List of Douglas Adams projects

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) was an English humorist and writer who worked in the mediums of radio, television, theatre, literature and video games. Unless otherwise noted, he was credited as the sole writer of the following works (posthumous releases are marked with a dagger†). Also included are adaptations of Adams' work by other writers, released both within his lifetime and after his death.

Literature

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1979 Pan Books Adapted from the radio series [1]
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe 1980
Life, the Universe and Everything 1982 Based on rejected Doctor Who film script Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen [2][3]
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish 1984 [4]
Mostly Harmless 1992 William Heinemann Ltd [5]

Dirk Gently

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 1987 William Heinemann Ltd [6][7]
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul 1988
The Salmon of Doubt† 2002 Macmillan Publishers Ten chapters of unfinished novel; includes short stories, essays, and interviews by Adams [8][9][10]

Short stories

Title Year First published in First edition publisher Notes Ref.
"The Private Life of Genghis Khan" 1986 The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book Based on a 1975 sketch by Adams and Graham Chapman from Out of the Trees [11]
"A Christmas Fairly Story" Collaboration with Terry Jones
"Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" Part of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series; revised by Adams for The Wizards of Odd (1996)

Non-fiction

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
Last Chance to See 1990 William Heinemann Ltd Co-written with Mark Carwardine; companion book to the radio series of the same name [12][13]
42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams† 2023 Unbound Collection of Adams' notes and essays; edited by Kevin Jon Davies [14][15][16]

Other works

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI 1980 Eyre Methuen Ltd Co-written with Graham Chapman, David Sherlock, Alex Martin and David Yallop [17]
Not the Nine O'Clock News Received a writing credit (amongst many other writers) for various gags created in Footlights [18][19]
Not 1982 1981 [18]
Not 1983 1982
The Meaning of Liff 1983 Pan Books, Faber & Faber Co-written with John Lloyd [20][21]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts 1985 Pan Books [22]
The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book 1986 Co-edited with Peter Fincham; also contributor (see above) [23]
Supplement to The Meaning of Liff Co-written with John Lloyd and Stephen Fry
The Deeper Meaning of Liff 1990 Pan Books, Faber & Faber Co-written with John Lloyd [24][25]

Adaptations of Adams' work into literary form

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic: A Novel 1997 Written by Terry Jones; based on Adams' Starship Titanic [26][27]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts: The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases† 2005 Pan Books "As dramatized, directed and annotated by Dirk Maggs from the novels by Douglas Adams" [28]
And Another Thing...† 2009 Penguin Books Written by Eoin Colfer; sixth and final novel in the Hitchhiker's Guide series [29]

Stage productions

Title Year Debut venue Notes Ref.
Chox 1974 Footlights' 1974 May Week Revue; Adams contributed various sketches with co-writers Will Adams and Martin Smith [30][31]
Paradise Mislaid 1975 Footlights' 1975 May Week Revue; Used existing material from Adams, Will Adams and Martin Smith [32]
Unpleasantness at Brodie's Close 1976 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Co-written with John Lloyd and David Renwick; Loosely based on The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers [33][34][35]

Radio and soundtrack

Title Year Broadcaster or Publisher Notes Ref.
The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 Contributed to the sketch "Marilyn Monroe" [36]
The Burkiss Way [37]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Primary and Secondary Phases) 1978–1980 "Fit the Fifth" and "Fit the Sixth" were co-written by John Lloyd. [38][39]
The Internet: The Last Battleground of the 20th century 1999 [40][41][6]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future 2000 [42][6]

Audio adaptations of Adams' work

Title Year Broadcaster Notes Ref.
Shada† 2003 Released as both webcast and audio drama [43]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases)† 2004–2005 Adapted by Dirk Maggs from Adams' third, fourth and fifth Hitchhiker's novels [28]
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency† 2007–2008 BBC Radio 4 Based on the first two Dirk Gently books; adapted by Dirk Maggs [6][44][45][46]

Television

Title Episode or Serial Year Broadcaster Notes Ref.
Monty Python's Flying Circus "Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Liberal Party" 1974 BBC Two The sketch "Patient Abuse"; co-written with Graham Chapman [47][48][49]
Out of the Trees Pilot episode 1976 Co-written with Graham Chapman and Bernard McKenna [50][51]
Doctor on the Go "For Your Own Good" 1977 ITV Co-written with Graham Chapman [52][53]
Not Now, I'm Listening (broadcast 21 May) 1978 Wrote one sketch [54]
Doctor Who The Pirate Planet BBC One 4 episodes [6]
Destiny of the Daleks 1979 4 episodes; uncredited rewrites on Terry Nation's script [55][56]
City of Death 4 episodes; co-written with Graham Williams, from an original storyline by David Fisher, and credited to "David Agnew" [57][58]
Shada 6 episodes; filming was not completed due to industrial action at the BBC [43]
Doctor Snuggles "The Great Disappearing Mystery" ITV Co-written with John Lloyd [59][60]
"The Remarkable Fidgety River"
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy N/a 1981 BBC Two Adapted from the first radio series [61][62][63][64]
Doctor Who "The Five Doctors" 1983 BBC One Uses scenes filmed for Shada; Adams was not credited [43][65]
Hyperland N/a 1990 BBC Two "Fantasy documentary" [66][64][6]
The South Bank Show (broadcast 5 January) 1992 [67]

Television adaptations of Adams' work

Title Year Broadcaster Notes Ref.
Chox 1974 Filmed version of Footlights' 1974 May Week Revue (see above) [30][31]
Dirk Gently† 2010–2012 BBC Four Based on the Dirk Gently series [6]
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency† 2016–2017 BBC America
Doctor Who: The Lost Episode† 2018 Partly-animated reconstruction of Shada [68][43]

Video games

Title Year Publisher Notes Ref.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1984 Infocom Co-created with Steve Meretzky [69][70][6]
Bureaucracy 1987 [6]
Starship Titanic 1998 Co-written with Michael Bywater and Neil Richards. Additional dialogue written by D. A. Barham.

Film

Title Year Distributor Notes Ref.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy† 2005 Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Posthumous release, co-written with Karey Kirkpatrick [71]

Digital projects

Title Year First edition publisher Notes Ref.
h2g2 1999 As creator.

Open source, online, comic encyclopaedia

References

Citations

  1. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. xx, 130–138, 170; Encyclopedia Britannica 2025, 3rd paragraph.
  2. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 178–181; Webb 2005, pp. 235–236; Encyclopedia Britannica 2025, 3rd paragraph.
  3. ^ Jones, Paul; Goss, James (18 January 2018). "Douglas Adams and his mad year of Doctor Who". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 7 July 2025. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  4. ^ Langford 1985, p. 9; Simpson 2003, p. 202; Encyclopedia Britannica 2025, 3rd paragraph.
  5. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 265–266; Encyclopedia Britannica 2025, 3rd paragraph.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ainsworth, John, ed. (2017). "The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara". Doctor Who: The Complete History. 29. Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks: 45. ISSN 2057-6048.
  7. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 231, 236.
  8. ^ "The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams". The Independent. London. 10 May 2002. Archived from the original on 16 October 2009.
  9. ^ "Cover Stories: Douglas Adams, Narnia Chronicles, Something like a House". The Independent. London. 5 January 2002. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009.
  10. ^ Webb 2017, 15th paragraph.
  11. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 65–66, 226–227, 280.
  12. ^ "Last Chance to See - About - Background". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 June 2025. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
  13. ^ Adams, Douglas; Carwardine, Mark (1991). Last chance to see. Internet Archive. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-517-58215-2.
  14. ^ Larman, Alexander (6 August 2023). "In brief: 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams; Alchemy; Mercury Pictures Presents – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  15. ^ Barnett, David (3 September 2023). "Revealed: how Hitchhiker's Guide author predicted rise of ebooks 30 years ago". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  16. ^ "Unbound achieves first Sunday Times number one bestseller". The Bookseller. 4 September 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  17. ^ Chapman, Graham (1991). A liar's autobiography. via the Internet Archive. London: Mandarin. ISBN 978-0-7493-0817-9.
  18. ^ a b Simpson 2003, p. 189.
  19. ^ Hardie, Sean; Lloyd, John (1984). Not! : Not the Nine O'Clock News. Internet Archive. London : British Broadcasting Corporation. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-907812-65-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  20. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 188; Webb 2017, 13th paragraph.
  21. ^ Adams, Douglas; Lloyd, John (2013) [1983]. The Meaning of Liff. via the Internet Archive (30th anniversary ed.). London: Faber and Faber Limited and Boxtree. ISBN 978-0-7522-2759-7.
  22. ^ Adams, Douglas (1985). The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts. via the Internet Archive. London: Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-29288-7.
  23. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 226–227.
  24. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 255; Webb 2017, 13th paragraph.
  25. ^ Adams, Douglas (1990). The deeper meaning of liff. Internet Archive. New York : Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-517-58597-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  26. ^ Jonas, Gerald (21 December 1997). "Science fiction". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 April 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  27. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 236.
  28. ^ a b Adams 2005.
  29. ^ Lawson, Mark (16 October 2009). "And Another Thing . . . by Eoin Colfer | Book review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 December 2025.
  30. ^ a b Simpson 2003, p. 50.
  31. ^ a b "People A-Z - Douglas Adams". BBC - Comedy. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2025. Joining the Footlights while at Cambridge, Adams' talent was noticed in a 1974 TV version of the Footlights Revue by Graham Chapman.
  32. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 57.
  33. ^ Webb 2017, 6th paragraph.
  34. ^ Godfrey, Jake (21 October 2022). "David Renwick looks back on his comedy writing career". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
  35. ^ Bruce, Keith (9 August 2013). "Words are still speaking louder than actions for creator of Liff". HeraldScotland. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
  36. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 60–61.
  37. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 86.
  38. ^ Armstrong, Stephen (27 March 2025). "Douglas Adams predicted our digital world – AI and all – but "found life extraordinarily difficult"". Radio Times. Retrieved 5 December 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  39. ^ Webb 2017, 7th paragraph.
  40. ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Internet: The Last 20th-Century Battleground". BBC. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  41. ^ "Internet : the last 20th century battleground". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  42. ^ "BBC - Radio 4 - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  43. ^ a b c d Ainsworth, John, ed. (2019). "Shada, Dimensions in Time, The Curse of Fatal Death and Time Crash". Doctor Who: The Complete History. No. 90. Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks. ISSN 2057-6048.
  44. ^ Plunkett, John (13 July 2007). "Enfield to play Adams' Dirk Gently". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  45. ^ Hemley, Matthew (5 May 2009). "Douglas Adams's final Dirk Gently novel to be adapted for Radio 4". The Stage. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  46. ^ "BBC - Press Office - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency opens for business". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
  47. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 58–59, 62.
  48. ^ Handlen, Zack (7 August 2014). "Monty Python's Flying Circus: "Party Political Broadcast"". AV Club. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  49. ^ "Monty Python". The Genome Project - BBC Programme Index. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  50. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 62–63.
  51. ^ "Out of the Trees". 10 January 1976. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021 – via BBC Genome.
  52. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 59, 74.
  53. ^ "Barclay, Humphrey (1941-) Credits". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 10 December 2025. Doctor on the Go was broadcast on ITV.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  54. ^ Simpson 2003, p. 116.
  55. ^ Wright, Mark, ed. (2016). "The Power of Kroll, The Armageddon Factor and Destiny of the Daleks". Doctor Who: The Complete History. 30. Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks. ISSN 2057-6048. Adams heavily rewrote aspects of the scripts to bring the show within budget...
  56. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 127–128.
  57. ^ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "City of Death". The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-426-20442-5. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015.
  58. ^ Ainsworth, John (2018). Wright, Mark (ed.). "City of Death - The Creature from the Pit - Nighmare of Eden - The Horns of Nimon". Doctor Who: The Complete History. 31 (105–108). Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks: 45.
  59. ^ Bennett, Steve (6 March 2018). "The kids' cartoon written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd". Chortle. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  60. ^ Roberts 2015, pp. 129–130.
  61. ^ "BBC Studios to release classic 1981 TV adaption of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on DVD and Blu-ray". www.bbc.co.uk. 6 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  62. ^ Agustin, Francis (3 March 2025). "'Lying drunk in a field': Douglas Adams on the unlikely origins of the cult space comedy that inspired Elon Musk". BBC. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  63. ^ "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - BBC Two England - 19 January 1981 - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  64. ^ a b "Adams, Douglas (1952-2001) Credits". BFI Screenonline. Archived from the original on 30 January 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  65. ^ Ainsworth, John, ed. (2017). "Terminus, Enlightenment, The King's Demons and the Five Doctors". Doctor Who: The Complete History (37). Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks: 113. ISSN 2057-6048.
  66. ^ "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - How Douglas Adams changed the future". BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 19 January 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  67. ^ Simpson 2003, pp. 260–261.
  68. ^ Stockly, Ed (18 July 2018). "Thursday's TV highlights: 'Doctor Who: The Lost Episode' on BBC America". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  69. ^ Froholt, Joachim (5 February 2025). "Q&A with: Game designer Steve Meretzky". Spillhistorie.no. Archived from the original on 20 June 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  70. ^ Powell, Jack; Ciraolo, Michael (May 1985). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Antic. p. 19. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  71. ^ Felperin, Leslie (23 April 2005). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Variety. Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2025.

Sources

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