BBC4 – theLogBook.com Episode Guides

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency First TV Series

Pilot

By theLogBook.com
December 16, 2010

Dirk Gently, a “holistic detective” who deduces the solutions to his cases through his unwavering belief in the interconnectedness of all things, has just accepted a case to find a missing cat, when he notices his old college friend, Richard Macduff, seeming to rob a house. But it turns out that the house is Macduff’s own, and he has a reason to make it look as though the house has been burgled, though it’s not a terribly good reason: he suspects his girlfriend is involved with technology millionaire Gordon Way. With Macduff in tow, Dirk decides to poke around in a seemingly abandoned nearby warehouse, only to discover that it’s rigged to explode. The two barely escape before the warehouse blows up, and the news media report that Way perished in that blast…even though neither Dirk nor Macduff saw him there. Dirk begins investigating the strange disappearance of Gordon Way, and finds the interconnectedness he advocates so often – Way’s disappearance is directly related to Macduff, to Dirk’s own past, and even to the missing cat.

written by Howard Overman
based on “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” by Douglas Adams
directed by Damon Thomas
music by Daniel Pemberton

Cast: Stephen Mangan (Dirk Gently), Helen Baxendale (Susan Harrison), Darren Boyd (Richard Macduff), Doreen Mantle (Ruth Jordan), Jason Watkins (DI Gilks), Lisa Jackson (Janice Pearce), Anthony Howell (Gordon Way), Miles Richardson (Doctor Gerstenberger), Billy Boyle (Harry Jordan), Elliot Sutherland (Tom), Gary Pillai (Doctor), Alisha Bailey (Reporter), Joe Hall (Newsagent), Leona Walker (Receptionist), Alex Parry (Barman)

Notes: The second of the BBC’s attempts to dramatize Douglas Adams’ lesser known books, this is the first attempt on television, and adapts the first of those novels, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, for an hour-long TV format. The results were popular enough to result in a short season of three further episodes the following year.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Class Season 1

Nightvisiting

By theLogBook.com
October 29, 2016

Daddy’s home. That comes as a bit of a shock to Tanya, since it happens on the second anniversary of his death. And he’s not quite the same – maybe it’s the constant pleading for her to take his hand, or maybe it’s the vine-like root connected to his back, snaking out the window and connecting to a network of similar tendrils, all of them connected to others who have apparently risen from the dead. Ram sees his late girlfriend and runs rather than trying to reconnect with her, meeting up with April in the process. Even Miss Quill has a visitor who seems to be from the other side, though she is skeptical about it all. What has taken root across London and brought the dead back to their loved ones?

written by Patrick Ness
directed by Ed Bazalgette
music by Blair Mowat
“Nightvisitor” written & performed by Jim Moray

Cast: Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill), Greg Austin (Charlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (April), Vivian Oparah (Tanya), Jordan Renzo (Matteusz), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Jasper), Natasha Gordon (Vivian), Anastasia Hille (Orla’ath), Anna Shaffer (Rachel), Andrew Frame (Man), Janie Booth (Old Woman)