March 2020 sees the 42nd anniversary of the first ever transmission of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio 4. This celebratory edition contains a full-size photographic facsimile of the original 1985 printed scripts; a brand-new introduction from the original Arthur Dent, Simon Jones; and all the additional material included in the 25th anniversary edition from 2003.

'It seemed to me, listening to radio comedy, that we hadn't progressed much beyond Door Slam A, Door Slam B, Footsteps on a Gravel Path and the odd Comic Boing . . . I wanted Hitchhiker to sound like a rock album. I wanted the voices and the effects and the music to be so seamlessly orchestrated as to create a coherent sound picture of a whole other world . . .' Douglas Adams

So began the Hitchhiker phenomenon. The legendary BBC series did indeed push back the barriers of radio comedy - and in doing so won lavish praise from critics and a variety of awards, spawned records, books, a stage production, a TV series, a computer adventure game and, of course, a towel.

Along with the new material in this edition, here are the twelve original radio scripts - Hitchhiker as it was originally written, and exactly as it was broadcast on Radio 4 for the very first time in 1978. Included are amendments and additions made during recordings and notes on the writing and producing of the series by Douglas Adams, Simon Jones and Geoffrey Perkins.

For perennial Hitchhiker fans and those new to Adams's comic genius, this updated and embellished edition of the scriptbook is essential reading . . .