"I deliver perfection..." "and don't brag about it!" ":" "D" "The TV scripts for episodes 5 and 6 were delivered in August 1980." "They both made use of new material from July's stage show at The Rainbow, and the second LP record, which had only just been recorded." "John Lloyd helped Douglas Adams write parts 5 and 6 of the radio series." "This is the unedited full-length version of episode 5, as it was first transmitted on BBC2 in the UK, on Monday 2nd February 1981." "The Jatravartid cave images were painted by a scenic artist on a fake rock made from a material called Jabolite." "It was based on a rough sketch by R. Harris, the assistant to the designer Andrew Howe-Davies." "Did you spot the insect crawling across Deep Thought's eyes?" "This graffiti was by Douglas Adams himself, in charcoal on a vacuum-formed plastic wall erected in the studio for episode 5." "101010 = 42 in binary notation." "Douglas also provided the 42 graphic himself in the illustrated novel." "A scientific observation of humanity is being conducted here by some outside force, presumably the mice." "The script asked that the final image, to coincide with the word "sense" should be of..." "Mrs. Thatcher." "The earth explosion was a pyrotechnic hanging from the studio ceiling, filmed on a high-speed camera from below." "The laser animation was by Rod Lord's team at Pearce Studios, who provided all the Guide graphics." "The relevant live action frames were traced by hand to position the lasers accurately." "The script asked to see their "bodies twisting" in a time tunnel." "This was the first scene taped on Friday 19th December 1980." "The script asked for the décor to be "a futuristic version of what the Holiday Inn would call exclusive luxury" with tinkly muzak." "Zaphod needed help to get up, out of shot." "Mike Kelt's green sweater and blue jeans can be seen, behind Zaphod, bottom right of the next shot..." "Simon Jones creates a bit of business for Arthur in the background at this point." "In the 1985 computer game of "The Hitchhiker's Guide"," "Arthur Dent's dressing gown pockets "did" contain a few items." "Mike Kelt, as well as providing Zaphod's other arm, created the radio-controlled second head, which had to house twelve servos and two receivers." "The servos pushed rods and pulled cables to make the features move, and the whole thing was mounted on a model helicopter rotor joint." "Modified battery packs gave three hours of operation, and specialists MacGregor also supplied the two seven-channel handsets." "Joan Stribling made-up Mark Wing-Davey's real face with a scar before his head cast was taken." "She then painted the finished latex skin." "Garkbit, the head waiter, is played by Jack May, the distinctive voice of Walter Gabriel from the long-running BBC Radio soap "The Archers"." "In the 1960s he played Simms, the butler in "Adam Adamant Lives!"" "and in the 1970s he was a regular in the sitcom "Batchelor Father"." "In the 1980s Jack May was the voice of Igor in the cartoon series "Count Duckula"." "The menus were designed and printed by "Milliways Catering"." "The two insect puppets were by Susan Moore, who later provided monsters for "Doctor Who" and puppets for "Spitting Image"." "The puppeteers are Stuart Murdoch and Kevin Davies." ""The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"" "was the title of the second "Hitchhiker's Guide" novel and sequel record, both of which had only recently been launched when the series was aired." "The "drunk" extra at the table kept trying to show his face on camera." "Alan J.W. Bell suggested the neon have one broken letter flickering away." "The Milliways logo with its Arcturan Vampire Bunny Club symbol was designed by Kevin Davies to fit the circular doorway." "The following animation sequence was by Dave Hall." "The Milliways set was one of the biggest ever constructed at BBC TV Centre, taking up most of their largest studio, TC1, on Friday 19th December 1980." "The girl who passes them on the stairs (Mary Eveleigh) inspired lots of ideas, including the "clothes" gag and the drawing of Eccentrica Gallumbits in the Glossary animation later." "The ugly handrails were not part of the set until a rather zealous BBC safety officer insisted something be put there, or else there'd be no shooting The Designer Andrew Howe-Davies found the only things he could," "which were a few bits of timber and some scaffolding, which they painted black and disguised as best they could." "Nobody was particularly amused by the delay caused." "Douglas Adams was looking for a suitable name for the rock star when he noticed the name of an estate agent in Islington." "He asked their permission to use it in his story." "Barry Frank Warren, having not exactly needed any rehearsals as the silent Hotblack Desiato, had a fit of the giggles when David Dixon first ran through his lines." "If you want to emulate Ford's unusual taste in fashion, here's the list..." "Blazer from Irving Sellars." "Shirt and sweater from Lord John." "Sweater pattern - "Intasia"." "Tie" " Eton." "Bumpers" " Intersol, 88 logo on heel." "Hanky in pocket-a yellow duster." "We strongly advise you don't emulate Hotblack Desiato at all." "He's Darth Vader..." "He's also the Green Cross Code man." "He's Dave Prowse, and he lifted Ford without any assistance, held him at arm's length for one very long take of the entire scene." "Ford then stood on a box, just to be polite, to re-record the close-up." "Prowse was in "A Clockwork Orange" and trained Christopher Reeve for "Superman"." "The Disaster Area animation sequence was almost entirely drawn by John Percy of Pearce Studios, following the style set by Rod Lord." "Rod Lord drew the crooked accountant and filmed the sequence." "There are two separate camera shots here, with a spotlight beam faked up and inlayed at the edit." "The matte shots took time and money, and the series was running out of both..." ""The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"" "was the title of the second novel by Douglas Adams, and of the LP record, both launched just a few weeks before this episode was in studio, in December 1980." "The compére, Max Quordlepleen, is played by Colin Jeavons, looking like Joel Grey in "Cabaret"." "In the radio series, the part was played by comedy veteran Roy Hudd." "The two sections of model roof were hung like curtains on a curtain track, and the camera was angled over to give the impression of looking upwards." "The Dish of the Day was a scene first tried out at The Rainbow, and included in the second record album." "Stuart Murdoch is inside the beast, operating the hindquarters and the breathing motion." "The front end is Peter Davison, doing an impersonation of Dave Prowse's country accent." "Davison was Sandra Dickinson's husband and was starring in several shows, including as a vet in "All Creatures Great and Small"." "A "Hitchhiker's Guide" fan," "Davison had no idea that he'd been the Head of Comedy's preferred choice for the rôle of Arthur Dent, but it had quite rightfully gone to Simon Jones." "Davison was quite envious of Sandra when she landed her rôle, and was keen to make a cameo appearance." "It had just recently been announced that Davison was to take over the rôle of "Doctor Who", so it seemed unlikely the producer of that show would allow him to play a part in "Hitchhiker's"." "Until they were casting the Dish - and the idea of a popular vet playing a cow was too good to miss." "The plan was kept secret to prevent the "Doctor Who" office from vetoing the idea, whilst a head cast was taken." "But why did the cow (or "large dairy animal" as it's described in the script) look so much like a pig?" "It's all the fault of The Rainbow stage production, which only had enough clay to sculpt a pig." "The idea just stuck." "Everybody in the studio was asked to make audience noises to give Colin Jeavons reactions to feed from." "Colin Jeavons was in Dennis Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills", "Blackeyes", and played a notable Uriah Heep in a production of "David Copperfield"." "Jeavons turned up in "Epitaph For A Spy", "Kinvig", and played Hitler in "Hitler's SS"" "and Inspector Lastrade in "Sherlock Holmes"." "Jeavons had parts in "House of Cards", "To Play The King", and "The House of Elliott"." "His movies included "The French Lieutenant's Woman"." "It's spot the old costume time, folks, starting with the letter "G"..." "G'Gugvant, Gargleblaster Girl, Gag Halfrunt, Galactic Cop... etc., etc." "The VI'Hurg is hiding at the back..." ""No comment."" "Costumes from the Deep Thought scene..." "Later, Alan J. W. Bell went to a studio recording of the talk show "Parkinson"" "and got the audience there to tape some more applause and other noises on cue, to use in "The Hitchhiker's Guide"." "The cooked head of the Dish of the Day was made from the same mould as Peter Davison's mask, and an apple was stuffed into its mouth." "Ford is tucking into an alien meal full of food colouring again." "It may have been the day after "this" studio session that David Dixon went Christmas shopping with a bad case of food poisoning..." "Strictly speaking, Zaphod only has three eyes." "The eye-patch was part of make-up artist Joan Stribling's design for Zaphod, and not some cost-saving measure to save Visual Effects having to build another moving eyeball." "Marvin in the car park had a minimal set, which "was" to save on costs." "The gang are reunited with Marvin, four weeks after they were last in studios together." "This scene was taped at the end of the recording session on 19th December 1980." "David Learner (inside Marvin) trained at RADA with Alan Rickman." "His time with Alan Ayckbourn was "like working with Shakespeare, but without the codpiece"." "He toured as Marvin in the theatre for two years, and was in the Fringe First award-winning "Not About Heroes"." "David spent 3 years as Pickle the Elf in "Knightmare", and has an arts radio programme on X-Cel FM." "All the scenes from this point were shot in studio for episode 6, more than 2 weeks later, on Tuesday 6th January." "Episode 1 had premiered on BBC2 the night before." "The "Lazlar Lyricon Kustom job" had a sexy infra-pink lizard emblem" "(mentioned in the second novel, but cut from this programme) which turns up in the "glossary" animation later..." "This is the Black Ship, which has the old Vogon airlock door as its entry hatch..." "Zaphod and Ford have a history of stealing spaceships according to various stories in the books by Douglas Adams." "Marvin's magic words:" ""Abracadiodularservosystems"." "Dave Prowse had some dialogue with Hotblack removed from here." "All the Black Ship interiors were taped during the studio session for episode 6, on Tuesday 6th January 1981." "In the original radio version of this episode, the Black Ship belongs to a race called Hagunenons, which are a rapidly and continuously evolving species." "Douglas re-wrote the storyline in the books and subsequent versions to remove most of the parts where he collaborated with John Lloyd." "The Great Prophet Zarquon is played by Colin Bennett, whose last rôle for the series was the "Cheerleader"" "cut from the Deep Thought scene in the previous episode." "Bennett played the caretaker (Mr. Bennett!" ") in the kids' programme "Take Hart" with artist Tony Hart." "Boom!" "A smoke bomb pyrotechnic was triggered on the set, behind the two Colins, but it was lost in the edit among all the video effects..." "In his script, Douglas Adams offered to visit the animators to explain some of his ideas about this sequence in particular..." "Rod Lord gratefully took him up on his offer and they had a rare get-together." "They were stumped at how to illustrate the non-existant population of the universe..." "The silliest idea by far was from Douglas himself, who wanted little faces to be half-glimpsed, poking their tongues out among the line of zeros..." "In the final part of the "glossary" sequence the animators were encouraged to extemporise..." "Douglas Adams liked the idea that Eccentrica Gallumbits has a 2-mile erogenous zone, and she takes credit cards..." "The Lazlar Lyricon infra-pink lizard did a Playbeing spread and Vogons take forever...!" "The voice-over here purports to be Dave Prowse's bodyguard, but he was dubbed by A.N. Other."