A revised and re-recorded version based on the 1978 BBC Radio 4 [first series] broadcast. This series, featuring earlier material provided by writer John Lloyd, was the first radio comedy produced in stereo.

*The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. It began as a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978 and has since been adapted into various formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and a 2005 feature film.

As an international multimedia phenomenon, *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* is most widely known through its novels, which had been translated into over 30 languages by 2005. The first novel, *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (1979), ranked fourth on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The sixth book, *And Another Thing...*, was penned by Eoin Colfer with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 announced a 40th-anniversary celebration, with Dirk Maggs, one of the original producers, leading the project. The first of six new episodes was aired on March 8, 2018.

The series follows the misadventures of Arthur Dent, the last surviving human after Earth is destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur is rescued by Ford Prefect, a human-like alien and writer for the quirky travel guide *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, who takes him aboard a passing Vogon spacecraft. Together with Prefect, Arthur explores the galaxy and meets Trillian, another human who was taken from Earth before its destruction by the self-absorbed President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the melancholic Marvin the Paranoid Android. Various adaptations have altered certain narrative details.