The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy

Don’t Panic

The Hitch Hikers Guide
To The Galaxy
UK 1981
Airdate: Jan 5th to Feb 9th - Six Episodes
Blu Ray Zone 2

“Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
The Book

This is the story of a book. 

The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy to be precise. 

And I first heard the original radio show in the late seventies when it was broadcast... followed by an equally brilliant second series a year or so later. And, up to a time, there wasn’t any format of this which I didn’t love. Because, frankly, all but one of the adaptations of it skew close to the spirit of the writing and are obviously rendered with love. The only fly in the ointment being the 2005, big screen movie version which, somehow (and I thought the writing had made it future proof) was well cast but turned out to be an absolute abomination, capturing exactly none of the essence of the original tales and basically wasting the one shot it had at a cinema audience. It was just terrible. 

No, the radio show’s true legacy of really great Hitch Hikers products you can explore, including this TV series, was many. For example, I saw a wonderful and very loud version of it done on stage at what was then the Rainbow Theatre at Finsbury Park in the late 1970s. It was awesome. As was the slightly recast vinyl records put out by the BBC, hot on the heels of the radio show. And, of course, there were Douglas Adams original novels, starting out as an expansion on his radio scripts before taking us all on totally new adventures. Heck, I even had a can of everything, which was a rare promotional item given to book stores to tie in with the third novel, Life, The Universe And Everything.

Now, I was definitely sceptical about the validity of a TV show when it aired on the BBC in 1981, because I soon realised that, while most of the cast were ported over from the radio show and were able to say their lines with the exact same tone and delivery as that show and the record set, one very important main cast member was completely different. 

So we had the great Peter Jones as the voice of the book itself. The unrelated Simon Jones as Earth man Arthur Dent, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson as Trillian, Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android and even the great Richard Vernon as planet designer Slartibartfast. Heck, even the late, great Douglas Adams himself turned up in cameos in a few of the episodes. But, in the important role of Ford Prefect, Arthur’s friend who he soon discovers to be, not from Guilford after all but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse... the radio show and record set’s Geoffrey McGivern was recast and played by David Dixon. And, yes, it took me a little longer to get used to the slightly softer approach to Ford by this new actor but, he more than made up for it in body language and sheer enthusiasm, I believe. 

For those who are somehow still unfamiliar with the story, it follows the adventures of Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, Trillian and Marvin after Arthur and Trillian’s home planet of Earth is unexpectedly demolished by a Vogon Constructor Fleet, to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. Cue many far fetched and totally hilarious adventures around the galaxy involving such elements as the starship Heart Of Gold (with its Infinite Improbability Drive), dolphins, mice, giant super computers, a restaurant at the end of the universe, prehistoric man with a bunch of telephone sanitisers, a bowl of petunias and a very surprised sperm whale. 

And it was great as a radio show (the first two series made when the writer was still alive, at any rate) and it was pretty good as a TV show too. The electronic book is brought alive simultaneously as Peter Jones voice with, complex ‘computer animations’ giving us auxiliary facts and figures to what was being said. Well... I say computer animations... back in 1981 these certainly looked like high tech computer rendering but, just like Disney’s Tron, they were of course just hand rendered animations made to look like what the general public thought computer aided graphics probably should look like, I would imagine. It doesn’t detract from the visuals in any way, though and, the drawings and typography add to the fun, for sure. 

And I wanted to flag that the TV version of The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, which is now to be found in a wonderful Blu Ray, three disc set (two whole discs of extras which I don’t have time to watch right now) because it was a great experience then and it’s a great experience now. And I would certainly recommend to my readers, if you are unfamiliar with Adam’s greatest literary creation, that you hunt it down in, preferably, its radio form first  (I’m assuming the CDs are still available nowadays) as it’s one of the all time greats. Just don’t... you know... watch the movie version. That was obviously put together by suits who just didn’t know where their towels* were. 

*Seek out the books, radio show or TV show for an explanation of that reference. Delve deeper! Enjoy the fjords!

Breaking Glass

 

Through A Glass Darkly

Breaking Glass
UK 1980 Directed by Brian Gibson
Allied Stars Ltd
Fun City Editions Blu Ray Zone A

So here I am again, revisiting one the greatest and most powerful films about both the British music industry and the gradual erosion of the soul, in an edition put out by a relatively small boutique blu ray label from the USA. So the first question you have to ask is, why is an important British movie like Breaking Glass, which perhaps requires a fair amount of understanding or at least sympathy to the turbulent times in the country in which it was made, only available on a pretty small, US label? 

I don’t know the answer to that question, by the way but, big thanks to Fun City Editions who have wisely chosen to put out a nice transfer of the original British version of the film, rather than the version which came out and was truncated by ten minutes in the American cut, in an exercise in making the film a bit lighter and more palatable to the audience, rather than allowing the bleak heart of the movie and the heart rending ending (completely cut from the US version) to shine through and remind people of the true, haunting power of the motion picture industry when all the elements come together so nicely.

Hazel O’ Connor was a bit of a pop star for a while in the UK when this film came out, which also includes the songs she wrote for the movie (many of which climbed the UK pop charts at the time) and... I dunno, I thought she’d disappeared after this high point in her career but, visiting her website recently, I realise she’s still going, still releasing records and doing gigs and... yeah, I need to catch up with what she’s been up to lately, it seems to me. 

The film is an absolute belter of a movie (much like the accompanying song-track album) and stars Hazel as Kate, a political activist style songwriter who doesn’t want a commercial music career and is kind of content (sort of... not really, it’s complicated) being the angry young woman artist playing pubs for not very much money. Then along comes Danny, played by Phil Daniels, fresh from his lead role in the movie version of The Who’s rock concept album Quadrophenia, who makes his mind up to manage her band... after he’s convinced her... helping her build the group (including a stand out performance from a very young, bearded, Jonathan Pryce as their half deaf saxaphone player), get gigs and break into the music business. A kind of negotiation of the ‘sell your soul and sign on the dotted line’ Faustian agreement where they come into contact with music promoters played by the likes of Mark Wing-Davey (yes, that’s the original Ford Prefect on radio and TV, to all of you brilliant The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fans) and a record producer played by Jon Finch (Jerry Cornelius himself, ladies and gentlemen). 

As you would expect... the group starts slowly falling to pieces and there’s some harsh imagery punctuated by occasional beautiful moments. Moments captured by some incredible shot designs, such as when Jonathan Pryce is being auditioned in Kate’s flat. The camera starts in close up on Pryce working his sax and then pans out to the accompanying Kate on her mini keyboard (and her positive reaction), before pulling out again to Danny in the foreground as he obviously thinks the same. And the cinematography in this film, by Stephen Goldblatt, is perhaps under sung and not lionised as much as it should be... because for a film with such a gritty subject matter and music which really hits hard, it looks absolutely amazing all of the time. 

And that song-track is indeed hard hitting and quite addictive, as I’m sure anyone who owns the Breaking Glass record album and subsequent format incarnations of it will attest. The lyrics are haunting and feel like a punch to the gut (or the arse... but not nose... yeah, watch the film) and make for beautiful earworms all the way through. And of course includes such hits such as the saxaphone heavy Will You? and the apocalyptic Eighth Day, performed near the end of the picture (or at the end if you watch the vastly inferior American cut, thankfully not on this Blu Ray in that form) which has an absolutely iconic look to the costumes and lighting at the concert, taking place at the old Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park (sadly deceased although, I remember seeing a memorable stage version of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy there in the late 1970s). 

The real stars of the show, though, are Phil Daniels and Hazel O’ Connor. Daniels is quite charming and likeable in his role. And O’ Connor. Well, anyone doubting her acting credentials needs to see this film, for sure. It’s a subtle and evocative performance which, honestly, should have got her an Oscar, or something, if the film had been taken more seriously Stateside. Ironically, one of her most amazing moments in the film, where she slowly breaks down while trying to sing a recording of her chart hit Will You?, was cut from the old US version. All I can say to the people behind the truncated version is... that’s called vandalism guys!

And there you have it, a little label in the US of A called Fun City Editions puts out one of the most dynamic and essential movies about the British music industry and, also, one of the most entertaining and formidable, it has to be said. If you’ve not seen Breaking Glass before then I’d urge you to grab the Region A edition from America (make sure your player can handle US discs first, people!), as it’s the only game in town as far as a high quality transfer of the movie in its original 2:35.1 aspect ratio is concerned. At least at the moment. I was tapping my toes all the way through this one and had an absolute blast. This film... and the lead actors... just don’t get enough love, if you ask me.