Somehow the radio show of the original series has remained more popular than all the other versions (TV, Books, Film). What is about radio that makes it so endearing?
It’s a medium that works in ways that television and film can only dream about. It allows the audience to participate in the thoughts and emotions of the characters while providing special effects generated by the most sophisticated computer on the planet – the Human Brain. For listeners in surround it also constitutes the first genuinely 3-D form of recorded entertainment.
For the latest installments, you managed to get most of the original cast and a veritable who’s who of acting and voice talent. Did they take much persuasion? Was there a sense of it being a labour of love rather than just another job?
Absolutely everybody we asked to return said yes without hesitation. And in the case of certain guest artists, we were contacted by some Very Important Actors asking to take part. It was a tribute to Douglas’s original achievement, and the esprit de corps that Geoffrey Perkins created on the original series. And for all of us it was most definitely a labour of love. It certainly wasn’t for the money! People assume that directing something like Hitchhiker’s means you’re immune from unemployment and impervious to life’s knocks. I wish that were true.
Have all the advances in digital technology make production of these new series much easier, or do you think that the experimentation with analogue equipment in the original series gave it something that cant be achieved with digital technology? For example, soul. Were Adams’ beloved Macs utilised in the production?
It doesn’t matter what equipment you use, provided that the artistic intent is carried through without compromise. In my personal view digital technology allows us to do that much more directly, without some of the technical hurdles like multi-generation hiss and synchronisation between tracks and bumpy edits that analogue equipment was prone to. As regards Apple Macs, the entire production was recorded, edited, mixed and mastered on Macs, because all of us involved in production and engineering are Mac heads like Douglas. The only slightly cautious observation about digital technology I would make is that if Douglas were still with us, with the capacity to ‘undo’ we now have, I expect we would still be in sessions editing and mixing the Tertiary Phase!
With everyone plugged in to the ubiquitous iPod, do you think the popularity of audio books is going to increase? Or are we heading for a Max Headroom situation where everyone will be walking around watching video content?
Would you rather have widescreen entertainment beamed directly onto the Imax screen of your imagination, or squint at a piddly 2.3 inch screen? Actually I’m currently setting up a podcasting-type Production Company. Robbie Stamp, Douglas Adams’s business partner (and Executive Producer of the HHGG Movie) introduced me to two terrific blokes, Paul Weir (highly experienced in musical composition, sound design and software development) and Richard Adams (an expert consultant on interactive media). Building on our combined skills, in 2006 we intend to launch a website dedicated to excellence in audio entertainment.
This we propose to call Perfectly Normal Productions. The name – apart from being a gentle tribute to Douglas, who inadvertently brought us together – is a sort of ironic hallmark, a calm, quiet reassurance that Perfectly Normal in our book means Superbly Excellent compared to anyone else. The site would offer serialised material for download to the new generations of phones & media players. The plan is to produce and distribute a clutch of insanely great audio productions, direct to the many people who demand something more exciting from their earbuds than much of what is currently available.
What are your feelings about the Hollywoodisation of the story in the film, with all the romantic stuff?
Actually I thought it was an incredibly brave thing to do and I take my hat off to Robbie, Garth and Nick for going at it full tlt. If there was any “Hollywoodisation” for me, it was the opening song … but I know there are aspects of the new radio series that had HHGG fans feeling the same way. It’s so dashed hard to please Everybody …