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Comedian Harry Enfield is taking the starring role in the new radio production of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, for BBC Radio 4.

Douglas Adams’s much loved detective, the enigmatic Dirk Gently, is leaping off the printed page for the very first time in this BBC Radio 4 production of the first of a sort of trilogy in two-and-a-third parts: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency in October.

Featuring a star-studded cast, the series is produced by the same award-winning team that made the conclusion to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Harry Enfield is joined by Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd, Andrew Sachs, Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass’s Jim Carter and Peepshow’s Olivia Colman.

Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things but his 'Holistic Detective Agency’s' only success seems to be tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely, and he is drawn into a four-billion year old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction.

This first series of six 30-minute episodes is adapted from the book of the same name and directed by Dirk Maggs, himself chosen by Douglas Adams to conclude the Hitchhikers' saga. The cast includes Billy Boyd as Dirk’s client Richard Macduff; Olivia Colman as Dirk’s secretary Janice Pearce; Jim Carter is Dirk’s nemesis Detective Sergeant Gilks; Andrew Sachs (Fawlty Towers) as Professor Reg Chronotis; Felicity Montagu (I’m Alan Partridge) as Susan Way, with Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey) as her brother Gordon; Toby Longworth (Star Wars) as the Electric Monk; and Michael Fenton Stevens (Nighty Night) as Michael Wenton Weakes. Guest appearances are made by Andrew Secombe (Star Wars); Jon Glover (Harry Enfield and Chums); Jeffrey Holland (Hi-De-Hi); Wayne Forester (Captain Scarlet) and Tamsin Heatley (Broken Sword).

Douglas Adams

Considered by many Adams fans to be as funny as, if darker than, Hitchhikers, the Dirk Gently novels reflect Douglas’ unique and funny take on matters as wide-ranging as consciousness, conservation, man’s place in the cosmos and crime. The first series features everything from quantum physics to missing cats, via Coleridge, Bach and the Electric Monk.

The cast and production team feature many old friends and colleagues of Douglas, including music composer Philip Pope. The production team, from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases is led by Executive Producer Helen Chattwell and the Producers are Jo Wheeler and Dirk Maggs.

Originally published in 1987 the novel by William Heinemann Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency was followed by a sequel in 1988: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. A planned third volume in the adventures of Dirk Gently was never completed - due to the author's untimely death - but a good inkling of the start of that book: The Salmon of Doubt is included in the posthumous collection of previously unpublished work by Adams: The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time (2002, Macmillan).

For more information on author Douglas Adams (1952-2001), visit his official web site for the author (1952-2001): www.douglasadams.com

The new radio series is being broadcast now on BBC Radio 4 and has its own dedicated webpages - featuring trailers, photographs, production diaries, video and competitions. Programmes will also be available on Radio 4’s 'listen again' service.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency will be available to purchase as a download from digital retailers such as Audible, Audioville, Audio-Read, Overdrive, Mediabay, iTunes, 7 Digital, Simply Audiobooks, Spoken Network, TuneTribe and Plays on the Net. The entire series will be available as a three-disc CD set (RRP £15.99) and to download (£10.80), published by BBC Audiobooks, on 8 November. This commercial release will also contain nearly an hour’s worth of exclusive, extra material not included in the broadcast.

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