hitchdvd

Now you can find the answer to life, the universe and everything on digital format! Yes, "Hitch Hiker's" has at last made it onto DVD, after countless appearances on radio, stage, LP, TV and...towels. The adventures of ape descendant Arthur Dent and company are still as funny and intellectual now as they were in the early 1980s. OK, the whole thing looks dated, the effects in particular, but this only adds to the charm of the series. It's worth pointing out that although hand drawn, thew animated scenes looked years ahead of their time when first shown, and even had computer experts baffled. Following news that his house is up for demolition, and his best friend comes, not from Guildford, but from a planet that isn't Earth, Arthur's day can't get any worse ("it must be Thursday, I could never get the hang of Thursday's..." says Arthur in episode one). Or so he thought - it just so happens that the planet Earth has been scheduled for demolition by an outer space planning committee, in order for a hypergalactic bypass to be built. All in all, not really worth getting out of bed for. And so starts an endearing journey through the universe, accompanied by a two headed space bandit responsible for one of the strongest drinks in the universe, a beautiful female companion and a depressed, paranoid android called Marvin. The humour is fast and well delivered, and there are several cameos by some faces from film and TV. If you're too young to remember this being on TV, but are a fan of programmes like "Red Dwarf", you'd do worse than to pick up a copy of this. If you do remember it, what are you waiting for? Get out there and buy this classic slice of science fiction comedy from the BBC.

EXTRA FEATURES
For those who are new to the series, there is an awful lot to wade through on the two discs contained within. While lacking a cast commentary, you do get production notes in the form of subtitles that run for each episode and give an immense amount of detail that otherwise woulkd not be gleaned from watching the series alone. There is also a 60 minute documentary on the making of the series, with Jones reprising his role as Arthur Dent, as well as containing interviews with all the lead players and crew. There is another 26 minutes of interviews and comments that were cut from this documentary (in effect, deleted interviews), an amusing 9 minute introduction by Peter Jones (the narrator) that was shown before an airing of episode one at the National Film Theatre. Also included are 15 minutes of behind the scenes footage on the recording of the radio series in 1978, 7 minutes of tense behind the scenes filming of a scene for episode two, where the whole team were dangerously close to not completing the scene due to running out of time. For those nostalgic people, there is a 6 minute segment from 1980s magazine programme "Pebble Mill At One" featuring an interview with the animators, and a 2 minute short feature on the animatronics of Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head from "Tomorrow's World". 9 minutes of swearword laden out takes, a photo gallery, original BBC trailers and a short deleted scene make up the rest of the extras on this fantastic package that every comedy or sci-fi fan should own.