sophalla As far as it goes, the pilot episode really only seemed to have skimmed over elements of the books. It felt as if they picked things out, like time machines, the names, a mystery about cats, and Dirk's refrigerator argument.The major problem for this series is that it shouldn't relate to Dirk Gently at all. Though Adams was a big proponent of his work (book, TV, radio) never being the same, there were always elements connected them. Even if characters were portrayed differently by looks alone, they always had something connecting them back to the original incarnation.Dirk Gently doesn't do that, with exception to the title character. Gordon Way (though minor in appearance) is no longer the owner of successful WayForward, and he isn't the brother of Susan Way (who ceased to exist). He's a heartbroken rich man with a time machine who is trying to get back to Susan but ultimately fails. Nothing about the original Gordon remains except his name, status of wealth, and that he works with computers (except he was described in TV as "obsessed with," and that ultimately was MacDuff's personality in the book).Richard MacDuff is a polar opposite to himself. In the book, he's forgetful and slightly absentminded, haphazard, and more cautious toward Dirk. He's employed by Gordon. When he phones Susan, he makes apologies to and plans with her answering machine. Later, he breaks in and steals the tape. Not so for the show! MacDuff comes off as impulsively rude and a bit stupid. The best example for that is the very beginning. He's caught by Dirk burgling his own home to steal his girlfriend's laptop because he wants to break into her email to delete a scathing break-up message. Also, he's unemployed.Susan takes on an entirely new character and nothing except her first name and relationship to MacDuff is recognisable. Literally everything is different, including her last name and occupation.That is the main problem. There is nothing recognisable, nothing left of Adams' characters. For that, I give it an exceptionally low score.HOWEVER, had they renamed everyone and made it truly "inspired by" the book by taking the concept rather than butchering the characters completely, it would have been a wonderful stand alone. Another idea would be that they should have left out the stories entirely of everyone who wasn't Dirk and made an entirely new idea. There were so many avenues they could've taken, and they took the one that was easiest rather than exceptional.

adrian_j_beaumont I've been a long time fan of all things Adamsy, slightly disappointed with the movie version of HGTTG, somehow i expected it to be better than the TV series in relation to the extra amount spent, so i was wondering what they'd done with this.I already knew this was going to follow the characters but not the actual story line of the book.In the end i thought they pulled it off pretty well. Mangan is well cast as Dirk, it's all rather quirky, Dirk comes across as a total charlatan just as i imagined him from the books.I wonder if they'll make a series? I hope so. Keep it short so you don't run out of ideas and lets hope they make a better job of trying to recreate Douglas sense of humour than Eoin Colfer did with 'And Another Thing'

ianlouisiana My personal belief is that a book is a book and a TV production is a TV production - not much point in comparing two widely divergent media. If you already have a strong picture in your mind's eye you will almost inevitably be disappointed by someone else's concept. I must admit Steven Mangan was not the first actor that sprang to mind when I considered who might make a fine Dirk Gently,but he has a hypnotic quality,almost frightening in his intensity.The sublime Darren Boyd plays his reluctant Watson, a master class in non - acting as opposed to Mangan's occasional scenery chewing. The convoluted plot revolves around a time machine and a lost cat with the casual elegance Mr Adams was revered for. Gently is proved right in his theory that everything is interconnected,cons 20 grand off his Watson and disappears to Bermuda. The beautiful Helen Blaxendale shines as Darren Boyd's girlfriend. But for me,the star of "Dirk Gently" was the great Miss Doreen Mantle. Tragically she was killed off at the end so if they do decide to make a series it might take an imagination of Adams - like proportions to bring her back.

Tweekums Having enjoyed Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently novels many year ago I was interested to see if this television version would be enjoyable too. It soon became apparent that this would only be very loosely based on the books but that didn't stop it being enjoyable. Steven Manghan was good as the somewhat shambolic detective who believes that everything in the universe is connected. We are introduced to him as he is interviewing a client whose cat has gone missing; this might seem somewhat routine but it leads to an old university friend, his girl friend and how they are connected to the missing cat and an equally missing billionaire. Gently's methods are rather eccentric and more than a little dubious… he breaks in to a warehouse at one point and later pays a ten year old computer hacker with two hundred cigarettes! Mangan is ably supported by Darran Boyd who plays his friend McDuff and Helen Bexandale who plays McDuff's girlfriend Susan.While this may be a detective story that is not the programme's main appeal, this is a good thing as the mystery isn't that great… it was funny though; I found myself laughing far more than I expected to. I also liked the fact that Gently wasn't the most moral of people; during the course of the show we see him driving off after hitting somebody with his car, conning his friend into joining the business so he can have a holiday and stealing a psychologist's files. Although this was made as a one off I wouldn't be surprised if a series were to be commissioned although if that were the case I wouldn't expect it to remain on the digital backwater that is BBC4.