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Adams' Dirk Gently Serialized on BBC Radio
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Oct 06, 2007 08:06 PM
from the hard-not-to-appreciate-a-robot-that-can-believe-stuff-for-you dept.
from the hard-not-to-appreciate-a-robot-that-can-believe-stuff-for-you dept.
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.
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Adams' Dirk Gently Serialized on BBC Radio
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Britishisms? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.telegraphics.com.au/ | Last Journal: Tuesday November 06, @03:35PM)
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?
Re:Britishisms? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/religion/)
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:Britishisms? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.cowlark.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 18 2005, @05:12AM)
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.
Oh good, RealPlayer (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://not.a.valid.url.com/ | Last Journal: Monday October 02 2006, @07:51PM)
Re:Oh good, RealPlayer (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Poor guy!!! (Score:1, Funny)
RealAudio (Score:1)
(http://www.csc.kth.se/~erjohan)
Excellent book (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't wait to listen to this new show.
For those who want MP3s... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.wildgardenseed.com/Taj/blog)
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:For those who want MP3s... (Score:4, Informative)
Called up my girl (Score:2, Flamebait)
(Last Journal: Wednesday September 28 2005, @12:05PM)
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 (Score:5, Informative)
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]
I'm glad that this was serialized... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.smerity.com/)
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? ^_^
Before reading/listening to Dirk Gently... (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.ecuadors.net/)
Podcasting (Score:1)
(http://www.treyreynolds.com/)
good stuff! (Score:1)
And you don't have to pay the license fee if you don't have a television.
Radio 1,2,3,4 and the internet is enough for me.
Re:good stuff! (Score:4, Insightful)
Misread (Score:1)
Original Readings (Score:2)
And when I saw this (Score:1)
Teatime? (Score:2)
(http://brooksfamily.org/)
I have never gotten around to reading Long Dark Teatime of the Soul...is it any good, in relation to Holistic Detective Agency?
Don't get too excited. (Score:1)
So far I've only heard the first episode, but already I'm bitterly disappointed. If I miss the second episode I won't greatly care.
Slashdotted (Score:2)
I wonder whether they've thought of using bitstream to avoid this sort of thing.
3rd Book (Score:2)
(http://weblands.blogspot.com/)
Ewwww!! (Score:2)
(http://75thtrombone.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 07, @11:39PM)
Dirk Gently == The Roaming Gnome (Score:1)
I can't decide if this is somehow cosmically appropriate or just distracting.
On CD November 8th (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/)
Stream 'Ripping' (Score:3, Informative)
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? (Score:3, Funny)
Original Doctor Who Redux (Score:2)
(http://www.mrcopilot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 02 2005, @10:10AM)
Enjoyed this adaptation as well. Wouldn't exactly call it animated but loved it anyway.
Am I the only one... (Score:2)
(http://www.last.fm/user/uhlume/)
Thanks for the warning (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Friday October 19, @12:23PM)
Re:Thanks for the warning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A question here... (Score:2)
Enjoy
Re:It requires RealPlayer to listen.. (Score:2)
(http://www.the-h.net/)