A lesser-known property from the late Douglas Adams (creator of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy), Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency was nevertheless a novel Adams thought would be easier to film than his revered sci-fi opus. Previously turned into radio plays with Harry Enfield as the gumshoe, BBC4 have decided to put Dirk Gently on-screen for the first time, adapted by in-demand screenwriter Howard Overman (Misfits, Vexed). Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) plays the eponymous sleuth, who believes in “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”, and applies this theory of quantum mechanics to solve superficially innocuous crimes.
Overman has wisely excised much of the book’s budget-swallowing imagination into something achievable on a frugal budget; bringing the idea down-to-earth as an eccentric cousin to the BBC’s Sherlock update. Purists may grumble this isn’t the Dirk Gently they wanted to see, but it’s more accessible and practicable. And while Dirk Gently is certainly another gimmicky detective series (yawn), its details are unique and engrossing enough to shrug off the genre’s clichés. In some ways it’s a pastiche of whodunits, taking the genre’s often tenuous explanations to an outrageous extreme. In this episode, Dirk is asked to find an old lady’s missing cat, but his investigation soon broadens to involve a series of associated issues; two murders, a missing billionaire, a long-forgotten car accident, a stolen laptop, an exploding warehouse… and even time-travel.
Mangan plays Dirk Gently as another great British eccentric; brown suit with elbow patches, mop of black hair, gravestone teeth, cluttered office, and a temperamental Austin Princess as his pride and joy. The role’s hardly a stretch for Mangan (who regularly plays wacky geeks after coming to prominence as nerdy diarist Adrian Mole), but it’s nonetheless a strong marriage of actor and material. The character may effectively be a mix of Jonathan Creek, The Doctor and Sherlock Holmes, but those are inescapable comparisons.
Darren Boyd (Smack The Pony, Whites) plays Richard McDuff, an old friend of Dirk’s who is reacquainted with him in this episode, becoming embroiled in the missing cat case and playing Dirk’s baffled sidekick. Boyd is also playing to type here; his performance another example of the twitchy, genial everyman he’s often asked to play, but that shtick is still appealing and he makes a likeable straight-man for Mangan to bounce off. There’s unfortunately not too much evidence of a compelling partnership in this episode, as the focus is on Dirk as a maverick loner, but hopefully the Dirk/McDuff dynamic will flourish if BBC4 commission a full series.
Rounding out the triptych is Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet, Friends) as Susan, McDuff’s plain-speaking girlfriend and another of Dirk’s erstwhile university pals. But unlike her boyfriend, Susan’s more suspicious of Dirk’s unconventional investigative methods — believing he’s just conning the feeble-minded out of their money, by bamboozling them with pseudo-science and tall stories.
My biggest concern was actually Howard Overman’s writing, as he may be the brains behind one of the best TV shows around (superhero drama Misfits), but he also created one of the worst (cop comedy-drama Vexed). Fortunately, it seems that Overman brought his A game to Dirk Gently; so perhaps the woeful Vexed was a victim of his grueling work schedule this year, or Overman simply works best when he has a guiding light (comic-book traditions to subvert, or another writer’s ideas to filter.) Whatever the reason, it was a relief to feel quality buzzing from the writing. The plot was light-footed and deceptively knotty, with plenty of funny and clever moments — such as Dirk’s fake suicide gambit, by having McDuff pose as his twisted body on the grass, below a high window Dirk later pretends to jump out of, all to get someone out of an office to investigate.
Overall, your reaction to Dirk Gently will largely depend on if you’ve read the source material. If you have, you’ll perhaps be disappointed Overman’s adaptation has gutted Adams’s surrealism and rampant oddness. An Overman-style BBC4 adaptation of The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy would probably remain earthbound, with Arthur Dent thumbing lifts up the M6, where he’d meet various oddball drivers. But if you haven’t read Douglas Adams’s books, you’ll probably be more accepting of another TV detective series with sharp writing, quick pace, imagination, fun performances, and a unique gimmick at its heart.
At any rate, fingers crossed for a full series, so Dirk Gently gets the chance to evolve and improve, perhaps by adding in more of the book’s wackier flavours. But even as it stands, this was a decent and enjoyable start.
Aside
- How’s this for interconnectedness: Howard Overman writes episode for the BBC’s Merlin, which stars Richard Wilson, star of ’90s sitcom One Foot In The Grave. Dirk Gently guest-starred Doreen Mantle, who played Mrs Warboys in that SAME comedy. Coincidence? Tell that to Dirk! Incidentally, One Foot In The Grave was highly-regarded for its intricate, connected storytelling. Sound familiar? Oh, and there’s a special BBC2 documentary on Richard Wilson’s career this Sunday at 9pm. Okay, I’m freaking myself out now… maybe there really is something to this “interconnectedness”…
WRITER: Howard Overman (based on “Dirky Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”, by Douglas Adams)
DIRECTOR: Damon Thomas
CAST: Stephen Mangan, Darren Boyd, Helen Baxendale, Jason Watkins, Anthony Howell & Doreen Mantle
TRANSMISSION: 16 December 2010, BBC4/HD, 9PM
Want to write about this topic and have your work read by thousands every day? Click here to become a contributor to WhatCulture.
9 Comments
Err, uh, pointlessly eccentric character annoys people. The end.
Doesn’t help that I’m only familiar with Helen Baxendale, who’s worth the price of admission alone, so I’m probably being extremely unfair. I also didn’t like Hitchhiker, seeing it as eccentricity for eccentricities’ sake.
I liked the way this one pulled everything together at the end, that was clever. But getting there was rather painful. I felt like Mangan must’ve have been thinking “this is so trite, but at least I get to hang out with Helen.” Her character is pretty much my wife — I’m unemployed for 10 years & shower maybe twice a week — so of course I loved her. And Ruth was a scream at the end, but still. Not my cup of team.
Bah, who cares what you think! You didn’t like Hitchhikers so you obviously have no taste. Douglas Adams was a genius. It was a shame Overman decided to leave out some of the more surreal elements (I’d like to have seen the Electric Monk or the Halls of Valhalla), but I can see that such elements would have been very difficult to pull off. I had been hoping for years that a TV series of Dirk Gently might be made and this was a good start, as there was a great deal of potential to get this so very wrong. Mangan has done a great a great job as the eccentric Dirk too. I hope the BBC gives this programme the chance it deserves…
I thought it was ok, but by no means excellent. Boyd was great, even if he was just playing a slightly lazier version of his character from “Whites,” and Mangan was good fun too, though it felt a little like he was playing up the eccentricities a bit too much – I always prefer actors like Boyd, who are able to make eccentricity and off-the-wall behaviour gel with a realistic character, but then I guess realism wasn’t necessarily what they were going for here. In fact, the real-versus-surreal dynamic was one of my main problems here, it felt a bit like Dirk was this over-the-top madman surrounded by a lot of very rational people. I understand that was partly the intention, but if anything it just lent credibility to Baxendale’s suggestion that he was a conman and a fantasist, something I presume we’re not supposed to agree with. I felt like I’d enjoy it more if Dirk’s wackiness felt just a little more close to reality than it did.
I also feel this pilot was very plot-oriented, with one significant/intricate plot development following another in rapid succession. It would have been nice to have a little more time devoted to the characters and letting us get to know them a bit more, especially Baxendale, who felt very functional here and little more.
Still, the fact that it’s prompted such a long response from me is a good thing – it’s got enough heart and cleverness and potential for me to take it seriously and really reflect on it, so I hope it does come back and hopefully works on the flaws I felt it had so it can become a really fun show, because I certainly feel like it could do.
For how many years does an iPhone remain charged (even if it is off)?
Gordon obviously first traveled to the future to get an unlimited battery before heading to the 90s ;)
Anyway, that didn’t bother me too much, especially in a show where a guy builds a time machine just so he could hook up with his ex-girlfriend.
Fun show and hopefully they turn it in a decent series with a bit more of Adam’s surreal ideas.
What a dreadful adaptation. It reduces the wonderful scope and broad flavour of the novel into something trite, clichéd and formulaic. Stephen Mangan is hideously miscast as Dirk Gently – even Harry Enfield’s performance as the character for the Radio 4 adaptations was better. In common with most other current TV productions, the whole thing is smothered in unsubtle incidental music that is anything but incidental, desperately trying to hammer home the point that this programme is KOOKY and ZANY – “laugh here folks!” – when the rapid-fire humour of Douglas Adams has been all but erased from this Godawful script. Avoid like the plague.
I’m with Max on this. So far from the original intent of the novel. If Douglas Adams was still around I very much doubt the BBC would have had the nerve to blatantly rip off his status with such a shoddy piece of mis selling.
I’ve read the book (a number of times) and loved it. It’s a more coherent piece than Hitchhikers (which Adams would write episode by episode and sometimes only half hour before its performance) and intricately plotted.
I was glad they didn’t try to copy the story, as with just an hour to tell it, it would have been crap. What we were left with was okay, and just about held together. Not as wacky and off-the-wall as the books, but maybe that could come with another hour, if they’re given the opportunity.
On the casting, I like Mangan but I thought Dirk was supposed to be bespectacled and his coat is should put you in mind of a bat. Artistic license, I suppose. Boyd? Okay. Baxendale? Okay.
Firstly, I’m a huge fan of Douglas and particularly the Dirk books. I was excited to hear about a TV series, yet worried after the abortion made of the HG2TG movie. Something to keep in mind is that Douglas was actually involved in that production, at least up until his sad demise, so I don’t really buy into him being shirty or precious about his prose being switched for something more fitting for the medium.
I’m also not surprised they didn’t bother with the electric monk element of the story (yet), though they did mention it if you were paying attention. My guess is they wanted this to be a little more self-contained and self-referential.
Detail wise, Dirk didn’t have a “bat” coat, or at least hasn’t had need to wear that particular coat yet. He didn’t have a fedora too if we want to be pedantic. Though I’d rather not be, and simply enjoy the fact that something quirky and interesting has made it to TV.
I’m with Dan on this, a cautious thumbs up, so far so good.