Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Hexagonal Phase: signs up Professor Stephen Hawking.
Physicist Stephen Hawking is joining the cast of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase. The scifi comedy is returning to Radio 4, starting 8th March 2018 at 6.30pm, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Douglas Adams’s radio series. In episode one, Professor Hawking will play The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy Mk.II, a hugely intelligent and powerful being who might have been known on our planet as Professor Stephen Hawking.
This series is adapted from Eoin Colfer’s And Another Thing, which was commissioned by the Douglas Adams Estate in 2009 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first novel. In 1978, BBC Radio 4 The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy was first broadcast (written by Douglas Adams), followed by four further series between 1980 and 2005.
Across the six all-new episodes, Simon Jones will reprise his role as the main protagonist, the quintessentially English Arthur Dent, as he continues to travel through space and time following the destruction of Earth. It also stars members of the radio, television and stage casts, including Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Sandra Dickinson as Trillian.
They will be joined by other special guest stars including Lenny Henry, Ed Byrne and Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch. Following in the footsteps of the late Peter Jones and William Franklyn, Douglas Adams’ friend, co-author and former flatmate John Lloyd will step into the voice of The Book.
David Morley, producer of the new series of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, told SFcrowsnest, “When we were thinking of cameos for the new series I suddenly thought of Professor Stephen Hawking. Douglas Adams’ work is admired by many of the world’s top scientists because of its innovative and hilarious twisting of the real universe, so I took a punt and asked the Professor if he’d like to actually play a role in the new series. It turned out that he was a huge fan of Hitchhiker’s and was keen to see the script. He very quickly came back with a resounding ‘yes’, and Dirk Maggs and I were jumping up and down with joy. His part blends perfectly with the actors. The results are fantastic.”
