On Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:53:27 +0100, Bill Pragnell wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> 578 thousand million times. :-)
>>> "Don't worry, the others aren't here right now."
>> 
>> "I don't think you CAN dig your way off a planet..."
> 
> Aha, the Crisis Inducer, another corker that never made it out of the
> radio series.

Yeah, that was an inspired idea.  "Come on, they're after us!"

> "How I Scaled The North Face Of The Megapurna With A Sprained Finger"
> swept away by titles like
> "How I Scaled The North Face Of The Megapurna With A Perfectly Healthy
> Finger But Everything Else Sprained, Broken Or Bitten Off By A Pack Of
> Mad Yaks"
> 
> ...or however it goes. I like the way Adams just sticks the word 'mega'
> in front of a normal word to make it seem other-worldly. Especially
> things from Arcturus; megadonkey, megarhino (with or without bronchial
> pneumonia), megavoidwhale...

He was very good at coming up with names for things; I always wanted to 
ask him where some of the names came from.  Unfortunately, the two times 
I had an opportunity to talk with him, I didn't have a lot of time (once 
in person, once on the radio).  But I ran into an old friend of mine 
recently who runs a radio show called Shockwave Radio Theater, and many 
years ago he had the opportunity to interview Adams.  We bumped into each 
other online recently, and he said "you know, I still owe you something" 
and send me a DVD with all the bits of Shockwave on it, and included in 
there was an interview with Adams that was quite good; I think it was 
from right after MH was released.

>>>>>> Which escape capsule did Ford and Arthur get into in the Hagunnenon
>>>>>> ship?
>>>>> Ah, a fifty-fifty. Very generous! Um, left? My imagination says
>>>>> right and for some reason my imagination always gets left and right
>>>>> wrong.
>>>> They got into the right-hand one.  Ford tells Zaphod "You and the
>>>> others take the left-hand one". :-)
>>> Arse. Damn you, brain.
>> LOL!
>> Who was Trillian said to be married to after this scene occurred?
> 
> Oh, I can't remember. You've well and truly pummelled me with your
> expertise in this matter... :)

LOL!

She was forcibly married to the President of the Galactic Rotary Club.

>>> Well, it was a wild stab in the dark. :)
>> 
>> I'm glad I wasn't in front of the knife.
> 
> Well, given how accurate my answer was you'd have been perfectly safe.

True, true.  But still there's all the dodging and weaving to be done - 
that's more effort than I'd want to put into it. :-)

>> But the episodes aren't 30 minutes; they actually have a running time
>> of between 29 and 30 minutes (originally), but the new series'
>> recordings I have are extended editions, and a few of them run as long
>> as 40 minutes with the added material.
> Are the new series any good? I listened to a few episodes when they
> aired on the radio but they seemed to follow the books word for word and
> it wasn't the same without Peter Jones (even if the rest of the cast
> were present).

I like the new ones - just listened to the first and second episodes of 
the Tertiary phase.  Dirk Maggs wanted to not create any new material, 
but he did source material from discussions he had with Adams back in the 
90's about doing another series.  The first episode was largely written 
by DNA back then, but then the movie was on (again) and he went to work 
on that.

I think William Franklyn did a good job as the book - he was a good 
friend of Peter Jones as well, and while it certainly isn't the same 
without Peter, or Richard Vernon, or David Tate, there's something to be 
said for hearing Marvin again.  And Simon Jones brings the same sort of 
energy to the role of Arthur (as far as I'm concerned, there's only one 
person who is Arthur, and that's Simon).  The loss of Peter Jones becomes 
less significant in the Quintessential phase, since by that time the 
guide has been taken over and the voice of the bird takes over for the 
book - played by none other than Rula Lenska, better known as 
Lintilla. :-)

BBC4 have just started running Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 
(first episode was yesterday, and it's available online).  Not sure what 
I think of it yet; I had a listen, but wasn't paying attention that 
much.  I have to recode it to MP3 and put it on my iPod and listen again.

> "But I'm quite used to being humiliated. I can even go and stick my head
> in a bucket of water if you want. Shall I go and stick my head in a
> bucket of water? I've got one ready. Just a minute." "What's he saying?"
> "Nothing, he just phoned up to wash his head at us."

"The car park?  What are you doing in the car park?"

"Parking cars, what else does one do in a car park?"

Jim

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