> OTHER WORK


• MONTY PYTHON / GRAHAM CHAPMAN (1974-77)

Douglas Adams was a huge fan of Monty Python and John Cleese. He worked as a collaborator with Graham Chapman.

- Douglas Adams appear briefly and unrecognisably in two sketches in the final series of Monty Python's Flying Circus ( november1974). At the beginning of episode 42, The Light Entertainment War, Adams is in a surgeon's mask, pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another but never actually gets started. At the beginning of episode 44, Mr. Neutron, Adams is dressed in a "pepperpot" outfit and loads a missile on to a cart driven by Terry Jones.
- One of the serveral listed co-authors of Graham Chapman's autobiography A liar's autobiography, volume VI (1980)
- The one-off sktech show Out of the trees (1976) written by Graham and Douglas. .
- Our show for Ringo Starr, an unproduced special for american TV written by Graham and Douglas.
- He also wrote, again with Graham Chapman, the 20 February 1977 episode of Doctor on the Go, a sequel to the Doctor in the House television comedy series.


• DOCTOR WHO (1978-79)

Douglas sent the script for Hitchhiker pilot radio programme to the Doctor Who production office in 1978, and was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet (see below). He had also previously attempted to submit a potential movie script, called "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen," which later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything. Adams then went on to serve as script editor on the show for its seventeenth season in 1979. He wrote three Doctor Who serials starring Tom Baker as the Doctor:

- The Pirate Planet (the second serial in the "Key To Time" arc, in Season 16). Avalaible in DVD region 1. In regions 2 and 4, it's only avalaible in a Limited Edition of the Key to Time box set.
- City of Death (with producer Graham Williams, from an original storyline by writer David Fisher. It was transmitted under the pseudonym "David Agnew". Avalaible in DVD.
- Shada (only partially filmed and not broadcast due to industrial disputes). Big Finish Productions eventually remade Shada as an audio play starring Paul McGann as the Doctor.

• DOCTOR SNUGGLES (1979)

In 1979, Adams and John Lloyd (who co-wrote with Douglas "The meaning of Liff" and episodes 5 and 6 of the Hitchhiker's radio show) wrote scripts for two half-hour episodes of the Dutch cartoon series Doctor Snuggles: "The Remarkable Fidgety River" and "The Great Disappearing Mystery" (episodes seven and twelve).


• THE UTTERLY UTTERLY MERRY COMIC RELIEF CHRISTMAS BOOK (1986)

The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book was a fundraising book issued on behalf of Comic Relief in 1986. It was edited by Douglas Adams and Peter Fincham and contained contributions from many of the leading comedy writers and performers of the day.

The book is of particular interest to us as it contains several items written by him which are hard to find or exclusive to the collection.
- Young Zaphod Plays it Safe, which has since appeared in The Salmon of Doubt,
- The Private Life of Genghis Khan (now avalaible in The Salmon of Doubt)
- A Christmas Fairly Story (written in collaboration with Terry Jones)
- A Supplement to The Meaning of Liff (written with Stephen Fry).


• BUREAUCRACY (1987)

Bureaucracy is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987, scripted by Douglas (and the staff of Infocom, but also Michael Bywater). It is Infocom's twenty-fourth game. The player is challenged to confront a long and complicated series of bureaucratic hurdles resulting from a recent change of address. According to Douglas, the premise of the game was inspired by a real-life experience. More informations here.


• HYPERLAND (1990)

Hyperland is a 50 minute long documentary film about hypertext and surrounding technologies written by Douglas Adams and produced by BBC Two in 1990. It stars Douglas Adams as a computer user and Tom Baker, with whom Adams already had worked on Doctor Who, as a software agent.


• STARSHIP TITANIC (1998)

Starship Titanic is a computer adventure game designed by Douglas Adams and made by The Digital Village. It was released in 1998. It takes place on a starship of the same name which has undergone "Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure" and crash landed on Earth on its maiden voyage.The Starship Titanic was first mentioned in Life, the Universe and Everything,

One of the most significant parts of the game is the conversation engine (dubbed "Spookitalk") used to interact with the robot staff onboard the ship. Players type what they wish to say into the Personal Electronic Thing (PET) at the bottom of the screen. Among the voice actors for the game are former Monty Python members Terry Jones as the Parrot, and John Cleese as the bomb.

Terry Jones wrote the novel adaptation (entitled "Douglas Adams' Starhip Titanic") as Douglas was unable to write it.


• THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE FUTURE (2001)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future was a four-part radio series hosted by Douglas.In this Radio 4 series, he gave a unique insight into how new technology will change our lives. The series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April and May 2001. The radio series turned out to be Adams's final project for the BBC before his death (a week after the first broadcast of the final episode). All four episodes are still available on the Radio 4 mini-website dedicated to the series. Extracts from the four programmes are also available for listening within the Douglas Adams at the BBC collection.
Episodes : Music, Publishing, broadcasting, convergence.