A Satur Day

Mutterings continued.

Another of my favourite comedians, Dave Allen, has died. Bugger. He was only 68.

Last night's performance of Tale went well - the director wasn't there and the cast and crew relaxed and enjoyed themselves. And there was an appreciative audience that applauded in all the right places. Thursday night's mob almost had to be prodded into applause; we were thinking of having signs light up that say "Applause" and "End of first half", etc.

The peafowl at the New Fortune have bred. There are two chicks, one of which is white, the other is tiny and very cute. The SM and I were having great fun last night herding the sods off the stage. They've been very quiet this year (she says, fully aware of the implications of what she is saying) and we haven't had to subject them to Joe Satriani at volume level 11 to shut them up.

I think I need to do some housework before I go back to work on Monday. Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to going back to work. I'm not sure what I want to do (other than run the Post Office agency in Birnam, of course) when I grow up but I don't think it's being a Publications and Information Officer. Life has brought too much upheaval and change over the last 12 months and I think I'm getting restless.

The BBC is releasing the fourth and fifth episodes of the HHGTTG radio series - the Quandry and Quintessential Phases.

"This brand-new BBC Radio 4 series of four episodes is an adaptation of Douglas Adams's novel 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'.

The fourth entry in Adams's celebrated 'trilogy of five' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, it centres on Arthur Dent's return to Earth, and his meeting - and falling in love with - the other-worldly Fenchurch. What is the thing which makes Fenchurch different from her fellow Earth-dwellers, and how does it bind her and Arthur together? What has caused all of the dolphins on the planet to disappear, and what was their departing message to mankind? These and other questions are answered in the Quandary Phase...

This full-cast dramatisation follows on from the Tertiary Phase, and precedes the final Quintessential Phase. It stars many of the cast of the original Radio 4 Hitchhiker's series, including Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Stephen Moore (Marvin the Paranoid Android), and Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect).

The CD and cassette versions feature approximately ten minutes of extra footage not included in the Radio 4 broadcasts. "

"Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Quintessential Phase

These are the final four episodes in BBC Radio 4's brand new series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. An adaptation of 'Mostly Harmless', the fifth entry in Douglas Adams's celebrated 'trilogy of five' novels, it finds Tricia McMillan stuck on Earth and wishing she had never gone back for her bag, Ford Prefect paying an eventful visit to the offices of the Guide, and Arthur Dent searching for Fenchurch in a variety of probabilities. All will be explained by the end of the Quintessential Phase..."