Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Writer who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the radio series that reinvented science fiction.
On the island
Eight records
The first time I ever became excited by the guitar was listening to The Shadows.
One of the things that had a profound effect on me was the movie of 2001.
One of the most original and the busiest. I want value for money.
Sanctus from Mass in B MinorFavourite
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
I sang in the B minor Mass at school. It's the longest record.
I played this incessantly while writing Dirk Gently.
I learnt guitar by ear from Paul Simon records; this song is tied to my time in Santa Fe working on the Hitchhiker screenplay.
With Bach, you get more tunes per square inch.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:15Does your dislike of writing border on hatred?
I just find it fantastically difficult to do. ... the one thing that sort of gives me confidence from time to time when I most need it is ... my English master at my prep school gave me 10 out of 10 for a story ... That's my kind of bedrock. That means I must be okay as a writer.
Presenter asks
5:02Where did the idea for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy come from?
Well, various different places. The actual title came when I was hitchhiking around Europe in 1971. I was lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck ... and it occurred to me as I stared up at the night sky that somebody ought to write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Presenter asks
10:47Did you want to make people laugh?
I had a peculiar idea about what was funny. Put it this way, the things that made me laugh were the things that had the most effect on me. ... I wasn't really funny for a while and I gradually learnt.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
An Omnibus of all the P. G. Wodehouse Golfing Stories
P. G. Wodehouse
I actually think that PG Woodhouse is without doubt one of the greatest writers ever to use the English language.
The luxury
Martin D-28 guitar, left-handed, built in the 1930s
What I want is a Martin D twenty eight guitar, left-handed. That was built in the 1930s.
What did you think you were going to do when you left Cambridge?
I was quite clear that I wanted to be a writer performer. ... had the rather nonsensical notion that the world was about to beat its path to my door at the moment I left Cambridge, which of course it absolutely failed to do.
Presenter asks
22:32Is the human brain so outdated?
Our brain last evolved ... we have created a world that has outstripped our ability to comprehend it.
“The first time I ever became excited by the guitar was listening to The Shadows.”
“Python was a huge, huge influence on me.”
“I think with Bach, you get more tunes per square inch buried within each other and on top of each other than anywhere else.”
“I can never turn on a light switch without thinking there's something very strange happening here.”