed production for guest star Tyler Labine.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams (Heinemann, 1987)
Rushed ending aside, this is a consummate piece of genre creation. Adams crafts a supernatural SF detective story with gorgeous (often subtle) pieces of interconnectedness, Doctor Who rehash and zany bits of faux-throwaway, all brought together by the late-appearing protagonist. Improbably brilliant.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season 1
(2016)
Very much ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘based on’, this BBC American adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books takes a simple outlandish idea and builds strangeness upon strangeness. As per Adams, the plot is essentially meaningless but brilliantly funny in the unfolding.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 1988); audiobook read by Douglas Adams (Phoenix, 2015)
The story, when looked back upon at book’s end, turns out to have been the flimsiest of nonsense. Dirk actually does very little. But this only serves to emphasise the deft, droll, audacious touch of Adams’ whimsy, and the lure of interconnectedness.
The Salmon of Doubt
by Douglas Adams (William Heinemann, 2002); audiobook read by Simon Jones (Phoenix, 2005)
A patchy, posthumous collection of Adams writings (predominantly non-fiction) exemplifying his off-beat, self-indulgent style, his knack for pinning down human absurdities, and his incurable technophilia and recycling of ideas and anecdotes. Most tantalising for fans is the nascent unfinished Dirk Gently novel(la).
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
by Douglas Adams (Pan, 1984); audiobook read by Martin Freeman (Macmillan, 2012)
The ideas, as ever, are ingenious, and Adams is at the top of his game in reuniting Arthur Dent with the erstwhile-destroyed Planet Earth. The story, however, such as it is, hitchhikes half-heartedly while secretly yearning to become a Dirk Gently novel.
Galahad at Blandings
by P. G. Wodehouse (Simon & Schuster, 1964); audiobook read by Jeremy Sinden (Chivers, 1993; 2011)
In Galahad Threepwood surely we have the nascent (if more genteel) template for Dirk Gently, and in the comings and goings at Blandings Castle that of Douglas Adams’ much-vaunted fundamental interconnectedness of everything. This is Wodehouse at his fabulous, gab-gifted, exquisite best.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC Radio, 2007)
Although overly chaotic at the outset (and no doubt baffling to those not already familiar with Adams’ novel), Maggs’ adaptation finds its feet and diverges, becoming a clever piece of comedy. Harry Enfield makes a fine Dirk; likewise Billy Boyd as Richard.