Arthur Dent discovers his house is to be bulldozed to make way for a bypass. Later he finds that Earth is to be destroyed as well. He escapes on a Vogon spaceship with his friend Ford Prefect.

Unable to return to Earth, Arthur becomes a reluctant space tourist. He is soon traversing the universe with his friend Ford Prefect, who is employed by Megadodo Publications to write entries for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Also along for the ride is an alien with two heads called Zaphod Beeblebrox, a paranoid robot android called Marvin and Tricia McMillan (aka Trillian), the only other survivor of Earth's destruction.

Our Review: We're not quite sure we can write anything here that would adequately describe the impact this radio series by Douglas Adams has had on the comedy landscape.

If nothing else, we could point out that the original two phenomenally popular 1970s series of this radio show spawned the series of books that have gone on to become some of the biggest selling titles in the world, picking up numerous awards in the process (the first book, published 1979, was named one of Britain's top five favourite books of all time in a poll by the BBC in 2003, and one of the top 25 Greatest Books of the Century by Waterstones in 1996).

With a Hollywood blockbuster film, a cult TV series, a computer game and an encyclopedia project amongst the other things to have come out of this radio series, we think it safe to say that this is easily one of the most successful radio comedies ever made!