A Comparison of the Radio Times Listings for the Radio and TV Versions of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

	Original radio version (1978)	TV version (1981)
Episode 1	In which the earth is unexpectedly destroyed and the great hitch-hike begins. An epic adventure in time and space including some helpful advice on how to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day.	Arthur Dent is not convinced when his best friend, Ford Prefect, tells him that the world is about to end in 12 minutes. Should he remain lying in front of the bulldozers intent on demolishing his house to make way for a bypass? Or should he accept the offer of rescue from Ford, who reveals that he is an alien from the planet of Betelgeuse (pronounced Bee-tle-jooce), and not from Guildford after all?
Episode 2	An epic adventure in time and space. Fit the second: after being saved from certain death during the demolition of the earth, Arthur Dent now faces a hopeless choice between meeting certain death in the vacuum of space or finding something pleasant to say about Vogon poetry.	Rescued from Earth, moments before its destruction to make way for a vast hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent and his alien friend, Ford Prefect, find themselves on board the actual demolition spacecraft in the capture of the evil, heartless, callous, slimy-green Vogons. But all is not well. They have a major decision to make! Should they face certain death by being flung into the cold vacuum of space? Or should they tell the Vogon captain how good they think his poetry is?
Episode 3	An epic adventure in time and space including some helpful advice on how to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day. Fit the third: after being improbably rescued from certain death in the vacuum of space, Arthur Dent and his new companions now face a missile attack and certain death.	Zaphod Beeblebrox heads the stolen spaceship Heart of Gold for the legendary planet of Magrathea in the company of his girl-friend Trillian, and the two hitch-hikers Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Success seems at hand, when one or two problems arise which must be solved. Will they avoid the pursuing nuclear missiles? Will they pull the ship out of its perilous downward spiral? Will Arthur Dent find any tea on board?
Episode 4	An epic adventure in time and space including some helpful advice on how to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day. Fit the fourth: It has been revealed to Arthur that the earth has been built by the Magratheans and run by mice. Meanwhile. his companions have been suddenly confronted by something nasty (probably certain death).	Arthur Dent is astonished to learn that the Earth was not what it had seemed, and astounded to learn that the small creatures he had called mice were not what they had seemed either. But he is quite put out to learn that they are after his brain, and that the pleasant dinner party with Ford, Zaphod and Trillian, is certainly not what it seems.
Episode 5	An epic adventure in time and space, including some helpful advice on how to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day. Fit the fifth: Sent to find the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything, Arthur Dent and his companion have been cornered by two humane cops who, nevertheless, have left them in a certain death situation at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe.	Having been blown to smithereens when a computer exploded on the planet of Magrathea, Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian and Zaphod Beeblebrox are somewhat mystified when they find themselves in some sort of restaurant—apparently at the end of the Universe.
Episode 6	Fit the Sixth (the final): Will the Ultimate Question to Life, The Universe and Everything (to which the answer is 42) be discovered? Will our heroes be able to control their newly stolen space-ship and the enormous fleet of black battle cruisers that is following them? Will it end happily or in the certain death that has threatened them so persistently?	As a spectacular finale to 'Disaster Area's' rock concert, the megabig superstar 'Hotblack Desiato ' crashes an unmanned black spacecraft into the sun. When Arthur. Ford, Trillian and Zaphod realise that the black spacecraft they have stolen is relentlessly heading towards the sun, certain doubts arise as to the wisdom of their decision.

Listings taken from BBC Genome, as per usual.

Not A Nineteen Seventies Doctor Who Serial

Funny Radio Times listings for comedy shows. We've talked about them before. The ones for Not the Nine O'Clock News are great, so go and look at them.

I find this one, written in the style of a Doctor Who episode, particularly interesting, however. That listing is for an episode broadcast in May 1980. In October 1978, then-script editor of Doctor Who Douglas Adams commissioned his frequent collaborator John Lloyd (with whom he had co-written part of the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) to write a serial for the show, but in January 1979, Lloyd informed Adams he would be unable to finish his script, as he had been appointed producer of Not the Nine O'Clock News. However, Adams was still keen on Lloyd's storyline - entitled The Doomsday Contract - and tried to get another writer, Allan Prior, to adapt his detailed story outline into scripts. Prior's scripts were rejected and seemingly no longer exist, and when Adams departed Doctor Who in late 1979 Lloyd's story would never see broadcast.

Is this listing in some way referencing the show's producer's unrealised Doctor Who story? Or is it more innocuous?

Shadap Your Face

19 November 1979: The cast and crew of Doctor Who are working on the concluding serial of the show's seventeenth season, the six-part Shada by Douglas Adams. The location shoot has been completed, albeit with difficulties arising from a labour dispute. On the first of three studio sessions, the cast return from lunch to find the dispute has escalated into industrial action, and all recordings at Television Centre have been postponed. The future of Shada - scheduled to begin airing on BBC One in exactly two months' time - is instantly thrown into doubt.

A David Agnew Production

Exactly who wrote a story can sometimes be a matter of debate. Or there could be some legal issue that stops the true author from being named. Or it could just be that they don't want their name involved with the project. In those cases, a pseudonym has to be used.

The Writers' Guild of America used to have an official pseudonym, 'Alan Smithee', that was to be used in the event of a film director wanting to take their name off of a film (generally because they were dissatisfied with the final production and did not have enough creative control over the project). The BBC had a similar name to be used in the event of a contested writing credit, 'David Agnew'. There are a couple of known uses of this name, and the last two are what makes the name particularly notable.