subject: Dirk Gently [print this page] Holistic detective Holistic detective
Dirk bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, due to this "interconnectedness," actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet. He maintains an office at 33a Peckender St. N1 London, with telephone number 01-354 9112 (407-2882 in the advertising campaign for the book).
Gently has an odd facility for accurate assumptions, as every wild guess he makes turns out to be true. As a student at Cambridge University (St. Cedd's College) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he had produced the papers under hypnosis, whereas in reality he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. However, while innocent, he was arrested and sent to prison when his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma.
Portrayals
Dirk Gently was played by Michael Bywater in a 1992 TV documentary on The South Bank Show.
Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in a 2006 production of the play Dirk.
Harry Enfield played the character in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
A BBC TV series based on the two completed Dirk Gently novels has also been announced to be in the planning stages. Casting has not yet been announced.
Aborted third book
Douglas Adams was working on a third Dirk Gently novel, The Salmon of Doubt, at the time of his death. However Adams said "A lot of the stuff which was originally in The Salmon of Doubt really wasn't working", and that he had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it The Salmon of Doubt."
The first ten chapters of this novel, assembled from various drafts following Adams' death, together with a memo suggesting further plot points, appears in The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time.
^ "The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams - Reviews, Books". The Independent. 2002-05-10. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-salmon-of-doubt-by-douglas-adams-650803.html. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
^ "Cover Stories: Douglas Adams, Narnia Chronicles, Something like a House - Features, Books". The Independent. 2002-01-05. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/cover-stories-douglas-adams-narnia-chronicles-something-like-a-house-672250.html. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
External links
BBC Dirk Gently guide
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Dirk Gently
By Douglas Adams
Novels
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Unfinished
The Salmon of Doubt
Adaptations
Radio: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul Theatrical play: Dirk
Characters & Places
Professor Chronotis Samuel Taylor Coleridge St. Cedd's College
Related
Shada City of Death The Raincloud Man Douglas Adams at the BBC The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams 25924 Douglasadams Holism
Categories: Fictional private investigators | Science fiction book series | Dirk Gently
