DIRK GENTLY slips back onto BBC 4

Dirk Gently was the great Douglas Adams' creation forever overshadowed by the undisputed work of genius that was The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (whose title, incidentally, was reworked into our own TV reference guide The Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy so thanks for that Douglas).

A standalone pilot episode for a series based on the character of Dirk, a detective who believes in the interconnectedness of all things and therefore whose investigations are somewhat unorthodox appeared in December 2010, but it's taken until now for the following three part series to emerge. This is probably down to show writer Howard Overman having to put episodes of the BBC's own Merlin and E4's Misfits to bed before getting around to this.

The new series starts on Monday March 5th, but might have gone right past us since we haven't seen anything in the way of publicity for it.

Our reaction to the pilot is to be found here and we'll be reviewing the series episodes as we see them.

Want To Write A Hit Show Like Misfits?

Well, if you're anywhere within reach of Nottingham on MARCH 28th then your luck is in because creator/writer Howard Overman will be appearing in a Q&A for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (or Bafta as it likes to be known) in the shire formerly haunted by one Robin Hood.

The venue is the Broadway Cinema on Broad Street, the start time is half pas six in the evening and tickets can be claimed/bought/blagged/obtained by less than legitimate means by visiting the Bafta website http://www.bafta.org/

Whilst you're there, you could ask him from us what went wrong with DIRK GENTLY.