The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Tertiary Phase (Dramatized)

By: Douglas Adams

Narrated by: Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern

Don’t panic! The Hitchhiker’s saga continues with a full-cast dramatisation of Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book in Douglas Adams’s famous ‘trilogy in five parts.’

‘The pitch here at Lord’s is blackened, lightly smoking down towards square leg – and two men have just materialised on a Chesterfield sofa....’

And so the scene is set for the Tertiary Phase of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the phenomenon which began life as a BBC radio series and went on to spawn a best-selling series of novels. With this full-cast radio dramatisation, the Guide returns to its original medium with its original cast.

Stranded on prehistoric Earth, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect find escape in the form of a time-travelling sofa. But as eleven homicidal, bat-wielding robots proceed to blow up Lord’s Cricket Ground, it seems that Arthur is far from Home and Dry. In fact, he is not even Home and Vigorously Towelling Himself.

Off. Soon he is on an explosive quest to save the Universe, equipped with only a rabbit bone, a worn dressing gown, and a spaceship which looks remarkably like an Italian bistro.

Simon Jones returns as Arthur, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. William Franklyn is the Book, the late Douglas Adams himself appears in the role of Agrajag, and guest stars include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and Leslie Phillips.

This extended edition features 20 minutes of material not heard on BBC Radio 4.

Listen to the rest of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy."

Want to learn more about the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie? Listen to this interview with Robbie Stamp, close friend of Douglas Adams and executive producer of the film.

©2004 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2004 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audiobook of the Year
• 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Excellent Continuation of the Radio Series

Even though, once upon a time, I had read all the Hitchhiker's Guide novels, and this dramatization is based on the third book, I didn't remember anything about it as I listened to this. That's not a complaint, just an interesting observation, since this series is among my all-time favorites. Not knowing what was coming meant all the plot twists and jokes were fresh and new, so I enjoyed this radio play completely! I loved the cast, including the recasting of characters whose actors had passed away, though it was sad to think that both of Slartibartfast's voice actors have now passed 😞 I didn't know until finishing this and reading others' reviews that Douglas Adams himself voices a role posthumously, as well! Definitely looking forward to listening to the next entry in this series!

It wanders a bit

The story on this wanders about just a tad more drunkenly than in previous editions. Having said that it is still a lot of great fun.

The adventure continues!

And here we are again!

At the end of the Secondary Phase of the Hitchhikers' Guide series, we heard Arthur Dent take off in Zaphod's ship, along with Marvin, a Lintilla clone, Eddie, the shipboard computer, etc. Now, he wakes up on earth, 2 million years in our past?

So, that just proves the universe is stranger than we think--especially Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers' universe.

Now, you can hear, in all of BBC's brilliant radio style, the dramatization of the third book, "Life, The Universe, and everything". Will Arthur find out the ultimate question this time? Will he finally get a cup of tea? Will he return to earth and settle down--even though the vogons destroyed the earth?

Listen and find out!

The BBC, again, does a wonderful job in bringing the third book to life, and, thanks to BBC and Audible, you can go along for the ride.

The BBC has given voices to some new characters, and, been able to bring many original cast members back for the dramatization of the final 3 books in the series. Some of the original cast are no longer with us, but, the BBC has done a good job replacing them.

True, the actors are a little older, but, I still don't have any trouble believing who they are.

This was performed after Douglas Adams died, but, he does make an appearance. See if you can guess who he plays!

Don't wait! Add this to your cart right now!

don't Believe "The purists"

FUN FACT, DA Originally wrote this as a screenplay of an episode of DR who but it was rejected and I guarantee he Made 100 times The Cash he would have it they hadn't

this is amazing , some of the later phases aren't solid Gold, but definitely higher quality silver

Dramatization, not the book.

Hi guys,

Just wanted to point out that this is the BBC radio show and not the actual books. Those are also on audible but are usually read by a single narrator. All versions of Adam's amazing series are very different from each other so there is no harm in listening, reading or watching either the BBC TV Series from the 80's or the Movie. Alot of people will discourage you from watching the movie but to be honest since they only had time to tell part of the story, it's well worth seeing. But nothing beats the original radio series or the original novels.

For those of you who are just starting your journey with Arthur Dent, I envy you. Have fun and don't forget your towel!!