Adams' Dirk Gently Serialized on BBC Radio

happy monday writes "Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' is being serialised by BBC Radio, starring Harry Enfield. The first episode can be listened to on Radio 4's website now." The Times has a fairly glowing review of the program, and (for US folks like myself) some incomprehensible British-isms to boot.

Britishisms?

[toby (759)]

Being British myself, and having modified my own communications to fit North American cultural scopes, I decided to scan the review for these claimed "Britishisms". A North American may be forgiven for not knowing who Kenny Everett [wikipedia.org] is - although he certainly was broadcast as far afield as the former British colony Australia (now a military and cultural outpost of the USA) - but apart from that, what are the other impenetrable Britishisms?

Can't be bidet - a strictly Continental idea; "serendipitous" is surely common usage by now, though coined of course by a Brit; Chris Moyles - well who cares - one can assume he's the UK's Michael Richards - ditto; Boswell and Dr Johnson are simply subjects of general knowledge; Ravel [wikipedia.org] is no Pom and his Boléro no English hymn; ah, Jeremy Clarkson, [wikipedia.org] there you may have a point, laddie. Cholmondeley-Warner [wikipedia.org] is just a television character, innit. Anything else?

What?? (was Re:Britishisms?)

[dj42 (765300)]

What the hell did you just say? "Ravel is no Pom and his Bolero no English hymn" I can't even type that little fancy e.

Re:

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

I think it might have been the word 'answerphone' that threw Zonk off. I can't seem to find any mentions of 'rogering the loo' or 'fanny full of spotted dick' or anything else that could easily have confused him...

Re:

[Karma Sucks (127136)]

Frankly I stopped reading the article after the first few sentences. It hardly made any sense at all.

Re:

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

Car boot near the start, maybe? Lorry is another one. Mind you, any American who can't manage that kind of translation is incredibly ignorant.

Re:Britishisms?

[fsmunoz (267297)]

Australia is a military and cultural outpost of the USA? Wow, nice troll.

I don't think it was a troll, just an exageration to convey an image, an hyperbole if you will. I'm sure that the parent poster would say something along the same lines about the UK, just as I will happily (or not) say somthing about my own country in the same vein. Consider it a tongue in cheeck remark about the almost inevitable influence the US has all over.

Re:

[Barny (103770)]

Consider it a tongue in cheek remark about the almost inevitable influence the US has all over.

Or maybe it is in reference to how our media and our government seem intent to worm their way up Americas arse hole...

-signed, An Aussie still proud to use the word 'arse'

Re:

[david.given (6740)]

Or maybe it is in reference to how our media and our government seem intent to worm their way up Americas arse hole...

I've heard it said that John Howard's head is so far up Bush's arse that he can nearly see Tony Blair's feet.

Yes, I'm British. No, I didn't vote for him. How could you tell?

Re:Britishisms?

[david.given (6740)]

I think the Lib Dems have two main things going for them: firstly, given half a chance they're going to push for electoral reform, which this country urgently needs; and secondly, they're really good at winding up the other two parties and pointing out the things they'd rather people not notice. So despite the fact that they're unlikely ever to gain power, and probably would do really badly if they ever did make it, I still think they're really useful.

It would still be nice to have a real government, though.

Re:

[Bartab (233395)]

That's just because our culture, society, and gov't are better than yours.

YEAH, DO IT! I'VE GOT KARMA TO SPARE.

ever been there?

[toby (759)]

I only lived there for 35 years, you'd think I would know of what I speak.

Re:

[timmarhy (659436)]

Well, thinking australia is a military outpost for america is common misconception even among australian's, so i can hardly blame forgieners for having no clue.

the fact is, we are no more an outpost for america then they are for us or any other allies.

as far as culture goes, it's hardly suprising we take a lot of it in, we are an english nation surrounded by asian's, and their culture is so alien to us it's hard to even comphrend a lot of it, so it's hardly a suprise we don't embrace it as much.

Pine Gap

[Chuck Chunder (21021)]

we are no more an outpost for america then they are for us or any other allies

What other allies have station here?

Re:

[GaryPatterson (852699)]

No, you're forgetting Pine Gap. It's a crucial military outpost for the US, as it ties into their surveillance programs and early warning systems. We don't have a similar base anywhere outside our borders, so clearly we're more an outpost for the US than they are for us. If you're in doubt as to how critical it is, ask your local MP about removing it. No matter who your MP is, they'll reject the idea outright. It's unthinkable to them.

Watching successive governments bend over forwards for the US' slightest

Re:

[jaseparlo (819802)]

spoken like a true redneck australian..."We're surrounded by asians, we must protect our borders from their culture, yellow peril, arrgh"

Oh good, RealPlayer

[svunt (916464)]

National broadcasters using these formats..tsk tsk - I'm an Aussie, and hate having wmv or mp4 only for video download from the ABC, but RealPlayer? Yuk! Poor Brits.

Re:

[resequenced (656161)]

VLC plays the stream just fine. There's even a handy "Listen using stand-alone Real Player" link; you don't have to muck through HTML or anything. Real Audio wouldn't be my first choice, but the quality is pretty good, all things considered.

Re:

[piper-noiter (772438)]

I use Real Alternative. I also re-record it analog-style, save it as an mp3 and play it in the car to and from work once all the episodes of a radio program are out. I'm odd like that.

MP4?

[Valdrax (32670)]

Wait. What's your problem with MP4? Isn't it pretty much universally supported at this point?

Re:Oh good, RealPlayer

[martin-boundary (547041)]

The Realplayer format is actually pretty decent compression wise. Of course, you should never use the standard realplayer viewing software for this. The best method I know uses MPlayer:

1) Open a terminal and type the following:
mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile dirk.ra rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/comedy/wed1830.ra

2) Wait about 30 seconds, then open another terminal and play the file dirk.ra from disk while it's still downloading:
mplayer dirk.ra

This has two benefits: you can put the stream in your collection (maybe convert to ogg later etc), and you won't get the annoying buffering pauses.

This method also works with realvideo files, and wmv urls (mms://) if you want to save those types of movies. Finally, note that MPlayer lets you skip around an audio or video file, even if the file says you can't fast forward in other GUI oriented video players.

Re:

[Peet42 (904274)]

If you're on Windows, and using the BBC site, follow their "Get Realplayer" links.

Before the BBC standardised on RealPlayer for their video and audio streams (which may not continue much longer as the new DRM-encumbered BBCiPlayer rolls out) they got an agreement from RealNetworks to provide an ad-free version of RealPlayer. It's freely available to all, but only if you go through the BBC site to get it and, crucially, do not install the "full" RealPlayer first.

The BBC version has been effectively neutered

Excellent book

[amaupin (721551)]

This was an excellent book, and based on a Doctor Who script or not, I always thought it was much better than any of the Hitchhiker's novels. (However I still put the original Hitchhiker's radio series at the top of Adams' oeuvre, mostly due to the brilliance of Mark Wing-Davey.)

Can't wait to listen to this new show.

Shada (was: Excellent book)

[Larry Lightbulb (781175)]

Elements of it were taken from "Shada", a Dr Who series which was never made for the TV due to industrial action, but many years later an audio version was made, available from Big Finish, and often broadcast on BBC7 - my page at http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/shada.html [radiolistings.co.uk] gives the dates when it was last on.

Re:

[Spacejock (727523)]

I read the Dirk Gently books for the first time this year, and they reminded me of Tom Holt's 'Expecting Someone Taller' - probably the Norse Gods and suburban England. Now I'm curious .. wonder which was written first?

(Preferred Hitchhikers Guide to the Gently books, BTW.)

Re:

[Grey_14 (570901)]

Just so you know you're not alone, I preferred the Dirk Gently books to HHG2G as well,

Re:

[Martin Blank (154261)]

For whatever reason, I simply couldn't latch onto anything in the book, even though I read through the first four books of the H2G2 trilogy in one weekend. It took me six tries to get through the book, and I was frustrated at the end that I'd spent the time to read it, especially after all the adulation poured on it by my friends. (Then again, some of them think Red Dwarf is the pinnacle of comedy, and one of them even thinks AbFab is a great show, too.)

I sometimes think I should give it another try, sinc

Tricky for radio...

[itsdapead (734413)]

I always thought it was much better than any of the Hitchhiker's novels.

Well, Hitchhiker's - at least the original radio show and the first two books based on it - was basically a series of sketches with a rather loose linking plot (which varied considerably between the Radio, book and TV show). As such it worked well on radio.

The two Dirk Gently books, however, have really, really clever plots in which lots of bizarre, random events get pulled together at the end using some wonderful fantasy logic. I'm n

For those who want MP3s...

[tajmorton (806296)]

Use mplayer to decode it and lame to encode it:

$ mkfifo inandout
$ lame inandout --tt "Episode 1" --ta "BBC Radio 4" --tl "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" --ty 2007 --tn 1 --tg "Speech" Episode1.mp3 &
$ mplayer -prefer-ipv4 rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/comedy/wed1830.ra -ao pcm:file=inandout pcm:fast -vc dummy -vo null

Or, if you want a script that cron can run: http://www.wildgardenseed.com/Taj/record-dirk-gently.txt [wildgardenseed.com]

Re:

[RiffRafff (234408)]

Huh. Look at that. Very cool.

Thanks!

Re:For those who want MP3s...

[OriginalArlen (726444)]

Or use this handy script [blueyonder.co.uk].

Called up my girl

[Henry V .009 (518000)]

I called up my girlfriend to tell her about this. I hope she's having better luck listening to it on her Mac than I am on Vista -- the free Realplayer seems to think it's being installed as a restricted user even when it's not. Good testing, Real.

Maybe I'll download all the gray codecs and listen to this on one of my Linux boxes. Or I'll look around for Real Alternative, if it's still being hacked on.

Real player

[Neon Aardvark (967388)]

I hate real player too, but installed it a while ago to listen to BBC radio programs (some of which are worth it).

In case anyone cares, this is apparently why they persist in using this abomination: http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/broadband_faq.shtml#latelyFAQ8 [bbc.co.uk]

Re:

[fsmunoz (267297)]

Thanks for the link, this part I found interesting:

We have ensured that versions of RealPlayer are available as free downloads for virtually all types of hardware and operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux and more), so that everyone can have access to our content regardless of the equipment that they choose to use.

Like or dislike RP it is at least available on multiple platforms, and many others aren't (copying Windows DLLs doesn't count as supporting). Their reasoning does make sense in terms of universal availability of their content.

I'm glad that this was serialized...

[Smerity (714804)]

I'm glad that this is being serialized, Douglas Adams' work lives well in an audio form, and I'm sure the BBC will do it justice as they have his works in the past. I read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency some time ago and it held up to all the expectations I had from Douglas Adams. If you've enjoyed any of his past works, or enjoy the kind of humour found in Terry Pratchett you'd find this fun.

This is honestly quite tailored to the scientific individual - the story focuses around a computer programmer (Richard MacDuff), an ongoing dilemma of Dirk Gently's great difficulty trying to track down a missing cat (Schrödinger's cat [wikipedia.org]), an issue with the moving sofa problem [wikipedia.org] (and how it was impossible for the sofa to actually become stuck in the first place) and for those who know of Coleridge's poetry (specifically The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [wikipedia.org] and Kubla Khan [wikipedia.org]) you'll be in for quite a few twisting and entertaining surprises. There's also a time machine in there for kicks =]

Honestly, if the concept of a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic" interests you in any way, do yourself a favour and either listen in or buy the book - you won't be disappointed =] PS. I'm Australian (but with a strong grounding in American culture) and I didn't find too many 'Britishisms' in Dirk Gently... Maybe you're looking too hard? ^_^

Re:

[Spacejock (727523)]

The Gently books certainly mixed a few genres ;-) And as for Aussies, we've seen enough Goodies, Doctor Who, Minder and other UK shows to pick up the gist of things. Maybe it's because we don't remake shows like Fawlty Towers to suit 'our' market, and have learnt to appreciate and enjoy the originals.

Before reading/listening to Dirk Gently...

[Ecuador (740021)]

...make sure you at least read Wikipedia's entry for Samuel Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan". There are art, science etc references throught, but knowing a specific detail on the writting of that poem will help you appreciate more the conclusion of the amazing book.

Original Readings

[EaglemanBSA (950534)]

I still recommend the original readings by Douglas Adams himself. They are hilarious.

Teatime?

[skuzzlebutt (177224)]

I read this book about 18 years ago (in between loading people onto a stagecoach in Tucson...long story) and loved it; as a pre-teen and teenager, reading Adams was a mind-expanding experience, for which I am very grateful...too bad he kicked it so young (and too bad the HHGTTG movie sucked).

I have never gotten around to reading Long Dark Teatime of the Soul...is it any good, in relation to Holistic Detective Agency?

On CD November 8th

[Larry Lightbulb (781175)]

The full series of 6x30 minute episodes will be released on CD November 8th. Many of the recent BBC releases have had additional material, or slightly longer scenes, so still worth getting if you enjoyed the broadcast. My page about the programme - http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/dirk_gently_s_detective_agency.html [radiolistings.co.uk] will soon have better cast lists, and links on it.

Stream 'Ripping'

[MMHere (145618)]

One could use "Audio Hijack Pro" (OS X) to capture this
stream-only programme to a file, then write to CD, or move
to iPod for portable listening...

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/ [rogueamoeba.com]

Who is this Adam's Dirk?

[koafc (718334)]

And why is he being gently serialized?

Thanks for the warning

[Nymz (905908)]

Not that I would bother, as it's stream only, and RealPlayer only.

Re:Thanks for the warning

[garbletext (669861)]

Once again, the pirate community says "you're welcome" [demonoid.com]

RealAudio IT actually works

[emj (15659)]

Ha! I installed RealPlayer and it actually seems to behave nicely. Best quote of the day (from the show): "It's like trying to doing calculus with someone kicking your head"

Re:

[SnoopJeDi (859765)]

"It's like trying to doing calculus with someone kicking your head"

Sounds like trying to keep up with my calc professor.

Re:

[Larry Lightbulb (781175)]

The problem is that the BBC doesn't own most of the 'entertainment' programmes and have to negotiate which can be podcasted or sold on CD.

Re:

[OriginalArlen (726444)]

Actually he major problem is incidental music. It's easy to license someone else's copyright work for broadcast, (read: streaming) but a downloadable file that you can save and play back many times counts as distribution. (Yes, the law in the UK has not caught up to the fact that broadcasts can be recorded. My Dad has some old reel-to-reel tapes of 1950s Goon Shows he made at the time, so it's not terribly new idea...)

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[Larry Lightbulb (781175)]

If you're going to stab someone it's best to have your dirk sterilized.

Re:

[lord_sarpedon (917201)]

Its blade length and style varied, but it was generally 7-14 inches. However, the blades of Irish versions often were as much as 21 inches in length.

From Wiki. Emphasis mine :)

Re:good stuff!

[wizzdude (755000)]

To be honest, I think the licence fee is worth every penny for Radio 2, 4, 5 Live, 6 Music and the website alone. I'm very happy to pay it for everything.