Dirk Gently is a British comic science fiction detective television series based on characters from the novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. The series was created by Howard Overman and stars Stephen Mangan as holistic detective Dirk Gently and Darren Boyd as his sidekick Richard MacDuff. Recurring actors include Helen Baxendale as MacDuff's girlfriend Susan Harmison, Jason Watkins as Dirk's nemesis DI Gilks and Lisa Jackson as Dirk's receptionist Janice Pearce. Unlike most detective series, Dirk Gently features broadly comic touches, and even some science fiction themes such as time travel and artificial intelligence.
Dirk Gently operates his Holistic Detective Agency based on the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things", which relies on random chance methods to uncover connections between seemingly unrelated cases. He claims that he follows the principles of quantum mechanics. Although the majority of his clients suspect he may be a conman, he often produces surprising results. With the help of his assistant/partner, Richard MacDuff, Dirk investigates a number of seemingly unrelated but interconnected cases.
An hour-long pilot episode loosely based on plot elements from Adams' 1987 novel was broadcast on BBC Four on 16 December 2010. Critical reception was generally positive. A full series of three one-hour episodes was subsequently commissioned in March 2011 and was broadcast on BBC Four in March 2012."Dirk Gently to return to BBC Four", BBC Press Release, 31 March 2011
The series was produced by ITV Studios and The Welded Tandem Picture Company for BBC Cymru Wales and shot in Bristol. The pilot was written by Howard Overman and directed by Damon Thomas. The full series was written by Overman, Matt Jones and Jamie Mathieson and directed by Tom Shankland. The series along with the pilot episode was released on DVD on 26 March 2012 by ITV Studios Home Entertainment. An original television soundtrack album featuring music from the series composed by Daniel Pemberton was released by 1812 Recordings on 5 March 2012.Press Release, "", iTunes
Production
Background The novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has its origins in the incomplete 1979 Doctor Who television serial Shada, featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. Location filming in Cambridge had been completed, but a studio technicians' dispute at the BBC meant that studio segments were not completed, and the serial was never transmitted."Shada", BBC Cult. Retrieved 19 March 2012
As a result of the serial's cancellation, Adams reused a number of ideas from this script and his other Doctor Who scripts as the basis for a new novel, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, published in 1987. Adams published another, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul in 1988 and at the time of his death in 2001 was working on a third installment to be titled The Salmon of Doubt, fragments of which were published posthumously. Each novel features new characters and scenarios, although Dirk (real name Svlad Cjelli), his "ex-secretary" Janice Pearce and Sergeant, later Inspector, Gilks recur in each.Chris Harvey, "Dirk Gently: Douglas Adams's detective finally cracks TV", Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2010
The first Gently novel had previously been adapted into a stage play, Dirk and a BBC Radio 4 series by Above the Title Productions which was first broadcast in October 2007 and featured comedian Harry Enfield in the title role.Dirk Maggs News and New Projects pageJuly 2007 BBC announcement of radio version According to James Donaghy, Douglas Adams was frustrated that his Dirk Gently novels were never adapted for the screen.
Announcement During Hitchcon - a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy convention - Ed Victor, a literary agent who represents Adams's estate announced that a television adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was in production. Stephen Mangan was announced to be playing Gently, with Darren Boyd as MacDuff and Helen Baxendale as Susan. It is the first television adaptation of Adams' Dirk Gently series, although characters from the books had appeared in a 1992 episode of The South Bank Show.Rob Hastings, "BBC set to film Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently novel", The Independent, 6 October 2010The South Bank Show: Douglas Adams at the Internet Movie Database
Shooting on the pilot commenced early in October 2010 in Bristol. The director was Damon Thomas and the producer was Chris Carey. Although it was commissioned by the BBC, it was produced by ITV Studios with The Welded Tandem Picture Company. The pilot was first broadcast on BBC Four on 16 December 2010 and was repeated a number of times during the next month.Radio Times listing
The pilot gained a commission on 31 March 2011 for a three-part series of one hour-long episodes broadcast on BBC Four in March 2012.Jason Deans, "Dirk Gently to return to BBC4", The Guardian, 31 March 2011 The series is the first continuing drama series commissioned by BBC Four.
Adaptation The screenplay of the pilot by Howard Overman is not a direct adaptation of the novel, but uses certain characters and situations from the novel to form the basis of a new drama centred on Dirk. Speaking about his interpretation, Howard Overman stated in an interview with Benji Wilson "I'm not even going to try to adapt the book: you can't adapt this story. Especially not on a BBC Four budget. We made the deliberate decision not to do a straight translation of the books. If we'd done that the fans would have felt badly let down, because you can never portray that world on the screen as well as it's been done in people's own imaginations...If you just do a straight adaptation like The Hitchhiker's Guide film, people are always going to be quite brutal about it because it's never going to live up to their expectations."Benji Wilson, Dirk Gently: The case of the missing electric monk, The Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2012
Stephen Mangan, writing a BBC blog on the programme stated "In my opinion, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul are unfilmable as written...too much happens, there are too many ideas".
The pilot concentrates on two relatively minor plot strands in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: the disappearance of a cat, and the simultaneous disappearance of billionaire Gordon Way. Although time travel is involved in the solution, the novel's entire St Cedd's College / Electric Monk / Coleridge strand is omitted, although key words relating to these elements do appear on Dirk's whiteboard when it is first seen, though they are never subsequently referred to.Tom Chivers, "Dirk Gently on BBC4: would Douglas Adams have recognised his creation?", Daily Telegraph, 17 December 2010 Other elements from the book, such as the trapped sofa, are also absent and the setting is updated to 2010, with email and voicemail replacing the answering machine messages in the book. There are changes to the characters too, one notable one being that Susan is Gordon's ex-girlfriend rather than his sister.
Several additional elements from Adams' novels, in particular St Cedd's College, were later to appear in the full series. Interviewed about the series, Mangan noted that "All three episodes are very different in tone and you get a different Dirk with each one...He's on the run from the police in one of them and in another there's a bit of romance in the air, which for Dirk is a surprise because he's probably the most asexual character on TV... There seems to be a vogue for dark, realistic, gritty detective series, apart from perhaps Sherlock. Dirk has so much humour in it. How many other detectives mix detection with quantum mechanics or drive a 30-year-old brown Austin Leyland Princess?""Stephen Mangan speaks about the return to our screens of Dirk Gently", Northampton Chronicle & Echo, 8 March 2012
Each episode of series one was written by different writers, who are mostly known for their contributions to science fiction and fantasy programmes; series creator Howard Overman also created Misfits and has written for Merlin, Matt Jones has previously written the Doctor Who stories "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" and Jamie Mathieson wrote the film Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel and has written scripts for Being Human and Doctor Who.Helena Cole, "Dirk Gently returns for three-part series", SFX, 17 February 2012
Cast Stephen Mangan, best known for his role in the television series Green Wing, was cast in the main role as holistic detective Dirk Gently. Mangan already knew the novel and the author's works, stating in a press release "I've been a fan of Douglas Adams ever since the Hitchhiker's radio series which I used to record as a child and listen to over and over again in my bedroom. It's such a thrill to now be playing one of his brilliant characters. Dirk is a chaotic, anarchic force of nature with a totally unique take on the world. He is described as 'lazy, untidy, dismissive and unreliable'. I've absolutely no idea why they thought I'd be right for the role." Cast alongside him were Darren Boyd and Helen Baxendale, both of whom had previously worked with Mangan in Green Wing and Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years respectively. Darren Boyd and Helen Baxendale returned for the full series, with the character of Richard MacDuff becoming Dirk's "partner/assistant" for each of the episodes. Other regular cast members are Jason Watkins as Detective Inspector Gilks and Lisa Jackson as Dirk's secretary Janice Pearce.Cast lists, British Comedy Guide
The programme pilot featured appearances from Doreen Mantle, Anthony Howell, Miles Richardson, Billy Boyle. Episode one saw guest appearances by Paul Ritter, Cosima Shaw, Ken Collard, Colin McFarlane and Miranda Raison. Episode two featured roles for Bill Paterson, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Lydia Wilson, Andrew Leung, Will Sharpe and Bethan Hanks. Episode three features Lisa Dillon and Tony Pitts.
Filming
Although the series is set in the London boroughs of Camden Town and Islington, the series was shot entirely in Bristol. Areas and buildings featured in the programme included the Guildhall, the Bottle Yard, St Thomas Street and the Greenbank area.Productions 2011-12 , Bristol Film Office. Retrieved 18 March 2012News, Bristol Film Office. Retrieved 18 March 2012 The second series episode also featured extensive filming around the University of Bristol, with Wills Hall doubling as the fictional Cambridge College St. Cedd's.
The production's location manager, Rob Champion, noted that each location had to be chosen carefully to avoid featured giveaway clues to Bristol, in particular any building made of the local building material, limestone.Dirk Gently, thecallsheet.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2012 He noted that "Episode 2 was the greatest challenge as it included two days material in a robotic laboratory. Bristol has such a thing...a joint venture between the two universities, with a very helpful professor, but its landlord was an American corporation with the most unimaginably anal restrictions on access. They basically didn't want us there and took the best part of two weeks to say so...We eventually settled upon a brand new building at the Bristol-Bath Science Park where they could not have been more helpful. All this on a BBC4 budget."
Music The series's soundtrack was composed by Daniel Pemberton. In creating the distinctive sound for the main titles and incidental music, Pemberton made use of a Marxophone, a zither that is a cross between a hammered dulcimer and a piano. These instruments were produced in America between 1927 and 1972.Photograph of recording session, Daniel Pemberton's Twitterfeed. Retrieved 22 March 2012 The soundtrack also mixes in a harpsichord, synth, bass guitar and drums.Daniel Pemberton's Twitterfeed. Retrieved 22 March 2012 A soundtrack album featuring music from the series was released by 1812 Recordings on 5 March 2012.
Premise