The regular early morning yell of horror...

It's always surprising that if you just sit back, wait and be patient, that things that you've been waiting ages for just creep up on you like Jack the Ripper. Although I'm sure whenever Jack is portrayed in movies he makes tapping sounds with either his cane or his shoes. Unless I'm thinking of someone else. So what I meant was: blah blah...creep up on you like a caneless Jack the Ripper wearing comfortable slippers. I think I am excellent at carefully crafting similies.

I've been waiting for this particular thing for either 24 years or 22 years, depending on when you start counting from. Either way, that's a pretty long time, and a pretty high proportion of my short life on this not-yet demolished planet. The thing I've been waiting for is the third radio series of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (The Tertiary Phase). The final three Hitchhiker books have been dramatised into two radio series, the first of which will start tonight on Radio 4. I don't know whether that works out as two books in the third series and one in the fourth, vice versa or with some mixing up between them. I'll find out soon enough.



I'm really hoping that this isn't going to be the The Phantom Menace all over again... I always thought that the third book, "Life, the universe and everything" was the weakest one in the five book trilogy - the cricket themed plot always seemed silly even by Hitchhiker's standards. Maybe it's because it started life as an abandoned Dr Who script (true!).

I'm optimistic though. Dirk Maggs (who did some excellent superhero radio dramas in the 90s - Batman: Knightfall was especially excellent, and better than the films) has adapted it, which is a decent pedigree, and most of the original cast are back. Not Peter Jones, sadly, as he has now gone beyond the great curtain - this means that The Book now has a new voice, explained away as a software upgrade.

If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to listen to the first two radio series again. Though I'm going to find it hard to get through them by half six this evening. I haven't planned this well.

All in all, today I am quite excited.