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Gordon Way has been murdered and the innocent Richard MacDuff
stands accused. Of course Gordon knows that Richard is not
to blame; at least his invisible spirit does. However, communicating
with anyone living proves more than tricky. Without being
officially asked, private detective Dirk Gently (who is more
used to dealing with missing cats) takes on the case. Dirk
believes in the holistic interconnectedness of all things,
and it's a good job he does, because before long he finds
himself having to piece together the bizarre events of a seemingly
impossible conjuring trick, a Cambridge professor who has
been around for far too long, an electric monk searching for
its horse (which turns up in a bathroom), a vindictive spirit
and a spaceship. And to make matters worse, the fate of the
universe is in his hands. Not bad for someone dragged out
of Cambridge University by the police, and who can't even
pay his long-suffering secretary...
The
various media of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
have made Douglas Adams a big name in literature, and particularly
readers of science fiction and fantasy. Dirk Maggs, adapter,
producer and director of this first Dirk Gently adventure,
himself is no stranger to these genres. Having already adapted
books three to five of the Hitchhiker trilogy in five
parts, he now turns his experienced hand to the even more
arduous task of dramatising Dirk Gently for BBC Radio
4. To my mind this would have been difficult because the novel
contains many descriptive passages which needed to be made
into character dialogue to avoid the obvious inclusion of
a narrator. Therefore, we now have a speaking electric monk
(which at times seems to pay homage to Marvin the paranoid
android), and we have some verbal interaction from the ghost
of Gordon Way.
The
voice acting is considerably better than expected, bearing
in mind certain fan base gripes about the choices. Andrew
Sachs's Professor Chronotis I particularly enjoyed, along
with Billy Boyd's Richard MacDuff and Toby Longworth's Electric
Monk. Harry Enfield appears to play himself in the role of
Dirk Gently, which is fine. The sound design and effects are
top-notch, as we have come to expect from a Maggs production,
but the music should be singled out for hitting all the right
moods for each scene. The title music is fabulous, inspiring
mystery and melancholia (at least in this reviewer).
So
what do we have when we collect together an electric monk,
a professor of chronology, a wandering spirit, and much more?
Well, even after listening to it I'm not entirely sure. It's
not a comfortable experience, as you're made to work for your
payoff. This is not so much the fault of this audio piece
as it is the mind of Douglas Adams himself. Being such a visionary,
Adams' novel is teeming with a multitude of unrelated ideas,
thoughts and opinions. Therefore, the utmost concentration
is required to follow the plot.
Much
as the liner notes say differently, I do think Dirk Gently's
Holistic Detective Agency works better in book form; you
can read certain passages slowly as required, whereas an audio
dramatisation of this nature has to motor along, making it
difficult to absorb everything at once. Playing in the car
or wandering around at home simply doesn't work; you need
to lie-down, close your eyes and be transported. Even then
you are rewarded when listening to the whole again. Dirk Maggs
deserves much credit for turning a veritable cornucopia of
events into a cohesive piece.
This
first Dirk Gently adventure might fail to grab a casual
mainstream listening audience, but it will most definitely
appeal to Hitchhiker fans, readers of surreal fantasy
and of course followers of Douglas Adams. I do remember enjoying
the second Gently book, The Long, Dark Teatime of
the Soul, rather more than the first, so I look forward
to the broadcast of that adaptation.
Ty
Power
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