Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist, and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame

Works

Douglas Adams: The Man Who Imagined Our Future

Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, polymath Douglas Adams was a pioneer of science fiction, comedy, technology and environmental activism. We're on a journey with Douglas Adams - diving into the broad questions of life, the universe and everything at a time when we are all asking questions of ourselves and our place on Earth - and our fear of destroying it. Campaigning for endangered species and the coming storm of climate change, he was years ahead of his time. Optimistic about the infinite possibilities that computers will bring, obsessing with the art of writing, while exploring parallel dimensions and artificial intelligence, his philosophy and ideas are meaningful, and visionary.

Release Date: 2025-03-20

Character: Self (Archive Material)

Vote Count: 1

Faraway Eyes

Michael, a struggling actor, dies right after a bad breakup. He finds himself awakening in a very bright room with a very strange lady and learns that he is in singles Purgatory, where he must find his soul mate in order to cross over to the other side. With limited time to find true love among other recently deceased single New Yorkers, Michael must navigate the new customs of a ghostly dating life... as if dating in life wasn't hard enough already.

Release Date: 2020-03-07

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

Vote Count: 38

Doctor Who: Shada

The Doctor visits his old Time Lord friend Chronotis in Cambridge, 1979. But the ruthless Skagra has also arrived to retrieve a book that will help unlock one of the Time Lords' greatest secrets: what is Shada? Filming for this story was never finished, and in this version the unfilmed material is completed via animation.

Release Date: 2017-11-24

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 19

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

A comedic thriller that follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric “holistic” detective Dirk Gently and his reluctant assistant Todd. An adaptation of Douglas Adams’ wildly successful comic novels.

Release Date: 2016-10-22

Department: Writing

Job: Book

Episode Count: 18

Vote Count: 802

Dirk Gently

Detective Dirk Gently operates based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.

Release Date: 2012-03-05

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 73

A Matter of Time

A retrospective documentary looking at Graham Williams' three-year tenure as Doctor Who producer.

Release Date: 2007-09-24

Character: (archive footage)

Don't Crash: The Documentary of the Making of the Movie of the Book of the Radio Series of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

An in-depth examination of the complete production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005).

Release Date: 2005-09-05

Character: Self (archive footage)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Release Date: 2005-04-28

Department: Writing

Job: Novel

Vote Count: 3942

Doctor Who: Shada

Where the Fourth Doctor left off, the Eighth Doctor comes to finish the job. With Romana and K9 by his side, they have to stop the evil Skagra. A remounted version of the abandoned Fourth Doctor serial, rewritten to feature the Eighth Doctor and fit in with the Big Finish audio drama continuity.

Release Date: 2003-05-02

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 1

Life, the Universe and Douglas Adams

A celebration of Douglas Adams, the genius behind The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy who died in May 2001, aged just 49. First heard on radio in 1978, Hitch-Hiker turned Adams and his intergalactic cast of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the Robot into a worldwide cult, the books selling in their millions and enthralling fans from every continent. But Adams was as full of contradictions as the galaxies he created in Hitch-Hiker - a writer who found writing torture, a techie who was ill at ease with the modern world, a sci-fi fanatic who adored PG Wodehouse, and a giant of a man who forgot the extent of his own body and would shut his own legs in the car door. With excerpts from the TV version of Hitch-Hiker and contributions from his many friends including Stephen Fry, Terry Jones, Clive Anderson and Griff Rhys Jones, this documentary explores Life, the Universe and Douglas Adams and finds that the answer is more than 42.

Release Date: 2002-07-01

Character: Himself

Vote Count: 1

Douglas Adams: Parrots the Universe and Everything

Douglas Adams was the best-selling British author and satirist who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In this talk at UCSB recorded shortly before his death, Adams shares hilarious accounts of some of the apparently absurd lifestyles of the world's creatures, and gleans from them extraordinary perceptions about the future of humanity.

Release Date: 2001-05-28

Character: Himself

Rockstar

In November, 1999, Apple brought together a group of people under its AppleMaster program to teach them to use their new digital video editing software. As part of the class, Douglas Adams shot and edited a makeshift music video based on a song by his friend Margo Buchanan, and starring his daughter, Polly. John Cleese guest stars.

Release Date: 2000-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Black shoe and blue jeans trouser leg

Vote Count: 2

Visions of Heaven and Hell

Dennis Potter, Esther Dyson, William Gibson and other techno-thinkers appeared in this award-winning three-part documentary series which examined social changes brought about by new information technologies, along with other issues and dilemmas facing society in the 21st Century.

Release Date: 1994-01-31

Character: Self

30 Years in the TARDIS

A documentary celebrating the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who, featuring new interviews, rare archive footage and recently discovered material.

Release Date: 1993-11-29

Character: Himself

Vote Count: 3

Doctor Who: Shada

The story revolves around the lost planet Shada, on which the Time Lords built a prison for defeated would-be conquerors of the universe. Skagra, one such inmate, needs the help of one of the prison's inmates. He finds nobody knows where Shada is anymore except one aged Time Lord who has retired to Earth, where he is a professor at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. Luckily for the universe, Skagra's attempt to force the information out of Professor Chronotis coincides with a visit by the professor's old friend, the Doctor. (Filming for this story was never finished, and in this version the story is completed via on-camera narration.)

Release Date: 1992-07-06

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 7

Have I Got News for You

Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.

Release Date: 1990-09-28

Character: Self

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 66

Hyperland

This made-for-TV documentary introduces the layperson to concepts and technologies that were emerging in computer interface design in the late 1980s and early 1990s: hypertext, multimedia, virtual assistants, interactive video, 3D animation, and virtual reality.

Release Date: 1990-09-21

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Character: Self

Vote Count: 5

Prisoners of Gravity

Prisoners of Gravity was a Canadian public broadcasting television news magazine program that explored speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books — and its relation to various thematic and social issues. Produced by TVOntario, the show was the brainchild of former comic retail manager Mark Askwith and writer Daniel Richler, and was hosted by Rick Green. The series aired 139 episodes over 5 seasons from 1989 to 1994.

Release Date: 1989-08-21

Character: Self

Episode Count: 12

Vote Count: 6

Saturday Review

A BBC TV cultural review show featuring celebrity interviews.

Release Date: 1984-05-12

Character: Self

Episode Count: 1

Wogan

Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.

Release Date: 1982-05-04

Character: Self

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 6

Doctor Snuggles

Doctor Snuggles is an animated television series created by Jeffrey O'Kelly based on original artwork by Nick Price, about a friendly and optimistic inventor named Doctor Snuggles who has unusual adventures with his friends. The show featured fantastical scenarios which usually involved Doctor Snuggles inventing something outlandish such as a robot helper or diamond-making machine, and had a variety of supporting characters who were mostly anthropomorphic animals.

Release Date: 1981-06-24

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 17

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

An Earth Man and his alien friend escape an exploding Earth, and set forth on an odd adventure across the universe with a known fugitive.

Release Date: 1981-02-09

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Character: Man in Ocean

Vote Count: 141

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Don't Panic! The story of Arthur Dent, an average Englishman who life was spared by his friend, who turned out to be an alien, while the planet Earth is destroyed. His friend tells him about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a guide with anything you ever needed, and wanted to know. They travel across the galaxy, meeting friendly, and not so friendly characters in order to find the great question (the answer being 42).

Release Date: 1981-01-05

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Character: Man in Pub (uncredited)

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 34

Doctor Who: The Horns of Nimon

After the TARDIS collides with a spacecraft delivering human tributes to the evil bull-like Nimon, the Doctor and Romana must stop the fearsome alien's quest to rule the galaxy.

Release Date: 1980-01-12

Department: Writing

Job: Script Editor

Vote Count: 2

Doctor Who: Nightmare of Eden

A freak accident leaves two dangerously unstable spacecraft locked together, and a horde of monsters unleashed on their passengers.

Release Date: 1979-12-15

Department: Writing

Job: Script Editor

Vote Count: 2

Doctor Who: The Creature from the Pit

The Doctor and Romana follow a distress signal which leads to the jungle planet Chloris, whose ruthless ruler Lady Adrasta harbors a deadly creature in a pit.

Release Date: 1979-11-17

Department: Writing

Job: Script Editor

Vote Count: 2

Doctor Who: City of Death

While taking in the sights of Paris in 1979, the Doctor and Romana sense that someone is tampering with time. Who is the mysterious Count Scarlioni? Why does he seem to have counterparts scattered through time? And just how many copies of the Mona Lisa did Leonardo da Vinci paint?

Release Date: 1979-10-20

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 6

Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks

The Doctor and a newly-regenerated Romana arrive on Skaro to find that the Daleks, locked in a war with the robotic Movellans, have returned to retrieve their buried creator Davros.

Release Date: 1979-09-22

Department: Writing

Job: Script Editor

Vote Count: 4

Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor

The final segment of the Key to Time is at the heart of a devastating war between neighbouring planets Atrios and Zeos. The Fourth Doctor discovers that a sinister entity is manipulating events and the cost of obtaining the final segment may be more personal than he imagined.

Release Date: 1979-02-24

Department: Writing

Job: Script Editor

Vote Count: 3

Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet

The Doctor and Romana learn the second segment of the Key to Time is on the planet Calufrax. Yet they arrive on a planet called Zanak, which has been hollowed out and fitted with hyperspace engines, allowing its insane, half-robot Captain to materialise it around smaller planets and plunder their resources.

Release Date: 1978-10-21

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 5

Out of the Trees

Sketch comedy pilot from Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman.

Release Date: 1976-01-10

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Monty Python's Flying Circus

A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.

Release Date: 1969-10-05

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Character:

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 637

Doctor Who

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Release Date: 1963-11-23

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 8

Vote Count: 645

Open Door

Open Door was a programme produced by the BBC's Community Programme Unit. It was first broadcast on 2 April 1973. The programme gave people control of the airwaves and was a platform for the public to talk about its own issues and give their own views without editorial input. The programme was later replaced by Open Space.

Character: Self

Episode Count: 1