''Douglas Adams at the BBC'' is a three CD set released by

BBC Audio AudioGO (formerly BBC Audiobooks) was a publisher of audiobooks and a range of spoken word and large-print titles. It was majority owned by AudioGO Ltd, and minority owned by BBC Worldwide. It was formed in 2010, when AudioGO purchased a majori ...

in 2004 (). By using extracts from many radio and TV productions, the three discs cover

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' developed into a " ...

's association with BBC Radio and TV from 1974 to 2001, and also include tributes to Adams that were transmitted between 2001 and 2003. Subjects are covered in an A-Z format (thus becoming an "A-Z of Douglas Adams"). Linking narration on all three discs is provided by Simon Jones. Several of the sketches, many of which are included for the first time since their original transmissions, had been discussed in biographies of Adams (e.g. ''Don't Panic'' by

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

and ''Wish You Were Here'' by Nick Webb). In addition, the complete script for "The Lost Hitchhiker Sketch" appears in the 25th anniversary edition of '' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts''. Disc one covers subjects A to G, disc two covers subjects H to P, and disc three covers subjects Q to Z.

Subjects

* A: Animals: The

aye-aye The aye-aye (''Daubentonia madagascariensis'') is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate. ...

lemur and the

Amazonian manatee The Amazonian manatee (''Trichechus inunguis'') is a species of manatee that lives in the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. It has thin, wrinkled brownish or gray colored skin, with fine hairs scattered over its body and a whit ...

, with excerpts from the radio series version of ''

Last Chance to See ''Last Chance to See'' is a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering s ...

'' * B: ''

The Burkiss Way ''The Burkiss Way'' is a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy series, originally broadcast between August 1976 and November 1980. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, with additional material in seasons 1 and 2 by John Mason, Colin Bostoc ...

'', including sketches by Adams * C: Computer Games (including the 1985 computer game adaptation of

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comic science fiction, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally The Hitchhiker's Guide to th ...

and

Starship Titanic ''Starship Titanic'' is an adventure game developed by The Digital Village and published by Simon & Schuster Interactive. It was released in April 1998 for Microsoft Windows and in March 1999 for Apple Macintosh. The game takes place on the ep ...

) * D:

Dirk Gently Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by English writer Douglas Adams and featured in the books '' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'', ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' and '' T ...

* E: Endangered Species * F:

Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

Revue * G:

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two P ...

* H: ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future'' was a four-part radio series hosted by Douglas Adams. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2000, and repeated in April and May 2001, and September 2014. Because the radio series turned out to b ...

'', Adams's final radio documentary series for BBC Radio 4 * I: The

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

* J: "Keeping up with the Joneses" - an extract from Adams's radio tribute to Peter Jones in 2000. * K: The Kakapo Parrot * L: "The Lost Hitchhiker Sketch" -

Sheila Steafel Sheila Frances Steafel (26 May 1935 – 23 August 2019) was a British actress, who was born in Johannesburg, but lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom. Life and career Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, trained at the Webber Dougla ...

interviewing Simon Jones, in character as

Arthur Dent Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character and the hapless protagonist of the comic science fiction series ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by Douglas Adams. In the radio, LP and television versions of the story, Arthur is played by ...

from the radio show '' Steafel Plus'', written by Adams. * L (continued): Light Entertainment, including an extract from '' Black Cinderella Two Goes East'' * M: Music and ''

The Meaning of Liff ''The Meaning of Liff'' (UK Edition: , US Edition: ) is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 and the United States in 1984. Content The book is a " ...

'' * N: News Huddlines * O: '' Oh No, It Isn't'' - with a sketch from this 1970s radio series written by Adams. * P: Publishing and Performing * Q: Quiz Shows * R: The Rodrigues Fruit Bat * S: Science * T: Technology * U: The Universe * V: Virtual Reality * W:

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

with extracts from

The Pirate Planet ''The Pirate Planet'' is the second serial of the Doctor Who (season 16), 16th season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC One, BBC1 from 30 September to 21 October ...

* X: Extra-Terrestrial Life * Y: The

Yangtze River Dolphin The baiji (; IPA: ; ''Lipotes vexillifer'', ''Lipotes'' meaning "left behind" and ''vexillifer'' "flag bearer") is a possibly extinct species of freshwater dolphin native to the Yangtze river system in China. It is thought to be the first dolph ...

* Z: Zoology ''Note:'' The CD set was released in early September 2004, after the Tertiary Phase of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' had been recorded, but before transmissions began. The earliest material on the set is from August 1974 (with material Adams had written while a student at Cambridge) and the most recent extracts are from the TV and radio tributes to Adams from August and September 2001 and March 2003. {{Douglas Adams Audiobooks by title or series Radio documentaries Douglas Adams