Martin Freeman dons the dressing gown for this "bloomin' brilliant" adaptation of Douglas Adams' sci-fi masterwork The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Homegrown helmer Garth Jennings made his big screen bow with the offbeat space travelogue, which achieved cult status after airing on BBC radio in the 70s. Disney took it to a wider audience, although it's fair to say that the rest of the world didn't fully appreciate the quintessentially British sense of humour...

Don't Panic

A playful mood permeates Elstree Studios, which helps to liven up a standard 'making of' featurette. In amongst the usual notes on conception and casting, Jennings gives Sam Rockwell due credit, observing, "He's quite prepared to look a complete arse." The man himself elaborates on this assessment, explaining that his portrayal of Zaphod Beeblebrox is an amalgam of "Elvis, Bill Clinton, Patrick Swayze and Brad Pitt." It's eye-opening stuff, but the real nuts and bolts info on the making of the movie is located on disc two.

Don't Crash is an hour-long journey that kicks off with the late Douglas Adams ruminating on the origins of Hitchhiker's. "How did I come to write it?" he recalls, "I suppose I just got drunk a lot..." From there, Jennings becomes our tour guide to the Hollywood machine; taking us inside the various pre-production meetings and script readings where the project takes shape; into the shoot; through a gruelling round of test screenings and eventually to the London premiere.

Rockwell enjoys a little romantic intrigue, "in the name of people, freedom and liberty and stuff," in one of three deleted scenes, but the big laughs are reserved for two fake deleted scenes. (Two words: Hitchhiker's meets Rambo.) You'll also notice access to the 'improbability drive' across all menus, which randomly transports you to different areas of the DVD. They include more interviews from the set and a couple of additional guide entries eg something about the Babel fish proving the existence of God as a non-entity...

Into Oblivion

For a comprehensive guide to the neurological pathways of Douglas Adams' mind, check out the commentary by producer Robbie Stamp and Douglas Adams' 'colleague' Sean Solle. Apparently concepts like the Babel fish and improbability drive weren't just a satirical twist on the notion of a random universe, but a way of getting out of tight corners in the plot. Nonetheless, Stamp points out that Adams' story concurs with modern scientific thought regarding quantum string theory ie a curvature of the space-time continuum - duh.

Jennings, Freeman and Bill Nighy offer some light relief in their commentary. Rather than dissect the themes and theories of the story, they share absurdly trivial behind-the-scenes anecdotes. For example, Mos Def (Ford Prefect) developed a tragic addiction to English biscuits during filming and became so desperate for a fix that he allegedly stole Jenning's packet of Hobnobs. Clearly, the director still harbours resentment about this tawdry episode, bitterly recalling,  I approached him about it, but he just laughs it off." (Guide entry No.357: Never steal an Englishman's Hobnob.)

If you're ever lost in deep space, you can always while away the light-years with a karaoke version of the opening dolphin sequence, or a game of hangman with Marvin the robot (glumly voiced by Alan Rickman). Okay, so this DVD doesn't have the answers to life, the universe and everything, but sci-fi fans won't want to leave Earth without it.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is released on DVD in the UK on Monday 5th September 2005

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